Christmas is getting closer and closer so I’m in a frenzy of Christmas card making at the moment.  As with most people, I have many Christmas cards to make but don’t have much time (I also need to make some birthday cards, congratulations cards, thank you cards, etc., etc…. you get the picture!) so I’m all for speeding things up a little.  An idea you might want to try is to stamp your image onto patterned paper, it gives interest to your card without colouring-in.  In this card I stamped the Christmas tree onto some patterned paper and then cut it out (the cutting was super quick).  Speaking of patterned paper, one thing I’ve been asked many times over is how to mix patterned paper effectively without it being overwhelming.  You’ll notice on this card I’ve used 4 different patterned papers but it’s not overwhelming in the slightest.  The trick I’ve used here is to use patterned paper that is related, that is – the patterned paper is from one range.  The paper I’ve used here is from the Ski Slope Designer Series (by Stampin’ Up!) and because the patterned paper colours are all pulled together in the striped paper and I the plain cardstock and ribbon I’ve used are all the same colours in the patterned paper, it makes it all work.

All in all I’m pretty happy with the way this card turned out.  I enjoy using some metal hardware and ribbon on Christmas cards as it seems to reflect wrapping and treasures.

So how are you going with your Christmas cards? all done yet?

(all products used in this card are by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com)

Rubber Stamps:
Christmas Classics

Inkpads:
Chocolate Chip
Real Red

Cardstock & Paper:
Real Red
Old Olive
Whisper White
Ski Slope Designer Series Paper (retiring in less than a week!)

Accessories:
Styled Silver Hodgepodge (star brad)
Baja Breeze Double Stitched Ribbon

Tools:
Circle Scissors (available 1st December 2009)
Word Window Punch

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals

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Last week I made this masculine card and I mentioned that you could easily turn it into a feminine card.  Although I’ve changed the image because the occasion didn’t suit for the person I was mailing it to, I could have kept it the same and it would still have been a feminine card. Anyway, the patterned paper used in this card is the same as the masculine card, only I’ve used the other side of the paper – stripes for masculine and flowers for feminine.  The other thing I did a swap of was I used some elegant ribbon instead of the twill and a pretty flower shaped ribbon charm instead of the grommet.  The colours of the card though are pretty much the same.

I hope this inspires you to look at your craft products a little closer and see how you can swap one item for another to change the theme of the card.  Please feel free to leave comments, I love hearing your opinions.

All products used to make this card are by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com

Rubber Stamps:
Friends 24/7

Inkpads:
Basic Brown
Baja Breeze
Kiwi Kiss
Creamy Caramel (sponged around the watercolour and vanilla cardstock)

Cardstock & Paper:
Watercolour Paper (used for bird image)
Very Vanilla
Baja Breeze
Chocolate Chip
Parisian Breeze (patterned paper)

Accessories:
Styled Silver Hodgepodge (flower ribbon charm)
Valet Ribbon Originals

Tools:
Sponge Daubers
Aquapainter (used with inkpads to watercolour the bird and add colour to the sentiment)

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals

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We wish you a Twilight Christmas, we wish you a Twilight Christmas and a happy new year! LOL.  Okay it’s a bit early for all that but since I went to the movies last night and saw New Moon I was inspired to do a Twilight Saga inspired Christmas card today.

As usual I made my Twilight inspired cards to amuse myself.  I love trying to figure out how to use my stamps to make them fit into a certain theme and it’s particularly stretching the creativity to come up with a Twilight Christmas card (well it was for me anyway).  Anyone who’s watched the movie will get the ‘dazzling’ line bit… “do I dazzle you?”.  After watching New Moon last night I think the inside of the card should say “just watch out for paper cuts!” LOL.

So here’s Edward in all his sparkly glory presenting Bella in her famous red truck a Christmas present.  But seriously, if you’ve got Edward who needs any presents ever again???

Hope you like my Twilight inspired Christmas card. I’d love to tell you about New Moon last night but I don’t want to give anything away.  I’ll just say that I absolutely loved it (thank goodness) and can’t wait to see it again next week.  Surprisingly there were some funny lines but the funniest thing was listening to the Twimums giggle during the kissing scenes and giggling again when Jacob took his shirt off. LOL, too funny.

