Bloomin’ Heart, Falling in Love Wedding Card

A friend’s lovely daughter got married at the weekend and this was the card I made for the happy couple. I’d saved the paper from the Falling in Love designer paper pack (I’ll really miss these gorgeous papers) because I knew pink would feature in the wedding theme! However I used the soft pretty new In Color Powder Pink ink sponged on the edges of the petals instead of Blushing Bride. I don’t think the shimmery white card shows at all well in the photo – it looked quite pretty in real life!

The wedding was a very joyous occasion – the bride looked beautiful in her stunning dress, she and the groom wore the biggest smiles, the ceremony was personal and really lovely, the flowers were fabulous and the whole event was wonderful.

Card: Shimmery White, Vellum, Falling in Love DSP
Stamp Pads: Powder Pink, Versamark
Stamps: Floral Phrases
Thinlits: Bloomin’ Heart
Other: Copper embossing powder, basic rhinestones

Double “Z” Fold Lift Me Up Birthday

There are so many ways to use these hot air balloon stamps and dies and I thought this style of card just made for them.

This is what it looks like opened up:

Card: Soft Sky, Whisper White
Stamp Pads: Archival – Basic Black, Real Red, Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Garden Green, Old Olive, Perfect Plum, Crumb Cake
Stamps: Lift Me Up
Thinlits: Up & Away
Framelits: Bunch of Banners
Other: blender pen, dimensionals

Another variation – on this one, I lightly sponged the Soft Sky card with Blushing Bride and So Saffron to look like an early morning sky, but I’m not totally happy with the result. However, I like the acetate strip; it’s just difficult to disguise where it’s attached.

Card: Soft Sky, Whisper White;
Stamp Pads: Archival – Basic Black, Versamark, Blushing Bride, Sweet Sugarplum, Rich Razzleberry, Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Island Indigo, So Saffron, Marina Mist, Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi, Perfect Plum, Real Red, Cherry Cobbler;
Stamps: Lift Me Up, Sweet Cupcake;
Thinlits: Up & Away;
Punches: Triple Banner;
Other: gold embossing powder, acetate, blender pen, dimensionals, sponges, double-sided adhesive paper

High Tide

This was one of our class cards from a couple of months ago; an easy card using masks. The ‘sea’ effect was made by swiping the stamp pad directly across the card – we used one of the old-style stamp pads to create this effect.

Card: Crumb Cake, Whisper White
Stamp Pads: Crumb Cake, Soft Sky, Sahara Sand, Bermuda Bay, Pool Party, Always Artichoke
Stamps: High Tide, Jar of Love
Other: photocopy paper for masking, sponges

Special Reason, Boho Chic Birthday

Another card using the lovely Special Reason bundle – this was one I’d hoped would make it into the new catalogue, but alas! I hadn’t used the retiring heat & stick powder for some time, so I used it on the flowers with the Dazzling Diamonds glitter for a pretty sparkly effect.

Card: Flirty Flamingo, Whisper White, Old Olive, Basic Black
Stamp Pads: Flirty Flamingo, Versamark
Stamps: Special Reason
Framelits: Stylish Stems
Embossing Folder: Boho Chic
Other: Stampin’ Write marker – Basic Black, heat & stick powder, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Tombow multi-purpose glue, dimensionals, sponges

Reflections on Swan Lake

I decided to stamp and colour the swans on both these cards, again from the Swan Lake set, in black. For the first card, I re-visited the reflection technique and an old favourite – Lovely as a Tree.

Card: Night of Navy, Whisper White;
Stamp Pads: Archival – Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Soft Sky, Pool Party, Pumpkin Pie;
Stamps: Swan Lake, Lovely as a Tree, Gift of Love (hostess);
Other: Bunch of Banners framelits, Stamp-a-ma-jig image sheet, sponges, Wink of Stella – clear

This last card was another CASE of a swap card I received at On Stage back in November from Ariana Brinkmeyer:

Card: Real Red, Whisper White;
Stamp Pads: Archival – Basic Black, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, So Saffron;
Stamps: Swan Lake, Watercolor Wash, Rose Wonder;
Other: Layering Circles framelits, dimensionals, blender pen, Wink of Stella – clear

I still have a couple of other ideas to try out for this set when I get a little time to play!

More Swan Lake

This card was rather more challenging than the previous cards I posted using the Swan Lake set. It went through a couple of incarnations before I was reasonably happy with it. The outline of the swan is a little thicker than most stamps, so stamping it in Basic Black or even Basic Gray was too dark for my liking. I finally stamped it in Smoky Slate ink, after off-stamping it once or twice; almost like no-line stamping. I then painted the whole swan with Wink of Stella.

