I don’t know about you guys but I find making simple cards takes a lot of restraint because I keep wanting to add more and more things.  I started this card without any preconception of what I wanted to do, but after stamping the cupcake image and colouring it in I decided I wanted to keep the layout of the card very clean and simple.

The cupcake image is from the Stampin’ Up! stamp set called Crazy for Cupcakes and I stamped it in StazOn Jet Black then coloured it in using a blender pen and the ink from my Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette and Riding Hood Red inkpads.  The cupcake bases are Chocolate Chip just like the cake stand, only I coloured them in a lot lighter.  You can just see too a little bit of glaze has been added to the cherries to make them shine.  The main image has then been mounted onto Riding Hood Red cardstock which is then mounted onto Pink Pirouette cardstock using Stampin’ Dimensionals to make it stand out.  The Pink Pirouette base is textured cardstock which I then ran through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder.  Usually I use smooth cardstock through the Cuttlebug but I thought it would make a nice change to use textured cardstock. The base card is Chocolate Chip textured cardstock but for some reason I can never photograph it right and it always comes out looking a bit black.

Anyway, hope you like this very clean looking card.  No great technique but it was really fun to make

If you have any questions on the products I’ve used or would like to order any of the Stampin’ Up! stamps or accessories then please email me at angelasargeant@gmail.com

All products listed below are in the Stampin’ Up! catalogue unless otherwise specified:

Rubber Stamps:
Crazy for Cupcakes

Inkpads:
Jet Black StazOn
Chocolate Chip
Pink Pirouette
Riding Hood Red

Cardstock & Paper:
Chocolate Chip textured cardstock
Pink Pirouette textured cardstock
Riding Hood Red
Whisper White

Accessories:
Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon
Button Latte (white flower button)
Red Floss (by DMC)

Tools:
Cuttlebug (by Provocraft)
Swiss Dots Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (by Provocraft)

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive (for cardstock
Stampin’ Dimensionals (to pop the Riding Hood Red centrepiece up)
A bit of sticky tape on the back of the pink card to adhere the ribbon.

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Hey!  No rubber stamping!

Thought I’d give the little fat-head birdie chipboard a go and he really is sweet.  My daughter Jade thinks I shouldn’t have given him a ‘butt’ so maybe next time I’ll cut the patterned paper further in a bit.

I truly had fun making this card and it’s really gotten me excited about making more cards with just chipboard, rub-ons and other accessories.  I also think this little guy would look awesome on a scrapbooking layout – so tomorrow after I get my last piece of furniture in my craft room that will truly make my room tidy (cough cough) and functional, I might start doing some more scrapbooking and make some of these little birdies for a layout.

So.  To make this card I sponged on some Kiwi Kiss ink onto the chipboard bird’s tail, feet and beak then traced the body of the bird (leaving out the tail, beak and feet) onto some patterned paper then cut it out and used a glue stick to glue it on to the chipboard bird.  There’s a little extra piece of chipboard where his eye is so I just popped that out and stuck a green rhinestone brad in it’s place.  The border on the side of the card is rub-ons and that’s really all there is.  How funny though… I just realised I was going to pop a sentiment on the card but I must have gotten distracted and forgot.  Oh well.. next time.

Hope you like my ‘non-stamping’ card.  I’m off now to play with more of these fun products – I know, I know, it’s a hard life!

p.s.  Just an update.  I found out that it was the lovely (and obviously very talented) Hollie Thorne of Stampin’ Up! Australia (and who just happens to be on my Stampin’ Up! team, The Elite Stampers) who made me this gorgeous card.  Thank you Hollie from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to make me this amazing card.  This one’s goin’ straight to the pool room!

