Hello, Baby & Twist on Scattered Embossing Technique

 Hi!

Its Saturday! Doing anything exciting this weekend? Ours is chilled - just what we both need. I've got a card a friend asked me to make for her new baby cousin. I had list of elements/things that she loved and wanted included in the card which was a challenge but it turned out well in the end. 

Cardstock: Crisp Cantaloupe, Calypso Coral, Whisper White, Vellum

Punch: Small Heart, Owl Builder

Embellishments: Subtles Candy Dots, Subtles Buttons, Tea Lace Paper Doily, Calypso Coral Baker's Twine

Other: Chalk Marker, scallop trimmer

I found a new spin on the scattered frosted embossing technique. Instead of using an embossing folder I found a way to use it with a punch! I punched and layered 3 negatives of window sheet together with some glue dots. Then it was just a case of positioning the vellum over the negative punch and use the embossing stylus to emboss the little hearts. Embossed images with a larger area don't work out so well as the centres don't turn white. I rectified this by colouring in the back side with the chalk marker.

I love the subtle little detail the scallop trimmer blade gives to the thin layer of calypso coral.  It just adds a little pop and lift to a rather cool and subtle card. 

Ally really wanted the baby's name on the card so I decided to print it off as I just didn't have a suitable alphabet. I just love the scattered buttons and candy dot - they seem to work really well and tie the sentiment and card together perfectly! 

The small piece of doily and baker's twine just add an extra little girly finishing touch. 

So pleased with how well this has turned out! Allyson loved it too which was the main thing.

Have a great Saturday! Catch you again tomorrow for a Simple Sunday!

Happy Stampin',

Mosaic Marble CQC227

Hello! 

Happy weekend!! What do you have planned this weekend? I have quite a quiet one. I'm going to have a coffee and catch up with an old uni friend this afternoon! I haven't see her since uni despite living in the same town, and when I saw her choosing a tree with her hubby just before Christmas we reconnected! Looking forward to catching up this afternoon! 

I've got a card I made today with this week's Colour Q challenge colour palette.

I thought it was pretty obvious to do something Valentine's related with this colour combo and seeing as us Brits aren't so into Valentine's as our cousins across the pond. So you might be getting tired seeing all these Valentines cards I've been showing off, therefore I decided to try using the colour combo with the stamp set Hello Lovely we got given at Convention.

Stamp Set: Hello Lovely

Ink: Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo, Real Red, Cherry Cobbler

Cardstock: Whisper White,Cherry Cobbler

Paper Trimmer: Scallop Edge 

There are a lot of great "mosaic" stamps in this set but I just fell in love with this one - reminds me of marbles! I seem to like the tumbling theme at the moment - its just so easy and looks fun, plus it doesn't matter too much where you stamp! 

I just wasn't happy with the finished card and pondered chopping off a portion of it to make it a bit more narrow, in the end I just cut off a piece from the front and added some scallop trim. I stamped more mosaic marbles on the inside edge and voila, much improved! 

Hope you enjoyed this fun card - I love that you could switch up the colour combo and you'd get a totally different looking card - how about pool party, pear pizzazz, bermuda bay and island indigo for a more masculine colour theme? If you thought the swirly marble like stamp was too feminine there are plenty of other more geomtric shapes to choose from in the Hello Lovely set!

Happy Stampin',

simply stampin' challenge 69

Hi there! 

School finished yesterday so now I get my lovely hubby for 6 whole weeks and whats more is there's only 3 days until our holiday! I cannot freakin' wait! I'm so excited to introduce Stu to the wonderful United States of America! I'm hope he loves it as much as I do! Do you all have lots of things planned over the summer break?!

