I know! I said I'd be back in a day or two with some bridesmaids cards . . . but I got busy working on my business instead! On Wednesday I had a table at the Women On The Go Expo & Forumat the Karralyka Centre, - a great forum and networking event. This is my stand at the event (you only get half a folding table - so 70cm x 90cm!!).
I had a fabulous morning - connecting with other women is so important for all of us in these busy times - just to know we are not alone, to be inspired, to share ideas and to encourage one another. It's one of the key things I love about my business - women coming together and being creative together and building each other up.
Anyway, I did promise you some cute bridesmaids cards - these were thank you cards I made for the two bridesmaids at last weekend's lovely wedding, we attended.
The base cards and main front panels are Soft Sky Card, layered with Whisper White. I dug out an old favourite retired stamp set (do you remember what it's called??)
The dress image is stamped in Versamark ink then heat embossed with white Embossing Powder. The embossing on the Soft Sky card is done with the Big Shot, using the Happy Heart Textured Impressions Embossing Folder from our current Occasions Catalogue (Page 9).
After I photographed these, I decided they needed a couple more little soft details added, so here's a close up of the extra details.
I did a tiny bit of extra stamping on the white layer on the inside, and also on the envelope.
The bridesmaids wore a beautiful ice blue lace, so hopefully these were a close enough match!
What have you created recently that you had a specific colour in mind and what occasion was it for?
Firstly, apologies! I was going to share this card with you on the weekend, however by the time I got through all the preparations for the wedding, then attended the pre-wedding dinner, and the wedding itself, AND the post wedding breakfast . . . I kind of lost time to do any blogging over the weekend!
Now, since everyone loves a happy occasion, and everyone loves a radiant bride, I guess I better start with that! Here is the totally gorgeous bride, with her handsome new husband, the father-of-the-bride and the step-mother-of-the-bride (that would be me!).
The wedding of such a beautiful couple brought with it the challenge of a really unforgettable, special card and with a little inspiration (particularly for the bouquet and lace edge) from this Pin by Cecile Ortiz this is what I came up with . . .
I've used the beautiful Designer Series Paper - Something Borrowed, along with the Your Perfect Day and Butterfly Basics Stamp sets, all from our Occasions Mini Catalogue. The Blushing Bride Rosette Trim is from the Artisan Embellishment Kit also from the Occasions Catalogue.
The leaves of the fern stamp are all fussy cut - yes, that took me a very long time!
Because the card was so dimensional, I then had to find a way of keeping it safe without squashing it or tearing off any of the ferns, so the next thing was to make a cute little window sheet box to store it in.
The box is 1.5cm deep and rather than cut more ferns, I decided the leaves from the Two-Step Bird Builder Punch might be sturdier.
You can still get all of these products in our current Annual and Occasions Catalogues through until June.
If you'd like a copy of either, please let me know.
I'll be back in a day or two with the super cute thank you cards I made for the bridesmaids.
Did you manage to get in any creative time? I hope you had a chance to drop in on our blog hop yesterday? If not, scroll down to my next post and follow the links.
Today I've got more of the Black and White Mystery Box contents to show you. And since we are on the Easter theme already - this actually was last year's challenge for April - hence the retired Designer Series Paper - Modern Medley, and the retired stamp set Blessed Easter.
The challenge was to make a gift box and matching card - and when we sent the Mystery Box out at the end of the year, the idea was, the Easter gift box should be full of goodies. Given we had some very hot days around Dec / January when the Mystery Boxes were in the post, I hope they all made it safely with no melted chocolate accidents.
Over the weekend I've got something totally different to show you - a wedding card that took me close to seven hours to make! Yep, very special family wedding this weekend, so be sure to check back in and have a look at the card I slaved over - oh the hassles of being a perfectionist!
Ready for another round of intense Cardmaking Ideas and Inspiration?
Hey everyone - you'll be pleased to see I'm taking a break from the Black & White projects and bringing you something different (just for today!! LOL).
Yep, today I am joining back up with my demonstrator buddies to bring more Stamping Inspiration in another easy to follow blog hop and our theme this week is EASTER!!
In fact, you may well be joining me here from the blog of my good friend Genna Gifford. Or you may be starting here - welcome! At the bottom of each post you'll find a link to take you to the next blog - follow all the links to do a full circle and don't forget to leave us all a comment as we love hearing how clever you think we all are :o)
There are THREE Easter stamp sets in our current Occasions Catalogue - and as there are 11 people in the blog hop, you are bound to get lots of ideas for how to use all three sets.
