Here’s a card I made today for my boys’ teacher. We’re coming to the end of 1st term here in Sydney so I thought I’d make a card to say ‘thanks’ for being a great teacher. Yes, I think it’s important to thank her – she’s been really great and is obviously very interested in the children in her class and dedicated to her job and trying to find the best way to teach the kids in her class.

Card Designed by Angela Sargeant – crappy photography also by Angela Sargeant

I only just noticed when I finished the card that I’ve actually not done any stamping on it! Strange as all my cards have some sort of stamping in them somewhere, even my collages on canvas have stamping. Anyway, very simple card (although the petals were time consuming). To make this card I used a Cuttlebug with the Tag Team Build a Flower templates/folders/whatever you call them with Stampin’ Up! Loves Me paper (the pink spotted paper). The Build a Flower comes with a die cut and embossing folder so I cut the petals out first – the scalloped petals that I’ve used on the base and the straight cut petals are on the same die cut so can be done at the same time. I then placed a scalloped petal into the embossing folder that has the scalloped edge with dots on it and rang that through the Cuttlebug (I did that for each petal). Then I placed the straight edged petal into the embossing folder which has the pattern in it that looks like script writing and ran that through the Cuttlebug – again did that for each petal. Each petal was assembled by adhering the straight edged petal onto the scalloped edge petal. The brown patterned paper is Au Chocolate by Stampin’ Up! and is about to be retired on 31st March. It’s actually Chocolate Chip colour with white dots but I coloured in each dot with a Certainly Celery marker – ah the beauty of having a marker which perfectly matches your cardstock! The petals were then adhered to the Au Chocolate paper and I made the flower centre simply by punching a circle from the Loves Me double-sided designer paper (also retiring 31st March) and mounted that in the centre with Stampin’ Dimensionals then also punched another circle a bit smaller from a different pattern and adhered that to the top. On the back of each corner of the paper I’ve simply adhered a square which I punched out from some Regal Rose cardstock (again, perfectly matches the colour of the petals) and layered the whole piece onto a folded piece of Certainly Celery cardstock. To finish I inserted a Regal Rose brad in each corner of the Au Chocolate paper. Easy peasy but fun and trendy looking (well I think anyway).

So here’s a list of products I used: (everything by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com except for Cuttlebug products)

Cuttlebug machine (Provocraft)
Build a Flower templates (Provocraft)
Certainly Celery cardstock
Certainly Celery marker
Au Chocolate double-sided designer series paper (only available until 31st March 2008!)
Loves Me double-sided designer series paper (only available until 31st March 2008!)
Rose Red brads
Stampin’ Dimensionals (double-sided foam dots)
SNAIL Adhesive
3/4″ Circle Punch
1/2″ Circle Punch
1 1/4″ Square Punch

Any questions? Drop me a line at angelasargeant@gmail.com

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As if it’s not bad enough that Stem Silhouettes is being retired, I also found out that French Flair is also going. Nooooooo!

Here’s quick card I whipped up this morning, it’s too bad you can’t see the glitter on the stems as it really is pretty with the glitter. Oh and the card really isn’t crooked like that… I just need some photography lessons .

Okay, so to make this card I simply stamped the stems from Stem Silhouettes twice using Sage Shadow ink onto Whisper White cardstock and then traced them with a glue pen and poured on the glitter. The excess glitter was poured back into the container and I dusted the card with a soft blush brush to tidy it up. I tore the side of the stamped card to give it some texture then mounted it onto some Sage Shadow cardstock. To make the base of the card I stamped the French Flair background using Brocade Blue ink onto a piece of A5 Brocade Blue cardstock which was folded in half. The stems were adhered to the base card and then I stamped ‘Bonjour’ (from Carte Postale) in Sage Shadow on some scrap white cardstock, punched it out using the small oval punch, adhered it to the back of a small Pewter oval bookplate (same size as the oval punch!) with some Crystal Effects and then attached it to the card with some matching brads.

To cover the backs of the brads from the inside of the card I made a card insert. I know not everyone makes card inserts but I think they finish off a card nicely. I do this very simply by cutting a piece of A4 photocopy paper in half then I trim it down so that it’s about 2mm shorter on the top, bottom and right hand side of the card then I adhere it to the inside of my card. In this case I also stamped the stem stamp inside the card insert with some Sage Shadow ink so that it matched the outside of the card. I’d love to know, do you do card inserts? Do you make them plain or stamp them to match the outside of the card? I must say that lots of times I don’t stamp them but when I’m not feeling lazy I like to add something simple on the inside, I think it gives the card a lovely finish.

Card design by Angela Sargeant.  All images copyright Stampin’ Up! 1990-2008
Here’s a list of the products I used: (all products available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com)
French Flair background stamp (retiring 31st March 2008)
Stem Silhouettes stamp set (retiring 31st March 2008)
Carte Postale stamp set (the ‘Bonjour’ stamp)
Brocade Blue inkpad
Brocade Blue cardstock
Sage Shadow inkpad
Sage Shadow cardstock
2-way glue pen
Dazzling Diamonds Glitter
Pewter Hodgepodge (oval bookplate and brads)
Crystal Effects

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I can’t believe Stem Silhouettes is being retired. That’s right, after 31st March 2008 there is no chance of being able to order this beautiful stamp set anymore. Thankfully I have mine as I love using it for Thank You cards, Sympathy cards, Birthday cards – anything really… I just change the colours and accessories to suit the occasion.

Strangely although I photographed this on a white background, the card isn’t showing up as well as it should. Anyway… very simple card using a method that lots of us don’t often use anymore and that is heat embossing. I started by stamping the branch stamp randomly over the silver cardstock with Versamark ink and then embossed in silver to give me that ’silver on silver’ look. Then I stamped the stems with Versamark onto white cardstock and heat embossed with silver embossing powder again, layered this onto some Elegant Eggplant cardstock and tied a length of silver cord around it. This was then layered onto the silver card with some Stampin’ Dimensionals (double-sided foam dots). The base card is regular A5 size Elegant Eggplant cardstock on which I stamped the greeting in Versamark and silver embossed. I then sponged some Elegant Eggplant ink around the whole base card and layered my embossed images onto it. That’s it… nice and simple.

Here’s what I used:

Elegant Eggplant cardstock
Brushed Silver cardstock
Whisper White cardstock
Versmark inkpad
Silver Embossing Powder
Silver Cord
Stem Silhouettes stamp set (fabulous stamped in all colours!!! bright, subtle, deep rich colours)
Heat Tool
All images copyright Stampin’ Up! 1990-2008. Card by Angela Sargeant. All products available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com. Stamps and silver cord available only until 31st March 2008 or until stocks run out, whichever is first.

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