Watercolour Winter

I love vintage stuff and this set just screams out to be used for that purpose.  Instead of just stamping the berries and leaves, I decided to heat emboss with gold and then use my blender pens to fill in the details.  I started with the leaves (Always Artichoke) and then did the berries (Cherry Cobbler).  I loved the look of the leaves, but found that the berries looked too pink so I decided to use the actual CC marker for that bit.  Much better.  The great thing about colouring over heat embossing is the unlikely possibility that you'll go outside the lines!

This is another of the cards we'll be making at the buffet.  Live locally and want a spot?  Drop me an email.  I've got 3 spots left.

Fa la la la... Oh wait, it's still November.

Oh goodness.  It seems that the only motivation I can find today is for making cards!  And CHRISTMAS cards at that!  I love Christmas, however, I've been feeling a little cranky towards all those people that have had Christmas decorations up for the past few weeks.  I feel like it's fair to start on December 1st, but before then is a little much for me.

Even though I don't want my decorations out yet, I'm trying to get all of my cards done by next weekend so I can mail them out.  I hate scrambling on like December 20th to get them all addressed and in the mail.  Not that I would ever do it that late but....

So in my card craze this afternoon I remembered that I had a few packages of this lovely paper (Be of Good Cheer) kicking around.  LOVE Gumball Green and Cherry Cobbler.  Love love love it.  L.O.V.E. kind of love.  You get the picture.

I don't really have any of the "fun" Christmas sets but I wanted a few "fun" cards so I tried this little idea out.  Not too bad!

So when I went outside to take this picture in the failing light (it's only 4:12pm right now, how sad is that?) my little sidekick, Lily, came along to help.  What you can't see are the remains of a stuffed giraffe at her feet.  It's a little grotesque, but she really likes the remaining two front legs of that poor little baby.  I've seen the head around the yard, but not the body, nor the back legs.  I should throw it away, but I'm far too amused by it to do such a thing.

Sunday Stamps 25

This is one of my ultimate favourite colour combos so imagine my surprise when I saw it on a challenge!  The Sunday Stamps blog is one I look at now and then, but I haven't created a card based on its challenges yet (I don't think).  Anywho, since they have my fave combo up I thought I better play along!

 This set is from last year's mini and I almost cried when they didn't continue it!  I think the little socks are sooo cute, and there's a matching punch too.  I just couldn't think of parting with it andI'm glad I didn't.  I think this card will also make an appearance in my buffet.

I love this non-traditional colour scheme for Christmas.  You can never ever go wrong with Crumb Cake, and the juxtaposition of the bright red against the gentle blue is striking.  Thanks for the challenge ladies!

1 Month 'Til...

I love Sundays.  I especially love Sundays that include drinking lots of coffee and crafting.  This was a super quick little card to put together (once I figured out what I wanted).  I think it might even fit in the skinny post office slot (no extra postage - yay!).

I'm doing a card buffet next weekend so I wanted to balance the more time consuming cards with a couple of quickies and this one fits the bill.  The set is old, but still cute!

Lovely As a Tree

Sorry for the bad picture.  It's only 4:25 and it's dark outside already.  I could wait until tomorrow to retake the picture, but I'm lazy, and I don't want to. :)

I love this set.  It's the oldest set in the catalogue and I never tire of it.  I also don't seem to be tiring of masking and sponging.  You can make so many variations using this technique, and it doesn't require a bunch of tools to do.

I started my sponging with Night of Navy, but it was just too dark so I switched to Midnight Muse.  Much better.  For the snowbanks and I didn't ink my sponge again, I just went with whatever was left over from the sky.  It's super light, but enough to add some definition.

I knew I needed a little something extra since this is a pretty simple card so I used some Iridescent Ice to glitz up the sentiment.  Perfect!  And because it's so skinny, I can mail it with a regular stamp.  Bonus!  As we get nearer to mailing Christmas cards, that's important to consider.  Postage jumps from $0.61 to $1.29.  Not so bad?  Try mailing 30 cards like that. $18 turns into $38 pretty quick.

Blooming With Kindness IV

Originally I had made this card with Marina Mist & Black but then Dynamic Duos used those colours this week, and my card wasn't really dolled up enough for my likings when posting for challenges, so I made another version with Wisteria Wonder & Elegant Eggplant.  Yet again, Blooming with kindness is the only set I've used for this card.  I did however, use the scallop squares die to make the mask.  It's a little more interesting than just the plain old square that you can make without a die (which is still pretty, but I wanted something a little more).

