Masculine cards from last week

I had a lot of fun working on these masculine cards. I got some inspiration from Pinterest for them and I had the HARDEST time not to bling them up!

The first card was inspired by Lisa Young. It is Whisper White card stock layered with dimentionals on thick Whisper White card stock. The stamp sets are Work of Art and Traveler.

I first inked the larger watercolour stamp from Work of Art with Smokey Slate and spritzed the inked stamp with water. I used a little bit too much water on this card, but it turned out great anyways. I stamped the same stamp 3 times without re-inking it. Then I took the smaller watercolour stamp from the same set, inked it with Emerald Envy and spritzed it with water, and stamped it 3 times without re-inking it.

The camera is from the Traveler stamp set and it, as well as the sentiment from Work of Art, are stamped with Archival Basic Black. 

The second card is using 'Hardwood' and 'Stylized Birthday' stamp sets. The card base is Crumb Cake, the layer is Delightful Dijon and the top is Very Vanilla card stock. I made a template from printer paper (you need the layer to be thinner than card stock, so that you get a nice stamped background). I stamped the Happy Birthday greeting on that layer paper, and then tore it out, trying to keep the shape fairly rounded. Then I layered the template on the Very Vanilla card stock and stamped the Hardwood image with Mint Macaron ink. Then stamped the Stylized Birthday with Delightful Dijon. I used the 1/2" burlap ribbon and tied a knot half way, and adhered it to the back of the two layers.

The third card was inspired by Amanda Bates, and uses Wetlands stamp set and the card base is Crumb Cake, and the second layer is Whisper White. The top layer is from Serene Scenery Designer Series Paper Stack. The way you stamp this is you position your top piece (Serene Scenery) on top of the card base (leave the second layer of Whisper White out at the stamping point). Make sure you don't move your pieces while stamping the birds and the grass (you may want to use a small piece of snail tape to keep them together). The birds, the grass and the sentiment were stamped using Early Espresso. Once the images are stamped, layer the top piece on the Whisper White card stock and attache it with dimentionals on the card base.

My favourite card from this class

The fourth card is made on Crumb Cake card base and layered with Whisper White card stock. I first stamped the larger swirls from Swirly Bird stamp set using Crumb Cake ink. Then stamped the smaller swirls from the same set using Rich Razzleberry ink. The splatters are from the same stamp set and are stamped both with Crumb Cake and Early Espresso. The greeting is Stylized Birthday stamp and stamped with Early Espresso. The ribbon is Rich Razzleberry from the 3/8" Ribbon Trio Pack in the Holiday Catalogue.

When we had the class, I offered the girls the option to use other colours than Rich Razzleberry. The ones I had matching ribbon were Delightful Dijon, Mint Macaron and Bermuda Bay. And everyone chose a different colour! I also made one using Bermuda Bay.

Halloween cards from the class

Finally got to post the halloween cards we made at the Halloween Card Class on October 13th.

The stamp set used in this one is Cookie Cutter Halloween. I heat embossed the skeleton with VersaMark and white embossing powder on Basic Black card stock, which was then mounted on a piece of Halloween Night Specialty Designer Series Paper. The other pattern paper layers on this card are also from that same set. 


The 'swirly bits' are cut with Swirly Scribbles thinlits, and the bat is punched first with the Elegant Butterfly punch, and then the bottom of the butterfly is punched out with the Bitty Butterfly punch, to make it look like a bat.

The second card is also using the Swirly Scribbles thinlits. Here you can cut both pumpkins at the same time (the smaller circle fits inside the large circle centre, so you have no waste!. The leafs are stamped with Swirly Bird stamp set using Emerald Envy ink. The background splatter is from Swirly Bird stamp set and the sentiment is from Work of Art stamp set and I used Emerald Envy and Sahara Sand inks.

The third card uses again Cookie Cutter Halloween stamp set. The background smutch is painted with a paint brush and Crushed Curry ink refill. The leaves are cut out using Leaflets Framelits. The orange leaf is then embossed with Woodgrain embossing folder, and the Delightful Dijon maple leaf is texturized by breaking the card stock apart.