Rubber Stamps:
None. LOL

Inkpads:
Kiwi Kiss

Cardstock & Paper:
Basic Black
Riding Hood Red
Kiwi Kiss
Tangerine Tango
So Saffron
Haiku Designer Series Patterned Paper

Accessories:
Ice Circle Rhinestone Brads (green medium sized rhinestone brad)
Dress Up Ribbon Originals
Bright Delights Rub-ons

Tools:
Scalloped Edge Punch
Photo Corners Punch

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive (for cardstock
Stampin’ Dimensionals (to pop the Riding Hood Red centrepiece up)
Glue Stick (for gluing the patterned paper onto the chipboard)
Tombow Multi-Adhesive (to adhere the chipboard bird to the cardstock)

If you have any questions on this card or the products I’ve used then please feel free to email me at angelasargeant@gmail.com

p.s.  Just an update.  I found out that it was the lovely (and obviously very talented) Hollie Thorne of Stampin’ Up! Australia (and who just happens to be on my Stampin’ Up! team, The Elite Stampers) who made me this gorgeous card.

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They truly do.  I’ve worked for several very large and generous companies but none of them come even remotely close to comparing to Stampin’ Up! Australia.  Their generosity in time, resources, understanding, encouragement, praise and so many other rewards continues to blow me away.  Exhibit A:

This is the gorgeous flower arrangement I received by courier on Friday evening, sent to me by Stampin’ Up! Australia.  It was sent to me for being the first Australian demonstrator to promote to the position of Counsellor.  I was totally blown away by this gesture since I had already received a very generous cash bonus for promoting.  I was still lovingly admiring the flowers today when I received this card in the mail, again from Stampin’ Up! Australia.

Um, wow.  I don’t put this much effort into my cards, so I was deeply touched that Stampin’ Up! staff handmade me this gorgeous card.  There’s so much happening here with a spritzed background, distressed sentiment, embossed dots on the scallop background made by using a Crop-a-dile.  So many flowers and leaves stamped and hand-cut!  Dots of Crystal Effects to add shine and texture to parts of the flowers and even embossing with Heat & Stick Powder with Dazzling Diamonds to add sparkle – all tied up with a gorgeous ribbon.

(EDITED TO ADD:  just found out that the very sweet Hollie Thorne of Stampin’ Up! Australia and The Elite Stampers team made me this stunning card – thank you Hollie! I’m unbelievably appreciative of the amount of time you put in to this card)

I’m a bit choked up now so I’ll just finish up by saying how truly blessed and lucky I am to have found Stampin’ Up! and to have them as a part of my life.

Thank you Aaron, Amanda, Ana, Clare, Hollie and Jeanette – you guys are all truly amazing.  Oh, and you all rock!

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So what’s a nice girl like me doing with a skull and crossbones stamp?  Well with a tween daughter (yikes! that word scares the hell out of me), I was sure this stamp would get some good use.  Sure enough this week I was asked by my daughter to make a card using Stampin’ Up!’s ‘Just Jawing’ stamp set.   When making cards for this age group I figure it’s not my taste that counts, it’s whether the recipient will like it and judging by all the skull and crossbone stuff out there in teen shops I’m sure my daughter’s friend will like this card.

This theme was so out of my comfort zone that I actually stamped out some images and did a practice run of the card before stamping it properly.  So I stamped the skull and did a variety of things with it before I settled on what I’ve put on the finished card.  In having practiced with it I can see the potential to do quite a bit with it.  The background though came to me right away… I just stamped the star image repeatedly around the black cardstock using Versamark ink and then embossed it with clear embossing powder to give an interesting yet uncluttered background.  Not sure if you can see it well in the photo but the whole background shines with black stars.  To colour the chipboard star I just dabbed a sponge dauber into a Pink inkpad and then dabbed the colour onto the chipboard, it’s very quick to do and the chipboard ends up looking a little bit like suede which is a nice bonus.

Although I made this as a birthday card, my daughter assured me that “You Rock” would be great instead of “Happy Birthday” (but I’m sneaking a Happy Birthday stamp on the inside of the card!)

Anyway, hope I haven’t scared all of you off with this card, LOL, but I’m hope that some of you out there that have cards to make for tweens/teens will be inspired.  If you have teens and are interested in this stamp set then I’m happy to answer any questions for you or to help you get your own Just Jawing stamp set – just email me at angelasargeant@gmail.com.  By the way, you can make it into boy cards too by cutting circles instead of heart eyes or even adding googly eyes – now there’s a challenge for me next time!

