I’ve been having a great time playing around with the new Stampin’ Up! Christmas patterned paper called “In Thyme”. Being so close to Christmas and not having made my Christmas cards as yet I decided to forget about making my cards ‘completely stamped’ and throw in some patterned paper as a background to speed up the process. Now I’m certainly not a frugal person by any stretch of the imagination – but I just couldn’t bring myself to throw out the scraps of patterned paper that I was left with after preparing some Christmas cards so I set to work to make a Christmas card using up my scraps. Well this is what I came up with:

Actually I’m quite thrilled with it because I think it’s turned out nicer than the card I started with which created the scrap pieces for this one. And as usual it looks so much nicer in real life.

To make this card I started with a folded piece of A5 Cranberry Crisp cardstock then layered some Very Vanilla cardstock on top leaving a little bit of a border. On top of the Very Vanilla cardstock I adhered four strips of left over In Thyme patterened paper. I then stamped the block of Christmas greetings from the Stampin’ Up! Glad Tidings stamp set in Old Olive ink on Very Vanilla cardstock and then layered it onto Old Olive cardstock and adhered that to the right hand side of the card. Next I cut a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock into a rectangle then punched out the corners with the Stampin’ Up! Corner Rounder punch. I then edged that with Old Olive ink by dragging the inkpad around it as it looked a bit stark leaving it plain. To add a bit of texture I also pierced holes around the perimeter of the cardstock by using the Paper Piercer and template from the Stampin’ Up! Tool Kit. On to this card I adhered a Christmas tree that I made – the Christmas tree is simply some patterned paper then I cut into a triangle (yes, freehand) and then layered onto some Old Olive cardstock and trimmed it to leave a bit of an Olive border. The trunk of the tree is again a scrap piece of paper. The tree was then adhered onto the Vanilla card and then tied some stitched Cranberry ribbon around the bottom of it. This whole piece was then attached to the card using Stampin’ Dimensionals to give it some height.

That’s it! Simple but I think it looks quite festive.

All images on this card are copyright to Stampin’ Up! 1990-2007 and designed by Angela Sargeant (that’s me). Note please that this card was inspired by a card in an old US magazine.

To order any of these products, please e-mail me on angelasargeant@gmail.com. Please note that the Stampin’ Up! In Thyme paper is limited edition and only available until December 15th 2007.

Here’s a quick list of products that I used: (all products by Stampin’ Up!)
In Thyme Patterned Paper
Glad Tidings stamp set
Cranberry Crisp cardstock
Very Vanilla cardstock
Old Olive cardstock
Old Olive ink pad
Stitched Cranberry ribbon
Tool Kit (to make the holes around the Vanilla cardstock)
Snail Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals (double-sided foam tape)
Paper Snips (scissors)

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So last time we spoke I was going to post some pictures on how to use the Stampin’ Up! Tab Punch to create cool brackets. I took the photos asap, finding the cable that goes from my camera to the computer was another story. Anyway, I’ve found it now – it’s plugged into the Mac and there it’s staying so I don’t lose it again.

Punching out a bracket is so simple. Just a few steps and you can punch it out in a variety of widths.

First use the Tab Punch to punch out a tab shape.

Here’s a picture of the negative space on the left and the punched out shape on the right.

Now put the piece of cardstock with the negative space back into the punch. Have the bottom of the punch facing you so that you can see what you’re doing and slide the cardstock so that the side of the negative space goes into the punch. In the picture below you can see it forms the shape of a ‘cartoon bat’.

Then you punch out that shape, snip off the excess bits on the sides with some small sharp scissors and you are left with the shape of a perfectly formed bracket as shown below.  Cool huh?

So that’s how I made the brackets in this card.

If you’d like any more information on using this fabulous Tab Punch or any other questions on punch art, cardmaking, scrapbooking or other paper crafts, please feel free to e-mail me on angelasargeant@gmail.com.  Of course comments on my blog are also much appreciated.

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I love making cards. And I especially love showing my cards to people who haven’t seen rubber stamping before. There’s always that pause then “did you really make that?” or “so is that printed?”. Sometimes people think that cards that are hand-crafted look a bit “home made’ (apparently there’s a difference) that is, that they’re not going to look as good as a Hallmark or store bought card. For me one of the most exciting things about rubber stamping is that not only you can make so many different things such as cards, scrapbooking layouts, boxes, gifts, etc., but that you can make the stamped items look so different each time depending on colours, techniques and other products used.  And yes, I do believe they can look professional.  So, just a little discussion topic there – please feel free to add your 2 cents worth in the comments section.
Here’s a card I made recently which can be used as a birthday card, anniversary card or even just an ‘I Love You’ card.

