Stamped Image Swaps

Hi everyone,

Looking at all your beautiful cards recently on your blogs, I had a thought which you may be interested in.

I noticed that a few of you have the new Magnolia stamps of the cute little girl Tilda and the matching boy stamp in the collection and you've been sharing your wonderful creations with us all.

Would any of you be interested in swapping stamped images with each other of stamps that you have seen and liked but may not have ?

I know that a few of you have expressed an interest in the cute (retired SU) baby images I used on my baby cards in previous posts so I would be happy to stamp up some of those and maybe swap them with someone who has the Tilda stamps for instance.

If any of you would like to do it, we could leave a note on our blogs and then contact each other to ask for images we've seen on other's blogs and offer to swap with each other.

Let me know what your thoughts are about this idea.

Thanks for visiting - have a great weekend and if you're in Melbourne, stay cool tomorrow :-)

'Bye for now.

My other card creations - Birthdays

Hi there,

I was recently going through my file of cards that I have made in the last few years and thought I would share some with you. These are not stamped cards but something a little different.

These three Birthday cards were made especially for people I know - the two 80th and 50th Birthday cards were commissioned by a friend of mine for two friends of hers. (I have made a few cards now for my friend and she is one of my best customers! )

When making a specific card for someone, I ask about their colour preferences, their hobbies

and whether they like traditional or modern cards then go away and plan to make something unique and special for them. So far, I have been successful and the cards have been well received - I must be doing something right!

For this first card, I was told that the birthday lady loved gardening and the odd tipple of wine and while looking through my stash of supplies, I came across some manilla 'luggage' tags and suddenly had a bright idea to use them to make miniature cards, similar to ATC's.

This is the outside of the card - it's a little hard to see but the Peel-Off greeting says 'Happy 80th Birthday'.

I love this vintage floral paper which I bought in a scrapbook shop somewhere - it may be a K & Company design, I can't remember.

On the inside of the card, I made a little co-ordinating pocket to hold the concertina tags.

Here is the front view of the 4 tags - I decorated each panel with papers, stickers and flowers bearing in mind the recipient's love of gardening and wine.

Not liking to leave anything undone, I also decorated the back of the tags !

This was a good place to incorporate the Birthday greeting which was actually an acetate sticker from a little K & Company pad I have - I love the 'Victorian Charm' of their papers and stickers.

For the second card, I thought of another 'twist' and made a 'card within a card' - this one was a hit with my friend and also the Birthday girl.

Here is the front of the main 'outer' card.

My friend thought it was lovely but she was really impressed when she saw what I had put inside ! It was a four page mini album incorporatiing all the Birthday girl's favourite things

and even though I didn't know it at the time, the woman was treating herself to a widescreen TV for her Birthday so my motif on the front page was extra special to her.

This view is of the front page (on the right) and the back page (on the left). Like all we crafty people, I find inspiration in the most unlikely places !

For her TV hobby, I cut out DVD covers from a junk mail catalogue, mounted them on some cardstock to give them some 'body' then mounted them on 3D foam squares.

Here is a close up of these two pages.

Here are the two inner pages of the mini album.

And a close up of these two pages -

I cut out the wine bottles from the weekly supermarket catalogue and the books from another junk mail catalogue.

I co-ordinated the background papers on each page and added flowers and other embellishments to match.

I haven't really done much scrapbooking but I surprised myself when I did these two cards -

when I look at a blank 12 x 12 page, I find it hard to visualise what I'm going to do on the page yet find it much easier to think in terms of 'mini' layouts - must be the card-maker in me coming through! LOL - Does anyone else have the same problem ?

Finally, here is a card I made for my youngest Grandson, Tyler, for his 4th birthday in 2007.

I had these lovely bright Birthday stickers and wanted to make something colourful for him and thought of using his photo on the card to personalise it.

He loved the card and he is now a budding scrapper too like his mother (my daughter).

She is a whiz at scrapbooking and in contrast to me, finds it hard to work on smaller projects like cards ! We obviously share the same creative genes and have a lot of fun when we get together for crafting sessions - we've been away on weekend Scrapping Retreats in the last two years and had a ball at those.

