Masculine Traveller

Hi Friends

Well this will be my last post for this week, as I am going away for the weekend so remember to pop back next week to see what I have to show you, or subscribe via email to my blog then you will never miss another post again.

I CASEd this card from Jan Tink, you can find her card here.

One of the very few guys at work has invited us all out to lunch yesterday to help him celebrate his birthday.  I really like Cliffy he has always been very kind and generous to the payroll team and shows his appreciation for all we do.  Which, to be honest, is a really nice change, as most of our customers never show their appreciation for all we do for them week from week.

Anyway, as I have said in the past masculine cards are always a difficult thing, I think I may not be alone in this thinking.  I found this card by Jan Tink on Pinterest and decided it was soooo good I just had to case it.  The only thing that is different between my card and Jan’s is that I think I added a couple of extra mats of Basic Black card stock.

The card base and the first mat is Basic Black card stock, I then stamped the now retired World Map background stamp onto Whisper White card stock with Black StazOn ink.  I think wrapped some retired ribbon around this mat.  Again Basic Black and Whisper White card stock were used for the two smaller mats and the boat from another retired (sorry :() stampe set called Traveller was stamped in Basic Black Classic ink.  The technique used to make this image is called the Reflection Technique and although it can be a bit fiddly it really is effective.  All you do is stamp your image onto your card stock, then stamp the image again onto a piece of acetate, turn it over and line up the image on the acetate with the stamped image and press firmly to transfer the ink from the acetate onto the card stock.  Hint** Make sure your inkpad is really well inked up so when doing the reflection image you get a good transfer.  It took me several attempts before I was happy with it.

I then used my Blender Pen to “smudge” the black ink to make it look like water and then used my white Gel Pen to make the wake.  It looks really effective once it’s done and dries a bit.

I kept the inside nice and clean so there is lots of room for everyone to write their birthday greeting.  The stamped greeting inside is the Guy Greetings stamp set.

If you would like to learn how to make a card using the Reflection Technique, contact me today and we can arrange an in-house workshop where I can teach you and a 2-3 friends how to do it.  All products that aren’t retired can be purchased from my Stampin’ Up! shop by either clicking on the links within this post or the shopping trolley to the left hand side.

Happy stamping!!

Tina xo

Stippled Blossoms for Mum

Hi Friends

I hope you are enjoying me getting back to regular posting.  I try to post on a regular basis but as we all know sometimes life can interfer with our best intentions.

Do you like my new method of writing my posts?  I thought it might be more user friendly for you if I not only provide item numbers for the current products that I used to make my cards but also provide links directly to my Stampin’ Up! shop for that particular product, just in case you want to get your own.

I love this card that I made for my mum for her birthday this month.  My mum and our grand-baby celebrate their birthday’s on exactly the same day so it gives me the opportunity to make two very different cards at the same time.

My mum just loves the colour PINK so I always make her a pink themed card.  I also decided to use one of my most favourite stamp sets for this card…the gorgeous but sadly retired Stippled Blossoms.

Again, this is another card that I found on Pinterest and CASED.

Whisper White card stock #106549 was again used for both the card base and the mat.  The stamp set is what we call at Stampin’ Up! as a “Two-Step” stamp set.  Which means you have a base solid stamp and a more detailed partial stamp of the image.

The flowers are stamped in Blushing Bride ink #131172 and Rose Red ink #126954 and I stamped the leaves in Pear Pizzazz ink #131180 and Old Olive ink #126953.

I to make the leaves look like they are behind the flowers I firstly stamped both layers of the flowers and then stamped the flower image onto a Post-It Note (remember to stamp your image up the top of the Post-It Note so you have the sticky bit) and stuck it over the stamped flowers, I then stamped the leaves in both colours.  If you have never used Two-Step stamps remember you always stamp the solid stamp first in a light colour then stamp the more detailed stamp in a darker colour of the top.

