Monochrome Baby Girl Card for The Pals Paper Arts 200th Anniversary

by Joanne James22. April 2014 08:00

This week the Pals Paper Arts Card Challenge is celebrating its 200th anniversary - a whole 200 challenges! To celebrate this milestone, they have a sketch along with a twist - to complete your card in a monochromatic colour scheme. Here is the sketch:

 

Both design teams have designed cards to inspire this week; initially I was really tempted to use the Starburst Sayings stamps and framelits which lend themselves totally to this sketch and worl with my favourite Brights colour palette, but as lots of the designers had the same idea and I couldn't see how I was going to create something suitably unique, I decided to go with something completely different - a baby card using the 'Baby We've Grown' stamp set in Blushing Bride pastel pink:

Using a pink base, I matted both of my cardstock layers on Whisper White and used a piece of Polka Dot DSP from the Subtles DSP stack for panel 2, whilst for panel 3 I stamped the 'sweet baby' stamp repeatedly in Whisper White onto Blushing Bride cardstock - a stamp-a-ma-jig is essential for this - and coloured the word 'baby' with my chalk marker to give it a powdery look. Lastly, my focal point panel 4 is a triumph of layers and fussy cutting: I stamped the shoe stamp 3 times, twice on Whisper White and once on Blushing Bride, then I fussy cut the shoes from the pink and glued them to the white base; with the other image stamped on white, I fussy cut the bows from the shoes and adhered them on top. I finished the shoes with two tiny seed pearls for fastenings, and layered this circle on a pink starburst mat and a further white circle. My card has 10 separate layers in total - this must be something of a record!

This card took a little while to create, but I love it - and only Blushing Bride and Whisper White used throughout. Do check out the other monochromatic cards at the Pals paper Arts this week - there is a mass of inspiration.

Back tomorrow with another card; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

 

Blossom Party Originals Melon Mambo Flower

by Joanne James21. April 2014 08:00

Today I'm sharing a card I made with Jen Brum's great sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches - I combined it with the colours over at The Colour Throwdown, where one of my favourite colour combinations - Basic Grey and Melon Mambo - is trio'd with Garden Green:

A great combination - here is my card:

I used Basic Grey for my base and matted this with a piece of Melon Mambo to create a narrow border between my base and my central panel of High Tide DSP. I decided to use a flower as my focal point, but instead of stamping I decided to die cut two flowers with my Blossoms Originals die and layer them together, finishing with a small grey circle and pink candy dot centre. I tucked a Gumball Green leaf behind (cut with the Secret Garden framelits) and stamped my sentiment in Versamark onto Basic Grey and heat embossed with Melon Mambo embossing powder. The green leaf provides a lovely 'pop' of colour behind the flower and lifts the whole card, I think. Gumball Green has to be my favourite of the soon-to-be retiring In-Colours - I will so miss it when it's gone!

As I stepped back to admire my card, I realised that I had adhered my mat panels upside down in relation to Jen's sketch - and by this point, my Tombo was well and truly stuck fast - oops! I am hoping the team at FMS will forgive me this oversight ;-)

Back tomorrow with another card; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Bold Simple Stems Birthday Card

by Joanne James12. April 2014 21:39

I've had a lovely day today with members of my team at our quarterly training day; it's always such fun to get together with some of the wider team and meet up with friends I don't see all that often. Today I'm sharing a birthday card that I made for one of my downline who celebrated her birthday this week. I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch and the colours and photo over at Colour Q for the inspiration for my design:

I love the bright and bold colours over at Colour Q this week and the pattern on the sundress had me reaching for my Simple Stems set again to try and capture those bright flowers. Here is my finished card:

I used a piece of spotty Coastal Cabana DSP from the Fresh Prints paper stack as my angled background, then layered three flowers as the anchor for my birthday flag. I stamped the largest flower twice in Tangerine Tango and once in Pumpkin Pie, and having cut one of the flowers using my Secret Garden framlits, fussy-cut the remaining two flowers into sections, then layered them with a Tangerine Tango base, Pumpkin Pie middle layer and Tangerine Tango flower centre. I then popped them up on dimensionals to give a real 3D effect to this flower. I stamped the remaining two flowers in Bermuda Bay, then overlapped all three flowers - this photo shows the layering really well:

I used a piece of retired Tangerine Tango ribbon for my bow - I was tempted to use white, but decided my card needed another pop of orange amongst the lovely turquoise blues, so there you have it.

That's all for today; back tomorrow with another card, until then happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

 

Look Up To Father Acrylic Block Technique

by Joanne James12. April 2014 20:45

I've had a lovely day today finishing off my swaps in readiness for our quarterly team training tomorrow. Our swaps always have a theme and this quarter it's 'technique'; I've based my swaps on a card I made for the challenge over at Seize The Sketch this week, which has this great layout:

Here is my card - can you tell what technique I'm showcasing?

