Sleigh Ride in August

This week I've been playing with the new Sleigh Ride edgelit dies from the Stampin' Up! Autumn/Winter catalogue (available 1st September).

These are so simple to use, and look so effective, they're a must have for any crafter this Christmas. 

I wanted to create real hand crafted, classic Christmas cards. The edgelits create such beautiful intricate designs I felt they didn't need much stamping or embellishing. 

I cut the edgelits in calm, Christmas colours; Whisper White, Soft Sky, Mint Macaron, Sahara Sand and complimented using gold/white shimmer paper and vellum.

 I created soft, snowy backdrops using one of the 36 beautiful  designs from the Winter Wonderland Vellum Stack.

I then had an idea of creating a tri fold card using the edgelits. I wanted an all white effect to showcase just how beautiful and effective the intricate hand cut designs can look.

 I used Real Red for the Merry Christmas stamp (a hostess gift earned last year, my first stamp set in fact) and backed the card onto Sahara Sand for a finishing touch. I love how it looks opened out fully too, a very simple Christmas card that is easy to make, but sure to impress.

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How does your garden grow?

This week I'm going all floral with the Garden in Bloom stamp set (on loan from my partner in crime, Kate Denyer). 

As my lovely friend is away on holiday this week she has kindly let me play with these bloomin' marvellous stamps. There's two types of stamps in this set, the main parts of the flowers & leaves, and then the outlines, which is great as it means you can create so many different colour combos!! 

I decided to use the very juicy Watermelon Wonder for the main colour, as it is bright and summery. The outlines are stamped in Memento black ink, and the leaves in Mint Macaron, which comes as part of the In Color 2015-2017 ink pad collection.  I used a tiny bit of Daffodil Delight for the bumble bee, complete with his little trail dotted behind him using a Project Life journaling pen! 

I cut a 3"x 4" piece of Watermelon Wonder card, curved the edges with the Project Life corner rounder punch (one of my favourite punches!) and stamped the cute little phrase " Friends are kind to each other's hopes & cherish each other's dreams". I finished it using the butterfly outline in black, and attached it to the card using dimensionals.  I thought the recipient could always take the little card off as a friendship card keep sake, pop it in their purse or even better, their Project Life album! 

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Who says dinosaurs are extinct?

This week I've been on a crafting rampage using the 'Rawrsome' No Bones About It stamp set.  I've really enjoyed playing with this set, and even my boyfriend was coming up with suggestions for possible cards to make with it. 

The card I'm showcasing today is a special 3D Jurassic Shadow Box Frame, inspired by the tutorial on The Craft Spa blog. 

                         

This card has taken me all week to create, but it was definitely worthwhile.  I started by creating the front Jurassic scene using Cucumber Crush and Soft Suede as the background.  I then layered leaves around the top corners using a mixture of Pear Pizzazz and Cucumber Crush, and did a bit of fussy cutting around the edge of the leaves. 

The inner part is a small square of Whisper White with 'RAWR! means you're awesome in dinosaur' stamped in Delightful Dijon. 

The dinosaurs are stamped using neutral inks, then painstakingly cut out by hand (!!), this way I could play around with them on the card to find the best spot for them.

                                                

Inside I kept it simple with a T-Rex party goer and some subtle Dino footprints. I used the happy birthday stamp from Boys will be Boys stamp, but you could use one of the three phases from the No Bones About It set.

  

I made a Box to pop the card in (as per Amanda's tutorial) using trio of squares in Sahara Sand, Basic Black and Delightful Dijon.  The last finishing touch was the T-Rex bones stamp and Beware of Dinosaurs using my trusty Rotary Stamp.

I'm really happy with the finished result, not bad for an artistically challenged new crafter.  Just goes to show how easy Stampin' Up! make it for anyone to create bespoke, handmade cards for special occasions.

Everybody walk the dinosaur

This week I'm playing with Stampin' Up! No Bones 
About it photopolymer stamp set.

I've been very excited to get my hands on this set, as my little boy loves dinosaurs (which little boy doesn't?), so I thought I would use them to make him something. 

My friend showed me a Dinosaur Bingo game that a fellow Stamper Upper had made. I took the concept and changed it to Dino Snap, as my boy is too young for Bingo. 

Here's one I made earlier..

I took a 12" x 12" piece of Whisper White card, chopped it into 3" x 3" squares.
Then I simply stamped a dinosaur onto each square. 

     

I chose Dino colours, and added a bit of texture using the spot stamps.  This was fun for me as I tend to stick to one colour, I used the spot stamps to layer on darker colours to add detail.  Just goes to show how the easy the stamp sets make it to add depth to your creations.    I decided to back the cards & round the edges to make them more toddler friendly. 

RAWR! Means you're awesome in dinosaur

I finished the cards with the RAWR stamp on the reverse side using white emboss powder on black card, just for fancy! 

It certainly got the thumbs up from my son who has been playing with it already. Saying "dinosaur" and "T Rex" when pointing to the cards. Now just to laminate them, so he can't destroy this fab creation. 

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