Delicate Greens

What is your favourite colour? Mine has and will always be green. I attended many schools as a child because my father's work kept us on the move. Uncannily, I was always assigned to green house colours in every school I attended from primary to secondary schools. For me, green is soothing, refreshing, peaceful, lush, vibrant, rich, moist, fragrance of pine and apples, freshly mowed lawn, refreshing, cooling, earthy - it makes me happy.

In card making, I always want to make green cards but with self restraint, manage to create cards/projects in other colours too. I always love the results of my green creations though. So, here's a delicate green version of my Delicate Doilies card in my previous post.

project recipe
stamps: Delicate Doilies  (W124960, C122592), Happiest Birthday Wishes (retired Hostess)
ink: Classic Stampin' Pad - Lucky Limeade (126984), Pool Party (126982), Gumball Green (126861)
card stock: Lucky Limeade (124388), Gumball Green (127543), Whisper White (106549)
tools: Brayer (102395), 1-3/4" Scallop Circle Punch (119854), 1-3/8" & 1" Circle Punches (119860, 119868) 
added pizzazz: Rhinestone Basic Jewels (119246), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430)

have a great day

Brayer Misadventure & Delicate Doilies

Not long after I became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I was introduced to the brayer by my upline's upline when we had an afternoon of card making. It didn't seem too difficult but I felt that I could achieve the same results with other techniques. Before long, I realised that pastel blending, ink sponging or water colouring with inks, pencils and crayons could not give me a smooth and/or solid colour transfer on to card stock - it was time to buy a brayer. Armed with my new brayer, I could not achieve the spectacular results I had always seen on the internet. I concluded that I was hopeless at brayering and gave up.


However, at my group Catalogue Party, I was asked to show people how to use a brayer. Why? Because I had sought out Kerry Bunting (whom I call the the Brayer Guru) at the 2012 Melbourne Heartfelt Event and had made sure that I didn't miss her demonstration. I watched it, recorded it and when I tried it at home, again my efforts were a flop. I didn't want to be a bad carpenter blaming her tools but I finally asked Kerry about her opinion on brayers.

Duh! Why did I even ask? I should have known that the answer would be the SU brayer. I have professed in my profile that I am an SU snob yet all this time, I had bought and persisted with a non SU brayer which equals brayering FAIL. So, when I was asked to showcase brayering at the catalogue party, I panicked!

I still had this brayer,

failure with non SU brayer

the real deal - SU brayer

not this one

and was totally unsure if I could produce the goods!

I had to go borrow my upline's SU brayer and ahhhhhhhhhh......, a big sigh of relief. I could actually brayer quite nicely. Indeed, all brayers are not made equal and this misadventure with a "happily ever after" ending reinforces my belief that Stampin' Up! produces and/or provides us with high quality products although I temporarily forgot this fact!

Thus, I was able to show everyone how to brayer 2 colours together. Everyone got to make a card topper like my sample below. Do you like it? The colours reminded me of Indian Sarees, don't you think?

project recipe
stamps: Delicate Doilies  (W124960, C122592), Pennant Parade (W125012, C122742
ink: Classic Stampin' Pad - Primrose Petal (126858), Summer Starfruit (126991), Raspberry Ripple (126859)
card stock: Primrose Petals (127544), Summer Starfruit (127542), Whisper White (106549)
tools: Brayer (102395), 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punch (118874), 1-3/4", 1-3/8" & 1" Circle Punches ( 119850, 119860, 119868) 
added pizzazz: Rhinestone Basic Jewels (119246), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430)

cardessence tips

• roll only in one direction when you are loading ink onto your brayer as rolling it back and forth will leave "ink lines" on your roller which will transfer to your cardstock and thus will spoil the blend;
• you can start with either Primrose Petal or Summer Starfruit in opposite corners but do not start brayering right onto the card stock ie. work from outside your card stock into the middle;
• there are 2 ways you can work your brayer (assuming that you are right handed)

1. Brayering with a cardboard underlay: With the brayer in your right hand, roll it back and forth from outside your card stock (right to left) into the middle - the colour lightens as you move into the middle. This method works best because the brayer being rolled back and forth and right to left will then not cause the cardboard to crinkle and scrunch up underneath your brayered card stock which will cause uneven ink distribution.
2. Brayering with paper underlay: The above method will cause the paper to scrunch up underneath the card stock so the best way is to roll your brayer back and forth without moving from right to left. You will have to coordinate this with feeding your cardstock into the brayering ie. move your card stock from left to right. Heh, heh, heh, it's a bit like rubbing your tummy whilst patting your head and vice-versa.

