Guest Designing - what an honour!

Over at the A La Card Monkey blog I have had the honor of being asked to be a guest designer showcasing this wonderful Holiday sketch that will go live tomorrow morning - so you get a little sneak peek tonight!

Here is my take on the sketch ... as you can see i opted for a holiday other than Christmas as all my Christmas cards are addressed and en-route to loved ones ... so I chose to get a head start of my Valentines cards! I just love this Little Friends stamp set from Stampin' Up ... perfect for just about any holiday!

Here is a close up to showcase my DIY glitter paper in the Tempting Turquoise color using versamark, heat and stick and fine glitter as well as adding a little bling to the little girls flower and sash for extra bling! 

The sentiment I chose here is from Petite Pairs and I added some Cottage Garden accents to my one piece of paper, the sentiment and my envelope.

Would also like to thank the ladies over at Just Add ink  and the Color Q for the Color inspiration on my card from their color challenge photos seen here - they were both so similar this week I could not choose which ones ... so I opted for Old Olive, Pink Pirouette, Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise and Silver for the 'bead' representation.

Thank you to everyone who stops by to leave comments on my blog - I work from home running an Early Learning program with young children so being able to read adult offered comments during quiet time really makes my day!

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

On Dasher ...

Keeping with the theme of Christmas ornaments this weekend - this is another technique that was popular last year and well when  the glass bulbs were on sale at Micheal's this past weekend I just had to give it a go!

The first attempt I stamped with versamark and than double inked just the body with Chocolate Chip ink onto the shiny side of the overhead projector paper and embossed with clear ink - but the Chocolate did not cover enough.

I tried to 'fix it' by coloring with a Stamp Write marker but you can see the marker lines through it - so while it was cute and I added the red nose to make it even cuter .. I wanted to try again! 

So this time I versamarked up Dasher and stamped onto the 2 1/2 inch circle of overhead paper and than embossed with the Silver embossing powder ... it turned out cool as well and the Micca flakes are just perfect for the snow in the bottom of the globe!

I like them both now - they are so easy to make I am thinking I might make some with the crew for their trees this Christmas!

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Mashing Up Stamping 411

Had fun this weekend creating some challenge cards .... great way to stay warm on a cold rainy weekend ... there are so many inspiring challenges out there that I combined a few to come up with my card creations!

Started by Mashing up a snowflake inspired easel card for the Friday Mashup ... feel free to click the picture to see how others were inspired by the challenge ....

Then I hopped on over to the Stamping 411 and was inspired by their layout and incorporated it into my card as well ... I did flip the orientation a bit to make it work with the easel ... feel free to click the photo to see the wonderful inspirations others had from this layout!

And finally my color combination was inspired by this months Goldstar Ink team challenge  ... make a card using grey, blue and red in a card to share with the team ... and here is my final inspiration combining these three awesome challenges.

I love how the embossing powders of silver and iridescent ice really make this card 'sparkle' and I used the silver cardstock as well which is a shade of grey and adds  some additional dimension and glam to it ...almost used our new silver glimmer paper but restrained myself otherwise people might have needed sunglasses to view the card!

And the final Piece De Resistance that makes this card so yummy for me .... a little Doily snowflake accent, rhinestone bling and dazzling details were added to the snowflakes and sentiment! 

Thanks for stopping by and taking time to leave a comment - your support and encouragement means a lot!

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

The 'Ugly Paper' challenge

So for the Scrap and Crop event this past weekend we had an 'Ugly Paper' challenge where each person in our group brought a piece of what they felt was 'ugly paper' from their stash and some accompanying papers. We than randomly exchanged papers with others and than were challenged to come up with a layout hopefully turning the 'ugly paper' into something useful. 

This is the two page layout I created using my Ugly paper I received with the brown accent paper and the black circle accent ... which I used to scrap so photos of me doing my school co-op placements back in high-school!

The minute I opened up the bag to reveal my paper I just knew that the Precious Butterfly stamp set was perfect to bring out the beauty in the paper ! 

I cut the larger pieces of paper in half and removed an inch from both pieces of the brown and punched them along with the Pinking Hearts Border and mounted both the patterned paper with a brown trip and brown embossed strip on a So Saffron back drop. 

I than embossed the brown with the Precious Butterfly stamp set in clear and the Black circle with Copper embossing powder (no retired) and than accented the Butterfly Wings Embosslit folder and some half back pearls!

And while this color combination is not something that would have jumped out at me in a store I am pleased with how well it came together and was totally impressed to see how everyone else turned their 'ugly papers' into works of art!

Happy Stampin'

Technique Tuesday - Selective Embossing

Thought I would share the Technique Card we made at our last class ... each participant gets a 6x6 sample with instructions for their Inspiration book to recollect on later....this card showcased the Cottage Garden stamp set with the Square Lattice, Designer Frames and Elegant Bouquet emboss folders.

With the sample we practice a couple of things from negative selective embossing to create the stampable rectangle space on the pink square lattice embossed cardstock for our sentiment to 'double embossing' as seen here with the Designer Frames with the Elegant Bouquet embossed inside it!

Happy Stampin'

Beautiful Bold Blossom Bouquet

Here is one of the cards we made this month during our Selective Embossing Technique class ...

This card we used portions of the Framed Tulips emboss folder to create a different framed look ... than filled our frame with images from the Bold Blossom stamp set in the Summer mini. Accented with a two tones Night of Navy and Daffodil Delight flower using the Blossom Bouquet triple layer punch!

