Swallowtails

After a long hiatus, I'm back to running a hostess club.  Though I haven't been doing much stamping over the past year, I've still been doing a monthly get together with a small group of friends.  For the summer, we decided we would each bring a card and enough supplies for everyone to make a card.  It's been a nice break for me since I actually get to make cards that night!

For our final club of this set up we've decided we'd try and wrangle in a few more ladies to  become junkies join us.  So the challenge was for each of us to use Swallowtail to make a card.  Since I'm trying to grow our group, I decided I'd demo three cards that you can do with just this stamp (pretty much).  I want them to get the picture that you don't need 800 sets until you're addicted and then you NEED them to make beautiful cards.

The first card is a simple mask and then some sponging with Strawberry Slush and Melon Mambo.  To give it a little more depth I added in some Blackberry Bliss, just around the edges.  The picture doesn't do the colours justice sadly, but feel free to make one yourself to see how luscious it truly is.

This set is stunning on its own, but also almost always pairs itself with En Francais.  I had it in my mind to stamp this on vellum and am super happy with the result.  It's a lovely any occasion card but I think it could easily serve as a wedding card as well.

Though I liked last year's In Colours, I am in LOVE with this year's (except the orange.  Sorry Tangelo Twist, orange isn't my cup of tea, never has been, likely never will be).  Lost Lagoon is a stunning colour, which I can foresee making its way into the regular line up in a few catalogues from now.  It's another masking card, and again, En Francais features.  And not that I had it in mind for a wedding, but it's screaming, "Make me a gift!"

Yay for stamping again.

More Everything Eleanor

It's Sunday.  To me, that means homework day.  I finished writing a ten page paper on personality testing this morning, then proceeded to write a short essay on the analysis of dreams.  My brain was ready to explode, so I snuck out to the happy place for a few minutes.

I know I've posted a few cards with the Everything Eleanor set, but it really is just about the most beautiful set I've got.  I've been seeing these triple layer stamping cards all over the place and finally baaed along like a little sheep and made one for myself.  It's actually really pretty, but the picture doesn't really do it justice.  I'm not about to post the instructions for it, but you can go over to Frenchie Stamps to see it.  There are a ton of videos out there on this technique, but she has the best accent so I like hers.

Wedding season is coming!

I was up in the staff room the other day with some pieces of cardstock I was using on a workshop card when one of my colleagues came in.  I had the papers lying on the counter and she looked at them, quite thoughtfully I might add, saying, "Those are pretty colours."  Well, with Wisteria Wonder and Elegant Eggplant, of course they are.  She's getting married in Scotland this year so I asked if she was thinking about wedding colours. Turns out, she was.

We started to have a chat about invites and I suggested to her that she make her own, rather than purchasing something far less pretty, for a far greater price.  She mentioned how she had found some online, but that she wasn't in love with them.  I promised to make her a few samples with this colour scheme and that I would help her put them together.

Here's the first one that I cam up with.  It's simple and elegant.  Perfect, in my mind, for a hand-made invite.

Crafter's Anonymous

From several of my previous posts, you have by now realized that I am a teacher (if you haven't realized this, read more carefully), and that I get the summer off.  Does this mean that I sleep in though?  Absolutely not.  My husband still has to go to work so when his alarm goes off at 6:30, I'm up too.  What do I do in early morning while he's getting ready for work?  Why, come into my craft room, or course!  So this morning, he posted a comment on his facebook page asking of anyone knows of a CA group that he could contact.  Apparently I need an intervention...

So this morning, I continued making wedding cards (I've been trying to stockpile them for the market).  This little gem came to me in my sleep and needed to be made immediately.

No, that's not metallic paper.  I covered up a piece of cardstock with tin foil and ran it through the EF.  I am fairly impressed with myself right now.

Stamps:  Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Basic Black
Paper:  Basic Black
Extras:  Vintage Wallpaper EF, Scallop punch, Oval punch, TIN FOIL!

Wedding Cake Part II

Since it's summer and there are always a plethora of weddings, I've decided that I need to make a few more cards for this occassion.  I have a few styles that I like for wedding cards, but I wanted something different.  In my wanderings through the internet, I came across a card that someone made using the embossing folder to make a giant cupcake and I figured I could do the same for a whole cake.  This afternoon when I sat down to make a wedding card, this little guy came together from that inspiration.

Stamps:  Word Play
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Smooch Spray
Paper:  Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Crumbcake
Extras: Very Vanilla seam binding ribbon, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Boho Blossoms punch

Strength and Hope

Strength and Hope is one of the sets in the Summer Mini, and this was the first time I pulled it out to use.   A good friend of mine is getting married this weekend, so of course I had to make a card for him and his lovely wife-to-be.  This set seemed perfect for the occasion.  I'm not sure what their colours are, so I figured you can't go wrong with ivory and gold.

I'm sure he won't even take a look at the card, but I sure hope she does.  I hate cutting out stamped images, so this was a step out of my comfort zone!

Stamps:  Strength & Hope, En Francais
Ink:  Crumb Cake
Paper:  Very Vanilla, Cromb Cake
Extras: CC Seam binding ribbon, 2 3/8 scallop punch, basic pearls

Wedding Cake

One of my very favourite people in the world is getting married this spring so last night, as I was tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep, I was thinking about how fabulous her wedding is going to be.  I love weddings and I was thinking about all the wonderful things associated with them.  Then I got onto the cakes that you can have made up for you, and the layering idea for this card popped into my head.

Now, however, I cannot give said person this card because she reads my blog like a good cousin, but I had to put it on here because I'm pretty sure it is my absolute favourite card of all the ones that I've made so far.  I love how it looks with the Crumb Cake background, but I am going to try it out with a bunch of other colours too.  If you like it, please copy it for anyone you know that's getting married!