Hello Baby!

My husband asked me to make a card for a friend of his who became a father for the first time this week.  Also this week, the new Craft Stamper dropped through my front door and the cover article (Tipsy Glitter) caught my eye straight away so I decided to give the technique a try.  It uses adhesive sheets, stamping, Glamour Dust & alcohol ink markers and - for once - I had all the "ingredients" to hand.  Although the article says that the flexible nib of Copics was necessary, I mostly had Promarkers which I found worked just fine, too. It's quite an easy technique but it does make it hard to see the detail of the stamp as you colour in: as I've typed this up I've realised that what I thought was a flower is in fact supposed to be a bee - oops, never mind, hopefully no-one will notice!

Cardstock: Colotech Plus 300gsm

Ink: Brilliance Starlight Black, Versafine Onyx Black

Stamps: Crafthouse Press K001 Dandelion "Bee", greeting: maker unknown

Promarkers: Pastel Blue, Cornflower, Oatmeal

Embellishments: from stash

Balloons 65th Birthday Card

My old (now VERY old!) boss turned 65 the other day; we shared an office for more years than I care to remember so he's also one of my best friends.  He didn't really want to be reminded of his age but I couldn't resist it - after all, he'll always be 15 years older than me!

Of course, men's cards are always difficult for card makers but the idea for the main image of this one came to me quite quickly.  Finishing it took ages though, and I'm still not entirely happy with the end result but, as ever, I ran out of time.

The hills & sky were both sponged onto Personal Impressions canvas paper.  The balloon stamps were free with Craft Stamper magazine & I paper-pieced them then stamped the numbers on.  I created the backing paper by embossing the small balloons with white embossing powder then inking over the top.

I chose an easel card format but struggled to know how to fill the white space around the main image; I eventually decided to keep it simple by stamping more of the small balloons.  I'm not happy about 2 of them being partially covered by the central image but I needed to get the card in the post so had to call it a day.

Stamps: Craft Stamper freebie, Inkylicious birds & Elzybells greeting (no longer available).

Inspired by Craft Stamper

This card, for my sister-in-law, was inspired by a magazine article. It didn't quite go according to plan because it was supposed to be a one-layer card, similar to the one by Chrissie Stokes on page 22 of the July 2012 issue of Craft Stamper. I can't believe I've never found Chrissie's blog before but I'll be a regular visitor from now on!

Anyway, back to the card.  I stamped the flourishes & butterflies with Versamark & embossed them with Cosmic Shimmer white embossing powder.  Then I used ink dusters to brush on Adirondack Denim & Lettuce inks, then stamped more butterflies in the same colours.  The mistake I made was in using low tack masking tape to mask off the area I wanted to stamp; it wasn't low tack enough & took off some of the top layer of the card.  Also some of the ink seeped under the tape and resulted in blurry edges. I didn't want to waste it so I trimmed & mounted it on a new card blank.  A few flat backed pearls, a stamped greeting, and it was done.

Stamps: Inkadinkado & Imagination Crafts