Invitations at last!

Asking for input and gathering critiques when you're crafting can be fraught with danger!  Danger may be too strong a word, but suffice it to say that after gathering opinions I realised that you can't please everyone all of the time!

Here's the end result of the quest for the most gorgeous invite.  

I chose the easel card design because the birthday is for someone who has spent a lot of her life involved in artistic pursuits.   I absolutely love the faux silk technique and it's always a hit whether people are receiving it on a handmade creation or learning how to do it in a class.

The Raspberry Tart DSP is now gone......minute's silence please!   A few scraps remain.......ahhhh.  The main colours are Kiwi Kiss (R) and Melon Mambo.   I used Whisper White and a very small amount of Pink Pirouette.   The flowers are stamped from Embrace Life (R) and coloured in either Melon Mambo or Pink Pirouette.

Hope you like it!
Have a great weekend

Karen

Invitations

I have to make some birthday invites so I started playing around with ideas.  I haven't decided what to do yet, but I started the creative invitation mojo by casing something from a previous year's IB&C.

Here it is:

Friends 24-7, Wonderful You, Please Come

I like it because it's simple and elegant.   I wish they'd bring that stamp set back - it's called Wonderful You.  Well, that's the leaves anyway.   The greeting is from Please come, also retired.  The flourishy fleur de ley style stamp is from Friends 24-7.  It's so gorgeous - and current!  The colours on this card are Always Artichoke and Very Vanilla, with inks in Crumb Cake,  Old Olive and Always Artichokee.   I got the lighter green by stamping off first in the Old Olive.  Don't you love the lace - it's in the current mini.  Be quick, it's gone after 31 march.

Here's another one - this one's all mine!:

Perfect Plum Card with Birthday Bakery

This is a completely different style.  I've used the Top Note as in the previous card but punched out the frame and stamped the greeting onto a second piece of punched DSP and adhered it in side the frame.  The Top Note is mounted on dimensionals so you get the depth in the design.   The stamp is from Birthday Bakery, a hostess set and I've coloured it with markers in Tempting Turquoise, Perfect Plum, Old Olive & Regal Rose.  Party This Way is from......Party This Way!   And it's stamped in Early Espresson on Old Olive CS, then hand cut.  The bow is Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon stuck down with a glue dot. 

Happy Friday!
Karen

Mojo Monday 182

This week's mojo sketch is decidedly simple - love that!   It took me no time at all to create this card.  But I don't have Tracy with me this week so I'm afraid there's only my card to look at.   Maybe I'll do another later if I have time.

Here's the sketch:

Here's my version:

Elegant Soiree DSP really sets the stage for this card

I've used Elegant Soiree DSP on this one.  The colours are lovely, if a little surprising:  Basic Grey, Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede and Crumb Cake.  I say surprising because to look at the paper you'd swear (well I would!) that it's Not Quite Navy instead of the grey.  Anyway, once you layer it with grey you can see it, but otherwise it plays tricks with your eyes.  The stamp set is Notably Ornate and that flower - WOW!  That's the Bigz Die Blossom Party.   I only took delivery of it yesterday and it may already be a favourite.  I've run the Baja Breeze square through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice embossing folder - better be quick if you want this because it's in the current mini which finishes on March 31.  The Victoria Crochet Trim is also in the current mini.  I hand wrote the greeting after stamping and punching with the wide oval punch.  I did try it with a stamped greeting first but it seemed a bit lost with those lines so I figured writing would be nicer.

Happy middle of the week!

Karen

One Sheet Wonder or Designer Series Paper?

I saw an idea for making Designer Series Paper on SCS, and thought I'd give it a try.   I guess it's really like doing a one sheet wonder - where you randomly stamp all over a piece of cardstock with various stamps and ink colours to create an effect that you can then cut up into various sizes and shapes, that you use to make a bunch of cards in one go.

I tried it out using similar colours to those on SCS, but mine are Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Cobbler and More Mustard.   I've built up the images by stamping off first on grid paper.  That's where you ink the stamp then stamp it on your grid paper before stamping it repeatedly on your project.  By doing this you achieve different tones of the same colour allowing you to create depth in your image.  Once finished, I sponged the same colours over the whole thing. 

