I think I may have mentioned on a previous occasion or two that I have a folder on my computer named ‘to blog’.  This folder contains images of projects completed over a good long while that are stored there so that I know I need to put them up here for you all to see.

At this point they would more aptly fit in a folder entitled ‘what the heck are you waiting for?!’

If not for the fact that the computer doesn’t like anything other than letters and numbers in its folder names, I may well have had a go at changing it.

So anyway, I’ve decided that it’s time to clear the backlog, what with colour collections being renovated and only just over a month until stamps and all sorts start retiring and all.

So herewith, my first offering from the aforementioned folder.  Blow the dust off if you will

This is a card that I made for my sweet niece Izzy, who turned 11 in December last year.

See what I mean about backlog?

Moving on…

I just had to have a go at the Sweet Treat Cups when they first appeared back in the previous mini and LOVE how they jazz up  a card.

The fact that you can fill them with mini M&Ms or other small chocolatey treats is a definite bonus, particularly where an 11 year old girl is involved.

You may have noticed in the flower to the right that there is also a small protrusion…

See?!

When I first laid eyes on the Sweet Treat Cups, they reminded me instantly of a class that I saw offered by a co-worker at a local craft shop where I worked momentarily a few years ago between children.  It involved using objects found around the home in your crafting and card making.

Can anybody tell me what I’ve used here for the smaller flower?

Petal Pizzazz would have to be one of my absolute favourite and most-used stamp sets from this current catalogue and I always get nervous around this time – a month or so out from retiring lists appearing – that one like this will retire.

I REALLY hope it sticks around and heads will not have to roll.

I’m just sayin’…..

As it turns out my nephew, Izzy’s little brother Harry has his birthday exactly a week before his big sis, so he got a Sweet Treat Cup on his card too.

No girly flowers here though….

…just a rocket!

This idea came from my super-clever and delightful sis-in-law Janny who is part of my stampin’ team.

She came up with the oh-so-awesome idea to fill the STC with blue and green mini M&Ms, thereby creating Earth for the rocket to blast off from.

Is this not the coolest idea for a boy card you’ve ever seen?!

Whether or not Harry paused to appreciate the artistry and inventiveness of this idea prior to tearing it apart to get to the M&Ms, I can’t honestly recall, but one can remain hopeful.

In fact, for both of the cards, I installed a handy little flap behind the STC using a scrap of cardstock and the slit punch so that getting at the contents doesn’t require complete annihilation of the card itself…

Again, whether or not Harry noticed this thoughtful inclusion is another thing entirely.  Let’s just say its a good thing he’s my favourite nephew

The Sweet Treat Cups are perfectly designed to work with the 1-3/4″ Circle Punch, both of which are available in the current Autumn/Winter mini catalogue.

If you’d like to grab some of these to have a play with for yourself, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

“Izzy’s Sweet Treat Flowers”
Stamps: Petal Pizzazz, Short & Sweet
Paper: Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White
Ink: Tangerine Tango, Summer Sun, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: Eyelet Border, Word Window, 1/2″ & 1-3/4″ Circle Punches; Regal Rose 5/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

“Harry’s Sweet Treat Rocket”
Stamps: Pun Fun, Big Bold Birthday, Season of Joy (stars)
Paper: Baja Breeze, Close to Cocoa, Night of Navy, Watercolour Paper
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Baja Breeze, Close to Cocoa, Riding Hood Red, Night of Navy
Accessories: Scallop Border, Word Window $ 1-3/4″ Circle Punches; Riding Hood Red Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Aquapainter, White Gel Pen, Stampin’ Dimensionals

If you’ve been playing or following along at Just Add Ink for a while now, you would be aware that each week there is a new challenge posted.  Well this week there’s a fun twist on our regular challenge, and I’m sure you’re going to love it!

Before I get into the details of the challenge and my own entry, here’s a little how-to on the whole blog hop scenario in case you’re as new to this as I am….!

