I scream for ice cream!

Okay, my FAVOURITE treat is... you guessed it... ice cream! I love Italian Gelatto and I find Finnish ice cream is pretty close - Gelatto is milk based and also in Finland you get a much larger variety of milk based ice cream (rather than cream based).

So, to get back to crafting... I just loved making these two cards - both with ice cream ;-)

The colours on on the first one are Rose Red, Whisper White, Soft Suede and Crumb Cake. The patterned paper is from Love Blossoms Designer Series Paper Pack (from the new Occasions catalogue) and the stamp set is Sprinkles of Life. 
The Ice cream part is punch out with the matching punch set. I also used a little bit of 'the Wink of Stella' on the ice cream highlight spots to add some sparkle

The second card has definitely more layers. This card was cased from Carolyn King.

The colours on this one are Whisper White, Mint Macaroon, Pink Pirouette, Tip Top Taupe, Delightful Dijon and Cherry Cobbler. The stamp set again is Sprinkles of Life and the pattern papers are from Love Blossoms and Go Wild designer series Patterned paper stacks.
I also used the Happy Heart Embossing folder (on Whisper White card stock) and added some sparkle with the Wink of Stella)

Zoo Babies - My favourite kid's birthday card stamp!

I just love this stamp set!
I have here 3 different cards made by using this set.

The first card was inspired by Susan Hornand is also using the new Balloon Celebrations stamp set and matching punch.

The colours on this card are: So Saffron, Delightful Dijon, Smokey Slate, Bermuda Bay and Calypso Coral.

The 'fox' is actually a designer series paper from Sweet Li'l things




The second card was cased from Stasia Sloma and is using the Go Wild Designer Series Paper stack. 

The rhino is stamped using Tip Top Taupe and the zebra is stamped with Memento Black ink. The greeting is an Expressions Natural Elements embellishment inked with Tip Top Taupe.

The third card is also using Sweet Li'l things Designer Series Paper and the colours on this card are Island Indigo, Delightful Dijon, Blue Sky.

I stamped the giraffe with Delightful Dijon and the greeting with Island Indigo. Then I used my paper snips and cut roughly around the giraffe's head (be careful not to cut 'into the circle' (might help if you punch out the shape from vellum paper and use that as a template). 

Once you have a rough cut around the head, push the image through your punch (I used the 2-1/2" circle) and help the giraffes head through the centre, so that it does not get cut. Then punch out the shape. You can also do this with framelits - just lift the part you don't want to get cut on top of the framelit.

Valentine's Day greetings

I was looking forward to this 'going global' stamp set from the new Occasions 2016 catalogue - and the matching designer series paper and embossing folder.

Then when I finally went to make a card (cased from Carole Parsons) I realized I'M MISSING A 2" CIRCLE PUNCH!!! No, it was not stolen - I HAVE NEVER ORDERED ONE!!!
to be honest, I never even knew Stampin'Up! has added this punch into their selection... oh my!
So guess what is on the top of my next wish list??

So then I had to improvise on the compass - I ended up cutting it free hand - just try it... cutting perfect circle free hand.... impossible. So I had to destress the edges to make it like I started with a perfect circle but wanted to make it imperfect - hehehe

I used Lost Lagoon card stock to emboss the world map to the top part of my card, and added two rhinestones marking 'Ottawa' and 'Helsinki' - my two hometowns.

The bottom of the card has a piece of designer series paper from 'going places' stack.

The sentiment is stamped on vellum paper with StãzOn black ink and embellished with rhinestone.

Bokeh technique

This is a technique that has been very popular for the past year. I never really liked it... I guess it was all about the background and seemed like a lot of work that could easily be achieved with designer series paper (patterned paper). But when I got this limited time Sale-a-bration (FREE) stamp set 'Hello' (available only until February 15th), I thought this would work perfectly on its own on a bokeh background. So I did my research and found an excellent tutorial by Diane Dimich.

So I won't go into details on how to make this card - you see it all on the video above.

The colours I used in my card were So Saffron, Calypso Coral and Crumb Cake, and the sentiment is stamped with Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder.

Sale-A-Bration stamp sets

I know, I know... it has been a while since I posted last, but this does not mean that I have not made any cards :-)

When I make cards for a party or a class, I don't like posting them on my blog ahead of time, and as I was not 100% sure which cards I actually end up using in my events, I could not post any of them

So now I decided to start with these Sale-A-Bration stamp sets, and you might ask 'why?'
well... let me tell you why:

One of them is made with 'The sky is the limit' stamp set, which is only available until February 15th as a Sale-a-bration exclusive (and FREE) stamp set.

