Card Swap Group

This is my Card Swap for July and, hopefully, it should have reached Ann by now.
I'm reliably informed that Ann's favourite colour is Pink Pirouette so, despite personally finding pink a very difficult colour to work with (mainly because I don't like it!!) this is the card I've come up with.
The challenge for this month is to make a very small card but definitely no bigger than 4" square and that is exactly what this is.
I embossed a frame using one of the Designer Frames and cut out the centre rectangle using a craft knife. I stuck a piece of Whisper White behind the aperture and stamped a sentiment from Friendly Phrases (retired) in Blushing Bride. The rest is self-explanatory really so I will just give you a list of supplies used rather than bore you to death :0)

Supplies: Pink Pirouette cardstock, ink and Taffeta Ribbon, Blushing Bride ink, Papillon Potpourri and Friendly Phrases stamps, Bitty Butterfly Punch, Designer Frames Embossing Folder, Basic Pearls

My apologies for the lack of posts this week but my Dad is still in hospital and we are trying to get things sorted and, on top of that, on Tuesday I developed a streaming cold making me feel very sorry for myself!! Back at school for one week and I'm already picking up the kids germs - it doesn't bode well does it?
Anyway this week at Less is More the ladies are asking for Ovals so I have used the oval Designer Embossing Frame to make a card for my eldest grandson who, at the grand old age of 4, is starting 'proper' school on Monday. I seem to have used a lot of retired or retiring stamps for this card so I won't bore you with the details. I have used Pacific Point, as the colour of the uniform is Royal Blue, and Basic Gray for the trousers. The small picture on the right shows the inside of the card and I have done this because just lately whenever I see him he has drawn a 'special picture for Granny' and it always comes in a massive envelope covered in kisses so I thought I would send him a big one back!
Have a great weekend and I'll be back as soon as I can. Thanks to all who leave such lovely comments and I'm sorry that, just lately, I haven't got round to leaving many.

Yet another thank you card this time using Bordering on Romance. I embossed the oval shape from the Designer Frames Embossing set on Whisper White cardstock and then punched a large oval in a piece of paper to use as a mask before stamping just the leaves and stem part of a stamp from Bordering on Romance. I did this by colouring the part of the stamp I wanted with an Old Olive marker. The border stamp down the side is also from this set and stamped in Perfect Plum. The panel was matted onto Perfect Plum cardstock, a knot of perfect Plum Taffeta ribbon tied around and then layered onto a card blank.The flowers were punched with the smallest flower punch in the Itty Bitty Punch Shapes pack and a tiny Basic Pearl added to the centres. The card was finished with a sentiment from Curly Cute.

Thanks to all those who are asking about Dad, he is still in hospital so the trekking back and forth continues and looks like it could go on for some time yet.

Young Vermillion

These cards were made with the a la carte stamp 'Young Vemillion' stamped in Soft Suede. For the one on the left I took a piece of DSP from the Neutrals Paper Stack and embossed a frame using a folder from the Designer Frames Embossing set, this was then matted onto Soft Suede cardstock, and some Soft Suede Taffeta ribbon tied around before fixing onto a card blank made with Natural Ivory cardstock. The Young Vermillion, which had been stamped onto Very Vanilla, was cut out to fit in the frame and a sentiment from a retired set stamped on the right.
The other card was made using the same colours with Linen Thread added to the Very Vanilla panel and the sentiment punched with the Modern label punch.

Definitely no glitter!!

This is a card which I was asked to make and one for which I had a very definite brief - tasteful, simple, neutrals with maybe a touch of pink and definitely no glitter! Have I managed it?

I inked one of the stamps from the Hostess set, Faith in Nature, with Early Espresso and stamped off before stamping onto Very Vanilla. The flower was coloured using Pink Pirouette and Pretty in Pink and a blender pen, with the stamens coloured with an Early Espresso marker, then punched out with the Extra large Oval punch. A piece of Crumb Cake DSP, from the Neutrals Paper Stack, was embossed with the oval in the Designer Frames Embossing pack and then matted onto a slightly wider strip of Crumb Cake cardstock. A knot of Crumb Cake Taffeta ribbon was tied around the panel before fixing to a cream card blank. The flower oval was glued in the frame and a tiny Basic Pearl added to the centre. The sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso and punched with the Scallop Oval and then matted onto an Extra Large Oval, with two Basic Pearls added to the sides.

