February 2009 Stamp of the Month

Stamp of the month is back after it's January break. I've gone for a heart for February (can't think why??) , but as per usual it's not just any heart. There is 15% off the marked price for the rest of the month, whilst stocks last.

The Patchwork Heart stamp from Funstamps will work really well for almost any occasion. Without meaning to I've ended up heat embossing on three of my four cards.

On the first the heart has been embossed with fine detail black powder and mounted onto glitter card with 3d foam to raise it. The U is a Basic Grey chipboard letter painted black with the Adirondack Acrylic Dabber. I used clear embossing powder over the black and stuck gems down the side using Didi Glue Dots. My favourite dotty ribbon and black ric-rac are stapled to keep the card contemporary.

On this one I wanted to play with the idea of a 'white' card which could be used as a wedding invitation or wedding/engagement congrats card. When I embossed the heart on the vellum the paper buckled and pulled, instead I cut out the embossed heart and used vellum adhesive to adhere the heart to the front of the vellum wrap. You would be hard pressed to realise the heart is a separate piece. The square of white card underneath the vellum just helps to highlight the heart, whilst the self-adhesive pearls cover the Diddi Glue Dots that I've used to stop the vellum flapping around.

My dangling heart has been embossed with Super Sparkle Silver powder on pale pink card which I've mounted onto punched pearlescent hearts, between which I've sandwiched a piece of ribbon for it to dangle in the aperture. The bright handmade paper on the outside and the paler one on the inside are both from the 1lb of paper packs. Finished off with a snipped frame and a heart gem.

Last but not least - colouring pencils, one of my favourite techniques and Kraft Card another of my favs. The hearts have been stamped using the Sepia Versafine inkpad and I've punched them out using the largest Woodware punch. Having shaded each heart I decided to trim one and mount it, using 3d foam on to a piece of Kraft card. The beads are stitched around the heart using a co-ordinating green Alcazar Metallic Thread.

Hope you approve.

xxxxxxx

Doodlebug Crushed Velvet Flock

Having been a little skeptical about this product I set aside a good day and a half to play with them. Having tried several methods I think the best results seem to be achieved when using double-sided sheet adhesive on top of card of a similar colour to the flock you are using.

On this card the I've used the flock around the edge of the Fancy Pants Splendid ATC size cat image. Unfortunately, the photograph doesn't clearly show how the flock looks. To apply the flock I coloured the edges roughly with a glue pen, before sprinkling on the Crushed Velvet, which I then pressed on to ensure even coverage. The paper is another of the Fancy Pants range, brad and ric-rac add design elements.

On this card I painted a chipboard D using the Adirondack Acrylic Dabber in a bright cerise which is similar to the pink flock. Whilst the paint was wet i sprinkled and then pressed the Crushed Velvet Flock onto the chipboard. Behind the 'd' I've attached one of the Fancy Pants Transparencies with a brad, my favourite spotty ribbon makes yet another appearance and I've used co-ordinating black cardstock and cerise pearlescent card. The coverage is good, I quite like the distressed look, as did Dina as this card was for her.

On this and the doggy card I used the double-sided sheet adhesive method for applying the flock. The stamp is a previous stamp of the month, dotty/Mirri cardstock and self-adhesive silver ribbon finish off the card.

For this card I applied the double-sided adhesive to brown cardstock before cutting out the doggy with the Big Shot. I then applied the Flock by rubbing it into the shape. A red cardstock collar and black gem help to make him friendlier. The brown card has been distressed using a dye ink pad and the doggy has been layered onto gingham, white and green card. Happy Birthday is stamped with a Versafine inkpad

The Crushed Velvet Flock produces an image that looks good is very tactile. Children in particular will probably appreciate a card made using it.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Mega Catch up

This will hopefully be the first of at least three posts.......

OK 3 weeks ago on Tuesday night I demonstrated how to use the Tim Holtz Fragments, which after having used them for Scrapaholix I fell in love with.

I find the best way to use them is with Rangers Glossy Accents, squirt a bit on the back and when you place it down onto your card, wiggle it a bit to pop any bubbles. They're very cool, trust me. All 4 cards are made with the new Fancy Pants Splendid range of papers and embellishment's that have come in.

Definitely not just for Valentines.

This card has been created using just the papers, I've rounded the corners and used the Adirondack Acrylic Dabber in white around the edges. The heart has been cut out of one of the papers and raised on 3d foam.

This time I've used one of the die-cut shapes and place one of the rub-ons along the lower left hand side.