This creates a 'suede' feel and look to the card stock. This is how I did it:

1. cut out your shape
2. use a bone folder to break the paper fibres by 'curling' the piece in different directions. This curling motion will break the fibres, and you will see that the paper layers start to peel apart. Just be careful with your curling, specially smaller parts may break. Even my leaf had some tears, but I made sure those parts are covered with the other leaf.
3. once your layers start peeling, gently tear the layers apart.

And the last card uses the same Cookie Cutter Halloween stamp set and the Halloween Night Specialty Designer series paper. The sentiment is stamped with Labeler Alphabet stamp set, and the background behind the scarecrow is stamped with a stamp from Butterfly Basics.

Both scarecrows are coloured with Blender Pens.

Work of Art - that's what this stamp set truly is!

You might have seen me use this stamp set fairly often. It's just that it is so versatile. I love the brush stroke look of the stamps!

The colours used in the card are So Saffron, Tangelo Twist, Lost Lagoon, Tip Top Taupe and Memento Mall Black ink.

This card was inspired by Marsha Lavoie and we made this at my friends party. My first draft was this rounded corner one (I personally don't care for the rounded corner look, but I happened to have the So Saffron layer pre-cut and pre-rounded, so I figured I'd use that and ended up rounding all the layers.)

So I decided to make a second version, same, but using straight corners and I also switched the orange layer into Tangelo Twist (the original was Pumpkin Pie, but I realized I don't have a new foam ink pad version of that same ink, so I needed to switch the colour)

The third version was made to display the new Thick Whisper White card stock. It's a really nice material to use as a card base without any layers.

Other stamp sets used in these cards are Sprinkles of Life (greeting) and Wetlands (birds).

Summer is almost here........ NOT!!

okay, this duo of cards perfectly suits today's weather!

Few days ago it seemed like the spring was here, and I could actually see patches of grass on our front yard. Then Saturday happened - and wet snow. So the ground was again covered. 

And not to stop there, last night it got really cold, so now we are at -18 C with wind chill making it feel like -24 C

cased from Peggy Outen

So, here to display the weather changes with two cards, both using 'work of art' stamp set.

The colours in the original were a bit different. I just went with different shades of blue.

I love this card with the snow man!! I got this idea from Pinterest.

The hat is with Wild Washabi, eyes and mouth with Smoky Slate, nose with Tangelo Twist and the scarf with Real Red.

The face should have been a bit higher, I feel like he is drowning in his scarf ;-)

More Xmas cards

Here are couple of the Christmas cards from last weekends card class

The first one is done using Work of Art stamp set, Garden Green ink, golden Encore ink and gold embossing powder and a star punched out from champagne glitter paper.

The second card is based on Soft Sky and using washi tape and embellishments. The image is stamped with Silver Encore ink and embossing powder

I'll be posting more ideas in the next few days.

Oh and wait until you see the Spring Occasions catalogue and sale-a-bration catalogue.... Oh my!!!!

Easy peasy pumpkins

So, it is that time of the year, when pumpkins start appearing everywhere. They are already in front of all the grocery stores and I cannot wait to carve mine!!! you know, we don't carve pumpkins in Finland, well we don't really even celebrate Halloween! In Finland kids go around the towns, door to door, during easter time, handing out decorated willow branches and dressed up as easter witches (well now a days  boys tend to wear more halloween type costumes, but when I was a kid, even boys dressed up as witches with skirts and all :-)

Now these are the easiest pumpkins you'll ever 'carve'

I just used the Work of Art stamp set. the pumpkins are stamped with Pumpkin Pie and the stem is with Mossy Meadow (just coloured part of the tall straight stamp and stamped id on top of the pumpkin.

Pumpkin Pie anyone???

