Wedding invitation

I was recently asked to come up with some samples for a wedding invitation for a wedding to be held in December.  My first attempt did not make the cut, but I still like it - what do you think?

The card is all white - I photographed it against a black background because my camera complained when I tried it just on white :) 

The stamps are from the SU set "Together Forever" - the "mr      mrs" in black Stazon ink and the "&" in versamark then embossed in some Artee silver embossing powder that I've had in a drawer for YEARS!!! 

I like the simplicity of it, but I also think it needs something else - maybe keep the stamped images where they are, but some dry embossing everywhere else?  What do you think?

International visitors

I just wanted to mention how excited I get when I see where visitors to my blog are from - I've now had visitors from Australia, USA, Canada, Germany, Russia, China, and today I had visitors from Norway, Spain and France!  Welcome!!  I hope you are all enjoying looking at my cards, and thank you for visiting my blog!  :)

Alice's birthday

A friend of mine, Alice, is having a birthday next weekend, so I have spent some of today making her a birthday card (actually, two).  She is having a party next weekend - a third...tieth birthday party - complete with party pies, fairy bread and pass the parcel ;)

She may just look at this blog before then, so I can't post photos of the whole cards yet - just a sneak peek ;)

Deceptively simple

 This card looks relatively simple,  but there were a few steps involved.

First, I stamped the Hero ArtsClings "large flower" onto scrap paper, and cut it out right on the outline to make a mask (I've kept it for future use - that's one good thing about making masks, you can reuse them).   I then stamped the same stamp onto the card in SU whisper white pigment ink, and embossed in white.  Then I used the mask to cover this image, and stamped the same image all over the card front in Versamark, and heat set it. This means the main image stands alone without any Versamark ink over the image.

Then, I got out my aqua pen and did a series of washes of the whisper white in onto parts of the main image - I built this up slowly so I would get some areas more intense than others.  

The rest is easy - some see through ribbon, a scrap of white card and a SU sentiment stamp coloured in a Tombow marker to match the main card, and voila!

Engagement card

I made this engagement card a while ago, for a colleague of mine, Lisa, and her fiance, Marcus. 

I had planned on putting red ribbon across underneath the greeting, but I thought it looked too heavy, so I opted for embroidery thread instead.

The greeting and the background stamp are both Hero Arts, and the roses are from Francheville

Mystery stamp

I quite often stamp lots of images in black on to white cardstock, and then stash them away for later use.  I came across this stamped image of a rose recently, so quickly coloured it in and put it onto a card.  Then I realised - I DON'T OWN THIS STAMP!!!!!  Where on earth did I get this from?  I must have stamped it as an extra at a class sometime in the past, but I have no recollection of it! And I quite like it, so wouldn't mind buying it (but it is quite possibly discontinued).

Is anyone able to help me identify it, pretty please?????

Butterflies.......

I finished the shadow box for my niece this afternoon.  I took a few photos -  the first one is mounted in the shadow box, therefore there are shadows (funny, that!), and reflections from the glass  :(   

The second one, I took the photo with the page out of the box. 

I don't think you can tell very well from the photos, but most of the butterflies are sticking out from the page.  Most of them also have some shimmer happening as well, but that is particularly hard to see.  Suffice to say, it is one of those creations that looks better in real life.  :)

Niece's birthday present

My niece, Caitlin, is turning 6 next Sunday.  My sister asked me to make a shadow box with butterflies in it - she saw one with butterflies cut out of Japanese papers and loved it.  The one she saw had the butterflies all lined up, like an insect collection, but I've decided to make it a bit less organised, so the butterflies are any-which-way.

Well, it is well on it's way to being done, but not quite - I've spent most of this afternoon on it, but can't finish it, as half of the butterflies are still wet with Stickles or crystal effects, so I'm leaving it to completely dry overnight, before I secure all the butterflies to the backing sheet with some dimensional adhesive and mount it in the shadow box.  (I cheated with that one - I would have bought an unpainted, unfinished one from Bunnings, but they didn't have one big enough, so I bought a ready made one from a framing shop.)



I punched out a gazillion butterflies, using the Bigz Beautiful Butterflies die from SU, with my Big Shot. Here's just some of them..............



Kinda over butterflies..............

Kraft

I really like using Kraft cardstock, but I don't use it as often as I should.  I made this card a while ago, but really liked how it turned out.  I also really like the Versafine Vintage Sepia ink I used - you get such crisp images when using it.

The tree is from a Stampin' Up set (and the patterned paper is also Stampin'Up), but the birdie and the sentiment are from Hero Arts clear stamp sets.

Getting out of a rut

When making cards, I tend to get stuck in a rut, doing the same design over and over, figuring "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" (the last post attests to the rut).  So I quite often try to get inspiration from other crafters' blogs.  Before making this card, I can remember looking at Kristina Werner's blog (hence the rounded corners - lol!), but I can't remember if it was a particular card I cased, or just a general inspiration from her blog (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! The link to her blog is on the right ------->) 

 

The patterned paper on the card and in the background of the photo is from a Cosmo Cricket pack called Material Girl.  The happiness always stamp is from Stampin' Up, and the flower is from Sassafras - the papercrafts brand, not the town in the Dandenongs ;)