A little something polka dot

Hi there,

I wanted to do Kristina's challenge this week as I decided to skip last week - and with a day to mull it over I had loads of ideas, I was trying to keep it simple, because I don't have alot of time to do the challenge. But this card turned out so much simpler than anything I had envisaged. When I opened up my stamp set cupboard my eyes fell on Polka Dot Punches and I just had a flash of an idea and decided to follow it through.

Firstly, these are the colours Kristina picked for this week.

While the card is simple, there are a few little touches that take time and points to note - I used Basic Grey and Basic Black markers to colour in the stamp, then at the end went over some of the dots with a clear glaze/aqualip pen. The sentiment is also stamped in versamark and then embossed in white. That about sums it up so here is the card.

I have thought about tinkering with it- ie adding more complexlity as that is what I naturally lean towards - for example you could punch out various layers of the stamp in black, white or gray and then mount them on dimensionals so the flowers/tree are more three-D but I don't have the time so I will have to leave it in what I hope is a state of elegant simplicity.

Recipe:
Stamps:Polka Dot Punches, So Many Sayings
Ink: Basic Gray, Basic Black, Versamark
Card Stock: Basic Gray, Whisper White
Accessories: Scallop Circle punch, White narrow grosgrain ribbon, white embossing powder and Heat Gun, Dimensionals, Snail Adhesive, Sakura clear glaze/aqualip pen

Birthday Girl

Hi there,

my beautiful daughter, Eleanor, turned four years old a few days ago- and was she excited. Her design brief to me for her birthday card was that it MUST have glittery flowers. So given that starting point this is what I ended up with.

And here is a close up of one of the glittery flowers.



Using the Bali Breeze paper as colour inspiration, I made Rose Red and Pumpkin Pie the main colours, with highlights of Taken with Teal and Old Olive. Using the In the Spotlight stamps and various punches, I layered up little stacks to make flowers, finishing each off with a brad. Needless to say there was glitter all over the kitchen which acts as my stamping space for days. To balance all that vibrant colour I used the Number Collage cuttlebug folder, colouring in the central number four with a Rose Red marker before actually running it through the cuttlebug. A bit of Pumpkin ribbon and little silver hodgepodge finish it off. Finally the inside was stamped with four of the 5-petal flower stamp, in alternating Pumpkin and Rose Red, in a vertical row down the outside edge. Sorry I don't have a good photo of that.

End result she was happy (although in all honesty she was more interested in her presents) and I was happy too :)

Recipe:

Stamps: In the Spotlight

Card stock: Taken with Teal, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, Whisper White
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, Old Olive, Taken with Teal
Accessories: Cuttlebug Number Collage folder, Rose Red and More Mustard (but honestly you couldn't tell it's not Pumpkin) brads, Dimensionals, Pumpkin Pie narrow grosgrain ribbon, Silver hodgepodge, Bali Breeze DSP

Thank you card for winning a blog competition

Hi there,

I was lucky enough a few weeks ago to win a blog competition set by talented Aussie Linda Higgins. The aim was to guess the stamps sets used in this post. Needless to say I was delighted and very excited to find out that I had won and I waited eagerly for my prize pack to arrive from Linda. As soon as a saw something large and white sticking out of my letter box I was off up the driveway in a flash :) and its a long one! She was very generous, including stacks of lovely SU ribbon, metal edge tags, some chipboard, DSP samples and standard wheel - By the Sea which was lovely surprise. You can see it all below.

To thank Linda I made her a card, which I posted off earlier this week. The design isn't mine but one I CASEd from a very talented UK blogger - Jenny- whose blog I discovered at Christmas. Her card struck me at the time as one of the best I'd seen that used the 2009 Sale-a-bration sets. So with a few little changes here's my version for Linda.



As you can see the card is square - 12 cm x12 cm, I used Regal Rose as the base layer and then stamped that with the Paisley background in Regal Rose. The central feature, a garland of flowers (alternating Rose Red and Regal Rose with half pearl centres) surrounds the sentiment and is mounted on firstly a white cuttlebuged circle, then Rose Red scalloped circle. Both cut for me by another talented blogger and good friend, Sam, using her circle nestabilities - thanks Sam. The circle mattes are up on dimensionals as are the Regal Rose flowers. Then finally there is horizontal matte of Rose Red cuttlebuged with a Frill border pattern that is laid over a white scalloped layer - whewwww. Took a bit of work but I liked how it turned out - so thank you Jenny for the lovely design to follow. Glad you like it Linda !

Oh and I finished off the inside to match as well.



Finally here's a side shot so you can see how the various layers are up on dimensionals.





Recipe:
Stamps:Paisley, Polka Dot Punches, Simple Wishes
Card stock: Regal Rose, Rose Red, Whisper White
Ink: Regal Rose, Rose Red
Accessories: Circle nestabilites, Swiss dots and Frills border cuttlebug folders, Dimensionals, Scallop border punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, 1 1/4 circle punch, Kaiser half pearls