This is a card that anyone could make, and took just 10 minutes from start to finish.

Blooming With Kindness III

In my last post I mentioned making several cards with the same set to show how you can use just a few sets to make a variety of cards.  Here's #3 in that series.

This is a super simple layout, perfect for people new to card making.  Again, I wanted to show how you don't need a room full of tools to make a really nice card (okay, I couldn't help myself with the embossing, it just happened!).

All I did here was change the size of the layers a bit, round opposite edges, and use a different colour scheme.  Totally different card.

As it stands, I've got one more card to follow this one for this set.  It's been tricky not to use any other sets, but I'm sticking with just one set for now!  I'll post that one next.

Dynamic Duos & Blooming With Kindness II

I shouldn't get ahead of myself.  I had planned on just one post today, then follow up posts with cards from Blooming With Kindness, but then I saw the Dynamic Duos challenge.  Oh brother.  I couldn't help myself.  The challenge this week was Marina Mist & Basic black.  I just happened to have made another card with these colours this weekend (which I loved) but for a challenge post, I needed to step it up a notch so I made this one.

I really like non-traditional shaped cards but never seem to make them.  This seemed the perfect opportunity however.  It's a little tough to get it to stand (had to use a nail hole in the post to hold it up!), but I think the fun shape gives it just that little bit extra.

Now I'll have to update the other card with a different colour scheme since I also did masked sponging on it as well.  Something to do tomorrow I guess. :)

Blooming With Kindness Stepped Up

Wow.  I just had a week off and I have no idea where it went.  Oh wait.  That's right.  It went into reading two massive books (A Dance With Dragons - George R R Martin & Winter of the World - Ken Follett), and drinking copious amounts of coffee, because I could.

Anyways, in between all that reading and sipping, I managed to pop out a few cards.  One of my newest sets, Blooming With Kindness, took centre stage.  At regionals in September were were given several presentations about stepping cards up.  The premise being that you can make a rather simple card at workshops, but have a stepped up version that they can make with just a few more steps.

Here's my first take on the stepped up process.

This one is pretty simple.  You really only need basic supplies.  I used the stamp set, 2 inks, cardstock, a sponge, and some ribbon (which is optional).  Pretty simple supplies for a lovely little card. (And quick too!)

With a few more supplies however, you can take the card from lovely to gorgeous.  I stepped it up by:  heat embossing with both gold and Early Espresso powder, embossed the background with the Fancy Fan folder, and distressed the edges a little more with my scissors.

Here's a closer look at the embossing.  The light outside today isn't great, but this card looks beautiful in person.  I'm really happy with how the two embossing powders turned out.  I versamarked the image and then poured on a little of each and shook it around a bit to get full coverage.  I'm going to order the turquoise powder as well and see how it turns out with the gold.

So there you have it!  Stepped up with just a couple of extra goodies.  I'm going to try this out at my next workshop.

Speaking of next workshops, I'm also trying to showcase how you don't need 800 sets to make a bunch of different cards.  I'm going to use this set and make several different options to show how it can be used in a variety of ways.  Stay tuned!

Colour Q #163

Two posts in one day! I found this little colour challenge from Colour Q this morning and knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.  I've been trying to make more one-layer cards (very difficult for me) but sponging seems to satisfy my need so I'm sticking with that.

The image is from Clockworks (great stamp for making non-girly cards).  This card literally took me like five minutes to make, so it's a good mass producer if you have a need.  I'm envisioning all of the things I could do with a bunch of layers, but I've been trying really hard to make cards that don't require you to have eight hundred tools on hand.

The sentiment on this guy is a little crooked, but I'll save it for when I need a Thank You card for a man.  I'm sure he (whomever he is) won't notice.

Hand Stamped Sentiments #144

Ok, so it's been two full months a while since I last posted.  Life gets in the way sometimes, non?  (Say that line in a French accent - much more effective.)  My darling friend Sandra was so kind as to bring this to my attention this week whilst crafting, so I decided I better get on it.  Plus, I have a week off work so I think I'll try and cram a ton of blogging in to shut her up make her happy.

Anywho, over at Hand Stamped Sentiments this week they've got a challenge for snowflakes.  I recently got this set (Snowflake Soiree) and decided it was time to play. 

