A friend just got engaged!

Best news this week is a friend of mine just got engaged. Great excuse to make a card, for sure, even if there's a thousand other things I should be doing. It had to be simple and Scrapbook Boutique's August challenge provided just the right inspiration. Yellow and gray! These aren't usually my colours of choice so it was a challenge for me. I'm pretty happy with this simple card.

Most products except the DSP are from Stampin Up

Stamps: Love You Lots, Sunshine Sayings

Ink: Daffodil Delight, Smokey Slate, Black (Memento)

No special techniques here; simply stamp and colour in. I used the aqua painter to help dilute and blend. And glitter...except it didn't really show up on the photo. Oh well.

CFC67 - Flags, banners and more besides

It's been a long time in-between crafting, for sure, so it was so good to get back to it! I've been playing with the new Stampin Up In-colours and the best way to get inspired, imho, is to join challenges.  CAS-ual Fridays did not disappoint and here I am with my entry to challenge  #67 - Flags & Banners.

All products are from Stampin Up

cardstock: Silver Glimmer (vase), Primrose Petals, Summer Starfruit, Midnight Muse, Gumball Green

stamps: En Francais background, Fabulous Phrases

punches: small heart, Ornament

I love using the Ornament punch and turning it into a vase; the Glimmer paper sets it off, methinks.

This is very much inspired by Lorena's work...so cute and clever, I thought.

Here are the other cards I made, while inspired. 

 Welcome back me! :-)

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Thank you gift

I made these CAS card set for my sister-in-law.

Listed products are from Stampin Up

Stamps: Just Believe 

Punches: Word Window, Dotted Scalloped Ribbon Border

Inks: Espresso, Baja Breeze

Ribbon: Baja Breeze seam binding

I am also giving her a thank you cum birthday cum desk calendar card.  It's an easel card. See?

Stamps: En Francais, French Foliage

Punches/Die: Scallop Edge Border, Dotted Scalloped Ribbon Border, Beautiful Butterflies, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder

Inks: Pear Pizzazz, Peach Parfait, Crumb Cake

I hope she likes them all.

CFC #31 - Special Birthday Card

I haven't been here for soooo long! It feels good to be back.

I had to make a special card so searched out my favourite challenges for inspiration.  This one's from CAS-ual Friday CFC31 - use a misting technique.  It's an easel card with the happy birthday actually inside the card.  The front is fairly simple and misted with a home-made glimmer mist using water and perfect pearls. Shimmery card is hard to photograph - as many of you know - so I tried to a few angles and hopefully, this one captures it well enough.

As an easel card, I had to also decorate the inside a little.  In fact, this is a little desk calendar so my friend will get my well wishes every day of the year. Pretty cool huh?

All products except the calendar and Perfect Pearls are from Stampin Up

cardstock: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive (love this combo very much)
inks: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Versamark
stamps: Baroque Motifs, Cottage Garden, Bliss (on butterfly), Bring on the cake
punch: Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border
SU die/folder: Beautiful Butterflies. Manhattan flower
embossing powder: clear, white
embellies: pearls, buttons

Phew! That's a lot of products.  Still, I think the card is still fairly clean and simple.  And the misted shimmer lifts it up ever so slightly. What do you think?

OLW 66 - one layer wonder

Another challenge I haven't done for a while is OLW and this week (OLW66), Susan's challenge is fascinating. That is, we were to go to Janelle's blog and find inspiration there. Ha! The wealth. The treasure. The variety! You have been warned.

I actually ended up with 2.  Here they are:

Card 2

Card 1

The deets (all Stampin Up)

Card 1
stamps: Sweet Summer (SAB set), Short & Sweet
Inks: Black, Regal Rose, Marina Mist + markers: Regal Rose, Certainly Celery
Punch: 1 3/4" scallop for the clouds

Card 2
stamps: Boho Backgrounds (retired), Bring on the cake
inks: Regal Rose, Rich Razzleberry, Pink Pirrouette + markers: Cherry Cobbler (centre of main image)

Card 2 was inspired by this:

It's not a one-layer card. Just look at the bottom of the card.  I think the punched edge with the underlay is really cool.

I tried to re-create that using a mask (recognise the  fancy favour die cut?) and brayered (yes, used a brayer!) on the ligher pink before stamping on the background stamp.

For the main image, I stamped first in Regal Rose then sponged the edges with the darker Rich Razzleberry and the middle (covered mostly by the rhinestone) with the Cherry Cobbler marker.

