Well nothing like an upcoming tradeshow to get the creative juices flowing… i.e. yikes! I don’t have enough samples to put up on the walls! <blush>  So this is what I came up with yesterday.

I think depending on the colours you choose, you could make this card for a variety of occassions.  Or you could keep the colours as is but change the sentiment to something more appropriate to make it into a sympathy card.

To make this card I stamped the main image in StazOn on watercolour paper then coloured in using watercolour crayons and an aquapainter.  The aquapainter has been a lifesaver for me… no more drinking inky water or dipping my paintbrush into tea!

The main image was then layered twice with SNAIL then with Stampin’ Dimensionals.  The word “bloom” was stamped with white ink… love the way it stamps so fine and clear.   the Very Vanilla card on the left was stamped with the En Francais background stamp using Always Artichoke ink and then I sponged the edges of the card with the same ink.  The Creamy Caramel cardstock on the bottom of the card was stamped with the Linen background stamp using Close to Cocoa ink and then sponged around the edges with the same ink.

Final touches to the card are three ivory pearls and I also used the template, soft mat and paper piercer from the Crafter’s Tool Kit to pierce holes around the right hand-side of the card.

Here’s the list of products I’ve used to make this card:

Bloomin’ With Beauty stamp set
Linen background stamp
En Francais background stamp
Watercolour Paper
StazOn inkpad – Jet Black
Whisper White Craft Inkpad
Sahara Sand marker
Very Vanilla cardstock
Elegant Eggplant cardstock
Elegant Eggplant watercolour crayon
Always Artichoke cardstock
Always Artichoke watercolour crayon
Always Artichoke inkpad
Creamy Caramel cardstock
Close to Cocoa inkpad
Close to Cocoa watercolour crayon
Sponge Dauber
3 small flat-backed ivory pearls (Pretties Kit)
Crafter’s Tool Kit (to make the holes around the right hand side of the card)
SNAIL Adhesive
Glue Dots
Stampin’ Dimensionals

If you have any questions about this card or would like to purchase any of these products then please feel free to email me on angelasargeant@gmail.com.  Of course I always enjoy reading your comments.

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I just love the elegance of Wild Wasabi matched with Soft Sky.  I’ve been using Wild Wasabi a lot in my Christmas cards and now working on the colours in the Spring Silhouette paper (the three panels in my card), I’ve created this card today which pleases my senses as it’s simple enough in design and colour combination not to be fussy but still not overly plain.

There’s no techniques used in this card so there’s really not much to explain, I just stamped the bird and lightly coloured the swirls and flowers in the bird using a blender pen and Soft Sky inkpad.  The rest is simply cutting and layering.

Here’s a list of products that I’ve used, but if you’d like more information on the card then please feel free to email me at angelasargeant@gmail.com.

(All products by Stampin’ Up! and available through me)

Always stamp set (yikes! can only order this until the end of November and then who knows if it’ll retire permanently)
Spring Silhouette Designer Series Papers
Wild Wasabi cardstock
Wild Wasabi inkpad
Soft Sky cardstock
Soft Sky inkpad
Soft Sky Double-Stitched Ribbon
Whisper White cardstock
Pretties Kit (4 small clear rhinestone brads)
Stampin’ Dimensionals
SNAIL Adhesive

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Masculine birthday card – the three words that often sends cardmakers into a frenzy of “OMG all I have is flower stamps”.  Well I managed to make a birthday card for my dear long-suffering husband that I think is masculine without being overly ‘brown’.  The hubby is extremely supportive of my hobby and business so I hope he likes my card.

Here’s some simple instructions if you’d like to also make this card.

1.  Adhere a piece of striped patterned paper to some Sage cardstock

2.  Using a template and paper piercer, make holes around the top part of the Sage cardstock

3.  Attach some twill where the paper and cardstock meet.  Thread the twill through a piece of Pewter Hodgepodge and secure the ends with pewter brads as shown in the photo.

4.  Stamp the birthday sentiment in Chocolate Chip ink on Very Vanilla cardstock, punch with a large oval punch then chalk around the edges.

5.  Mount the sentiment with Stampin’ Dimensionals to give some ‘pop’.

6.  Stamp the three stars in chocolate chip ink on Very Vanilla cardstock and punch out using a small star punch (note, the Stampin’ Up! star punch matches perfectly with the stamps).

7.  Chalk the edges of the stars with chocolate chip chalk and mount using Stampin’ Dimensionals.

8.  Mount the whole piece onto an A5 folded Chocolate Chip card using Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Here’s a list of the products I used: (all products by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com)

Wanted stamp set (stars)
Sincere Salutations (Birthday greeting)
Chocolate Chip cardstock
Chocolate Chip inkpad
Outlaw Designer Series Paper (stripy paper)
Sage Shadow cardstock
Very Vanilla cardstock
Stampin’ Pastels (chalks)
Sponge Dauber (to apply the Pastels)
Twill
Pewter Hodgepodge (metal embellishments)
Crafter’s Tool Kit (Template, soft mat and paper piercer to make holes)
Stampin’ Dimensionals

If you’d like some more ideas on what you can use to make masculine cards just click here for a heap of great ideas:  Masculine card ideas.