The hearts have been cut out of the paper again, with the centre one raised on 3d foam, with a pearl brad pushed through. The image under the Fragment is one of the rub-ons, under which I've stretched some 3mm ribbon for added interest.

For this one I trimmed the big heart out of one of the papers using the Fiskars Shapecutter. The Groovy Frog is one of the 12 ATC size pictures that come as a sheet of patterned paper.

Hope that all makes sense as I'm getting a little tired.

xxxxx

Sooooooo Bad

Well all my good intentions and look where we are again. I will hopefully manage to upload some pictures tomorrow, there are quite a few - Scrapaholix, Fragments and Crushed Velvet.

Fingers Crossed, I'll be here tomorrow, might even get some photos of some of the new yarns.
xxxx

It's Christmas in 8 days OMG!!!

I can't believe it's only 8 days away, I'm no where near ready, I need more time. Still doesn't feel like Christmas anyway, maybe that's it, I'm sure Kye will enjoy it, Dina and Du being a little past the whole Santa thing (I think so anyway).

Last Thursday saw the gentle opening of our shop in Midleton, It's still very rough around the edges, but we'll get there. For now at least I'll be open there on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and I've taken the yarn and haberdashery supplies over at the moment. I'm hoping to squeeze a few craft basics in and squeeze basic yarn in here too, but it's going to take a little time to work out whats going where.

Thursday was also our last Scrapaholix of the year and we were working with dry-embossing. The kit colours were grey, white and black, which is such a fantastic combination that almost anything goes.

I thought the photograph I chose worked really well and this time I really didn't add anything to my basic kit, except for a little ink. The flowers and title were all cut using punches and the Sizzix. The alphabet is Retro Metro for those of you that are wondering.

Last night's club was a little quiet, however all that were present loved the cards I made using templates from Personal Impressions. Both the beer glass and the little girls dress make fantastic quick cards, which you can leave plain or decorate as over the top as you want. I'd be lying if I claimed these cards were anything but speedy. In fact I think I'd be hard pressed to make anything so good as quick.

This is the obvious card for those of us partial to a pint or two of the black stuff.

Here I've opted for the larger option, glitter card for the fizz.

This little dress card is just so cute, that I can see I' going to be using it for quite a while. The buttons are fixed using glue dots and add a real authentic touch.

Couldn't resit I'm afraid. I was always disappointed that my school never wore the gingham dresses that I know some of my peers got to wear. Perhaps that's where my fetish for all things gingham stems from.

Next Tuesday will be our last Card/Scrap club before Christmas and we're all going to make a card, have copious amounts of tea/coffee and eat a ridiculous amount of calorific treats.

xxxxxxxxx

December Stamp of the Month

That festive time is looming once again and I had pretty much decided not to have a Stamp of the Month because everyone gets very busy around this time of the year. I changed my mind after discovering this set of stamps from Personal Impressions.

The Christmas set might cause you to think I've gone a little bonkers (was already), however it's a set of 7 stamps that's working out at a very economical €6.55 (including the 15% discount). The images are great and very, very, very good for those last minute cards, or for the kiddies to have a play with.

My cards this month reflect the 'quick card' ethos I've just mentioned, but remember the set is only available at the above price for this month or while stocks last.

The three tags have been stamped with Versamark first with the smaller snowflake and tinted with blue and green chalks. Next I stamped the larger snowflake using a Brilliance Trio ink pad. Brads are fixed to the centre of each large snowflake. I stamped the Merry Christmas greeting using the Brilliance ink pad again and embellished the card further with white Liquid Pearls.

This one is really a bit of a cheat, as you can see the holly sprig is in the corner. I didn't have time to make the card I wanted to, which is a Christmas Pudding, complete with Brandy Sauce and my holly sprig on top.

This time I've stamped the Christmas Bauble on light blue Mirri Card with Versamark and embossed them with fine detail white. I trimmed round them cutting of the loop at the top, fixed thin ribbon to the back of each and fixed them with silicone glue to create a raised affect. The papers are from the Snowy Jo Collection as is the Merry Christmas rub-on, a bow tidies up the ends.

The Snowman is stamped in blue Versafine ink and coloured in with Marvy le Plume markers, he's mounted with 3d foam onto a background of Versamarked small snowflakes which the camera hasn't picked up. The Merry Christmas greeting was also stamped with Versafine ink.

Snowman again, this time I've stamped him with black Stayz-on and shaded him with colouring pencils. The wall is created in the same way, the stamp was part of the farmyard set we had a few months ago. The background paper is another of the Snowy Jo ones and I've used Stickles glitter glue to embellish.

