Champagne Congrats

Hello, Crafters.

Yesterday was not such a good day for me! 

During the morning I just wasn't feeling right, I felt very lethargic, and tired.

At lunch time I went into the bedroom to get my tablets, and saw I hadn't taken my morning tablets! DOH! 

Needless to say I took what I needed to, and within a couple of hours I was feeling , oh so much brighter!

Once I was back in the swing of things,I  knew I wanted to CASE another swap for today's card. 

It's a strikingly, fairly plain card in Real Red and Whisper White that I received from Maureen (Mo) Rootes - please see the last picture. 

You can check out Maureen's blog at www.crafty-rootes.com. 

Although I'm happy with how my card turned out, I wished I'd stuck to Mo's colour scheme!

The bottle is from the Bubble Over Stamp Set, and ever since I saw this stamp set for the first time, I wondered if the bottle - which looks like a beer or pop bottle to me - could be changed to look like a Champagne bottle, and that was my challenge to myself!

To achieve this I started by inking the largest bottle stamp in Versamark, then inkinking it in Always Artichoke Ink; and then I stamped it on a piece of Whisper White Cardstock (CS). 
 
After I dipped the image into Clear Embossing Powder, I heat set it using my Heat Tool.

Although there is a die in the Bottles & Bubbles Framelits Dies to die cut the bottle, I chose to cut it out by hand. 

By doing this, I was able to cut the bottle straight to the top of the bottle, thereby cutting off the two rims that protude at the top of the bottle neck, which is what gives the bottle a beer-bottle and pop-bottle look!  

The second part of the bottle that gives it it's characteristics, are the two white lines that go round the centre of the widest part of the bottle i.e. above and below where the label goes.

I trawled through my Stamp Reference File to find stamps that would allow me to produce something that resembled a wine bottle label. 

I'm quite happy with the result, and I think the condensation on the bottle helps to distract the eye from looking too closely at the label!

Needless to say, it took me several attempts before I settled on the design you see here! 

I started with Always Artichoke Ink, and the straight line stamp that's in the Spooky Cat Stamp Set; this is a Halloween Stamp Set in the Christmas Catalogue. 

I don't celebrate Halloween, and the only reason I bought the stamp set, was for the cat's face stamp.

I thought it'd go brilliantly with the Cat Punch, although I have to admit, I haven't checked my theory yet! LOL!

Next I found a stamp in the Hostess Stamp Set called Background Bits, that was five lines of very fine script which I believe is illegible. 

Using Basic Black Archival Ink, I stamped it directly onto the straight Always Artichoke lines. 

I needed something to soften the edges and hubby suggested leaves - brilliantly idea, they worked a treat!

I used the solid background two-step leaves stamp from the Painted Harvest Stamp Set and stamped the leaves randomly top and bottom.

I used another die from the Bottles & Bubbles Framelits dies to cut the label out. 

Whilst making sure the label covered the two lines, I adhered it to the bottle, and trimmed off the excess on both sides!

To finish my card I stamped some Sahara Sand bubbles coming out of the bottle, and adhered some Glitter & Clear Epoxy Shapes on the bottles as condenstaion, and on the stamped bubbles to give them shine and dimension. 

Unfortunately, these shapes will be retiring at the end of May, so I'm going to stock up with a few packets as I think they're great for cards like this.
 
The Congrats sentiment is from the Vertical Greetings Stamp Set and was die cut with a die from the Bunch of Banners Framelits.
 
I stamped a row of bubbles inside the card and added Wink of Stellla to give them some shine too! 

As I said earlier, I'm pleased with how my card turned out, but I think it would hve been better if I'd used Real Red instead of Sweet Sugarplum!

That's about it from me today; until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Ribbon Rose Wonder Video

Hello, Crafters.

When I first started doing this technique about seven years ago, I described it as a variation of iris folding i.e. using ribbon in straight lines instead of folded strips of paper working in a circular direction. 

Back then, I used to punch a shape - normally a flower - and then adhere the ribbon in strips to "fill" the hole. 

