Play of Light

Here's another card inspired directly from Michelle Zindorf's tutorial.

I used baja breeze for the base card and sponged it with not quite navy ink and a bit of basic black ink also. I stamped the "Baroque Motifs" background flourish in not quite navy ink (stamped off once).

The main image is done on whisper white paper. I first brayered baja breeze over the entire piece, then sponged the outside with not quite navy, night of navy, and basic black. The flowers from "Close as a Memory" were stamped in not quite navy ink and highlighted with a white gel pen, then low-lighted with a not quite navy marker and basic black journaling pen. The ground was made by first tearing a piece of paper to use as a mask, then I brayered not quite navy ink below the placed paper. Then I moved the paper down slightly and brayered basic black ink. The ground is also highlighted with a white gel pen.

I stamped the "Baroque Motifs" flourish over the main image in whisper white craft ink (stamped off once for a more subtle look).

The edges of the main image are distressed with the edge distressing tool from SU's "Cutter Kit" and gently rolled to distress it even more. This was mounted on the card with stampin' dimensionals. The ribbon is white tafetta which is threaded through a hole punched in the base card.

I hope to make some more attempts at Michelle's tutorials. They are all so beautiful and inspiring. A big thank you to her for sharing her talents!!

Collage card

I was inspired by the tutorial of a gorgeous card by Michelle Zindorf. I still love her card more, but think mine turned out pretty good, too.

The base card is Hansome Hunter with some brayered hansome hunter ink around the edges and stamped with a stamp from SU's "Fresh Cuts" stamp set.

The main collage was done on whisper white cardstock. I used a brayer to apply a mix of barely banana and so saffron ink over the entire piece, then masked off the center with a piece of paper so I could brayer a "frame" with some kiwi kiss. The edges are brayered with not quite navy and I wiped the tangerine tango directly over the edges of the paper from the ink pad. I did some tangerine tango (stamped off once) with another stamp from the "Fresh Cuts" set. I also used not quite navy with the background stamp of the same set. The centre image is from the "Lovely as a Tree" stamp set, which I did in old olive ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I lightly coloured the image with kiwi kiss and a hint of not quite navy ink using my blender pen.

The edges of the main image are distressed (using the Cutter Kit) and slightly rolled before applying it to the base card with stampin' dimensionals.

I like how it turned out. What do you think?

Card book

This is a card book that I made and gave away in a draw at my open house last week. I recycled 6-1/4" x 6-1/4" pieces of a cereal box for the covers and covered them with purely pomegranate cardstock with river rock cardstock on the inside of the covers.


I decorated the front cover by clear embossing a 1" wide strip of purely pomegranate paper for across the front of the book. A piece of pewter hodgepodge was used for the label and the label is made from a piece of river rock paper punched with my oval punch. I used my Rough alphabet stamp set for the letters in purely pomegranate ink, then sponges lightly with versamark ink and clear embossed to give a bit of texture to the label. The solid leaves are randomly stamped with purely pomegranate ink, while the outline leaves were stamped with versamark and clear embossed.

Sorry I don't have pictures of the inside pages, but I used chocolate chip paper and made pockets on each page to slot in cards for storage. The pocket portions of the pages were decorated similarly to the bottom front of the cover except I didn't clear emboss the leaf outline images.

The entire book is bound together with brown wire binding using my bind-it-all. I added the purely pomegranate satin ribbon for extra flourish.

I realize as I describe this, that I used a lot of now retired items. This project can be easily adapted with other colours and the new SU silver or vanilla hodgpodge. There are also some beautiful new ribbons that could accent a book like this quite nicely.

I think I'd like to offer a project like this as a class (if I can get my act together. LOL!). If I do another one, I'll show it as well.

Happy stamping!

3x3 Scallop Cards

I love these 3x3 scallop cards made using the slit punch and the 1-3/8" circle punch and the Coluzzle Cutter. I made them using the tutorial on Andrea Walford's blog.

That's all I have to say about that. If you'd like to know what paper and stamps I used, just leave a comment.

Stinkin' Sweet Birthday

My niece turned 4 this month. Here is the card I made for her birthday. Of course, it's late (as usual), but better late than never...I hope.



This is a 5x5" card made with Pixie Pink cardstock. I used Gable Green and Basic Black cardstock to frame the image. I used the Pretty Petals background stamp over the base card with Versamark ink. The image is from the "Pun Fun" stamp set and is stamped with black Stazon ink and coloured using a blender pen and Stampin' Pastels. You can't see it very well in this photo, but I also paper-pierced the black frames using my Mat Pack as a piercing guide. The entire matted centre of this card is raised up slightly with stampin' dimensionals and I used Black Gingham ribbon as the final touch.

Build-a-brad Bracelet

Melanie and I made bracelets back in June using some jewelry materials along with the SU Build-a-Brads. I think they turned out really neat. I would do a couple things differently next time to help the clear plastic bubble covers stick better. We used the wire pliers in the SU Tool Kit to manipulate the tales of the brads around the hoops in the chain that we put them on. Next time I will do that first before finishing the brads as the pinching required to secure the brads in placed caused the "bubble" to mark and also lift up on the edges. This particular bracelet will need some adjustments made to fix the lifting edges. I think I'll try taking the "bubble" tops off and just use some Glassy Glaze Enamel embossing powder to protect the paper on top of the brads.

Maybe Mel can tell us where she got the idea to do the bracelets. It was a blog she frequently visits. Could you write it in my comments, Mel? Thanks.

Fresh Cuts with sponging

I made this card as a thank you to my brother for having us stay with them in Victoria and showing us around. We had a great time.

This card is made with the "Fresh Cuts" stamp set (available again in August) and the laser cut, 4" square Fresh Cuts Notes. To make this look, I first removed the laser cut sections of the flower and stamped the background stamp in versamark ink. Then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. After that, I sponged on my colours (Wild Wasabi, Blue Bayou, Purely Pomegranate, and Groovy Guava) and wiped the excess off of the embossed areas.

I used Purely Pomegranate cardstock as an insert inside the card after I sponged a bit of Purely Pomegranate and Blue Bayou ink in a circular pattern so that it would add some richness to the outside of the card where it showed through the laser cut petals. The clear round rhinestone brad (from the Pretties Kit) is holding the fabric flower (from the pretties kit also), which I dyed with Blue Bayou ink by pressing it directly on the ink pad, to the Purely Pomegranate cardstock. That way, when the card is opened the pomegranate insert opens also.

I think my laser cut flower would look better if it was turned around. I'm pretty sure I have it up-side-down right now. The single point should be at the top. Oops!

I think I'll miss the richness of these colours when they retire in August. But I'm sure I'll fall in love with the new colours just like I did with these. (I actually wasn't very excited about these colours at first...they definitely grew on me!)