Lovely as a Tree, encore

Here is an other card created using Lovely as A Tree stamp set. This is one of my favourite sets. It has so many usages. You can create fall cards, birthday cards, Xmas cards and summer cards with it.

The other very versatile set is Work of Art, and I used that as the background stamp for the tree. The colours are: Crumb Cake, Soft Sky and Pear Pizzazz. The tree is stamped with Early Espresso

Happy Canada Day

I saw several cards made with "work of art" stamp set for July 4th, which got me thinking of a Canadian version. My dilemma was the maple leaf. Then one night I woke up and though - heart... why not use a heart to make the leaf. So here is my take on "flag card" using the Work of Art stamp set.


Oh and keep posted on Friday for my July 4th card - using the same stamp set :-)

The greeting is from "hip hip hooray" set

Have a great Canada Day!

hey... what about the promised Zentangling?????


Oh and I know I promised new Zentangling cards... what can I say??? I did do the zentangling parts (and I have a picture to prove it) but just didn't get the cards done - sorry :-)

Zentangling Blended Bloom

I happened to run into a entangling sample by Lydia Fiedler, and I just had to try it. Unfortunately I didn't have a sharp enough marker (a fellow demonstrator suggested using the Project Life marker, mine was just your regular office version).



All the Zentangling samples I have seen, are beautiful. I think mine became a bit too busy and I'm not at all sure if I have the patience to sit still long enough to do all the zentanging :-)

My card's background is done with Work of Art stamp set.





Here is Lydia's Zentangling tutorial
Enjoy and have fun!

Blended Bloom and blendabilities

This was my "first" stamp to use the new blendabilities pens

The polaroid frame is made with core'dinations paper, but you can easily use any natural tone card stock to achieve the same look. I rubbed some early espresso ink on it with a sponge to bring out the texture.

So far I only have the Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Naturals - colour choices. so I opted to use the naturals on this flower. I kind of like how it turned into this pale pink tone.

The subtle background on the card is made with "work of art" stamp set using pool party, crumb cake and early espresso inks (I stamped off the card several times before stamping the faded image on the card base.

I also coloured some of the Natural 5/8" Chevron ribbon with the natural blendabilities markers - I really LOVE how they turned out!

Work of Art - different take

This time I tried to do a more abstract look. I cased this look from internet (I didn't find a name, so sorry for not giving the credit to whom it belongs)

The colours on this are: Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso, So Saffron, Coastal Cabana, Tangerine Tango, Crumb Cake. The word bubble is from HipHipHooray kit






I have to admit - mine didn't turn out the way I wanted it. I should have used lighter colours or stamped the Coastal Cabana once off to make the colours more subtle. My excuse (heh heh) was that I have limited colour selection with me. I will redo this with more subtle blues or pinks when I'm back home.

Here again the image of the stamp set and how the wood blocks fit into the case :-)

Work of Art by Stampin'Up!

Work of Art - my new favourite stamp set!

This is a new stamp set from the new catalogue (2014-2015) and it's going to be one of my favourites. Why?

It has some greetings, it can be used to create backgrounds with other sets and to create your own pattern paper, it can be used to create flowers (thanks for the idea belongs to Maria Leon-Villanueva).

The way I (and I assume also Maria) created the narrow 'swoshes' on the flowers, was to colour the edges of the stamp with a marker and stamp on top of the base colour (in this case with Tangerine Tango over So Saffron). The stems of the tulips are done by colouring the edge of the largest 'swosh' with a new in-colour marker Mossy Meadow.

 The heart is done with Real Red and the "you" again with Mossy Meadow.

The pattern paper is from "Moonlight" Designer Series Paper Stack and the colours in this stack are from the new in-colours.

I frayed the burlab ribbon by cutting the finished edges off and pulling out strands of burlap from both top and bottom and also from the ends.

And this final image is not only to show all the stamps from this stamp set but also to show how you place them back in the box (when you buy woodmounted stamps). 
And I have to say, I highly recommend the woodmounted version for this set since you will be using them all and a lot :-)