This summer I went on a bit of a bender collage stamping and used that technique here as well.  In the background you can see En Francais (best stamp ever).  I stamped it in Bashful Blue and then off once so you can just barely see it.  Then along the bottom I stamped the image from the Snowflake Party wheel (I hate wheel stamps, but once you pull them off the wheel and add some cling mount foam, voila!  Magic!)

Though the collage factor of this card takes a little time, the lack of a bunch of layers makes it pretty quick to assemble, and since the sentiment is the only additional layer, it can be mailed with a plain old regular stamp.  No surprises at the post office.

That's that!  Back to stamping and blogging like crazy to appease my crazy friend. :)  Love ya CFAL!

Clockworks Birthday

I know.  I'm the worst blogger ever.  As soon as life gets busy, this thing takes a backseat.  And let me tell you, August was busy.  How was I supposed to fit in blogging when I was busy acting as a human rotisserie in the sun?

Anywho, I did get in a few hours of sun this morning, but now that it's September, it's not the same so I finally got back out to my craftroom.  My dad's birthday is coming up next week and I wanted to make him a nice card.  I used Plane and Simple last year, and used Toolsheed for my brother, so those two were out.  Not to fear!  I got this new set (Clockworks) this week and it seemed perfect.  Only about halfway through the card did I realize how suiting it is to use a clock for a birthday card.  Another reminder that time keeps passing....

Patina Birthday

Last weekend my lovely cousin came down for the day and I showed her how to do a bunch of different techniques.  I'd been wanting to try out this fauz patina technique for a while, so this was the perfect time to do so.  I loved it!  We were super impressed with the lovely gradient of colours, and the embossing powder gave it a lovely vintage feel.

Today is the 18th birthday of one of my best friends and I wanted to make her a nice card but I wasn't really feeling any of the ideas that were swirling around in my head.  Then I noticed this panel sitting on my desk still and I started to envision something suited for a young woman of her age.  She's not really a kid anymore so I wanted the design of my card to reflect that.

Since I had the panel made already, this card actually only took me about ten minutes to make.  I layered it with some distressed Pool Party and then stuck them onto a base of Soft Suede.  I love these little rolled roses and the extra dimension they give a card.  And of course I needed ribbon.  The Victoria Trim was a no-brainer.

I'm looking forward to hearing from my friend tomorrow morning about how a house full of teenagers goes.

Punch Art

Next week I've got my monthly workshop and I decided to focus on punches.  I love to show all the different ways you can use products, and the versatility of punches especially.  This one was really fun to make, and super simple to make.  I find that I'm always struggling for a design for manly cards, but this certainly fits the bill!

Hand Stamped Sentiments #130

Quick entry before I go for a run.  Hand Stamped Sentiments is using the new In Colours for this week's challenge.  I usually stick to 2 or 3 colours on a card so this was a bit of a challenge for me, but I'm happy with the result!

What do you know?  More sponging! I'm still on a bit of a kick with this technique.

So Many Candles

 On the weekend, my friend Christa and I decided we're going to train for a 10k run in October.  Apparently you can learn to run this far in only 13 weeks (training 3 times per week).  We'll see.  Anyways, we're off to a good start.  We did a 7km walk on Saturday, and then our first day of training on Monday.  For something to do yesterday some friends and I hiked up into the Trophy Mountains.  It was AMAZING.  And 12km long.  Uphill (the way in was anyways).  So today, I told myself I could do absolutely nothing.

 So, this morning, while working hard at doing nothing (aka - surfing the internet for two hours) I saw a facebook post in which my very best friend posted a pic of a card she made.  I love the fun papers that she used.  I think it's a perfect cake for a little guy.  I stole her idea and made it a little more grown up.  Thanks Jen!

This is a perfect way to use up all of those little scraps of paper you've been hoarding.  I cut mine to 2.5" high, and they were probably about 2" wide.  I used a BBQ skewer to roll them up on, then loosened them a little to get the depth I wanted.  For the wick I used some hemp twine and shot a little bit of hot glue in the top to hold it all together.

Mosaic Stamping

A while back I posted this entry about mosaic stamping.  After I made that card I went in a little binge doing a bunch of cards with emboss reveal and the mosaic.  I love the effect it gives you.  This weekend, my dear cousin Amber came down and we had a little craft-o-rama on the afternoon.  One of the techniques I showed her was how to make this mosaic stamp.  It's a great way to use all that left over rubber.  If you don't have one of these made already, I suggest you do so.  You'll love it!

