Spotlight on border stamps: Elephant Baby Card

Hello!

Sorry for not posting last week.  I had a bad week and just couldn't bring myself to post or even make any cards.  This week things have been much better and I have even decided to do a spotlight on border stamps.  I've had border stamps for a while and I've always had trouble thinking of ways to use them, so I decided to challenge myself and create five cards using five different border stamps!  Here is the first:

Elephant Baby Card - Confessions of a Cardmaker

Gosh that elephant stamp is cute!

Materials:

• White card (Trophee, 240gsm, white linen)
• Black ink (Stazon) and three shades of blue ink (Rosie's Studio)
• Banner border stamp (Creative), elephant stamp and 'baby' sentiment (Fiskars)
• Blue gel pens
• Grey pencil (Faber-Castell)
• Blue glitter glue
• Round edge corner punch (Fiskars)

Directions:

1. Create a top folding card base from the white card.  Cut a medium sized rectangle also from the white card.
2. On the card base, stamp the banner across the width of the card using various shades of blue ink to create the background.  
3. For the rectangular piece, stamp the elephant in black and the baby sentiment in blue.  Colour the elephant with your pencil and punch the corners to round them.  Create a dash line border around the piece with the blue gel pen.  
4. Adhere the pannel to your card base with dimensional foam.  Round all four corners with the punch and apply a small amount of glitter glue to some of the banners for sparkle.

That's it for today!  Come back next week for another card featuring border stamps!

Stacey

P.S. I have added this creation to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge over at:

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/

Shaped Flower Card

Hello!

I have to be honest, this week I've had something of a dead week when it came to creativity.  Yesterday I made a card with a watermelon stamp but I decided I didn't like it so today I sat down and finally found some inspiration.  While I wasn't fully in the card making zone (I got glitter everywhere!) I still had enough momentum to complete a card I was happy with.

Materials:

• Purple card, pink patterned paper, very light purple paper.
• Nesting flower dies (Couture Creations - Daisy)
• Dots stamp (Couture Creations) and a 'thanks a bunch' stamp (Rosie's Studio)
• Embossing ink (Versamark), purple ink (Distress - seedless preserve), gold (Ranger) and sticky (Ranger) embossing powder
• Purple glitter (WOW - eggplant)
• Purple flower gem and gold heart sequins
• Purple and gold gel pens

Directions:

1. Cut two of the flowers from the purple card using the largest of your dies.  Cut one flower from the next sized die from the pink patterned paper.  Finally cut one more flower with the third largest die from the light purple paper.
2. On one of the large purple flowers score a line along what will be the top of the card about and inch down.  On the other purple flower, stamp, emboss and glitterfy it with the dots stamp.  Adhere the two purple flowers together but only above the score line you created.
3. Adhere the pink patterned flower to the card base.  On the smallest flower, stamp and emboss the sentiment in gold.  Sponge around the edge with purple ink.  Adhere to the card with dimensional foam.  Glue on the embellishments.  Use the gold gel pen to add hints of gold to the purple card and the purple gel pen to create stitching lines around the pink flower.

For the envelope:

1. Make the envelope from the light purple paper.  Stamp, emboss and glitterfy the dots stamp onto the front.  
2. Cut a piece of pink patterned paper, round the corners and adhere to the front.  Cut a piece of the purple card, round the corners and adhere.  Use the gel pens to add stitching lines around the pink and purple layer.

There you go! This card turned out to be easier to make than I had anticipated which was great and other than the mishap with the glitter, everything went smoothly.

I'm adding this card to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog.  Check it out at http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/

Till next time.

Stacey

Rosette Wedding Card

Hello!

It is a lovely day here today and I have achieved very little so far!  The good thing about blogging is that no one knows your currently sitting in bed and still in your pj's while you are writing your post.  I haven't really done any crafting over the last week as my desk has become somewhat over run by things.......  So today I'm featuring a card I made a good month ago for a friends wedding.