I picked stamps that I thought would work together but they are all from different sets: Pocket Silhouettes, Great Friend & Fresh Cuts.   I've trimmed the cardstock and mounted it onto Cherry Cobbler before layering it onto a piece of More Mustard that I've run through the Elegant Lines Embossing folder with the Big Shot  (can't live without this!).  The card base is Very Vanilla.

So, off you go, find some stamps from different sets, pick a few colours and see what interesting "paper" you can make.  Feel free to post your own pics on your blog and link it back here if you like - or if you don't have a blog, email me the pic and I'll post it here for you.

Thanks for looking
Karen

Pocket Silhouettes & Scoring

This was a very quick card I made using the Pocket Silhouettes set.  The colours are Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black & Whisper White.   I've stamped the main image using a Stamp-a-majig and used my grid paper to get the centre of the square of white cardstock.   The grid paper is fabulous and takes all the guesswork out of the placement - as does the stamp-a-majig.  Call or email me if you'd like to order these items from the current IB&C.

Pocket Silhouettes, Bliss and Scoring

The flower in the centre is from the current Sale-a-Bration set Bliss.   I hand cut it and used dimensionals to pop it up.  

Scoring valley on white card, mountain on black.

You might also notice the scoring detail.   I used my Scor-Pal for this.  But you could also use a ruler and scoring tool or your paper trimmer if you have the kind that holds a scoring blade as well as a cutting blade.   I like the simplicity of the card but felt it needed that scoring detail otherwise it was too plain.  The edges of the whisper white cardstock are sponged in Cherry Cobbler.

Happy Monday!

Mojo Monday 181

It's that time of the week again! Doesn't time fly? Today Tracy & I got together for a crafty day under the guise of demonstrator team training....lol...we did actually talk shop for quite a while (who wouldn't when there's so much going on at Stampin' Up!?), but when it was play time we did a wax resist technique for this week's Mojo Monday.

Here's the sketch:

Yes, there's a lot going on in this sketch. But we were up for the challenge!

And here's our creations: This one's mine - It's Blueberry Crisp DSP with the Two-Step Bird Punch and I've used Marina Mist run through the Polka Dots embossing folder for texture. The scallop circle is that big one....2.75" I think.

This one is Tracy's. She's used Rich Razzlebery DSP from the Brights Stack and RR cardstock. The greeting is so cute on the Modern Label Punch and it's from So Happy For You which is a current SAB set.

Tracy chose the Daffodil Delight ink for the wax resist so that was our starting point in the design. We then deliberated for a considerable time, drank tea, ate lemon cake and bounced ideas off eachother. Needless to say we had a lot of fun and probably each ended up with something so different than we would normally do mainly because Mojo challenges can be just that......challenges!

Hope you enjoyed looking & have made some time for yourself today to do craft.

Cheers
Karen....and Tracy!

Gift Bag

I think packaging for gifts is almost as important as the gift itself.  Some people just screw up the wrapping paper and throw it away.  But not me!  And that particularly goes for gift bags.  I love them!  You can also re use them so it's a nice recycling opportunity,  but if something is especially pretty AND it's been handmade, then it makes you feel extra special.  With that in mind, I made this......

I've used the Something Sweet Stamp Set on this bag & I've cheated - it was a card front that I made ages ago but was a perfect finishing touch to the Pink Pirouette DSP.

You may have seen the bag style before, because I've made quite a lot of them.   They are incredibly easy using 2 sheets of 12" x 12" paper and some score lines - there's NO CUTTING involved!   I also like the way the Jumbo Brads make nice supports for the holes that the ribbon handles go through, and if you're lucky enough to have a Crop-a-dile then you'll know how easy that is to do.  (Call me to order one if you haven't got one - you'll wonder how you ever did without it!)  They're only $54.95 and will circle punch through everything from paper & cardstock to chipboard and tin.  You can also easily set eyelets and all sorts of brads without disturbing the peace or hammering your fingers flat!

