Popping poppies

Ever since I got this beautiful poppy set I have been planning to stamp it in a single colour.   Red seemed an obvious choice.  I arranged my poppies across the white rectangle and then matted them but felt that I wanted something more, but only a little something.  I decided to emboss the poppies on the background white in white embossing powder, a technique I saw on this beautiful card made by Jak Heath.  I’m afraid I have not been able to capture the effect very well with my camera, but trust me, there are white poppies embossed at the top and bottom of the card!  I added a bit of that sweet gingham ribbon and that was it,  a simpler and faster treatment for the poppy patch stamps.

Thanks for dropping in.

Supplies:

Stamps:  Poppy Patch (Flourishes)
Inks:   Real Red, Versamark
Cardstock: Whisper white, Real Red
Also:  Red gingham  ribbon, white embossing powder

Double Play

This is my first time playing along with the CAS challenge at Splitcoast.  The challenge this week was to use the children’s bedroom sets at JC Penney’s for inspiration.  I chose this set of bedding.   I was part way through designing by ladybug card when I realised that I could play along with Sharon’s piping challenge at the same time.  Like Sharon my sewing background goes back further than my stamping background so I often see card designs the same way I see fabric and sewing projects.   Piping is a fiddly but classy touch on sewn items:  I did it on cushions and bed covers occasionally, but the main area where I used it was on the smocked dresses I made for my girls.

The little lady bugs on this card remind me of some of the ‘oh so cute” outfits my girls had when they were little.  I wish I had a photo of one to post but my pictures of them at that age were not digital.      When I searched through the choices on the JC Penney site, the bugs jumped out at me because of the colours and the chance to do a little doodling on the card.  The canvas background stamp was perfect to add a little gingham touch.

Thanks for dropping in.

Supplies:

Stamps: Garden Whimsy, Hugs & Wishes, Canvas, Itty Bitty Buds
Inks: Real Red, Basic Black, Garden Green and Black markers
Cardstock: Whisper White, Real Red, Basic Black

Lego birthday

My son is off to a birthday party this afternoon and this is the card he made for this friend.  Whenever he makes card he tends to use the paper cutting method, cutting out all the separate components of a picture usually from his own design.  He had one of his lego men in front of him when he did all the cutting for this card.  And he added a little free advertising on the corner!

Pink baby carriage

Two couples we know have had baby girls in the last week, so it was time to reach for some  pink.    I have seen many cards featuring a little baby carriage made out of a circle.  I mixed it up a little and went with an oval instead.  The paper is Bella Rose, the lace is from my lace basket and the wheels from the Boho Bckgrounds set.  That’s it.    It took me too long to settle on this design, but I should be able to reproduce it very speedily, and in whatever colour scheme I like!

Supplies:

Stamps: Hugs and Wishes,  Boho Backgrounds
Inks: Pretty in Pink, Versamark
Cardstock:  Whisper White,Pirouette Pink,  Bella Rose d.p.
Also:  cotton lace, CM oval cutters

Three little words

I used the three little words set at a friend’s house and brought home the two white stamped pieces to make into a card later on.  The inside piece just says “thinking of you”.    When I pulled out the white pieces I couldn’t decide what to add.  I knew I wanted a CAS look but none of my picture stamps seemed to be appropiate.   In the end I decided against pictures and just used the gold and black combination and, to add a little feature, the circle from Boho Backgrounds.

Supplies:

Stamps: Three Little Words, Boho Backgrounds
Inks: Basic Black, Versamark
Cardstock:  Whisper White, Brushed Gold
Also:  Gold e.p., Black ribbon

Golden poppies

I spent some more time playing with Poppy Patch and watercolour pencils recently.  I actually started a while ago but never spent long on the colouring, just picked up where I left off when I had the chance.  I realise the arrangement of the poppies is not that different from the last poppy card, but I have used a square this time with the poppies overflowing on either side.

Although it might look like I did a bit of masking for this card I did not.  I stamped two poppies and a bud directly on the white square and then stamped the other poppies on a separate piece of white, cut them out and then arranged them overlapping the others.   My sky is sponged Bashful Blue.

Thanks for dropping in,  I hope you are enjoying the sunshine where you are,  it has shone here every day this week and the snow is gone!

