My Favourite Five Cards of 2011

Following on from my previous post I am joining in with Debby's Favourite Five Cards of 2011. Debby has in fact picked her Top Ten but she's keeping the challenge submissions to Favourite Five for this year. 

see HERE      

see HERE

see HERE

see HERE

see HERE

As we approach the coming year

Let us fill our hearts with cheer.

And if you're reading this blog

I expect you'll be all agog,

And very busy thinking

What you'll next be inking.

WITH MY VERY BEST WISHES FOR 2012

Hostessing a Stampin' Up Workshop

This is the first time I have experienced a Workshop like this & I am utterly impressed at the way it was presented & run. I initially made contact with Hayley (see her blog All Things Pink and Fluffy at the Chepstow Artstamps Exhibition where she had a stand with a "Make & Take." My friends were new to Stampin' Up products & I knew them only by reputation so it was great actually to handle the products there. We were all keen to explore further so I booked a Workshop for us & asked another couple of local crafting friends (also new to Stampin' Up) along too - we were 6 in total last Saturday. 

Neither I nor the others really knew what to expect & so it was with amazement that we discovered that Hayley provided all the products to use in order for us to make two different projects (for these plus photographs from Saturday see here & here).  The fact that we all sat & used the products & made what Hayley showed us meant that we could all make reasoned & informed decisions about any purchases. It was a lovely relaxed atmosphere.

Hayley took some photos of us crafting (see above for link) & below are some photos from my ktichen preparations beforehand.

Bliss & Counting.........

.......the weeks. Let's see if I can adapt this set to Simply Stampin's weekly challenge for the next 5 weeks as it will probably be that before I have another stamp set.

This was quite difficult to photograph in order to show the black as black & not brown & to show the sparkle of the heat embossed background.

front of card - angled to show holographic sparkle

of heat/wet embossed background

close-up of image panel

close-up showing dimensional gloss 

of wet/heat embossed sentiment

close-up of metal dragonfly &

 shaped punched leaves

close-up showing shaped leaves & stippled grass scenery plus 

contrast of matt & Moondust black cardstock layers

inside of card

close-up showing leaf embellishment & contrast

between matt & Moondust black cardstocks

(click on images to enlarge)

For the sketch of Simply Stampin' 4 (which I flipped over from the left) I made a small scene to resemble the view from a window or that seen in a painting. I used a punch to make the sun shaped mask from a Post-It note & then stippled blue ink round it to portray the sky, removed the mask & added yellow ink to the space left for the sun. The hills were created by stipppling along torn paper edges.

Although this card is intended as a Wedding Anniversary card suitable for someone who does not favour cute images, it is also a fitting tribute to the Simon Says Challenge Blog who are celebrating their second anniversary with an "Anything Goes" theme & a blog hop.


Recipe
Stamps Stampin' Up Bliss (sentiment & background).
Inks Memento Bamboo Leaves, Cantaloupe, Dandelion,  New Sprout, Pear Tart, Summer Sky & Tuxedo Black (focal image scene plus inking some cardstock/paper edges); VersaMark watermark stamp pad with Stampendous Detail Black (sentiment) & Kaleidoscope (background).
Cardstock An assortment of blacks & greens in various finishes from stash.
Papers K&Co Brenda Walton Madeline.
Punches etc. Woodware (sun-flower 2 for mask forming a sun shape, oval & scalloped oval used for sentiment, corner rounder, small Maple leaf, ), Carl (all other leaves), Fiskars (decorative corner); Spellbinders Nestabilities (Classic Ovals Small & Classic Scalloped Ovals Large).
The ribbon & pearls are from stash & the lace was in a bundle of candy from Kath.

Challenges Entered
Simply Stampin' Challenge 4 - Sketch (see above)
Simon Says..... Anything Goes (see above)
Stampavie & More Challenge 139 - Pearls
Timbroscrapmania Stamping Challenge 25 - Metal & Lace (the metal is there - my dragonfly is a metal brad with the legs cut off & I have a piece of lace across the top of my scene - a bit like a window with a lacey valance)

Easter Symbols

front of card

close-up of floral arrangement

close-up showing shaped stamped flower

close-up showing heat embossed butterfly

close-up of shaped & glittered butterfly

inside of card

close-up showing corner detail

& paper pierced scallops

(click on images to enlarge)

The theme for Simply Stampin's third challenge is Easter. I had to think a bit how to approach that with my Bliss Stampin' Up set (I have another month to go before the party & some new stamps). 

