Well I was planning on having a lazy Saturday with lots of cardmaking but I ended up spending the day cleaning, and it wasn’t the fun cleaning of the craft room!  But I do have a quick and easy birthday card to share with you today.

The butterfly on the card is die cut using the Big Shot and a butterfly die and then it has been run through the Big Shot again with an Embossing Folder to dry emboss it.  When I’m doing something like this, I throw in a few pieces of cardstock at once to cut out mutliple butterflies that way I have a few spares to make some extra cards quickly next time I’m crafting.

So that’s it for me today.  I hope you get some crafting time in this weekend!

If you have any questions about the card or products I’ve used, or if you wish to purchase any Stampin’ Up! products, please feel free to email me.

And here’s a list of Stampin’ Up! products that I used to create this card:

Rubber Stamps:
Perfect Punches

Cardstock & Paper:
Baja Breeze textured cardstock
Very Vanilla cardstock
Beau Chateau Designer Series Patterned Paper

Inkpads/Markers/Paint:
Baja Breeze inkpad

Tools:
Big Shot
Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder
Beautiful Butterflies Die
Wide Oval Punch

Accessories:
Baja Breeze Seam Binding
Basic Jewels

Adhesives:
SNAIL
Stampin’ Dimensionals (foam dots)

I have a confession to make   When I make a card for someone who’s not in the ‘card world’, I like to use heat embossing.  I remember when I first saw gold embossing and I was blown away that could be done by just anyone – not just Hallmark!  So now, I like to use gold embossing for non-stampers just so that I look extra clever, LOL.

It’s my Aunty’s birthday tomorrow and I wanted to make her a card that reflected her tastes.  The colours, the vintage style and images of fountain pens I think suits her perfectly.  It’s lovely to be able to dig through your stash of craft supplies and be able to find those bits and pieces that make a card individual for the person you’re making it for.

For this card I started with the patterned paper.  I thought the images on it were perfect so that was the starting point and theme for me.  The birthday greeting was heat embossed in gold and I’ll give you a little tip for when you’re wanting to heat emboss inside a frame.  I’ve tried this a few different ways and what I found the fastest and easiest way is to do your stamping and heat embossing first then do the dry embossing and die-cutting.  That way you don’t have to worry about stamping your greeting crooked.  To do this, I stamped the “Birthday Wishes” greeting with Versamark onto some Very Vanilla cardstock and dipped it into my gold embossing powder.  I like to keep my embossing powder in large plastic containers so that I can dip the whole cardstock in – it’s less mess than pouring your powder onto your image.  So, after your embossing powder is on, you use your heat gun to melt and emboss.  I then applied some Dotto (repositionable adhesive) on the back of the cardstock and placed it inside my embossing folder so that I could see the greeting nice and centred in the oval.  The Dotto kept my cardstock in place so it didn’t shift around when putting it through the Big Shot.  Once the oval was embossed I then die-cut around the oval with a Stampin’ Up! Framelit.  Sounds time consuming but it really only took minutes.

Some seam binding ribbon and a vintage brad finished off my card and kept to the whole ‘soft vintage’ theme I was going for.

Don’t forget, this gorgeous paper I’ve used is retiring in just over a week.  I’ve ordered myself 2 extra packs because I love it so much.

If you have any questions about the card or products I’ve used, or if you wish to purchase any Stampin’ Up! products, please feel free to email me.

And here’s a list of Stampin’ Up! products that I used to create this card:

Rubber Stamps:
Sincere Salutations

Cardstock & Paper:
Very Vanilla cardstock
Attic Boutique Designer Series Paper (retiring on 31st August 2012!)
Poppy Parade cardstock
Soft Suede Textured cardstock

Inkpads/Markers/Paint:
Versamark inkpad

Tools:
Heat Gun
Big Shot
Designer Frames Embossing Folder (two in the pack, I used the oval one)
Labels Collection Framelits Dies

Accessories:
Gold Embossing Powder
Very Vanilla Seam Binding
Antique Brads

Adhesives:
SNAIL
Stampin’ Dimensionals (foam dots)

I got busy today doing a bit of cleaning around the house so this afternoon I treated myself to a bit of cardmaking.  Unfortunately the cleaning didn’t extend itself to my craft desk and after a week of creating it’s looking, well… creative!

Today’s card is one that I think you could change the greeting so that it could go for a variety of occasions, it could be a birthday card, get well card, thank you card, thinking of you, or whatever else.

