Yep, that’s what I call him – “Fat Head Birdie”, it’s my affectionate pet name for him.

This card was made as a joint effort with my 11 year old daughter Jade.  As usual when I can’t make up my mind about a card, I look to Jade for advice.  Usually I’m like: “something’s missing but I’m not sure what” or “does this look weird?”.  Jade always comes through with ideas to help me finish my card.

So when I started this card I wanted to use that funky background paper but was worried it might be too heavy or overwhelming.. I think putting on a white background helps.  To get that shaped background, I cut my 12×12 patterned paper down to A4 size so that it would fit my printer, then I printed the template onto the back of the paper and cut it out.  Thanks to Stampin’ Up! for the printable template!  After I cut out the background paper I adhered it to the white cardstock and then using the fine end of my Chocolate Chip marker I made little dashes around it to emphasize the shape and so that it wouldn’t look flat/weird just stuck on the white cardstock.  This whole piece was then stuck down to a piece of Summer Sun cardstock.  The fat head birdie was stamped on white with Pacific Point ink and cut out then mounted with Dimensionals to make it pop up.  The birdie’s legs were also stamped then cut shorter than what they really are and glued so they sit just under the bird but flat onto the card.  Fat head birdie was stamped again onto some Kiwi Kiss cardstock and then I cut out only the wing and mounted it with Dimensionals.  Lastly his beak was stamped in Kiwi Kiss on white card, cut and mounted.  That brad down the bottom of the card is my first use of Stampin’ Up!’s Build a Brad kit and I LOVE IT!!!  So cool… I just punched out a flower from the same patterned paper as the background I used then adhered it to the pewter brad and added the clear dome to the top to make it look like a ready made brad… only difference is IT MATCHES!!!!

Hope you like my card… quite different to my usual style but it’s bright and fun and just what’s needed with this dreary weather we’re having in Sydney today.

Products used: (all products by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com)

Good Friends stamp set
Good Morning Sunshine Designer Series Patterned Paper
Pacific Point inkpad
Kiwi Kiss inkpad and matching cardstock
Whisper White cardstock
Summer Sun cardstock
Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon
Chocolate Chip marker
Build-a-Brad (Pewter)
1/2″ Circle Punch (perfect fit for the Build-a-Brad)
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals

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Something different today!  I recently bought the Sticky Cuts Letters and was very pleasantly surprised.  I thought they’d be like Jac paper (which I’ve used in the past and enjoyed) but it turns out they are made from the same stuff as Sticky Strip is made from which is a very strong adhesive.  So basically it’s two sheets of very sticky adhesive that’s cut into the whole alphabet plus a few extra things like the brackets and heart as shown in my card.  If you have an Australian Stampin’ Up! catalogue then you can see this on page 145 (if not, email me for your own copy).

So here’s the card I made

It’s too bad you can’t see how sparkly and yummy the chocolate glitter brackets are – I’ll try to take another photo in the morning when it’s not dark and overcast like it is now.  So what I did was to peel off the backing from the shapes I wanted then stick them down then peel off the top protective layer and pour over the glitter.  Here’s some tips for you if you’re going to use this product:

*  Pop out the whole shape from the sheet of Sticky Cuts

*  Peel off the white backing paper first then stick the shape down onto your cardstock, or whatever you are going to stick it onto (a candle, picture frame, glass, whatever)

*  Run your finger firmly over the whole shape and you’ll see the red protective cover on the Sticky Cut get a bit darker – this shows it’s really stuck down well.

*  Peel off the red protective cover then pour your glitter over the shape.

* Run your finger over the shape to press the glitter in (not essential but I do that).

* Funnel glitter back into it’s container then cust off any excess glitter off your card.  You might even want to use an anti-static pad first over the cardstock to help the excess glitter pour off the card easier.

So that’s all I did.  I stuck the shapes down and glittered them up.  First the chocolate brackets then the pink heart.  Layered the card onto some Chocolate Chip cardstock then Pink Pirouette cardstock.  Added the felt flowers and rhinestone brad.  That was then mounted onto the base card (with the patterned paper) using Stampin’ Dimensionals so the whole centrepiece pops off the page.  I didn’t bother with a sentiment for this card because I figured the heart said it all.

