double embossing - not that easy...

I have seen these double embossing cards a lot. Never tried them myself though.

Well, it wasn't as easy as I thought and I was not able to smoothen out the first embossing

I still think the card is pretty, but I had hoped that the second embossing would have smoothened the first out a bit more.

So what I did was:
1. stamp the images and coloured the flower.
2. embossed the whole base
3 embossed the frame around the flower using a cardboard shim (google video's on this)

the cardboard shim was supposed to smoothen the first embossing  - well... didn't work for me and my BigShot - I'm not giving up though - I will figure this out - one day :-)

Spring must be here - butterflies keep appearing on my cards...

This card is an inspiration from several other demonstrators. The inside is the WOW part and that was inspired by Debbie Blake and Rachel Wellard.

Rachel had used thie Spiral Flower die with white card stock inside a card where as Debbie had used the clear window sheets inside a glass dome. So I combined those two. I used the Spiral Flower die with window sheets and adhered it inside the card.

Now since it is a bit harder to get that window sheet to stick - I adhered it with brads to make sure it stays put. I just made sure the brads were hidden at the front by a butterfly and at the back with the backing cardstock.



The butterflies are done with the two different sized punches and with the Beautiful Wings Embosslits.

So when you open the card, it seems like the butterflies are flying inbetween the card - pretty - eh?

Vintage post card

Seems to be a vintage week for me...

 

I used to do a lot of these type cards, multiple layers, not lined evenly and edges roughed and inked. I haven't done those in a long while but I see them all the time on the Stampin'Connection so I figured, what better stamp to use on this than the Post Card background stamp.

The colours on this card are Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Wild Wasabi and Very Vanilla.

I masked the stamped post card image but left a little cut out on the left side and stamped over it with En Francais stamp. Then I used the Field Flowers and Butterflies stamp sets to create the images.

Vintage take on wheels

I have never been super excited about the stampin'wheels. I'm always worried, that I don't get the image inked evenly or that my wheeling does not go straigth. I have learned, that some people actually take the stamp off from the wheel base and mout it on clingfoam and use them as regular stamps - I haven't gone that far yet, might give it a try with an older wheel just to see if it actually works.

 

I was inspired by a card I saw on Stampin'Connection (Stampin'Up! demonstrators exclusive web-site). The original card was using more black and white in it's colouring but since I don't have any B&W pattern papers, I had to use my imagination with the colours. So I was looking for "vintage" style papers and took my colours from those.

The background is embossed with Pretty Print Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (first available in 2013 Holiday Catalogue). The colours in this card are: Baked Brown Sugar, Calypso Coral and Very Vanilla. Both the pattern papers are from Etcetera Desinger Series Paper pack. I added some Baked Brown Sugar ruffle ribbon and Lace ribbon. The stamp is from a wheel "shop around".

 

Although I like the card, I'm tempted on doing it again with maybe more subtle colours, maybe more in the line of Crumb Cake/Sahara Sand and Blushing Bride...

Happy Congratulations on white

This stamp set was one of the first ones I wanted to order, when I saw the Spring Occasions Catalogue from Stampin'Up!.

 

It is SO easy to make cards with it.

This one was inspired by Justin Krieger. I just love his creations.

His original card had two streamers of lanterns going across the card - I wanted to use just one, basically I just wanted to see how it looks and I I manage to replicate his creation :-)

The lanterns are stamped with VersaMark on Vellum and then heat embossed with white embossing powder. Now a word of caution: Do NOT overink your stamp with VersaMark. The grooves in the lanterns are so narrow and shallow, they easily get filled and then the result is a solid white blob (trust me on this - I have a vellum sheet full of white blobs waiting to be used on something :-)

So, be gentle with the VersaMark. I punched the lanterns out with a RETIRED (yes I know, I'm sorry...) 3/4" circle punch. I'm pretty sure that the circle framelits has a matching size in it - or you can cut it out with scissors.

The gold stamping is done with Gold Encore ink and gold embossing powder (both on the background lanternstamp and the sentiment.

The card base is WhisperWhite and I mounted the stamped 4"x5-1/4" Whisper White piece on a slightly larger Brushed Gold CardStock.

Picture perfect coffee with friends - say what??

I'm always having hard time figuring out the titles for my postings.

The following two cards have something to do with the title - well - I guess it helps if your title has something to do with the content of your posting - eh?

 

The first card is using two of my TOP sets. Banner Blast from the Sale-A-Bration (I surely hope Stampin'Up! will bring this set, or very similar, in their upcoming Annual catalogue - I would assume so, since the banner punch will be available in that catalogue).

The second part that I just love is the Peachy Keen stamp set and the matching On Film Framelit set - I actually learned that some of the dies in that kit are not framelits, but thinlits. And what is the difference, you may ask? - Framelits JUST cut, whereas Thinlits also emboss!! So you are actually supposed to layer them differently on your cutting pad too. The Framelits are layered: magnetic platform (or your regular BigShot multipurpose platform too), card stock, framelit (cutting side downwards) and cutting pad on top. Whereas the Thinlits are supposed to face UPWARDS so the layers are: platform, cutting pad, THINLIT facing cuttingside up, cardstock, cutting pad.

And did you know that you can also INK your thinlits!!  I actually did that on my camera! I inked the thinlit with Calypso Coral - you just have to make sure your cardstock does not move - otherwise it can be very messy :-) But you can also get the similar effect with core'dinations papers!

Oh and there is a third favourite on this card too - the Hardwood stamp :)

The second card I cased from someone - I just forgot to write the name down (sometimes I just get so excited about the design and forgot to write the name down).

This one has an embossed ampersand shape at the background. Mine didn't pop up enough, so I did this thin "stitching" with my marker on the edges. I wonder if it would turn out better using core'dinations paper....