Have a super weekend
Karen

Sale-a-Bration Punch Bunch

The cards I've made here combine this month's technique class, Wax Resist, with the Punch Bunch set which you get for FREE during Sale-a-bration (expires 31 March).

I like the way you can use the stamps with ink or markers - or both if you like to highlight a particular part of the stamp as I've done in the Happy Birthday HB card.  Three of the stamps in the set (there's 5 altogether) co-ordinate with our punches which makes them ideal not only as a greeting, but also as a feature.

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Casing the IB&C 138

I've talked alot about finding your Mojo and how you can use ideas and other card examples to get your inspiration.   But there are days when you want - or need - to create something but you just can't think of anything "new".   I felt exactly like this today and so I decided to work my way through the current IB&C.   I probably won't get through the whole thing before SU releases the new one in September, but I'll make a start!

This one is quite lovely and appeals to me because of the layered scalloped cardstock.   It uses scraps again - yes, I'm on a roll here, and you can try all sorts of colour combos to suit yourself.

IB&C 2011 page 138 - check it out!

I reached for my bag of red and pink scraps, and voila, card done in a flash.  Little embarrassed to say I have ALL the supplies they used in the catty, although I did change the greeting...LOL.

Don't forget when using a dark card base that you'll need to put an insert in that you can write or stamp your message on.   And it's another opportunity to add some pretty touches.   I'm really fond of the Sale-a-Bration set So Happy For You, and as well as the greeting I used it inside the card and on the envelope.

Happy 1st of March....and autumn, one of my favourite seasons.
Karen

Mojo Monday 180

Surprise!   I made my Mojo Monday project a lot quicker this week. 

Now, this was a challenge on steroids for me.  I opted to do the circular card.  May never do it again, but at least I had a go!   I really like it despite it taking me ages.  I did the base according to Julee Tillman's instructions here.  That was the super easy part!   I used the Scallop Circle for the Big Shot too, by the way.

The tricky bit was cutting the smaller circle layers and getting the scallop top on the DSP.   I used my Circle Scissor Plus which I'm still not very good at, but I did cut 3 perfect circles out of DSP and I must stress that DOTTO repositionable adhesive is vital to the success of each circle.  The way it rubs off with an adhesive eraser is also a huge bonus.  No wasted sticky paper!

The Mojo sketch is a tad fussy for me - I like the results, but I generally prefer simpler designs.  I also combined a lot of techniques which added to the complexity.   Anyway, take a look and let me know what you think.

Mojo 180

Supplies (you may need to sit down, there's a lot!)
Stamp Set:  Bliss (Sale-a-Bration 2011)
Cardstock:  Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Ink:  Baja Breezze, Soft Suede, Basic Grey
Paper:  Elegant Soiree DSP, Brown packing paper (for flower)
Big Shot, Scallop Circle Die, Circle Scissor Plus, 1.25" circle punch, Scallop Border Punch, Crop-a-dile
Rhinestone Brad, Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon, Smooch Spritz in gold

Cottage Wall & Cottage Garden

I received a gorgeous gift from my friend Susie wrapped in the most beautiful handmade bag with card attached.   Susie is very talented and currently setting up her own  blog  (which I'll link to when she's ready), but in the meantime I wanted to share her creation with you here.

 

Cottage Wall DSP was a favourite of mine and Susie loved it so much she made all her birthday invites with it last year.   She's a master at hand cutting and takes tons of time to add details to all her designs.  This project is no exception.   

The stamp set is Baroque Motifs with Vintage Vogue on the bag.  

Don't you love the flowers on the card?   Susie stamped them on vellum, cut them out and layered them.  And the colours!  Oh I love Old Olive and Rich Razzleberry.   Tying the ribbons to the handle are a lovely touch and finish the bag perfectly.

Thanks Susie - I LOVE IT!

And of course, it has the sparkly bling that are typically Susie - style in the goregeous rhinestone brads.  The bottom of the card also has purple rhinestones - stunning!