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

Letters Sticky Cuts
Supernova Glitter
Whisper White cardstock
Chocolate Chip cardstock
Pink Pirouette cardstock
Bella Rose Designer Series Paper
Flower Fusion Too (chocolate and pink felt flowers)
Clear Rhinestone brad
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals

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So what do you do when there’s dramas around you?  Amuse yourself of course.  And so I did, by making this card:

Okay, I admit it’s not an original sentiment, but neither is Happy Birthday, and it cracks me up so that’s good enough for me. LOL.  For those of you who haven’t read “Breaking Dawn”, my apologies, you just won’t get the joke.  But for all the Twilight fans out there who have read all the books, this one is dedicated to you!

Background to this card: One of my very kind and generous blog followers sent me a lovely card in the mail yesterday and it was so nice to get ‘fun mail’.  And not only did she send me a card (thank you Tegan!!!) but she also sent me a heap of stamped images.  So the feather image is one that Tegan sent me – I have no idea what brand the stamp is but talk about cooincidences…  I was thinking the other day how I wanted a feather stamp and now Tegan sent me this image!

I’m not sure what Tegan used to stamp the feather but it looks like a golden brown to me.  I coloured in the feather using a blender pen and inkpads.  I then sponged the edges of the card and mounted it onto another piece of cardstock on which I had stamped the script background.  The words “I’d rather be on Isle Esme” were typed on the computer, changed to brown then printed onto white cardstock, punched out with Stampin’ Up!’s Designer Label punch and adhered into a piece of Styled Silver Hodgepodge.  Notice that I snipped the end off the right side of the silver frame as I didn’t need/want the tab on that end.

Hope you like my card and for you Twilight fans out there I hope it’s given you a giggle.

Products used to make this card: (everything by Stampin’ Up! except the feather image)

Feather stamp (unknown brand)
En Francais background stamp
Close to Cocoa inkpad
Creamy Caramel inkpad
Bravo Burgundy inkpad
Baja Breeze cardstock (also Baja Breeze textured cardstock)
Close to Cocoa textured cardstock
Whisper White cardstock
Styled Silver Hodgepodge
Linen thread
Stampin’ Dimensionals
SNAIL Adhesive
Crystal Effects (to secure the sentiment to the inside of the silver frame)

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I’m here!  Didn’t think I’d make it today but I’ve got another card to share.

A simple layout but I really wanted the stamps to do the talking here.  The bird stamp is from a Stampin’ Up! stamp set called “Friends 24/7″ and I stamped it in grey for a bit of a change.  Okay, the inkpad is called Basic Gray (American spelling) but I have to say “grey” because ‘gray’ feels weird, LOL.  So the bird is stamped in grey and then coloured in using a blender pen and the ink off my inkpads.  You can probably just see the background stamping on the base of the card, I did that with Versamark to make it very subtle.  The blue stamping on the white cardstock is actually a wheel stamp and you’ll be seeing a lot more of that as it’s absolutely delightful to use.  Oh and if you’re wondering how I’ve made such a mess of my white cardstock, I’m pleased to say for I didn’t get any inky fingerprints on my cardstock today… the cardstock comes flecked.

So that’s my card for today.  I hope you all have a lovely weekend, it’s beautiful and sunny in Sydney today so I hope the weather holds out like this all weekend.

Hristos Anesti to all my Greek readers!  It’s Greek Easter this weekend so Happy Easter to you all.

Products used to make this card:

Friends 24/7 stamp set
Friendly Words Jumbo Wheel
Baja Breeze cardstock & inkpad
Kiwi Kiss cardstock & inkpad
Confetti White cardstock
Chocolate Chip inkpad
Basic Gray inkpad
Linen thread
Flower Fusion Too (pink flower)
Button Bouquet (green button)
Ice Circles Rhinestone Brads (tiny blue rhinestone brad – prongs inserted through button holes)
Blender Pen
Tearing Edge Ruler (yes, I’m tearing incompetent so I use a ruler to give me a torn look)

Don’t forget to email me if you have any questions!

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Lovin’ that Pocket Silhouettes stamp set!  At first I wondered if I’d find myself a bit limited by the small size of these stamps but I’m absolutely adoring how delicate they look.  We talked about thank you cards yesterday so I decided to make another thank you card today and here it is:

After I stamped the main image, I thought it would look nice framed in an oval shape – it kind of reminded me of a vintage brooch, so I punched it out using Stampin’ Up!’s wide oval punch then sponged the edges in gold ink and going with the brooch idea I gave the oval a 3D glassy effect by covering it with Versamark then giving it several layers of clear embossing.

