A Foxglove Thank You

I've been making a few thank you cards recently, using a variety of designs. The first one is based on an idea from the 2 day Clarity Stamps retreat at Cowden in May. The very talented Paul Church led the group on this and from the title you can guess it involves foxgloves. This card was for my sister who now lives in Florida. She loves cottage garden flowers and has a particular soft spot for foxgloves so I knew this would be perfect for her:

These gorgeous flowers are the Clarity remountable Foxglove set. They are large stamps, and indeed the best way to stamp the largest flower is to use a ruler. You may have seen Barbara demonstrating this on TV. The flowers were stamped, onto Clarity theuva card in Adirondack Black and coloured using a selection of Promarkers.

I then highlighted the flowers with Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up!, but Glossy Accents from Ranger would work just as well. On the retreat we used a Versamark pen and clear embossing powder to give a similar result. Here is a close up of the effect:

You can see how the light is reflecting off of the flowers. The background was created using the cloud mask from Clarity and Adirondack stonewashed ink. The sentiment is also from Clarity:

The area for the sentiment was masked with a post-it note to keep it protected when inking in the clouds, which can be seen a little better in this picture. The outline was then made free-hand with a black micro pen.

I then layered the picture onto wisteria wonder card from Stampin' Up! which picks up the colours of the flowers.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Angela

Ingredients:

Stamps: Clarity remountable Foxgloves, Thank you
Ink: Adirondack Black and Stonewashed
Card: Clarity Theuva card, Stampin' Up! Wisteria Wonder
Other: Promarkers, Clarity Cloud mask, Stampin' Up! Crystal Effects, micro pen, post-it note

Baby Blue Waterfall

Don't you just love making baby cards? I find making a card to welcome a new life so special. Today's card was made for a friend of mine who had a baby boy about four months ago now. He didn't take as long to appear as including this card on my blog has! I'm sure his mum is very grateful for that.

I wanted to make a different type of baby card, well different for me anyhow, and decided on a waterfall layout.

All the blue card is Stampin' Up! marina mist, and the white card is Stampin' Up! whisper white. The background has been die cut using a Spellbinders die, and before removing the card I inked the edges in marina mist. The images on the waterfall are from the Bundle of Love set from Stampin' Up! and have been stamped using marina mist. The brads are also from Stampin' Up!, as is the marina mist ribbon, which has been stapled to the 'pull' area of the waterfall.

Here are the other three images I've used:

The tag part has also been stamped with one of the images in marina mist:

This stamp set also has a lovely sentiment which I stamped on the inside of the card again in marina mist:

The card insert is made using 120gsm white paper from Staples.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Angela

Ingredients

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Bundle of Love
Ink: Stampin' Up! Marina Mist
Card: Stampin' Up! Marina Mist, Whisper White
Other: Spellbinders die, Stampin' Up! brads (retired), Marina Mist ribbon

Secret Garden Birthday

One of the things I like about making my own cards is the plethora of stuff available for me to use. This does have it's down side sometimes as there is always something new to try out and at times you just have to say no and keep the credit card firmly tucked away.

Today's card doesn't have that much stamping on it making use of embossing and die cutting.

Yes I've used a white, grey and yellow combination again. I promise that not all my cards use these colours, I just really like the way these three work together. My favourite colour is actually blue! The basic grey card has been cut with a Spellbinders die, as has the whisper white card layered onto it. This has then be embossed using an A4 Creative Expressions embossing folder.

I used one of the elements in the Stampin' Up' Secret Garden set to stamp the flowers in daffodil delight, which were then die cut using the Secret Garden framelits dies. The leaves were cut from daffodil delight cardstock  using another of the Secret Gardens framelits die. The sentiment is from the Stampin' Up! Made for You set and has been die cut using one of the Spellbinders Die D-lites labels. Before removing the sentiment from the die, I inked around the edge with daffodil delight.

I think the card has a lovely fresh look about it.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Angela

Ingredients

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Secret Garden, Made for You
Ink: Stampin' Up! Daffodil Delight
Card: Card blank from stock; Stampin' Up! Whisper White, Basic Grey and Daffodil Delight
Other: Spellbinders Dies, Creative Expressions A4 folder

Swallowtail Duo

I love butterflies, and Stampin' Up! has a beautiful stamp of a Swallowtail. I first saw this used by Deena Boos. Here are two ways I've used this stamp.

 

The first is for a birthday:

 

 

The butterfly was stamped in StazOn on to whisper white card which was in turn layered onto black card and then onto the card blank made with Baja breeze card. I then inked a small section using a Baja breeze marker pen.