I know Father's Day is still a few months away, but I love the sentiment on this stamp and have been keen to use it for the first time. I decided that I would showcase the 'acrylic block & markers' technique on my card: this is where you colour an acrylic block with markers (I used a variety of greens and browns) and then spritz with water (I add a few drops of alcohol to mine so that it dries quicker) then stamp the block onto the paper.

I thought this technique would make a lovely background to the tree stamp and would add a little more interest than just colouring the image with markers directly. Here's a close-up of the stamped background:

Whilst all of my swap cards look the same, each has a slightly different central panel as each time you stamp using a block it comes out differently, making them all unique.

Sticking with the wood theme, I added a panel of Chocolate Chip embossed with the Woodgrain Textured Impressions Embossing Folder and stamped the layer of Crumb Cake beneath this with the Hardwood background stamp. To finish, I added a couple of chevrons as an accent - wooden of course, coloured with my Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write marker pen:

 

I also incorporated some Old Olive into the mat layers just to give the card a lift and so that it wouldn't appear too 'brown'.

I'm quite pleased with the overall end result - let's hope my team like their swaps tomorrow too!

Back tomorrow with another card; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

 

 

 

Gorgeous and Bright Grunge!

by Joanne James7. April 2014 21:18

When I saw the colour combo over at Dynamic Duos this week, I just knew I was going to have to make a card for this challenge! Of all the colour collections, Brights is my most favourite and this pink and blue combination just rocks!

Here is my card: 

I decided to combine it with the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch this week too, where I decided to use the pattern literally and stamp my background with Gorgeous Grunge. For my sentiment I wanted something contemporary and in keeping with the grunge look, so I decided to go with a word bubble, stamped in Versamark onto vellum then heat embossed with Melon Mambo embossing powder - the photograph really doesn't do this justice, in real life it has a lovely raised sheen. The word bubble was adhered using rolled glue dots, hidden along the stamped outline; this gives just enough height but doesn't allow them to show through the vellum.

I think this would make a great card for a teenager, or just a general card to cheer someone up. I like this minimalist card so much, I might have to make a few more in alternative colour combinations!

Back tomorrow with another project and some important Stampin' Up! news that you won't want to miss; until then, happy stampin'! 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

 

 

Blessed Easter Pink Tulips

by Joanne James5. April 2014 20:27

Another tulip card for you today - no apologies, I love this stamp! This card was inspired by the flecked pink tulips I received from my James juniors for Mother's Day last week. This card features this stamp used in another different way, this time to create an outlined background panel:

In splitting the tulips away from the sentiment on the original stamp, this makes it really easy to use the tulips for non-Easter cards, as I've done here. I used a Whisper White base, then stamped the tulips in Rose Red on a strip of Pink Pirouette cardstock. I then stamped the tulips again, this time in Black Stazon on watercolour paper and coloured with inks and my Aquapainter and cut out using my oval framelits and mounted on a second oval in Rose Red.

That's all for today; tomorrow's card may well have to be a 'get well soon' card as this afternoon my young son appears to have succumbed to the chicken pox - his THIRD dose in just 6 years!!! I didn't think this was even possible, but his itchy spots tell me otherwise. On the upside, at least it's the Easter holidays, so he should be over it by the time the new term starts :-)

Back tomorrow with another card; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

 

Happy Mother's Day

by Joanne James29. March 2014 23:07

I had a busy day in London yesterday so despite my best efforts to get ahead of myself I still didn't manage to blog yesterday and having had a class and put in my last Sale-A-Bration order I'm almost running out of time today, so before I do here is my intended share for yesterday, one of the Mother's Day cards I made in a couple of different colourways that I couldn't share before the day itself. Here it is in the predominantly pink colourway:

The card is similar to one I saw on Julie Kettlewell's blog here - I made a 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" square gatefold card and created an overlapping framed circle that I cut with my Circles Framelits and created a wreath of tiny stamped and punched flowers around the central bold 'Happy Mother's Day sentiment. I also made this card is an aqua colourway here using Coastal Cabana for the base:

The hardwood background stamp makes such a great background for the focal point and some flower stamping inside and on the envelopes along with a few rhinestones just finishes off the card perfectly.

My Mother's Day was rather unconventional and was only spent with one of my offspring, which felt slightly strange, but Rebecca and I had a great day in London (she was so excited that she got to have her picture taken in front of Big Ben!) and the bonus is we get to have another Mother's Day next Sunday altogether to make up for it!