So let me know, are you going to see New Moon?

All products used to make this card are by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com

Rubber Stamps:
Loads of Love (Truck, Christmas Tree and the “wishing you a” and “Christmas” sentiment. “Dazzling was handwritten”)
All In the Family (Edward)
Loads of Love Accessories (gift – only part of the stamp image was used)

Inkpads/Colouring:
StazOn Jet Black
Baja Breeze (to watercolour Edwards Shirt and to sponge around the watercolour paper)
Watercolour Crayons (to colour the rest of the scene)
Real Red Marker (to write the word ‘Dazzling’)

Cardstock & Paper
Watercolour Paper
Old Olive
Very Vanilla
Baja Breeze
Real Red
Ski Slope Designer Series Patterned Paper

Accessories:
Fire Rhinestone Circle Brads (only used the tiny red ones)
Dazzling Diamonds Glitter (for Edwards face and arms)

Tools:
Aquapainter

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals
2-Way Glue Pen (to adhere glitter on Edward)

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Have you ever had to make a masculine birthday card and not know much about the man you were making the card for? or maybe he just didn’t have any hobbies which means you can’t just stamp a golf club or tool set on the card. I had to make a masculine card this weekend but really didn’t know much about what the recipient enjoyed doing in his spare time so I decided to make something a bit more generic and this is what I came up with.

The centre of the card is two separate rub-ons, one is the martini glasses with ‘party’ under them and the other is ‘it’s your birthday’.  Here’s the interesting thing with the paper I’ve used – one side can be used for masculine cards and the other for female cards.  It’s awesome!  In fact, I could make this card into a feminine card simply by using the other side of the paper and changing the twill to ribbon and the grommet to either a white grommet or some pretty buttons.  What you can also do is pair up the floral sides with the stripes and dots and checks on the back to make cards that are elegant but with a bit of a shabby chic look.  To top it off the patterned paper is textured.  Sigh.  This paper only has two weeks left before it retires so I’m going to stock up on it.  The metal grommet you see there is new and is a little bit of a sneak peak of what’s to come in the new Australian Stampin’ Up! Summer Mini catalogue (I’m not going to show stamps though, you’ll have to wait for those!)  I didn’t press the nails right into the card because I made a knot in the twill so it kind of stood up.  Unfortunately I had to take a quick photo before leaving for the birthday party so I didn’t get to check the photo but in real life the metal grommet does sit straight but slightly popped up from the card.. not sure what was happening when I took this photo!

Like this card? Leave me a comment, I love hearing from you.  If you have any questions about Stampin’ Up! products or would like to order any Stampin’ Up! products please email me.

Cardstock & Paper:
Not Quite Navy
Very Vanilla
Chocolate Chip
Parisian Breeze (patterned paper)

Accessories:
Fashion District Rub-Ons
Twill
Jumbo Grommet (Stampin’ Up! Australia Summer Mini Catalogue)

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals

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Time for another Stampin’ Up! promotion.   From now until the 14th of December, if you purchase $85 worth of product from the Stampin’ Up! Gift Giving Guide (shown below), you will receive a free Stampin’ Up! Square Scallop punch.  Email me now to place your order and receive your free Square Scallop punch.

(Click the picture below to download this flyer onto your computer to see it larger)

Purchase from this list of Stampin’ Up! products to receive your free Square Scallop Punch*

I Wish Simply Scrappin’ Kit
Real Red 12″ x 12″ cardstock
Old Olive 5/8″ Grosgrain ribbon
Small cellophane bags
Curly Label Punch BUndle
Kiwi Kiss A4 cardstock
Whisper White A4 cardstock
Riding Hood Red 5/8″ striped grosgrain ribbon
From the Kitchen of stamp set
Thanks x 2 Simply Sent Card Elements & More Kit
More Thoughts Simply Sent Kit2U Simply Sent Card Elements & More Kit
No One Like You Simply Sent Kit
Dress Up Ribbon Originals
Valet Ribbon Originals
Cutter Kit
Button Latte Designer Buttons
Button Bouquet Designer Buttons
Pigtails Ribbon Originals
Petal Party Simply Scrappin’ Kit
Rock-a-bye Boy Simply Scrappin’ Kit
Sweet Nothings Simply Scrappin’ Kit
Hoppy Memories Simply Scrappin’ Kit
Just Jawing stamp set
Bold Brights A4 assorted cardstock
Real Red Stampin’ Write marker
Brilliant Blue Stampin’ Write marker
Glorious Green Stampin’ Write marker
On Board 5″ x 5″ Art Journal
Spiral Punch

