Retro Eastern Blooms

On my crazy card making marathon last Friday, I also managed to make a card that was a little different to my usual style, or at least was a little hiatus from my standard colour schemes.

It came out having a sort of retro-theme, even though I wouldn't have thought that 'Eastern Blooms' would quite lend itself to that kinda mood. I thought it would be a fun card. It feels that way for me, but maybe it's just the colour scheme, no muted tones here!

I've used SU Basic Black CS with a crimped Whisper White panel with Old Olive grosgrain ribbon. I stamped various versions of the Eastern Blooms stamps onto Whisper White using Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive and then simply cut around them using my SU paper snips.

I used my Fiskars two-in-one corner rounder punch for the bottom corners. Unfortunately it won't do both the front and back together as the CS is too thick, but because it has a paper guide on it, it was pretty simple even for me to keep them even!

Not that you can necessarily tell from the picture, but the large Pumkin Pie flower has been propped up on dimensionals for some extra interest. One of the extra flowers was used on the envelope flap to keep the theme going.


To be honest I think I'm happier with the inside of the card:

I had gotten a little trigger happy with the stamping and cutting out of the flowers (I had stamped most of an A5 sheet with the idea that I could have them ready for when I have less time). However after cutting out a few for the front of the card, I found that I must have slipped into 'the zone' as low and behold, there were a pile of cut out flowers in front of me!

So instead of saving them all as originally intended, I used quite a few of them up for the inside!

I on purpose didn't stamp a greeting so hopefully I can use it for whatever occassion it will suit sometime later down the track.

Given the current 70s-80's revival maybe this will be popular with my [hard to please] teenage cousins?

Happy weekend everyone, hope we all get a little time for crafting! As for me, I'm going to kick back with a warm cuppa and raid the tin of yummy yo-yo's to make the most of the Art With Heart Blog Hop!

Crimping

Was I the only one who didn't have a crimper? Initially I thought it might be something I would use so irregularly, that I wouldn't bother. Then we used it a couple of times in Sue's classes (http://www.madexcreations.com/madex_creations/class-dates-and-details.html) and I became addicted. Now its a regular feature in many of my cards. I think texture is underrated! hehe

This card actually came out of a mistake from a previous card. When I made sympathy cards not too long ago, I had used the mostly flowers stamp and punched out the circle, mounting it on the scallop square. I managed to be my usual clumsy self and get a piece of cheap double sided tape stuck on the choc chip card which I'd crimped. It tore a bit when I tried to pull it off. In the end, I cut around it and and tore off along the bottom, wrapping kitchen twine around it as a feature. I then had this tag, embelishment thingie and couldn't find anything to do with it... well until now that is:

I used the trusty Choc Chip CS, with lots of mounts. Kraft, Whisper White and then Choc Chip DSP. Because the scallop square was mounted using dimensionals, I simply used double sided tape to stick the entire thing to the DSP.

What do you think?

I'd been looking for a way to use it for a while now, just keeping it in the drawer with Choc Chip CS in the hope that I'd finally come up with something!

As I was geting lazy, I didn't have the patience to go out and stamp the mostly flowers image again, so I embellished the envelope with a scrap of the DSP and choc chip punched with the two circle punches - cheeky but hopefully I got away with it!

Have a lovely night and happy crafting!

Beautiful Blogger Award

Have you ever had that urge to call out "Wow Mummy, LOOK AT ME!"  - I mean after hitting puberty? I had that moment about 5 minutes ago when Sue Madex (http://www.madexcreations.com/) awarded me the Beautiful Blogger Award! 

I mean lil ol' me! The one with the blog from umm.. Feb 2010 hehe

Anyway, given the array of wonderful bloggers around, I am very chuffed! Especially when you check out Art With Heart's Blog Hop Ladies... I mean really... :)



So now, as a BBA winner I'm supposed to tell you 10 things about me - where to start???

1. I'm a dag. Not the closet kind, but the out and proud kind - the one who is currently curled up on the couch with the laptop in flannel jamies and slippers known as "hoodies for feet" - the girls call them my adult booties!
2. I'm a criminal defence lawyer who loves her work and the rough and tumble of advocating for largely disadvantaged and disenfranchised people who screw up from time to time.
3. That despite being new to cardmaking and the ocassional scrapbooking, I have found a whole new world of people (in real life and blogland) who are amazingly talented and have turned what I find to be a relaxing creative outlet into an artform.
4. I love the look on people's faces when I give them a card that they actually like and want to keep.
5. That I have an amazing husband who when I open my eyes in the morning and see him sleeping next to me, still gives me butterflies.
6. That I've been blessed with a remarkably close and loving family, who although seem perpetually plagued with serious illnesses, are amazing, strong [slightly nutty] and inspirational people.
7. That I am genetically programmed to over-cater and find it impossble to cook for less than 4-6 people at any given time (even though there is usually only 2 of us). On the weekend, I made over 100 crumbed and pan fried mushroom risotto balls as 'nibblies' for friends.
8. That I love to travel, my current dream trips are to Morocco, Syria, India and North East Africa.
9. That I am the only person I know that has a whole spice cabinet instead of a rack or two, but still has a cardboard box of "back up spices".
10. My new found pride is that I have kept one lemon tree and a potted herb garden alive for 12 months. This from a person who has killed succulents, cacti and rosemary!

 Well, scarily enough that's me :)

 Happy scrapping and can't wait to pass on the award! Thank you Sue for passing it on to me too!

Baja Breeze DSP

Up until fairly recently, I really didn't have any DSP. I was stamping images onto cardstock and using that. Now I've got a couple of packets, and it really does make life soooo much easier if you want just a simple card, with a little detail, ut very little time to do it in. This card took me about 5 minutes. Even when you include the inside, and the matching envelop I think I had change out of my 10 min. That said, sometimes the least fussy ones can work the best...

