Think I'm in Love...

On my last post I showed you a card I was commissioned to make for a birthday. Well I loved it so much that I made several more cards over the following days that were based on the same design. If you need to batch make cards or need one in a hurry this is so easy and so effective whether for Christmas as here with Merry mice, which has sadly been discontinued...

to say thank you to someone, using my favourite flower stamp, Birthday Blooms,,,

or to welcome a new baby, this time with Moon Baby...

The possibilities are virtually endless! 

Mirror Stamping

Hello again, have you seen all the cards about with either mirror images or reflections? They are so on trend at the moment.I had often thought how nice it would be to be able to transpose an image but hadn't really thought about how it could be made possible before. Luckily lots of other people had the same thought and shared their tutorials.

Anyway, inspiration came at totally the wrong time when I was on the bus going to work! I hadn't even got a scrap of paper with me. As soon as I got into work I made a quick sketch much to the amusement of my co-workers. Needless to say from then to actually making it, the card has somewhat evolved

Once again I turned to Moon Baby, so far it's the only stamp set I've used from my latest order! At least I'm getting very good value for money from this set. I chose to use Sweet Sugarplum, Soft Sky and So Saffron thus ensuring my card is suitable for boy or girl. 

So Saffron

Soft Sky

Sweet Sugarplum

Very Vanilla

To get a mirror image, stamp onto a piece of acetate first and then put that facedown onto the cardstock. Make sure the acetate doesn't move whilst pressing down well. If you have a large enough photopolymer stamp then you could stamp directly onto the back of that instead of the acetate.

I covered a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock in my chosen design, stamping some images in reverse and some partially off the page to draw the eye out.. I left a space for placement of the sentiment.

I used ink pads with the blender pens to colour in the images while the sentiment only required the write markers.

To add a 3D effect I stamped the image on a spare piece of card, coloured it and then fussy cut it. Using dimensionals it was attached to the background. The sentiment was also raised up with dimensionals. As usual the inside of the card was stamped and coloured to give a finished look.

Inside

Shoebox Swap

Hello again,  recently I was asked if I could make the team meeting of Ducklings. Let me explain, when I joined Stampin Up, I did so under the guidance of my lovely upline, Susan. You may have seen her name crop up on here from time to time. Susan has her own blog, Craftyduckydoodah, so when I and another lady joined her team it was decided we would become ducklings! Our numbers have now doubled, thanks in part to the fabulous Sale - a Bration offers where you can order £130 worth of Stampin Up goods for the price of £99 plus free postage for this order AND 2 extra FREE stamp sets. This offer ends on the 31st March.

Anyway, back to the topic in hand, we have decided to get the team together for a chat, coffee, cake and crafting though it remains to be seen what the order will be. One suggestion for the crafting side is to  have a Shoe Box Swap. The idea being that we all design a card and then take all the bits and bobs required so that everyone can have a go at making it. This is a great way to try out new or different ideas and styles and possibly items we might not have.

I'd been wondering what to use from my latest stash of goodies; to be quite honest, I found the array of stamp sets, dies and embossing folders a little daunting. I eventually narrowed my suggested list down to 3 sets - Weather Together, Moon Baby and Sitting Here - when I was asked if I could use Moon Baby which is featured in the Spring/Summer catalogue.

So having decided on a stamp set, I now had to come up with a design that we could all do, taking into consideration that there were several cards to make...
                                                                                 ...and cake to eat as well (mustn't forget the cake!)

 I had originally thought of taking a shaker card I'd made but then a former colleague announced the birth of her gorgeous baby boy so that card was soon winging it's way to Suffolk. Unfortunately I didn't have quite enough acetate in my stash to make another card for demonstrating purposes so that idea had to be ruled out. It was while I was looking for inspiration that I found a tutorial for a Magic Reveal Spinner Card by Tanya DeRoy. I contacted Tanya and she has given permission for me to link to her You Tube tutorial. You can also find Tanya at https://inkresponsiblyau.blogspot.co.uk/  where you'll discover more fabulous projects she's made.

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Pull the ribbon to reveal the second picture.

Difficult to see but clear Wink of Stella was brushed over the stars.

Preparations for the Duckling team meeting.

Moon Baby for a beautiful baby boy... and his lovely mum and dad

Hello again, I heard the other day that a former work colleague had given birth to her first baby, a gorgeous boy called Hector. The timing was absolutely perfect as I'd received the Moon Baby stamp set a few days before in my order. Not only that but it was the first set I'd had a play with.

I loved the idea of cutting out a section of the stamped image which was done by partially die cutting and finishing off with fussy cutting. This technique is explained in detail in my Quick Tip no 3.

This in turn made me think of a shaker card. I coloured the image in with the new Stampin Up watercolour pencils and used the blender pen to move the colours around. For the background I used an aqua painter with the Night of Navy inkpad. A little clear Wink of Stella was applied to the stars for a shimmery effect,

The finished card

I just hope that the cards recipients approved of it when it arrived. I know I had fun making it.

Quick Tip no 3

Hello there, the other week I showed you how to die cut a shape without cutting the whole image. Well I've been asked by a crafty friend to explain how to cut out a convex (downward) shape of a stamp using a die. It really is so simple. I've remembered to photograph each step so hopefully you'll be able to understand how it works. Using this technique also means you'll never have to buy special dies for your Flip Flap cards.

First of all I stamped my image, in this case taken from the Moon Baby stamp set. I then decided which die made the best fit, matching the 2 end points - where I want to cut to. This die was secured in place with some low tack tape to prevent movement whilst cutting.










I then place my image and die onto the bottom cutting cutting plate. Depending on the shape and size you may need to rearrange the card so that the top plate fits through the die cutting machine.

The top plate should be placed so that it is placed ONLY over the area that needs cutting.



Once run through the machine, the die will cut only where the pressure of the top plate is, thus giving the partial cut required. The rest of the image can be fussy cut where needed to get the necessary effect. See, it is easy when you know how.