POP!

No, that is not the sound of me popping the button on my trousers [again].  The March challenge on the Inspiration Emporium blog is Add a Little P.O.P.  They said it could be as simple as popping a design element up on foam squares.  Remember me saying that I wish I had popped the greetings on my sketch cards up on foam tape? Remember I said I would let you know if I ever bothered to redo the cards this way?  Well, I did indeed do just that:

It is difficult to see in the picture but the part with the greeting is popped up on foam tape. It just adds that extra dimension (and pop).

This is my first time entering a card for the challenge on the Inspiration Emporium blog. The details for the challenge are here.

Wish me luck!

Materials:
Stamp (Rachel Greig), White cardstock (Stampin' Up!), Patterned Paper (American Crafts), Ink (Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Faded Jeans and Chipped Sapphire), doily. The other cardstock was from my scrap file.

Another Mama Elephant

A short post this time - so unlike me right? I made a second card for the Mama Elephant March sketch.  I was inspired to try the new Tim Holtz die that may or may not have arrived on my doorstep this week (along with a lot of other goodies in said parcel). I thought it would be perfect to replace the doily.

Cute right? Even if I do say so myself. The old fashioned picture wheel die is awesome, no? I think you will see more of this in the future.

Like I've said before, and I'll say it again several times until you get that these stamps stamp perfectly e.ver.y time. Without even priming. You just peel 'em off the backing and away you go. I just love them.

After I made the card I thought that it was strange that the distress ink I used for the stamping was considerably darker than the matching distress marker I used to outline the holes. Turns out I had correctly grabbed the Faded Jeans distress pen but incorrectly used Chipped Sapphire distress ink for the stamping! Looks alright though, right?!?! What a laugh :)

Here's the link to the Mama Elephant sketch challenge I am entering it in: http://www.mamaelephantblog.com/2013/03/me-sketch-challenge-02-31-314.html

Materials:
Stamps (Mama Elephant - We Click), White cardstock (Stampin' Up!), Patterned Paper (American Crafts), Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Faded Jeans (pen) and Chipped Sapphire (inkpad), Tim Holtz picture wheel die, Kraft cardstock (Ormolu), the other cardstock was from my scrap file, bling.

Chin Up Buttercup!

My friend needed cheering up and a wee care package. I made the following card for her using a stamp set from Amuse Studio. The stamp set was a promotion to support breast cancer and breast cancer awareness. It has wonderful sayings like: fight like a girl. When I saw the chin up buttercup saying I thought : when would I use that? Funnily enough it was perfect for this occasion. The card was based on a card I saw on the Bo Bunny blog last month but uses no Bo Bunny product at all (sorry Bo Bunny - I love your designs though!). Here she is (once you see it you will know why I said she) :

My friend is not a girly-girl but I couldn't resist the bling!  (I am a girly girl when it comes to bling)
The bling also covers up a small oopsie - when I cut the black cardstock neck piece too small and ended up with a gap between the neck and bodice. The cover up looks awesome though right? ;)

Here's the inside. The card had to cover a lot of bases and luckily I had a Stampin' Up! stamp set that does just that. All the appropriate sayings fit in the space - phew! The ampersand is from my favourite Melbourne store - Tempo.

From My Stash File: cordinations cardstock that I bought years ago and never used, double-sided Stampin' Up! paper from my stash (given to me), Punch (not used much), raspberry cardstock (from my scrap file), Spellbinders dies (first use, purchased at SENZ Chch 2010), bling (been there so long I can't remember when they came home with me). Yup, that's a lot of old stuff being used up so I can justify the new stuff I ordered yesterday (right?).

I am entering the card for the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge: http://www.simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/simon-says-anything-goes.html

Materials:
Cardstock (Cordinations), Patterned Paper (Stampin' Up!), Dies (Spellbinders, MFT), Punch (EK Success), Stamps (Stampin' Up!, Tempo, Amuse Studio), Ink (Momento pen), Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug), bling, raspberry paper from my scrap file.

The Other Happy Birthday Card

Here's the other card I made based on the Mama Elephant March Sketch Challenge. You can read that post here .  The patterned paper is from American Crafts and boy, is it hard to get American Crafts papers here in New Zealand! This one was from a free sampler pack that came from a magazine. How did it get chosen to be used? It just happened to be sticking out from a stash of paper under my desk. Once I saw it I knew I wanted to use it. Without further ado here is my card:

The stamp set I used this time was a doily one from Rachel Greig I purchased in Australia last year.  It may be the first time I have used it (hangs head in shame). Originally I wanted to use the doily stamps but they were too small so I ended up using the pre-made doilies instead and just used one of the sayings included in the set - nice script huh?

