Happy Ornament Clear Block Stamping

Hi!


At the recent On Stage event, one of the stamping techniques we saw during a stamping demonstration was stamping with your clear blocks. I was very intrigued and decided to try it when I got home.

I used the new single stamp from the Holiday Catalogue called Happy Ornament. It was a stamp I overlooked a bit at first, but ended up buying, It's a great one for quick and easy Christmas cards.

So, onto the technique! To colour the bauble I scribbled on the clear block with my Tempting Turquoise marker, huffed on it, and then pressed the clear block to my cardstock to transfer the ink. You can repeat if you aren't happy with the result. I then stamped the bauble over the top and cut out just the bauble section with my snips. I stamped the bauble a second time, and adhered the coloured bauble over the top. I then coloured the rest of the bauble with my markers. Doesn't it look great?

I used the Playful Backgrounds bubbles on the background of the front, so I carried it over to the inside as well.


Bye for now,


Tina

JAI #337: Just Add Two

Hi!


Yay! it's the tail end of the working week, and the weekend is just around the corner! I'm excited because Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them has just opened. Hopefully I'll get a chance to go see it with the family very soon.

But that's not why you are here - you're here for the new Just Add Ink challenge! This week Kim is challenging you to Just Add Two to your cards. What two? You have the choice of either doilies, die cuts or Designer Series Paper. Just choose two and off you go!

I ummed and ahhed a little before having a little bit of a brainwave while I was in the shower. It's a great place to think! I went with die cuts and DSP.

In order to fit all the letters in, I had to make my card a tad longer than usual. It's actually 7 inches in length, and the usual 4 1/4 inches tall. It will fit in a business sized envelope, so it will still be easy to post.

You can see in this picture that I popped all of the letters up on Dimensionals. The edge pieces of the sheets are great for this, as they are already smaller than whole Dimensionals so they fit nicely behind the letters. I don't like wasting things, and this is a fab way of using up the edge pieces.

Speaking of not liking to waste things....

I also used the negative piece created when I cut the letters. I made sure to cut them in a straight line so that I could use this piece.

I used lots of Dimensionals to pop the piece up from the DSP underneath, including the two pieces in the top of the R's.

I made both of the insides of the cards the same. The cute little holly sprig is from the Hostess set, Time Of Year. I had intended to use the Christmas banner image from the set on the front of the cards, but in the end I decided they looked OK without it.

Here are the two cards together so that you can see how they are opposites.


Which two items will you choose for this week's challenge? You can see what the Design Team have chosen over at the Just Add Ink blog.


Bye for now,


Tina

AWH Blog Hop: Christmas In July

Hi!

Today some of the Art with Heart Stampin' Up! team girls are presenting some fabulous Christmas projects to inspire you. This year we already have new Christmas sets to play with in the 2015 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue, and some old favourites too. We also have a brand new 2015 Holiday catalogue coming soon. If you would like a copy of any of our catalogues, to attend a Stampin' Up! class or join a large fabulous group of crafty women by becoming part of the team (hobby demonstrators welcome), be sure to contact me.

So I decided to go with some old favourite stamp sets for this Blog Hop. I'm pairing them with the new Thick Whisper White cardstock.  I really love this new cardstock - it's perfect for making single layer white cards as it holds its weight well.I decided to make a pair of window cards, firstly with the Festival Of Trees stamp set and the matching Tree punch.

I started by punching the Tree shape in the front of the card.  I then masked off the bottom of the card using sticky notes that I trimmed to a curve. I then sponged over the top with Soft Sky ink and a sponge.  Finally I stamped a sentiment and the snowflakes using the spotty stamp in the Endless Birthday Wishes stamp set.

I then stamped the tree through the window I'd created earlier.  It was a little tricky to line up, but the photopolymer stamps make the job a lot easier! When the card is closed you get the full effect of the window.

And that's how the inside looks.

Next I decided to use another old favourite, Wondrous Wreath, to make a second window card. This time I used the coordinating Wonderful Wreath Framelits to create my window.

I actually used a few of the Framelits on the front of this card!

I really struggled with what image to use on this inside that could be seen from the front.  The obvious answer is the flower stamp but I didn't think it would work, so in the end I just opted to stamp a sentiment that wouldn't be visible though the window unless you look at it from an angle, as it the photo.

