Andrea's Stampin' Moments

Happy Happy Birthday

I didn't realise how hard it was going to be to fit a DL card in to my shot!  You could nearly see that I use a plain piece of paper held up by my Dream Kuts - which is why it is cropped so closely to the top!

So today I made a card using my JustRite Stampers, and I have to say this is not how the card started out.  It was square, and green was no-where to be seen.  But I am glad that I added it in the end.

I used the Curlz font and little alphabet set - both of which I will have back in stock next week - and the little cupcake is from Papertrey Ink.

Take a look at the JustRite Monogram Stampers blog, as they have a fabulous competition running at the moment, with gifts to give away when you submit your JustRite art work!

Happy Stamping today,

Supplies : Stamps - JustRite Monogram Stampers, Papertrey Ink ;  Cardstock - White Linen, Ruby Red & Summer Sun SU! ;  Accessories - Spellbinders, brads, SU! punch, dimensionals, paper piercing tool, white gel pen, DS paper SU!

Tutorial Tuesday - Emboss Resist

I had intended to do Crayon Resist today, but some how I had Emboss Resist on my mind, so that is what I did!

Emboss resist is a great technique, that can lead to some beautiful backgrounds.

I started with a plain white piece of cardstock and stamped my image using Versamark.

I coated the image using clear embossing powder, and heat set it. (At this stage you could brayer or sponge a light colour over your entire piece of cardstock, using a tissue or paper towel to wipe off excess ink on the embossed image, this will show up the colour of the cardstock underneath.  Then repeat the process of stamping an image with Versamark and heat setting clear embossing powder.  Then brayer or sponge another colour over the top.  This makes for a spectacular back ground.)

With this image I have next stamped the stems first inking my image with Versamark and then the colour ink and then stamping, coated with clear embossing powder and heat set.  I did this so that the stems wouldn't be 'lost' once I brayered colour on.  I also place a post-it-note so that the image was only stamped where I needed it to be.

This is the image with my brayered colour on.  I then finished the scene by drawing on some grass at the base of the flowers.  Punched some small round centres and flowers for the grass.  The Ric-Rac is new stock I have in from FTI, and I simply knotted it in a couple of places to add some interest.

Stamp sets used today were Mini Cabana from Inque Boutique, and Shapes by Design from Papertrey Ink.

Have a great day,

Birthday Brights

Good morning!  This is the second card from Fridays workshop, and it was a request for a card similar to the August 5th post 'Birthday Stars', that I based it on.  This shot was to show that it can stand on it's own, even though the sides are different lengths - I can never be too sure with things I do!

I have used some of the same beautiful paper from Stampin' Up!, and the stamp sets are from Papertrey Ink and Kitchen Sink Stamps.

I try to be very practical with cardstock, and with this card I knew how wide I wanted the outside flap to be, so that just left the inside to measure.  Using A4 cardstock I could get more by cutting the 21cm width, but that left a large gap at the other end, so to finish the inside off I added a strip of stamped white, and I was very happy with that, it just gave the inside a little something.

Have a great Monday, and I shall see you tomorrow for the 'Tutorial Tuesday'.

Happy Stamping,

Supplies :  Stamps - Papertrey Ink, Kitchen Sink Stamps;  Cardstock - Stampin' Up!

Pink Swirls

Happy Sunday everyone!  I hope your day has been special.

I held a workshop on Friday night, and thought I would share one of the cards we made.

It uses one of the new Inque Boutique mini stamp sets called Cabana, that are now available at The Little Online Card Shop.  I am loving that you can get these little sets for such a great price.  As well as Papertrey Inks Boxes, Bags and Tags, and Limitless Labels.

The ribbon is called celery and is from Finishing Touch Ideas.

This card comes together very simply.  The Cabana border is stamped along two edges and the stem on a seperate sheet of linen cardstock.  I stamped the flowers and cut them out, and using my rectangle spellbinders to matt the image on.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I shall be back tomorrow with the second card from our workshop.

Happy stamping,

Supplies: Stamps - Inque Boutique, Papertrey Ink: Cardstock - White linen, SU! Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery

It's here!

Well I have been waiting all week for my Inque Boutique products to arrive....and they're here!  I have already put some in the shop catalogue, but I have lots more to come, and so many projects in my head to do.

If you have never heard of Inque Boutique before then take a look at the introduction video above which just gives you an idea of what they have to offer, and what you will now find atThe Little Online Card Shop.