For today's video, I've revamped the idea by using a die cut of the (smaller) Rose Wonder Thinlit Die, and replacing the die cut back in the hole once it has been "filled" with ribbon. 

When I first decided to make today's video, I had so many ideas running through my head, I really didn't know where to start. 

I stopped thinking and went back to the beginning, so I could concentrate on the technique only, and I've finished with a very striking, clean and simple card which is oh so easy!

It took me three roses before I was happy with the result!

I like the rose with the Very Vanilla and Gold ribbon which was was one of last year's Sale-a-bration gifts, but I'm not happy with the plain Very Vanilla top layer. 

I'm working on a solution, because I don't want to just discard it! 

I have a couple of ideas but I don't know if either of them will work! 

If I have success in rescuing it, I'll share it with you on here!

During the video, I said I was thinking of adding some Pool Party to the centre of the flower inside the card, and I said if I did I'd post a photograph on here!

This is the pink one, which is the same as the blue - the stamp is from the Daisy Delight Stamp set.

In the meantme, that's it from me today.

I hope you have a lovely Sunday, and until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Lots of Lavender

Hello, Crafters.

Today's card is another one of those like Topsy in Uncle Tom's Cabin; it just grew!

For today's card I knew I wanted to use the Lots of Lavender Stamp Set, which is one of the gifts available in the new Sale-a-bration Catalogue, and I felt like doing some colouring! 

As I was going to use my Stampin' Blends, which are our alcohol-based ink pens, for colouring, I used Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, and stamped the bouquet image onto a piece of Whisper White Cardstock (CS)
 
The colours I used are: flowers - light and dark Pink Pirouette, leaves and stems - Light Old Olive; Ribbon and bow - Rich Razzleberry.

Using a piece of a Post It Note, I made a mask for the bouquet, so I could stamp over the background. 
I used Smokey Slate Ink, stamped off once, and the splash stamp from the new Waterfront Stamp Set (page 48). 

As I was colouring, I decided to try a technique I saw a few years ago but have never tried!

I don't know what the name for the technique is, but it's where you have part of the image coming outside the die-cut shaped image - see the stem. 

This isn't a particularly good example for this technique, but it's an excellent design to have a first go on, because I knew I could cut the stems off if it didn't work out! 

I couldn't find any Designer Series Paper (DSP) in Pink Piroutte so I chose one of the designs from the black and white designs in the Petal Passion DSP.

I coloured the entire sheet using my Stampin' Blend in Dark Pink Pirouette. 
 
As I was painting, the design on the reverse side of the DSP became very visible, to the extent I started thinking maybe I was creating a new design with the reverse design manifesting itself as grey! 

I was very relieved as I saw it slowly fading as it was drying!

Once my card was finished, I realised I should have chosen one of the designs which had smaller images.

I decided to have the DSP as a slim panel, rather than a full layer, because I wanted to use the happy birthday sentiment from the Vertical Sentiments Stamp Set.

Next I took two strips of Pink Pirouette Cardstock (CS) and punched out two strips using the Decorative Ribbon Border Punch. 

I rounded the ends of the ribbon strips the same way I showed in video No.341 - Gift Card Holder. 

Using Tombow, I adhered one strip on each side of the DSP panel.

I painted the ribbon borders with my Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen, but it would have been much easier to paint them before adhering them to the DSP strip! LOL!

Using Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, I stamped the sentiment on the right hand-side of the Whisper White CS layer.

Next I adhered the DSP strip on the left-hand side, leaving a gap of approximately 1/4".

Before I adhered the layers together on the front of the Pink Pirouette card base, I tied some of the new 1/4" Whisper White Organza Ribbon around the lower ppart of the card front, and tied it into a bow.

Next I painted the flowers, leaves and stems using my Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen. 

As I was adding some sparkle, I also added three Basic Rhinestones above and below the birthday sentiment. 

I still have a lot of the really small pearls from the old style Basic Pearls, I added one to each of the black bobble flowers in the bouquet!

To decorate the inside of the card, I took a strip of the painted DSP and added some more punched ribbon.

