Nature Walk birthday

Have been having quite a crafty weekend making cards, using up bits and pieces and I came across the gold embossed images from Nature Walk which I did way back in April for my Aunt and Uncle's Golden Wedding anniversary.

I thought I'd use the extra embossed image I had made that day (just in case I mucked one up, always have a spare!) and found a base card in Ruby Red (retired) which I thought would be just right as a base.  Of course I could have used a current colour but the idea was to use up old stock...

I sponged the edges of the Very Vanilla embossed card with Old Olive, scalloped a 1" piece of Old Olive and embossed that with Square Lattice EF - thought about adding ribbons and bows but in the end opted for a simpler version.

Anyway, it was the perfect opportunity to use the fancy oval die from Lots of Tags - the main reason I'd bought that set of dies but which I had never used till today...

I also used a little Ruby Red pastel to shade the gold embossed images and around the edges of the tulip frame.

What I used:

Card:  Ruby Red (retired), Very Vanilla, Old Olive.

Ink:  Soft Suede, Old Olive, Versamark watermark pad.

Stamp Sets:  Nature Walk, Sincere Salutations.

Tools and other fun stuff:  Framed Tulips EF, Square Lattice EF, Lots of Tags dies, Scalloped Border punch, Dimensionals, pastels, gold embossing powder.

Buttons Galore!

Hi there, after I mentioned to someone the other day that I take all my card scraps and turn them into buttons with the  Button #5 Sizzlits die I thought I'd better do something with them!

As you can imagine, my 'button' bag is full of all sorts of coloured buttons, so I had an enjoyable 5 minutes playing around with colours and this is what I came up with.  No sewing required!

What I used:

Card:  Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Whisper White - buttons are an assortment of SU card.

Tools and other fun stuff:  Scallop border punch, Framed Tulips embossing folder, Buttons #5 Sizzlets die.

Happy Retirement Jo!

Our local Plunket nurse has just retired, so I wanted to make her a card to thank her for all her kindness when I used to take Leo for his checks.  It's great that she lives locally too, as I get to see her in the supermarket quite often so we won't lose touch.

This card started off as an exercise in using my new Framed Tulips embossing folder to make smaller borders, the white card is 4" x 4" and it worked really well.

The great thing about embossing folders is you can use either side of the resulting embossed card, today I chose to use what is officially the 'reverse' side of it, so technically it's debossed, not embossed!

What I used:

Card:  Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip

Ink:  Riding Hood Red, Pumpkin Pie, Always Artichoke

Stamp Sets:  Petal Pizazz, Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Tools and other fun stuff:  Scalloped Circle punch, Buttons #5 Sizzlets die, Framed Tulips embossing folder, Stampin' dimensionals, Stampin' sponges, Stamp-a-majig

Happy Mothers' Day to all!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the mothers out there who may stumble across this message a very happy Mothers' Day!  Hope your day is a special one, and that the pampering is not only restricted to today!

A few days ago I was once again having a play with the Framed Tulips embossing folder, trying to figure out a way to have the base card showing around it.  It is possible, but it means you have to cut your base card slightly wider than the average A4 size - the dimensions I used for my red background worked out to be 8 7/8" x 5 3/4".  I originally cut it at 9" but then found it would not fit a C6 envelope, so trimmed a teeny bit off and it worked perfectly.  It does mean you have to cut your base lengthways if using an A4 sheet, but that's the price for getting it exactly as I wanted it!

Had lots of fun with this one, it evolved throughout the morning (good thing my mum is away for a couple of days!) I started off by embossing a piece of Soft Suede (4" x 5 1/4"), then I applied Versamark ink to the edges where the tulips are, added gold embossing powder and heat-set it - it ended up looking like an antique gilded picture frame!  Using the Petal Pizazz stamp set I stamped three flowers in Pumpkin Pie and Cherry Cobbler, sponged the edges with Riding Hood Red.  Stamped a few leaves in Old Olive, cut them out, sponged the edges again, found some Riding Hood Red buttons in my stash, added those to the flowers as centres.  After assembling all the layers and flowers all that was needed was a sentiment.