To make this card I stamped the swirl stamp from the Stampin’ Up! Scribble This stamp set (aka Doodle This) and stamped it randomly with white ink on a piece of folded Chocolate Chip cardstock. Then I cut some Mellow Moss cardstock into two strips – for the strip on the left I stamped the “Daily Notes” stamp four times in Mellow Moss across it and then edged it by dragging the Creamy Caramel inkpad around the sides to give it some definition. The thin strip on the right has been given some texture by piercing holes all the way down – to do this evenly I used the paper piercer from the Stampin’ Up! Toolkit along with the template that comes with the toolkit. Again, the strip has been edged with Creamy Caramel. These two strips of card were adhered to the stamped Chocolate Chip card using SNAIL adhesive.

The flower on the card is also stamped – this is the flower from the Office Accoutrement stamp set and was stamped with Cameo Coral ink onto Confetti White cardstock. The edges of the flower were then traced with some Crystal Effects which gives that raised shiny look. The inside of the flower is the same flower stamped again onto cardstock using Cameo Coral ink, then stamped over the top with Versamark (a clear inkpad) – I then poured Heat & Stick powder over the Versamarked flower, heated it up with the heat gun and poured Dazzling Diamonds Glitter over it while the Heat & Stick was still hot. One more blast with the heat gun sets the glitter nicely. The flower was then adhered to the first flower and then a clear button layered over the top. I used a Glue Dot to adhere the clear button which has stuck it down both securely and invisibly.

The memo section is the Memo stamp also from the Office Accoutrement stamp set only I trimmed it down so it’s a small (almost) square. This was stamped in Chocolate Chip ink onto Confetti White cardstock and then the edges were sponged with Creamy Caramel ink and a sponge dauber (my favourite tool for sponging). ‘Important Message’ was stamped in the middle with Ruby Red ink and then layered onto some Ruby Red cardstock then the whole thing mounted with some Stampin’ Dimensionals onto the card so that it stands up a bit. The brackets on the memo are actually punched out using the Round Tab Punch and then adhered to the card. Finally to finish the card I added a piece of Antique Brass Hodgepodge on which I tied two pieces of gingham ribbon.

Okay, my camera just ran out of batteries so I can’t upload photos of how I did the brackets, but I’ll recharge and take a photo tomorrow and post again.
In the meantime, here’s the comprehensive list of products used.

All images copyright Stampin’ Up! 1990-2007

Card designed by Angela Sargeant and all products available for purchase by e-mailing angelasargeant@gmail.com

Office Accoutrement Stamp Set
Scribble This Stamp Set
Chocolate Chip cardstock
Chocolate Chip inkpad
Mellow Moss cardstock
Mellow Moss inkpad
Confetti White cardstock
Ruby Red cardstock
Ruby Red inkpad
Whisper White Craft inkpad
Creamy Caramel inkpad
Cameo Coral inkpad
Versamark inkpad
Heat & Stick Powder
Heat Gun
Dazzling Diamonds Glitter
Clear Button
Glue Dots
SNAIL Adhesive
Crystal Effects
Tool Kit (paper piercer and template)
Antique Brass Hodgepodge
Green Gingham Ribbon
Caramel Gingham Ribbon
Sponge Dauber
Round Tab Punch
Of course if you have any questions on this card or any other questions on cardmaking, scrapbooking, or other papercrafts such as collage and altered arts then please feel free to e-mail me on angelasargeant@gmail.com

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I must say that when I joined Stampin’ Up! I really thought they would just be my supplier for craft items for me to sell. How wrong I was. It’s extremely rare to find a company like this but Stampin’ Up! are truly like a family.

You may recall that last month we lost our Australian General Manager, Dave Abbott, to a rare blood disease. This was made even more tragic by the fact that Dave was only 41 and left behind his wife and three very young children. Stampin’ Up! being the incredible company they are have just released the stamp set called ‘All In The Family’ in Australia in order to raise money for Dave’s family. 100% of the proceeds of the sale of this stamp set worldwide will be donated to Dave’s young family – not just the profits but 100% of the sale price worldwide…. now that’s a company with heart!

Now is the time to buy this extremely versatile stamp set. All In The Family is available from today, 1st November, to 30th November 2007 for $73.95 for 28 stamps in the set – however in order to help you out and to sell more sets for the Abbott Family, I will forfeit my commission and drop this price to $59.15 plus postage & handling. E-mail me now on angelasargeant@gmail.com to order.
Things to note: Yes, that is a photo of Dave and his family in the photo above. Here’s a handy link to a lady in the US who demonstrates using the All In The Family set with the Stamp-a-ma-jig (stamp position) – it’s a video tutorial and quite cool to watch: http://kwernerdesign.com/blog/ (currently the second post in the blog, dated 29th October).

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