Friendship Blooms: Sale-A-Bration 2008

Ok, so I'm feeling like I missed the mark just a bit on this one. Do you ever have those cards that you start, and you really want them to succeed, but it seems that they are doomed from the start? Well, this one was like that. It took forever...and the reason for that was probably that it just wasn't working...but I went on valiantly, trying to force a round peg through a square hole. I'm putting it up here because I wanted you to know that I tried. I promise I did. Really hard! I'm looking forward to starting something new and fresh tonight though ;-).



The colours (and herein lies my problem I think) are Brocade Blue, So Saffron and Rose Red. I thought they looked ok together when I started...

The Stamps are from the very pretty Friendship Blooms set, part of this year's Sale-A-Bration selection. The ribbons are from the Fairy Tale Ribbon Originals, not available in Oz yet...I got them as a gift, and they're from the US. The Brad is also not available here...but I have my fingers crossed for next year ;-).

Merci: Sale-A-Bration 2008

This little card looked like it would be nice for Valentine's Day. The colours used are Ballet Blue, Ruby Red and Summer Sun. The flower and heart stamps are from the Merci SAB set. The 'With All My Heart' sentiment is from the Lots of Thoughts SAB set. On the background I have stamped the flower in Ballet Blue Classic Ink, then I have added a dab of Two-Way Glue Stick to each of the flower petals and sprinkled on some Dazzling Diamonds. The Ruby Red layer is mounted on Dimensionals. The Summer Sun layer has been wheeled in Marigold Morning ink using the Speckled jumbo wheel. The brads in the corners are Ballet Blue.

The next layer is Watercolour Paper. It is also mounted on Dimensionals. I have used Black Stazon to stamp on this layer. The central image has been coloured using Ballet Blue, Ruby Red and Summer Sun Watercolour Wonder Crayons and an Aquapainter. I have dabbed Two-Way Glue over the flower centre and applied Dazzling Diamonds here too! And that's it :-)

My mosaic mural

Okay, so this is not about cardmaking or scrapbooking...it is mosaic tiling, and it is a little project I started on Christmas day. I used to have this wall in the backyard that I was tiling. I am no pro at this...I just collected scraps of broken plates, and old tiles and wacked them up with some tile adhesive. Anyway, I had this really nice spot, and then we decided to extend the house, so my beautiful wall was knocked over. I have a photo of what I'd done...but I might not go looking for it, I don't want to compare this current job to it, and be disappointed.

Anyway, on Christmas day I decided that it was time to suck it up and start again. I was going great guns until today, I asked hubby (who was busy hacking breather holes in the back deck he made) what he thought of my creation so far (why do I keep hitting my head on that hard brick wall?). He was pretty unexcited. His comments to me indicated that he couldn't even tell what it was...what's that all about? I asked my 3.5 year old, and she could see the sun, the two butterflies, and four flowers...is it really that obscure?



There is lots to be done here. It is nowhere near finished. I will be infilling the spaces and doing whatever else comes to mind as I go along. There is no real plan, I just use the colours and shapes as I get to them. I won't grout it until the very end.

As an aside...I went down to Bunnings today to buy some tiles (I haven't been throwing so many plates at the walls these days, so my supply of smashed crockery is at an all-time low ;-), and I half filled up a little hand-basket with a bunch of tiles, in a myriad of colours. I was thinking that because they were all the same price, it wouldn't be a problem. WRONG, no es correcto, nuh-uh! Each colour had its own code, and the poor girl on the tile desk had to come back with me and write them all down for me to take to the cash register...Oooops! The girl on the register then had to fat finger in the 7 digit code and quantity for each of the 15 different colours I had selected (can you guess how many unhappy faces were in the queue behind me by the time she was done. COME ON! Get a life people!! Its Christmas :-). I really hate that uncomfortable hot feeling you get when you know 8 pairs of eyes are focussed on the back of your head and thinking ill thoughts...KWIM?

Anyway, I'll keep you posted on my mural. Thanks for looking.
Sam.

My last Christmas Card for 2007...

This card will be my last Christmas card for 2007...probably ;-).



This card looks better IRL IMO. It is hard to see the stamping on the background cardstock, so you'll have to take my word for it that I have stamped one of the greetings from Handle With Care on the Real Red, in Real Red ink. The next two layers, Very Vanilla and Brushed Gold are mounted on Dimensionals. The small Real Red layer is also mounted on Dimensionals, and has gold brads in the corners.