I am going to have sooo much fun this weekend, I hope you do to!

Flower Appeal

Pink is always a good place to start when making a card for someone that loves the colour, and we think of this person it is always the colour we choose.

I have used the stamp set Pick a Petal from Stampin' Up! and Boxes Bags and Tags from Papertrey Ink.  The petals were gold heat embossed on vellum and then coloured on the reverse side with Copic markers to add a slight tint.  The half 'pearl' is from SU!'s Pretties Kit.

I am off to make another now as I am not sure if this is the right card for the person I have in mind!

Happy stamping today,

Tutorial Tuesday - Aged Tiles

I love the 'Aged Tiles' effect, and thought this would be a great little tutorial for today.

I need to apologise however as my camera did not like taking these photos and played up terribly leaving the final image a variation of colours.

Once again I wanted to keep the card simple, and this set from Papertey Ink does that beautifully.  I have used Smooth White from AED and Close to Cocoa from Stampin' Up!

You start by simply stamping an image and cut it to it's finished size.

Cut your finished picture in to various sizes, there is no right or wrong size.

Then using a sponge or dauber gently sponge each piece of cardstock with a co-ordinating ink.

Piece back together on another piece of cardstock and finish your card.

I hope you have enjoyed this. 

Happy stamping,

Supplies :  Stamp : Papertrey Ink; Cardstock : Alison Ellis Design, Stampin' Up!; Ink : Choc Chip, Close to Cocoa, Old Olive - SU!; Accessories : ribbon, fti dimensionals.

Sympathy

A sympathy card is one that is always hard to do, and I have had to make two in the past couple of weeks.

I always think simplicity when I go to do one, and my favourite colour from this years Stampin' Up! range has to be River Rock, and this designer paper goes beautifully with it.

The ribbon is River Rock as well, and it matches perfectly, although that doesn't show up so well in the photo.

The stamp I have used here is Papertrey Ink's 'Out on a limb', which also has the sentiment, and I have used the Spellbinders rectangular Nestabilities.

I will have the other sympathy card to share tomorrow as the 'Tutorial Tuesday' feature.

Happy stamping,

Supplies :

Stamps : Papertrey Ink;  Cardstock : Stampin' Up!;  Ink : River Rock;  Accessories : paper piercing tool, spellbinders, ribbon, fti dimensionals

More Stamps Added....

Hi,  Just a quick note to let you know I have added more second hand stamps, so check out the "Discontinued and second hand stamps" section!

Happy Stamping this weekend,

Andrea

Sweet Cherries

I love cherries.  It would possibly have to be one of my favourite Summer fruits - which is probably why I planted three trees - along with peaches, nectarines, apricots.......

So as I passed some in the supermarket the other day I couldn't resist them.  Though I do try to buy only Australian fruit, these beautiful, large, plump American cherries screamed at me to be bought!  And they were incredible.  So it got me thinking, "I haven't used the Tart and Tangy stamp set yet from Stampin" Up! yet".  So I did.

I have used the large FTI brads from the Wintertime collection, and thought I would add a little sparkle.

To do this you take some tweezers to hold the brad in, so that you don't burn your fingers, and heat the end with a heat gun and quickly dip in to AED Hot Set Powder.  You will see it melt immediately, but heat a little more and then I dipped again and heated and then in to the AED Superfine Glitter, and heated briefly to set.

I gave this a try with coloured brads and coloured glitter as well, and they looked fantastic.  So give this a go today and if you are feeling brave drop me an email with your card and I will post it here to share.

Have a great weekend,

Supplies :

Stamps : SU! Tart & Tangy; Papertrey Ink Mixed Messages, Boxes, Bags & Tags

Cardstock : AED Smooth White; SU! Basic Black

Accessories : FTI Medium Brads, dimensional squares; SU! DS paper

Pink Flower Garden

We had visitors come and stay with us yesterday, so I had to sneak in to do this card, but by the time I had finished it was too dark to take the photo.

A friend of mine sent me these white flowers which I stamped with dots and added some stamped cut out flowers and brads.  If you could have seen the original colours I actually started with you would be a little shocked at the end result!

I used a border from JustRites Curlz set and stamped a Papertrey Ink sentiment and flower in the centre.

I got a little carried away with my dots, stamping them not only on the flowers, but also on the Pink Passion cardstock.