To make this card I started with a base of Pink Pirouette cardstock and I cut it so that when I fold it, it opens from the bottom.  I find that makes it easier when I’m using ribbon to be able to adhere the ribbon ends to the inside of the front of the card.  After I finish the card I simply cover the inside with some paper to hide the ribbon ends.  To the top of the card I adhered some patterned paper and then punched out two strips of card with the Scallop Trim Border Punch.  The scallop borders are done in Melon Mambo (hot pink) and Pretty in Pink.  The seam where the Melon Mambo border and patterned paper meet is covered with the ribbon.

The hot pink doily is actually from some patterned paper I have which is laser cut so that the whole 12 x 12 sheet is doilies.  I simply snipped off one of the doilies and used that as my main image with a pink rhinestone brad in the middle to finish it off.

So there’s today’s card.  I’m quite pleased with the way it turned out but then again I do enjoy making monochromatic cards.

If you have any questions about how I made this card or wish to purchase any Stampin’ Up! products, please feel free to email me.

And here’s a list of Stampin’ Up! products that I used to create this card:

Rubber Stamps:
Style Beautiful

Cardstock & Paper:
Pink Pirouette cardstock
Melon Mambo cardstock
Pretty In Pink cardstock
Flirtatious Specialty Paper (background patterned paper and doily)

Inkpads/Markers/Paint:
Melon Mambo inkpad

Tools:
Scallop Trim Border Punch

Accessories:
Pretty in Pink Taffeta Ribbon
Circle Fire Brads
Basic Pearls

Adhesives:
SNAIL adhesive

I decided today to start my card off by using a card sketch.  Usually I just mess around with whatever bits and pieces of cardstock and paper I have until I think the card looks right but this time I drew up a sketch to work from.  Here’s the sketch that I drew and then below is the card I made from it.

Since my craft desk was already a mess with patterned paper, markers and brads from yesterday’s card, I decided to use those pieces that I had there before I packed it all away.  So here’s another ice cream birthday card:

This time I made the ice cream a double scoop!  You could make it triple or as many scoops as you want   I’m not overly fond of Calypso Coral as a colour (actually it’s just a thing about the coral colour in general), but I think on the ice cream with the Pool Party colour it kinda looks like strawberry & pistachio. mmmm

The ice cream was stamped by colouring the rubber with markers as I did with my last ice cream birthday card.  This time though I stamped the ice cream part again using a different colour and then cut out the ice cream cone and extra scoop and mounted them onto white cardstock with dimensionals (foam dots).

The trim on the right of the card is just a strip of Calypso Coral cardstock that I scored some lines on with my Stampin’ Up! Simply Score Board and then punched a scallop trim border on one side.  I used more of that fun Sweet Shop patterned paper to add to the ‘sweet’ theme along with those yummy Jelly Bean brads.

The Happy Birthday greeting was stamped in Soft Suede ink and then I punched it out with the Curly Label Punch.  Actually I kinda made a mistake and punched it out length ways rather than horizontal but it turned out to be a good mistake as when I punched out some Calypso Coral cardstock to see if I could do a bit of a border, I found that it worked really well.  Here’s how to do it:

Punch out the greeting vertically and punch out two extra shapes in coloured cardstock and snip the top and bottom off the second shape.

Glue the coloured cardstock horizontally under the greeting.  Then glue the extra pieces to the top and bottom of the back of the greeting.

Just a heads-up that the patterned paper and brads is retiring in two weeks on the 31st of July 2012 – so if you’d like some grab it now!

If you have any questions about how I made this card or wish to purchase any Stampin’ Up! products, please feel free to email me.

And here’s a list of Stampin’ Up! products that I used to create this card:

Rubber Stamps:
Mouthwatering
Petite Pairs (birthday greeting)

Cardstock & Paper:
Pool Party cardstock
Whisper White cardstock
Calypso Coral cardstock
Soft Suede Textured cardstock
Sweet Shop Designer Series Paper

Inkpads/Markers/Paint:
Soft Suede inkpad
Soft Suede marker
Pool Party marker
Calypso Coral marker

Tools:
Simply Scored Scoring Tool
Curly Label Punch
Scallop Trim Border Punch

Accessories:
Jelly Bean Brads
Calypso Coral Bakers Twine

Adhesives:
SNAIL adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals (foam dots)

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

Here’s a move away from the usual flowers and butterflies on birthday cards (yes, my regular blog readers breathe a sign of relief).  How fun is this birthday card? I think the ice cream and sundaes would be great for a  birthday card of all ages.