The background on the green cardstock is another one of the little Pocket Silhouettes stamps that has been stamped across the top, upside down and in Versamark.  And that’s about it really, there’s some sponging around the edges of the whole card and a lacy border but the whole card is fairly basic.  In real life though it does look lovely.

Want to recreate this card?  Here’s a list of the products I’ve used:

(All products by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com)

Pocket Silhouettes stamp set
Ruby Red cardstock, marker and inkpad
Old Olive cardstock, marker and inkpad
Versamark inkpad
Gold Encore inkpad
Brushed Gold cardstock
Kraft Taffeta ribbon
Eyelet border punch
Wide Oval punch
Word Window punch
Sponge Daubers
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals

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Time to answer another reader’s question.

Last month the lovely Lynda asked me: Do you find you get ‘creative overload’ where you have sooooooooo many ideas flying found your head you can’t think straight?? I suffer it occasionally when I get a new toy….but i would like to know does it happen to the gals such as yourself??

Yep!  I sure do Lynda.  I look at new stamp sets especially and my brain goes into overload, it happens also with patterned paper, embellishments and tools but mainly stamp sets because of the potential in a group of stamps that coordinate.  What I try to do is to grab a notebook and write down any ideas I have.  So I might put down the stamp set name, then under it I’ll jot down some ideas – something like:

Upsy Daisy:

* clear embossed as a background
* Stamped in Versamark and chalked (chalk popping or poppin’ pastels)
* markers direct to rubber
* scalloped border
* distressed and in warm colours
etc.

That way I have some ideas to start with and I won’t worry about losing my train of thought.  That also helps if one day I’m feeling flat and uninspired, I can just look at my lists.  The great thing about this too as that you know you’re going to get value out of your products.  It’s probably a good idea to do this with anything new that you buy, that way you won’t use it once then forget about it.  Now I just know no one here does that (cough cough)

Thanks for your question Lynda!

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I was talking yesterday to one of my lovely on-line friends and we got to talking about how rare it is these days for people to send thank you cards.  I don’t know what happened to etiquette, did it become ‘old fashioned’ to show gratitude?  I’ve decided that although I do send out thank you cards that I should give out more of them.  I find especially non-stampers are always amazed to receive a handmade thank you card.  So here’s one I just made, although it doesn’t say ‘thank you’ – I decided to go with “friend to friend” it still works as a thank you card.

And now here’s my challenge for you all my dear readers, think of something that someone did for you recently that you are grateful for or maybe you are just thankful for someone’s friendship, make a card for them and mail it out tomorrow.  I guarantee you’ll feel good and you’ll bring a smile to your friend’s face.

Like my card?  It’s just simple rubber stamping in one colour and perfect as an elegant thank you card.  Here’s a list of products I used to make it: (All products by Stampin’ Up!)

Pocket Silhouettes stamp set
Chocolate Chip cardstock & inkpad
Sage Shadow cardstock & inkpad
Very Vanilla cardstock
Ribbon Originals – Valet
Sponge Dauber
Mat Pack and Paper Piercer (for the holes)
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals

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I’ve been moved to write up an information page on taking care of your rubber stamps due to the near heart attack I’ve suffered by seeing rubber stamps treated in all sorts of weird ways… especially in scrapbooking magazines.  Why are stamps stored in weird ways in Scrapbooking magazines? I’ve seen them shoved into jars and tossed into colanders to name a couple of stress-inducing examples.  So here’s a nice and easy “dos and don’ts” list, I hope it helps you to take care of your stamps so that they last you a lifetime.

Things you should do to look after your rubber stamps

*  Always clean your rubber stamps before storing away

*   Clean your stamps with a reputable rubber stamp cleaner.  I like to use Stampin’ Up!’s Stampin’ Scrub and Mist.  The Stampin’ Mist cleans and conditions your stamps, simply spray it on one side of the Stampin’ Scrub and then rub your rubber stamp over it.  After cleaning, dry your stamp by rubbing it on the dry side of the Stampin’ Scrub.

*   If you do not have a Stampin’ Scrub and Mist and cannot invest in one right away, then at the very least use an old washcloth.  Wet the washcloth and wring it out so that it is just damp and clean your stamps with it.