Of course if you used Stampin’ Up! wood mount stamps you will most definitely need a Stamp-a-ma-jig #101049 it is a must-have for any stamper. Helps you position stamped images exactly where you want, every time. Instructions are included and its perfect for alphabet sets.  It is an invalulable crafting tool that I think is sometimes overlooked.  If you love wood mount stamps like I do then you definitely need one of these!

The butterflies on this card are punched out with two seperate punches, the larger butterfly is punched out with the Elegant Butterfly punch #127526 and the smaller butterfly is the Bitty Butterfly punch #129406.  Both butterflies have been embossed with another retired embossing folder….sorry about that 😦

This gorgeous greeting is unfortunately also retired but was stamped in Old Olive ink too.  If you look really carefully (you can click on the image to make it larger) you will see some Pearl Basic Jewels #119247 in the middle of the butterfly.

Please leave me your comments by clicking on the little red love heart in the top right hand corner of this post, I always love to hear your thoughts.

Happy stamping!

Tina xo

 

* Sturdy plastic construction
* Nonskid base

 

Sprinkles of Life

Hi Friends

Have you checked out the new Stampin’ Up! catalogue yet?  If not either click on this link or the photo of the latest catalogue on the left hand side of my page.

I always love it when a new cattie is released it is so exciting to see all the fabulous new products Stampin’ Up! have added.

Every year Stampin’ Up! have one special stamp set which is usually at the very back of the catalogue and it is released specifically to raise funds for the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC). The Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) keeps families together and surrounded by love when their children are receiving medical treatment far from home.  By purchasing this year’s stamp set called Sprinkles of Life, Stampin’ Up! will donate $3.00AUD/$$3.50NZ to RMHC.

To date Stampin’ Up! have contributed over $1,000,000 to RMHC and thier network of local RMHC chapters, you can learn more about how you can help by visiting www.stampinup.com/giving_au or www.stampinup.com/giving_nz.

I must admit in previous years I have usually overlooked this stamp set, and not purchased it.  However, this year at convention we were shown some fantastic ways to use this stamp set and saw some gorgeous card samples.  As a result I purchased the Sprinkles of Life stamp set #139971 $37.00.

With this stamp set you can sprinkle positive thoughts wherever you want. This set is chock-full of positivity that you’ll want to share with everyone.

Our top-quality photopolymer stamps have just enough give to create a perfectly stamped image every time. They’re entirely transparent for perfect image placement, and they adhere well to our clear blocks. You’ll only need one set of blocks for all your photopolymer stamps (blocks sold separately). The stamps come packaged in cases with images on the spine for easy storage and quick reference.

Quantity: 22 photopolymer stamps

Suggested clear blocks (sold separately): a, c, g

Well with a stamp set this cute I just had to use it for my grand-baby’s 7th birthday this month.  Our darling little Holly is growing so quickly and unfortunately we see her so infrequently what with us living at the other end of the country.  However, she knows that Poppy and Nanny Tina are always thinking of her and we always send her something lovely for her birthday.  This year’s presents were a collection of reading books to help her advance her reading skills at school.  Of course with a nanny who likes to make hand-made cards she always receives a special card just for her.

This is a card I found on Pinterest and just loved the simplicity of it so I had to CASE (copy and share everything) it.

Cute hey?  I used A4 Whisper White card stock #106549 as the base and the top mat, and added a mat of A4 Melon Mango card stock #119980 in between which was embossed with the now retired Argyle Embossing Folder.  The ice-cream cones are stamped on Whisper White card stock with retired Baked Brown Sugar ink and then fussy cut out.  The ice-cream is stamped in Daffodil Delight ink #126944 and punched out with the new Tree Builder Punch #138295.  The sprinkles on top are stamped with Melon Mambo ink and the “cherry” on top are Melon Mambo Candy Dots #130931.  The greeting, also from the stamp set Sprinkles of Life is stamped in Melon Mambo ink #126948 and finally I wrapped a piece of Baked Brown Sugar Thick Bakers Twine which is now also retired around the top mat.

