Cards to sell

I have always had the intention of creating cards to sell. I have done a few for kindy fundraising and for my husbands work. Now that I am ahead on the cards I make to give I have starting trying different things and am starting to think about how I will put the whole selling thing together.

My last stamp club purchase was the baby tees wheel so I had a play with some baby cards. I can see I am going to have some fun with this one.

Colours: blushing bride, pear pizzaz, white, black
Stamps: baby tees wheel and whimsical words (SU), tiny tags (PTI)
Finsihing touches: in colour ribbon, hearts and stamps die (cuttlebug), button, linen thread, faux stitching

Keeping it simple

I have been having a huge clean out of all my papers and punching and diecutting all my bits and pieces of scraps for easy use in my scrapbooking. I found a number of bits and pieces that I wanted to try using for some more simple cards. Amazing what a line or two can add to a sentiment for a different design element paired with designer series paper.

Colours: night of navy, old olive, tempting turquoise, basic black
Stamps: whimsical words and birthday whimsy (SU)
Finishing touches: DSP (SU)

Out of my colour zone

The latest promo for Stampin Up is a bundle of ribbon and buttons. I had to have a play. Not a colour combo that first comes to mind. Not entirely sure that I got it how I wanted but I had a chance to play with my new Papertrey Ink set text style backgrounds.

Colours: daffodil delight, melon mambo, pacific point'
Stamps: party punch (SU), text style (PTI)
Finishing touches: ice cream parlour buttons and ribbon, designer label punch

Time for some pages

With everyone in holiday mode for the next two weeks we quickly get into a routine of sleep ins and staying up later at night. Its great for spending time with the boys but not so much for getting creative. So having made a number of cards I was keen to put together some pages. Heres where I love digital pages. My favourites are of everyday moments that I manage to capture. I have been making a point this year to write down the details of what we do in my diary. Even better when I put the story together with the photos.

The elements I have used were from the Jessica Sprague blog hop that I played along with recently.

Thanks to a special teacher

I still remember my first teacher. Next term Kyran is heading into a new year one class that has been created as more new entrants start in his old one. So I wanted to send a card for his first teacher. He has had a super start to his schooling and always enjoys what he has been doing. Full credit to her hard work and creative ideas.

I saw a school themed card on Nichole Heady's blog from Papertrey ink {you need to scroll down as it is in the middle of the post}. Having my new library ledger set made it easy to create the same look. I matched it up with some school papers from K&I Memories and found some great little details to finish it off. I am loving the rickrack border die.

Colours: old olive, cherry cobbler, basic black
Stamps: mini scrapbook series library ledger (PTI), all year fun and lots of thoughts (SU)
Finishing touches: school days paper (K&I memories), rickrack border die (PTI), stamps and typewriter alpha dies (cuttlebug), cork, brad

Label inspiration

A new top that my husband bought recently caught my eye as an idea for a card. Mainly the label as though you think it is inside out but, thats the design otherwise the label is on the outside! So I took the stripes and added the embossing using the argyle folder from cuttlebug to give it a bit more of a knitted look. Then I added the stitched label. Rather simple.

Colours: basic grey and black
Stamps: vintage labels (SU), alpha (unknown)
Finishing touches: argyle and pop culture embossing folders (cuttlebug), stitching

July Stamp Club

The challenge for this month was a pop up card. I started by looking on google and came up with some great ideas. It was when I was reading a pop up story to one of the boys that I decided to try out one that had a picture that moved up and down. After putting together the different parts I had some trouble getting it to sit right and ended up putting it together in the centre. Still pops up. I think I will stick to the less complicated.

Needing a card for a farewell at my husbands work gave the theme for the card. As I haven't used my sock monkey stamp set it gave a great start for the pop up image. As I usually put the details on the outside of the card I had fun putting together different papers patterns. Although as a stamp club challenge it is focused on Stampin Up products, I couldn't resist using my new stamps from Papertrey Ink to make a background to pull all the colours together. Looking forward to having more of a play with the rest. And after seeing the Christmas card using the new hanging out stamp set by Nichole at Capture the Moment I had to try putting together the postmark sentiment.