Tip of the day!  Do not lay your card to be heat embossed on your self-healing cutting mat when applying heat!!!   I almost ruined my 25+ year old mat, luckily I realized just in time and was able to reverse the buckling by placing a heavy item on top of it as it cooled down....

What I used:

Card:  Riding Hood Red, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla

Ink:  Old Olive, Riding Hood Red, Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Cobler

Stamp Sets:  Petal Pizazz, Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Tools and other fun stuff:  Scallop Circle punch, Buttons #5 Sizzlets die, Framed Tulip embossing folder, embossing buddy, heat gun, gold embossing powder, Stampin' sponges, Stamp-a-majig

More from the challenge...CAS this time

You can tell this was the last card, can't you?!  All I had left by this stage were two flowers and was craving for something relatively 'clean and simple' - hope you like it!

I embossed the last Night of Navy flower with the Square Lattice embossing folder, added the cork flower and a rhinestone as a centre.  I did a 'partial embossing' on the Very Vanilla with the Framed Tulips folder (not sure of the proper name for that technique!) so I ended up with a smaller embossed square than I used for card number two,

I added a snipped of Old Olive Ribbon, sponged the edges with Night of Navy and used my Stamp-a-majig for perfect positioning of the greeting - and voilà!

{PS - did you notice the window in the background has finally been cleaned??  Which also explains the scaffolding outside that window - Carlos was doing some work which involved cutting quite a few branches off the neighbours' trees (shhhh... don't tell the neighbours!) and then cleaning the gutters in readiness for the winter - and it was too good an opportunity to pass up so he also cleaned that window - now I won't have to jump up and down with a wet broom trying to clean it this season and that's got to be a good thing LOL!}

What I used:

Card:  Night of Navy, Very Vanilla

Ink:  Night of Navy

Stamp Sets:  Sincere Salutations

Tools and other fun stuff:  Big Shot, Blossom Party Originals Die, Square Lattice embossing folder, Framed Tulips embossing folder, 1/8" Old Olive tafetta ribbon, sheet of cork, Stampin' dimensionals, rhinestone, Stampin' sponges, Stamp-a-majig.

Challenge - part 2

Here is the second card from the 'cork flowers' challenge.

This time I used some of the lovely images from Nature Walk as a subtle background, added a strip of embossed Cajun Craze and then popped a flower made from three of the shapes from the Blossom Party die.  I also made three loops with Old Olive Ribbon to add as 'leaves' under the flower.

The edges of the Very Vanilla background have been sponged with Crumb Cake to soften them a little.

What I used:

Card:  Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla

Ink:  Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede

Stamp Sets:  Nature Walk

Tools and other fun stuff:  Big Shot, Blossom Party Originals Die, Framed Tulips embossing folder, Stampin' sponges, 1/8" Old Olive ribbon, sheet of cork.

Happy Anniversary to my Aunt and Uncle!

My Aunty Patricia and Uncle Ray are celebrating 50 years of wedded bliss (one of the reasons my parents are over here visiting - can't miss out on a good shindig!) and I was waiting for my new order to arrive so I could make them a card to celebrate the occasion.  Anyway, it arrived last week and I had lots of fun trying out my new products, the Framed Tulips embossing folder, Gold embossing powder, even the Cherry Cobbler card and ink are new!  And I must say I absolutely love the stamp set, as soon as I saw cards appearing on American blogs using the Nature Walk stamp set I added it to my mental wish-list and hoped like mad it would be sold in Australia and New Zealand and it was - how lucky is that!

Anyway, went a bit crazy with the gold embossing, it's not everyday you celebrate your Golden Wedding anniversary, hope they like it.

The gold embossing is more obvious in the next shots.

What I used:

Card:  Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla

Ink:  Cherry Cobbler, Versamark Watermark ink

Stamp Sets:  Nature Walk, Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Tools and other fun stuff:  Framed Tulips embossing folder, gold embossing powder, heat gun, embossing buddy, Large Oval punch, Scalloped Oval punch, Stamping Dimensionals.