I also scored the 3 lines and added the pearls.  I skipped the twine - wouldn't look right on my one layer wonder. :-)

All up, I did a pretty good job methinks. ha ha.

cheers all.

CFC #21 + LIM #34 - CAS thinking of you

It's been a while since my last entry into CAS-ual Fridays and even longer for Simply Less is More.  It's been soooo busy around here and I have been busy with my other blog - on education.  Apologies to my followers. ;-/

This week I'm doing a joint one inspired by the sketch for LIMmettes (challenge 34) and the colour inspiration over at CAS-ual Fridays (challenge 21).

The card is 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 " square.

All products from Stampin Up

Cardstock: white, baja breeze, chocolate chip

ink: Marina Mist, not quite navy, chocolate chip

stamps: Artistic Etchings, Teeny  Tiny Sentiments (best sentiment set ever)

I think I've lost my touch in terms of crafting and craft-blogging. ha ha.  Feeling rather awkward!

I hope you like this.

cheers,

Malyn

CFC 15 - Sketch Challenge

It's been a while since I entered a challenge.  I think doing a scrapbook project did me in - 40 layouts in 2 weeks!  Anyway, slowly getting back my mojo.

CASual Friday Challenge 15 is a sketch challenge - and what a good one it is too.  Do go and check it out. ;)  Here's my entry.  With netball season over, I've got to make loads of thank you cards for my girls' team coaches, managers, etc.

Very much inspired by this week's card by DT gal, Julie Day.  Hers is an OLC while I used some designer paper.  but the stamp is the same - Stampin Up Just Believe set.

This sketch is so fab and easy and really works.  Just what a girl needs for making a stack. :-)

For an extra touch while still in keeping with CAS guidelines - a bit of twine, a small flower and the tiniest pearl.

Did all of them in an hour, maybe less even.  You know what it's like - time flies when you're stamping!

Cheers all and thanks for stopping by.

Baby Card

I've been making far too many farewell cards at work.  This is another one, sort of.  This is for a colleague who's off to have a baby and promises to be back - farewell, but not goodbye.

It's a big A5-sized card (A4 folded in half).  I did use a stamp-a-ma-jig to line up those baby pjs.  As we don't know the baby's gender, I tried to keep the colour 'safe' though did squeeze in a pink-and-blue jumpsuit.  Stamps  are from Stampin Up sets (A Slice of Life and So Happy for You).


Here's a bit of detail on the inside.

I folded a sheet of copy paper in half, trimmed a bit off the sides.  I then border punched the top and glued a strip of orange paper (match the feature colour at the front) on the bottom to highlight the detail.

I usually put a sheet of paper inside for group cards as it provides more space for people to write messages.  Otherwise, they just write their names and where's the fun in that???




For those who follow this blog - sorry, I haven't posted much lately.  I've been busy with the scrapbooking project I was making for my mum.  Here's a page from it - my last challenge entry and blog post.  I'm so happy to finish it.

Cheers all and thanks for looking.

PDCC 88 - Artistic Etchings

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #88 involves Red-ish/Orange...Yucky Yellow...Juniper  colours.  Lovely colour combo, for sure, but it took me a while to think of something particularly as I generally want to try something different.  That said, my cards always seem to look the same to me.  That said, a quick look at my cards in flipcard (or mosaic) view  shows that occasionally, I do come up with something a bit different (btw, if you use Blogger - you can also create a mosaic view - see how to here).

Right, better get posting as PDCC 88 is about to close!

Here's my entry this week.

Night-time here so this isn't the best shot. I tried a few but there's just too much shadow.  Oh well.

The deets:

stamps: Stampin Up Artistic Etchings

inks: SU Poppy Parade, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight

It's pretty CAS - lots of white space but that 3D "bauble" must make up for it, surely. ;)  Also, no sentiments as I intentionally wanted to keep this card blank.  Besides, I really couldn't find any sentiment (or font) that suited the style.  What would you suggest? Script? Small?  Where?

Cheers.

simply Less is More #22 - Shades of Blue

Simply Less is More challenge #22 is SHADES of BLUE.  Cool blues!

I needed to make a birthday card for a boy urgently so took this opportunity to do a challenge as well.  As it happens, I'm giving him an iTunes card so my design was constrained accordingly.   Here it is:

The pocket did start out as a white piece of card.  Emboss-resist is one of my favourite techniques. What's new here (for me, at least) is using a brayer!  That was a challenge as I built up the colours.  The gradient was supposed to be vertical but, as you can see, it ended up horizontal.  No matter, I've got my shades of blue.

