Summer Silohuettes

This is another of the cards from the November class. The ladies had a choice of which orientation they would use. This one here I sponged the strip of card stock with Crushed Curry, then Stamped the stems and the stamens in Early Espresso, and the flower buds in Cajun Craze. I then randomly stamped some smaller flowers from the Summer Silhouettes in Cajun Craze as well, This card literally took three minutes to make! What the ladies did then was to make a gift card using the same method and stamp set, and to finish it all off they made an envelope from the New Envelope Punch Board, I love this new little tool from Stampin Up!

Sunny Challenges 87/13 - Framelits

This week it was my turn to set the challenge, and so I chose to make it something to do with Framelits. They are such fun to use, and especially if you have one of the New Magnetic Platforms. They take away the need to use Post it Notes to keep your Framelit in place. I chose to use the Labels Collection Framelits that I received when they first became available to us at Stampin Up. Originally when I made my card I used a negative from another time and sponged the background area, using Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze and Melon Mambo. I thought it looked a bit 'flat' so I cut it out using the framelits. My colour combo is pure Colour Coach, and to be honest I had forgotten how lovely Melon Mambo looked against a back ground of Old Olive and Elegant Eggplant. The Old Olive I ran through the Big Shot using a new embossing folder which is available from the 1st September. The image from Serene Silhouettes I stamped in Black Stazon and the sentiment I stamped using Elegant Eggplant was Occasional Quotes. On the inside of the card I used the Scallop Punch and punched along the bottom edge of the Whisper White insert and also along the edge of a piece of Old Olive which I put behind the Whisper White. The sentiment, when stamped I punched out with the Modern Label Punch and sponged the edges with Melon Mambo. I do hope you will find time to play along with week at Sunny Challenges and Creations, and please pop along and have a look at Kris and Vicky's Creations as well as our guest designers. Till next time Happy Stamping.

Wetlands

I love this stamp set in the new 2013-2014 Stampin Up Catalogue! I decided to use the Terns from this set and show them how you would normally see them, walking around in the shallows of the water. I made a 1" circle mask for the sun, and sponged the sky using soft Sky, Bermuda Bay and gently sponged a horizon line in Pacific Point. The sun I sponged in Crushed Curry and then dabbed a little Cajun Craze to the upper section. The embossed background was done using the Beautifully Baroque embossing folder. I wanted the design of the embossing folder to be the 'right way up' for my landscape orientation so embossed the cardstock in two sections. The framelit used for the main image area and the Soft Suede frame are from the Labels Collection Framelits. The touch of the Baked Brown Sugar Stretch Trim finished the card off, and I was so happy with the result. The sentiment is from the Wetlands set. This set shows so much promise and is so versatile, already I am envisaging all the ways it can be used! The ladies are going to be doing this card in class on Friday and I know they will fall in love with this set too, Till next time happy stamping.

Week 50 Sunny Challenges and Creations

Goodness here we are at week 50. It seems hard to believe that it is almost 12 months ago that Sunny Challenges and Creations was 'born'. This week Kris set the challenge and it was to use the Reflection Technique. There is a wonderful tutorial for this at Splitcoast StampersNow I am the first to admit that when I read what the challenge was I groaned and thought I tried this once and it was a disaster! Michelle Zhindorf has always been an inspiration to me and even though I am not by any means a patch on her wonderful talent I thought that I would try doing a night scape and give the appearance of a deer standing by a lake with trees in the background. I think that I am going to have to make the brayer my best friend for a while to really get the hang of using it. To make the foreground I sponged the bottom and the edges around the 'lake' using Soft Suede and the lake was sponged using Tempting Turquoise. What will we ever do if Lovely as a Tree is retired? This stamp set would have to be one of the most versatile sets and it is loved by one and all. Please to be sure to check out Kris and Vicky's blogs and join us this week and play along and who knows you may be our next Ray of Sunshine.

Sunny Challenges and Creations Challenge 042/12

Hi there stampers, Here we are again with a sketch from Vicky. Along with the sketch the added challenge was to use the baby wipe technique. Now I am ashamed to say I had not done this technique before so it was a learning curve for me too. I decided to do what I hoped would look like a sunset, it doesnt, but I quite like the result. On my baby wipes I used Night of Navy, Tempting Turquoise, Cajun Craze and More Mustard. It took me a while to get the hang of picking up the colours and transferring therm to my card stock. Once I was happy with the result, I then stamped Lovely as a Tree in Early Espresso. The sentiment is from Short and Sweet, and this I stamped in Early Espresso also. It didnt look right on Whisper White card stock (too stark) and Very Vanilla seemed to be lost in the colours. When I was practicing the technique I used some scrap of Whisper White and found a piece of that, stamped the image on it. The sketch also shows a shape in the bottom left hand corner and everything I put there looked to be too big so I punched out a small flower and added a black brad to the centre. Please make sure you go and check out Kris and Vicky's blogs as well as those from our Guest Designers and play along with us this week at Sunny Challenges and Creations. Till next time...

