No challenges

I have made several cards, one for an 80th birthday and one using some new SU materials - and I have a photo of several visitors to our winter garden.  They were happily making a big mess! They pick off a bunch of berries from the Cottoneasta, and then nibble out the seed inside, and spit the pith all over the steps! So very refined - not! This is taken through a window, as they tend to fly away when I go outside - this is just two of the half dozen parrots working away.

ED: I have discovered these are Eastern Blue Cheeked Parrots, found in the Murrimbidge/Darling River area - a long, long way away from here! Interesting. 

The first card is for the mother of my SIL, who turned 80 yesterday. She has a good sense of humour, so I thought she wouldn't mind this - also she is not a flowery person.

The image and sentiments are from a "My Favourite Things" set called My Type, which comes with a Die-namics die , allowing me to cut out the typewriter and the paper. The background paper is from a Daisy and Dandelion pack mounted on SU Regal Rose, the ink used is Momento Potter's Clay, and the doily, papers and cards have all been swiped with Antique Linen ink.  The ribbon trim is from Webster's Pages. The card is a commercial blank.  I distressed the papers also. Inside looked like this:

The numbers are from a K&C Co. set.  The second card (using all SU products unless indicated) used some embossed Whisper White (Swirls) and some Daffodil Delight embossed with the Happy Birthday folder. The card blank is a commercial one and the white background is swiped with Pacific Point ink.  I then cut out two frames, one in WW and one is Melon Mambo, and stamped the white one with Hello Blossoms - I inked the stamp with the Markers first, and then stuck on the Ice Cream Parlour buttons.  I finish off with the Ice Cream Parlour ribbon strip.  These last two items are a freebie from SU at the moment, 

From 1-31 July, you and your customers can get an exclusive bundle of adorable ribbon and buttons for FREE when you spend $100 on Stampin' Up! products!

So if you like them and have an order, just contact me!

Stamp Camp Afternoon

Yesterday it was hot and overcast so the best place to be was indoors in airconditioning at Lynda's place with Lynda and Claire the InkiDivas, doing a Stamp Camp.  It was advertised that we would make 12 cards in 4 hours - mmm, well I knew that wasn't going to happen for me, I take too long to make a card, but I did make enough of 12 cards to be able to finish them off at home today in an hour. So, 12 cards in 4 hours plus chat, eating, cups of coffee making......not too bad!  The ideas are not mine, and the stamps, punches and inks were not mine, and some stuff had been already cut out for us (ie the paper strips, squares and circles and bits of ribbon, twine) as well as the card blanks....yes, yes, I know - add another couple of hours to the making.....look, I was feeling good about the industry before you started! Anyway, here they are - I think they look fine!

We started on station one making these girly cards and stamped the same image onto Whisper White circles with StazOn Black, using the Stamp-a-Jig from SU. The circles had been cut using Nestabilities. We coloured them in using watercolouring pens and SU's watercolour pastels. They are quite subtle. Next was stamping small cupcakes in a random pattern across the base card.  Now, random is a difficulty for me - it worries me while I do it and never looks that good when I finish - however, I got over that and proceded to layer up the various pieces of DP and card - the colour combinations are not my choice but I love them, particularly the green and turquoise cards. When I got them home I finished off the two cards I had not put together, put an inset in, and then used Dimentional Magic on 2 cards on the icing and some glitter pens and glitter on the 3rd.  You see if you can work out which is which!

Oh, yes inked edges and Lynda kindly poked holes into two circles for me as I was running out of time at that stage on that station.

Next station was a boy card and we made stars.  Sorry, the photo is a bit blurred. Again the pieces of card had been cut out for us, except for the stars, and that was demonstated to us first, using two different size star punches. Then we stamped onto the canvas tape and onto the background card.  The backgound was the large Sanded stamp. We cut out the nitches on the bottom card, using another punch and placed the twine pieces across these, tying them together with a third piece; and then assembled the whole using various DPs, combining the outline stars with solid stars and putting them on where we thought they looked the best!

More stars - white card strip, punched with star punch and then layers of ribbon place over the aperture with tape on the reverse side.  This is a good way to use up ribbon scraps, I thought to myself. Stamped the sentiment (or, if you are me, don't until it is all assembled and you realise this is not going to be easy!) and used the markers to draw faux stitching around the star shape and edge of white. Layer up and it was done. The white top is layered with dimentionals to lift it up slightly.  I didn't complete the third one until I got home, and I used a rub-on instead of the stamped sentiment on that for a bit of variety.  I also stamped a star inside each card on an insert piece to complete it.

The last set used the new stamp set, Butterfly Prints in the summer Mini catelogue and the butterfly punch. Also used circle punches and after working out that I had to use different size circles to punch out my DP and another in card for the centre circle (I actually punched out six more circles of the larger size before I realise my error - sorry Claire) we used a background stamp polkadots to create a background on the card. Next was to stamp the butterfly onto vellum, and punch that out along with a matching butterfly from card to back the vellum one. Construct the butterfly using a brad to join them, and a dimentional pad to lift it on the circle. Stamp a sentiment and then distress the strip before adding it to the background card; assemble the circles, and add to the strip along with the butterfly in the middle.  At home I also added an insert paper of creamy white. Pretty.