The splatters are from Gorgeus Grunge set using Crumb Cake, Real Red and Crisp Cantaloupe inks. The coffee cup is stamped with Early Espresso (twice on Whisper white and once on the pattern paper. The lid and the pattern are cut out and mounted on top of the full image of the cup. The straw is a striped paper cut in an angle (both the straw and the "sleeve" are from Fresh Prints paper stack.

Hearts and butterlies

This was one of my favourite Valentine's Day cards. I cased the idea, changed colours and added some things - but I cannot recall who did the original!

 

The colours are Blushing Bride, Coastal Cabana, Crumb Cake and Pistachio Pudding. The punched out hearts (with small heart punch) are from 3 different paper packs: Retro Fresh from Occasions Catalogue (Coastal Cabana), Sweet Sorbet from Sale-A-Bration (Pistachio Pudding) and Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack from Occasions Catalogue (Coastal Cabana and Crumb Cake). Oh and there are couple of blushing bride card stock hearts there too.

The stamped hearts are from "Hearts a flutter" set - all stamped with Blushing Bride. The sentiment "kisses" is from a photopolymer set, as well as the arrow piercing the heart.

This would be one of those cards that you could easily make several fairly quickly - For me the longest time went for choosing the colours and papers :)

This second card is SO easy and the idea is cased from Shannon Jaramillo. If I recall, she used pool party and crumb cake as her butterfly colours. I just cut two different sized butterflies with the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die using two designer series papers (both from the Sweet Sorbet set from the Sale-A-Bration catalogue).
And since the larger butterfly has Crisp Cantaloupe as it's main colour, I chose that as my card base colour also.

The sentiment is stamped with Sahara Sand, but the stamp is not from Stampin'Up! It wishes "happy nameday" in Finnish (yes, we celebrate namedays too!). Most Finnish names are in our annual calendar. Each day has usually several names - names that are alike. My name day is October 13th. On your name day you get some small presents and you usually have a cake in the evening. I LOVE namedays - it's so easy to check when people have their namedays - just open your calendar, whereas with Birthdays you need to know when a person was born!

I know that namedays are celebrated also in Russia and other Scandinavian countries. I'm not sure if Germany celebrates them too... I guess I should do some research on that :-)

Two WOW cards - both tweaked cases

The first card is cased from Nikki Spencer. Her original card was square, and I don't do square cards. So I had to adjust the layout a bit. I also used different sentiment and punches and created the leafs with Autumn Accents Bigz die.

The background is stamped with hardwood background stamp (Crumb Cake on Sahara Sand). the doily is cut with Paper Doily Sizzlits L die (which I'm having hard time getting out smooth - I guess I have to try to add some chims on my cutting pads....)

The leafs are cut out fromo Pear Pizzazz (I know they look brighter on the picture) and the flower is Very Vanilla cut with the new Spiral Flower Originals die (I actually have two spirals there to make it fuller). I also spritzed it with some Crisp Cantaloupe to give some texture.

This card is definately not for mailing - the flower would get crushed :)
Oh and a tip for the flower - use your bone folder to "break" the fibres in the paper - otherwise the flower will be too stiff and have wrinkles on it.

 This second card is cased from Elizabeth Gross. I loved how she had partially embossed the butterfly (from Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die). And did you know that vellum turns white when you emboss it!!!

I LOVE the use of Delicate Details Lace Tape on this card - it is SO easy to use and makes a huge impact on this card!!!

Elizabeth had used a different sentiment and also different ribbon. Her card was more monochromatic (I think her ribbon was either white or beige toned). I felt I wanted some POP for the card and thought Gumball Green would still be "natural" for this card (rather than bright red).

I just LOVE this particular Designer Series Paper from the Sale-A-Bration "Sweet Sorbet" set.

You know how days sometimes just fly by....

Blushing Bride, Hearts a Flutter

Well that's the story of my life from the past couple of weeks. I have been creating and caseing several cards and had all the intentions to post them here gradually - well... here we are, several days overdue :-)

The first one is a case from Natasha Schwecke. I just loved this card. She used a different heart stamp and different colour card stock and some different embellishments, but the idea is from her. I tried it with different colours too.

I embossed the Hardwood background stamp with white craft ink and white embossing powder and then rubbed some Crumb Cake ink on top of it. I also inked the doilie with the same ink.

Here is a selection of different colour versions (both pictures are of the same cards - the lighting for my photos was not the best).

The top left is Pool Party with white embossing and the doiley is inked with Sahara Sand. It also has some Crisp Cantaloupe. The top right is Crisp Cantaloupe embossed with white and the doiley inked with Sahara Sand.

The bottom left is the same as the first picture on this page - blushing bride. The bottom right is Coastal Cabana embossed with white and Crumb Cake instead of Sahara Sand.

From left: Coastal Cabana,Crumb Cake / Blushing Bride,Crumb Cake / Pool Party, Sahara Sand, Crisp Cantaloupe / Crisp Cantaloupe, Sahara Sand, Pool Party 

Say It Your Way - new personalized stamps

Add your own flair to your special occasion, add a special touch to your memory keeping or help your business stand out from the crowd.

 

All this is possible with Stampin’ UP!’s newly released Custom Personalized Photopolymer Circle Monogram Stamps.

You can use it for:

·        Address stamp

·        Thank you

·        From the classroom of (for a teacher gift)

·        From the kitchen of

·        Made with love

·        This book belongs to

·        From the desk of

·        Just married

·        Save the date

·        Baby Announcements

·        Gift Tags

·        Custom Greetings for cards

·        Scrapbooking

·        Business Promotion

Here are some ideas I was working on earlier