Another explosion card...

A square Christmas explosion card... this is another of the cards I made for demonstration at the Stampin' Up! Training Day.

I've used the Season of Joy stamp set once again. The swirl stamp is brilliant (and can be used for any type of card, not simply Christmas cards); I've covered the entire Whisper White base card (except the front diamond-shaped panel) with the swirl stamp using Old Olive ink..... a quick, easy and inexpensive way to turn a plain piece of cardstock into something much more impressive! I've used silver brads for the bauble on the tree. The tree trunk was made from a small section of self-adhesive brown cardstock from the Simply Scrappin' Home Again hostess kit; you could use any brown cardstock. Again, I've used Dazzling Diamonds glitter around the front panel.

Today is the last day of September, which means that tomorrow must be 1st October... and the launch day of the new Stampin' Up! catalogue! If you'd like to order from the new catalogue and be amongst the first to receive your new goodies, please get your orders to me no later than this evening to enable me to order them tomorrow when the ordering system goes live. You can contact me by email by clicking here.

Christmas cracker cards...

This is one of the Christmas cracker cards I demonstrated at the Stampin' Up! Demo Training Day the Saturday before last. It's a variation of the explosion card shown in earlier posts. Although I like the effect of the square explosion cards, I wanted to find a way to make the cards fit a standard Stampin' Up! rectangular envelope.

I've used Old Olive cardstock for the base, with Dashing patterned papers. The central piece was made using a stamp from the Season of Joy stamp set with an eyelet and two scallop circle punched pieces of Real Red and Old Olive cardstock. I've used Dazzling Diamonds glitter around the front panel.

The card has two "extension" pieces at either end. I've used Real Red cardstock for this one. Each piece is 4" x 3", which adds one inch of extra cardstock at each end. When the card is folded flat, it fits a standard sized C6 envelope (including the Stampin' Up! Very Vanilla and Whisper White envelopes).

True Friend - Plum

I've used the Stampin' Up! True Friend stamp set and matching wheel for this card; the stamp set will be available for you to purchase soon.... the new catalogue launches on 1st October next week! I have received my pre-ordered copies of the new catalogue; please contact me if you would like a copy.

I'm really pleased with the finished article (for once!).

Materials (all Stampin' Up!):-

- stamps: True Friend; Boho Friend Stampin' Around wheel

- ink: Close to Cocoa; Perfect Plum

- markers: Perfect Plum; Pale Plum; Mellow Moss; Old Olive

- cardstock: Perfect Plum; Pale Plum; So Saffron; Naturals Ivory; Very Vanilla

- other: 1 1/4" circle punch; 1 3/8 inch circle punch; linen thread; Elegant Eggplant grosgrain ribbon; rhinestone circle brad

Finished!

I've managed to finish the page shown in the earlier post... here it is. I'm quite pleased with it.

ps - I've just found this blog... really clever use of the Pick a Petal stamp set (little mice!). Have a look if you have time.

Saturday

Very glad it's Saturday... and I have some free time (!).

A couple of photos... the first one is a photo of Marley caught in the act last night - he found himself a nice roll of Charmin and destroyed it whilst I wasn't looking. I think he did a good job for a 16 week old pup.

The photo below is a work in progress. I've signed up for an internet Cathy Z scrapbook course... it's called "Design Your Life" and it kicks off next week. I blame Helen for this... although she has a better excuse for doing the course than me, as she's bought it as a birthday present for herself! My birthday has been and gone... so I'm doing the course because I'm a lemming.

Before the course starts, we've to do two pages, the bits and pieces for one of which are shown above. We've to use browns, red and greens. The boxes are to be no larger than 3.5" x 3.5" and the base cardstock for the page is Bazzill kraft. That aside, it's pretty much free reign. When it's finished, (apparently) it will be nine boxes saying something about me. Look how tidy my desk is(n't)! The course runs until 25th December, so it should be interesting and it'll give me a boot into action to get something done - an achievement in itself.

Demo Day - Box

This is the second of the two make and take projects we made at the Stampin' Up! Training Day last Saturday. If you need a copy of the template to make the box itself, please get in touch.

The stamps used for the box and the tag are part of the new Level 2 hostess set called "Fall Flair". I love the new stitched ribbon... it's a new product available in three shades from 1st October.

Baroque Christmas

I can't decide whether I like or loathe this card... I had all the pieces on my desk and I liked the concept... but looking at it assembled with the pieces stuck down, I can't decide! I won't be replicating it, put it that way.

The base card is SU Ruby Red over-stamped with Ruby Red ink using the background stamp from the Baroque Motifs stamp set. The Season of Joy front panel has been coloured with Ruby Red and Old Olive chalks over Versamark ink.

Roses - Demo Day

This is one of the two make and take projects we made at the Stampin' Up! Training Day last Saturday. The stamp set is a new one called "A Rose is a Rose" - it's a large set of 14 stamps and it's one of the "two step" stamp sets... we used a couple of shades of green and pink to build up the different layers of the roses and leaves.

The torn edge at the bottom didn't quite work, in my view... although it looks interesting, the card wasn't able to stand upright, because the front was shorter than the rear! I've since added an extra piece of Confetti White cardstock under the front torn edge... and that seems to do the job. The pink scalloped section on the lower part of the card was created using the new scallop border punch.

Award Tags!

These little tags were attached to two individually packaged cream coloured gerbera flowers given to me by the UK Stampin' Up! country manager last Saturday in recognition of two awards I'd somehow managed to earn...

I love the colours - So Saffron and Perfect Plum. A wet watercolour wonder crayon has been used to create the "spatter" effect on the tags... and I see they've used my favourite eyelets! The flowers were lovely, but I like the tags even more - not least because they'll last longer!