If you can imagine 50 -70 crazy women all yakkin' and scrappin' at the same time in the same room, you'll know what I mean ! It's a hoot ......

Well, this was a very long post but I just wanted to show you that I do other things besides stamping and love to try out different techniques and learn about other papercraft ideas.

I hope you liked looking at these 3 projects. Thanks for stopping by - hope you'll come back again soon !

Happy crafting until next time. :-)

Floral Cards

I decided to try out my Artfully Asian set and make some pretty floral cards as I love this image with the branch, flowers and leaves.

I stamped the base image in Basic Black then coloured in the flowers, buds and leaves with watercolour pencils and an aquabrush.

For the yellow card, I used the Four Seasons DS paper (from the 2007-2008 catalogue) as a background, cutting out the corners with a small circle punch and then mounting it on Chocolate Chip cardstock.

I then added a strip of Au Chocolat DS paper as a contrast (from one of the previous year's mini catalogues).

I sponged around the edges of the white card with Pumpkin Pie ink then mounted it onto Pumpkin Pie card before cutting out the corners with a small circle punch and piercing holes around the edges. This was then mounted onto Chocolate Chip card.

To finish off the card I stamped the greeting in Chocolate Chip ink, added small gold brads to the corners of the base card and then added some glitter to the flowers using KindyGlitz - Crystalline.

SU Supplies -

Cardstock - Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White

Stamps - Artfully Asian (floral branch) / Live Your Dream (Greeting)

Inks - Basic Black, Chocolate Chip

DS Papers - Four Seasons, Au Chocolat

Extras - Gold brads, KindyGlitz - Crystalline

For the second card using the same floral branch image, I chose a blue theme.

I coloured the floral branch in the same way but chose different background papers from the Prints Designer Series in Brilliant Blue.

These were mounted onto Ballet Blue and Green Galore cardstock. I added some Bashful Blue grosgrain ribbon and added some KindyGlitz to the flowers for some added sparkle.

SU Supplies -

Cardstock- Ballet Blue, Green Galore, Whisper White

Inks - Basic Black, Ballet Blue, Soft Sky (for sponging the edges of the white card)

Stamps - Artfully Asian - floral branch and greeting

Papers - Designer Series - Brilliant Blue - spots and stripes

Scallop Border Punch

Ribbon - Bashful Blue grosgrain

Extra - KindyGlitz - Crystalline

I have another version in the making with a pink theme so come back and visit again to see that one which I'll upload once it's finished - in the next day or two.

There is something so lovely about creating floral, feminine cards and with our great range of stamps to choose from, there is no shortage of designs to inspire you.

Check out our main catalogue and our current mini's for some really beautiful stamps and papers and don't forget, some of these stamp sets will be retiring in the next few months to make way for our new catalogue so don't leave it till the last minute to place your orders.

Contact me now to place your orders or enquire about classes for cards like these.

Thanks for visiting - come back in the next day or so to see my other creations!

'Bye everyone!

Makeesha Byl's Challenge #3

Well, as promised I have a new card for you.

I missed Keesh's deadline for this colour challenge but still made the card just to see what I could come up with.

I decided to use this cute little owl from the Celebrate Everyday set and found the perfect background paper in the DS Ginger Blossom set.

I coloured in the owl with watercolour pencils and an aquabrush, added some Blue Bayou ribbon and after stamping the flowers and cutting them out, I added co-ordinating pearls for the centres. The owl base image was stamped in Blue Bayou ink then a second image was stamped in Basic Black so I could colour it in, cut it out and adhere it over the base image with 3D foam squares.


I used the Scallop Border Punch for the edges on the Ruby Red and Blue Bayou cardstock pieces.

SU Supplies:

Cardstock - Blue Bayou, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Ink - Blue Bayou, Basic Black
Stamps - Owl / Greeting from the Celebrate Everyday ( '08 - Spring Mini catalogue) -
Flowers from the '09 Sale-A-Bration - Polka Dot Punches set
Ribbon - Blue Bayou double-stitched
DS Papers - Ruby Red / White spots from the Ginger Blossom set
Scallop Border Punch

Extras - Self-adhesive pearls - Red / Chocolate (Kaisercraft)



Thanks for stopping by - come back soon, I have more to show you!



'Bye for now.