Colours: white, bravo burgandy, basic grey, blushing bride
Stamps: sock monkey and more monkey accessories, background sampler, whimsical words and itty bitty pieces (SU), a little argyle and tiny tags (papertrey), all about me (kaiser)
Finishing touches: bitty buttons, blushing bride stitched ribbon and DSP (SU), upper crest border punch (fiskars), stitching, white embossing powder.

Seeing the world through a cardmakers eyes

Wherever I am now I am inspired to recreate colour combinations and images of what I see. The inspiration for these cards came while doing my hair, of all things. What if I used the same design elements and changed out the words for birthday sentiments. I recently purchased a creme coloured embossing powder that was perfect for the job. Love how it turned out. Will be checking out the other colour combinations that they use for more ideas.

Colours: wild wasabi, certainly celery, very vanilla, handsome hunter
Stamps: happy birthday (kaiser), inspired by nature, circle of friendship and lots of thoughts (SU), alpha (martha stewart)
Finishing touches: brown sugar embossing powder (american crafts)

Inspired by design

I love the combination of black, red and white. I definitely can't wear red so I enjoy using it in my cards. As red is a common colour in advertising I seem to see ideas everywhere that I want to use. I teamed up the simple sentiment with an embellishment made from felt. The stars finished it off.

Colours: black, shite, cherry cobbler
Stamps: happy birthday (kaiser)
Finsihing touches: white embossing powder, felt, star punches, stitching

Learnt to crochet

On my last visit with Mum I had a chance to learn how to crochet. WIth the basic steps and how to follow a pattern I was able to make flowers. So I have been having a play with different wool. Different thicknesses give different sizes.
Because the flower is the focus there wasn't much more to add. I made a cream flower to go with the twill tape. The colour strip was inspired by a card from Nichole Heady for the papertrey ink blog hop which you can see here. I am looking forward to using more of my new found skill.
Colours: very vanilla, riding hood red, certainly celery, tangerine tango, chocolate chip, baja breeze
Stamps: vintage labels
Finishing touches: twill tape, crochet flower, button, stitching, linen thread

Trying something new

I have seen this bootprint image on a store in town and thought it would make a great stamp so wanted to have a play. I tried to 'stamp' using the print from one of my son's shoe but it was too big, so found an image on the computer to use instead. I added the embossed foil as a technique that I wanted to try with the diamond plate cuttlebug embossing plate {a bit more industrial}. Having just taken a drive around the coast I was also inspired to make some signs to add to it. Definitely need to have more of a play as it didn't turn out quite how I pictured it. Always love a challenge to use what I have to create something I have seen. I made another as they are for fathers day later in the year.

Colours: early espresso, cajun craze, so saffron, silver
Stamps: tool time and tools (clear dollar stamps)
Finishing touches: footprint image, silver foil, diamond plate embossing folder (cuttlebug), corner rounder, typewriter die (provocraft)

Scrap Happy

With being up to date with my card making I have been spending time on my pages. This is one of my favourites from the ones I have done. I am really enjoying putting together different products now I know what I like. I especially love pulling out products and punches and using them in different ways. For a long time I have been feeling dragged down with what I am doing and it is great to be inspired and get more done. I have been using my page dividers more as I discover the best use of them.

All in the details

I have been having fun with creating details to add to my layouts. Love using pages like this Kaiser one {Sand Dune} Add the photo, title, journal and you're done.

Definitions

It was my father inlaws 7Oth birthday recently and I have been helping my mother in law to put together an album. As part of it she wanted each of his children to write something to add to it. I was going to pass on what he had written and then decided to put it together on to a page to add to the album. I had a chance to have a go at using definitions pages that I found a while back. You can print them from here. I had a go at distressing them. Together with a great quote it came together. But a lesson in doing things last minute I realised after taking the photo and giving it to him that I had left off the heart in place of the word love. A simple case of slipping it in when we looked through the album