• I don't think that you can truly understand the difference and why it works without trying it out so, give the 2 different ways a go if you are new to brayering - hope it all makes sense.

Well, I hope that you enjoyed reading about my misadventure and had a good laugh about it. By the way, I have just received my very own SU brayer (a month after the catalogue party). Look for more of my brayered samples that I displayed at the catalogue party in my next posts.

TTFN

Fresh Vintage Sale-A-Bration

It’s been a while since I posted for which I am indeed sorry about. Much of my time and energy since the end of January was spent cheering and providing taxi service to my older son as he was heavily involved in swimming competitions for his club and school. Soaking in hot, humid and chlorinated air is quite energy sapping.

Nevertheless, I would like to share with you the Make & Take card which I showcased the Fresh Vintage stamp set. This is one of the FREE sets that you can choose during Sale-a-Bration. SAB ends on 31 March 2012 but there’s still time to place orders of $100 or more to earn fabulous SAB freebies.


I love this set as you can use it with many techniques and if you look at the SAB catalogue, you will find coordinating Designer Series Papers, Brads and Ribbon.

Here, I chose to use only one colour - clean and simple. See below for the project recipe.


project recipe
stamps: Fresh Vintage (WM 127082, CM125117), Teeny Tiny Sentiments (WM 119185, CM 120024)
ink: Classic Stampin' Pad - Blushing Bride (119786)
card stock: Blushing Bride (121690), Very Vanilla (106550)

tools: Big Shot (113439), Beautiful Butterflies (114507), Beautiful Wings (118138), Square Lattice Textured Embossing Folder (119976), 1-1/4" Circle Punch (119861), Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer Punch (122464), Word Window ( 119857)
the added pizzaz: 1/2" Blushing Bride Stitched-Poly Ribbon (119267), Basic Pearls (119247)

cardessence tips

• run BB and VV card stock pieces through the Big Shot together to get the base and middle layer butterflies simultaneously with the Beautiful Butterflies die;
• run the base layer butterfly with the embossing folder together with the Beautiful Wings embosslit die simultaneously (BB card stock pieces);
• sponge all edges;
• use the circle punch for the flower image as it will make adhering the Blossom Bouquet piece easier;
• assemble the card with SNAIL, 2-Way Glue Pen, Multipurpose Liquid Glue and Stampin' Dimensionals.

happy stamping

Advent Calendar Box

My life stood still when I went crazy during this silly season because I decided to make an Advent Calendar Box for my sons. I was inspired by the lovely ones made by JeanFB at Bluebird Paperie and thought that I would attempt it with this year's beautiful Letters to Santa DSP.

My research on how to contruct this tower of matchboxes showed me that you can either do it with actual matchboxes or with a matchbox die. Hence, the dilemma. I don't have a matchbox die and was not comfortable with putting chocolate/candy (even wrapped ones) in empty matchboxes. Also, I only had the Medium Sizzlits Dies to use for my dates/numbers.

Solution, I constructed my matchboxes from card stock the old fashion way - cut, score, fold and adhere 24 matchboxes in these dimensions: 2" wide x 1 1/4" high x 3 1/2" deep. I chose these dimensions because I wanted the height to fit the sizzlit numbers and the width & depth to fit at least a Matchbox or Hot Wheels car. There are many matchbox templates on the internet but I just pulled an ordinary matchbox apart to get the template. You can find out how to put it all together HERE - a tutorial written by Hermine Koster at Hermine's Place.

Once all these boxes were ready, I became paralysed with fear on how to use my DSP effectively. Sad isn't it? Yup, I sat on this for nearly 2 weeks and by this time, Advent had started and I had to apologise to my boys and promised that they could open 2 drawers a day to catch up. "Yipee", they yelled because they get to have 2 treats per day and so they were patient!

To cut a long story short, I only had half a pack of DSP and by the time I decided to bite the bullet and started cutting into the paper, I realised that I was one 12"x12" short to cover the top and bottom 7"x7" pieces.

Fortunately for me, my upline had a matching piece to spare and I did not have to order in a full pack just for one sheet. Using the DSP effectively was my biggest hurdle as I could not picture how the end product would look like ie. horribly messy or cheery and merry. What do you think?

