Stampin' Royalty Guest DT - Keep It Simple

I can't believe this is already my last post as a Guest Goddess over at Stampin' Royalty. I've had a great time creating with the talented ladies of the DT and feel sad it's already time to say goodbye. The good news is of course that I can pop by and play along whenever I want to, so it's not goodbye, it's just "See ya later"!

This week the challenge is to Keep It Simple. As I have finished my summer holidays, I'm already starting to look forward to Christmas as it will be the next time I will get a bit more time off work (yes, I am very dedicated and hard working...). And I thought it might be a good idea to use my old stash of Christmas crafting goodies to remind me that I don't really need to buy any new Christmas stamps this year, but should instead try to use the stash I have got (ok, fat chance I actually won't buy anything, but still...). 

I stamped the Seasonally Scattered "Merry" sentiment using Soft Sky, and then added some Marina Mist and Pacific Point using markers before stamping onto Whisper White card. I then heat embossed the Christmas sentiment from Endless wishes in silver. I also heat embossed silver snowflakes onto Marina Mist card for the back panel. I thought this was all that was needed for a quick and easy clean card. This would be a great design to mass produce as it's quite quick and easy to make, and it would be easy to make different colour variations of it. 

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Clean and Simple
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Christmas in July 
My Time to Craft - Christmas in July
Sweet Stampin' - No Designer Paper
Happy Little Stampers - CAS
Card: Stampin' Up Whisper White, Marina Mist
Stamps: Stampin' Up Seasonally Scattered, Endless Wishes
Ink: Stampin' Up Soft Sky, Stampin' Write markers Marina Mist, Pacific Point, Tsukineko Versamark
Other: Silver embossing powder

Greeting card set in a box

Although it's still Christmas time, I thought it would be nice to move on to some non-Christmas crafting now.

I have made a few of these card sets already, but I enjoy making a set of cards, challenging myself to make them all different but still keeping the same feel across all cards in the set. My other sets are here and here with the instructions for making the box. I added another level to the challenge by using a DSP I really had no idea what to do with. I just couldn't get any grasp of this pattern, and I'm still debating with myself whether I like these cards and the colours or not. I also stamped inside the cards, and stamped matching envelopes. At least the whole set is now tucked in the box, away from sight and waiting for some poor unsuspecting victim.

I'm entering my card set in the following challenges:
Miriam's Crafting Blog - Handmade gifts

C.R.A.F.T Challenge - Anything Goes

Creative knockouts - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 and 300 gsm white card, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card in Chocolate Brown and Navy
Paper: Stampin' Up International Bazaar
Inks: Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Pacific Point, Pear Pizzazz
Stamps: Stampin' Up Madison Avenue, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Other: Stampin' Up Banner Punch, Scalloped tag topper punch, Decorative label punch, Vine Street embossing folder, blue gingham ribbon from my stash

 

Posted with Blogsy

Fox inspiration

Almost all of my cardmaking efforts lately have focused on preparing for Christmas, so I thought I would take a break from the Christmas cards and see what challenges are out there. It turns out pretty much every single colour challenge at the moment features orange in one form or another, and that's a problem for me as I'm not a big fan. I think in general I don't work very well with fall colours and that's why I have rather focused on the Christmas stuff with lots of reds, greens, gold and glitter. But I just adored the inspiration photo over at ColourQ, so I put together this card using a stamp set that came as a free gift with Papercrafting & Cardmaking magazine a while ago. I used the sketch from My Favourite Things for inspiration. I'm also entering the Crafty Creations challenge where this week the challenge is to use orange. Last but not least I'm linking up at the Pink Elephant Challenge where anything goes this week.

Card: Craft UK kraft card, coloured 240 gsm kraft card Chocolate Brown, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Oscar the owl & pals(free with an old issue of Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine)
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip, Stampin' Up markers in Chocolate Chip, Pacific Point, Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive
Paper: Stampin' Up Summer Smooches
Other: Xcut scalloped circles die, Stampin' Up Sycamore Street Designer Buttons, baker's twine from my stash

Fresh Vintage in Fresh Colours

I own my fair share of embossing folders, but don't get around to using them nearly enough. So for my last few cards, I have tried to incorporate dry embossing. It does give great texture to backgrounds which would be boring otherwise. I have also tried to spend some more time on each card and stamp something inside the card and on the envelope as well to give the whole set a more elaborate finish.

I absolutely loved the colours and photo from this week's ColourQ challenge, and the photo immediately inspired me to use the Fresh Vintage stamp set, it's perfect for colouring using markers. And I decided that a large background panel in Strawberry Slush would be perfect when embossed with a flowery folder. Strawberry Slush is one of my absolute favourite Stampin' Up Colours, it's simply the perfect shade of pink so I was thrilled to have it incorporated in the colour challenge. For the layout I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch for inspiration. I am also submitting the card to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is Stamp It to celebrate Stamptember and the STAMPlorations September challenge where the theme is Stamps and Markers as I coloured the stamp using markers.

Cardstock: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card in Navy, Stampin' Up card in Strawberry Slush, Bermuda Bay and Whisper White
Stamps: Stampin' Up Fresh Vintage, Bloomin' Marvelous
Ink: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Pacific Point, Pear Pizzazz and Strawberry Slush
Other: Stampin' Up Basic Pearls coloured with Sharpies, Embossing folder Spellbinders M-Bossabilities Enchanted 

Blue Birthday Card

Why does it always rain on Thursdays? Friday is our bin day, and I have a recollection that for as long as I can remember, I have been dragging those bins around in the pouring rain. I cannot wait for this dreary cold wet darkness to end. The reason I love papercrafting is because it makes me forget all my worries. It takes me away from my normal life and helps me forget everything that is troubling me. I just stamp or colour and empty my head of all thoughts that aren't about crafting. This card was born almost by mistake when I was playing around with the Stampin' Up Fresh Vintage stamp set, just stamping away. 

The card is monochrome in Stampin' Up Pacific Point. I made the background by stamping two different stamps from the Fresh Vintage set freehand on white cardstock. I matted it onto Pacific Point cardstock. I used two stamps from the Chalk Talk stamp set for the sentiment, I stamped the background onto Pacific Point cardstock using Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Ink and heat embossed using white embossing powder. I stamped the "Happy Big Day" sentiment onto white cardstock in Pacific point. I fussy cut both stamps using scissors. For a finishing touch, I added some blue ribbon from my stash and added three adhesive gems. Sometimes random stamping can give really nice results!

Ink: Stampin' Up Pacific Point, Tim Holtz distress embossing ink

Stamps: Stampin' Up Fresh Vintage for the background, Chalk Talk for the sentiment

Cardstock: Hobbycraft white 160 gsm cardstock, Stampin' Up Pacific Point cardstock, Kraft card

Other: Blue ribbon from stash, Stampin' Up Basic Rhinestones, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder