Already making a Father's Day Card - but for good reason.  A friend lives out of town and I wanted them to not have to dig around for a card this coming Father's Day.

Their dad is a truck driver of a big rig!   So I approached this in a novel way.....first I downloaded an image of a big rig from a colouring book site {see below}.  Yes - these are for the little ones to colour!  But then - I printed the image and cut a border around it AND then drew in some basic scenery!




Stampin' Up's AQUA PAINTER BRUSH did the next trick, along with our WATERCOLOUR PENCILS!

I sketched some colour in to the various areas - nothing fancy, as I love to use a painting technique where colouring in the lines is not required!  The looser your technique - the better!

Once coloured - I "prepped" the Aqua Painter Brush by tapping and squeezing til water wets the actual bristles of the brush {you'll see a drop of water emerge}......and then I lightly went over the coloured areas, creating a watercolour effect as I went along.  Very easy to do!




I layered the painted piece onto cardstocks, and made a few additional ACCENTS!   The COMPASS STAMP is from one of our more recent stamp sets and the CIRCLEs are from our 1 Inch Punch with our SILVER BRADS.


TIP - it is much better to "stamp" an image in one of our water-resistant inks {Basic Gray, Basic Black or even Stazon Ink} - but in a pinch, be careful to avoid smearing the ink of the image with the water.  Not that hard, and a light smearing is fine - don't panic!  Cuz what is the rule of hand-made?  THERE ARE NO MISTAKES!

Labels: Card - Holidays, CARDS - Male, DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES

No, no, no....it doesn't!

It's all about your own style - and here is one I made while experimenting with a technique.

I wanted to a) emboss and b) colour with embossed surfaces.

So I chose to:
1) ink my VERY VANILLA cardstock with all sorts of ink colours using SPONGES.
2)then I EMBOSSED my coloured and cut 4-1/4x5 inch rectangle cardstock using an EMBOSSING FOLDER where I sandwiched the cardstock and pressed it through my BIG SHOT DIE-CUTTING and EMBOSSING MACHINE.
3) now I used a separate sponge to ink over the entire piece with BLACK ink - quickly and lightly!  This colours the "raised surface" created by the embossing folder.  To get a more precise ink effect, I could of used my brayer tool.

Now, I punched out a black HEART with my Heart PUNCH, and a blue circle with my 1 inch CIRCLE punch and attached them with a black flower BRAD.

Labels: DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, Holidays - Valentine's Day, Motif - Hearts, Techniques, Techniques- Embossing

However amazing on her part....its not for me!  I'd like to see the results of a poll of crafters who have kin living with them, children no less...who will not craft much!  Honestly, she will on occasion - but ironically, I can not expect a card - she tells me she does 3 per year, that's her limit! LOL!

But - if not for Mom, then she doesn't mind to hit my craft studio and go crazy. And when she does, I love her style!

Here is my chipboard accent (please see Feb 3rd post).....on a card she made for a friend!

Labels: ACCENTS-Chipboard, DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, Holidays - Valentine's Day, Motif - Hearts

Helloooo.....been such a long time between posts as I am in the throes of "re-organizing"!   Gosh where does all the stuff that clutters every spot come from? Anyways - I think its a good idea to use January as 'the' month to de-clutter esp. here in the wintery North.  Not much fun outside anyways, right?

But there is fun in our craft corners - and I tried a little technique with this card, so I'm here to share!

 I received a card in the summer which embodied a colourful personality - and it really made me feel great, all sun-shiny and happy!

Upon close inspection, the card involved no less than 3 patterns of cardstock. Very busy and different patterns!  Layered together as a "strip" or band against a soothing backdrop of a solid colour. The focal point - a 3D flower sat on top, slightly off-center. And all made sense together! WONDERFUL!

So: busy patterns layered together, soothing backdrop and a dimensional focal point! Voila!

Now I tried it, here it is - my Valentine's Card for a friend ( can't say who cuz they haven't received it yet!)

Labels: ACCENTS-Buttons, DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, Holidays - Valentine's Day, Techniques

Good evening!

Here is a simple card I've made for my Aunt Elsie today. I haven't mentioned her before but she is 96! And just now is having to go into a retirement home, she has gone this far all by herself with the help of her other neice who lives near her - but I am sooooo proud of her.  She's always been there for me since I was a wee grasshopper (I am from Saskatchewan, lol)....so I owe her a lot! She is also the last of 3 sisters and 1 brother, so I hope I can brighten her day a little with this:




I actually made it while having coffee at Tim Horton's today - so I could purchase my coffee for their TH Camp Day.  Too bad the weather went sour afterwards - those camps are really nice ones, so I hope their campaign went well!

But I simply made a couple of quick stamps with my stamp, and then placed a border stamp onto a scrap of paper which I cut out to make my 'window box' shape.

