A stamping day

What better way to spend a day off work than to sit in my little craft room and be able to craft away!  I don't do a lot of stamping but I was recently inspired by watching Wendy on the Create & Craft channel using her stamps from her company Card-io.

The floral stamps are tiny and you need acrylic rods to mount them on for stamping.  The earliest ones I have in my collection came from www.rubberstamptapestry.com and are wooden dowels with the stamps mounted on the ends.  The dowels also keep your fingers away from the ink pads so there is less smudging and inky finger prints.

One advantage of using these small stamps is you can use small ink pads too, which have the bonus of not taking up much space. I use the little Versacolor ink pads and at £1.50 a pad, they are very affordable. Versacolor is pigment ink that stamps beautifully and allows for more than one impression before re-inking. This term is often referred to as "stamping off" and it gives depth and dimension to the finished artwork.

I re-visited my stamp collections from Card-io and Rubber Stamp Tapestry and made the following cards.  

These ones were made using the Summer Garden collection of stamps from Card-io.  I should like to make another one now and this time make it a "New Home" card. 

I also love the watering can in this set and got the idea of using the border down the side of the card and the colour combination from a fellow crafter http://suelesley.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/card-io-stamps.html .  Thank you Sue for the idea.  You will notice that I have put my own spin on this design, having put the border on the right side of my card and created an embossed line.  I am really pleased with the colour combination.

Here is an earlier attempt, for some reason I didn't manage to stamp it straight.

and another!

A wheelbarrow stamp is also included in this set of stamps. 

I wasn't too pleased with the end result but it is all about playing with the stamps and coming up card ideas and getting the right colour combination for the cards.

This next card is used from the Celebrations set, I can see many uses for this set of stamps.

Believe it or not, it includes a bunny rabbit so I used some of my egg peg stamps from Rubber Stamp Tapestry in this card.  I know it looks like an Easter Card but I am pleased with the result.  It is just begging for me to stamp it with an appropriate Easter sentiment and it is complete.  

The edging is Wendy's signature which is catching on as I noticed Barbara Gray uses it.

And finally a couple of cards with a Christmas theme.  Here I have used both Card-io and Rubber Stamp Tapestry stamps. I did the first one in monochrome and for the second added some colour. 

They are both nice but I think I like the monochrome look best.

Humphrey the elephant

I have rather a lot of card kit collections, something I am doing my best to resolve.  I decided it was time to select a kit and make all the cards possible until it was all used up.  I chose a kit from Crafter’s Companion called “Humphrey”.  Humphrey is a very sweet little elephant so the style of cards had to be cute and pretty.  

In total I made 14 cards and one cracker which is suitable to hide a small gift in.

I used a die from Tonic studios to make the cracker and I was very pleased with the result.  I plan to make more using acetate so watch this space!

I thought this large topper would look good on an easel card so I dug out one of my flower shaped cards and preceded to make up the easel frame from two cards.  I then used two strips of Tattered Lace Edging Die around the outside of the frame to create a frame for the image and found a heart shaped punch to add some additional hearts to the frame.   I wanted the inside of the card to look as good as the front of the card and so I cut a piece of lavender card stock with one of my Tonic dies and put a sentiment in the middle.  This needed raising slightly to create a rest for the front of the card to sit against so I cut some additional sentiments in thick card and glued several layers together.  

Once I got going there was no stopping me and so these cards came next…..

This one is crying out for a die saying daughter on it.  Must put it on my shopping list.

I am not overwhelmed by this card I made.

On this one I used the Dotty Lace Border Die by Tonic.

Here I used a large die designed by Sue Wilson.

Can you see the word "sister" on the flags?  These are Tattered Lace dies.

Very cute!

I love the Die'sire Create a Card dies and have used "Aurora" here.  The aperture seems perfect for small toppers.  The sentiment is by Cherry Lynn Designs.

Another cute one, perhaps for a sweetheart!

and again this time I have decoupaged the topper and used the die "Twisted Twine"  Square from Tonic.

This really didn't need much more than matting and layering and adding a sentiment.

This is another Die'sire die called "Decadence" which is so pretty.

This die is from Tonic and called the Deco Frame "Ivy"  It is simply stunning.

and finally!

Die'sire Christmas Dies

Crafter's Companion have some new Die'sire Christmas Dies which were being demonstrated on the Create and Craft shopping channel last weekend.  They were very popular with lots of sell-outs in the first hour. 

I was able to get my hands on three sets, O' Holy Night, Softly Falling and Christmas Eve.  I think the O' Holy Night is my favourite as you can make very traditional cards with it.  This die represents the birth of Christ in a stable with Mary and Joseph.  The embossing is truly wonderful.  I have made a couple of cards today which I am sharing with you and one of Softly Falling.   Christmas Eve is to follow.  

I set myself a personal challenge to mix old with new and so I rummaged through my stash of old paper stock and found something that adds a freshness in lime and orange.  Not traditional Christmas colours but I am pleased with the result.  I cut my dies onto A5 landscape card so that I would have an 1" overlap each side of the die.  

Here is the finished result of my cards with the die O' Holy Night.

I have hung the angel so it dangles in mid air.

The starry background papers work a treat here.

Here I made the card stand forward by folding the left and right edges back on themselves and folded again to create a concertina effect.  Then I glued it to the backing sheet ensuring that it would still lie flat for posting. I like the way that it has a natural curve as it stands forward.  

More will follow.