To add a little bling we used the versamarker on the butterfly wings and the yellow portion of the flower and applied iridescent ice emboss powder - very pretty in person!

Happy Stampin'

Button Buddies encore

Here is another card inspired by the OWH challenge this week ... featuring once again the Pocketful of Posies DSP with the Poppy Parade cardbase and a Naturals White Top Note frame which was stamped in Poppy Parade with the coordinating My Friend stamp set that goes with this DSP. 

I used the Big Shot and Ovals Die to cut two ovals one in our Red Glimmer paper and the smaller in Naturals White and using the Button Buddies set I hand colored the floral focal point and than versamark embossed the vase in clear to give it depth - and finished it off with some small buttons and some Victorian lace!

Happy Stampin'

Button Buddies meet Berry Blossom

Finally had a chance to play along with one of the Utah Diva's International sketches this week - I love their blog lots of great inspirations and challenges - just wish I had the time to play along more often!

I used the inspired sketch to showcase the Berry Blossoms DSP along with our new In Colors ... Calypso Coral and Lucky Limeade!

The focal image was made using the 2 1/2 inch circle punch in Limeasde and the 1 3/4 circle punch in Whisper White after I had hand colored and stamped the Cherries from the Button Buddies set.

I added the sentiment using the Tiny Tags stamp and jewellery punch to look as if the cherries were tied in a bunch as an offering to someone!

It is hard to see in the photo but I versamarked the cherries and clear embossed them to give a 'shine'.

I also used the versamarker, some heat stick powder and the fine green glitter to add some 'bling' to the DSP here and there!

 

Happy Stampin!

Colour Q #96

This card color combo was inspired by this weeks Colour Q challenge .... unfortunately I did not get my act together in time to submit it ... I got distracted by some rather yummy naughty smoothies this weekend ... but love the colour combination! 

So inspired by the colour combination I went in search of a stamp set that matched the inspiration and came up with the new Up Up and Away stamp set ... I used my brayer on Whisper White paper to make a Bashful Blue sky and Lucky Limeade green space which was versamarked with Pocket Silhouette stamp for texture.

The Up Up and Away balloons were done in two ways - the middle balloon is versamarked and heat embossed with the Tempting Turquoise and that two balloons on the side are done with the Stamp Write Markers to allow for two tone balloons in Bashful Blue and Tempting Turquoise. 

 

The clouds, birds and baskets are in Basic Gray with a little Tangerine Tango thrown in for the sun. 

 

Happy Stampin' 

Designer Framed Elegant Bouquet

Yup - yet another Selective Embossing offering - having so much fun playing with this technique - the color combo is Melon Mambo and Pretty in Pink  with a hint of Wild Wasabi!

The back layer of card is stamped with flowers from Cottage Garden stamp set in Melon Mambo on the Pretty in Pink cardstock which is then run through the Square Lattice emboss folder and a strip of Whisper White attached after it was punched with the Scallop Trim punch.

Then the magic happens ... the Whisper White square was run through the Designer Frame to get our frame and than I reran it through the Elegant Bouquet using selective embossing to place the flowers inside the frame and hand cut around the frame to create the floral accent point on the card but before it was popped up on a couple dimensionals I had some fun with the floral frame...

... by playing with the Versamarker ... I heat embossed the various parts of the frame with different embossing powders ... Silver on the frame, Wild Wasabi on the stems and Melon Mambo flowers and than added a little more bling with some Rhinestones!

Happy Stampin'

Just Believe in Recycling ...

This was another quick and easy card I made the other day as I was going through my scraps and realized that I had lots of these 'Top Note Frames' in my scraps from when I cut out the Top Note for other uses but did not want to waste the paper.

So here we have a Not Quite Navy card base with a Naturals White Top Note Frame which I paper pierced on the corners to give it some character and than used it to frame a White Embossed Just Believe stamped image and than using my Versamarker I added some Melon Mambo embossing powder to just the flowers and the Thank you sentiment....and that is how a scrap of paper gets recycled into a beautiful Thank You card!

Happy Stampin'!

Watercoloring with a Brayer

This card was a lot of fun and I LOVE the way it turned out!

This technique used the watercolor paper, brayer and the classic ink spots to create my own 'kaleidoscope' ink ... i carefully inked up the brayer with the first colored spot in one strip of the brayer and than left a small space and inked up the other colors leaving a tiny gap .... than you roll it over the paper until you get the coverage you want - than spritz it with water and let the colors run together and lay flat to dry or roll over again with brayer if desired to get the coverage / blending you desire.

Once the water color paper was totally dry I rubbed my Embossing buddy over the card, stamped with black craft ink and embossed with black embossing powder both the sentiment from Word Play and the Boat from Uncharted Territory. I than colored the sun and boat with my Stamp Write markers to finish off and decorated my envelope with the Light house image!

More Snow Swirled

Here is another example of a Snow Swirled Card ... amazing how one stamp set can do so many wonderful cards ... this one is done with Night of Navy card stock and Silver Emboss powder ... with a little silver trim ribbon wrapped around ... so elegant!

Silver Razzleberry

More fun with snowflakes ... this card features the Snow Swirled snowflakes and the Delightful Decorations set with the Ornament punch and the sentiment is from the Many Merry Messages. Snowflakes are stamped on Whisper White card stock with versamark and embossed with Silver and set on Razzleberry paper with the Razzleberry ornament stamped on Whisper White with Razzleberry and the silver cord accents.