The sentiment is inked up using a Baja breeze marker pen onto whisper white card layered onto Baja breeze card and mounted using sticky pads.

Here is a close up of the sentiment:

You can also see the coloured areas on the butterfly and a close up of the Baja breeze ribbon.

I also used this image for a thank you card that I made for my neighbour who looked after my house for my whilst I was in America with my sister.

This time I went for the colour combination of white, yellow and grey, which is fast becoming a favourite of mine. The yellow really lifts the image and reminds me of summer.

I've stamped the butterfly in StazOn and then used a marker in Daffodil Delight to ink up part of the image. 

The sentiment was stamped in daffodil delight to match the yellow of the card and then die cut using Stampin' Up's Bitty Banner framelit. The sentiment was then adhered flat to the card.

Here is a close up that also shows off the ribbon in daffodil delight.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Angela


Ingredients

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Swallowtail, Itty Bitty Banner set and A Word For You set
Ink: StazOn, Stampin' Up! Baja Breeze, Daffodil Delight
Card: Stampin' Up! Whisper White, Basic Black, Baja Breeze (now retired), Daffodil Delight, Basic Grey
Other: Baja Breeze ribbon (now retired), Daffodil Delight ribbon, Bitty Banner Framelits

Metallic Toned Birthday

It was my nephew's birthday recently. So that was the first problem.... the second one is that he is in his early twenties. It really shouldn't be that difficult to make cards for the other half of the population, but I know of many card markers who have a loss of creativity when it comes to male cards.

My nephew lives in America and is a welder - a very good welder - who travels around the country working on huge buildings. The work is tough and in my opinion dangerous but he loves it. He does have hobbies and loves to be by the sea, but I've already made cards with ships, cars etc., and I don't have an image of a welder!

Thankfully, Barbara Gray at Clarity Stamps designed Doug, and he became the main feature on the card.

Doug is really versatile... now I could add a comment here but I won't, I think most of you will have your own ideas about what I may say! Anyhow back to the stamp, as I say Doug is very versatile and can be used in different ways. I tried to link him to my nephew by using metallic shaded mica powders as paint.

The image is layered onto matt gold card, and Doug is accompanied by the Shard stamp, which has also been painted with the metallic mica powders.

I've tried to capture how the mica paints look:

The sentiment is also from Clarity.

I hope my nephew doesn't suddenly take it upon himself to look at this blog. As he is currently in the back of beyond working, we are unable to send his cards to him, so they are with my sister waiting for his return. I think I'm safe as I don't think a young man wielding a blow torch is likely to start reading his Aunt's blog on cards!

Thanks for stopping by.

Angela

Ingredients:

Stamps: Clarity Stamps Doug, Shard and Happy Birthday
Ink: StazOn Black
Card: Card blank from stock, Stampin' Up! brushed gold card, Clarity Theuva card 
Other: Selection of Ranger Mica Powders

Just Because

I know I haven't been around much lately, but hopefully I will be able to post a little more frequently now. I have a number of cards that I have made in the past and not gotten around to posting and with a lot more ideas bubbling around my head there should be plenty to show you.

This card is on that can be used for a number of occasions, or just because you want to send a note to a friend:

I've used very vanilla and crumb cake cardstock and to tie everything together crumb cake ink. The stamps are from the Everything Eleanor, Four Seasons and Vintage Verses stamp sets from Stampin' Up!

Here is a close up of the main image. Topper was punched with the 6cm scallop circle punch, also from Stampin' Up!

 

 



Here is a close up of the sentiment:

Which also shows a close up of the rounded corners on the vanilla cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by.

Angela

Products used in this card:

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Elegant Eleanor, Four Seasons, Vintage Verse
Ink: Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake
Other: Stampin' Up! 6cm scallop circle punch, We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper

It's all in the sentiment

Today's card has been inspired by this month's challenge at Clarity Stamp Challenge where the sentiment is taking centre stage. As you'll see I've gone for the clean and simple look.

One of my favourite sentiments is Never Forget by Maya Angelou. Here is a close up:

I layered white card with Primrose Petals card from Stampin' Up! and stamped the Small Leafy Swirl in the same colour ink, I then added white dots to the leaves to lift them and added a little bling.

Thank you for visiting my site. If you are visiting from the Clarity Challenge good luck with this month's theme.

Sorry these pictures have a slight lean to them. I'll do better next time!

Ingredients:

Stamps: Clarity Stamps: Never Forget, and the Small Leafy Swirl
Card: Whisper White and Primrose Petals from Stampin' Up!
Ink: Archival black; Primrose Petals from Stampin' Up!
Misc: Small basic jewels from Stampin' Up!; white marker pen

See you soon
Angela