Stained glass techinique

Lot's of Luck Alice! Today is my daughter's first A level exam this year.  Fortunately they don't last long and it will all be over by the 20th, then we will have the long wait until results day. I shall have to think up lots of things to do so that we can pass those days pleasantly. Like some crafting perhaps?

Does this look familiar?  The design and colour scheme is the same as this card that I blogged at the end of last month but we highlighted a different image.
The technique is different too, this image was stamped onto vellum and then coloured on the reverse with marker pens, the resulting effect is reminiscent of a stained glass window.

Faux silk

A little while back I attended a techniques class run by my upline Amanda and over the next couple of days I will share the cards we made that day.  I learned such a lot that day and hopefully I will be able to share my new knowledge with my own customers and friends over the coming months.

The stamps used for this card are from the hostess gift Simply Soft and from curly cute.  The faux silk effect is created by the use of tissue paper which we stamp on, water colour with an aqua painter and cover with glue before smoothing onto the background card. A touch of grosgrain ribbon to complement the colour scheme. 

Open Seas

I have a feeling that this is a stamp set that you might see quite a lot of. I have already used it several times and keep coming back to it.  The Open Sea has quite a vintage feel I think and so for this card I made use of that and distressed my papers a little.  The colour combination of Crumb Cake and Marina Mist is one I use a lot too but it works so well!

Rosettes Simply Scored

Woohoo! We now have the Simply Scored Tool to use and it's just brilliant! There are just loads of different ways to use the board and you can add a diagonal scoring plate or a metric plate if you find that easier to use.
This is my first attempt at a rosette, they are so much easier to make than you think.  This one was made from designer paper and scored every quarter inch. Then the strip of paper was concertina'd and the ends joined together to complete the ring.  A circle punched from coordinating paper finishes off the centre.

Postage stamp tags

Sadly this stamp set is no longer available as it was part of the spring mini catalogue but I thought I would share the design as another stamp set could easily be substituted.  The card makes good use of the postage stamp punch and the tag punch, they enable us to make cards so quick and easily :)

Need for Speed

Another stamp set that has been on my wish list since the catalogue was launched last October. It's perfect for the lads in our lives, there's a car, bike, boat or plane for everyone.  I've used the glimmer brads to attach my car to the card and matched them to the colour of my car. The designer paper stack in neutrals is perfect for this monochrome look and I used tiny strips of dsp to make the brackets opposite the brads. 
This design would be great for Father's day I think but maybe not for me this year as I made 40 of these as my swaps for the Reading training!

Blossom

This card was inspired by a swap that I received at the Reading Training day a few weeks back.  It is such a simple design but so striking and it shows off the new Blossom punch and the new Sweet shop designer paper so beautifully.  These papers are just gorgeous, 2 of the designs (one of which is shown here) are embossed and therefore add some lovely texture to your projects.  The greeting is from Petite Pairs and stamped in Wisteria Wonder. Oh and don't forget to add a touch of bling with rhinestones! 

Flight of the Butterfly

This stamp set has been on my wish list forever and it's another set that has a coordinating punch to go with it. 
My daughter turned 18 in March but for various reasons we couldn't hold her party until mid April and Oh what a great night it was. Lots of family and friends joined us to celebrate and we all danced the night away to the wonderful A-band-on-ship who did indeed abandon their ship for the evening to entertain us.
However, I digress!  Back to the card.  Of course Alice had many thank-yous to send and this, along with yesterdays card, was one of the designs that I made.  This version uses a designer paper that retired from the Stampin' Up! catalogue last year but you could use any coordinating paper to create a similar version.  My colours were Rose red and Marina Mist which are echoed in the dsp and the butterfly is punched and 3d mounted for definition.

Watermarking your photographs

This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time and never had the patience or the software to work out how to do it. Today I came across a link that someone had posted to Pinterest about watermarking your photographs using a website called Picmonkey. You can visit it here. Well I thought I would have a go using the tutorial found here. 
Well, easy isn't the word! It's so straightforward that even I can do it and you will be able to as well.  All I have to do now is to remember to add it to my photos before posting them on here.

WOW!

Stampin' Up! have certainly pulled out all the stops this time! during the month of June you can earn a FREE pack of Designer Paper worth £9.95 when you order 3. That's a brilliant offer, I'm off to have a look now.  If you would like some free papers you can view them here on the Stampin' Up! website.

Before I go though, I must also tell you about the second promotion. you can read about it in the Stampin' Up! website here.  Running from today until the end of July we are really going to spoil all our hostesses.  The hostesses of qualifying workshops (workshops with more than £325 in sales) will receive an additional £30 worth of benefits. That's an extra £30 to spend in the catalogue to add to the existing £50 and one half price item. 
Sound good? All you have to do is gather together some friends for an evening of crafting and let me do the rest. Leave me a comment here or email me on kazzag17@hotmail.co.uk


Right, I really am off to drool over all the lovely designer papers now.

Triple Treat Flower

Today's card is one that I designed for my monthly card club recently. The Triple Treat Flower was a new purchase for me and I was desperate to show it off.  It's such a great stamp as it coordinates perfectly with 3 of the Stampin Up punches and that makes it so easy to use.
Here's a closer look

 I was also really eager to use the new satin pleated ribbon from the Summer mini catalogue, it's sooooo tactile and adds a real touch of luxury to your project.

Hello

OK what happened to May? This year is certainly running away with me!


Today's card is very quick and simple. Some easy layers topped with some embossed polka dots.  Stamp a Hello and add a couple of coordinating punched flowers, some ribbon and some pearls, voila!