Anyway onto the Simply Stampin' challenge for this week, we're on a theme this week. The theme is 

Vintage

Vintage Pens

Stamp Set: Teeny Tiny Wishes, Creative Elements

Ink: Soft Suede

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla

DSP: First Edition, Attic Boutique 

Punch: Scallop Edge

Accessories: Antique Brad

Baker's Twine: Calypso Coral

Extras: Color Spritzer

So I wanted to make the card this week different from last week's which was also really vintage style. Sometimes I find this hard to do when I've just made another one fairly similar! So when I saw the pens in the Attic Butique DSP I thought I'd use that! I stamped the flourish all over the background Crumb Cake and then spritzed it with Soft Suede for that speckled vintage feel. I added a peice of the First Edition paper behind the fountain pens DSP. I also added some bakers twine, sentiment and antique brad to the mix. Its a bit thrown together and little bit of a hash job but I think its turned out okay. I'm not 100% happy with it but there's always that fear that if you carry on playing around with a card sometimes you just end up ruining it completely! 

I hope you like my effort! Now head over to Simply Stampin' to see the other DT entries and create and share your own! 

Amanda x

on your bike!

Hi there folks! 

Sorry for not blogging much this week, I haven't really go any excuse, it just slipped my mind and whenever I did think about it, it just wasn't a good moment! 

Anyway I hope you've all had a good week? Everyone ready for the long Jubilee weekend? I hope you're all going to do something fun with these extra holiday days! I'm going to a BBQ Street Party hosted by my old church. There's a cake competition, I'm so very tempted to enter...

Right, enough of my blabbering, here's a cute card for you to brighten your day! 

Vintage Bike Friend

Stamp Set: Pedal Presents(Hostess), Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Basic Black, Real Red, Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand, Basic Grey, Peach Parfait, Regal Rose, Perfect Plum, So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Whisper White

DSP: First Edition Speciality 

Punch: Scallop Edge

Accessories: Linen Thread

I coloured in the bike and accessories in using a blender pen and then using the paper piercer and mat pack i pierced a line of holes along the top and bottom of the whisper white cardstock. I added some scallop trim strips of First Edition dsp for the vintage look and adhered everything to a Crumb Cake base with some linen thread around it too! 

I just love this hostess set. The bike is really lovely and I like that it comes with lots of fun things to fill the basket with! Such a fun and different stamp set to have so if you'd like to get this set yourself why not host a party and earn this set for free?! 

Why not leave me a comment and let me know what you think. What are you doing this weekend for the Jubilee?!

Happy Stampin',

Amanda xox

simply stampin' challenge week 55

Simply Stampin' Challenge time again! This week is a sketch challenge. 

Deliciously For You

Stamp Set: Creatively Yours, I {heart} Hearts

Ink: Pool Party, Calypso Coral

Cardstock: Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral, Basic Grey

DSP: Domestic Goddess

Punch: Scallop Edge, Crop a dile

Accessories: White Emboss Powder

Well as usual with the sketch challenge I ended up doing some jiggling around to make it work. This whole card came about because I wanted to use the Deliciously Made For You sentiment which I was borrowing from my downline. I hought it would make a lovely card paired for the domestic goddess paper. I cut strips of the paper and punched some scallop border to edge the middle panel and adhered it all down. I white embossed the sentiment on some basic grey cardstock and added hearts to fill in the blank space. But when I added it to the card it just didn't really stand out and work. so I thought I'd try making some scallop edge and add it and while I was punching away the thought came to me that I could use the crop a dile to make holes in each scallop which would then match the scallop trim in the dsp! Brilliant idea I thought! And doesn't it work well?! I added some daffodil delight underneath to help the detail show up more as its quite a busy dsp and I wanted my trim to stand out!

I hope you liked this card! Let me know what you think and leave me a comment! Then head over to the SSC blog to see the other DT entries and get creating yourself! Can't wait to see what you come up with! 

Happy Stampin',

Amanda xox 

simply stampin' challenge week 52

Its Saturday again and time for another Simply Stampin' Challenge. This week is a sketch! And here is what we had to work with...

And below is what I created with it! 

Birthday Car

Stamp Set: Need For Speed, Happiest Birthday Wishes (Hostess)

Ink: Pool Party, So Saffron, Sahara Sand, Certainly Celery, Pear Pizzazz, Lucky Limeade, Basic Black

Cardstock: Whisper White, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade

Punch: Corner Rounder, Scallop Edge

Ribbon: Pool Party Ruffled, Pear Pizzazz Stitched Poly, Linen Thread

I really didn't play around with this sketch too much - it was a simple one and it worked for me. I actually had lots of ideas but in the end I went with this car as it was floating around my craft room while I was doing my mammoth tidy this week, I really wanted to use it up before it got lost. 