Yip, someone learnt how to use PicMonkey this week!

Materials:

• White card, sliver glitter paper, pearlised rose patterned paper (Rosie's studio), vellum
• White ribbon and round ribbon charm (Bella Bling)
• Embossing ink (Versamark) and silver embossing powder (Ranger)
• Congratulations stamp (a set from a magazine)

Directions:

1. Cut the white card to form a square card base.  Cut the sliver glitter paper 5mm shorter in both height and width than the base.  Cut the pearlised paper 5mm shorter in height and width than the glitter paper.  Punch or die cut a medium size circle from the middle of the glitter paper for the rosette.  Cut two strips of vellum 4cm wide.
2. Take the two strips of vellum and either score with a scoring board or with an embossing stylus, lines 1cm apart perpendicular to the longest side of the strip.  Accordion fold both pieces along the scored lines.  Adhere the strips together at both ends to form a circle.  Punch a circle out of scrap card and cover with a strong liquid glue.  Holding the rosette together so that there is no gap in the center, place it over the glue covered circle and either hold it or weight it down until the glue dries.
3. Stamp and emboss the congratulations stamp onto a strip of white card.  Use an embossing tool to create scored lines either side of the stamped image so that the strip can sit snugly over the circle of glitter paper.  Create one more scored line on each side 1cm along from the first line.  Fold the strip to form a shape of a banner and cut a small triangle from each end.  Adhere onto the glitter circle with dimensional foam and then adhere the piece to the top of the rosette also with dimensional foam.
4. Cut the ribbon so that you can wrap it around the patterned piece of paper.  Slide on the charm and adhere the ribbon on the back with tape.  Place some adhesive behind the charm to stop it from sliding around.
5. Adhere the glitter paper to the card base, followed by the patterned paper (with a strong adhesive, glitter paper doesn't like to play fair).  Adhere the rosette on top.

There you have it.  Please make sure to use a liquid glue or an adhesive that is strong when adhering both the patterned paper to the glitter paper and the rosette to the card.  I used double sided tape under the patterned paper and it fell off with the weight of the rosette and the glitter paper underneath.  Thankfully this happened well before I gave the card to the happy couple but I did end up sticking it on a bit wonky in the end when I was piecing it back together.

It is certainly not a quick card, but weddings allow you to be fancy and complicated because they demand a certain level of elegance.  I used this card as an excuse to buy some (rather expensive) pretty paper and embellishments I wouldn't normally get and to use them on a card rather than hiding them away (I have a problem with that).

Till next time.

Stacey

Life is wonderful - watercolour card

Hello,

Today I am writing this weeks blog post while I'm visiting my mother for her birthday.  The weather is nice, the food is great, and the company has been even better.  So to tie in this weeks card with the wonder that is Central Otago, I created this:

Life is wonderful - watercolour card.

Materials:

• Watercolour paper, black and blue card, sliver embossed paper
• Flowers, leaves, little dot, and 'life is wonderful' stamp (Couture Creations)
• Black waterproof ink (Stazon), embossing ink (Versamark)
• Sliver embossing powder (Ranger)
• Watercolours and brush

Directions:

1. Cut the black card to form a landscape top folding base.  Cut the watercolour paper to leave a small border of black.  Cut a small strip of silver paper and a wide strip of blue card.
2. Stamp flowers and leaves on to the watercolour paper with the black ink.  Stamp the sentiment on to the blue card and emboss with silver embossing powder.
3. Colour the flowers and leaves with the watercolours and leave to dry.
4. Cut the watercolour panel into two using the blue strip as a guide for your cut.  Adhere the watercolour piece to the top of the card front and the blue strip to the bottom.  Place the silver strip over the join between the two.  You can either keep the remaining watercolour piece for another card or adhere it to the inside of the card.

I shall finish this post with some photos of the wonderful scenery that served as my inspiration.

Till next time.

Stacey

Once again I am adding this post to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog.  Check it out: http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/