There are ten stops on the hop – all of the Design Team members and the Just Add Ink site itself – and it’s arranged in a loop, so it doesn’t matter where you start, just follow the links at the end of each post so that you get around the whole lot.

Chances are you’ve come here from Amanda’s blog or perhaps you’ve just popped in on the off chance that there’s something new to see.

Either way, it’s great to have you here

You’re going to want to make sure you see everything, as at each stop there is a technique tutorial!  The challenge from Just Add Ink this week is to incorporate a technique from one of the tutorials into your challenge entry!

I told you this was going to be fun!

Alrighty, let’s get started shall we…?!

My tutorial is all about a technique that I just love and never get tired of…

Watercolouring

The cast of characters

First stamp your image using Staz On ink onto water colour paper

I like to use the Classic ink with an Aquapainter for watercolouring, so to get my 'palette', I squish the lid of my ink pads a bit.....

...and some of the ink is transferred to the inside lid of my inkpad, from where it can be picked up with an Aquapainter

Because you only want a very light covering of ink for the first layer, pick up the ink from the edges of the colour "puddle" with your Aquapainter and make sure it is quite diluted

This is the first layer of colour - very light. It's important to ensure that each section is dry before moving onto the next section so that the colours don't bleed together

For each subsequent layer of colour, start with a more concentrated line of ink towards one edge of the image (see the centre of the large flower on the left), making sure to work in small areas at a time and only once the first layer is completely dry. For this image I am imagining that there is a light source coming from the right, hence my shadows will be towards the left of the image

Remove the excess colour from your Aquapainter by brushing it on your scrap paper

Return to where you painted the darker strip of colour and blend it outwards in a circular motion so that there are no hard lines. This is what your image will look like when each section has a second layer of colour

Continue with a third layer of the same colours, each time using more ink and upping the saturation of the colours

Now I have chosen slightly darker colours and gone over the same areas again in the same way as before - paint a strip of colour towards the left of the image, get rid of the excess colour from the Aquapainter and blend outwards with a circular motion. This is the fourth layer of colour (gotta love watercolour paper!)

This is the fifth layer of colour - darker again. The centre of the flowers now have three layers of More Mustard, one of Close to Cocoa and one of Chocolate Chip. The flower pot has three layers of More Mustard, one of Really Rust and one of Chocolate Chip

I also like to colour the background of my watercoloured images to add more depth and realism to the picture, so making sure that your previous colouring is completely dry, let’s move onto the background….

In the same way as we did with the stamped image colouring, the background also starts with a very light layer of colour

For the second and subsequent layers of background colour, start with a stronger line of colour at the edge of the image, remove the excess colour from the Aquapainter and blend out in a circular motion - same as before

When you've finished colouring your image, this is what you'll have....

...also this...

..but the most exciting thing you will have is this!

Layer upon layer of ink upon the very absorbant and forgiving watercolour paper takes you from this to this!

Here’s a quick frame by frame to compare each step in the process….

For the final card, I wanted to keep to a fairly simple layout, so as to keep the focus on the watercoloured image and not end up with anything too busy…

I used my brand new Tiny Tags set with the matching Jewelry Tag Punch for my little greeting, but as it is so tiny, I felt that attaching it with a standard brad would be a bit overpowering, so I made my own, slightly smaller one…

Using the smaller of the two Crop-a-dile hole punches, I punched out a tiny bit of Chocolate Chip cardstock and stuck it in place using Tombow Mono Adhesive.  Then I squeezed a drop of Crystal Effects onto it to make it shiny and brad-like.

It’s actually still quite cloudy and not quite dry here (in fact not dry at all!) as I was too impatient to wait to take the photo’s and get started on my tutorial.

Should you  have a go at making your own brads, you will notice that they do end up a nice shiny version of the colour of the cardstock underneath, as opposed to the murky, cloudy whitish/brown number that you can see above

So there you have it, my contribution to what is a bumper week of tutorials!

