April's Class

How nice the light evenings are now that the clocks have changed; especially for my classes at Selsley Scout Hut where we can see the Severn Vale whilst we work, well for the first part of the evening at least!
This month we made a card for an anniversary, a general card for a child and a box to cover a cube box of tissues.
The anniversary card just used two colours, Whisper White and Mint Macaroon. The hearts were from the stamp set Pictogram Punches and the greeting taken from Number of Years stamp set. The birds made using the Bird Builder punch. Simple but effective!

The general birthday card for a child was made using the now retired Sale-a-bration set Hello.  The colours used were Real Red, Pacific Point and Daffodil Delight.

Finally this weeks 3d project showed a good way of how to use up old DSP paper by creating a box and covering the sides.  Everyone had a choice of paper designs to use and I had cut the coordinating cardstock to suit.

November Classes - All Set For Christmas!

With Christmas fast appraoching, we are now making more Christmas themed projects but I also wanted to use a stunning set of stamps and coordinating thinlet dies - Lighthearted Leaves and Leaflets Framelits, which are perfect for Autumnal projects.  As Stampin Up is an American company and celebrate 'Fall' in a big way, they have quite a lot of products based on this season.  The card we made uses some lovely autumnal colours, Daffodil Delight, Tangelo Twist, Garden Green and Mossy Meadow to match with the colours in the Into The Woods DSP strips.  The greeting was taken from the Cottage Greetings set stamped in Early Espresso and puched out using the Washi Tape punch. First we emobssed some vellum card stock with the largest leaf in gold embossing powder and coloured in the detail of the leaf using marker pens creating a stained glass window effect.  Then either cut it our by hand or by using the Leaflet Framelit.  The background was stamped using the Gorgeous Gunge stamp set.

For our Christmas card we used mainly non-Christmas products save for the greeting which was taken from the Lots of Joy stamp set.  The Bird Builder punch was used for the robin in Soft Suede and Cherry Cobbler card stock and the leaves in Old Olive.  The greeting was stamped using Cherry Cobbler ink and the Hardwood background stamp was inked with Soft Suede onto Crumb Cake cardstock.  The centre was punched out with the 2" diameter circle punch. The berries were created uisng the 1 /16th hand held circle punch.  A small bow was made using the 1/8th Gold ribbon.

At our Christmas Card making workshop, I gave all the attendees a Christmas Pudding made using the Curvy Keepsake die filled with chocolate and was asked if we could make it at this class.  The Curvy Keepsake die is so quick and easy to use to make a lovely box to fill with goodies.  The colours used were Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green.  The holly was made by punching our a large oval of Garden Green cardstock and then 'nibbling' the edges with a 1" diameter circle punch.  The berries were made using the larger circle from the Owl Builder punch in Cherry Cobbler.  The dimpled effect of the 'cream' on the pudding was made using the Decorative Dots embossing folder.  The greeting was taken from a retired stamp set stamped in Chocolate Chip and punched out with the large oval punch.

Start of the Christmas Season!

Well, with only something like 10 weeks to Christmas, I thought I would start to show off the lovely Christmas products form the Autumn/Winter catalogue. It is full of wonderful stamp sets, embellishments, accessories and ideas it was a struggle to decide what to buy. So this week I chose to demostrate the Festival of Trees and Bright & Beautiful sets to create a 3-in-1 project!

As you can see form the picture, we made a card with a circular cut-out using the Circles Framelits and then 'hung' a star from the Bright & Beautiful stamp set, embossed in silver and cut out using the Stars framelits.  The circle that was taken from the card was then stamped and again embossed in silver using a masking-off technique witht he greeting in the centre to make a gift tag.  A 'ring' of champagne glimer paper was used on the card to hide the bakers twine and the centre of this was decorated with a stamped tree from the Festival of Trees set to make a second gift tag!

Our second Christmas project this week was a mini treatbox in the shape of a birdhouse with a little robin.

This is an ideal 'thank you' gift for a teacher/neighbour/friend or a table favor etc and can be filled with a few Elizabeth Shaw mints. The stamp set that was used for the snowflakes (stamped in Whisper White Craft ink) and greeting tag (Real Red and Early Espresso markers) was Endless Wishes, another lovely stamp set with lots of  seasonal greetings and different sized snow flakes.  The box was made from Crumb Cake card stock and the roof from Always Artichoke.  The robin was made using the Bird Builder punch in soft suede.

Earlier in the year, Stampin Up! introduced Blendabilities. These are marker pens in 3 shades of several of the main Stampin Up! clolours and are used to create a subtle shading effect when colouring stamped images. So far I hadn't found time to introduce these new items into my classes so thought it was about time.
Plus it gave everyone the chance to indulge in a bit of colouring. 

This card uses two punches, the Pansy and the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border.  The DSP was taken from the Moonlight DSP stack and the stamp set used was Flower Shop, stamped using Memento Ink to ensure that the ink did not 'run' into the Blendabilities colours. The two colours used were Daffodil Delight and Rich Razzleberry.  The Blendability pens can also be used to colour in Stampin Up! Pearl Basic Jewels (and Rhinestones) so that you can have matching emblishments to compliment your design.  The greeting was stamped in Rich Razzleberry ink using the Itty Bitty Banners stamp set.

Just a few Hearts and Butterflies

Well, this is our last class where we will be using the products from the current 2013-2014 Annual Catalogue.  I have been able to have a sneak peak of the new one and it is full of some great stamp sets, new colours, papers, accessories etc so make sure you come along to my July class on Monday 14th to have a look too.