I've used the large square punch to punch squares of Brushed Gold, and then the small square punch to punch squares of Watercolor paper. I've stamped the penguin from Sleigh Full of Toys in black Stazon on the Watercolour paper, and coloured using the Aquapainter and Watercolour Wonder Crayons (Grey and White [both from the Neutrals pack], and Real Red and Old Olive).

The Brushed Gold squares are mounted on Dimensionals. In fact, there are about 22 Dimensionals on this card...YIKES! I have wrapped Gold Cord right around the upper layers, and tied it in a bow. I have then tied a second bow around the first...to give it a bit more 'bow' volume.

I hope you all have a very Happy Christmas! Best wishes for the New Year.
Sam.

Birthday Whimsy

Did you know that taking a photo of a card with Dazzling Diamonds on the front is really hard? The auto-focus was having a spack attack...and I can only think that the glitter was causing it serious grief. I ended up having to spot focus on a brad, then move the camera and take the shot.



The stamp set is Birthday Whimsy, and it is one of our Stampin' Up! Sale-a-Bration sets for 2008!

The colours of this card are Tempting Turquoise, Orchid Opulence, Only Orange and Whisper White. I have stamped various images from Birthday Whimsy onto Whisper White cardstock in Tempting Turquoise, Orchid Opulence and Only Orange ink. Even though I stamped each off two times first, I still thought the final thing was too vivid, so I have layered a piece of Vellum cardstock over the top and anchored it with silver brads from the Vintage set.

The Orchid Opulence layer has been Cuttlebugged. The Only Orange layer is mounted on Dimnesionals, as is the Tempting Turquoise layer. I have 'wrapped' the lower layers in Tempting Turquoise Grosgrain. I dabbed a little two-way glue pen on the candles and around the base of the centre-piece cake and sprinkled some Dazzling Diamonds onto it. The Dazzling Diamonds actually ended up sticking everywhere as the Only Orange ink was so juicy it hadn't dried yet. ETA...once the Only Orange ink had dried the excess glitter all came off...and went EVERYWHERE :-(.

This card is a birthday card for my hubby. I am really pleased with how it turned out. Its also a bit new for me in that I've used LOTS of Bold Brights. I am not usually a Bold Brights girl at all!

ETA: I received a light tent from hubby for Christmas...so now I can take schmick-o pics like the one below...well this is the theory, at any rate ;-).

Festive Favorites and Handle With Care

I like layers on my cards! Lots of layers...can you tell? ;-)

The colours on this card are Real Red, Kraft, Very Vanilla, Old Olive and Watercolour paper...which is off white. I have stamped the Season's Greetings stamp from Handle With Care on the background cardstock, in Real Red ink. The Very Vanilla cardstock has been Cuttlebugged, and stuck on the Kraft layer, and the two layers have been mounted on the Real Red with Dimensionals.

The Old Olive and small Real Red layer are also mounted on Dimensionals. The Festive Favourites Christmas Tree Tag has been stamped in Stazon, on Watercolour paper and punched out using the Tag punch. I've coloured it using Watercolour Wonder Crayons, and mounted them on Dimensionals as well! I have tied a small bow in Gold Cord and stuck it on the tag with half a Glue Dot. The Round Tab is in Old Olive, and mounted using two Real Red dimensionals (ETA: yeah right!! I mean brads...red dimensionals...DOH! ;-). The 'Celebrate' sentiment is from Everyday Flexible Phrases.

Glue Globs....a photo tutorial on what they are, and their removal :-)

You may think I am having you on here...but this is SERIOUS business, and a topic which I recently commissioned myself to research thoroughly. The thesis/dissertation is on its way (don't go holding your breath), but I have made such an important breakthrough that I though I would share it here with you, in the form of my FIRST EVER BLOG TUTORIAL! ZOWIE CAVEY!!!!!! I bet you are excited.

GLUE GLOBS AND THEIR REMOVAL

I bet you are asking yourself...What is a GLUE GLOB? Ask me something hard!! (if you are not asking yourself this, why are you reading this post?).


They are a small, parasitic GLOB of SNAIL adhesive (AKA GLUE) which accumulates on the edge of either the upper or lower tape surface on my (and possibly your...) beloved SNAIL adhesive dispenser.


I find their presence very frustrating and worrisome, as when I use my SNAIL adhesive dispenser to make projects, the GLUE tends to adhere preferentially to the GLOB, rather than attaching to my project. I have called this phenomenon Preferential GLOBing, and it results in an increasingly large GLUE GLOB on the dispenser, and only a partial line of GLUE on my project...and significantly reduces the GLUEing capabilities of said GLUE....IMO.