Don’t forget once you’ve finished the hop, your challenge is to choose one of the tutorials, make a project using it as your entry and link it up over at Just Add Ink.

I’ve seen a few of the projects already and my guess is you won’t be able to stop at just one…!

To continue on the tour, just click the image below and keep on truckin’!  Next up is Delys…

Enjoy!

“Just Add Ink Watercolouring Tutorial”
Stamps: A Flower for All Seasons, Tiny Tags
Paper: Kraft, Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Patterns DSP – Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip, Watercolour Paper
Ink: Staz On Jet Black, Summer Sun, More Mustard, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, Old Olive, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White (sponged around edge of Kraft)
Accessories: Aquapainter, Jewelry Tag Punch, Crop-a-dile, Crystal Effects, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Over at Just Add Ink this week, we have a colour challenge for you!  I chose to bust out my Aquapainter and Watercolour Paper this week, hence the title of my post.

Here are the colours…

And here is my card…

I had no idea where I was going with this, I just sat and watercoloured while my small girl played Dora games next to me on the computer.

Aside from the occasional utterance of some Spanish phrase or other from the little one, we sat mostly in companionable silence doing our thing.  Such a nice thing to be able to do

If I’m not back before Sunday, which at this stage is a fairly likely scenario, Happy Mother’s Day to all the lovely mums out there.  May your day be filled with lovely things that hopefully don’t include a bunch of kitchen appliances from the department store catalogues that always appear at this time of year.

Seriously, can we not have something frivolous and whimsical instead of white and practical for Mother’s Day?!

Although having said that, I’d change my tune quite happily for a Thermomix….

“Just Add Ink Challenge #16″
Stamps: Embrace Life, Trendy Trees
Paper: Watercolour Paper, Soft Suede, Ruby Red, Pretty in Pink, Sweet Slumber Specialty DSP
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Soft Suede, Ruby Red, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Versamark
Accessories: Soft Suede Polka Dot Ribbon, Button Latte, White Embossing Powder, Corner Rounder Punch, Aquapainter, White Gel Pen, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Kitchen String

It’s a couple of weeks since we returned from our Easter holiday down south  and in something other than my usual form of scrapbooking an event a good many years after it actually occurred, I have completed a page using one of the photo’s I took on the trip.

Go me!

My almost seven year old doesn’t have a scrapbook page of her second birthday yet, but at least she has a beach layout featuring herself from a fortnight ago, right?!

Here it is, the Just Add Ink theme for the week being vintage…..

The journalling reads:

She’s a few years younger than I was when I went to Dillon Bay for the first time but Hannah was just as captivated by this beautiful stretch of beach as I remember being.  Miles of baby-powder white sand and the bluest blue water you ever did see

I grunged up the picture a bit using some Pioneer Woman actions in Photoshop and also some post-printing sponged on ink around the edges, so the baby-powder-esque sand isn’t done a great deal of justice in this photo but it really is a sight to behold.

As for the layout itself, it was rather a collaborative effort, as I used elements of things that I loved from all over to put it together.

The custom made Designer Series Paper to the left of the layout was inspired by the amazing artist that is Teneale Williams.

I started out with a 12 x 5 inch piece of Baja Breeze cardstock and stamped all over it with the Sanded background stamp – first in Soft Suede, then in Versamark.

After that, I inked up my brand new Medallion stamp – also in Versamark – and stamped it in a fairly tight fitting pattern all over as well.

The whole sheet was then covered in Clear Embossing Powder and blasted with my Heat Gun.

Once it was embossed, I loaded up my Brayer with Soft Suede ink and rolled it several times all over the sheet, giving the exposed, un-embossed cardstock a gorgeous rich brown colour and leaving the embossed parts the original Baja Breeze.

This technique is called emboss resist, because the embossed part “resists” the ink that is applied.  It’s a wonderful technique

As you would very likely be aware, the process of embossing leaves quite a shiny finish and being a vintage theme, I wanted a flatter, less shiny finish, so this is where my second collaborator comes in…

I was at the workshop of a gorgeous customer and friend on the weekend and she’s one of those super clever types who tries her hand – and succeeds amazingly – at everything arty and crafty.

