Welcome to A Spot of Stamping

Wow its been such a long time since I've posted here.  I do regularly post on my Facebook page so if you're on Facebook be sure to follow and like my page.

 

Sara Douglas our CEO shared a brilliant live video today all about the adhesives we carry.  She showed each of the adhesives, how they work and which use they are best for.  I know it will be super helpful for those of you who are new as well as those of you who aren't - even I learned something new and that was about the foam adhesive sheets.  

 

Check it out here:

https://www.facebook.com/asarathing/videos/781450679092951 

 

If you have any further questions about any of the adhesives we carry, feel free to ask me.  I'll be happy to answer them for you.  I use a range of these adhesives every day myself and also in my craft classes. 

Poppy Moments Lipstick Box

Here's a small box I designed for a prize that I'll be giving away at my class tomorrow.  I don't usually have prizes but this one is different - we're so excited to be able to be back crafting together that I feel a celebration is called for.

The top is separate from the base with a window to show the goodies inside.  I used the Stitched Nested Labels dies and a piece of window sheet to create the window.

Because you could see the piece of window sheet on the inside of the lid, and also see the adhesive which it's glued on with, I cut an extra piece of the Peaceful Poppies Designer Series Paper and covered the inside of the lid. 
 

It was tricky to get the die cut lined up perfectly as I had cut the paper to size first.  Next time I'll die cut the middle and then cut the paper to size afterwards to give me some wiggle room. 

I decorated the sides of the box with strips of the paper as well and cut a poppy from the Poppy Moments dies to decorate it with. The box itself is made from Lovely Lipstick cardstock which is retiring in a couple of days.  Whilst Lovely Lipstick is not one of the colours in the Peaceful Poppies DSP I found it still matches well to the paper I chose. 

Yesterday I took part in an online project with Shannon West from the Stampin' Up! home office and Emma Parkin-Wilson our NZ National Manager.

We were asked to gather together:

• 2 sheets DSP from the same pack
• 7 sheets of coordinating cardstock (with at least 1 being white or vanilla)
• A stamp set with greetings
• Ink pad
• Punch for greetings
• Spool of ribbon
• Adhesive & cutting tools

so I chose

• Parisian Blossoms Speciality Designer Series Paper, 
• Pool Party, Petal Pink, Cherry Cobbler & Whisper White cardstock
• Pool Party, Petal Pink, Cherry Cobbler ink 
• Tailored Tag Punch
• Petal Pink Metallic Edge ribbon from the Parisian Suite 

It turns out we were making a One-Sheet Wonder project and here are my  cards.

 

Part of the challenge for us as Demonstrators, was the order that it was presented. We were told to fold six sheets of the cardstock into card bases, then we were told to cut the white into particular sizes and punch out 7 shapes.  

After that we had to stamp sentiments onto the shapes we punched (yes ideally stamping first would give us better results but we needed to get 7 from what we had left).  

We weren't shown what all the cards would look like beforehand which also added to the challenge, as we had to choose from our card bases and sentiments as we went.  Not knowing what was coming next you didn't know if you were choosing things which might go better with another card further on.  But it all added to the fun of it as well.  

In the end I added some embossing to some of my cards as well.  We were told to choose 2 papers from the same pack of Designer Series Paper but it turned out three of my sides were quite similar, two in particular were very close, so it left me with less choices.  Some of them I felt were lacking a little something and I put those aside as I was going and later I decided to emboss them.  

Overall I'm really happy with how these turned out.  Shannon shared with us some others she'd done with other papers.  She'd used the golf paper (Country Club DSP) for one set and they worked really well as masculine cards.  I will be using this template again to make more cards.

 

Sapphire Wedding Anniversary

A few days ago was my parents' 45th (Sapphire) Wedding Anniversary.  I saw a beautiful card made by mamaninadesign using the Peaceful Poppies Suite and this is the card I made based on her design

On her card mamaninadesign used the Peaceful Poppies Elements.  Until I figured out what the circular element was on her card, I thought that it was a Basic Grey colour, however the colours of the elements are Basic Black, Old Olive and Poppy Parade.  I particularly liked the decoration on the circular element she used but I wasn't able to recreate it with what I had.

I therefore had to adapt my design to substitute that element.  I liked the idea of a Basic Grey colour, so I went with that and cut a circle from the Layering Circles Dies.  I then embossed it with the Stylish Scroll Embossing Folder.  

For the words I used three different images from three different stamp sets.  The sets were Tropical Chic, Happy Tails and A Wish For Everything.  

 

I stamped each of the three images in Versamark ink and heat embossed them with White Emboss Powder.  I was then able to cut the words that I wanted to use out of each one and combine them on my card. 

The trick to making this work, in my opinion, was to find words across sets that had the same or very similar fonts.  

Thank you for visiting my post today.  I hope you enjoyed your visit.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Whisper White, Shimmery White, Very Vanilla, Soft Sea Foam, Basic Grey, Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Peaceful Poppies Designer Series Paper, Vellum

Stamps:  Painted Poppies, Tropical Chic, Happy Tails, A Wish for Everything.

Ink: Pool Party, Versamark, Mango Melody

Die Cutting & Embossing: Poppy Moments Dies, Painted Labels Dies, Stylish Scroll Embossing Folder

Other: Basic Rhinestones, Aqua Painter (to colour centre of stamens)

 

 

 

 

Handmade Gift Voucher - Horse Trail Ride

The other project I made for our daughter's birthday was a gift voucher. Whilst she can't do anything with it yet due to the lockdown, it is something we've planned for her for a while and it will be something for her to look forward to.

 

She loves horses and would love the chance to ride one, so we found somewhere that does trail rides and will book a spot when the opportunity is available again.

 

 

Pink is her favourite colour so I knew I wanted it to be pink.  I used Petal Pink cardstock and the pink spotted DSP from the Bird Ballad Designer Series Paper.  The flowers are from the Perennial Birthday stamp set stamped in Petal Pink.

 

To make the cover I used the retired Envelope Punch Board.  I cut my cardstock to 21 x 21cm and used the 8.6 score line.  I cut a slit for the point to slip into.

Inside I wanted it to look like a stable door as you opened it up. I used the Barn Door stamp set and matching Sliding Door Dies to create the barn doors, which I adhered to what would be the side flaps of the envelope. 

 Inside is the voucher...

 

 

For the images of the voucher I used Let It Ride for the horse and the Beautiful Moments stamp set for the hills and the lavender.  

I created some masks and sponged the hills with Old Olive ink and the sky with Balmy Blue.  I coloured the horse with Dark Crumb Cake and Light Soft Suede Blends.  

As the Beautiful Moments stamp set is Cling Mount I used the old technique of colouring directly onto the stamp for the lavender.  This was how I got the lavender stalks and the grass to be different colours.  After I'd stamped them I filled in the lavender stalks with my Highland Heather blend.  

 

I used the same technique for the flowers on the outside flap.  I inked in Petal Pink and Garden Green and I coloured the inside of the leaves with my Soft Sea Foam blend.

Here was where I wished I had beautiful script writing, but I don't so it was just plain old writing for the words.  

She was given some money by someone else for her birthday too and discovered that this folder is the perfect size to hold the notes.  Plus they were nice and secure inside and couldn't fall out.