Mixed Bunch Farewell

For me Mixed Bunch was a surprise inclusion on the retiring product list this year. The clear-mount version is sold out so if you are still thinking about purchasing woodmount is your only option and you need to get in quick! There's only 2 weeks left to order retiting items, but remember they are only available while stocks last.

For this card I once again decided to use an image in the set that I hadn't used that often. I thought the little dots on the petals would team well with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder that is also retiring. And then I had to give Itty Bitty Banners a last hoorah to finish the card off!

Do you like the colours I have used on this card? I thought I would start using a simple graphic to give an easy reference for colours I use on projects so you don't have to piece together the info from the product list :)

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Vellum Perfection

We are into the last month of Sale-a-bration, and Stampin' Up! have release four new products that you can earn for free! Today's card features one of these, the Sheer Perfection printed vellum.

So many possiblities with the gorgeous printed designs, but I started with something really simple - adding a bit of colour with some ribbon to make a wedding card.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Moonlight Balloons

Hello again! And sorry there's been a bit of a break once again - the school holidays got away with me once again. Even though school has been back for over a week it's still taking me a bit to get back into the swing of things. Here's a quick card, before my next post which will have a tutorial for something I did a few weeks ago.

A little trick I often use to help make things more defined is to go around the edge of them with a marker. Often it will be in the matching colour of the cardstock I am going around, but on this occasion I used the Blackberry Bliss marker to really make the balloons stand out.

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TBT - Chevron Birthdays

When the Birthday Cake stamp came out last year, I immediately knew how I was going to use it - it was begging to be teamed up with the small chevron from the Tasteful Trims die! It was a lot of work, putting the die through the Big Shot so many times to get enough chevrons for the background, but totally worth it!

Then there was the matter of the Positively Chevron background stamp that also came out last year. It had crossed my mind when I had done the other card, but I had dismissed it as I thought inking it up in multiple colours would be too difficult. But the idea kept playing on my mind, and eventually I decided I just had to give it a go and find out for sure. Turns out while it was time consuming, it did still give a good result if you go over it a few times. My method for something like this is to ink it up and stamp it off on a scrap of paper. This serves two purposes, to see how the colour combination and placement work in actuality, and to get some ink on the stamp so less is taken up by the rubber next time and more should be transfered to the cardstock. When I ink the stamp again, I finish off by putting lots of little dots along the middle of the rubber of each part to create little pools of ink in the middle of the rubber. I do this as the ink tends to be drawn to the edge and this can cause pale patches in solid areas of an image. I then give the stamp a huff so moisture in my breath dampens the whole stamp again.

Die-cut Chevron card
All supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, Wisteria Wonder, Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Whisper White
Stamp sets: Birthday Cake, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: none
Accessories: Elegant Eggplant marker, Wisteria Wonder marker, Pool Party marker, Bermuda Bay marker, Rich Razzleberry marker, Bitty Banners die, Labels Collection die, Tasteful Trim Bigz XL die, dimensionals

Stamped Chevron card
All supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Bermuda Bay, Summer Starfruit, Soft Suede, Whisper White
Stamp sets: Birthday Cake, Positively Chevron, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: none
Accessories: Bermudy Bay marker, Summer Starfruit marker, Soft Suede marker, Tangerine Tango marker, Bitty Banners die, dimensionals

TBT - Happy Days

Time for more ye olde cards. Both of these were made so long ago it's a struggle remembering what I used on them! The Happy Day card was another case of products I loved but hadn't used a lot. I love old style patterns like what was used in the Beautifully Baroque stamp and embossing folder. I wanted to give the background a fuzzy velvet look and feel, so once it had been through the embossing folder I went over it with the sanding block. I've seen a lot of people do it since, particuarly with this embossing folder - great minds think alike! I then went over the indented parts of each motif with the Dazzling Details glitter glue and added some rhinestones for a luxurious sparkly effect. If there had been matching patterend paper I probably would have stamped my sentiment on that, but since there wasn't I basically made my own.

The Octonauts card was easier in some respects, as it was to accompany a present of Octonaut bath toys. So the decision of what to make the card was easy, the how was a little harder. After some experimentation (how most punch art goes!) I came up with reasonably simple ways of creating the faces, but there weren't really any short cuts I could take with the hats so they were hand cut.


Happy Day card
All supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz, Baja Breeze
Stamp sets: Beautifully Baroque, Happy Day
Ink: VersaMark, StazOn Jet Black
Accessories: sanding block, Pool Party ruffled ribbon, Baja Breeze seam binding ribbon, Decorative Label punch, Beautifully Baroque embossing folder, Labels Collection die, Dazzling Details glitter glue, Rhinestone Basic Jewels

Octonauts punch art card
All supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Pacific Point, Bashful Blue, Pool Party texturedSoft Suede, Very Vanilla, Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Grey, Whisper White
Stamp sets: Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Pacific Point
Accessories: 1 3/4" circle punch, Large Oval punch, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, Small Heart punch, Slot punch, Owl Builder punch, Circle Scissors, Bitty Banners Framelits, white gel pen, Pacific Point marker, Basic Black marker