Spring is coming!

Hooray! It's nice and sunny today and I feel as if Spring is on it's way at last!

Made a few cards to share with you, first being one for a swap:

I've used A Rose is a Rose stamp set, Bashful Blue cardstock and Designer Series Paper, Bashful Blue ribbon and for the rose I used Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue and Old Olive inks.

Last week I went to Stampin' Up! Field Training and had a lovely time meeting other demos and we got to do a couple of make and takes. The new mini catalogue will go live on 1st April when you can finally get your hands on all the gorgeous new stamp sets that will be available. At Field Trainign we used the new Forest Friends set. It is so stinkin' cute it's unbelievable! Take a look at these:

This clever reflection was made using the Stampamajig. I'll have to do a tutorial on how to do it. Very clever!

Tee hee! So cute! Products used on all three cards were Whisper White, Old Olive, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip and Bashful Blue cardstock, Chocolate Chip and Old Olive inks and Mellow Moss ribbon. The striped So Saffron ribbon and the Forest Friends set are both in the new mini catalogue.

I'm busy making more samples - be back soon!

TFL! Joanne xxx

Step card

I saw this type of card made on Splitcoast stampers and thought it was so good I'd have a go at my own version. This is made with Neighbourhood wheel and Loads of Love set, all coloured with Watercolour Wonder Crayons.

The cards are very easy to make. Cut your cardstock to 10.5" x 5". Next score your cardstock along the length at 1.25", 2.5", 4.25", 6" and 8.25". Then just fold it up into a concertina effect, making sure the first, smallest fold (the 1.25" one) is folded down, as this is the very front. Here's another piccie so you can see what I mean:

Then you can decorate it any way you like. I thought it was perfect for making this 3D type scene.

Enjoy!

TFL! Jo x

Watercolour Wonder Tutorial

Hello Everybody!

I've had a lot of interest in the Watercolour Wonder Crayons recently. These are superb. They are similar to watercolour pencils but better and more versatile. Here's a quick tutorial of a technique that is really effective.

First of all use your WW Crayons to colour your stamp on the back, as shown. I've used the large flower stamp from Live Your Dream and used Barely Banana, Bashful Blue and Old Olive crayons.

Next spritz the back of your stamp with a mister. Bit like Sir Tim does! ;O) Don't soak it, just a light mist over the whole thing.

Stamp as normal. It's best to use watercolour paper for this, it gives a better impression. There you go - a nice "watercolour" effect image!

The card I've made uses Old Olive and Bashful Blue cardstock, Bashful Blue Designer Series paper, Bashful Blue tafetta ribbon and the tab is made using Totally Tabs stamp set, Yummy stamp set (this is a Sale-a-Bration set) all embossed in white on Old Olive and cut out using the tab punch.

Hope you like this. TFL! :O)

Jo x

Inspiration.....

I was at the Sheffield Crop this weekend and getting a lot of stick for not updating my blog enough, so I will try harder, I promise!

I am a huge fan of Kristina Werner and always pop by her blog for Stampin' Up! inspiration. She does a weekly Colour Inspiration where she picks a picture or item, translates the colours into SU! colours and makes a card using those colours. Taking inspiration from her inspiration, I decided to have a scout around and see what I could find.

So, here's the inspiration:

This gorgeous bag is a Noni pattern called Noni in the Sculpture Garden and is availavle from Get Knitted. The colours I chose from SU! were Whisper White, Basic Black, Mellow Moss, Pretty in Pink and Rose Red.

And this is the card I made using them:

The stamp sets used are A Rose is a Rose (one of my all time favourite SU! sets) and Fundamental Phrases for the sentiment.

Hope you like it and I'll be back soon - promise!

TFL! Jo x

More Belated Christmas Cards!

Hello! Hope everyone had a nice Christmas. Here's another couple of quick cards I did for my Stampers 10 groups over Christmas. One is made using the SU! Time for a Tree wheel which I find unbelievably cute.

All coloured in with the wonderful Watercolour Wonder crayons in Earth Elements colours.

This second card was a little Love Notes size one. I did this using the Winter stamp from the A Tree for All Seasons set. I've had lots of comments about this one, people think it's so cute. I like it because with a stamp for each season you can use them all year round for birthdays and Christmas!

Each card was decorated with a bit of Stickles because I love a bit of sparkle at Christmas.

That's it for now. Back again soon!

Take care, Joanne xx

Christmas Stuff!

Hello again! So sorry not been around for ages. I've been so busy making Christmas cards and this and that for my lovely crop ladies and Stampers 10 groups. Thought you might like to see my cards I made. These are done using the gorgeous Stampin' Up! "I Wish" kit. The little Christmas Trees are from the Loads of Love set of stamps. They were coloured using Earth Elements Watercolour Wonder crayons.

I also made some lovely little test tubes full of sweeties using the scallop circle punch, 1 3/8" punch and Circle of Friendship stamp set.

And these are what I made for Harvey's teachers at school. Snowman soup made with the cute little snowmen stamp from the Window Dressing set.

All gifts and cards went down really well so I was very pleased!

Anyway, off to do more Christmas preparations!

Take care and Merry Christmas! Jo xx

Snow Globe

I love snowglobes, and I love the Stampin' Up! Neighbourhood wheel, so I decided to use it to make a snowglobe card!

Very quick and easy. I stamped the polka dot background stamp onto vellum using Versamark ink, then embossed with white embossing powder. Cut a circle of Ruby Red cardstock and cut out the middle to make a hoop for the outside of my snowglobe. I then stuck a circle of the vellum behind it.

I then stamped some of the houses from the Neighbourhood wheel and coloured one in with Watercolour Wonder crayons in Earth Elements colours, cut it out and arranged it with the little Christmas Tree from the Loads of Love set onto a circle of Bordering Blue cardstock. I placed the vellum over the top and the hoop on top of that to make the snowglobe.