Rubber Stamps:
Just Jawing Stamp set

Inkpads:
Versamark
StazOn Jet Black (although you don’t need StazOn, it’s the black inkpad of my choice)
Pink Passion

Cardstock & Paper:
Whisper White
Basic Black
Pink Passion

Accessories:
Chipboard Star
Dazzling Diamonds Glitter
Small Rhinestone (I used a rhinestone brad and just removed the rhinestone)
Clear Embossing Powder

Tools:
Sponge Dauber
Scallop Border Punch
Heat Gun
Anti-static pad (to prime the black cardstock before embossing)

Adhesives:
2-Way Glue Pen (to apply glitter)
Sticky Strip (to stick down the chipboard star)
Stampin’ Dimensionals (just under three of the bones so they sit nicely)
Crystal Effects (to glue down the rhinestone)
SNAIL (to layer cardstock)Can you tell I like to use lot of different adhesives?

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I swear I’m going to use this rubber stamp with ever technique imaginable.  So far I’ve used it with pastels, markers direct to rubber, one solid colour, glitter and there’s more to come.

This card started off with the main image and then grew from there.  If you’d like the instructions on how I stamped the main image then there’s step by step instructions with photos of another card using this same technique here.  The rest of the card is pretty simple but I thought the main image was striking enough to keep the base uncluttered.  At the last minute I decided to add the sentiment “for you” at the top.  Yes I had finished the whole card before I did that… enough to give most stampers a heart attack, but I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig stamp positioner to do that so I wouldn’t stuff-up the whole card when it was finished.

Hope you like my bright and cheery card.  If you’d like more information on this card or to purchase any of the Stampin’ Up! products I’ve here then please email me at angelasargeant@gmail.com

Here’s a list of the products I’ve used in this card:

Rubber Stamps:
Upsy Daisy (flower stamp)
Happy Everything (for you stamp)

Inkpads:
Versamark
Kiwi Kiss

Cardstock & Paper:
Whisper White
Kiwi Kiss
Red Riding Hood
Tangerine Tango
Urban Oasis (patterned paper)

Accessories:
Silver Brads
Red Riding Hood Taffeta Ribbon

Tools:
Paper Piercer (to make holes for the brads)
Stamp-a-ma-jig (to position the sentiment)

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I know it seems like I’ve been quiet but I have been doing quite a bit of creating, most of it preparing cards and other items for my future stamping classes.  But today I made a card for one of my new team members, and I’m pretty happy with the way it’s turned out.  This card is a bit different in that the top part has been folded over so the patterned paper you can see down the very bottom of the card is actually the inside of the card.  I just stuck down the folded part and also added a strip of the patterned paper slightly under it to add some interest and depth.  The pretty branch of flowers I’ve stamped is from the extremely popular Embrace Life stamp set by Stampin’ Up! and it’s been stamped with StazOn ink on white and then coloured using a blender pen and the ink from my Pink Pirouette inkpad.  Then the image was layered onto Pink Pirouette card and then mounted with Stampin’ Dimensionals onto some Kiwi Kiss cardstock.

I hope my new team member likes her card and the parcel of goodies I’m sending her way.  And for you? well I hope this card has given you some inspiration either in style or colour scheme to do some creating for yourself today.  If there’s anything that you’d like to know about this card, stamping in general or Stampin’ Up! then please email me at angelasargeant@gmail.com.

Products used to make this card are all in the Stampin’ Up! Idea Book & Catalogue and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com.

Rubber Stamps:
Embrace Life (flower stamp)
Happy Everything (for you stamp)

Inkpads:
Pink Pirouette
StazOn Jet Black
Baja Breeze
Kiwi Kiss (some tiny touches on the flowers)

Cardstock & Paper:
Baja Breeze
Pink Pirouette
Whisper White
Kiwi Kiss
Urban Garden (patterned paper)

Accessories:
Pink Pirouette Striped Ribbon
Styled Silver Hodgepodge

Tools:
Paper Piercer
Mat Pack Template (for making holes in the Kiwi Kiss cardstock)

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