I made this card with a special friend in mind, actually I bought the stamp set with her in mind! I know I’ll get plenty of use out of it, actually, I have already used another one of the stamps for a Thank you card.
I need to work out the white balance on my camera when trying to photograph Watermelon Wonder, for some reason it turned everything else pink! However, you get the picture!
I love this stamp set, its only a set of four stamps, but they are such cute images and great sentiments, I couldn’t help myself, and I’m so glad it’s still in the Annual Catalogue. Have you got your copy of the latest Annual Catalogue yet by the way? If not (and you’re in the UK) I’m still sending them out, so just leave your details HERE!
I stamped in Stazon Black ink onto shimmery White Card Stock, and then remembered I wanted to heat emboss this ready for water-colouring, so I pulled out my Stamp-a-ma-jig to ensure correct alignment and stamped over it again in Versamark, and heat embossed in Clear Stampin’ Emboss powder. I added water to the cat, and dropped Tip Top Taupe into the water with a paintbrush. I did a little bit of blending, but really not very much.
The layers are matted off set towards the top, something I think just makes this card just a little different, cute huh!
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I can’t believe we are already at week 3 of my Cardmaking 101 series; saying that, I have a heap of posts in the planning for you! I can see this series lasting a while, please feel free to drop me a message or leave a comment if you have any card making questions, and I will do my best in answer them in a future Cardmaking 101!
This week I thought it might be helpful to discuss the different types of stamps. Now, before we getting into the post proper, I just want to remind you that I am a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, and so I will be discussing there products!
Wood Mount Stamps
Ok, so Wood Mount – this refers to Red Rubber stamps mounted onto wooden blocks. There are some real advantages to these stamps; the main one being that the blocks are pre-mounted, no scrabbling around searching for the perfectly sized block each time – they are already there! Stampin’ Up!’s Wood Mounted stamps arrive as a sheet of red rubber stamps, a series of wooden blocks, and a sheet of stickers. Before you can stamp you must pop the stamps out of the sheet and work out which stamp matches which block (I’ve made this sound complicated, its really not – its usually pretty obvious which stamp goes with which block). The stamps are pre-glued, and you peel the backing paper off the stamps and stick them onto the blocks. The stickers are then stuck onto the other side of the wooden block for identification.
I love my wood mount stamps, however, they are more expensive, and they take much more space to store – although they do sit next to your clear mount stamps on your shelf.
Clear Mount Stamps
Like Wood Mount stamps, Clear mount are our classic red rubber. I am totally a red rubber girl – I just love the quality and feel of red rubber stamps. Clear mount stamps require Clear blocks to allow you to stamp, you mount and un-mount them at each use. Stampin’ Up! clear mount stamps also come with a sheet of stickers, however, I find that they affect the cling if not perfectly applied to the stamp meaning that the fall off the blocks half way through stamping! So I tend to just put the sheet of stickers inside the slip cover on my stamp cases and leave them there! Saying this, I am a Clear mount person – I love the red rubber, and the value of the clear mount wins every single time!
Photopolymer
Stampin’ Up! Photopolyer stamps are fantastic! They are the same quality as the classic red rubber, but allow you to see through the stamps for perfect alignment every time! I recommend Photopolymer for layering stamps and sentiments. Some sets are available only in Photopolymer, however, more and more sets are available in all three options. Photopolymer stamps are generally packaged in our DVD sized clear mount stamp cases, although if there are lots of stamps they sometimes come in the bigger Wood Mount cases, but they still sit nicely with your other stamps on the shelf. Photopolyer stamps are a great price, and come between two sheets of Window Sheet. Be warned though, Photopolymer stamps have a habit of ‘wondering off’ your desk and into the bin as they get stuck to things and can be difficult to see! Photopolymer also tends to stain over time, particularly if you use red/pink ink, this doesn’t affect the stamp and will not transfer to your next project.
To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!
Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!
Oh yes, It’s that time again! Playing along with Freshly Made Sketches again this week with #191!
This sketch scared the pants off me! So much white space! I love white space, I really do, and most of my cards feature expanses of white space, but to see a sketch with so much white was just frightening!
I’ve had a stack of card stock sat out on my shelf this week, and the Real Red piece shouted at me for this card. As soon as I saw the two little strips on the sketch I knew I wanted to use some Designer Series Paper, so I pulled Typeset – I love this paper, its so pretty but I hadn’t used it on a card before! I know, its shocking, but putting DSP on cards is something I struggle with – I am a total stamper at heart.