That's it for me for this month's Blog Hop. Next you're off to Kayleen McLean's blog for lots more Christmas in July fabulousness.

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the participants below:

1. Ros Davidson
2. Rachel Woollard
3. Tina Gillespie
4. Kayleen McLean
5. Claire Daly
6. Kathryn Ruddick
7. Judy May
8. Kathryn Mangelsdorf
9. Kate Morgan 

Bye for now,

Tina

Some Embossed Kissing

Hi!

I'll bet you're thinking 'huh?' over the post title right? My stamping ladies did the same thing when I introduced them to the technique a couple of months ago.

In this card it is the focal tree that is Embossed Kissed. It's a pretty simple technique really. You just ink up a solid stamp in one colour and a fairly closed design embossing folder in another colour and then smooch the two together.

The ink on the embossing folder transfers to the stamp so then you can stamp on cardstock and get a really cool effect.  The only downside is that you need to clean both the stamp and the embossing folder each time you stamp - so not a great technique for mass produced cards!

Why don't you give Embossed Kissing a go? It's a lot of fun trying out different stamp/embossing folder combinations.  I used Festival of Trees, Decorative Dots, Garden Green and Cherry Cobbler.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #245: Just Add Inspiration

Hi!

Here we are again with another Friday (which just about has to be the second best day of the week. Saturday's the best, being the first day of the weekend!) so it's time for another Just Add Ink Challenge. This week the lovely Nikki has put together an inspiration board of pictures to inspire our creativity,

Isn't it pretty?  I love all of the soft neutrals with the touches of gold throughout.  So peaceful and calming.

By coincidence, I have used the same colours two weeks in a row on my JAI cards! Oh well, other than the colours they are very different cards, so it doesn't matter too much I guess.

I stamped the full wreath stamp with Crumb Cake ink and then stamped over the top with the highlight wreath stamp in Crumb Cake also.  I was very impressed with how well I managed to line up the two stamps!  The berries were then stamped in Early Espresso.

I think I said last week how much I like the snowflake paper from the Trim The Tree DSP Stack.  I couldn't resist adding a strip of it to the inside of the card.

I hope you can find time to play along this week, we'd love to see your cards over at Just Add Ink.

Bye for now,

Tina

Happy Wonderful Christmas

Hi!

Today I have another Christmas card for you in Gold and Purple.  I used the lovely, rich Blackberry Bliss with Rich Razzleberry and Brushed Gold for this card.  I'm not usually a gold person, but I love this combination for a luxurious looking Christmas card.

This card is a CASE of one I found on Splitcoast Stampers.  You can see the original card here.  While the original creator went for more traditional colours I wanted to try the richer colour combination to see how it worked.  I was pleased with the result.

I also changed the main sentiment - I really love the Happy Wonderful Christmas saying. It's very cheerful and perfect for Christmas!  I used Crumb Cake ink to stamp the background stars.  It's a lovely subtle colour and it echoes the Brushed Gold nicely.

I hope this has given you a bit of inspiration for your Christmas cards this year.

Bye for now,

Tina

A Starry Wondrous Wreath

Hi!

This month I have run a few classes making Christmas cards.  There's such a wide variety of colours and themes in the Christmas offerings this year so there's bound to be something that you love!  For this card I decided to stick with the traditional red and greea, but I went for colours in the brights range - Real Red and Wild Wasabi.  I have loved this as a Christmas combo ever since Stampin
 Up! had a promotional set of ribbons in these colours several years ago.

Lol, you can see that my inkpads needed reinking before I made this card!  I used Garden Green as the darker green in the wreath. I love the way that Stampin' Up! have made it easy to line up the stamps in this set by adding  a tab to the bottom of the stamp.  Now the only excuse for not getting it spot on is human error!

We used the new starry punch to add the border on the card.  I really love the look of the stars.  A few ladies kept the punched stars to use as a confetti surprise for the person who opens the card. I didn't have room for a large sentiment on the front so I used my Real Red Stampin' Write Marker to ink up just the merry part of the merry christmas sentiment from Good Greetings.

One of the things I look for in a Christmas stamp set is a sentiment that is suitable to use on the inside of the card.  I think this one is just perfect!

Bye for now,

Tina