Darling Stamp & Scrap Club February Project for Sale-a-Bration

It's back to school & back to work for most of us this week, but don't despair!  Pop along to Darling Stamp & Scrap Club on Saturday 8 February and make this gorgeous project:

These are all the rage right now, and the opportunities are endless.  I'll give you full instructions on how to make this "card in a box" and you can customise it for your needs.  A supply list is provided on booking.

Call 0427 063 376 or email me on kecumming@gmail.com to reserve your place.  Hurry, space is limited.
Cheers
Karen

Owl's That?

Continuing with my little honeycomb shapes expose......

I'm not sure if he's cute or a bit spooky.  I think his eyes might be a bit large and maybe too low!   But he was really easy to make.  The trick with this one is to punch out about 18 shapes and cut the ears and feet off all except 2 or 3 of them.   You start with a piece that has the ears attached, then layer all the ones without ears, and finally finish with a piece that has the ears.   Then when you fan out the shape you'll have ears on both sides of the head....funny eh?!

I did a bit of sponging in More Mustard and Early Espresso but it's hard to see in the pic.   The branch is from the Two Step Bird Punch & the large vanilla eyes are from the Owl punch.  I drew the centres with black marker and added a bit of light with a white gel pen.

Happy mid week!   Hope you are enjoying this spring-like weather.
Cheers
Karen

Up, Up & Away

Here's a balloon made using the honeycomb technique.  This one uses the 1 1/4" circle punch.  Like yesterday's, it's a lot of punching and uses around 18 - 20 circles.

The trick with these is to make sure you use lightweight paper - our DSP is perfect, but you could also use tissue paper or that fabulous brown packing paper that comes in our Stampin' Up! deliveries!

Happy Tuesday!
Karen

Honeycomb Shapes

Darling Stamp & Scrap club's technique demo this month was honeycomb shapes.

This is a technique that I've used before for Christmas ornaments, but usually I've only made them with 3 or 4 punched pieces.

These use a lot of layers - the apple is around 20 -25 punches, but it's so gorgeous it was worth the effort.   The punch I used is called the Full Heart.   You snip off about 5mm from the bottom of each one before you stick them together.  So cute!

I'll pop back later with a couple more, and you can also find another sample on my facebook page.

Hope your week is off to a good start!

Stamped Acrylic Block Background Technique

Good Morning!

Today I thought I'd share the technique we did at Darling Stamp & Scrap club on Saturday.

It's really simple, but the results are many and no two projects turn out the same.

Basically, you use your acrylic blocks to ink up and stamp onto cardstock.   I like to use varying sizes for interest, but the technique is the same regardless.   Choose two ink colours - I find a light and dark shade of the same colour work best.   Ink up the block with the lighter colour first, then ink the edges in the dark colour.   Mist lightly with water and stamp onto neutral coloured cardstock.   Done!  The amount of water will determine the depth of colour and the "pattern" you create.   I think you get a better result if you work on a soft surface - a foam pad or mouse pad works well, otherwise you can just stack a few sheets of grid paper or scraps and work on those.

Yes, I do attempt a scrapbook page from time to time!

I love how different these all turned out.

Probably the most elegant of them all.

Instead of ink pads, I used markers on the block for this.  Always start with the lighter marker first so you don't dirty the tips because it's important that there's no gaps.

This one is very random!

I won't list all the colours and supplies for my samples, but feel free to email me if you want details of a particular project.





Stay warm & dry on this chilly wet Tuesday!
Cheers
Karen

The Right Combination

Sometimes, you just have to reach for a colour you don't normally work with (or like), because it's good for your creativity.   Yes, you may end up with a project that you're still not overly fond of, because that colour doesn't sit well, or, you could find yourself thoroughly loving the look, and hopefully trying that colour out a bit more in the future.

This is the case for me with River Rock.  Not quite sure what it is about the colour, it's a little yellowy and "dirty" looking perhaps?   Anyway, after making this card, I've decided that paired with black and white, it's rather elegant.

I guess this card also satisfies a clean and simple theme, and it uses minimal supplies and has no extra embellishments so it was really quick to make.  I think I'll whip up a batch to use to thank my customers for their orders.
If you'd like to see more of this technique I'll be demonstrating it on Saturday at Darling Stamp & Scrap Club.  Visit the DSNS page here.

Happy Thursday!
Karen

The Beauty of Flowers

On holiday recently, I took this picture of a climber on a pagola. Stunning!   I love the rich colour and the beautiful shape of the petals.   These flowers also start out as tight little buds that look like berries.  Isn't nature clever?   Interestingly, a lot of the flowers were full of bees - some had as many as 3 bees collecting pollen deep inside each of them.  It was so cute to see them popping out!

At our last Darling Stamp & Scrap Club we were treated to a demonstration of paper flowers by Michelle Hughes, fellow SU! demonstrator and PaperLicious team member.   Michelle is a whiz at making gorgeous flowers and showed us some lovely techniqes and ideas for projects.

Kristen, long time friend and fellow crafter came to club and learned how to do the flowers with the idea of using them to decorate boxes.   She's used some SU! DSP to make these.   Aren't they lovely?   The colours are Concord Crush and Real Red.     

That's the beauty of club.  We share the love!  Why don't you come along next month and see what we're up to?  Visit the Darling Stamp & Scrap page for more details.

Have a good weekend.

Karen

Darling Stamp And Scrap Club

Just popped in quickly to tell you that Darling Stamp and Scrap club was lovely today.   We had a couple of new ladies join us - welcome to Catarina and Hester.  I hope you both enjoyed your crafting time and will come back next month for more chit chat, craft and cake!  

Gloria and Susan are both PaperLady class gals but this was their first DSNS too.   Oh the creative juices were flowing!   Avril, Susie & Claudia were crafting up a storm with lots of Christmas cards made for this years armed forces donation.  And Claudia and Lana were such sweeties picking up coffee, setting up afternoon tea and generally helping out - thanks girls.   Towards the end of the afternoon we had a drop in from Karen & Kate.  Kate has a great eye for colour, as does Susie and they both helped collate supplies for our kits. 

What's more, today was our first dry DSNS - it has rained, no poured, every week!   I was thrilled to pack away a dry banner for the first time.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pics.....sorry.....so here's a couple more from Convention.  

Please don't forget the rules - these designs are not mine and as they were on a board I can't tell you whose they are so please credit SU Convention Demonstators 2011 if you copy!  Thanks for your understanding.

Pop back tomorrow to find out how you can win a fantastic prize!

Karen