The idea is to keep the colours straight and simple, and then add a couple of trendy bits such as the Vintage Voque border stamp, and our Scallop Trim Border Punch.

That is also one of the buttons from our embellishments section. Even 1 button can make a difference!

Labels: DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, Stampin Up MAKES

Labels: 3D, ACCENT-Flower, DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, GIFTS - Family Friends, GIFTS - Teachers, POPULAR PROJECTS - Boxes, Stampin Up MAKES

...OR NOT - Happy Valentine's to anyone visiiting today!  Hope you are having a lovely day! 

WE are quietly enjoying 'normal' as a week of mid-term mania and illness has passed - and I finished one huge important task, so laid-back normal is kinda good!  I am going to make my famous brownies soon and then a nice chicken dinner after we play some monopoly and then a trip to the treadmill later on just to even things out a bit - :)

Did we make each other Valentine cards?  No. Is that kinda queer in a house full of card supplies? Probably 'yes'.  But I have been more focused on some scrapbooking, and just exploring some of my new goodies and I have something I'd love to share with you...remember the teaser in the previous post?  Well, heeeere it is!  It's Alex's first baby photo!  Hurray - I say that because its been in storage for 22 years!!!  Ain't that something?  SO any photo came come out to say 'hello' any ol' time as you can see here!


Let 'er rip! Stamping
First things first - I made the pages earlier before I knew I'd pair it with this photo I just grabbed some VERY VANILLA cardstock to begin the process.  And look, the previous post makes my point - take some stamps and just let loose!  That's all I did!  There was no plan at all - it was what we call in artisitic terms 'a very organic experience' .

 I used different stamps from different sets, and combined colours I thought would go well together, but there was NO DIRECTION until I stamped the letters - then all I did was aim for a 'fairly' straight line but even then, a little un-eveness looks great.  When I was done, I had two pages, the first one shown here is using our alphabet stamp set Lovely Letters - and for some reason unfathomable to me now, I made an 'W' on the end of "SWEET"...??? Who knows what brilliant idea I had at the time, but I made 'sweet history' of it by covering the odd W with a punched out heart ( Heart Punch) and problem solved.

Labels: DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, Holidays - Valentine's Day, Motif - Hearts, MOTIFS - Baby, SCRAPBOOK-Pages, Stampin Up MAKES

Labels: DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, Free Stuff, PRODUCTS, Stampin Up MAKES, Stampin Up Mini Catalogue, Stampin Up Sale-A-Bration

Labels: DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, Holidays-Christmas, MOTIF - Circles

The Baroque Motifs stamp set is a very, very popular one - very!  And so is our new Delightful Decorations & Ornament Punch featured in our Holiday Mini Cataloque.  So I guess it was only a matter of time before the two came together.  One version is the first one I am showing here - with the large swirly motif paired with one ornament and a nice band of patterned paper/ribbon to top it off.

Afterwards, I wanted to make my very own version - remember how I have mentioned before about taking inspiration and making it your own? .....well, I 'softened' the look. And I was after a more romantic-antique look - something my 95 yr old Aunt would love.

By applying white craft ink over top of the stamped images, {use sponges}the colours become subdued and I think very pretty.  Then instead of a ribbon & paper band, I put 3 scalloped ovals across the top choosing to add ribbon to the ornaments {twist the ribbon into tiny knots for a different look}. This one is definitely going to my Aunt Elsie!


Well, you can see the comparison.  Both are very nice. But it goes to show you can take the same 'motif' and create very different outcomes by mixing up your technique. 

Try it yourself with a stamp set you have - find a "new style" for a card you've created!

Labels: ACCENTS-Buttons, DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, Holidays-Christmas, MOTIF - Scalloped, Stampin Up MAKES

Here's my first real card using my "Look Who's Turning" stamp set as I mentioned in my last post....and my idea to put my Big Shot 'Bigz Scalloped Circle' came about because we were using it this past week-end {showing that post later - stay tuned!}.......and I think I came up with a pleasant idea of making different sized scalloped circles turn into the beginnings of a "baby rattle"!

Labels: CARDS - Baby, CARDS - Birthday, DIE-CUTTING BIG SHOT, DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, MOTIF - Scalloped, MOTIFS - Baby

Labels: ACCENT-Flower, CARDS - Nature, DIE-CUTTING BIG SHOT, DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, MOTIF - Friendship, Stampin Up MAKES

Labels: CARDS - Folded, CARDS - Love, DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, Holidays - Valentine's Day, Motif - Hearts

Labels: CARDS-Sets, CLASS-SUMMER 2010, DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, GIFTS - Family Friends, MOTIF - Scalloped, POPULAR PROJECTS - Boxes, Tutorial

Labels: DIE-CUTTING PUNCHES, GIFTS - Friends, MOTIF - Friendship, Stampin Up MAKES