I also adhered a layer of Whisper White CS, so there was a space for a message.

As I went to adhere it inside the card, I was holding it upside down which was a really happy mistake because I think it looks so much nicer at the top, like a real curtain! 

That's it from me today. I hope you have a lovely, relaxing weekend. Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

British Craft Awards; New SAB Gifts; Bleached Umbrella Lady

Hello, Crafters.

Fantastic news! Stampin' Up! have been given the recognition they so richly deserve and have just announced:-

Stampin’ Up! gets the stamp of approval at the British Craft Awards 2017. 

We are absolutely thrilled to share the news that Stampin’ Up! has won Papercraft Brand of the year 2017 and Papercraft Retailer of the year 2017 at the British Craft Awards 2017! The awards ceremony was held at the NEC, Sunday 19th February.

As both awards were decided solely by votes from members of the public, we would like to give a huge thanks to everyone who voted for us. If that’s not all Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator Sam Hammond - Donald also won Papercraft blog of the year at the British Craft Awards 2017 – congratulations Sam!

What a fantastic start to 2017!

Today see's the realease of three more Sale-a-bration gifts. These are additional to the gifts already available, none have been withdrawn. Sale-a-bration - Second Release - View Here.

Today's card is my third and final bleached Beautiful You card. I'm sure you'll agree, the actual layout of each card is quite, quite different from the other two!

I started with a card base of Rich Razzleberry Cardstock (CS) with a layer of Blushing Bride CS and a top layer of Rich Razzleberry. This layer was dry-embossed using the Petal Burst Embossing Folder. 

I adhered the top two layers together and wrapped three pieces of Sweet Sugarplum 3/8" Succulent Garden Ribbon from the combo pack - the other colour in the pack is Whisper White - around horizontally.

I positioned the middle piece in the centre, and then one piece either side, so the strips  covered approximately half of the card, albeit that the half of the card is in the centre - I hope that makes sense!

This ribbon is amazingly soft and it's so smooth to stroke, just like a cat! LOL!

I adhered this layer onto the card base making sure I put extra Tombow on top of the ribbon ends I'd folded over from the front.  

I die cut the image using a straight cut Layering Oval Framelits Die, and at the same time, I also die cut a layer of Blushing Bride CS using a scallop oval from the same set of dies. I adhered the image in place by putting the Dimensionals directly onto the card front so I knew they weren't on top of the ribbon.

I chose the THANK YOU sentiment from the Vertical Sayings Stamp Set. I heat emboseed it using black embossing powder onto a piece of Sweet Sugarplum CS. I thought it looked rather small against the layout of my card and had a look to see what I could do to increase the size without just layering onto a larger piece of Rich Razzleberry CS.

If I did this it would then need another layer of Sweet Sugarplum CS so it didn't disappeared against  Sugarplum background! I decided to used the long "lacey" trim die in the Flourish Thinlits dies. I thought cutting one strip in half wouldn't be thick enough, so I compromised and cut off almost a third. 

I adhered the two remaining two-third strips behind the sentiment and it worked like a dream! To finish off my card, I heat embossed just over half of the umbrella lady onto a sheet of Sweet Sugarplum CS, and then painted inside the image with bleach. I allowed the bleach sufficient time to dry and then adhered the layer inside my card!

I hope you give this technique a try, it really is fascinating!  That's about it for today. Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Peekaboo Peach Jar of Love Card 3

Hello, Crafters.

Yesterday I had planned to make my video for Sunday and knew exactly what I was going to do. In the morning I received an email from one of my YouTube subscribers asking if I could do a video on a particular design. 

Susan explained she had seen a tutorial on YouTube but found it difficult to follow. By the description she gave me, it was easy to guess which design she was referring to and I said I'd check it out.

I watched the video Susan had seen and I could appreciate why she found it difficult to follow. It's a great design so I found more tutorials to watch so I could learn the pros and cons, things to watch out for, and of course to decide whether there was any point in me doing a video!