*waving Mandy*

During the make and takes, as I sipped on the Nespresso coffee that was whipped up for me (have I mentioned recently how much I love my job?!) I was browsing her collection of ATCs and cards and 3D projects and checking out her funky workspace and came across a card that looked very much like emboss resist, but with no embossing.

Mandy kindly let me know that the way to get rid of the embossing after the resisting had been done was to iron it!

I was keen to use this technique immediately, hence its appearance in this very challenge entry, and I was even more pleased to have a use for my iron, since it doesn’t see the light of day very often in a more standard role….

Basically, you just lay some sheets of copy paper over the embossed area and using your iron on high, go right over the top, thereby melting off the embossed area, which is lifted away when the copy paper is removed.

How cool is that?!

The third collaborator was another gorgeous workshop guest and a good friend of Mandy’s who is also one of those super clever crafty types.

*hi Lisa*

Lisa sent me the link to a tutorial for some particularly funky (and I thought, vintage-y) paper flowers using the Scallop Circle Punch and Crimper.

You can find the tutorial –>HERE<–

To make mine, I first stamped the Medallion onto Naturals Ivory cardstock using Baja Breeze ink, then punched out three Scallop Circles.  After following the tutorial linked above, I sponged some Soft Suede ink on the edges of the flower and added a Button Latte button and Linen Thread to the centre.

I was really happy with the way it came together, as vintage style is not something I would usually try my hand at.

If you’d like to challenge yourself to create something with a vintage twist, head on over to Just Add Ink to check out some DT inspiration!

And if you’d like any further information on my layout or the products that went into creating it, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

“Just Add Vintage – History Repeating 12×12 Layout”
Stamps: Medallion, Vintage Vogue, Sanded
Paper: Kraft, Baja Breeze, Naturals Ivory, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla textured
Ink: Soft Suede, Versamark, Baja Breeze, Sahara Sand
Accessories: Big Shot, Top Note die, Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies, Eyelet Border Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Clear Embossing Powder, Button Latte, Linen Thread, Stamping Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Chocolate Chip Stampin’ Write Marker

Many of you would already be aware that we are smack bang in the middle of the most fun time of the Stampin’ Up! year – Sale-a-bration!

Other than put a little advertisement up to the top right there, I haven’t done much in the way of shouting it from the rooftops, so I hope to rectify that today by sharing a couple of cards I made with my favourite of the stamp selections available in the Sale-a-bration brochure.

I loved all the stamp sets on sight, but my favourite one is Happy Moments.  I reckon you can’t go wrong with a stamp set that contains four images that could be used for pretty much any occasion, PLUS three greeting stamps into the bargain as well.

And it is a bargain, ’cause it’s free!

It – or any of the other three sets in the catalogue – can be yours for free with any order of $100.  Spend $200, choose two sets.  Spend $300, choose three sets plus the associated hostess benefits.

Spend more than that, and you and I need to have a serious chat about the Stampin’ Up! demonstrator opportunity…  Oh and did I mention that if you take up that particular opportunity during Sale-a-bration you get to choose a free stamp set from the Idea Book & Catalogue too…?

Yep, you do.

See I told you Sale-a-bration was fun!

Ok, onto the cards.  They both use the stack of gifts stamp from the Happy Moments stamp set, which I love because you can colour it all girly and pretty, or make it more boy-ish colours too – both of which I have done in the following examples…

This first card was for a little school friend of my big girl, whose 7th birthday party was just this morning.

The cutest thing was that when Hannah gave her the card, as she was ripping into it, she said “I know what this is – this is a card that your mum made”.

They’re onto me…..!

Here’s a close up of the watercolouring on the stamped image, and I also wanted to point out something else about this part too.

See the scalloped border around the edge of the circle?

