Punch Pal Penguins

Happy Holidays everyone! This time of year sure gets busy at a retail store, I tell yah! I've already gotten plenty of extra hours where I work. Even went a little bit over the limit (they have a limit for part time employees), but only because a teenage girl made one too many mistakes and lost her job. I know it's sad that she lost her job....I sure hope she learned something from this because if I'd been her boss I'd have sacked her a while ago! I don't get how some people think they don't have to follow orders and rules like everyone else, think they don't have to a thing and still get paid! Well, enough of that....and to my card:

I actually made this card I think last July. The card base is Bashful Blue. I stamped the images on watercolorpaper and used my Watercolor Wonder Crayons to color them. Crystal Effects is something I just can't seem to live without. I added CE to the penguins and the sentiment. The striped background I made by using a white WWC on Whisper White cardstock and then used my brayer to cover it with Going Gray. And sponged a little bit of Bashful Blue around the edges.The "brads" are actually just punched out paper, I just added CE to make the dots look more like brads.

We still haven't been able to fix our USB but I've just put pictures on a CD at CVS and hopefully I'll have time to post soon again.
Hope you've all had a wonderful weekend and Thanksgiving!
TFL

Punch Pals and Monday Mailer

Finally I get a chance to blog. I've been in Iceland for a week and already seen a little bit of snow and we had an earthquake here in my town less than an hour ago, 2.8 on Richter scale. Just a small one and short.
Today's cards are from the Punch Pals stamp set. I've only got two to show you and then a couple of Monday Mailers from Jen.


The card base here is Bravo Burgundy, then we have Naturals White and Always Artichoke designer paper (retired). I stamped the penguins with Stazon and colored them in with my Watercolor Wonder Crayons and a blender pen. I do not color straight on the image with the crayons, I dab my blender pen on the bottom of the crayon to pick up the color and then color the image.

I used the same technique to color the snowman in. Except I used a marker for the holly. I popped up the image and used the spiral punch on the side. The card base is Night of Navy, then Bashful Blue and Naturals White. Stazon and Night of Navy ink. Pretty simple.


Here are the Monday Mailers from Jen. She used the Upsy Daisy stamp set on the first card and Pocket Silhouettes on the second card (third and fourth card for September). She used my favorite Designer Paper on both cards,Urban Garden, and the colors are Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Kiwi Kiss and Whisper White. She used the scallop border punch on the second card.
Very pretty cards, I think I'm going to have to get the Upsy Daisy stamp set now!

I'll try to post again soon, I've got a busy week ahead but hopefully I'll get a few minutes to use the computer.

TFL

Pun Fun

You know, this stampset did not catch my eye until I started noticing a lot of cute cards on Splitcoaststampers, with these images. The skunk made me fall for it!




This first card is a design I have been playing with for a couple of years now and I think the design is fun to play with. You can use any shape you like, circles, squares, rectangles, hearts etc. I choose to use eyelets on these but you can also use brads, ribbons make it harder to open the cards. I stamped the image on Bashful Blue cardstock and cut the whale out. I then stamped the image on Whisper white and colored it in with my pastels. My Signo pen came in handy on this one too. I used my oval shaped Coluzzle template to cut the ovals.


Stamps: Pun Fun
Paper: Apricot Appeal, Bashful Blue, Taken with Teal
Ink: Stazon
Accessories: Pastels chalk, Brads, Jumbo eyelets, Signo pen, Coluzzle Oval
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1




Here I had stamped the hippo wice on Apricot Appeal DP (from Level 1 hostess gift, Print Pack). The bashful blue and wild wasabi are also from the print pack. I used a real red marker for coloring the bow-tie. Size 5.25"x5.25"


Stamps: Pun Fun
Paper: Apricot Appeal, Real Red, DP from Hostess Level 1 Print Pack
Ink: Stazon
Accessories: Brads, dimensionals, Real Red ribbon, Word Punch
Techniques: Paper piecing
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1



Now this one couldn't be girlier I think! I made it for a sketch challenge on SCS. I colored the image with my Watercolor Wonder Crayons. I then covered the image with my Versamark, poured Heat and stick on it ad heat set it. When the Heat and Stick powder looked like it was working I sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds on it and heatset it again. Gotta love the sparkles!!! The designer paper is from the Level 1 hostess Prints Pack.

Stamps: Pun Fun, Short and Sweet
Paper: Pretty in Pink CS and DP, Pixie Pink, Lovely Lilac
Ink: Stazon
Accessories: Heat and stick, Dazzling Diamonds, Signo Pen, Watercolor Wonder Crayons
Techniques: Heat embossing
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 2



I'm not too syre about this one. I like the color combo but I think I over did the faux stitching. I used Dazzling Diamonds on this card too. I used scraps from when I was making the Heartfelt Thanks cards a few weeks ago. You cab see it under the main image and under the sentiment. The sentiment is from the retired set Party Punch. I've had it for months but didn't have the punches until now, so now I can finally start using it ;)

Stamps: Pun Fun, Heartfelt Thanks, Party Punch
Paper: Barely Banana, Mellow Moss, Pale Plum
Ink: Stazon
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Heat and Stick, Dazzling Diamonds
Techniques: Heat embossing
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 2


Here's that skunk again. It colored with Watercolor Wonder Crayons. I love using those with my blender pens. I think I like this card better than the one above. It's not too girlie and it's easy to make. You don't even have to use the Coluzzle gutting system, the image would fit on the card pretty good as a square or a rectangle.