More Happiness Shared

Same stamp set as yesterday but a very different look. This time I coloured the stamp with marker pens before stamping onto whisper white card. The scallop corner punch adds some lovely delicate definition and the En Francais background stamp just lifts the base card.

Yellow Roses

Another offering from a team training day. Lovely and fresh and springlike. Like yesterdays tortoise the rose is water coloured. The stamp set is Happiness shared and I do like it's simple elegance, it just cries out for some delicate colouring, the organza ribbon just finishes it off nicely.

Watercolour Tortoise

An evening out has been an extremely rare occurrence this year so when I had a last minute opportunity to attend a team training evening I grabbed it with both hands.  My upline is the lovely Amanda Fowler, you can see her blog here and this was one of the projects she had for us that night. 
We were trying different colouring techniques and for the tortoise image we used the watercolour crayons and an aqua painter.  The designer paper is from the neutrals stack and the button accent is "stitched" on with a narrow strip of card stock.

Hi

Just popping in to say a quick Hello.  I've been at team training all day today with my upline Amanda and had a fantastic time.  
We've had some constructive business training, some new product information and demonstrations and made some wonderful projects.  I still have some of my older projects lined up to share with you so I will add today's creations to the list for the coming days.
There's a glass of something cold with my name on it, see you tomorrow!

More SAB

I am off to team training tomorrow so I need to finish my swaps and hopefully some team gifts today.  I didn't think that I was going to be able to attend this time so I'm really looking forward to it and seeing everybody; I just love all the swapping and sharing of tips and inspiration.


Today I have another card that I made at Sale-a-bration time.  The designer papers had a lovely vintage feel and so I used a piece as backing and distressed the edges.  I took a sponge dauber to some paper daisies  and attached them to the card with an antique brad.  Quick and easy!

Better Late than Never

Sale-a-bration is always a great time in the Stampin' Up! world and although it is long over now I wanted to share one or two of my creations with you. Outlined Occasions was one of my favourite sets from this years SAB and it looks great when you colour with marker pens.  The background is embossed in the Big shot with the polka dots embossing folder and then I added a strip of Melon Mambo striped ribbon upon which I mounted the message.

A Bit Shirty

Perfect for the men in our lives!  This shirt is made from just half a piece of A4 card stock, the pocket being made from the piece of card that was removed from the back. I added brads to imitate buttons and the tie is a piece of designer paper.  I used the white gel pen to add the stitching detail.  I used this card recently for a couple of birthdays but it could be a good one for Fathers day too!

Birthday cake?

More new products from the Spring mini that I really hope are going to carry over into the new main catalogue in October. Can you spy new punches?  There are two!  We have the create a cupcake punch that coordinates perfectly with the stamp set (which also make great clouds and sheep and tons of other stuff!) and the new large scallop circle punch. Colours today are Perfect plum and Pretty in Pink and the sentiment is from Curly cute

Pretty Pink Flowers

Monday morning again, they come around quickly don't they. Today's card is definitely one for the ladies I think, pink and floral but very pretty.  The stamps were from a set in the Spring mini, I coloured the flowers with marker pens so that I would get the two colours together and stamped onto whisper white card stock.  The image was matted onto Pretty in Pink and then onto a white layer of card that I had embossed with the textured embossing folder in the Big shot.  The ribbon is Stampin' Up! satin ribbon and is knotted beneath a large antique brad.

CASE'd!

Stampin' Up! demonstrators receive a monthly newsletter with lots of tips and ideas for us to use.  A few months back this was one of the suggested projects and I decided that it was perfect for my Make, Do and Send card club so I case'd it; that means I Copied And Shared it.
The base card is Pear Pizazz, the papers are from the Spiced Paisley designer papers which was available in our Spring mini and might hopefully return in the new catalogue later this year. The Paisley stamp was from the mini too, I cut it out and 3D mounted it after colouring parts of it and adding some pearls.  The greeting is from Oval All.

Bountiful Butterflies

Morning, I am off to a workshop today and am really looking forward to some time to myself doing something I love and it means I should come home with some more projects to share with you another day.


Today's card is one of my favourite styles, a Twisted Easel card.  The card base is one of this years In-Colours, Island Indigo and has a mat of Pool Party which helps make the design pop.  The front of the card was scored diagonally which allows it to sit up in front of the base.  The butterflies are all cut from the In Colour Designer paper stack using the Beautiful Wings embosslits die in the Big Shot. The embosslits are great as they emboss designs as  they cut. The greeting is from the Perfect Punches stamp set and 3D mounted.

New toys!

Wow, May already!  The first part of this year has passed in a bit of a blur for me.  All of my attention has been focused on my family for various reasons and unfortunately this will continue for some time to come I expect.  However, today I have returned to blogland and it is very definitely somewhere that I will endeavor to visit more often from now on.


The picture is of my new toy, purchased today with birthday money.  It is a portable photo studio and will (hopefully) allow me to show off my creations in a better light.  I always struggle to find a decent spot to photograph my cards, there's always some rubbish in the background or the light is particularly bad. I also now have a daylight lamp, courtesy of Annette who gave it to me on her return to America, thank you so much Annette. And, yes I know you shouldn't begin a sentence with and, I was so lucky to receive a new DSLR camera for Christmas that once I have learned how to use it my photos should improve no end!


So, I have spent this afternoon taking lots of photos of lots of projects that I have made over the past few weeks which I will share with you over the coming days.


Thanks for bearing with me during this difficult time xx

Bad Blogger!

My apologies for being such a bad blogger lately.  Family circumstances have dictated that my time is spent elsewhere for the moment.  However, my monthly club is continuing as normal and I have just added a new all day workshop for March.
Hopefully normal service will be resumed shortly.