I have added links directly to my Stampin’ Up! shop for all the current products mentioned in this post to make it just that little bit easier for you to purchase your own.

I would love to hear your comments and always get such joy from reading them so please leave me your thoughts just by clicking on the little red love heart in the top right hand corner of this post.

Happy stamping!!

Tina xoxo

Robbo’s Birthday Card

Hi Friends

Yes I am still trying to show you all the cards I have made in the past few months.  I am finally starting to get to the end of the backlog… 🙂

Today’s card is one I made back in May for a friend of ours.  If you follow my blog you would know that my husband is the secretary for a very legal, very community minded, militiary motorbike club, called The Patriots MC.

Robbo is the only life-member we have in out chapter up here in Cairns and it was recently his birthday.  As it turned out his birthday fell on a weekend that we were all away on a ride.  So after we had all set up camp and settled in to our motel rooms at Innot Hot Springs I managed to get everyone from the club to sign the card so our president Coops could present it to Robbo.

Obviously as we are a motorbike club the theme of the card wasn’t a real brain bender.  I bought this now retired motorbike stamp several years ago and it really has been worth the money.

I found a card similiar to this on my friend Vicki Burdick’s website, and used her card as my inspiration.

I used Island Indigo card stock for the card base and added a mat of Basic Black card stock and another mat of retired DSP.  The three banners in Basic Black are die cut using SU Banners Framelits and then embossed with a retired embossing folder.  The large Island Indigo scalloped circle was die cut using our Circle Framelits as was the Whisper White circle.

The motorbike is stamped with Black StazOn ink as is the greeting.  I used dimensionals to pop up the large scalloped circle too.

This is a really simple card but I am loving all the layers.

Remember you can always leave me a comment about my posts just by clicking on the little red love heart in the top right hand corner of each post.  I love reading your comments and hearing you thoughts.

If you would like to make a similiar card you can, just by popping on over to my Stampin’ Up! shop and purchasing some supplies.  I know some of these products are retired but you can always purchase a different embossing folder and DSP to make your own individual project.  That’s the beauty of papercrafting if you see something you love and want to CASE (copy and share everything) it, if the original card was made from now retired products you can always just use one of the current items instead and mix it up a bit.

Don’t you just love papercrafting?  I know I do.

Stay tuned for more projects coming soon.

Thanks for visiting.

Tina xo

Yes I have been crafting….

Hi Friends

Yes I know it seems like forever since I have showed you what I have been creating.  I have been crafting but it has been pretty sparse these past couple of months.

These cards are ones that I made a couple of months ago at my upline Michelle’s monthly class.  I can’t remember if we made these cards in March….I think 🙂  Michelle decided for this class she was going to teach us how to make “fancy fold” cards.

This is what we made….

This “pocket card” is made using the Crazy About You stamp set.  The card & pocket is made from Vellum and the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits.

This is a really simple, but individual way to make a “card” with a difference.

 

This second card is a bit more tricky and definitely something you need to concentrate on while you are making it.  Probably not the sort of card a beginner would attempt without assistance.  Although this card was challenging it was lots of fun and looks fabulous when completed.

Can you see how this card opens, it is quick tricky really.  The stamp set used for this card is now retired Balloon Bash.

I love how this card looks when it’s open.

Our third and final “fancy fold” card is called a Tent Card.  We used the Love is Kindness stamp set and embossed the front and back of the card for some lovely texture.

This was another card that was fiddly and complicated.

 

These cute little tags slip into the pocket on the back of the card.

Don’t forget to pop back again real soon to seeh what else I have made these past couple of months.

Thanks for visiting.

Tina xo

 

 

Michelle’s class samples part 2

Hi crafty friends

Did you see the gorgeous card which I made at Michelle’s card class that I posted a couple of days ago using the Bokeh Technique?