All products except ribbon and floss from Stampin Up

inks: Versamark, Baja Breeze, Marina Mist, Tempting Turquoise, Not Quite Navy
stamps: French Foliage, Playful Pieces, Bring on the Cake

I had visions of using scallop punches and all that but being a card for a boy, I restrained myself. ;)  The Baja Breeze cardstock looked a bit plain hence the raindrops (Marina Mist) and sponging of the edges.

I need more practice with the brayer methinks.

cheers,
Malyn

PDCC 86 - Just a little note

Check out the latest challenge #86 from The Play Date Cafe.

These colours are scrumptuous on their own and together - they spell Fun, Fresh, Fabulous.

Here's my take:

I know it's fun and fresh but is it fabulous? ;-)

The deets:

Unless indicated otherwise, product is from Stampin Up

paper: DSP Regal Rose, Tempting Turquoise, Tangerine Tango
stamps: Apple Blossoms
inks: Regal Rose, Tempting Turquoise, Orange Marmalade Distress Ink
punches: 2-step bird, 1 3/4" circle, Word Windows
others: ribbon from stash, clear spica pen

This really sort of evolved on me.  The only thing I 'planned' was the main panel with the cut-outs - bursting ...as I was with excitement (geddit?) :-)  Then, I just got going from there and by the time I added on the sparklies, I was smiling. Gotta love a happy crafting session.  Actually, I toyed with the idea of putting bling on but the "flat" little sparklies look more fun.  I even put some on the polka dotted wing just for fun.

So what do you think?

Jac-Inks 10 - Sketch Challenge

Among the many benefits of doing challenges is an excuse to craft (read: avoid chores). :-)

I needed to make a new baby card so why not via a challenge? This time, it's with Jac-Inks. It's a sweet little sketch that lends itself to many possibilities. I stuck to it pretty much but I know this is one I'll definitely reuse, revise, remake.

Baja Breeze on Baja Breeze with just a hint of embossing for texture. Gotta love that.


stamps are all from Stampin Up: Fabulous Phrases, A Slice of Life
inks: Pear Pizzazz, Baja Breeze, Classic Black
colouring via Wonder Crayons: Wild Wasabi, Baha Breeze, Soft Suede and Markers (Riding Hood Red)

The little punched heart is from the Owl punch - it uses the littlest of scrap card but it sure adds impact; balances out the heart on the jumpsuit, too.  The little ribbon (Marina Mist) also adds a little without overpowering the focus of the card.

I stamped the jumpsuit twice so I can pop it up. I was going to do the same for the heart on the jumpsuit but that proved too tricky for me; it was just too small.

I also had several goes with the sentiment, even with a stamp-a-ma-jig. I need a bit more practice using it methinks. :-)

On with the day now, I suppose.

Cheers all and have a lovely day!!!!

simply Less is More #18 - Monochrome

Do you view your blog stats? Well, I do and it comes as no surprise that my biggest traffic comes from Simply Less is More - that's solid proof of what a wonderful community the LIMettes really are.  So even though you don't leave a comment, you count as one of my visitors. Of course, when you do leave a comment, you leave a smile behind as well and that's just fantastic!

On to this week's LIMette challenge - monochrome.

I seem to have lost my mojo and struggled with this one. This is my 2nd attempt and the other one was complete unsalvageable.  Mandi is so right about how easy it is to coordinate with Stampin Up. Here's mine using all SU products.

inks: Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive
stamps: Medallion background (love!), Upsy Daisy (sentiment)
punches: modern Label, 1 3/4" and 3/4" circles
other: Pear Pizzazz ribbon, pearls

I really like the effect of the Old Olive on Pear Pizzazz cardstock. This tone-on-tone technique really brings this medallion image to life.

A quick tip I've learned from Michelle Dyson is to seal the ends of ribbon with a lighter; finishes it off nicely and guaranteed not to fray.

Thank you in advance for leaving a comment. :-)

CFC #4 - Congratulations and Pick a Square

Another combined challenge and 2nd post of the day. This one's for CAS-ual Friday on Graduates/Congratulations and simply Less is More Pick a Square (3rd and final...promise)!

My first LIMette entry was inspired by Chrissie and this one, my 3rd, is inspired by  Mandi. She is so right that Stampin Up products coordinate so well together and here I've used colours from the Brights family: Tempting Turquoise (ink, card), Regal Rose (ink, card), Daffodil Delight (ink, DSP) and Old Olive (ink, ribbon). I reversed Mandi's idea such that instead of using coordinating paper as matting/background, I used them in the foreground, right in the middle.

