Pretty Floral Frames

When I saw these frames in the new Catalogue, I knew they would be on my wish-list! Although they are part of a bundle with some matching framelits, they work equally well on their own. The stamp set title is Floral Frames.

With the 2 main frames, there are also some individual sets of flowers, and nice strong sentiments. The flowers that you can see (sets of 2 and 3 flower heads) can be cut with the framelits, and added on top of the frame image.

 

Here is a photo of the samples I made before our coffee and card session this week. I cut some of our Brights coloured A4 sheets of cards into 3 which measure 99mm x 99mm folded, which is a very cost effective way of making card bases. I cut the whisper white layers to 92mm x 92mm giving a small border around the edges.

  

The two sentiments, "Hello" and "Wishing you the best" are from the same stamp set, and after stamping in Memento Black ink, we used the Blends alcohol pens to colour in the images. The left hand card above used the frame design, and I used our Stamparatus for the right hand red card, for some stamping in the round.  

 

 In the cards above, you can see the second of the frames being used at the top of the photo. I took the sentiments from Southern Serenade with me, and you can see the Thank You from that set in the cards below.

I have a repeat of this session at Towcester on Monday 9th July, so I hope to be able to share more photos of the ladies designs next week.

Some hints and tips on how we made the cards:

• I cut the A4 card into 3 equal sized pieces, which are 99mm x 99mm when folded. I score the card from top to bottom (down the long centre line) first, then fold it and cut across into 3 equal cards.
• The A4 whisper white layer is cut to 92mm x 92mm - you can get 6 panels per A4 sheet.
• We stamped the frames either free hand on a block, or using the Stamparatus (which in general was much quicker and the preferred method). We used the black Memento Ink Pad which gives a nice crisp image.
• We then stamped a sentiment of choice before colouring in. It is always best to do all your stamping first; there is nothing worse than colouring in your panel and then stamping a wonky sentiment ! We used the Stampin' Blends pens for the colouring. All of the pens are now available - you can see them online here. You can buy them individually or in packs of 2 - a light and dark shade of each colour.

I hope you are able to pop back and see us next week for an update. Thanks for stopping by. 

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Fun card making at #coffeeandcard this week

As usual, we had great fun at our weekly coffee and card sessions, in Towcester and Brackley. I decided to ink up a brand new stamp set called Southern Serenade.

I love the clear lines of the main floral image, and the lace panel is stunning - it can be used on top of the flower, as a background or in its own right. On some of our cards we used it around the edges of the card too - giving a nice soft edge when layering the card together.

Sample photos

Here were my two samples to start with - a quick photo taken in the evening before!

In both cases I coloured the flowers with the Stampin' Up! Blends pens, and in the card on the right you can see the lace background behind the flowers. This stamp set has a nice Thank You and Happy Birthday sentiment as can be seen from the cards; but also 'I am so blessed to call you my friend' which is a lovely sentiment to send someone.

Here are just a few of the finished cards from Wednesdays session:

You can see that the extra little flowers have been added to some of these cards - there is a little bud stamp as well as the little flower. In the card at the top right, you can see the additional lace border - another little stamp you can get SO much use out of. At just £19 for this stamp set (clear mount stamp set); you would get plenty of use for it.  

We used our standard Whisper White Notecards and Envelopes for these cards - a pack of 20 cards and envelopes are just £5.50. These are really popular with my customers and especially useful for coffee and card designs

There will be more photographs of our finished cards on my Facebook page - you can hop over and see them anytime - you don't have to have a Facebook account.

Brief Instructions:

1. I used a layer of Whisper White card and stamped the floral design using our Basic Grey Archival inkpad. Make sure you are leaving space for your sentiment, at the top, bottom or side of the card.
2. Optionally, stamp the floral lace design directly on top using a light colour. In all cases we used any of our 'Subtles' ink collection for this purpose*
3. Using Blends pens, colour in the stamped image. As long as you are using the pens lightly, you will find no issues with the ink bleeding. I like the grey ink, it's just more subtle than using a Basic Black or Memento Black Ink.
4. Stamp the sentiment of your choice onto the card.
5. Place a coloured layer of card behind your Whisper White card and then layer the whole thing onto the notecard, using adhesive of your choice - we used either Dimensionals or Multipurpose Glue.
6. Don't leave out your envelope and your card inside! Add a little flower to the inside of your card, and onto the front or back of the envelope. The lace design would work too.

* Did you know you can buy our collection of inks at a discount (£51 for the collection of 10), or individually (£6 per ink pad) at any time. Here are the subtles colours:

If you would like to see the new Spring/Summer catalogue, but don't have one yourself, just email me and I will send a copy

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Back to Basics - Marker Pens

This week for #coffeeandcard I decided to go back to basics, as we have had some new crafters join us recently, and it is easy to forget the basics of stamping when we have so many LOVELY products to choose from.

So this week, we are featuring Marker Pens, our Stampin' Write markers. They are filled with our acid free, die based ink and have 2 ends - a brush tip and a fine point tip. What is even better is that they come in packs of 5 and 10 pens, making a great starter pack for new crafters, and they are also refillable.

Here are some of our samples for the coffeeandcard session:

The pens can be used for applying multiple colours to stamps as can be seen in all the samples. They can also be used for omitting parts of stamps without the need for masking.

Click on any of the images below for more details of the pens.

Available in packs of 5 £13.50 per pack

Available in packs of 10 £27.50 per pack

Available in a carry case, 38 colours £99

 

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