I hope it inspired you to try the technique yourself.  If so please leave me a comment and a link to your blog if you have one, I would love to see what you have created.

This second card that we made at Michelle’s last Saturday is completly different to the previous one.  This one is bright and fun and all about punches and framelits, which mean I got to play with my most favourite Stampin’ Up! product the Big Shot.

I have already ear-marked this card to send to someone for their birthday.  I know she is going to love it.  I know I do.

Although you can’t see it we started with a base card of Bermuda Bay card stock the layered it with a piece of Birthday Bash DSP which then had a smaller mat of Bermuda Bay and Whisper White card stock added on top.  Before we stuck all those layers together we stamped the greetng from the Celebrate Today stamp set onto the Whisper White mat.  We used the Bermuda Bay and Crushed Curry Stampin’ Write Markers to colour in the greeting.

Next step was to stamp the balloons with Bermuda Bay and Tangerine Tango ink onto the co-ordinating card stock and then die cut out the balloons with the Balloons Framelits Die.  The Tangerine Tango balloon is stuck directly onto the white mat but the Bermuda Bay is popped up with dimensionals.  Whisper White Bakers Twine was tied around the ends of the ballons.  The banners across the balloons were also cut out using the Balloons Framelits Die set and Birthday Bash DSP.  The gorgeous bow attached to the balloons string is made using the new Build A Bow Punch currently available in the Stampin’ Up! Ocassions catalogue.

Finally a few Bermuda Bay sequins were stuck down using Glue Dots to add a bit of bling to this bright and cheery card.

All products are current and can be purchased through my Stampin’ Up! shop by clicking on the shopping trolley icon to the left hand side.

If you would like either an Annual catalogue or an Ocassions catalogue of your own you can either click on the icons of the catalogues to see them via a PDF file or I can post one out to you if you email me with your details.

I love reading your comments so please feel free to leave your thoughts at the end of this post.

I still have one more card to show you from Michelle’s class so don’t forget to come back soon.

Thanks for visiting.

Tina xo

Be My Valentine – water/gel card

Hi Crafty Friends

I want to show you a card I have made this past week.  The stamp set I used is supposed to be a Valentine’s Day themed set, but I decided to use it in a different way.  That’s what I love about card-making with Stampin’ Up! products you don’t necessarily have to use them for the purpose they were originally made for.  You are only limited by your imagination.

I found another fantastic tutorial on Dawn Griffith’s blog which I decided to use for this card.  You can find the tutorial here if you would like to give it a go.

I love how this card turned out, and it feels so squishy you just want to keep playing with it.

I started with Coastal Cabana card stock as my base card, then added a mat of Whisper White card stock then added a mat of Best Day Ever DSP over the top.  This DSP is currently FREE as a Sale-a-Bration gift when you spend $90 or more on Stampin’ Up! products.  I choose this particular design from the pack because it reminded me of bubbles, which is perfect for this card.

These gorgeous little fishies from the Be My Valentine set were stamped on Whisper White card stock with Memento Black ink and then coloured in with Coastal Cabana, Daffodil Delight and Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities.  If this stamp set looks familiar it is, you may remember I posted a card I made a last weekend at the Paperbelles Party Time event using this same stamp set.

See just because it has a particular theme you really can use the images for anything you like.  I just didn’t ink up the Valentine greeting that is part of this stamp.

Once I had coloured the fish I then made the “water” using Dawn’s technique, except I used anti-bacterial hand gel rather than hair gel like in the video, then stuck all the layers together with lots and lots of dimensionals.  I cut out an oval frame using Stampin’ Up!’s Oval Framelits and stamped the greeting in Coastal Cabana ink onto Whisper White card stock and cut out another oval from the Oval Framelits sets to back it.  The greeting is from the Express Yourself stamp set and was attached to the card with dimensionals too.