 

After a nice jog with a friend this morning followed by a few cups of coffee, I headed out to the room to see what I could come up with.  There were bits of rubber all over the place, so I decided to make myself another mosaic stamp.  Then of course I had to play with it, so here's what I did.  I took my Old Olive, More Mustard, and Pool Party re-inkers and blotted them directly onto the rubber.  Then I spritzed my stamp with some Stampin' Mist to make the colours run a bit and to get the ink to space out a bit.  I stamped the ink off once on a window sheet so I could squish the stamp down to get the ink to fully cover all of the blocks.  Then I misted it again and stamped it onto some Very Vanilla cardstock.

I then decided I wanted some texture, so I ran it through with the Chevron EF before matting.  At first I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with it, but then I had a moment of inspiration and pulled out Daring Adventure.  I love the effect it gives since the ink doesn't completely get into the depressed part of the paper.  Finally topped it off with a sentiment and voila!

New products!

I love it when we get a new catalogue.  Crisp new pages just waiting for post its to make everything that I need to get.  Today marks the release of the new Holiday Mini.  It's bigger than it used to be, and there are LOTS of goodies in there!

If you're a regular customer of mine, I'll be giving you a hard copy, but if you're not - or you can't wait - there's a flash version to keep you happy for now on my sidebar.

As with the release of each new catty, I will be running a ribbon share to coordinate with some of the DSPs.  Here's what I'm offering on this round.

Snow Festival Ribbon Share:  Includes 2 yards of each of the shown ribbons.   $13

Candlelight Christmas Ribbon Share:  Includes 2 yards of each of the shown ribbons.   $11

Be of Good Cheer (from main catalogue):  Includes 2 yards of each of the shown ribbons.   $7

 Please send me an email (mrslangton@shaw.ca) if you'd like any of these shares.  Shipping within Canada is $1.50.  American ladies are welcome to participate but they jacked up postage costs so it would be $5.00 for you.  I can fit up to 5 shares for this shipping price.

Sponge Sponge Sponge

I was surfing around in blogland the other day when I came upon a woman who does most of her cards either with sponges or a brayer.  I've been on a bit of a brayer kick lately, so I thought I'd pull out my sponges and try that technique as well.

The only thing that I don't like about using the brayer is that unseemly line that you can get sometimes.  You know the one.  And once it's there, there's no going back.  With sponges, however, you are much less likely to have such an issue.

I used Wisteria Wonder and Elegant Eggplant for this one, but then went back in and added a bit of Perfect Plum for warmth.  It's still quite cool, so I'm thinking I might try again today with a little hint of one of the pinks in there somewhere.

Ugh.  You know when you make a beautiful card only to wreck it with your inky fingers?  Yep.  After I made the first version of this card (which, of course, I liked more) I picked it up with my apparently inky finger and left a little black smudge on the top left.  ARGH!!!  Then, I made this one and the image didn't come out very clear so I grabbed my stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the image to stamp again, but it was smaller than the area that the handle covered and it left a shadow impression.  ARGH!  So as a last resort I look my marker and filled in the spots that we're coloured evenly.  Alas, the result is not perfect.  You can see (in person) where I had to colour it.  GGRRR!!!  Whatever.  I'll send it to my 84 year old aunt.  She'll be delighted to received it and won't notice.

Dynamic Duos - Crumb Cake & Early Espresso

I have a bunch of work to do today.  That means that I'm feeling really creative and spend the whole morning in my craft room instead of doing what I should be doing.  I can't help it - especially when Dynamic Duos posts one of my favourite colour combinations. 

You can never go wrong with Crumb Cake.  It provides a lovely contrast for Early Espresso.  I've been wanting to use this stamp for a while, but it doesn't leave room for a whole lot else on the card, and I was having trouble finding a background that I liked for it.  Alas, this morning I was inspired (or procrastinating - your choice).  The texture and matting of this card provide a nice balance for such a large sentiment.

I knew that I wanted to give this card to my Mother-in-law, but I also wanted something else to slip in with it.  This little bookmark is the perfect thing.  Well, it's not little, but it's lovely.  I decided to stick with the colour scheme here as well.

These gigantic paperclips make perfect bases for flower bookmarks.  I have a feeling I'm going to go on a binge making these type of flowers, so stay tuned for a picture tutorial on how to make them.  The picture doesn't really do it justice.