Initially I grabbed Guy Greetings for my sentiment, but I quickly changed my mind to the lovely new Endless Birthday Wishes. I uses a ruler and pencil to draw a line across the piece of Very Vanilla card stock, and I stamped the sentiment in Real Red on the line. Sometimes I find this way to get a straight line quicker than pulling out my Stamp-a-ma-jig!
I almost thought the card was finished, but it just felt a little too clean! I’ve been playing with the Birthday Blossoms preparing for my Stamp-a-Stack for July, so pulled it again for these awesome flowers punched with the Pansy Punch.
To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!
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I love a simple gift bag, and with the Gift Bag Punch Board Stampin’ Up!® has made making super cute bags super easy! I know I will be using this punch board lots in the coming months (and even more around Christmas!) but I wanted to give you a quick guide to using the board before we drive into more complex projects with it!
How To:
The gift box punch board has the instructions printed onto it so you can refer back at each use, but I thought I would share some tips.
The punch board includes a great scoring tool / bone folder – always store it back into the board so you don’t loose it! It is so easy to loose a great tool like this in your crafty mess
The width of the paper or card stock is important: a small gift back uses 10″ (25.4 cm) wide DSP, and the S line on the board. A medium sized bag uses 11″ (27.9 cm) wide DSP and the M line on the board. A Large bag uses 12″ (30.5 cm) wide DSP and the L line on the board. The length of the DSP (or card stock) is not important, and just varies the height of the final bag, the board suggests using lengths between 4″ (10 cm) and 12″ (30.5 cm) In the video the card stock that I used was 10 x 6″ (25.4 x 15 cm)
The punch may be a little stiff, use the board on a table and stand to punch.
To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!
Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!
I have been playing with ink a lot recently, making a great big mess, but having loads of fun too! I get a lot of inspiration from watching some of the wonderful card makers on YouTube (Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner are two of my all time favourites!) and I recently spotted this super cool technique, Ink Smooshing (I haven’t done a tutorial for this one, but check out this great video from Kristina)To create this card I first heat embossed that great sentiment from I Think You’re Great using Clear embossing powder.
I used three colours of ink; Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, and Melon Mambo. I use either my ink pads or re-inkers to put ink onto a large clear block or the glass of my desk top, an add water using an water spritzer. One colour at a time I make my ink / water mixture and pick up the mix using the clear sheet that comes with our Photopolymer stamps – you could just as easily using a piece of window sheet or other packaging – and smoosh the ink onto the watercolour paper. I added the Crushed Curry first, then repeated the process with Melon Mambo, and finally Bermuda Bay.
One of the great things about Stmapin’ Up! inks is how they work with water. Not only can you water colour with them, but also once your ink has dried you can drop water onto the ink, and wick away some of the colour – creating this great effect.
To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!
Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!
I’m live blogging again today, at 10:30AM my monthly online workshop will go live here on the blog, and on YouTube, please let me know what you think, I have great plans for these workshops (and am hoping to do one regularly!).
Weekly Deals
What a great selection again this week! I used the Decorative Dots Embossing folder in yesterdays project! and I may just go back and order some more! The And Many More stamp set is a great addition to your stamp collection with really useful sentiments for all occasions from birthdays to valentines, mothers day to graduation.
Classes and Workshops
Have you checked out my latests Classes and Workshops? I have 3 events in July, my usual Technique Class – each month we feature one stamp set, this month we are using An Open Heart – A brand new Kit Class – making that wonderful Perpetual Birthday Calender – and a Stamp-a-Stack – a brand new class where we make 10 cards in two hours (2 of 5 designs) this months theme is Birthday!
All my events are listed on Facebook and my Stampin’ Up! Web shop – please RSVP by the date shown, email me for more information or to arrange payment
Family Life!
This week has been super busy here at crafty towers! We are now 7 weeks away from our wedding, so at the weekend I headed to Alton Towers with some friends for my Hen celebrations! We had such a great day even if it did rain continuously! But that just meant no queues and more rides.
I only have 2 days off from the day job this week, today and tomorrow as so am cramming in some much needed crafty play time with some brand new products that landed on my doorstep last night, as well as some much needed wedding planning time; orders of service and table plans are the order of the day I think!
To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!
Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!
I have been loving playing with lots of techniques recently, and you may remember a few weeks ago I shared a great stamping technique using your embossing folders. Well, I’ve been doing it again, but this time I’ve added my Big Shot!
This card uses the Large Polka Dot Embossing Folder, along with the Crazy About You stamp set. I am so pleased this set has carried over into our Annual Catalogue, It has a great collection of words and phrases to create some great sentiments, and it will be featuring on my Father’s Day cards this year (Nope, I still haven’t made them yet! Eeeek!). That Crazy About You set also includes that lovely flower image, which coordinates with the Flower Medallion Punch (another carry over item!)