I used SU Choc Chip CS as the base, and used a panel of Baja Breeze DSP, together with a creamy textured paper called Fundamentals - Cardmaking for conoisseurs. It's made by Fynmark an usually sold at Spotlight and Lincraft et al. It comes in a pack of 20 in the 148 x 210 cm size and you can buy matching envelopes. It has a really lovely feel to it, I have used it for more formal cards (wedding cards etc) as a base. The texture is quite strong so I haven't had much success stamping directly onto it. Here is a close up so you can see the texture I'm talking about:

The ribbon is from SU. Its a polka dot grosgrain robbon and it double sided, so you can use either the dotted side or the plain side. The quality is fantastic, as its thick enough for the patterned side not to show through if you want to use the plain side. (I bought some cheaper ribbon and you could see the dots faintly through and it frayed really easily).

As you may have noticed, most of my ribbons usually are plain or have knots. It's not that I don't like bows, its just that I'm usually really crap at them! This video on Teneale Williams' blog (for those of who who are not aware - she is the Queen of bow makers) makes it do-able, even for me! That means you all can, no really! Check out the video: http://www.tenealewilliams.com.au/wp02/2010/03/17/close-to-blushing-14-days-to-go/  I used a little kitchen twine to tie the bow together in the middle. I like the contrast to the choc chip. With some matching panels on the flap of the envelope voila!

David thinks its a little TOO plain. Maybe it could do with a little sentiment above the ribbon on the left hand side. I guess I can always add that later when I decide who to give it to. What do you think?

Eastern Blooms

My apologies for being so slack of late, work got a little crazy and I really didn't have much time at all to get crafty! That said, I finished early on Friday (5:30pm I was out the door, woo hoo!) and made up for lost time - making 8 cards!

I did start off by making another wedding card for a family friend Angie who got married yesterday. I made a card for my parents to give to her. Like a muppet however, I gave it to mum without remembering to tak a pic of it, so if I remember what I did, I'll make it again. There seem to be no shortage of weddings lately!

One of the new stamp sets I bought recently seems to be an old favourtite for most, the SU Eastern Blooms set. I really love the cherry blossom in particular... So my first card was using that with some of the fabulous choc chip DSP paper I won in a previous StampAMemory challenge...

I used SU Kraft CS (although I suppose I should start getting used to calling it crumb cake) and then mounted the choc chip DSP onto choc chip cardstock on the top third. I used Kraft tafetta ribbon to cover the join.

I stamped the cherry blossom onto whisper white using my choc chip and ruby red markers, and mounted on ruby red cardstock. I must admit this is one of my favourtite SU colour combinations. I'm going to really miss ruby red when it is discontinued soon. I used dimensionals to mount the image which i think gives it a little oomph as it otherwise quite simple.

As you can see, I used an offcut of the dsp together with a portion of the stamped punched with the smaller square punch, mounted using a larger square-punched piece of Choc Chip CS for the envelope. I think matching envelopes make it that little bit extra special.

I have also found a new spot to take some pics, as my blinds and fridge were perhaps not the greatest of backdrops for my photos come to think of it!

Hope you like this one, and keep an eye out over the next few days as I upload more (regularly) this time!

Take care, and enjoy what's left of the long weekend!

Happy Easter- Vellum suprise

Happy Easter to all of you who celebrate it, and for those that don't may you have enjoyed the enforced break! (although with all that cooking and all that eating, I'm now officially exhausted!)

This year I was given strict instructions not to buy big easter eggs or copious amounts of chocolate for my nephews so I bought them a Lindt bunny each for Easter. Problem was it looked a bit folorn sitting there all on its lonesome, so here was my take on this year's Easter eggs.

The tag is made using kraft CS, overlayed by whisper white and basic black. On Nick's package, I just used chipbpard letters and painted them in my ruby red marker. The bunny image is from Stampin Up, however it's stamped on vellum in stays on. I then put my recent marker tutorial to good use! I turned the vellum image backwards, and coloured in the image using my markers in the style of the stained glass technique. On Jack's package I managed to screw up the chipboard by selecting a marker that was to dark a green which meant there was vey little contrast between that and the black backing paper. So I had to cover the letters in paper and file off the sides. Because the letters were small, and little cheap ones from a $2 shop, they kept bending and as such the overall effect was a bit rough, but thankfully he didn't seem to mind!

Hold onto your easter bonnets though because I found vellum tape that's invisible and that doesn't require you trying to hide the glue with ribbon, embellishments or relying on brads to fasten! Best thing is it doesn't cost the earth either! It's "Scotch" brand vellum tape from Big W. It comes in a smallish roll and is tacky on one side and has a waxed paper on the outside. You simply snip off how much you want and affix it to the back of the image. Using your finger just rub the waxed paper up and down a little to warm it, and then peel off the waxed paper the same way you would for double-sided tape. It leaves a transclusent tacky glue that's a little visible whilst you're holding the vellum, but as soon as you stick it to neutral card stock, Bam! it dissapeared! In this case I stuck it to whisper white CS and then cut around the image with my snips. I attached the cutout with dimensionals for fun.

The boys loved them and didn't take long to devour the bunnies, although in true testimony to how much they liked them, they carefully pulled the labels off and kept them aside! (If only they were always so easily pleased!)

The vellum trick also works a treat when you print out images directly onto the vellum with the laser printer. I printed a few easter images from free clipart sites and used the same stained glass technique to make labels for the easter egg packages for work collegues.

*holds tummy* I never thought I could get enough chocolate, but I think that last Ferrero Rocher did me in!