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Sympathy cards are difficult to make, not only for humans but also for pets.  These little fur-babies are so much a part of our lives and families that it’s absolutely devastating when it’s time for them to leave us.  So when I heard that a friend of mine lost her dog recently I decided I really needed to make a card for her.

The Stampin’ Up! stamp set I used here is called “D for Dog“. I found this stamp set really easy to use because I knew the doggie would be the main image accented by a little paw print and of course the sentiment.  It helps immensely that the Stampin’ Up! punches match the paw-print image and the sentiment perfectly so I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to incorporate them on the card.

By the way, one of the other sentiments that comes with this rubber stamp set says: “a dog wags it’s tail with it’s heart” – I’m going to use this sentiment for scrapbooking my little doggie dude, Ralph who’s a a King Charles Cavalier x Shitzu (Shavalier).  Any other dog lovers out there?

If you have any questions about this card or the products I’ve used, please email me at angelasargeant@gmail.com

Rubber Stamps:
D for Dog

Inkpads:
Chocolate Chip
Creamy Caramel (to sponge around the edges of the neutral cardstock)
Old Olive (to sponge around the edges of the Olive cardstock
Baja Breeze (for the colouring of the dog collar)

Cardstock & Paper
Naturals Ivory (to stamp on)
Old Olive
Chocolate Chip
Baja Breeze
Kraft
Parisian Breeze Textured Designer Series Paper (stripy cardstock)

Accessories:
Twill Tape
Styled Silver Hodgepodge
Earth Elements Brads (Old Olive used here)

Tools:
3/4″ Circle Punch
1? Circle Punch
Paper Piercer and template (to make the holes)
Sponge daubers (for all the sponging)
Blender pen (for the tiny colouring of the dog collar)

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals (to pop up the paw print image and main image section)
Crystal Effects (used on the inside of the metal frame to adhere the cardstock – I use this because the point of the glue is the same size as the ridge on the inside of the hardware so it’s super easy to apply the right amount)

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Today I decided to challenge myself to find a stamp set that I hadn’t inked yet and to make 3 cards with it.  And this is the first card that I came up with.

I had a definite idea in my head about how I wanted the card to look.  I wanted it clean and crisp with minimal product – a lot like the greeting cards that you would see in Borders.

This card is so simple, I just stamped the coffee cup images multiple times in Stazon Jet Black (my favourite choice of black inkpads) and then I coloured in the white bits of the coffee cups using a blender pen and the ink from the Baja Breeze inkpad.  The coffee cups were then punched out and adhered onto some textured cardstock, layered onto black cardstock and then onto the base white card.  The black you see in the background is just what I photographed the card on.  (I think next time I’ll take the flash off because I’ve just noticed it’s made my middle cup look pale when it’s not really like that).  Anyway, the sentiment down the bottom of the card “Chocolate, coffee, men – some things are better rich.” is part of another stamp which has a coffee stain image around the sentiment, so I just masked off the rest of the stamp with some masking tape, inked up the stamp then removed the tape and stamped the sentiment on the bottom of the card.  That’s it… minimal but fun

Now it’s time for you to go make a card using stamps you haven’t inked yet… and I know you have some!

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

Rubber Stamps:
Sip By Sip

Inkpads:
Baja Breeze
StazOn Jet Black

Cardstock & Paper:
Whisper White
Basic Black
Baja Breeze Textured

Tools:
1″ Circle Punch
Blender Pen
Stamp-a-ja-jig (Stamp positioner to help me stamp the sentiment exactly centre of my card)

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive

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Yikes! I find it so difficult to make birthday cards for young boys.  Once they get out of that bug-pirate-trucks stage it’s difficult to find a theme for a boy’s birthday card.  Anyone else here have issue’s with boy’s birthday cards? Thankfully the young boy I made this birthday card for is into Karate so I was able to whip out my “All In The Family” stamp set and the matching accessories to make a card that I hope he’ll like.