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

 

Mum You're The Best!

by Joanne James27. March 2014 22:12

It's all go in the office of The Crafty Owl - I've been busy finishing my last Mother's Day cards today and I've recorded two video tutorials, along with all of the other things mothers do in a day. I won't bore you with that list, but I'm sure lots of you are reading this thinking "I know what you mean!" :-) Anyway, today I have a Mother's Day card to share with you, which I made using this week's sketch over at The Paper Players. This is Sandy's sketch:

I loved the layered circles on this sketch and it allowed me to get out on paper an idea I've had floating around in my head for a while (love it when that happens!) So here is my card:

I used Coastal Cabana for my base, then cut out a 'window' using my Word Bubble framelits through to the stamped sentiment "You're the best!" on the inside, used my largest circle for my bespoke 'Mum' sentiment where I used two circles cut with my Circles framelits to create an inset so that I have a border without an extra layer here. I then added an ‘xoxo’ cut out with my Circle Card thinlit set, attached with rolled glue dots, and lastly my final layer with the ‘love ya’ word bubble, stamped, cut and mounted with dimensionals for height. The cut-out on the front gives a glimpse of what’s inside – here’s the close-up:

Now I know this is not such a typical Mother's Day card: not traditional colours, no flowers in sight. It's quite clean and graphic in nature, but I really like it! I think it’s a great card for a Mum who likes something a little different; I for one would be thrilled to receive this card (hint, hint James Juniors!)

 

That’s me for today; come back tomorrow to see my entry for this week’s Less is More challenge. Until then, happy stampin’!

 

Stampin’ Up! Supplies Used:
 

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Get Well Simple Stems

by Joanne James26. March 2014 21:28

Another busy day today and my third night out in a row: today to a school concert, which was very entertaining with lots of singing and instrumentals. Now I'm back and today's card uses the colours over at Dynamic Duos this week, where it's actually 'Triple Threat' week and this week's sketch over at Retrosketches, which has an interesting decorative element:

And here is my card:

My card uses a single flower from the 'Simple Stems' stamp set and I printed the offset flower head on the base layer and the stem on a layer of Soft Sky, having cut out the area around the flower using the co-ordinating Secret Garden framelit. The Soft Sky layer was layered with dimensionals to give depth and allow a simple white baker's twine bow to be wrapped around the base.

As Pale Plum is a retired SU! colour, I substituted with Perfect Plum. I was a little concerned that it wouldn't have enough pink in it to work with the Rich Razzleberry, especially I had decided to experiment with stamping the Rich Razzleberry onto the contrasting Perfect Plum cardstock. I don't generally take two tones of the same colour and use them together in this way, but I quite like the effect - the Razzleberry 'warms' the Plum I think. I thought I would include a picture of my test card to show you how the effect differs depending on the colour ink you use:

The flowers are stamped clockwise from bottom left in Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum then Rich Razzleberry on Perfect Plum cardstock - it's interesting to see how different they each look, don't you think?

Anyway, back to my card! I finished it with a little 'get well' sentiment that I stamped in Versamark and heat embossed in white. This card will be sending get well wishes to one of my lovely customers who is having major surgery at the end of this week; if you're reading this Chris, I hope you're up and about again soon!

That's all from me today - I'm off to catch up on my beauty sleep! Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

 

Spring Banner Class

by Joanne James23. March 2014 18:16

This morning I held one of my weekend project classes. They generally last longer than my monthly card classes and are a great opportunity to do something different and a little more involved. Following a successful class last December to make festive Christmas banners (you can read more about that and see our wonderful creations here), at the request of a few of the ladies who attended I decided to hold one to make a Spring/Easter banner with the other half of our banner kits. I chose a colour scheme that would compliment that of the Burlaps and Blooms wreaths that several of us made at my last weekend project class - you can see my finished wreath here. So here is my completed banner:

I chose to feature the word 'Spring' on my banner, as I am intending to leave it up to decorate for a while, but some of the ladies in my class made one that featured the word 'Easter'. We stencilled our backgrounds and letters using the now retired Build a Banner stencil kit in Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango and Pool Party with lettering in Smoky Slate.

The banner is decorated with flowers made with the Spiral Flower Originals Die and punched and die-cut butterflies. Here are some close ups of the individual banner pieces - this is the first piece, with a layered butterfly with a lightly embossed layer and some tiny ones punched out with the Itty Bitty Butterfly punch: 

Here's a close-up of one of the letters, along with a couple of the spiral flowers; a single yellow flower and a two-tone blue flower, finished with some Smoky Slate leaves cut out with the Secret Garden framelits:

This one has a So Saffron single flower and a two-tone one in Tangerine Tango and Crisp Cantaloupe, finished with an extra-large pearl, along with a bitty blue butterfly:

My banner simply served as inspiration and as is often the way with this kind of class, everyone makes theirs slightly differently and adds their own unique touch. If you hop on over to my Facebook page, you will be able to see the finished banner that Julie, one of the lovely ladies who attended the class made - different to mine, yet equally gorgeous!

If you live in Northampton and would like to join any of my card or project classes, check out my schedule of forthcoming classes here or contact me for more information.

Back tomorrow with a card to share; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

 

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Hi I'm Joanne and live in Northampton and when I'm not looking after my husband and two beautiful children, am an avid crafter with a passion for all things Stampin' Up!

I must confess that I have never been a big rubber stamper - until I discovered Stampin' Up! that is. I love the fact that I can get such great results with co-ordinating stamps, inks, papers and punches - the possibilities are endless! Join me on my stamping journey as I share the things I love and be inspired to create amazing things yourself!

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