The main image was done with the ‘direct to rubber’ technique which is simply to colour directly onto the rubber stamp with markers then stamp onto the cardstock.  This gives the mutli-colour image.  The background was created with the Diagonal Plate which is an accessory to Stampin’ Up!’s Score Board – some quick diagonal scoring was done to go with the waffle cone on the ice cream.

If you do like the patterned paper and Jelly Bean brads I’ve used here then you’ll want to hurry and order these as they’re going to be retiring in just over 2 weeks on the 31st of July 2012.

If you have any questions about how I made this card or wish to purchase any Stampin’ Up! products, please feel free to email me.

And here’s a list of Stampin’ Up! products that I used to create this card:

Rubber Stamps:
Mouthwatering
Crazy for Cupcakes (birthday greeting)

Cardstock & Paper:
Pool Party cardstock
Whisper White cardstock
Lucky Limeade cardstock
Sweet Shop Designer Series Paper

Inkpads/Markers/Paint:
Soft Suede marker
Pool Party marker
Calypso Coral marker
Lucky Limeade marker

Tools:
Simply Scored Scoring Tool with Diagonal Board attachment
Modern Label Punch
Large Oval Punch

Accessories:
Jelly Bean Brads
Basic Jewels

Adhesives:
SNAIL adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals (foam dots)

I was flicking through the Stampin’ Up! catalogue today and once again I surprised myself by things that I’ve missed.  I don’t know how – I must go through that catalogue a dozen times a day but nearly a year later I’m still finding inspiration.  Today I thought it might be fun to copy a card from the catalogue and this is the card I made.  It’s a copy of the one on page 38 of the Australian Stampin’ Up! Idea Book & Catalogue.

There’s a couple of very slight colour changes as I used what I had but other than that the card is the same.

The base of the card is embossed using the Big Shot and the Square Lattice Embossing Folder.  I’m always impressed with this embossing folder as it’s one that I use often for men’s cards as it goes well with masculine colours and images but then it still seems to work really well with this bright and fun birthday card.

The ‘Happy Birthday’ greeting was stamped in Black Stazon ink and then coloured in using my inkpads and a blender pen.

I really enjoyed making this card so I’ll definitely be copying some more from the catalogue when I’m a little stuck for ideas or looking for something different.  If you’d like one of these 2011-2012 Idea Book & Catalogues then let me know and I’ll send you one (Australia only).  This catalogue will only be current until 31st of August and then the new 2012-2013 Stampin’ Up! catalogue will be released on 1st September.

If you have any questions about how I made this card or wish to purchase any Stampin’ Up! products, please feel free to email me.

And here’s a list of Stampin’ Up! products that I used to create this card:

Rubber Stamps:
Bring On The Cake

Cardstock & Paper:
Pool Party cardstock
Whisper White cardstock
Melon Mambo cardstock
Designer Series Patterned Paper Stack – Subtles (I used Certainly Celery as I had run out of the Wild Wasabi that was used in the original card)
Soft Suede cardstock

Inkpads/Markers/Paint:
Stazon Jet Black inkpad
Pretty In Pink inkpad (for colouring)
Certainly Celery inkpad (for colouring)
Pool Party inkpad (for colouring)

Tools:
Big Shot
Square Lattice Embossing Folder
Scallop Border Punch
Blender Pen

Accessories:
Designer Buttons (Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery & Rose Red)
White Bakers Twine

Adhesives:
SNAIL adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals (foam dots)

This card is so out of my comfort zone and not my usual style but I thought I should post it because it just might be something that is right for someone else or you might get some inspiration from the technique I’ve used.

The technique I’ve used for this card is called “starburst”.  There’s a couple different ways of doing it but the one that I used is to just get a piece of white cardstock and use a ruler and pencil to draw some diagonal lines that meet to a point in at the bottom centre of the cardstock.  I did mine without any measurements, just eyeballing the distance to the next line (the last rays on the left and right were a little wide for me in the end so I just added some corners). I then placed some strips of coordinating paper on top (starting from the middle) and marked them with a pencil so I’d know where to cut.  Note that I did cut them longer then glued them down with a glue pen, this gave me some ‘wiggle room’ to move the paper around until I was happy with the placement.  After they were glued down I just turned the card over and from the back trimmed all the excess patterned paper off.