Have a wonderful day,

Supplies :

Stamps : Papertrey Ink, JustRite Stampers

Cardstock : AED Smooth White, SU! Pink Passion

Ink : SU! Pink Passion, Green Galore

Accessories : FTI dimensional tape, FTI brads, CM circle cutter, X-Press It double sided tape

Tutorial Tuesday - Boxed Bag

As I was doing a bit of a blog hop the other day I came across a blog here, by Dianna Gibbs via a favourite of mine Cambria Turnbow.  Is'nt it wonderful how the blogging world goes round!

Anyway, they had made these beautiful box bags, and I just had to try one for myself and share the instructions with you all.

I apologise up front for using my store name in the monogram - a shameful plug -, but I really didn't have any one to give this too at the moment, and I wanted to see how much I could 'sqeeze' in to the JustRite stamper.

I have used a border from the C-45 Monogram set, the little alphabet and the 'Curlz' set.  I have then cut manually around the border rather cutting a circle, for something a little different.

So to begin cut a piece of cardstock 41/2" x 41/2" and score in from each side 1".  Trim to the score line on two sides.

Fold in and secure with tape.

Take a piece of double sided designer series paper 51/2" x 11" (right side shown).

Flip it over to the wrong side and apply double sided tape along one long side and one end.

Place the box bottom on it's side and start 'rolling' keeping the boxes bottom edge and the paper alined.  When you are near the join seam, peel off the backing strip to the double sided tape and join seam.

  

Next cut a strip of cardstock approximately 2cm wide and 28cm long and decorate the edge, either using scissors, punches or torn.

Add a strip of double sided tape on the reverse side.

Punch two tab shapes, or anything that you might have, fold in half and punch with holes.

Attach to the top of your bag and thread with ribbon.

And there you have it, a very simple bag from someone with an incredible imagination!

Until next time, happy stamping,

Supplies:

Stamps : JustRite Monogram Stampers

Cardstock : Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip

Birthday Stars

I find it very difficult knowing what is an appropriate card for some age groups.  My son had a party to go to on the weekend, and at this age they are starting to grow up, and your card - or gift - can look a lttle 'baby' very easily.  Not so much with girls, as we like flowers and pink at any age, but with boys it's a different story entirely.

So this is what I came up with.  I started by rolling the stars in two colours and cutting them out, after first choosing the designer paper from Stampin' Up!

The corners have rounded using the small corner rounder from Stampin' Up!

I had a bit of fun with it, and I just love stars!

Until tomorrows tutorial, happy stamping,

Supplies :

Stamp Sets : Stampin' Up!, Kitchen Sink Stamps, Papertrey Ink.

Cardstock : SU! Only Orange, Brilliant Blue, Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky.

Ink : Brilliant Blue, Wild Wasabi, Only Orange - SU!

Hydrangea Beauty

When I started this card last night I really didn't know how it was going to turn out, or what colours I was going to use.  The first flowers I was playing with were yellow, and I don't think I have ever seen yellow hydrangeas!

There is so many levels to this card it is very hard to show - my camera doesn't like to focus on side shots - but it's the different levels to these stamps from Kitchen Sink Stamps that are truelly amazing.

The flowers have four stamps to make up the different depths of colour, and the other images have three levels.

Not having a plan in my head it took a little longer to make than I had allowed, but then housework will still be there later.

The dark plum is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.  I think I collect these as much as I collect the Stampin' Up! backgrounds - gotta have 'em all.

So I hope you like this card.

Happy stamping this weekend,

Supplies :

Stamps : Hydrangeas - Kitchen Sink Stamps, Weathered - Stampin' Up!, Papertrey Ink.

Cardstock : White - Alison Ellis Design; Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Creamy Caramel - Stampin' Up!

Ink : Creamy Caramel, Blush Blossom, Close to Cocoa, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum - All Stampin' Up!

August - Workshop in your Letterbox

In this months workshop I have focused on less stamping and more on what can be acheived with designer paper, and by adding dimension to the projects.

Included are supplies to make three cards with envelopes and a simple treat 'bag'.

Two full sheets of 12 x 12 paper from the AED Garden Party series are used to make the projects, but there is plenty over for you to add to ideas of your own.

As with the other workshops you will need your own scissors and double sided adhesive to complete the workshop, but everything else will be included.  If you are running low on adhesive try the Express-it double sided tape.  It's reasonably priced and works a treat.

Until tomorrow, happy stamping,