After all the pieces on, embellishing and making drawer knobs was easy and fun. I tried to stay true to Stampin' Up! only products but in the end, I just grabbed whatever I could find including my husband's fishing reel for its line (heh, heh, heh). For the project recipe, I will list only the SU products as I couldn't even begin to tell you where the other products are from.

project recipe
stamps: Delightful Decorations (121502966), Season of Joy (WM 113023)
ink: Classic Stampin' Pad - Early Espresso (119670), Marina Mist (119668)
card stock: Riding Hood Red (116205 - full pack of 24 sheets required), Marina Mist (121682), Early Espresso (121686), Whisper White (106549)
paper: Letters to Santa DSP (122349)

tools: Big Shot (113439), Sweetest Stem (114513), Timeless Alphabet Junior Alphabet Medium Sizzlit Dies (115951), Swirls Scribbles (113441), Merry Details (retired), Boho Blossoms Punch (119858), Ornament Punch (119847), Decorative Label Punch (120907), 1 3/4" Scallop Circle Punch (119854)
the added pizzaz: Basic Pearl (119247), Basic Rhinestone (119246), Antique Brads (117273), Clear Rhinestone Brads (113144), Square Fire Rhinestone Brads (109112) Square Ice Rhinestone Brads (retired), Brights Designer Buttons (119747), 1/4" Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon (109034), Whisper White Grosgrain Ribbon (109025), Natural Hemp Twine (100982), Cherry Cobbler/White Baker's Twine (123125), Dazzling Diamonds (102023), 2-Way Glue (100425), Stampin' Dimensionals 104430)

 

The postage piece on your left and the bauble piece below, although beautifully patterned, lacked dimension (I felt). So to add "pop" to those pieces, I cut out random matching images from the DSP and adhered over the top with dimensionals. I've also added Dazzling Diamonds too for more bling.

I hope that I've explained this "pop" part clearly. If not, do contact me for more details but I think that if you refere to the more detailed photos, you will understand what I'm trying to convey. I hope that you've enjoyed my trials and tribulations and perhaps attempt an Advent Calender Box for next Christmas. However, this will make a gorgeous gift box for any occassion - you can make it in single or double layers and decorate to your heart's content. Maybe in a few months time, I may do the same :-)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in 2012

Welcome

Welcome to my first blog. I've been procrastinating about this for months and I must admit that I irrationally, have butterflies in my tummy. However, I feel that I am ready for this next step - to share my love for this exquisite paper and rubber stamping craft form with more people.

A Good Egg

With Easter looming, it's the best time to showcase this very cute stamp set. These cards show you 2 different layouts. However, this set is much more versatile and should not be restricted for use as Easter cards. Can you also picture it on a card for a newborn baby?

In this card, I used the Daffodil Delight sheets from the Greenhouse Gala DSP range for the large egg and Sunny Garden DSP range for the background mat which I embossed with the Finial Press embossing folder.

I stamped the large egg and part of the chick's feet on DSP first, cut and embellished with WW grosgrain ribbon and rhinestones. Then I stamped the sentiment and attached a few dimensionals on the back. Lastly, I stamped the chick twice:

- once on a small piece of WW card stock, cut out the half shell, applied

  dazzling diamonds and dimensionals; and

- again on the large WW card stock and coloured only the chick
  with blender pen in Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin
  Pie before applying Crystal Effects.

When the Crystal Effects hardened, I adhered the cut out half shell to the bottom of the chick. Then I adhered the large egg to the WW card stock whilst making sure that the feet/legs line up.

Tip: I used Soft Suede to stamp the images but I think that it's best to use Black StazOn. If you compare the 1st (Soft Suede) and 2nd card (Black StazOn), you will see that the Crystal Effects softened the stamped outline of the first card too much .

This second card is shamelessly blingy (is this an actual word?). I used Black StazOn to stamp the images here. Although the picture doesn't show it, both halves of the egg were adhered onto the WW card stock with dimensionals. I used Stampin' Write Markers to colour in the circles but a blender pen and ink pads will give you similar results. Lastly, I stamped the chick onto the card stock and finished with the same process as the first card.

Tip: With both cards, be careful of where you stamp your chick. It's best to do this once you have all the other parts ready so that you can visually align all the parts together.

Stamp Set:  A Good Egg

Paper: Greenhouse Gala DSP, Sunny Garden DSP, Soft Suede, Pear Pizzaz, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White

Ink: Soft Suede, Pear Pizzaz, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin

Pie, Jet Black StazOn

Fab tools: Boho Blossoms Punch, Blender Pen

For that awesome finish: Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamonds, Basic Rhinestones, Stampin' Dimensionals, SNAIL Adhesive

         ~~ xoxo ~~