Another way of doing this is by taking strips of paper that are about an 1.5″ wide and a bit longer than your cardstock and cut the strips diagonally from one corner to the other to give you the triangle shapes which you can glue down onto your card.  The middle piece of course you could need to cut diagonally from the left and right to meet in the middle.  I might try it that way next time.

Once that was done I layered my centrepiece onto a piece of yellow cardstock to frame it and then layered onto a folded piece of navy cardstock.  The hot air balloons were stamped and cut out then mounted with dimensionals (foam dots).  At the bottom of the card I used a piece of yellow cardstock that I punched out with a circle punch (either cut in half or just punch half out) to make the card look more like a sun with sunrays.

Well there’s a card to brighten up a cold wintery Sydney day!

If you have any questions about how I made this card please feel free to email me.

And here’s a list of Stampin’ Up! products that I used to create this card:

Rubber Stamps:
Up Up & Away

Cardstock & Paper:
Whisper White cardstock
Daffodil Delight cardstock
Night of Navy cardstock
Designer Series Paper Stack (Brights)
Domestic Goddess Designer Series Paper

Inkpads/Markers/Paint:
Night of Navy inkpad

Tools:
2 1/2″Circle Punch
1 3/4″ Circle Punch

Accessories:
Daffodil Delight ribbon

Adhesives:
SNAIL adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals (foam dots)

It’s never ending birthday cards when you have three children!  Recently my daughter was going to celebrate the birthday of a good friend and wanted a card for her, “anything pink & blue but not babyish” were my instructions for this card.  I apologise for the dodgy photo, I really should have uploaded it and checked it before sending the card off on it’s way.  I’m stressing over how the card looks crooked because of the angel I photographed it, so I might be recreating it just to photograph again LOL.

This card card was so quick and easy, it took me about 15 minutes to make because I pretty much knew I wanted a modern fresh design with butterflies.

I used Stampin’ Up!’s Beautiful Butterflies die for this card but the Beautiful Wings Sizzlet would work equally as well.  I like these butterflies because they have a bit of shape to them but they’re still quite modern looking which works well for a teenage girl’s card.

The banner was quick to make too.  I just stamped the greeting on a strip of paper then snipped the ends off – if you want them perfect then you can use the corner of a square punch to punch out the ends.  To get the banner part to stand up I simply made two score lines on the left of the greeting and two score lines at the right, then pushed the ends inward to make the “happy birthday” part pop-up.  The further apart the score lines from each other the higher the middle part will stand up.  A couple of little dimentionals (foam dots) under the ‘happy birthday’ makes it stand up nicely in case it gets squashed in the envelope

If you have any questions about how I made this card please feel free to email me.

And here’s a list of Stampin’ Up! products that I used to create this card:

Rubber Stamps:
Cute & Curly

Cardstock & Paper:
Pool Party textured cardstock
Melon Mambo patterned paper
Attic Boutique Patterned Paper (the middle butterfly in blue)
Whisper White

Inkpads/Markers/Paint:
Melon Mambo inkpad

Tools:
Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine
Beautiful Butterflies Die
Simply Scored Tool (not really necessary for this card but I have it on my desk permanently so for me it was easier to use it than a scoring blade or ruler)

Accessories:
Designer Series Buttons
Twitterpatted Buttons
Basic Jewels (self-adhesive rhinestones)
Basic Pearls (self-adhesive pearls)
White Bakers Twine (for the button)

Adhesives:
SNAIL adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals (foam dots)
Glue Dots (for the buttons)

Well yesterday was a strange day.  I decided with all the running around that I had been doing lately that I would spend the whole day at home just creating.  I had cleared off my craft desk and was ready to go when ugliness struck… that is, my card wasn’t looking the way I pictured it in my head.  A little word of advice, if it’s not working just let it go for now and put it aside for later.  I kept trying to revive that card and it wasn’t happening.  I started a second one and that didn’t look right either.  In the end I decided to completely change tactic and make something totally different.  And here’s the result:

I like the way this card turned out.  It’s very different from my usual style but a change is as good as a holiday   I also think it’s a bit unusual to add silver glitter to a Kraft cardstock but some how it works.  Nothing really to explain about this card, it’s just paper and cardstock that’s been punched out and embellishments added. But I do have some other ideas for you…

Another cardmaking idea:  I thought it would be good to try this card in different ways – maybe do the same card using scallop punches for the outer piece.  Heart shapes instead of the circles would be great for a Birthday, Anniversary or Valentine’s Day card.  I didn’t get around to using different shapes but I did change the theme.  Ever wonder what to do with little stamp images you have and random little embellishments?  Well these cards are great for any cute little stamps you have and as a money saving tip, they’re also great for using up scrap pieces of paper and those little end pieces of ribbon that you just don’t want to throw out.