I very nearly decided to give this CAS-ual Friday challenge a miss as I really do not have any graduates in mind (oops, I just thought of a couple - yay!). Anyway, the DT had samples along the  Congratulations theme which also fits and more generic so here it is.  I'm glad I did it.

For this card, I also attempted to make an accordion-pleat rosette - looks like a medal, doesn't it? It's the first time I tried using this technique of using a strip of card though I've done similar using Stampin Up scallop punch for a Christmas card (see image on the left; click on link for more deets). That was only a few months ago but look how my style is evolving and leaning towards CAS more and more.

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting everyone!


cheers,
Malyn

CAS challenge - You're a Gem

I've been busy around the house and scrapping so haven't had much chance to do my favourite challenges. So, I thought I'd be a little clever and combine them.  Fortunately, Less is More #15 has the same challenge as Jac-Inks, i.e. embossing - ok LIMettes have options other than heat embossing, but similar enough. CAS-ual Fridays has the buttons and twine challenge. Now, I'm not sure this is strictly OLC as the buttons are embellishments??? Chris and Mandi - you can tell me off gently.

without further ado....

Yes, it is white-on-white! I'm so excited about it.

The original plan was to have the buttons in a symmetrical square arrangement with the dazzling one (embossed with Dazzling Diamonds) right in the middle.  As you can see, I challenged myself out of my comfort zone and went for the 'random' arrangement - I can tell you, a square would have been much easier! Also, I used different dimensionals to get some height variations....you probably can't tell from the photos.

A gem stands out in the crowd so I do like the double-meaning here.

The deets:

inks: Stampin Up Craft White (sentiment), Versamark (button)
stamp: SU You're a Gem set
others: SU/Sizzix Buttons #5, Dazzling Diamonds, baker's twine

I had lots of fun with this one!

Cheers all.

PDCC 80 & Mojo Monday

TWhoopee, the Blogger problem is fixed and I'm back to the new editor again.  It's a little thing but isn't that what life's really all about, i.e. the little things?

I haven't played at Play Date Cafe for a while and a visit from the lovely Julie Ranae  was enough prompt to participate in the PDCC #80 challenge. It was a good opportunity to visit Mojo Monday as well just for a little boost to the mojo.

And here's my "inspired" work. :-)

The deets....

stamps: Stampin Up Punch Bunch (SAB set), French Filligree, Short & Sweet (heart)
inks: SU Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait, Real Red, Versamark
Stampin Write Markers: PParade, PParfait, Pear Pizzazz, Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie
others: Dazzling Diamonds, Shimmer Paint - Platinum, Blender pen
Punch: SU Scallop Trim Corner and Border, Ornament punch

The choice of stamps is almost a no-brainer with a picture like that from PDCC.  I used Stampin Write markers to colour the flowers in and it's amazing how different it looks from this card just by using a different set of colours. I needed a third flower so stamped that separately, applied glossy accents (not the middle), cut and mounted on. Its stem was hand-drawn.

The vase was made using the ornament punch (visit my ideas page for more info) and made dazzling using DD just like I did for the bodice of this dress; it makes white on white really pop.


I don't have the matching Designer Series Papers so I made my own. I stamped French Filligree using Poppy Parade then sponged on PParade and PParfait. The whole thing was sprayed with a home-made glimmer mist: Shimmer Paint in Isopropyl Alcohol mixture in a mini-mister. Unfortunately, shimmer is very hard to photograph (tips welcome) so you'll just have to take my word for it.

The best part of this card for me? I managed to use the corner and border punches. I'm seriously challenged by these!

Cheers all. I hope you got something out of this post.

CFC #1 - Texting

Casual Fridays has finally launched its first challenge.  The challenge was to use text - stamps, paper, etc.

Here's my entry. Admittedly, it's rather subtle - faint text on the Stampin Up Designer Series Papers. So the text is not the focal point but hopefully it's okay. I haven't done much paper piecing so was keen to give that another go as well as get some ink on some new rubber:

All products are from Stampin Up

cardstock: White, Rich Razzleberry

DSP: Regal Rose, Old Olive

Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive

Stamps: Cottage Garden, Bring on the cake

Punch: Scallop Trim Border

The deets:

I stamped the outline flower on Regal Rose using Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive using same colour ink; the set doesn't come with leaves so I cut up the flower to make 'em. I stamped on the stem a few times and then put a border on using Old Olive DSP and punch-trimmed Rich Razzleberry.  Then, it was a matter of arranging flowers and leaves on the card; flowers are on dimensionals and have been blinged to match the sentiment. It's mother's day after all. I guess it's a card for me. :-)

Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers out there.