Instructions:
Cut your card base and Whisper White (Or Very Vanilla) matt layer.
Grab your chosen Embossing folder, and ink up the side which presses down into the card stock when you run it through your Big Shot – in this case, I inked up the Polka Dots side of the folder. Run your ink pad carefully across the embossing folder as not to get ink on the sunken areas
Insert your card stock layer into the embossing folder, closing the folder carefully so not to move the card stock inside
Run this through your Big Shot using your normal Embossing Folder sandwich
The ‘Thanks’ was stamped on Whisper White, and punched out using the 1 1/4″ circle punch, and layered with the Flower Medallion with dimensionals.
To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!
Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!
I have been meaning to share this card for ages! You may remember I attended Stampin’ Up! UK Regional Training back in May, where we had heaps of fun learning about the new catalogue, getting up close and personal with new products, meeting loads of other demonstrators, swapping projects, and generally having a great time!
Well, I made this card then! I know, I know, I should have shared it before, but life has been a little crazy over the past month (and it ‘s about to get crazier in the final countdown to the wedding in August!) and I completely forgot about this lovely card!
It uses the brand new set; Awesomely Artistic, along with 3 of the new In-Colours; Mint Macaron, Delightful Dijon, and Tip Top Taupe. I will be the first to admit – this is so far removed from my usual style of card making I was totally intimidated! I mean, that gorgeous dragonfly – well, it was supposed to be fussy cut – I do fussy cut (sometimes) but really its rare, so I just stamped it (after spritzing with water) straight onto watercolour paper.
The Thanks! sentiment comes from another new stamp set; One Big Meaning – which is definitely on my wish-list!
I even remembered to stamp the envelope! I was quite impressed with myself, and a great finish to a wonderful card and a fantastic weekend away crafting with new friends!
To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!
Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!
Welcome to the second in my series of Card making 101 – this week I thought we would look at some of the tools I most regularly use in my card making.
Tools are so important, they say you judge a craftsman by his tools – and card making is a craft! I have used a heap of trimmers over the years, but the Stampin’ Trimmer is by far the best! I just love the wide foot-bed, this means that to cut a card base (which is what I use my trimmer for by far the most!) I don’t need to swing out the extension arm. Saying that I love that this trimmer extends to 14″ – way more that I will ever need. The blades are so easy to replace, and you get to choose between the standard trimmer blades or the rotary attachment!
A good pair of scissors is so important, and I would suggest two pair – a good pair of long scissors for cutting along the score lines of boxes and bags, and a pair of paper snips for fussy cutting, and detailed bits. A separate pair of scissors for cutting ribbon is also a good idea as paper will dull the blades and make ribbon cutting difficult. The Stampin’ Paper Snips are excellent, blades sharp right to the tip and comfortable hold.
I also use my scissors for picking up jewels and pearls, candy dots and other little sticky things. But I mostly grab for my paper piercing tool for these sorts of jobs, I’m sure if you have seen some of my YouTube tutorials you will have seen me do this. A paper piercing tool is also great for adding pierced details to your cards and projects, as well as getting all those fiddly bits out of your dies when die cutting.
I think one of the most important card making tools is a good bone folder. For years I had a cheap plastic bone folder, and it wasn’t until I started with Stampin’ Up! that I changed to a ‘proper’ one, what a difference! A clean, crisp edge to all folded projects, cards and boxes. My plastic bone folder has now be relegated to re-inking ink pads!
The most random tool in my kit though must be my emery board! I use this so much, and it has several uses! Mostly it gets used when my trimmer blade needs changing, when card stock starts to cut a little fluffy, an emery board is great for sanding away the rough edges. Or for when you want that distressed look. Or when you catch a finger nail with your paper snips!
I hope you are finding these posts helpful, and if you have any questions about card making, stamping or Stampin’ Up! either drop me a message via my contact me page, or leave me a comment below
To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!
Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!
I’m still playing along with some challenges this week!
I have been so inspired by this sketch! I had a heap of ideas, but I am so pleased with the final card. I rarely use a sketch for card making, and as I have already mentioned, I am trying to push my card making at the moment and venture out into the unknown!
I have been preparing my July Technique Class this week, and so An Open Heart has been on my desk, along with the new In-colours. I grabbed a piece of Mint Macaron card stock out of my stash for that left hand piece, but it had a heart punched out. I went back into my card stock to find another piece, but when I tried it, I preferred the open heart! This piece has also be embossed using the Decorative Dots embossing folder.
The bird is stamped in Cherry Cobbler ink, stamped off once. I love the font in this set, and the Thank You was the perfect length for that banner piece. I finished this card with two further punched hearts using the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack
To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!
Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!