I used Crumb Cake card stock and white corrugated paper as the base of this card. The clouds are stamped directly on the corrugated paper. The ribbon is Striped grosgrain in Crumb Cake colour. I cased this card from Dianne Sisneros. And I used Memento Black Ink on this (I think it would be safe to say that if I don't specifically mention using another black ink, you can assume I have used the Memento Black Ink). You can read more about my experiment on black inks on a December 2015 posting here.

I don't usually advertise other products, but I will mention here, that if you go on Pinterest and search for Dies by Dave, you can find different kind of frame lit dies made for Stampin'Up! stamps, I mean other than what Stampin'Up! makes. He for example has a die for this plane (I just got it in the mail today, so haven't had the time to use it yet).

This is my other card made using a Sale-a-bration stamp set 'Flowering fields'. Now this one will be around until the end of the event, which is March 31st 2016.

I stamped this with Memento Black Ink (every flower is it's own stamp) and coloured them using classic ink pads and blender pen.

I was inspired by a card made by Mary Fish. 

Sale-a-bration is a sale event, where you get to choose one FREE item from a sale-a-oration catalogue for every $60 you spend (before taxes and shipping).

Different embossing results using versamark and craft ink

I have been asked few times of the difference between embossing with clear embossing powder and Whisper White CRAFT ink va. white embossing powder and versamark.

I finally did an experiment with all options

The top row is using Whisper White CRAFT ink and the bottom row is using versamark.

Here is the detailed breakdown of my experiment:

WHITE EMBOSSING POWDER

I was told, years ago, that using Whisper White Craft ink as the base of your embossing, you would get a 'deeper' white, but after this experiment, I really didn't see a huge difference. So if you are not planning on doing a chalkboard effect stamping, I would not bother buying the craft ink.

On a trip back on memory lane, Stampin'Up! used to have ALL their inks also in craft version. That is when they only had clear embossing powder. So the only way to get different coloured embossing, was to use a coloured craft ink.  And if you read further, you can see that the results using coloured ink and clear embossing powder were not super great. I have to say, it was not so bad when using white card stock. For example stamping with Real Red craft ink and clear embossing powder on white card stock, the result was not as bad as on this black card stock. 

Here are detailed images of the white embossing powder samples

As you can see, I didn't use my embossing buddy, that is why there are those white smudges around the image. I could say that I did it so that you can see what happens when you don't use the embossing buddy, but really I was just too lazy :-)

CLEAR EMBOSSING POWDER

This is using versamark and clear embossing powder. As you can see, it gives just a shiny surface.

Where this is very useful is if you want for example a shiny starry or snowy sky, you could use blue card stock and emboss clear snow flakes or stars with versamark and clear embossing powder.

Another way to use this combo is to do a resist technique. You can stamp an image, either a background stamp (like world map) or a flower stamp, and then rub ink with a sponge over the embossed image. Remember to wipe the surface after inking with a clean dry paper, to remove the ink from the embossed image.

Here is an image of clear embossing powder over Whisper a White CRAFT ink. It makes a chalkboard effect with a shine. Not my favorite look :) 

CHALKBOARD EFFECT

If you want to create a card with chalkboard look, I would recommend using Whisper White CRAFT ink. Just remember to let it dry completely, or use your heat gun to dry the ink. If you want to create a 'poorly wiped chalkboard' background, you can use a dry sponge and smudge Whisper White CRAFT ink over the black card stock.

EMBOSSING WITH VERSAMARK

These are same images, but just from a point of view using same embossing base with different embossing powders

WHISPER WHITE CRAFT INK

Here is a comparison using Whisper White CRAFT ink without embossing and embossing it with clear embossing powder

Hopefully this experiment helps you with your heat embossing!

Gingerbread house

I forgot to post pictures of my gingerbread house.

This year I went big, well mainly because I had bought a cookie cutter set for a house, and I could not really alter the size - right?

I also assembled it a bit differently. I usually build the house - I use melted granular sugar as glue. It holds much better, and sets super fast, than icing sugar. Then I decorate the hous.

This time I decorated the house first. Well I did all the white icing on the pieces, then let them set over night and assembled the house the next day. You just have to be a bit more careful when holding on to the pieces.

The candy on the roof is similar to M&M's, but I like this Finnish version better. The colours are more subtle and the taste is better - peppermint flavored chocolate - nam nam

Finally I dusted the set up with icing sugar.

Few pieces of the fence from the side have gone missing... Must have been the snow plows???

This weekend the rest will be gone too :-)