While I was playing with the design, I came up with a variation to the design that I hadn't seen during my YouTube search! I made three cards, all the same design but with variations, including my spin! 
 
Today I'll make the video, get it uploaded, edited and ready to post on Sunday. I'm really excited and can't wait to share this with you!

After I'd finished the design work for Susan's video, I started on today's card. As I said on my blog yesterday, although I liked card 2, I wasn't happy with the sizing of the image and felt the jar should have been smaller. I chose the smallest jar and the two small flowers for today's card. I'm so much happier with the positioning and sizing of the image. 

I started the card with the same three layers as yesterday but changed the colour to Peekaboo Peach. I took a piece of Whisper White Cardstock for the image that I judged to be the right width but was far too tall. Using Archival Basic Grey Ink, I stamped the smallest jar about 1/4" up from the bottom.

I made a mask for the base of the jar so I could stamp the stems into the jar but they wouldn't pop out the bottom of the jar! Using Pear Pizzazz Ink, I stamped one of the sprigs of leaves and used this as a guide to calculate how tall I wanted my cardstock to be. When I had decided what height I needed, I cut the excess cardstock off and then cut a layer in Peekaboo peach.

I stamped a few stems and lengthened the stems that had fallen short using the single stem stamp. Then I stamped the water in the jar using Soft Sky Ink stamped off once.

I used my craft knife to cut a slit in each side of the jar at the top. I threaded a piece of the Peekaboo Ruched Ribbon through the slits and adhered them at the back using Fast Fuse.

I chose to use the smaller flowers and was really pleased to find the two flowers were on one stamp! I stamped the darker layer first using Pumpkin Pie Ink amd then did the lighter all-over stamp using Peekaboo Peach. 

Then I die cut them out with the coordinating die which allowed me to do both flowers at the same time. It saved so much time having the stamps and the dies doubled up - it's a great idea. Well done Stampin' Up! and THANKS! ☺

I arranged the flowers on my image where I wanted to adhere them. When I was happy with the arrangement, I used Dimensionals to adhere them in place. 

The final step was to stamp the bee. Well, I think it's meant to be a Glow Worm - I'm not sure! - but on my card, I'm using artistic license and he's definitely a bee! I adhered him with a partial Dimensional.

I stamped the sentiment from the Vertical Greetings Stamp Set directly onto the card front using Archival Basic Grey Ink. I adhered the image in place using Tombow and my final step was to paint the water using my Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Pen.

Well, I must get on, I have a video to make so I can leave it uploading while I go off for my manicure at lunchtime! I hope you have a great weekend. Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Picture Perfect Starfish & Acetate

Hello, Crafters.

I hope you had a great weekend. 

We visited our friend in Aylesbury yesterday and on the way home, were held up on the notorious M25 for a "medical incident". Neither hubby or I had ever heard this terminology used to describe being held up on the motorway before. We assume someone had been taken seriously ill. The air ambulance landed on the other carriageway. 

Shortly after this, the traffic on our side started moving again. On our journey home, we kept hearing traffic updates and the other carriageway remained at a standstill for at least two hours. I couldn't get the incident out of my mind for the rest of the day, thinking about the "man" who'd been taken ill. 
 
When we arrived home, we had a cup of tea and a cake, and sat and chatted for a while. Eventually, hubby went and sat in the garden - our second day of summer - and read the newspaper and I went into my studio.

I decided to use the Perfect Picture Stamp Set which, although I've had it for quite a little while, I still haven't used it! I also wanted to use the Fabulous Foil Designer Acetate. 

I chose to work with the starfish using Crumb Cake and Sahara Sand Inks.

Rather foolishly, I didn't pay attention to which stamp was which when I removed them from their sheet and didn't know which was no. 1 and which was no.2 - and it wasn't easy trying to work it out either! But I think I sussed it out correctly. 

I've now used a Sharpie Pen and written 1 and 2 on the little pointer tab on each stamp so it'll always be easy to identify which one is which! 