Definitely neutrals, definitely a touch of pink and definitely no glitter. Tasteful and simple? I hope so!!

The two cards I have for you today are using the stamp set Everybunny and are ones that I have made for my grandchildren. Sky is 3 and definitely a 'pink' girl and Conor is only 6 months so I can still get away with using baby blue!
I stamped the bunnies in Crumb Cake then coloured the images using various colours and a blender pen, and then they were punched out with the Extra Large Oval punch. The DSP from the Paper Stacks were embossed using the oval folder from Designer Frames and then glued to a piece of matching cardstock with the oval bunny image placed inside the embossed frame. Some taffeta ribbon was tied around the panel and then the whole thing glued onto a DL card blank. As I didn't want the whole sentiment, I inked the part I wanted with a marker and stamped this above the names which had been cut from the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies and run through the Square Lattice (pink) and the Perfect Polka Dots (blue) Embossing folders before being positioned onto the card. On Sky's I added a little pink butterfly which was from the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die.

More SAB Freebies!

This is another card made with a SAB freebie but this time a stamp from Fresh Vintage.

It's not very often I CASe a card but I saw this done by an American demo and just had to have a go (the original tutorial can be found here). 

To start I stamped the image onto a plain white card blank in Wisteria Wonder, the card was then positioned in the oval folder from the Designer Frames Embossing set and run through the BigShot. The central piece is a 'homemade' stamp which was made with a piece of excess rubber in the centre of a stamp which I stuck to a spare wood block and this was stamped, again in Wisteria Wonder, with the sentiment overstamped in Elegant Eggplant. I punched this out with the Large Oval Punch, inked the edges and fixed to the card with dimensionals. Another easy card but a very effective one I think.

I'm not Old, I'm Vintage

Oh dear you can tell I'm off work - 2 posts in 1 day! Never mind back to the grindstone on Monday so back to normal then (well as normal as normal gets).

Whilst drinking coffee and blog hopping this afternoon I came across a challenge site called 'Friday Mashup' which each week sets a combination of two challenges. You can either mix the two or just use one and this week is the sketch above and, to 'mash it up', also go Vintage or Shabby Chic. As I am definitely much more Vintage than Shabby Chic (me that is, not my style of creating) I chose to go with that. I started by embossing a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock with the rectangle from the Designer Frames Embossing set and cut a rectangle of Crumb Cake DSP to go in the centre onto which I stamped the sentiment in Chocolate Chip. I inked all around the edge of the cardstock with Crumb Cake ink before fixing to a card blank made from Naturals Ivory cardstock which I also inked around. The two 'photo corners' were made with my square punches from Chocolate chip cardstock and glued in place. I cut the flowers from my new Blossom Party die using more DSP to match the central panel and used the reverse pattern for the centre circle. The petals were curled a little before fixing in place. 

Do come back tomorrow when, despite still having a hundred and one things I need to do before going back to work, I'm sure I will find time for a LIM card!

When is it Springtime?

Another quick card to show you using Easter Blossoms, a new stamp set in the Spring Mini. A piece of Daffodil Delight DSP was embossed with the oval from the Designer Frames Embossing set and adhered to a card blank. The image of the girl was stamped in Basic Black onto Whisper White and then punched out with the Large Oval punch and glued into position inside the frame. The sentiment from the same set was stamped in Basic Black and a Daffodil Delight Grosgrain Ribbon bow added to the bottom of the frame. How quick is that?

I experimented a little with the colour of the silhouette by first stamping in Daffodil Delight but I much preferred the black - but then it's all a matter of taste and it could be stamped in any colour. You could even colour the image using different colour markers but, as I wanted this to be a quick card, I didn't even attempt that!

Variation on a Sketch!

This afternoon my daughter asked me to make her a baby card for her friends new baby who arrived yesterday and, as she needs it very soon, I decided to make it along the same lines as the one I made earlier for the Less is More challenge (scroll down to previous post to see that one!) It was made in exactly the same way but using Pretty in Pink DSP, from the Subtles Paper Stack, and the little bunny stamp from Perfect Postage and tied with Whisper White Organza ribbon. I stamped the sentiment and underneath put the baby's name which I made with the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies, run through the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, and dotted the'i' with a Basic Pearl. 

I have to say I'm not very good with pale pink and always seem to get a mental block when it comes to designing anything with it so I was really glad I didn't have to start from scratch with the idea!