Well that circle is the 1-3/4″ Circle Punch and we don’t actually have a corresponding scallop circle punch in the catalogue.  Check out this post on Marelle Taylor’s blog for a nifty little trick to get different sized circles out of your original Scallop Circle Punch…

“Happy 7th Birthday Madelen”
Stamps: Happy Moments
Paper: Kiwi Kiss, So Saffron, Watercolour Paper, Regal Rose Patterns DSP (Level 1 Hostess)
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Kiwi Kiss, So Saffron, Regal Rose, Tangerine Tango, Baja Breeze
Accessories: 1-3/4″ Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Aquapainter, Tangerine Tango striped ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

The next card was for the principal at school after I noticed a couple of weeks ago that his birthday was listed in the school newsletter.  It’s such a lovely school that my big girl goes to (and next year, so will the little one…!) with just one class for each year level and the teachers and the principal know each and every one of the kids by name.

Here’s his card…

The image on this one is also watercoloured, but this time I first stamped and embossed with White Embossing Powder, so it gives the image quite a different look.

So that’s just two simple examples of the many different looks that you could get out of this one stamp, never mind that you have three other image stamps in the set to play around with as well.

Sale-a-bration runs until the end of March, so get in on the free stamps action by contacting me and letting me know what you’d like for your $100 (or $200 or $300!) order

“Happy Birthday Mr Martin”
Stamps: Happy Moments, Short & Sweet
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Naturals Ivory, Kiwi Kiss, Watercolour Paper, Urban Garden DSP
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Sahara Sand
Accessories: Chocolate Chip side double stitched ribbon, Aquapainter, Stampin’ Sponges, 1-3/4″ Circle Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Aaarghhhh!  I’m late!

And I’m exhausted due to my big girl having started back at school today and all the fun and frivolity and fresh new stationery (mmmmmmm!) that comes with the last week of the summer holidays.

But mostly I’m late.  To show you my card for the current Just Add Ink challenge (that kicked off …….last Thursday!)

Chances are you have already seen my card on the JAI blog itself, and I suspect that a good many of you have judging by the many, many challenge entries that are flooding in!

The challenge this week….?  Just add HEARTS!

This theme suited me perfectly as we had an engagement party to go to last weekend, so this card was created, photographed, emailed to the Just Add Ink girls and given away, all in the blink of an eye!

‘Tis a pity that it wasn’t blogged with such speed and frightening efficiency…

I’m not sure if you can quite make out the detail of the heart image, so here’s a bit of a closer look…

The heart image from Simply Said was stamped onto Vellum Cardstock in Whisper White Craft Ink and embossed with White Embossing Powder.

Then I coloured onto the back of the vellum using markers to create the stained glass window type effect.

Then with the two different sized square punches and a goodly amount of stuffing about to get the layers to line up, I created the little see through window-ish type thingamy that you can see in the above photo.

Then some background stamping, ribbon and a rub-on completed the job!

If you’re keen to join the challenge for this week and you have a window of stampin’ opportunity to do so between now and midnight on Wednesday, I’d encourage you to jump on in!

“Just Add Hearts Engagement Card”
Stamps: Simply Said, Sanded background
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip, Vellum cardstock
Ink: Whisper White craft, Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Rose Red Wide Double Stitched Ribbon, White Taffeta Ribbon, Stampin’ Write Markers, Chit Chat Rub-ons, 1-3/8″ and 1-1/4″ Square Punches, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Stampin’ Sponges

As promised yesterday, here is the project I made using the most challenging (for me) of all the colours in the Stampin’ Up! colour families.

Several of you guessed it, and a few of you appear to be similarly challenged by it..

It’s Glorious Green!

This colour is not only not in my comfort zone, it resides a goodly number of postcodes away.

And in all likelihood it would have remained unscathed in my cardstock shelf had the gift that I was packaging not contained that very colour, so in this case, my fear of using this extremely challenging colour was overidden by my penchant for all things matchy-matchy!