I practised with the two colours, in all the various combinations and settled on my favourite. That is, stamp the first image using stamp 2 and Crumb  Cake Ink;  and then stamp on top using stamp 1 with Sahara Sand Ink.

There aren't any coordinating dies with this stamp set, so they need to be fussy cut, which was obviuosly quite straight-forward.


For today's card, I started with a base of Crumb Cake Cardstock, followed by a layer of Very Vanilla and a top layer of half Crumb Cake and half of a design from the Moroccan Designer Series Paper (DSP). 

I adhered all these pieces together, plus a strip of Very Vanilla down the centre join. I cut a piece of the Acetate to cover the top layer exactly and adhered by applying minute dots of Tombow around the outside dots and some random ones in the middle.

I prepared three starfish as described aboved and attached them to the card front using Dimensionals. I did double layer Dimensionals in the centre of the middle starfish, the bottom most "leg" and the one pointing almost east!

I used Crumb Cake Ink on Very Vanilla Cardstock for the sentiment from the Vertical Greetings Stamp Set. In case you haven't noticed, I've been using this set quite a lot! LOL!

I do have to say I'm so pleased we now have a set of vertical greetings! I find them so useful.

As promised, yesterday I looked for the name of the company I bought my Card Display Stands from: http://www.stand-store.co.uk/

Like most things, you can probably find cheaper on the internet, but please be careful that you don't have to forfeit quality. I've had mine for about four years now and there are no obvious signs of wear and tear. I've been very pleased with them and I'm very happy to recommend this company - no, I'm not being paid to recommend them! LOL!

That's about it for today. I hope you have a great week and until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Watermelon Flowers

Hello, Crafters.

I lost most of my morning yesterday while hubby was dealing with my web host, trying to sort out why they were bouncing so many of my emails! Unfortunately, part of the problem is still there despite being reassured that everything has been sorted. I'm getting frustrated because I still have quite a lot of emails I need to resend! I am counting my blessings that hubby is at home this week to deal with this for me!

I had a really successful afternoon in my studio yesterday. I started with a mini-spring clean and then went on to make another slider card using the Shooting Star Stamp Set (page 91) and the Sliding Star Framelits Dies (page 192). They're available as a bundle so you can save 10% - the details are on page 91. If this bundle isn't on your wishlist, it may be once you see the video I made yesterday! I'll be posting it on Wednesday.

I made today's card using the Penned & Painted Stamp Set with Watermelon Wonder and Old Olive Ink. I started with a card base of Whisper White Cardstock followed by a layer of Watermelon Wonder and a top layer of Whisper White.

The flowers and leaves are three step stamping, which I find easiest if I start with the darker stamp and working my way lighter.

To stamp the first outline flower, I inked up with Watermelon Wonder and stamped the flower close to the top right hand corner. I repeated this for the second flower and positioned it close to the bottom left hand corner. For the third flower, I eyeballed what I considered to be the centre between the first two images and stamped. 

For the second image, I stamped off once with a fair amount of pressure, but not hard, and stamped on top of the first outline image. I repeated this process for the other two images. 

For the third step, I inked the stamp and stamped off very, very lightly and then stamped onto each image.

To colour the centre of the flowers, I inked the single solid circle stamp, stamped off lightly and then stamped in the centre of each flower. I painted the centre of each flower using the Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Pen spreading out the colour to fill the remaining white areas.

I followed the same stamping off process for the leaves using Old Olive Ink. I stamped the outline stamp on the top flower first and worked my way down choosing a different position for each set of leaves.

Normally I would have had to use this card horizontally but because we now have a set of vertical stamps, I was able to keep with a vertical card. The Vertical Greetings Stamp Set is available as wood-mount or clear-mount, so I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to make sure I stamped the sentiment in a straight line.

I love having bees or ladybirds on my flower cards and this stamp set comes with a ladybird, so I stamped three of them using Archival Basic Black Ink. To colour the body, I used the single solid circle stamp, and Watermelon Wonder Ink, which fitted beautifully.  I'm really pleased with how this card turned out!

I'm off to work now, so until tomorrow, happy crafting,

JanB.