This is a really heavy card, mainly due to the “water” but also all the layers.  If you were planning on posting a card like this I would suggest you use a padded post bag to protect it.

Want to see a close up of the water?

Cute hey?  I love how not only do you get the bubbles but it even looks like the water is moving with the shadow and light playing with each other.

This is such a easy technique to do, however I do suggest you start with a small amount of gel and add some more if you think you need more.  I think I may have added a little bit too much gel.  I had a 55ml bottle of anti-bacterial hand gel and used about three quarters of it, when in fact I probably could’ve got away with just using about half of the bottle.

None the less I think the card looks fabulous and I love it to bits.  It is really hard to stop playing with that “water”.

I love reading your comments they always make my day so please leave yours at the end of the post.

All products except the gel can be purchased from Stampin’ Up! via my online store by clicking on the shopping trolley to the left hand side.

Thanks for visiting.

Tina xo

 

Baby We’ve Grown – Magic Card

Hi Crafty friends

So have you been keeping up with all my posts this week?  I am definitely on a roll at the moment.  I wonder how long it will last…lol

Last Sunday it was raining again, just for something different here in Cairns 🙂  So what better reason than to sit in my craft room and create.  Like a previous post I choose to use a fabulous video tutorial I foung on Dawn Griffith’s website.  You can find the tutorial here.

However, unlike Dawn I didn’t want to just make a traditional looking card I wanted to do something a little different.  Seeing as I spent all day last Saturday playing with some of the amazing new products currently available in the Ocassions Catalogue I wanted to keep using them.  Playing on Saturday has really whetted my appetite for crafting at the moment.  I’m sure my up up line Shannean Moncrieff will be happy to hear this as this was just one of her objectives for arranging the day.

Firstly, I started by pulling out my pack of Birthday Bash Designer Series Paper and cutting it up with the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits.  I knew exactly what I wanted to create but I have to admit the final project was the fourth attempt at it before I got it perfect.  Everytime I thought I had it right I started to construct it together and found I had made a mistake and had to start again.

Well persistence definitely pays off because on the fourth attempt I finally got it EXACTLY how I wanted it.  I love it when a vision comes to fruition.

Once I had die cut the Mini Treat Bag I then started working on the MAGIC part of the project.  I don’t want to spoil the tutorial so I won’t go into lots of detail, if you like what you see you can always pop on over to Dawn’s blog and follow the video tutorial yourself.

The image is from the Baby We’ve Grown stamp set currently available in the Annual Catalogue and was stamped with Black StazOn ink on Whisper White card stock.  Next I coloured the image in with my Blendabilities using Hello Honey, Bermuda Bay and Calypso Coral.  The greeting is from the Perfect Words stamp set and was also stamped with Black StazOn ink.

Once the card was assembled I cut out some stars using the Stars Framelits and Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral & Hello Honey card stock and attached them to the front.

 

I cut a square from out of Night of Navy card stock using the Square Framelits as well as punched out a Circle Punch in Night of Navy card stock too.  The Crop-o-Dile was used to punch the hole in the tab and I added some Whisper White Bakers Twine.

Well you’ve seen the front and I’ve told you how I made the card do you want to see the MAGIC???

When you pull the tab the MAGIC happens.  What do you think?  I can just see my two little nephews going nuts over this card and trying to work out how it works.

Like I said if you want to know how to do this technique check out Dawn’s tutorial.

If your as impressed with this technique as I am please leave me a comment I would love to hear if you have used this technique and what you created or what you think about it.

All products are currently available from either the Stampin’ Up! annual catalogue or the Ocassions catalogue and can be purchased online through my Stampin’ Up! shop just by clicking on the shopping trolley to the left hand side.

Thanks for visiting.

Tina xo

Butterfly Basics

Hi Friends

I’m back with a brand new stamp set to show you today.  I am totally in love with the new Butterfly Basics stamp set and matching Butterfly Framelits.