Fox and Friends share

This week on Sunny Challenges and Creations we are using the stamp set Fox and Friends and the sketch for this challenge was done by Vicki. As I said in an earlier post it really had me thinking, and now I seem to have gotten into the 'groove' with set and will share with you over the next couple of days some more of my creations using this lovely set. The card base is Tempting Turquise and that has been layered with Whisper white of which I attached four of the lions from the stamp set that were stamped in More Mustard and that was then run through the Big Shot using the Square Lattice embossing folder. A smaller mat of the Tempting Turquoise topped with Whisper White was adhered to the embossed layer and then I had cut out a giraffe that was stamped in Cajun Craze and he was placed using dimensionals. You cant see it very well in this picture but I placed a basic rhinestone for the giraffe's eye. The card was finished off by placing a strip of More Mustard Cardstock across the page which had 1/8" White Taffeta Ribbon attached to it. This is such a pretty set and I dont know why I hadnt had ink to it before this :(  I do hope you like it and I would love to know what you think of it.

Double Fancy Folds

Today I would like to share with you a double fancy folds card that I designed. I  attended a class by my very good friend, mentor and honourary upline Kris McIntsoh and as we were making the fancy fold card I thought that I could do a double, so I set to and designed one! They are so simple to do and once you get the scoring right the rest falls into place so easily. I used a combination of colours that I would not usually use for this card and I also used my Dazzling Diamonds whch has been sitting neglected for quite some time :) I thought they added a lift to the finished card. The colours I used were Peach Pizazz Parfait for the base which I stamped with the vine from Elements of Style using Peach Parfait, and the mats were Bashful Blue, Cajun Craze and Whisper White. I love the softness of the Elements of Style stamp set, stamped it onto the Whiaper White using Stazon as I wanted to colour the flowers. On the two side panels I used Perfect Plum for the main flowers and Peach Parfait for the smaller blossoms and Old Olive for the leaves. The sentiment was stamped using Cajun Craze and punched out with the large oval punch then backed onto a scallop oval in Cajun Craze. I finished it off with two bows with a rhinestone in the middle and attached them to the card on the outer panels using mini glue dots (how I love them things!!)   I hope that you like this creation of mine and I would love to hear what you think. Bye for now, Gwen

Thank goodness for my "Another Day Box"

Today was a clean up day in my craft room, I was so busy changing things here, a different container there, you know how it goes............then my mobile rang. It was a customer coming to pick up her order a couple of days earlier than expected. Heavens I didnt have a thank you card made to give with her order and she is virtually 3 minutes away! Quickly grabbed my another day box and this is what I found, the hydrangea stamped image that has been in the box absolutely forever, so long in fact it was a Hostess Stamps from last years catty! Must admit I loved the Just Because stamp. This is what I came up with, I think the Certainly Celery ribbon and bow around the bottom softens it quite nicely, what do you think? Bye for now

A walk on the beach

Hi everyone, My blog at this point of the day is not so much about card making and papercraft, but how it always seems to be lurking in the back of our mind. This morning I woke and decided to go for a walk along the beach. I havent been for so so long, and I think like everything we take its beauty for granted and that it will always be there. As everyone would be aware we have had some terrible erosion of our foreshores with the wild weather we have experienced over the last couple of years. Normally I am a person who believes that nature will eventually remedy erosion and climatic problems, but after looking at our beautiful beaches aftrer our last bout of wild weather I thought "Goodness old girl, you have your work cut out for you". I am so glad that the Sunshine Coast Regioanl Council decided to do some dredging to replace some of the sand that had been taken away.

 So this morning I stepped onto the beach and thought how beautiful this is, how peaceful even though the waves were pounding and dumping so close to the shore. I had not walked more than perhaps 30 metres along the beautiful Spit at Mooloolaba Beach and I looked down and came across this piece of shell. It is quite big, and my first reaction to seeing this part of what would have been a magnificent shell in its entirety was "This is exactly like Cajun Craze!" So I popped it into my pocket and bought it home with me. I forgot about if for a little while, and when I remembered it, I went to my card stock stash and grabbed a piece of Cajun Craze and photographed them. It is so so close in colour! I think now I have to put my thinking cap on to see what I can come up with, and still keep the beachy feeling. Keep tuned to see what I come up with. Thanks for reading even though it wasnt really stamp related.

A Little More on Watercolours

Good Morning!

I thought today that I woud talk a little more abour Watercolours.Many people are afraid of watercolours, simply because they do not understand them or their versatility. Watercolours allow you to present the most delicate and subtle colour to your work, but by the same token also allow bold and vibrant colouring. It also gives you so many new shades of a colour as well. As you can see in the photo on the left I have used Pear Pizazz, Pacific Point an Cajun Craze just to demonstrate to you the range of colours that are achievable with just one Classic Stampin Pad and the Aqua Painter. I have made 21, but there are so many more!The Aqua Painter is a very innovative type of watercolour brush. It holds the water or other fluid (e.g. Bleach) in the chamber that is also the handle of the brush. You have complete control as to how much or little water is released from the chamber and with a little practice you will learn to love the Aqua Painter as I do. At only $19.95 for a packet of two it is excellent value! When I stop and think that I was paying $70-80 for a single watercolour brush, I definitely wish I knew about Aqua Painters then!  When using the watercolouring technique, always ensure that your image is stamped using Stazon Ink. The colour will not bleed out of this ink as it would using a Classic Stampin' pad. Also remember that normal cardstock is ok to watercolour on, if it is only a small area. The best results will always be obtained using Watercolour Paper which is specifically designed to withstand water without warping or the surface becoming 'chaffed'.Over the next weeks I will post items on watercolouring and how you can use this wonderful technique to make the most of your stamp sets and your inks. I will also talk about watercolour washes and the difference they too can make to your projects.