Ok, back to this months class.  We had a couple of suggestions from last months' class on what sort of cards our ladies would like to make.  Our first was a wedding card. This one can also be used for an anniversary or engagement card as well.  The main colours are whipser white, sahara sand and very vanilla with smoky slate ink.  The hearts were stamped in smoky slate ink using the Hearts a Flutter stamp set and cut out using the Hearts a Flutter framelits.  The greeting on this card was taken from Petit Pairs and stamped again using smoky slate onto whisper white card, punched out with the large oval and backed by a piece of sahara sand punched out using the scallop oval punch.  A few basic pearls really give that extra touch to this card.

The second idea was for a 21st female birthday card so the idea I came up with can be used for either a general birthday or a special 'age' one.  The main card stock is very vanilla, then using the Woodgrain stamp stamped using crumb cake ink onto crumb cake cardstock.  The surround that the butterflies are 'perched on' was made using the Window Frames Collection framelits and pear pizzazz cardstock.

 The butterflies were made by stamping the smaller butterflies from the Papillon Potpourrir stamp set in Versamark onto wisteria wonder, blushing bride and pool party card stock and then punched out with the Bitty Butterfly punch.  The greeting or number is mounted onto a backing piece of very vanilla cardstock, cut using the 'in-between' size framelit die.  The number was cut out of Silver Glimmer paper using the Typeset Alphabet Bigz die. The greeting was stamped using the Memorable Moments stamp set in Early Espresso ink.  Finally the flowers were punched using scraps of pool party, wisteria wonder and blushing bride using the the Itty Bitty Punch pack with a small basic pearl in the middle.

This months box is a 'pillow box'.  This can be used to contain a scarf, tie, some sweets or any other small gift.  For this design, we drew around a template I had made onto basic black cardstock.  The band is a piece of Modern Medley DSP edged with a strip of real red cardstock cut using the scallop trim border.  The butteflies and border for the greeting were taken from the Creative Elements stamp set.  The butterflies were stamped in real red ink onto very vanilla cardstock and hand cut, the greeting was taken from the Express Yourself hostess stamp set in basic black onto very vanilla cardstock.  Finally the leaves were punched out using the Bird Builder punch in basic black.

Two Little Birds to Celebrate September!

How can anyone resist this lovely card design??

I think the Owl Builder punch along with the Bird Builder punch are the two most useful punches Stampin' Up have created. I found the idea for this lovely owl design on the internet and knew our ladies would enjoy making it.  The main card is made from Melon Mambo then Tempting Turquoise with Gingham Garden DSP.  The Woodgrain stamp was used with Soft Suede ink onto Crumb Cake cardstock to create the tree trunk with a "hole" made from Basic Black cardstock with the 1 3/4" circle punch . The main body of the owl was made using Soft Suede, Sahara Sand and Whisper White with Melon Mambo paper from the Brights Color Collection DSP Stack. The leaves were made using the Bird Builder punch and Pear Pizzazz and Old Olive cardstock and only attached at the top of the card to give a 3D effect. Finally the greeting was made using Love Label stamp set and Artisan Label punch.
This card has lots of uses - the colours can easily be changed to subtles to create a new baby card or by adding another owl it could be used as a wedding or anniversary card.  I hope you would like to have a go at replicating this creation. Don't forget to contact me for any of the supplies you may need!

The other card we created at our September class again uses the Bird Builder punch to make this card that could be used to welcome someone to a new home.

This card also uses the masking technique to create the sky (using Soft Sky) and grass (using Pistachio Pudding).  The birdhouse was made using a square piece Crumb Cake cardstock as well as two pieces punched with the Word Window and stamped with Early Espresso ink with the Woodgrain stamp.  The Word Window punch was also used to punch out whisper White cardstock again stamped with Early Espresso ink and the Woodgrain stamp to make the vertical pailings of the fence. A strip  of stamped Whisper White finishes off the fence. The bird was punched using the Bird Builder and Tempting Turquoise card stock.  The branch was made using Soft Suede and Gumball Green card stock and the leaves were stamped using Bright Blossoms stamp set in Gumball Green ink.
I had been looking for a new house design and enjoyed playing around with the Woodgrain stamp and Word Window punches to create this design. I hope you like it too!

A Duo of Flower Cards for my August Class

I have enjoyed using Gingham Garden DSP and wanted to share this paper along with a 'scrunching' technique to make some flowers to compliment the paper.

The flowers were punched from 2 layers of Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo and Island Indigo cardstock using the 1 1/4" and 1 3/4" Scallop Circle punches and then spritzed with some Stampin' Mist, scrunched up and then left to dry. The central flower was punched using the Boho Blossoms punch.  Once dry the sets of flowers were then assmbled. Strips of Gingham Garden DSP were used as the background and the leaves were punched using the Bird Builder and Pear Pizzazz cardstock. The greeting is taken from Sassy Salutations in Island Indigo ink and the main card background is Midnight Muse. I think the flowers really go well with the flowers on the DSP - don't you think??

The second card uses a sponged vellum technique which I was shown by fellow demostrator, Caroline Baker. I also used two of the new 2013-2015 In-Colors, Baked Brown Sugar and Coastal Cabana. The vellum cardstock is stamped with one of the Flower Shop flowers in Versamark and then coated with White Emboss powder and heat embossed.  The image is then punched out and sponged on the back with Coastal Cabana. Once the stamp has been cleaned, more images are stamped onto Whisper White cardstock in Coastal Cabana ink.  The main card is made from Baked Brown Sugar.  The greeting is taken from the Hostess set Simply Sketched.  A piece of 3/8" Ruffle Stretch Trim in Coastal Cabana and some rhinestones and pearls complete the look.  I hope you like the effect and if you would like to have a go at this technique then contact me for either a party at your home or to come along to my classes. Thank you for looking!