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The first time I looked through a Stampin’ Up! catalogue it was this stamp that grabbed me.  Okay, I was desperate for this stamp set.  And so I got it… and… well you know the rest – being a typical stamper I got greedy and was then on to looking for my next acquisition.  So I’ve dragged out out again and this is what I made this morning.

So what made me pull out my Heartfelt Thanks stamp set after so long?  Well after much complaining to my daughter about the lack of space for me to stamp in my stamping room (yes ‘lack of space’ in a room dedicated to stamping)… she suggested that I use the table I have in here on which I dump stuff on rather than trying to create on my office desk.  Genius!  So after a bit of shifting things around I have my new stamping space.  Now my stamps are to my right hand-side rather than left, so looking at my stamps from a different angle I’m looking at things differently.  Kind of like when you walk up and down the supermarket aisles the same way week after week then one day you change direction and all of a sudden there’s all these new products!

This card uses 2-step stamping.  I very lightly spritzed the solid rubber stamp with some water then coloured in the petals with Ruby Red watercolour crayon and the stem and leaves with Almost Artichoke crayon then lightly spritzed it again and stamped onto watercolour paper.  I then overstamped my watercolour image with the outline rubber stamp using StazOn ink.  The base of the watercolour paper has three rows of holes made with a paper piercer and template.  This is then layered onto some Almost Artichoke cardstock then Very Vanilla cardstock.  The base of the card is More Mustard and then layered onto that (with Stampin’ Dimensionals) is Ruby Red cardstock and Holiday Harmony Designer Series paper.

Here’s a list of products I’ve used: (all products by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com)

Heartfelt Thanks stamp set
Ruby Red cardstock
Ruby Red watercolour crayon
More Mustard cardstock
More Mustard watercolour crayon
Almost Artichoke cardstock
Almost Artichoke watercolour crayon
Holiday Harmony Designer Series Paper (thanks for reminding me Kristie!)
StazOn inkpad (Jet black)
Watercolour paper
Mellow Moss Taffeta Ribbon
Kraft Taffeta Ribbon
Pretties Kit (3 small ivory flat-backed pearls)
SNAIL Adhesive
Glue Dots (for the pearls)
Stampin’ Dimensionals (to life the whole centerpiece and the Ruby Red onto the More Mustard base)

So I hope this card inspires you to pull out an old favourite stamp that’s been long neglected.

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Doesn’t this birthday card make you want to just run out there and overload on sugar?  Or maybe that’s just me. LOL.

I’m really happy with the way this card turned out, mainly because I don’t do ‘cute images’ and the ‘clean uncluttered’ look that well but I think this card has the right amount of cheerfulness with a touch of elegance to make me happy.  Okay, I better get this out of the way now… I know that the piercing I did at the bottom of the card isn’t completely straight but that’s what you get when you are talking with kids while trying to make straight rows.

So why the birthday card?  Well my 8 year old son is going to a little girl’s birthday party soon so I thought I’d make the card now since I know at the last minute he’ll say “awww mum, can’t you make it????”.

And guess what?  It also happens to be Stampin’ Up!’s 20th Birthday   And guess what else?  We get the presents!  Yippee!  So just for this birthday month, Stampin’ Up! is giving 20% off 5 selected stamp sets with any $20 purchase.  See the bottom of this post for more details.

Okay back to the card.  This was so simple to make… I just stamped the cupcake base in Certainly Celery on Whisper White cardstock and cut it out then stamped the icing in Pretty In Pink first on some scrap paper to remove some of the ink then without reinking I stamped it onto Whisper White cardstock (this is called Stamping Off).  To get the dots on the icing, I stamped the dot stamp in Pretty in Pink over the icing then cut it all out.  Of course a birthday card for a little girl cannot go without glitter, so I used my 2-way Glue Pen to add a bit of glue on the dots then sprinkled with glitter on the top.  The embellishment at the top is “Happy Birthday” stamped in Certainly Celery then punched out with an oval punch and adhered to the back of the Silver bookplate.  I then tied some pink organza ribbon through the holes of the bookplate and secured them to the back of the white cardstock.  The strip down the bottom with the slightly wonky holes was made by using a paper piercing template and a paper piercer.  (I promise, I usually do these straight!)

Hope you like my card.  If you have any quesitons or would like to purchase any of the products I’ve used then please feel free to email me on angelasargeant@gmail.com.

Here’s a list of products I’ve used:

Certainly Celery Textured Cardstock
Certainly Celery Inkpad
Pretty In Pink cardstock
Pretty In Pink inkpad
Pretty In Pink organza ribbon
Styled Silver bookplate (Hodgepodge)
Crafter’s Tool Kit (for the mat pack and paper piercer – although the mat pack and be bought separately)
SNAIL Adhesive
2-Way Glue Pen
Stampin’ Dimensionals (to make the cupcake pop up)
Dazzing Diamonds Glitter.

Okay, so here are the stamps that are available for 20% off for this month only (1st October to 31st October 2008).  Call me if you have any questions!

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