It was then placed on a card made out of Night of Navy cardstock and decorated with a length of Always Artichoke grosgrain ribbon. The sentiment is from Loads of Love and was finished off with a little chipboard heart from the Loads of Letters chipboard pack.

All products Stampin' Up! Any queries just let me know.

TFL! Joanne xx

Grungy Card!

I sometimes get the impression that some people think that Stampin' Up! is all about cutesy and/or twee images, nothing grungy or "alternative". Well I've tried to put pay to that with this card!

After seeing this video by Monica using the Cuttlebug embossing folders, a customer asked me a question. Seeing that the Stampin' Up! Basic Black and Basic Gray inkpads are waterproof, could you still use them on your Cuttlebug folders, or would they make a terrible mess like Stazon that you'd never be able to remove fully? I decided to live dangerously and try it out for myself. Here goes!

Being the non-fussy type I inked the whole thing! This is using Basic Black inkpad.
I ran it through my Cuttlebug quite quickly, and was really pleased with the result. I embossed a piece of Bravo Burgundy cardstock with the Basic Black ink and it produced a lovely distressed/grungy type look.

I cleaned up with a few baby wipes and as you can see, no permanent damage to my Cuttlebug folder. Happy days!

I decided to turn my newly inked and embossed piece of cardstock into an anniversary card for my hubby, so here's what I did.

The main card is made out of Sahara Sand cardstock which I stamped with En Francais background stamp in Basic Gray.

I stamped a piece of Elegant Eggplant cardstock with Paisley background stamp (love my background stamps!) using Versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder. This was attached to the left hand side of the card and I stitched the join together with SU! linen thread.

I cut the Bravo Burgundy embossed card into a heart shape and decorated it with a little Bravo Burgundy 5/8" ribbon and Hodge Podge Buckle and attached it to the card.

All done! He'd better appreciate it! LOL!

TFL!

Lots of love, Joanne xxx

Stamp-a-ma-jig Thing-a-ma-jig

As many of you will already know I have a love of all things retro and as such I have fallen in love with the new A Rose is a Rose stamp set. It just looks like the material of one of my 1950's dresses! This stamp set is a Two-Step stamp set and to get the alignment right you really need to use a Stamp-a-ma-jig. They are superb and a life saver! With this in mind I thought I would do a tutorial for those who aren't sure about them. Here's how they work:

First of all, stamp your main image.

Now the Stamp-a-ma-jig comes into it's own. The black handle is moulded at a right angle. It has a right angle on either side so it is suitable for both right handers and left handers. You need to butt the plastic sheet right up against the handle as shown.

Now the plastic is aligned with the handle, ink your second image stamp and butt the wood up against the handle ie match the right angles to each other. Then stamp. You will end up with the image on the plastic sheet like this:

You then use this image on the plastic sheet to align over your first stamped image, like so:

Then just repeat the process you have just done. Once the image on the plastic is aligned to your liking on your base image, butt your handle up against the plastic.

Remove the plastic, keeping the black handle in place. Then ink your stamp and stamp on top of your original image, butting the stamp up to the handle which you use as your guide (as you did before).

Now all you have to do, after you've stamped the top image, is to congratulate yourself on being such a cool and clever stamper to produce such brilliant gorgeous work!

All that remains is to make cards with said images!

This card was made using Regal Rose ink for the rose and Old Olive ink, cardstock and Designer Series Paper for the leaves and card.

On this one the inks used were Barely Banana and So Saffron for the rose and Old Olive for the leaves, with Basic Gray and Barely Banana cardstock and Old Olive ribbon.

The Stamp-a-ma-jig is not just for Two Step Stamping though. How many times have you ruined a scrapbook page or card because you got the sentiment or an image in the wrong position? I know I have loads of times! The Stamp-a-ma-jig stops this happening, it basically turns all yoru wooden stamps into clear ones - or if you prefer, gives you Superwoman/Superman x-ray vision to see where you're stamping! :O)

Just before I go here's a little tip - if you use a stamp set a lot (like I'm going to be using this one) it saves time to stamp your images onto sheets of vellum to keep with that particular stamp sets. Just saves you having to mess around stamping images on your plastic every time. With the vellum it's ready to go all the time!

I hope you enjoy this tutorial and it makes sense! Any queries please just get in touch.

TFL! Joanne xx

Dashed Clever!

That Stampin' Up! Scallop Edge Punch that is. Not only can you make lovely scallop edges on anything that will stand still long enough, you can make your own ric rac! Here's how to do it:

First of all, take a strip of cardstock 1 inch wide (I used SU! Ruby Red) and cut your scallop as normal. You can make your cardstock strip thicker or thinner if you want thicker or thinner ric rac, but I think this is a nice size.

Now, this is the clever bit. Flip your strip over and feed it back through the punch. To get the ric rac look, the opposite scallops must be off centre. The best way to achieve this is to line up one of the "humps" dead central with the third guideline in, on the left of your punch (where my pencil is pointing to). Then cut away again as normal.

And look what happens! Ric Rac Paddywhack! As if my magic! No more buying loads of ribbony ric rac or paper frills - you can make your own!

As you can see, I made a card with it. This is made using the lovely little birdie from the Fun & Fast Notes stamp set and the Holiday Treasures and Designer Series Papers in Old Olive. My ric rac is made with Ruby Red cardstock and finished off with white grosgrain ribbon. The edges of the birdie picture were finished off by distressing with my cutter kit (great for hiding not-so-straight edges if you're a bit cack handed like me!)

Now I'm off to try and work out how to make scallop squares. I may be some time......

Hope this was clear enough for you. Any queries get in touch!

TFL! Joanne xx