*  Store your rubber stamps flat or upright.  Stampin’ Up! rubber stamps come in clear storage boxes that are perfect for stacking.  If you do not have Stampin’ Up! stamps then I recommend that you keep them stored flat in shallow cardboard or plastic boxes, or drawers.  If you like to have your stamps on display then you can have them standing up on a shelf as you would any other ornament.

*  Store your stamps in room-temperature.

Things you should NOT do to your rubber stamps

•   Please please please do not use baby wipes to clean your rubber stamps.  I don’t know who started this idea but after years of listening to this wrong advice I have found my stamps that I was using baby wipes on for 5 years have become pale, dry and brittle.  It doesn’t matter whether the baby wipes you use are non-alcohol based or non-scented they still damage your stamps over time.

•   Do not wash your wood-mounted stamps under running water.  Washing your stamps under a tap will loosen the adhesive between the foam and wood and you risk your stamps falling off the wood.

•    Do not store your stamps in trendy but weird ways.  Storing your stamps in a colander, lolly-jar, wicker basket or any other way in which the stamps are pressing against each other or or pressing against metal, wood, etc.  This will leave dents in your rubber stamps which will then given you a gap in your stamped image.

•  Store your stamps away from direct sunlight to avoid them becoming brittle and cracked.

•   Microwaving your rubber stamps.  I ripped the rubber off about 20 of my wood-mounted stamps years ago and never again.  I know some people are happy to do this but I hated using my stamps unmounted.  If you really want to do this and need to loosen the adhesive in order to take the rubber off then microwave for only 5 seconds.  If the rubber isn’t coming off then try another 5 seconds.  Do not microwave your rubber stamps in 10 or more second blocks just in case the rubber melts.

I hope you have found this article informative.  If you would like any more information on this topic or anything else to do with rubber stamps or cardmaking please feel free to email me at angelasargeant@gmail.com

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I went into a bit of a cardmaking frenzy yesterday and made these 5 cards.  I used Stampin’ Up!’s Petal Pizzazz Simply Scrappin’ Kit and I think I’m kinda addicted because it’s fun to make a bunch of bright, crisp cards using items from just one kit (oh and a bit of ribbon & brads and one stamp, LOL).  Actually I’m thinking it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take one of these kits with me on holidays – the husband is always in fear that I’ll fill the whole boot of the car with stamping stuff when we go away but this I think I could sneak into my bag easily. 

So I know these cards all say “One of a Kind” but hey, the ladies I’m sending them to are one of a kind in their own special way.

Okay, well I’m itching to get back to it now and make a bunch more of these fun cards.  Have a wonderful Easter Sunday everyone and I hope you all get to do something fun today.

All products used by Stampin’ Up! (email me with any questions!):

Petal Pizzazz Simply Scrappin’ Kit
Styled Silver Hodgepodge (silver brads)
One of a Kind stamp set
So Saffron Striped Ribbon
Old Olive grosgrain Ribbon
Whisper White cardstock
Old Olive Cardstock
Old Olive inkpad
Stampin’ Dimensionals
SNAIL Adhesive

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Thought it was time to answer another question from one of my blog readers.  Last month I got an interesting question from Val, who asked:

When sitting down to make a card, to you select stamp set first, or colours to use first?

Great question Val!  If I’m doing a card to give to someone I’ll start with the stamps because I want to match up the image with the occasion.  For example, with the recent birthday cards I made for my sons, I picked the stamp images that I thought suited their personalities.  After I pick the stamp I try to choose colours that will match the mood of the card.  However, if I’ve just bought some new patterned paper and I’m very excited to use it, then I’ll pick the matching colour cardstock to go with the papers then pick stamps that I think will suit.

Recently I was commissioned by a magazine to make a heap of cards – their request was for ‘flowers in summer colours’ – in this case I started with the colours (Red, pink, orange) and then picked stamps that I felt would suit that funky colour combination.  The stamps I picked were  Stampin’ Up!’s Eastern Blooms – not something I’d immediately pick bright colours for but thought that I could give the stamps a really different look using those colours.  If you’d like to see the end result they will be published in Issue 18 of Creative Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine, on sale 22nd May 2009.

Thanks again for your question Val.  Actually, I’d like to ask that question of all my readers… what do you start your card with first, rubber stamp or colours?

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