Here’s the gift box from the outside…

I think you can kind of make it out in the first picture that I actually embossed the stars onto the vellum lid.  The ink can take a while to dry on vellum, and being the impatient crafter that I am, decided to hasten the process, as well as improve the overall look as it turns out, by throwing on some clear embossing powder.

Here you can see the little set of three pairs of shoe/socks that I packaged inside.  The colours..?  Ballet Blue, Real Red and Glorious Green!

I just realised that you can’t actually see the green pair in there!  I must have subconsciously stuck them at the back behind the other two…

The little gift is for the head coach at my big girl’s gymnastics class who just had her first baby about a month ago.

Here is the matching card…

So you can see that although the Glorious Green is most definitely the accent colour rather than being front and centre, it’s most certainly there!

Baby steps people, baby steps…

Although I should have learned my lesson by now, out of interest, I asked for Tim’s impressions of the box.

His response…?

“Now that’s Christmassy!”

#&%$(#@*&$!!

“Sock box and card”
Stamps: Nursery Necessities
Paper: Brocade Blue, Real Red, Glorious Green, Whisper White, Vellum Cardstock
Ink: Brocade Blue, Real Red, Glorious Green
Accessories: Real Red and Brocade Blue wide grosgrain, Wide Oval Punch, Crimper, Silver Brads, Linen Thread, 1-1/16″ Circle Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

The very first time I saw the Jumbo Stampin’ Around wheel Neighbourhood, I just had to own it!

It was one of those things that, although I didn’t have an immediate pressing need for it (because as we all well know, so many stamping things DO fall into the category of immediate pressing need ), I knew that it would be perfect for so many things.

Nevermind that I could just tell it would be super fun to watercolour.  And at $15.95 for the wheel, it was a bargain to boot!

Here is a card that I made a couple of months back for the family of one of the little girls in my big girl’s school class that had just built and moved into their new house….

The process of watercolouring the image took forever, but if I recall, I combined it with a spot of mindless TV – one of my favourite combinations of activities – so thoroughly enjoyed the time!

You can sort of tell in the picture, but in real life the colours were amazingly vibrant, which is one of the things that I love about using watercolour paper – the ability to layer and shade and add depth of colour without the paper going all soggy and pilly (not sure if that’s a word but I’m sure you know what I mean…) in the process!

I have made at least two other cards with the Neighbourhood wheel, but have made the irritating discovery this afternoon that a bunch of pictures that I took back in late September have somehow gone missing – one of which was a picture of a card using this wheel that I gave to some new neighbours that moved in across the street and another that was a gift I made for a prac teacher in my daughter’s class at the end of Term 3.  That one didn’t use the Neighbourhood wheel, but was a project I was very much looking forward to sharing here as it used the Parisian Breeze DSP from the Spring Mini that finishes up at the end of the month…

I am trying not to think too hard about what other pictures I took around that time that I have also lost, so let’s change the subject shall we….?

Alrighty, who else loves the Neighbourhood wheel??!!  You can own one yourself for the bargain price of $15.95 that I mentioned earlier (plus $10.50 for the Stampin’ Around handle if you don’t already have one).  Not bad for hours of colouring fun and the cutest little houses you ever did see!

Contact me today to get yours….!

“Housewarming Card”
Stamps: Neighbourhood Stampin’ Around Wheel, Sanded, Short & Sweet
Paper: Old Olive, More Mustard, Ruby Red, Watercolour Paper
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Old Olive, a variety of inks for watercolouring, not all of which I can recall with 100% clarity, but inclusive of Baja Breeze, Going Grey, More Mustard, Ruby Red, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip…..
Accessories: Aquapainter, Choc Chip wide grosgrain ribbon, Stampin’ Sponges

The most difficult cards to make are always the ones conveying sympathy for the loss of a loved one, and I had reason to make one of these this week for a dear friend of mine who lost a long-time friend of hers in the most tragic and terribly sad of circumstances.

