My scrapbooking weekend

I have just returned from a weekend full of scrapbooking.   I don't usually post my scrapbooking pages, but wanted to show you this page.  During the weekend you just create your own pages and then on the Sunday, you pick out your favourite and enter it into a small competiton.  Each of the 40 ladies vote on their favourite one- and I won!  I was so thrilled.  I just had to post it here.

The picture is of my mum, sister and one of my favourite neices- Sophie.  She was a flower girl at a wedding that was held at a beautiful water-side mansion in Clontarf.  My mum and I had come to pick the flowergirls up and she was so tired at the end of the day.  I like how this picture shows how much my sister loves her daughter.

Ness

'Man-ing Up' a card

Many of us have good intentions of making a card for a guy, but, let's face it, they are hard to make (considering not every man likes boats and cricket).  I got out my Basic Gray Ink and paper and thought that Pumpkin Pie would be a good accent colour.  I used my new friend, the Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the plant images perfectly.  For those of you who don't know, the Stamp-a-ma-jig is this little contraption that helps you line up stamps exactly where you want them to be, it helps to get your greeting straight and also helps when you have say, a background stamp and you don't want to show the joins.  Simple but essential tool.

Ness

Ok, One More Baby Card(s)!

This is for my friend if she has a girl.  I love the combination of crumbcake and our 'In Colour' Blushing Bride together- very soft, muted colours.  The first card was copied from the Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalogue.  I just turned it pink!  I stamped Fox and Friend images onto Very Vanilla Card stock and then stamped a letter from the Schoolbook Serif Alphabet set, then punched it out using a circle punch.

Using the same colour combinations, I then used my Punch Potpurri set to make the card below.  The set is a Hostess gift for hostesses with party sales of $300 (easy!).  It is called Punch Potpurri as each image has a matching punch.  (this had to be pointed out to me!)  If you look carefully, you can see the background band has the flower images stamped all over the card, giving it a look of patterned paper.  I punched the bird a leaves from the Two step Bird Punch.  Of course, I stuck some Stampin' Dimensionals underneath the heart and the bird to give it a lift.

Another technique I have used here, is my favourite scrapbooking thing and that is inking.  Inking is when you dab a makeup sponge (or a proper dauber) into the ink pad and scrape it past the edge of the image.  It gives a nice vintage edge to the image.  You will see I used it around the heart.

Ness

Using Bright Colours

I don't usually use bright colours on my cards but I saw a white card with some great colour combinations made by a Canadian lady called Sabriena Satchwell.  I used the Apple Blossom Hostess Gift and used Pumpkin Pie, Pacific Point, Old Olive (I always manage to sneak it in somewhere) and Real Red.  I also used Stampin' Up! Hemp Twine to wrap around the bottom.  I love how striking these colours look against Whisper White.  This was also my first attempt at scoring and paper piercing.

Ness

Baby Cards from Fox and Friends

As promised, I have included some more cards that I made from the Fox and Friends set from Stampin' Up!  This time I used bright colours to give as birthday cards to toddlers.  The card above was made using the colours Pacific Point and Pumpkin Pie.  These stamps are so great as they pick up the ink nicely and can be mixed and matched.  The giraffe is my favourite.

I like to mat things.  For those new to the craft, matting is layering one piece of card over another to produce a nice frame around something.  Matting sets off things you are trying to highlight. As you can see from the picture, I have matted the striped paper onto Whisper White cardstock then attached it to the plain blue cardstock.

I must love matting things!  I wanted to stamp some images onto Crumbcake patterned cardstock, but wanted it to stand out a little more, so I matted the images onto Pumpkin Pie cardstock using the square scallop punch.  I then used the matching Pumpkin pie Grosgrain ribbon (and matted that too) to run underneath the card.  Lots of people run their ribbon under the mat to give it a nice finish.  I'm afraid I don't do it as I have often stuck all the mats down by the time I think of adding something else.

Back to pastels for my last card today.  I used my favourite colour from the Stampin' Up! range- Baja Breeze.  It is a lovely greeny blue.  I also used a piece of crumbcake patterned paper from the Elegant Soiree Designer paper set. 

Fox and Friends

Lots of people around me are having children and it inspired me to have a play with the Fox and Friends set to start making cards in time for the all these babies' arrivals!  I have made equal pink and blue ones  to hedge my bets (let's hope it's an even spread).  As I was playing with it, I decided to make some cards for small children too.  This set also looks great in brighter colours, such as Pumkin Pie, Elegant Eggplant or Pacific Point.  This photo shows the small 'pillow' I made for a baby shower.  I thought you could put some of those personalised M&Ms in the pillow.  This could also perhaps translate into a wedding theme.

Mother's Day Card

Mother's Day is almost here.  I was inspired for this card from my talented manager, Michelle Dyson.  She had  made a beautiful one in some retired colours and I have chosen blue for mine.   The Vintage Vogue set is versatile as you have flowers and florishes.   I love cutting out the flowers and making them stand out by adding some Stampin' dimensionals.  I leave a gap between the image and where I cut- giving it a nice outline.    I cut the 'Top Note' using the Stampin' Up! Sizzix Big Shot machine.   I hope my mum likes it.  Maybe I will be favourite daughter this year...

Ness