Hope you like them.

xxx

Twice in one evening

Back again, this time with Scrapaholix which was on Saturday just gone. This time we created something a little different to be kept or given away to a loved one as a gift. Using a handbag accordion album we created a wall hanging. In my case I asked my husband, 3 children and myself ("tell me a little bit about Lora"), to answer a few questions about themselves, so we can look back in a few years and see how we've changed.

As you can see it's turned out quite well, to the eagle eyed amongst you, you will no doubt have spotted that my youngest chap is missing. This is not because he has run away to join the circus, he gets that kind of carry-on here. It is because I have managed to mis-lay his glittered K and I'm too lazy to make another. It will turn up and I will finish my Millar Masterpiece.

The papers are from Rayher, as are the button embellishments. The glittered chipboard are letters taken from several sets, painted and glittered to match. Bright Mirri Board in festive colours, white and green ribbons and sparkly brads add the important finishing touches. Now to find Kye.....

Con

Me

Dina

Durahn

I'm off to catch some much needed beauty sleep, but I intend to get back here tomorrow to load up the stamp of the month samples.

Night Night

I thought it had only been...

Look even when I think it's going well I get side-tracked, I was absolutely convinced it had only been 2 weeks since my last post. I get here (at last) to discover it's actually been three. Well there's no hope and no pictures from 3 weeks ago at least not at the moment.

Going back to a fortnight ago now we were busy glittering Mandalas, that was the general idea anyway, glittering me was the reality. Anyone that knows me, knows I'm not a pretty pastel kinda girl, I do bright, bold in your face (never), so for those of you that like the more subtle, mandalas turn away now and scroll down. If like me though you like it bright, you'll like these.

They are all variations on the embossed, glittered and decoupaged theme, so there's not really much to tell.

This one hasn't even made it onto a card as it's just so cool.

This one and the next are the reverse of each other. 2 colours of glitter and 2 colours of card.

This one is one of the snowflake mandalas and I've only used transparent glitter on the blue card.

This one is my favourite, it's the Crocus Mandala from Elusive Images and I created the whole thing twice, mounted them onto each other, sandwiching a tassel between, so I can hang the decoration on my Christmas tree.

I'll be back in a minute to pop up a little bit about Scrapaholix too.

xxxx

Shrink Plastic

Last Tuesday we had a play with Shrink Plastic. In order to demonstrate the differences in shrinkage between the different types of plastic I used the same stamp - this months stamp of the month.

This one has been created using white shrink plastic. I've blended the chalks into one another and then stamped in Stayz-on

Frosted shrink plastic on this one. Chalked and stamped with blue Stayz-on.

This time it's clear shrink. Stamped with Stayz-on and stuck own with Glossy Accents because it dries clear.

And this one is on black shrink plastic. This time my Stayz-on was the opaque white, the really pretty blue was a mistake. There was blue on my stamp because I forgot to clean it before I used the white -oops!

Same card in 4 different styles.

xxx

Scrapaholix - Fragments

It's been longer than I had planned but I've made it none the less so I won't be too hard on myself. Scrapaholix as I mentioned in my last post took place on the 9th and was fab. This month we got to have a play with Ranger's Fragments and they have certainly won my seal of approval. The only problem now is trying to find a supplierthat has them in stock.

As well as my layout which you can see below we also made a mini album from a paper bag. The papers this month were travel inspired which worked really well with my very poor photos (taken on a disposable) from a holiday to Portugal.

Now I know paper bag albums have been around for ages and that there are some die hard scrapbookers out there that wouldn't be caught dead making them, but I like them. There a great way to make a quick book, 6 pages plus the front and the back, with a couple of pockets to stash things away. I think you'll agree they can be very, very cool.

Nearly all of the embellishments came from the fab Travelogue papers. The tab was cut out on the Quickutz and I used some groovy black and white polka dot ribbon for my tags. As per usual for me everything was inked, if it's not screwed down, it's likely to get inked.

As I said already my photos weren't the best so a small book really helps to get the most out of them. It also means there's somewhere to put your plane tags, tickets and other bits and bobs.

Here is this months stamp in all it's glory, this one is really working hard for me I have absolutely loads of uses for it. You can't really see that there are Fragments on these pages, but they really add dimension.

We're going to squeeze in 2 more kits before Christmas, at the end of the month we're making a Christmas gift and then in December we'll be dry embossing. Loads of fun.

I'm hoping to put up last weeks cards in a little while.

xxx