I started with the gorgeous Indescribable Gift stamp set, stamped in Smoky Slate ink onto Best Year Ever Designer Series Paper (that's the FREE Sale-a-bration DSP you can claim with any $90 order - ask me how - Sale-a-bration is still running until end of March) - I used the Stamp-a-ma-jigso I could line it up perfectly with the edge of the paper.
I then lightly coloured the leaves with Pistachio Pudding Stampin' Write Marker and Soft Sky ink applied with a blender pen.
Here's a close up of that for you - SOOOO pretty!
My next step was to stamp the greeting from the same set onto Vellum Card - again, I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to get it exactly where I wanted it. I stamped with Jet Black Stazon and stamped it towards the left-hand size of the card so I could balance it up with the cross on the right hand side.
I then attached this to the DSP with a piece of Lost Lagoon Ribbon and attached the Cross from Blessed of God Stamp Set onto the right hand side. I secured the vellum on the right to the card, by adding some snail under the vellum, hidden by the cross.
Did you notice I also used the Essentials Paper Piercing Template and Paper Piercing tool to draw a shape around the text and cross, tying them together?
Of course I just had to do a gorgeous co-ordinating envelope for the card - this one is destined to go to a very special person, so I stamped the blossom flowers in Smoky Slate on the envelope flap and inserted more of the Best Year Ever DSP inside.
I bet you thought I was finished there?
Oh no! For such a special card, I had to stamp the inside too!
Here's the inside panel.
While I was looking at ideas for Easter Cards, I happened to flick through all my PLxSU (Project Life by Stampin' Up!) card kits and its amazing how many of those cards are perfect for card fronts, rather than just scrapbooking pockets.
I had picked out another of our Occasions CatalogueEaster Stamp sets to use, and was delighted to find it co-ordinated with cards from the This Day PL Mini Card Kit (another Sale-a-bration Freebie - why not buy $90 worth of PLxSU products to build your scrapbooking kit and get the cards free).
I wanted to keep the vellum theme going too, so I stamped the cute image from Happy Easter Bunny stamp set on vellum in Stazon, then flipped it over and coloured the back with Markers.
I then stamped again on Whisper White card and fussy cut the super cute bunny with my paper snips and a craft knife, and added some touches of shading with the Soft Sky, Coastal Cabana, Sahara Sand and Crumb Cake markers. The idea was to layer the cut out under the vellum.
This was then framed with Rich Razzleberry card, and one of the PL cards with an oval window cut in.
The lot was then mounted onto a Soft Sky base card. How cute is that bunny!
Well! That's more than enough from me, it's my team night tonight so I am off to prepare some fun Sale-a-bration stamping for the lovely ladies - we're all inviting more people to join our lovely team during Sale-a-bration - how would you like to be able to participate in Blog Hops like this one with your stamping friends? Ask me how!
Please leave a comment below - and click on the heart picture to go on to the next blog in the blog hop - that of the very creative Ros Davidson.
I hope not! Because I've still got heaps of them to show you!
Starting with a "Mother's Day" (or women) inspired card.
Have you met the gorgeous peacock yet? The stamp set is called Perfect Peacock and it's in our current annual catalogue. Everyone just seems to love it, and I've seen some gorgeous creations with it.
I've stamped in Stazon Jet Black ink and applied a really light touch of Smokey Slate ink over the stamped image to pop it out a bit, then added lots of Pearl jewels to the tail feathers.
Would you like to do some peacock cards in a class?
I've scheduled Peacock Card Classes for Thursday 26th and Saturday 28th of March. It will be the same class both days, just different time slots so hopefully you can make one or the other.
We will be making 3 different peacock cards, and class fee is $20.00 for two hours.
To R.S.V.P, please click on the link for your preferred time-slot.
I'll be back on Thursday with something completely different for you - some Easter cards, that I have made for a blog hop with some of my fellow demonstrators. Be sure to check back for some inspiration!
Do you have trouble coming up with Masculine Cards?
I do - and I know my stamp club girls do too, so it was great that one of the months in our Mystery Box challenge we had to make three masculine cards!
I love the Traveler Stamp Set, and I knew some of my stamp club ladies had already purchased it and were keen for some more ideas of how to use it, so I did some googling to get some more inspiration. These are the three cards I created - heavily inspired by those I found on Pinterest.
So along with Traveler Stamp Set, I have used World Map Stamp set, and That's the Ticket, a bit of Gorgeous Grunge and the birthday stamp from Perfectly Penned.
Here's a closer up image of the two with World Map as the background.
Don't you love all the layers, and so easy with the co-ordinating punches and stamp sets.
Did you know I hold classes in Croydon North - weekdays and occasionally on weekends - I do more parties on weekends so it's a bit harder to schedule classes then. If you'd like to learn how to do these cards, please let me know and we'll schedule them into the class list.