Supplies:

Stamps: Poppy Patch (Flourishes)
Inks: Basic Black, Bashful Blue,
Cardstock: Whisper white, Confetti White, Summer Sun
Also:  Gold grosgrain  ribbon, black satin ribbon, Faber-Castell Watercolour pencils, blender pen

Rainbow Whimsy

This card started out as something of a limited supplies challenge.  I was babysitting the other night and took with me three stamp sets and about a dozen markers.  I didn’t have a plan in mind but decided to see what some rainbow colouring on the butterfly stamp would look like.  I didn’t even have a spray bottle to mist the colours together.  I was quite happy with the overall effect and the placement of the two butterflies one above the other.  I took them home to work on later.

When I was browsing blogs the next day I decided this week’s sketch on CPS would work for my butterflies.   I stamped the other critters and the flower from Garden Whimsy using the markers again.    The butterflies were surrounded with a lot of white space so I filled it with some doodled dashes mimicking those on the stamps.  The background paper is mostly covered but actually has a nice gradation from yellow and orange through to pink.

Thanks for dropping by.

Supplies:

Stamps: Garden Whimsy
Inks:  Rich Regals markers, Garden Green marker, Not quite Navy marker
Cardstock: Whisper White, Regal Rose, Not quite Navy, Rose Red, Elegant Eggplant, Ballet Blue, designer paper from a Michael’s slab
Also: Pink grosgrain ribbon

Quite the opposite

Finally, a card finished and a chance to post again!  I’m sorry for the silence here, but life has been busy this week with both expected and unexpected events.   My last post was titled “Simple indeed” and was just that, simple.  This card, as my title suggests, was not so simple.  I made a couple of attempts before creating this background, wanting both red and gold vines.  Birds in Vines is my second Flourishes set, which has been sitting waiting for an opportunity to come out and play!

I started by brayering the background in Real Red and added some Elegant Eggplant brayering on the edges.  I then stamped the vine in versamark and real red and embossed in clear.  As the gold vine was to be the main image I stamped that in versamark over the top and then embossed in Gold e.p.  I then deepened the background colour with some sponging in both red and eggplant.  The gold bird is embossed and a bit of vine stamped over in eggplant on the sponged background.  The card base is brushed gold and the matting real red.  I was aiming for an oriental fabric feel to the card so I fiddled around with my thin red ribbon until I came up with the final arrangement, made up of two pieces crossed and a third folded, and looped through itself to make the tassel piece.

Thanks for dropping in, I hope the gap will not be so long before I next post, but we are entering a busy performance season for my girls so stamping time may be hard to come by.

Have a Happy Easter

Supplies:

Stamps: Birds in Vines (Flourishes)
Inks:  Elegant Eggplant, Real Red, versamark
Cardstock: Brushed Gold, Real Red, Whisper White
Also: Clear e.p.,Gold e.p., Thin red satin ribbon, brayer

Simple indeed

I came across two very appealing blogs this week, featuring Clean and Simple, totally  classy cards:   Simplicity by Late Blossom and New England Stamper.  I didn’t have much time last night to stamp, but it had been a week since I’d even touched my stamps so they were calling to me.  CAS was the way to go.   I used the very clever ribbon technique described by Susan on this post and the stamps from the Itty Bitty Buds hostess set.

Supplies:

Stamps: Itty Bitty Buds, Best Yet
Inks:  Elegant Eggplant, Glorious Green
Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, Glorious Green, Whisper White,  Confetti White
Also: Stampin’ dimensionals, Green grosgrain ribbon

Silver on silver wedding

At Christmas time I used the silver on silver embossing technique to make a card very similar to this one, just using a tree instead of a heart.  I love the look of silver on silver so made a wedding card for a friend to use.  There really isn’t much to the card.  I stamped the Baroque Motifs flourish and the Ever After heart in versamark and then embossed with silver e.p.  I attached a piece of pirouette pink cardstock inside the card and stamped the sentiment from Ever After in the centre in silver.  The picture isn’t the best, I’m sorry, I find it hard to photograph the silver well.

Thanks for dropping in.  I hope to have something new to share soon.  I have not done any creating in a week and I am itching to stamp again.  I have eight scrapbook layouts on my craft table which need to be stuck together.  They are the final pages in a scrapbook chronicling the 2007-2008 season of Stellae Boreales , the violin ensemble my girls belong to.  I need to finish that scrapbook and get started on this year’s before the current season is over!

Supplies:

Stamps: Ever After, Baroque Motifs
Inks: Versamark
Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Brushed Silver
Also: Light pink grosgrain ribbon, silver cord, silver e.p.