Stamps: Pun Fun
Paper: Night of Navy, Purely Pomegranate, So Saffron, Rose Red DP
Ink: Stazon,
Accessories: Night of Navy ribbon, Crystal Effects, Watercolor Wonder Crayons
Techniques: Watercoloring
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1



Here I wanted to make a birthday card for a boy. The cupcakes are from Short and Sweet. I used my Word Punch for the sentiment. When I mounted the stamps I cut the sentiment off and placed it on the side/bottom of the wood block so I could stamp the images seperately from the sentiments without problems.

Stamps: Pun Fun, Short and Sweet
Paper: So Saffron, Handsome Hunter, Brocade Blue
Ink: Stazon, Brocade Blue
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Crystal effects
Techniques: Watercoloring
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1


I have no clue why I made this card like this. I colored the kitties with a marker. I wanted to use my scallop punch and this is the result. Kitty Cat flowers. Maybe my allergy pills are messing my head up *LOL*

Stamps: Pun Fun
Paper: Ruby Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Stazon
Accessories: SU markers, Always Artichoke Ribbon, Scallop Circle Punch, Signo Pen
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1


I like this design although the color combo is not my favorite. I colored the image with my blender pens and ink spots. I think the card is missing something, maybe the sentiment, I'm not sure, but I'll leave it as is for now.

Stamps: Pun Fun
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery
Ink: Stazon, Pretty in Pink, Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Certainly Celery Ribbon, brads, Round Tab Punch
Techniques: watercoloring
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1




I wanted to try out a tutorial they used on SCS on a Try a New Technique challenge the other week. It's pretty easy to make, but I'll have to figure out a way to make bigger cards with this technique. I just got the backgroundstamp in the mail this week and I love it. I use So Saffron ink on the So Saffron cardstock and I think it looks pretty good.

Stamps: Pun Fun, Print Pattern
Paper: So Saffron, Handsome Hunter, Night of Navy, Kraft,
Ink: Stazon, So Saffron
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Markers, Signo Pen, Word Punch
Techniques: watercoloring
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1

The deal of the week:

Buy the Pun Fun stamp set and get the blender pens for $6 (reg. price $9.95 bef. ship. and tax).

Send me an email if you want to get this deal! US residents only.

Next weekend I'll be showing you wedding cards. I'm not going to stick to just one set but I'll try to make elegant wedding cards using my wheels and background stamps and stampsets that I think are perfect for wedding cards.

Happy Mother's Day

TFL

Heartfelt Thanks

I got this weeks stampset in my SU starter kit when I became a demo. It's a Two Step Stampin set. Meaning you create your images using 2 stamps. It is not necessary when using this stamp set though.

Lets start with this card. I used Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Mellow Moss and Whisper White cardstock. I decided not to use a full front on it. The pink part only covers half of the card. It's a regular card size though, 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 in. I used my Soft Subtles stampin' spots to ink up the stamp. I started out stampin three flowers and on the other flowers I had stamped first on a pice of scrap paper before stampin on the image so they would be softer than the first three. I used a background stamp from Itty Bitty Backgrounds on the pink part, using Pretty in Pink ink. The sentiment is from Short & Sweet.

On this card I used Pale Plum, Mellow Moss, Barely Banana and Whisper White cardstock. I used a Mellow Moss stampin'spot to stamp a background (Itty Bitty Backgrounds) on the Mellow Moss layer. I used three different stamps to make the Pale Plum layer. The colors of the small flowers are Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and Barely Banana. the ribbon is Mellow Moss and the main image is stamped in Pale Plum, Mellow Mossand Barely Banana. The center of the flower is a different stamp from the flower so that makes it easy to use a different color for it.

This card is made with Bravo Burgundy, Rose Red, Regal Rose cardstock and Always Artichoke designer series paper. I actually colored the stamp with my Watercolor Wonder Crayons, using the same colors as the card itself has. Remember to keep the stamp wet when you use the crayons for stamping. I stamped "Heartfelt" in Always Artichoke on the front and "Thanks" inside the card in Rose Red.

Lets try the In-Colors next:

I used Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi and Purely Pomegranate for this project. I wanted to try out my 5-in-1 template and do something I haven't seen anyone else do yet. I made this box using the template. I wanted to make a box for notecards that I could use as a gift. So I mafe the cards to match the box. I decided not to put a bow on the card images so the cards wouldn't have to be hand cancelled at the postoffice. I think the bow looks nicer though. The cards fit in envelopes that you can send checks in (don't know what they are called), 6 3/8 x 3 1/4 in.

I recommend using Sticky Strip tape to glue the box if you want to make sure it won't fall apart ;)

And here I wanted to show you that you can make different cards using the same material. The only stampæ that is not the same in both cards is the background stamp. I used En Francais on the first card and Itty Bitty Backgrounds on the second one. I used Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, Barely Banana and Whisper White. I used a paper crimper on the Barely Banana pieces.

The sentiment is not a SU stamp, it's from a dollar set that I have, I don't have an Easter stampset from SU yet, it's my first Easter as a demo.

I prefer using markers, stampin'spots or the crayons when I use this set. I did use the big inkpads on the box and notecards because the in-colors are only available in pads, and it wasn't easy, it's fine when you only use one color though.

If you order this set from me this week you get two Stampin'markers for free (you choose the colors).

Next weekend I'll be using Bloomin' Beautiful from the Occasions Mini Catalog (2008)

Happy Easter!