DO NOT DESPAIR :-). There is a solution, and it does not involve nasty smelling shampoo! Take a thin sharp object. I personally prefer a pair of scissors, Teflon coated scissors are jolly excellent for this job as you will find the GLUE GLOB disengages from these with ease!


If you can't find your Teflon coated scissors, like me, any old pair of scissors will do.

Manipulating the scissors with the precision and care you would employ to cut a fine embellishment for your card front, poke at the GLUE GLOB with the pointy end! Eventually it will all come out of there.



And, surprisingly...that is all there is to it! You will find your SNAIL dispenser GLUE GLOB-free, and ready to roll.

I personally recommend you check for GLUE GLOBS at frequent intervals, you can never be to cautious. These are horrid little things, wasting away your precious GLUE, and decreasing the sticking-together capability of your beautiful handmade projects.

If you have any questions or comments on today's tutorial please don't hesitate to contact me.

...another Christmas Card from me

The colours are Old Olive, Real Red and Very Vanilla. The stamp set is...that is such a good question, I will have to go look that up...back again, Holiday Spirit (it is not like I haven't used this set about 15 times this season, you'd think I'd know what it was called).

The Christmas trees are stamped on Water Colour Paper in black Stazon and Water coloured using an Aquapainter and Water Colour Wonder Crayons (Old Olive, Garden Green and Real Red). I've punched them out using the Tag Punch, and mounted them on dimensionals. There is also Gold Cord (which I am almost out of...approx. 60 m later [not 60 m on this card though ;-]).

Last, but not least, are the red blingy things that I have stuck on the Christmas trees. They are Renoir Embellishments (from my LSS). If you know how to glue these little guys onto a card without getting glue all over yourself, your desk and your project...I sure would like to hear from you. I tried the tweezers from the Stampin' Up! Toolkit. They didn't do the job...in fact, they acted more like a supercharged slingshot...and I had these little things - all glued up and flying about the room. NOT FUN!!!

BTW: Yes, I DO have a Stamp-a-ma-Jig. I just felt like free-handing those 'Happy Christmases' in. Remember, there are no mistakes in cardmaking, just FEATURES and different ways of doing things. This is a FEATURE...it is called 'wobbling words' :-).

Time Well Spent

This beautiful stamp set, Time Well Spent, arrived in my mailbox yesterday. It was a special 'thank you' gift to all Stampin' Up! demonstrators from the very generous Co-Founder and CEO of Stampin' Up!, Shelli Gardner. Shelli, if you happen to be reading my blog, THANK YOU SO MUCH...I love this stamp set!

This card is, in my opinion, a little bit hippy and a little bit Christmas :-).



The colours are Old Olive and Real Red. The stamps on the background cardstock are stamped in Old Olive. The feature panel is on Glossy White cardstock. I have stamped the flowers from Time Well Spent in Versamark ink on the Glossy Cardstock, then brayered over it using the Pumpkin Patch Spectrum Pad. I wiped off the excess ink from the versamarked images afterwards, with a tissue. This is the first time I have used a brayer (and Spectrum Pad), and I only tried it after watching several video tutorials on Linda Heller's awesome site Stamping School.com. The small joining fee is well worth it :-).

The ribbon is Black Gingham, and the sentiment down the bottom has been stamped in Basic Black and highlighted with a white gel pen.

BTW - This set will be available from next April, as a Level 3 Hostess Set in our new Idea Book and Catalogue 2008|2009. So, if you want it too....start planning your workshop ;-).

Origami Christmas Tree in Holiday Thyme

This little Christmas card is the second make n' take at an upcoming Stampin' Up! Christmas workshop I am doing, the first being the Christmas Criss-Cross card I put up last week.



It is 4' x 4', with a background card in Old Olive, a layer of Cranberry Crisp and a layer of Confetti Cream. The Christmas Tree is three folded squares of Holiday Thyme Designer Series paper. There is a great tutorial for making these trees on Juliann's blog Pixie Too.

I have used a gold brad as the top-of-tree ornament, and tied some gold cord around it and frayed the ends with scissors. The tree trunk is Cranberry Crisp, and it has been 'roughed-up' also using the scissor tips. The Cranberry Crisp layer has been distressed using the distresser on the Stampin' Up! cutter kit (which I love - it is so easy to carry around, and takes up very little space on the table). The 'Season's Greetings' sentiment is from the Many Merry Messages stamp set, and has been stamped in Old Olive ink.