I am entering this version in two challenges:

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes: http://www.simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/simon-says-anything-goes.html

and

Southern Girls Challenge - #63 Waving in the Breeze (use pennants or a banner): http://southerngirlschallenge.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/challenge-63-waving-in-breeze.html
Now, I call the little part I stamped the greeting on a 'pennant' but I'm not sure if that's its correct name or not. Apologies if I have entered incorrectly if they aren't actually called pennants.

Materials:
Stamp (Rachel Greig), White cardstock (Stampin' Up!), Patterned Paper (American Crafts), Ink (Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Faded Jeans), doily. The other cardstock was from my scrap file.

Mama Elephant

No, I haven't grown to the size of an elephant! Mama Elephant is a stamp company I told you about last year. I was lucky enough to win a gift voucher and I purchased 2 stamp sets and I tell ya, these sets are awesome! They ink up beautifully e.ver.y time. Every time people! Even better than some other well known brand ones I have. Also the sayings are really modern and up-to-date (including Gangham style - that's how up-to-date they are). I find myself using their cute little sayings a lot. There are a couple more sets I want but am holding off.....maybe until I can win another gift card with my brilliant creation??????

Here's the aforementioned brilliant creation:

The challenge was a sketch challenge and it actually came together pretty fast (for me anyway).
So fast that I ended up making two more of the same card (in under an hour total for 3 cards). I could've made 4 cards in total with only 2 sheets of A4 patterned paper and white cardstock but I started the first card from a scrap piece. That's 3 more cards for my card stash. As I was putting them away I looked at them and thought: I wish I had popped the top pennant up on foam tape. I could re-stamp the pieces and add them on top.....if I could be bothered. I'll let you know if I ever do.

Here's the details:
Mama Elephant March Sketch Challenge: http://www.mamaelephantblog.com/2013/03/me-sketch-challenge-02-31-314.html

Materials:
Stamp (Mama Elephant), White cardstock (Stampin' Up!), Patterned Paper (American Crafts), Ink (Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Faded Jeans), doily. The other cardstock was from my scrap file.

A Quickie!

A quickie that actually was completed really quickly! Who woulda thunk it? Certainly not me because my creations never get completed in a short time frame. But this one was done in 5-10 mins. Seriously! I kid you not.  How did I break with tradition and get a card done in such a short time (for me)? It is all thanks to the lovely Leslie Hanna at A Blog Named Hero who did a blog entry recently on using card sketches. I am not a big user of sketches and I usually can't get my head around how to use them and rotate them etc. Leslie did such a great job of showing examples of how she interpreted one sketch in many different ways that she converted me! Here's the link for her blog entry here .

Are you ready for my creation? Wait no more:

Pretty nifty for a quickie huh? The kraft cardstock was a recent purchase from Ormolu - it's not a base colour I have used before- and the background paper is a reeeeeeally old one from my leftovers. I really like the old paper and find it very versatile even today. Believe it or not I tried making a second card with the rotated idea from Leslie. My balloon tails wouldn't look quite right hanging off the bottom of the page though so I stuck to the original orientation (sorry Leslie, but I did try it at least). I did just see one other rotated example that caught my eye when I was getting the link for you so I may give it another go at a later date. Here's my second attempt:

I can feel good about these creations because the following items were older or unused items from my stash: background papers, punches, cardstock and the bakers twine (finally got to use it!). That means I'm keeping to my goal of using items from my stash.  The 'hello there' stamp is from a Mama Elephant stamp set with really cool and unusual sayings. You'll be seeing them used here again I am sure.

The current Simon Says Stamp challenge is: Have a Heart. My first card fits that theme perfectly! The link for the challenge is here .

Finally, an update on my creative progress lately. Three, yes three, of my projects are going to be published in magazines this year! That's increased by 2 since I told you about Scrapbooking Memories. Australian Scrapbook Ideas has picked up two more since then (one of them is the page I did about meeting Miss Sophie and they are ok that it was already on my blog - yay them!). Last week I finally got my 2011 year in review double layout done (I've done this since 2008) but I'm not sure whether to load it here or not. I'll let you know.

Tim Holtz Tag

Tim Holtz is continuing his '12 Tags of' series this year and I have attempted a version of January's tag myself! As usual I saw his tag and thought: I have most of those items; I should give it a go! Did I have Grungeboard? No. Did I have the gears? No. Did I have all the colours? Nope. Did I have the bulldog clip? No - not even an old, non-crafty one. Did I have the same embossing folder? No. Did I have the stamps? No, but ones similar enough. Substitution is fine I'm sure. For once I am really pleased at how it turned out! (Yes, I did just admit that out loud). Ta Da!

What did I have that Tim used? Why, the film strip, the new metallic distress stains, spinners and the stickers. To be honest I had most of the distress ink (not the orange but rusty hinge worked fine) and I am building up my stash of distress stains (I did have the weathered wood one in my cart for my last order but took it out). I'm just happy cos I got to create and it turned out fine!