I coloured in the stamped image and mounted it on some Pool Party cardstock. I then punched a scallop edge in Lucky Limeade and added it to the bottom, over the divide between the pool and limeade cardstock  I layered up some ribbon. Ribbon can be manly, right?! Well, that's what I was trying to go for anyway, let me know what you think! First ribbon layer was the Pool Party ruffled ribbon (I just wanted a thin layer of pool ruffled edge), then the Pear Pizzazz Stitched Poly Ribbon. Finally I tied a scrap of linen thread over the top. How lovely does this look? I'm so pleased with it. I popped the entire thing up in dimensionals and layered it on some Whisper White cardstock on a Pool Party card base. At the bottom I stamped the word  "birthday" - its part of a larger sentiment but I only chose to ink up the word birthday - this as mainly because I liked the font and the full sentiment was too large for the space I had. 

Now why don't you step over to the Simply Stampin' Challenge blog, check out what the other DT members have created for you and enter your own creation using this cute sketch! 

Thanks for popping by, please leave a comment, 

Happy Stampin',

Amanda x

more masculine?

Just thought I would share with you a really quick and simple little masculine card I made for a friend's birthday a couple of weeks ago.

Elegant HB

Stamp Set: Punch Bunch (Retired)

Ink: Night of Navy

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla

DSP: Elegant Soiree

Punches: Scallop Square, Scallop Trim, Corner Rounder

Extras: Dimensionals

So really nothing taxing to be honest, but its a fab quick masculine card with can literally be whacked out in minutes (which was the case with this card, I got about 5 minutes notice to make a card for this friend of Stu's - oh dear!). Anyhows I just thought I'd post this little gem up and let you have a little looksie! Hope you enjoyed it!

Thanks for visiting today,

Hugs,

Amanda 

x

today's offering

Just one quick little card for you all today. I needed to send a Wedding Acceptance card to my friend Kathryn's wedding, here's the result! 

Wedding Acceptance

Stamp Set: I{Heart} Hearts

Ink: Old Olive, Versamark

Cardstock: Kraft, Rich Razzleberry textured & smooth, Old Olive, Early Espresso

Accessories: Basic Rhinestones

Extras: Dimentionals, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Scallop Edge Punch, Brown Pen (I would have used a Early Espresso pen if I had one at the moment)

I stamped the flourish heart in a border pattern along the bottom of the card and then adhered a scallop trim of textured Rich Razzleberry and a thin strip of Old Olive to section off a portion of the card for my sentiment. When it came to stamping the top section, I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do, I wasnt sure I had the space nor wanted to mirror the hearts along the bottom of the card so opted for simply stamping the polka dot heart in rows, going off the page. I also tried along the left hand edge to stamp some upside down, and it failed miserably, enter my repair job...I stamped the solid heart in versamark on smooth Rich Razzleberry and then the flourish heart in versamark on Early Espresso, layered them over the offending area and added a rhinestone for some sparkle! I also added a thin strip of Early Espresso along the bottom of the card to cover up some white stitching I had tried and decided that it really just did not work! Finally, I rounded the top two corners to mirror the curves of the heart. 

Wow, just looked at how long my card explanation was, I was not expecting it to be that long! I just wanted to explain a little more about some of the things I tried and didn't work and how I resolved them! I usually find, unless I have a definite idea of what the card will look like, a card goes through a process of chopping and changing several times before it is finished and I am satisfied. I know some people like to draw out and pre plan their card before they even pick up a tool, but for me that method just doesn't work. I like to get stuck in, play around, experiment and test what does and doesn't work, something will emerge from the ashes! Also, a card is rarely too far gone to mend and can actually turn out even more beautiful for the accident (I was not origionally intending to add the two addtional hearts and rhinestone to the above card but it really works and has really added a little something extra to the card!). I just wanted to share with you all a little of my though process and show that even creative people struggle and make mistakes, but also share ways in which I fixed those problems! 

Hope you enjoyed my ramblings, 

Have a fabulous evening! 

Amanda xoxo