This card was simple enough to make, I just chose a head image that suited the birthday boy then used the Stamp-a-ma-jig (stamp positioner) to position it in the right place over the Karate suit and then also added the arms.  I like the way the arms come separately that way I can make the figures do whatever I want them to do.  The balloon image was stamped onto the patterned paper then cut out and adhered onto the card.  The colouring was done very simply to suit the drawing, I used a blender pen and the ink from my inkpad to colour the clothes in.  A little bit of Sahara Sand marker was used on the white Karate suit so that it didn’t look totally flat.  The ‘9′ on the card is just a piece of chipboard that I sponged with ink so that it matches the card.  Okay, well I’ve just been told that there’s another birthday coming up, a girl’s birthday this time so I’m off to make another kids birthday card!

p.s. the bottom of the card doesn’t look very flat but it is in real life, I just photographed it at a very bad angle. :blush:

Rubber Stamps:
All In The Family (boy’s head and arms)
Family Accessories Too (Karate Suit)
Family Favourites (balloon stamp)
On Your Birthday (birthday greeting)

Inkpads & Markers:
Pacific Point
Kiwi Kiss
Sahara Sand marker

Cardstock & Paper:
Whisper White
Kiwi Kiss
Pacific Point
Good Morning Sunshine (patterned paper)

Accessories:
Kiwi Kiss Striped Ribbon
On Board Lots of Letters (chipboard ‘9′)

Tools:
1 1/4″ Circle Punch
1 3/8″ Circle Punch
Large Oval Punch
Word Window Punch
Photo Corners Punch
Paper Piercer and template (to add holes above and below the ‘Happy Birthday’ greeting)
Blender Pen

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive (for cardstock)
Stampin’ Dimensionals (to pop up the greeting and circle with the age)

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Here it is, this is the class I have been asked by so many people to teach.  Attend my Mega Christmas Card Class and make a load of Christmas cards, gift cards and tags.

The materials provided to you in this class will allow you to create approximately 35 Christmas cards and 20 gift cards/tags.  You will during the class make as many of the cards you can (depending on how fast/slow you are) and will then take home the rest of the materials to make more cards.

Please email me on angelasargeant@gmail.com to book a spot.  Places are strictly limited so email me now to secure your place at this class.

All materials and tools to make these cards are provided during the class, no need to bring anything with you.

Date: Friday 30th October 2009
Time: 7:30pm
Location: Lane Cove, Sydney.  Email me for exact location.
Cost: $60.  Includes all materials and use of tools during class plus refreshments

Date: Wednesday 28th October 2009
Time: 10:30am
Location: Lane Cove, Sydney.  Email me for exact location.
Cost: $60.  Includes all materials and use of tools during class plus morning tea

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I must admit I love butterflies and flowers on cards, and there’s just something about this butterfly that I can’t get enough of.  It’s actually a rub-on which is the same as the butterfly rubber stamp in Stampin’ Up!’s “Great Friend” stamp set only it’s smaller.  I think I like it so much because it’s elegant, striking and very importantly can be cut out easily

This card came together quite easily because the images are bold and so it seemed to require a simple layout with a modern colour combination.  The butterfly rub-on was applied to some white cardstock then cut out leaving a very thin border.  The frame behind the butterfly is a rubber stamped image from a stamp set called “Gallery” and that was stamped in Baja Breeze ink and again cut out leaving a thin border.  That’s it really, the rest is just patterned paper and some dimensionals to pop up the main section (under the white cardstock) and the butterfly.

Anyone else here have a thing for butterfly images?

Rubber Stamps:
Gallery (frame image)

Inkpads:
Baja Breeze

Cardstock & Paper:
Whisper White
Baja Breeze
Basic Gray
Urban Garden designer series paper (one side of the paper is the flower images on the left and the other side is the grey paper in the centre)

Accessories:
Pretties Kit (flat-backed white  pearls)

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive (for cardstock)
Mini Glue Dots (to adhere the pearls)
Stampin’ Dimensionals (to pop up the main image and butterfly rub-on)

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