This is card that I took around to my friend today.

The soft look of the flowers in the Upsy Daisy stamp set is achieved by colouring directly to the rubber with Watercolour Wonder crayons, spritzing the stamp with water and stamping onto watercolour paper.  It was exactly the soft, muted look I was hoping for.

Thinking of you Deen…

“Just Because I Care”
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Sanded, Best Yet
Paper: Always Artichoke, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Mellow Moss, Watercolour Paper
Ink: Always Artichoke, Regal Rose
Accessories: Watercolour Wonder Crayons (Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke), Eyelet Border Punch, Rose Red wide stitched grosgrain, Button Latte Designer Buttons, Linen Thread, Stampin’ Sponges

As promised, here are the whole cards that I gave you a brief sampling of yesterday.  I know that one of the cards has been received due to the very sweet and enthusiastic comment left earlier (*waving* SJ!) and I’m going to take a chance that the other two will have been found before the recipients check in here….

So here we go….

This card was sent to my lovely Aunty Mary, sister of my mum, frequent blog commenter, enthusiastic cheerleader and a wonderful influence in my life.  I wanted her to know just how much I love and appreciate her.

For the card itself, I stamped the birdie using Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder.  Then I used markers in the colours of the cardstock I had chosen and coloured in the little “carved out” bits through to the cardstock below.

“A card for Aunty Mair”
Stamps: Always, Best Yet, Sanded
Paper: Old Olive, Cameo Coral, Pink Pirouette
Ink: Versamark, Old Olive
Accessories: White Embossing Powder, Old Olive wide grosgrain, Old Olive & Cameo Coral Markers, Stampin’ Sponges

Here’s the next one…

This one landed in the mailbox of my dear friend and fellow demonstrator, Sarah Jane Kalé, one of many friends I have made due to my association with Stampin’ Up! and one of the reasons I am thankful that I became a demonstrator at all.

During the recent school holidays, SJ and I were meant to catch up with our little ones but on the morning in question I woke up with a raging migraine and had to cancel to spend the day on the couch with an ice-pack on my head.  Sarah offered to have the girls for me so that I could ice my thumping head in peace – just one example of the sweetness that is Sarah, not to mention that she is one of the most talented stampers I know!  Love ya SJ!

The sentiment on this card is perfect and I wanted to use a bunch of vibrant colours, so I chose a combination of markers that I liked based on the colours in my small girl’s current favourite dress and coloured the words all differently.  The Baroque background stamp is embossed with clear embossing powder.

“A card for Sarah Jane”
Stamps: Occasional Greetings, Baroque
Paper: Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Pink Passion, Whisper White
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder, Certainly Celery wide grosgrain, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Pink Passion, Pixie Pink & Apricot Appeal Markers, Eyelet Border Punch, Button Bouquet Designer Buttons, Linen Thread, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Now for the last one…

This one went to Makeesha, another demonstrator and gorgeous friend who endlessly shares her boundless stamping talents.  I was looking forward to catching up with her at the Perth Regionals last weekend, but this time the migraine monster came visiting her and she wasn’t able to attend.

I wasn’t the only disappointed one, as I know many Perth stampers were busting for the opportunity to breathe the same air and maybe even exchange a word or two with Keesh, stamp-star that she is, and I’m sure she was also saddened to have to miss out on such a fun day of stamping.

For this card I inked up Garden Whimsy, which I haven’t done for quite some time, and was happy with how it turned out.  You might notice that the layout is pretty much the same as Aunty Mary’s birdie card, just different stamps and colours

“A card for Keesh”
Stamps: Garden Whimsy, Best Yet, Sanded
Paper: Bashful Blue, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Kiwi Kiss, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie striped ribbon, Pumpkin Pie Marker, Eyelet Border Punch, Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I hope you enjoyed checking out my cards as much as I enjoyed making them   If you’d like further information about any of the techniques or products involved in the creation of these cards, please don’t hesitate to contact me.