What does Easter mean? It's remembering Jesus' Crucifixion & Resurrection; & if we are Believers that is central to our faith & hope. My Mum was an Ordained Minister of the Church in her later years & she would have liked this card. The butterflies represent new life; the cross the crucifixion; I've used an embossing folder to create a semblance of a stone wall with trellis along the top; it could be the wall around a cemetery where the cross is the headstone for a grave, but also Jesus was crucified outside the city wall.  A garland of spring flowers adorns the headstone - I've used brown pearls for the centres & couldn't help but think of the Kingdom of Heaven being likened to a "pearle of great price" (King James Bible Matthew 13:46). As I was putting the card together I had to laugh when I realised I'd unwittingly used a predominance of chocolate brown cardstock & Rich Cocoa Memento Ink for there we have Chocolate Easter Eggs. 

Recipe

Stamps Stampin' Up Bliss.

Inks Memento Tangelo & Rich Cocoa; VersaMark watermark stamp pad with Stampendous Detail Clear Embossing Powder.    

Colouring Stickles Glitter Glue (Cinnamon).

Cardstock An assortment of colours in various textures & finishes from stash, Craft UK white card blank.

Punches etc... Woodware (butterflies, small daisy, circle & scalloped circles), Martha Stewart (edger & corner), Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (Tiny Bubbles).

Pearls Bunny Zoe's Crafts.

Challenges Entered

Simply Stampin' Challenge 3 - Easter
Simon Says....Emboss It (I have used both dry embossing & wet/heat embossing)

Simply Stampin' .......

........ with these colours

& my set of Stampin' Up stamps - Bliss.

This will have to be a very quick description as the deadline is 6pm & as I type I have just an hour left to complete the inside, photograph & type the post.

The inks I used are Memento (Sweet Plum, Angel Pink & New Sprout) for stamping & edging cardstock. The pot for my flowers & their stems came from a Petaloo Florist kit & the leaves are punched with a Nellie Snellen Punch. The corner punch used on the inside is a Fiskars & the remaining corner punches plus the circle & scalloped circle are all Woodware. All the cardstock & the pink pearls were from stash. I stamped 10 of the flowers from the Bliss set, cut them out & shaped them with a ball tool then layered them in pairs & added just a touch of Ice Stickles Glitter Glue (Cherry Ice) as I wanted the stamped spots of the flower centres to be visible.

front of card

close-up showing stamped flowers, flourish detail

& sparkle of cream cardstock

angled view showing layering

& sparkle of glittered stamped flowers

inside of card

close-up showing paper piercing

& corner decoration

(click on images to enlarge)

Challenge Entered

Simply Stampin' Challenge 2 - Colour: Very Vanilla, Wild Wasabi, Bravo Burgundy & Pink Pirouette (see above)

10 minutes left to link - apologies for the photographs.

Blue Butterfly Bliss

front of card

close-up of background stamping

close-up showing glittering & dimensional shaping

 of stamped butterflies plus paper piercing  

close-ups of textures, stamped elements & gem embellished border 

close-up of paper piercing & corner detail

on inside of card

inside of card

(click on images to enlarge)

Apologies for the different colouration in the last photo - I spent hours trying to get the full frontal & full internal shots in focus on the non automatic setting, after using up the whole of a newly charged camera battery I resorted to the automatic for the last photo as I just could not get it to focus properly on my manual settings; but then the colour differed! 

Simply Stampin' is a new UK based Stampin' Up Challenge which launched with a sketch challenge this week. I have one set of Stampin' Up stamps so shall endeavour to enter the challenges using that until I have some more supplies. I have a full set of Memento Dew Drop inkpads so for the moment I shall be using the nearest equivalents to the Stampin' Up colours that I can find from amongst those, providing of course challenges permit my doing so. I always thought Stampin' Up synonymous with CAS but have recently realised that is not necessarily the case so I have some exploring to do.  I have already been looking at the Stampin' Up Color Coach  & found some very helfpul information about Colour Theory.

I was just playing about with the butterflies & had used my ball tool & embossing mat to shape them after cutting out to see how they might look - I was surprised & pleased by the outcome so decided to use a couple for my focal panel. 

Recipe

Stamps Stampin' Up Bliss (background, butterflies & sentiment).

Inks Memento Danube Blue.

Colouring Ice Stickles Glitter Glue (Silver Ice).

Cardstock An assortment of whites & blues in various textures & finishes from stash.

Paper Textured blue from stash.

Punches Martha Stewart (border), Woodware (scalloped ovals), EK Success (Fancy Photo Corner).

The gems are from stash.

Challenge Entered

Simply Stampin' Challenge 1 - Sketch (see above)