Addicted to Stamping

Tool Time

This is one of those cards I made years ago and keep coming back to. I started out by casing a swap I received at convention with DSP and small flowers but somewhere along the way I switched to tools. Even after several years it's still one of the most popular cards at my stamp classes. It's pretty easy to make and the coloring goes quickly with Stampin' Blends. I also like that there's no waste. The drawers are made from the strip of card stock  that's cut from the card front.

Oops. It might be a good idea to color your hammer before you glue it in place

 

Serene Sea Birthday

Some of the papers in the Serene Scenery DSP stack take a lot of will power to cut into. This seaside print is one of my favorites and it took a while to convince myself to be brave and use it. I almost went fake by using a temporary adhesive on my elements so I could reuse the background for other layouts but I decided to go for it and use permanent adhesive. I'm glad I did. I like how this one turned out. I've got it sitting on my desk where I think I'll leave it for now as it's a nice reminder of summer.

The supplies for this card are all from Stampin' Up; Swirly Scribbles Thinlits, Rose Wonder and Picture Perfect Stamp Sets, Basic Pearls, Bermuda Bay, Crumb Cake and Soft Suede Classic Inks and Serene Scenery DSP Stack

ETA: I had several emails about the starfish. He is from the Picture Perfect stamp set which is a two step stamp. I stamped the first image in Crumb Cake Classic Ink on Very Vanilla card stock and stamped the second image over it using Soft Suede Ink. After I cut out the starfish I sponged the Soft Suede around the edges and went a little heavier on one side of each point to give the starfish more dimension  

Shadow Embossing

I made an "error" on a card a few posts ago and was anxious to repeat it. Originally I stamped in coloured classic ink... didn't like it... thought I could stamp the same image again in darker ink and line it up perfectly without a Stamp-a-ma-jig. WRONG. I was slightly off but I liked the effect so I tried it again on these two cards. I stamped the sentiment in classic ink then ran my embossing buddy over the area to make sure it was dry. I stamped the image again in versamark then embossed with gold embossing powder. On the masculine card I kept the shadow close so it barely shows and on the feminine card I exaggerated the shadow

Moon Lake

I still can't bring myself to pack away my retired sets. I have several that I barely had a chance to stamp with yet. Moon Lake is one of them. I was really hoping it would make it into the next catty.

I made two versions of this card. On the first one I used what I call the Never Again technique. I stamped the image and thought "wouldn't it look neat if I cut the word out and raised the card front?". After using a ton of dimentionals so the card front would have enough support it looked a little weird without the centres of the letters so I meticulously cut dimentionals to fit the cut out of the centre of each letter, manoeuvered them into place using my piercing tool and said "never again".

After giving the first version away (without taking a photo) I stamped another image in roughly the same spot as the first and attached the word I had cut out. Much simpler.

Fry Box Sailor Suit

I needed a boy's outfit to go with the Fry Box Dress. I cut a full fry box from Whisper White for the bottom layer of the card. For the card front (pants) I used the back and bottom only of the fry box and trimmed it along the scorelines. I cut a V in the card front to make them look like pants but not in the back piece. I snipped off the top tabs at an angle to shape the shoulders. The collar is made from the new Tree Punch that will be available in the holiday mini. I cut the tree in half, added the stripes and a knot made from the Real Red 1/4" Cotton Ribbon.

Punch Art Graduation

When I need a card for a special occasion and don't have a suitable stamp I usually head for my punches. I made this graduation card using the new Triangle Punch. I colored one of the Silver Mini Brads with a black sharpie, poked a hole in the centre of the cap and inserted the brad along with the tassel. The tassel is made from White Baker's Twine. If you don't know how to make a tassel scroll down and have a peek at the video tutorial

 

Ticket Sleeve

My Dad's birthday was yesterday. I asked my Daughter to pick up a bunch of lottery tickets to put in his card...what do you get a man who has almost everything and their birthday falls 3 weeks after Christmas? He likes the time consuming scratch kind so she picked out a variety to keep him busy for a while. I had my little handmade card all set go but the scratch tickets she brought home were HUGE.

I had a couple of the napkin holders left over from Stampin' Up's Thankful Tablescape Simply Created Kit. The napkin holder has a double scorline on the side to allow extra room for a napkin so on one I used the angled score line and the other I folded flat. As a result the flat holder fit nicely inside of the other holder to make a nice little pocket folder large enough to hold the tickets.  

Stamp Set Challenge Club

I've started a new club for my online customers called the Stamp Set Challenge Club. Club members pick the stamp set and challenge me to show them at least 4-6 different ways to use it. The first set the club members chose was Stampin' Up's Special Season which you can find on page 29 of the Holiday Catalogue

Anyone can join our Stamp Set Challenge Club and maybe you're favorite stamp set will be the next challenge

Here's how to join:

-If you live in Canada and place an online order with me for the featured stamp set I will email you the written instuctions for free. Each project has step by step written instuction with a full color photo of each project.

-If you live outside of Canada or already have a Stampin' Up demonstrator you can purchase the written instructions for $5 by clicking on the shopping cart below 

-If you're a demonstrator the written instructions can be printed and used to teach in-home classes.

The featured stamp set is Special Season (wood 131766 or Clear 131769)

To purchase the instuctions for the projects made with this set click here. The cost is $5 CAD

 

Dungeons and Dragons

This is another card I made for the Artisan Award contest. The dragon pops up above the castle when you pull on the door.

The dragon is one of the charactors from my Cute Critters punch art class and here are the instructions for the slider card

 

On the inside of the card I put a Confetti Flinger filled with matching punched pieces. Click on the link to find the video tutorial.

You Mean the World to Me

I joined an ATC (artist trading card) swap so I've been working on my samples. The ATC's look so lost without a card to go with them so I made a sample for myself and used it on a full size card. Here's my first one. It is for the embossing category. I did some dry embossing around the edge of the white layer with my diagonal score plate. I embossed the background with an embossing folder and I embossed my words with clear embossing powder then sponged colour on top.