Geometric Card

If I am unable to come up with an organic looking card I turn to my shapes and geometric stamps. Here is the second "Manly" card I came up with. It is a neutral card that could be used for any occassion. I the wonderful birthday greeting from Full of Life and the star burst stamp is a stamp set from several catalogues ago, Brusting with Joy, still one of my favorites.

Materials

Stamp sets: Full of Life and Bursting with Joy

Papers: Textured Whisper White; Whisper White; Sahara Sand; Not Quite Navy; and Old Olive.

Inks: Sahara Sand; Note Quite Navy; and Old Olive

Accessories: Clips Assortment; 3/16 Corner Rounder punch; and Stampin' Dimensionals

A Card to Cherish

A friend requested two birthday cards for two very special men from me the other day. I have to admitt making cards for men is a challenge. I love making frilly, pretty cards or cards that are just more femanine. But I never say no to anyone who asks me for a card or two. So I got brainstorming and I decided to make one of the cards using a dormant stamp-set called Branch Out from the 2009 Spring/Summer Idea Book & Catalogue. Here is what I came up with.

I watercoloured the sky with Ballet Blue and Bashful Blue and the ground was a combination of Certainly Celery and Old Olive. Then I stamped on top after it dried. (Drying tip: I used my heating tool to speed up the drying process on the watercolour paper. Be sure not to hold the heating tool too closely to the paper though.) I used Always Artichoke for the leaves.

I did cut the boots out and adhered them with Stampin' Dimensionals but I also stamped the boots in behind them to give them more depth. I added the Linen Threaded as an added touch.

Materials

Stamp sets: Branching Out and Baroque Motifs

Paper: Watercolour Paper; Parisan Breeze DSP; Chocolate Chip Card stock;

Always Artichoke Card stock; and Very Vanilla Card stock

Inks: Ballet Blue; Bashful Blue Always Artichoke; Chocolate Chip;

Certainly Celery; Old Olive; Summer Sun; Creamy Carmel; and Basic Black

Accessories: Aqua Painter; Linen Thread; Chocolate Chip Corduroy Button; and Stampin' Dimensionals

SIP Challenge Winning Entry

I am thrilled to have found out today that I was one of the winners of the SIP Challenge . I'm really quite stunned because all the entries are so fantastic. I really appreciate Shelli selecting my card out of all the ones out there, it is a real honor. Below are the two "Love" cards.

I love making cards and creating original ideas. Anyone who loves stamping to make cards, to scrapbook or to make 3D projects knows the time and effort it takes to create new innovative ideas. It is a passion I completely understand. It's a thrill to have my cards recognized by another innovative and creative person like Shelli and to receive lovely comments from many different people. Thank you to everyone who has written a comment about the cards and to congratulate me. This is all very exciting for me!

There are a lot of entries for September's Autumn challenge already and for sure I shall be submitting something very soon too. So, keep a look out in the next week.

Stamp Club of 2009/10

Well, I am just so excited to announce my friend and SU Demonstrator, Brenda, have started up our Stamp Club this year. We had a year off from our club last year and now we have past members and new members excited to get creating.

To thank our club members Brenda and I decided to make them a small gift. This gift turned out to be a fun afternoon for us. It got our creative juices flowing. We decided to cover inexpensive note books with SU's beautiful Designer Series paper. We have 11 people in our club and we wanted to distinguish each member's journal. So we used on board letters and glittered them. We glued their first name initial on the front of the journal. We tried to match the feel and colour of each book to our members. Here is what they look like.

I know I mentioned we have 11 members but unfortunately one book got left out of this group shot. Oh dear!

We gave our gift to our club members yesterday at our first club meeting. Everyone was excited to use them for various things including writing down recipes of yummy treats that are and will be served at our club meetings. The Strawberry Pavlova from our first club hostess was super delicious. We all need that recipe! The journals were a big hit!

My first Nephew

I am so excited to annouce my sister had her first baby. Jacob was born on August 28. Our whole family is very excited for our new addition. My son is thrilled that they share the same birthday date, 28. His birthday is July 28 but he is 11 years older. We got to visit him a few hours after he was born in the hospital and he was just too precious. He was born healthy and we could ask for no more.

Here is my son and my parents visiting Jacob at his home. He is five days old here. We are looking forward to watching this new little miricle grow into a wonderful boy.

Also....

....Tune in late next week and I'm going to post a project, another SU demonstrator and I worked on for our Stamp Club. The project is a gift for our club members. A little gift to get our Stamp Club started. Check it out later this week.