You can email me [email protected], or leave a comment below, or post a message on my Facebook page. Either way, I'd love to hear from you.
Thank you!!! Hope you're well, and enjoying my wrap up of my 2014 Mystery Box Project.
What else did we have to make as part of our monthly contributions to the box of goodies?
One of the things I found most challenging was to make a packet of Card Candy. I'm so used to making full card fronts, I really didn't know where to start with just making some embellishments that go on the front of cards - had to do lots of googling and searching on Pinterest!
In the end, I was ecstatic with the results though.
I feel so lucky that we have so many co-ordinating stamps, punches and framelits in our Stampin' Up! range, and that the ink colours, card and accessories just work so well together! These were so easy to make but even so, I wish I could have kept them for myself instead of posting them off to my lovely recipient (hope she loves them too!!).
What would you do with a packet of gorgeous card candy like this?
Leave a comment below and let me know if you'd just keep them to admire or what you would do with them?
OR Part 2 of the Non-Standard cards - if you prefer!
I interpreted "Non-Standard cards" to mean something with fancy folds or a different shape to you average fold in half A5 card.
Easel cards fit into this category and what could be more elegant than black and white in an easel card? So lucky to have such a gorgeous range of stamps and papers that lend themselves beautifully to such!
If you follow my blog (if you don't - there's a subscribe button up the top left so whenever I post, it will come to your email inbox) you may remember from last year I did quite a few cards using Stippled Blossoms stamp set - I'm guessing it probably was my most used set last year.
Couldn't resist getting it out again to compliment Ex Libris Stamp Set (now retired) in this elegant easel card.
Quite a few different layers happening here - but nothing too difficult - just following the lines of the stamped image. Yummy!
My third card in the "non-standard" category was a gate fold with extra folds - so I used the full (long) width of the A4 card stock.
The Modern Medley Designer Series Paper (DSP) really comes into it's own on this card - so beautiful to work with! I've teamed it with Bordering Blooms Stamp set.
And it just has a minimal amount of colouring with the Blender Pens and Crumb Cake Ink.
Are you enjoying the Black and White projects? I loved making them - the Very Vanilla and Basic Black combo is just too elegant and it's such fun to see what little touch of other colour really works with the.
Stacks more projects to show you - so I'll be back again soon!
Back again to show you some more of my Black & White Projects that I made for the 2014 Mystery Box Swap.
We had to make three cards that were Non-Standard. I interpreted this to mean they weren't just an A5 card folded in half - in other words use a bit of fancy folding or some different shapes.
Love the challenge of this - and to bring in the elegance of Black and White - nice!!
The first card I settled on for this was a step-fold card.
Lucky me! - I hold team nights once a month for those ladies who have joined my team, and often one of two of the girls bring along some Show & Tell or even a project for everyone to make. Lovely Heidi Bell shared step fold cards AND curling petal flowers with us one night - so I did mine in Modern Medley Designer Series Paper with a black base so I could include it in my Mystery Box.
During 2014 I was involved in a Mystery Box Swap with a group of my fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrators.
We had a list of projects to make through out the year, and many of us picked a theme to work with. I chose a colour theme - Black & White.
For each months' given projects, I made them mostly using or featuring Black & White. This worked really well because at the start of the year, the Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue had a packet of
Designer Series Paper (DSP) called Modern Medley
which was a selection of Very Vanilla and Basic Black prints, and then when we got the new catalogue in July, there was a gorgeous new DSP pack called
I'm excited to show you some of the projects I made for the 2014 Mystery Box swap - keep in mind that as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, I generally show you projects containing only products that are current - you can order them now - however, for the Mystery Box project, we were able to use products that were current "At any time" during 2014. So some of the products you see may no longer be available to order.
I love the funky retro robot from Boys Will be Boys Stamp set and some of our Designer Series Paper prints are perfect just for adding that cheerful background to really step up quite a simple card.
The Robot is stamped in Momento Black Stazon Ink and coloured with the Blendabilities.
We had to make three kids cards to include in the Mystery Box, and I loved the robot so much, I decided to make another using it. This one had a little more work involved.
Yep! It's MAGIC!! Don't you love it!
I have to say that I admire with the utmost respect any cardmaker who has successfully made one of these magic window cards - as it took me lots of goes and lots of wasted cardstock to get it right! Well done to all you talented ladies who get it right!
My third card in the Black & White for kids was much simpler! A bit of happy heat embossing, and a cheerful colour combo.
Again, the DSP in this case just lends itself to a happy, funky background to make the stamped image pop. Don't be shy to test out those printed papers for the layers of your cards!
I'll be back in a day or two with more Black and White gorgeousness for you!