Medallion stamp

I really like the Medallion background stamp from Stampin Up. Certainly good as a background but awesome as a feature or focus.  Here's a card using it and I'm posting here to share a quick technique as well as for posterity as this card will be given away (I know, shouldn't all cards be?)  It's not even for a challenge!

stamps: Medallion, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
inks: Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake
Textured Impression embossing folder: Square Lattice

Focal point

Quick how-to:

1. Ink up medallion stamp in Crumb Cake
2. Sponge the edges and the middle with Baja Breeze
3. Stamp. As this was a big stamp, I had it upside down and pressed my cardstock on it.  It's easier for positioning and handling purposes.

As the tones of the inks are fairly similar, I guess you can swap (1) and (2), i.e. ink with Baja Breeze first and sponge with Crumb Cake. It might be fun to add more colours as well...why stop at 2-tone.

a few more deets...

I intended to use a ribbon but the Marina Mist ribbon looked too dark so I went for the paper 'ribbon' and even stamped the sentiment on it. If you only ever buy one sentiment set, let it be Teeny Tiny Sentiments from Stampin Up; very handy and will see you through most (all?) occasions.

attribution....

The idea came from Michelle Dyson who used River Rock and Basic Black combo on a square card.

Have a go and possibly link back here so I can see what you've done. Of course, you don't have to use the medallion stamp for this 2(or more)-tone stamping. And why stop at cards, do it on scrapbook and OTP projects as well. What combo would you do? 

OLW 51 - 3 of a kind

Jennifer is hosting this week's OLW with a really fun 3-of-a-kind challenge. Ideas have been floating in my head for a few days now and with one last dose of inspiration (will tell you in a minute), finally got everything down on paper...3x!

et voila

yes, deserves a close-up and here's one

The deets (all Stampin Up again - wow, 3rd all-SU for challenges in a row)

stamp: Pocket Silhouette

ink: Regal Rose, Peach Parfait, Tempting Turquoise

Stampin write markers: Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Cherry Cobbler (for the glorious aqua-red combo and because I don't actually have a TTurquoise marker)

punch: Ornament XL punch

More deets...

A fellow LIMette, Vicky (aka Crafting Clare), inspired me 2x yesterday. (1) to finally create a blog page to collate great ideas which will grow over time and (2) use the ornament punch as a vase. Because this entry is for an OLC challenge, I had to innovate via masking and sponging (see my post-it masks photo below). Nevertheless, the original idea is most definitely Clare's. As an aside and in case you've missed the hint - the inspiration is from a fellow LIMette, i.e. a member of the wonderful Simply Less is More challenge community.

All up, it took less than half an hour to make all 3 cards. I chose not to put any sentiment at all; maybe I'll  change my mind later but for now, I really wanted to just see the flowers and the vase.

So happy.

simply Less is More #13 - Lucky Dip

I always feel better after I've completed a LIMette challenge as it's a must-do nowadays. Challenge 13 is to do a thank you or congratulations card.  Just the excuse I needed to make a card I've been procrastinating on, i.e. to congratulate a young colleague on purchasing and moving to their new home. I'm also entering it in the Just Add Ink Challenge to just add a flower.

Here it is:

 I had the initial idea of white-on-white and stamping on a paper flower. As you can see, I've veered off a bit.

The sketch is an old one from Mojo Monday that I've been wanting to do.  It just wouldn't look right with everything in white. The off-centre LIMette challenge last week helped me get over my affinity for symmetry...notice the slightly off-centre flower to make room for the slit; that's intentional!

As with last week, all products used are from Stampin Up

cardstock: Whisper White, Old Olive DSP

stamps: Artistic Etchings, Teeny Tiny Sentiments

inks: Old Olive, Tempting Turqoise

punches: 1 3/4 and 2 3/4 scallop circles

other: Old Olive ribbon, Square Lattice Textured Impressions

I did stamp over paper flowers but punched ones - snip the scallops to make petals. I can't remember where I saw this technique - sorry can't attribute. In the spirit of honesty, I admit that I intended to sponge around with Old Olive but picked up a sponge still wet with Tempting Turquoise. Well, I do like these combination anyway so went with it and even stamped the centre and sentiment in the accent colour. 

Finally, look at these rounded corners. One is from a corner rounder - the DSP. The others are from a scallop scissors. This time, I do remember where I got the technique (see corner of sentiment), Susan at Simplicity by LateBlossom.  My "innovation" is cutting a bit more for a more decorative effect.

There are plenty of layers and texture but is this still CAS?