Here’s the same card but done for Christmas.  I’ve used the same patterned paper even, I just used some little stamps from a Stampin’ Up! set called “Bingo Bits”.  The sentiment on the card is from the same stamp set I’ve used in the other two cards too, it’s one that I use constantly, called “Teeny Tiny Sentiments”.

Now here’s the same card again but as a baby card.  The cute puppy image is from a stamp set called “Every Little Bit” – I’m thinking now that I look at it again that I really should use this set more often because it’s just so sweet.  So again, same patterned paper and the sentiment is from the same set as the other two cards, this time I stamped it and punched it out as the ink wasn’t showing up dark enough on the card.

Hope these card ideas get the creative juices flowing for you   Give it a go, just change the colours of the cardstock to suit the theme of your card and add what little images and embellishments you have.  Of course if you like things to match perfectly then try out Stampin’ Up!’s buttons and ribbons to go with your cardstock and ink.

And here’s a list of Stampin’ Up! products that I used to create this card: (I’ve put in brackets after each item which card it is featured on.  If the item has been used on all cards then I’ve left it as is).

Rubber Stamps:
Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Every Little Bit (baby card)
Bingo Bits (Christmas card)

Cardstock & Paper:
First Edition Specialty Paper
Silver Glimmer Paper
Rich Razzleberry cardstock (for you card & Christmas card)
Pretty In Pink cardstock (for you card)
Crumb Cake cardstock (aka Kraft)
Baja Breeze cardstock (baby card)
Lucky Limeade cardstock (baby card)
Old Olive cardstock (Christmas card)

Inkpads/Markers:
Rich Razzleberry inkpad
Old Olive inkpad (baby card and Christmas card)

Tools:
1 1/4″ Circle Punch
1 3/8″ Circle Punch
3/4″ Circle Punch
Itty Bitty Punch Pack – little flower punch (for you card)
Heart to Heart Punch – to fit under the Itty Bitty Button (Baby card)
Word Window Punch (Baby card)

Accessories:
Buttons
Linen Thread
Itty Bitty Buttons
Pink Rhinestone Brad
Clear Rhinestone Brads
Basic Jewels. Rhinestone – in the centre of the flower button (for you card)
Trinket Crown
Designer Printed Brads (Baby card)
Twitterpated Button (Baby card)
Rich Razzleberry Taffeta Ribbon (Christmas card)

My dear friend Linda Higgins had her birthday today and I’m just back from having a lovely lunch with her and a few other friends at the Burnt Orange Cafe in Mosman – lovely place if you’re looking for lunch with a view.

So this is the card I made for Linda.

See that diamond background? It’s a sneak peek of the Diagonal Plate for the Simply Scored Tool.  The Diagonal Plate sits on top of the scoring board and you can do lovely background like the one above along with making your own envelopes and such.  Anyway, since my main image of the birthday cake was so small, I wanted it to stand out but not have anything overly fussy since the patterned paper is so bold so the diamond background worked well I thought.

The decorative strip at the bottom is Silver Glimmer Paper then on top I adhered a border that I punched out with the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Punch and then I added self-adhesive rhinestones in all the spaces in between.

Hope you like my card.  If you have any questions on the card or the products I’ve used please feel free to ask in the comments section or email me.

And here’s a list of Stampin’ Up! products that I used to create this card:

Rubber Stamps:
Pretty Postage (I just realised this was from the Australian Summer Mini which isn’t available right now but I’m hoping it’ll be in the next main catalogue)

Cardstock & Paper:
Pool Party cardstock
Silver Glimmer Paper
Whisper White cardstock
Daffodil Delight cardstock
Attic Boutique Designer Series Paper

Inkpads/Markers:
Pool Party Marker
Poppy Parade Marker

Tools:
Simply Scored Tool with Diagonal Plate (Diagonal Plate available for purchase from 1st July 2012)
Postage Stamp Punch
1″ Square Punch
Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border

Accessories:
White taffeta ribbon
Basic Jewels (Rhinestones)