If you like vintage, shabby chic, heritage or whatever you like to call this particular design style then you are going to LOVE this stamp set.

I originally started out making this card with the intention of CASEing (Create & Share Everything) a card that I saw Lyn Weiss from the US had made but as I got more into it and things weren’t turning out how they were “supposed to”, I just decided to give up CASEing Lyn’s card and do my own thing.  The background of this card is very similar to Lyn’s but that’s pretty much were the similiarites end.

Want to see???

There is lots going on with the front of the card.  Lets start at the beginning shall we?

I used Crumb Cake card stock to make the base of the card and as you can see I decided to do a “tent fold” card rather than the traditional “side fold”.  I then added a layer of Pink Pirouette card stock.  The next mat is Very Vanilla card stock that has been stamped with some of the fabulous images from Butterfly Basics.  The fern leaf is stamped in Mossy Meadow ink (one of our brand new In-Colours this year), I did a couple nice and dark then stamped the ink off and did some softer ones too.  The honeycomb is stamped in Crumb Cake ink, the pink postage spots are stamped in Pretty in Pink ink (only because Pink Pirouette is so light you couldn’t see them), the scattered spots from the stamp set Gorgeous Grunge are also stamped in Pretty in Pink ink.  The edges are daubed in Crumb Cake ink too.

Next I cut up a smaller mat of Pink Pirouette and Very Vanilla card stock and used my Mossy Meadow and Pretty in Pink Stampin’ Up! Markers to colour in the flower stamp.  Again the honeycomb in the background is Crumb Cake as well as the edges, and the scattered spots and postage spot are Pretty in Pink ink.  I used dimensionals to pop up the flower.

By now you would know that I can’t finish a card until I have decorated the inside, a little trick I picked up from my friend Vicki Burdick in the US.

I just replicated what I had done on the front of the card for the inside, however, when I had finished I kinda thought it was a bit too busy and that any writing inside the card may get “lost”, so I added a Pink Pirouette and Very Vanilla blank mat for the message.

I would love to hear your comments about my card or anything to do with Stampin’ Up!.  All products for this card are current and can be purchased over at my Stampin’ Up! shop, just click on the shopping trolley to the left hand side and your on your way.

If you have any questions about either my card, shopping with Stampin’ Up! or Stampin’ Up! in general please don’t hesitate to contact me, I am more than happy to help.

Well lets hope this rainy weather keeps on so I have more time to craft.

Thanks for visiting

Tina xo

 

A Big Day!!!

Hi Friends

I hope your week has been a good one.   It was one of my nephews birthday on Saturday and it was a pretty special one as he became a teenager.  Yes the big 13!!

My nephew has Asperger’s Syndrome and is quite a handful to care for, which also makes it difficult to pick a present for him.  This year seeing as he was turning 13 I decided to just send him some money and he can decide what to spend it on.  I know he likes to go to the movies quite a lot so maybe that’s what he will do with the money I have sent him.

This is the card I have made for him.

I wanted to make a card that was bright and fun but not too grown up for him, so this is what I created.  I think I met my criteria don’t you?

I used Whisper White and Bermuda Bay card stock, with Daffodil Delight, Bermuda Bay, Real Red and Smoky Slate ink, Black Memento ink was used to stamp the greeting.

The greeting is from the new stamp set Big Day which is available in our current Sale-a-bration catalogue and is FREE when you spend $90 or more. The ink splats are from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set that you can find in our current annual catalgoue.  The two starburst circles are from our Starburst Framelits that are currently available in our annual catalogue too and the silver button and white bakers twine just finish off the card.

As usual I had to decorate the inside of the card, I think it’s starting to become my trademark…:)

As on the front of the card this cute little greeting is from the Big Day stamp set.  I love this new set it has some really cute birthday greetings that should make anyone smile.

I hope my nephew loves his card and spends his money wisely, but then at 13 who is wise????

Thanks for visiting.

Tina xo