February 14 fever

I know it's not even February, yet I've made enough Valentine's Day cards this past week or so to last me for years to come!

So these three cards use basic stamping and masking, but maybe you'll learn something along the way or see something that inspires you.(Stampin Up - A Happy Heart)

Basic masking using two chalk ink tones. I like the soft effect of the chalk. Now if you don't have any chalk inkpads, you can easily create a softer tone using your regular inkpads. Often you can stamp an image 2 or 3 times or more before re-inking your stamps, each time acheiving a more subtle tone. Experiment with you ink colours. If it's too dark stamp it off once or twice on a scrap piece first.
(Stampin Up - Upsy Daisy, Sweet little sentiments)
Now after stamping off on a scrap piece once or twice, using the same colour go over parts of the stamp with the edge of your inkpad or inked sponge dauber before stamping. You could also do something like this using 2 colours as long as the second colour added is darker or you'll stain your lighter colour inkpad.

( Stampin Up - A Happy Heart)
Keep it soft and simple. But if it looks like it's not quite finished, make the focal point pop out of the background using crystal effects or glitter glue like I have on the previous two images.
Click on any image to get a better supersized look.

Ahoy Matey!

So here is another card stamped with the same set. The Parisian Breeze DSP from SU is distressed around the edges and adhered to my favourite chocolate chip. The map was a piece I had wheeled several times previously to save time. I coloured in all except the "land" with markers, using a white gel pen for the mountains. I swiped creamy caramel over the map to "age" it. The ships mast was to thin to leave it as one piece, so I adhered it to two toothpicks which also pops it up. The tag (from the newsagent) is stamped and sponged in chocolate chip.

You arrr treasured

So it's about a month till Valentines day and we normally love to use the traditional pink, red and white; some ribbon, glitter and some other cutesy things for the ones we love...something we ourselves would love to receive. Although they appreciate the gesture, it's not really manly is it? Something that might be put in a drawer to look at from time to time, somewhere his mates won't see it.

So with that in mind this is what I came up with. The card base is Sahara Sand which has been stamped with SU "A Happy Heart" in Bravo Burgundy and then sponged with Creamy Caramel, Close To Cocoa along the sides and Chocolate Chip on the corners and edge.

"Matey's Map" was rolled on Chocolate Chip on Whisper White cardstock, coloured with markers and a white pencil for cliff tops, and sponged in Creamy Caramel and Close To Cocoa. The edges of the map were sponged with black chalk ink.

Using my Stamp-a-ma-jig I stamped the chest and pirate from SU "Ahoy Matey" on the map in Chocolate Chip first for placement and for the finer details-legs and arms. Stamped again on Sahara Sand, coloured with markers, cut out the solid pieces and adhered. I went over the legs and arms with a darker brown pen as they had blended into the background.

"You arrr invited" was partially stamped and the "treasured" was hand written, then sponged and put on foam that had been edged with ink so it wasn't as noticable. Then distressed and sponged the edge.

What do you think?

unfrogettable love

So coming up next month is Valentines day so what better time than to share your love of stamping with the one you love.

S.O.S (save our scraps)

Don't throw away those scraps that are left over, sometimes they're just the final touch you need. The chocolate chip matt was punched out several times before I used it as a frame. To look at it you wouldn't know. You can often get more out of your favourite cardstock/patterned paper this way. You could even cut out a piece in the middle where it won't be seen before matting. Again the scallop border of pink pirouette was a scrap piece and so was the ribbon. As it is partially hidden under the image there is no need to go all the way across.

The frogs from Stampin Up's "Unfrogettable" set are stamped in staz-on on whisper white. I then watercoloured them with markers by scribbling on a saucer and picking up colour with my aqua painter; and added dimension to the frogs, heart and crown with crystal effects. The card base is Rose red and the hearts and crosses from "A Happy heart" are stamped in real red.

Red roses for you

I love this Stipped Rose stamp! Unfortunately for me I didn't know how much I wanted it until after it retired, and I was having a very hard time obtaining one. Lucky for me my friend Theresa sent me a whole lot of stamped ones as a RAK! So here is just one of a bunch I've made.

First I coloured the image with pencils using two tones per colour on whisper white and mounted it on rose red cardstock that had been first stamped with the dotted background using versamark. I then went over the edge of the petals in crystal effects, which really gives it a 3d effect. Cut an oval out of vellum and punched the edge with the scallop edge punch and adhered it over rose. I cut a small slit on the side of the card and tied the ribbon around the card front. Added corner punch in shimmer to finish off.

Can you bear it?

I was trying to come up with more masculine cards as it's soo easy to play with all those pretty papers and ribbons, and as a result I have an abundance of feminine cards. SO what about the men in our lives. Ok so I know the ribbon isn't entirely masculine but I couldn't resist. Having said that though, guess who bought 18 rolls of ribbon for $50 without any help from me. Guess I don't have an O.S.R.D (obsessive compulsive ribbon disorder) as much as I thought!

The background trees from Happy Camper are stamped on whisper white in garden green and chocolate chip marker with a layer of coloured vellum ontop (You could easily create your own coloured vellum sheet with a brayer). Another row of trees is added ontop. Card base is creamy caramel and the bear and fire are stamped on kraft in chocolate chip. The fire is easy to create using red, orange and yellow pens. Shade a little red on the top of the flames, a little orange and then yellow. Draw a line inbetween each log to define them better and create shading and your done!

Loads of love

Just a quick and simple card using the Loads of Love set, watercolour wonder crayons, aqua painter and crystal effects. You can either outline the image with a crayon where you want the darker areas and blend out with the aqua painter or you can do what I do and pick up the colour directly from the crayon. As I don't have a grey crayon I scribbled on a saucer with a marker and blended it the same way. Too easy!