Card: Crumb Cake, Bermuda Bay, Whisper White;
Stamp Pads: Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Daffodil Delight, Smoky Slate, Memento – Tuxedo Black;
Stamps: Swan Lake, Gift of Love (hostess);
Other: Layering Ovals framelits, Bunch of Banners framelits, Seaside embossing folder, clear block, spritzer, basic rhinestones, scoring stylus (from Simply Scored), piercing mat, Wink of Stella – clear

Here is another card using the Swan Lake set. I used a different kind of double-stamping technique with this card, which Sara Douglass demonstrated at On Stage. First I stamped the ‘Happy’ & ‘Birthday’ from the Birthday Bright set with Sweet Sugarplum ink, then ‘dusted’ the card with the embossing buddy. Next I inked only the lower half of the words with Versamark ink, stamped over the Sweet Sugarplum words and embossed with gold embossing powder. Then I gold embossed the flowers and coloured them with inks and blender pens. I felt the card was still a little stark, so I lightly sponged it with Crumb Cake.

Card: Sweet Sugarplum, Whisper White;
Stamp Pads: Sweet Sugarplum, Rich Razzleberry, Mint Macaron, Pink Pirouette, Crumb Cake, Versamark;
Stamps: Swan Lake, Birthday Bright;
Other: Gold embossing powder, embossing buddy, blender pen

Swan Lake

I won the stamp set, Swan Lake, in a prize patrol at On Stage last November. It isn’t really a set I’d normally buy so I challenged myself to come up some different ways to use the stamps.

This was the first card I made:

Card: Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, vellum scrap;
Stamp Pads: Archival – Basic Black, Versamark, Soft Sky, Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Old Olive, Melon Mambo, Perfect Plum, So Saffron, Daffodil Delight;
Stamps: Swan Lake, Butterfly Basics;
Other: Copper embossing powder, blender pen, thick baker’s twine, copper metallic thread, basic rhinestone

My second card was this one, using the lovely Delicate Details lace stamp from Sale-a-brations. I’m not sure what the technique I used is called but it gives a 3D effect. First I stamped the lace in Whisper White craft ink, then over-stamped it – just slightly to one side – with Crumb Cake ink. I think this technique works so well with the lace stamps.

Card: Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White;
Stamp Pads: Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White Craft, Crumb Cake;
Stamps: Swan Lake, Delicate Details (SAB), Thoughtful Banners;
Other: Layering Ovals framelits, Stampin’ Write markers – Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Daffodil Delight, Wisteria Wonder, Blushing Bride, Pool Party, Soft Sky, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede

I have some more cards from this set to post in a couple of days.

Watercolor Wings Festive Birthday

We made this card at class this month – this was a fairly quick and easy one. I used the same card layout as the card we made at our last team meeting – thanks Steph.

Card: Whisper White, Calypso Coral, Sahara Sand, Bermuda Bay
Stamp Pads: Bermuda Bay, Sahara Sand, Pool Party, Soft Sky
Stamps: Watercolor Wings, Rose Wonder
Other: Layering Circles framelits, Butterflies thinlits, Festive embossing folder, sponges, dimensionals

Detailed Floral / Falling in Love Wedding & Engagement Cards

All the papers in the Falling in Love Designer Series Paper are really beautiful – soft, subtle, Bokeh effects – I truly fell in love with this DSP! This is an engagement card I made using one of the Bokeh-style papers under the Detailed Floral die-cut:

Card: Very Vanilla, Falling in Love DSP
Stamp Pads: Versamark
Stamps: Love & Laughter (retired)
Other: Detailed Floral Thinlits, copper embossing powder

I was so happy with it that I used the same idea for a wedding card for a friend’s son; I just changed the sentiment on it:

Card: Very Vanilla, Falling in Love DSP
Stamp Pads: Versamark
Stamps: Timeless Love
Other: Detailed Floral Thinlits, copper embossing powder

One Last Spin of the Butterfly!

One of our cards for this month’s class; we had to make one more spinner card before the die retires – and it includes quite a few other retiring items having a final airing.

Card: Bermuda Bay, Whisper White
Stamp Pads: Watermelon Wonder (retiring), Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Sweet Sugarplum, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry
Stamps: Flower Patch (retiring), Papillon Potpourri (retiring), Kinda Eclectic (retiring), Gift of Love (hostess) (retiring)
Framelits: Sliding Star (retiring), Banner (retiring)
Punches: Elegant Butterfly (retiring), 3/4″ circle
Other: foam adhesive strips, dimensionals, glue dots, sponges, Wink of Stella – clear, Wink of Stella – gold (retiring), 2 x 5c coins