Sparkling Spring Hearts

Here is another card that I made today using the Sparkling Spring Collection stamp set. I stamped the image twice - once with Artichoke ink and another time with Strawberry ink. I cut the hearts from the Strawberry image and adhered them to the Artichoke image. (On 3 of them I used mounting tape).

I rounded the corners on the red and white pieces of card by placing a Glitter Glue bottle on the corner, tracing around it, then cut it out. The black piece is punched using the Floral Lace border punch (M284002). The punched black flowers and the brackets were made from off-cuts from the punched image.

The Get Well Soon image is also from the Sparkling Spring Collection stamp set and is stamped in Strawberry ink.I highlighted the centres of the hearts and flowers with silver glitter glue.

Happy creating,

Helen.

Flower Power

Finally I have gotten over a nasty dose of flu (even though I had the flu needle) and bronchitis and can get back to creating.

For this card, I stamped the large swirl from the Finishing Touches stamp set twice in Guava ink.

TIP: It is a good idea to buy pens in colours that match your ink pads. Then if you miss stamping a bit of the image, you can fill it in with the co-ordinating coloured pen. Create and Play Club sells some lovely blending markers (pages 24 and 25 of the catalogue), which I need to start collecting. As I don't have any of them yet, I used a gold pen to fill in a small gap and also to highlight parts of the image.

I wanted to colour various parts of the main flower image (from the Sparkling Spring Collection stamp set), which would have been easy to do had I owned some of the above-mentioned pens. (Colour various parts of the stamp with different coloured pens, "huff" on the stamp to moisten the ink, then stamp on card.) I decided to experiment with colouring various parts of the stamp with sponge daubers dabbed into Banana, Guava and Artichoke ink pads. (Use a separate dauber for each coloured ink and wipe off the the dauber after dabbing onto the ink pad and image to avoid transferring the colours onto the ink pads and muddying them).

I felt that there wasn't enough pink in the image, so I inked a dauber in Guava, wiped the excess onto
scrap paper, then lightly sponged over parts of the flowers. (It's a bit hard to see on the photo). I then layered the image onto a piece of pink card and sanded the edges. Gold photo corners (which I received in my Basic Tool Kit) were placed on each corner and the centres of the flowers were highlighted with crystal gemstones and Crystalina glitter glue.


I would love to be able to afford to own all the specialty ribbons now, but like most of us, I'm on a budget and have to start out with a few varieties and gradually add to them. The white crocheted lace is very versatile as it can be coloured with sponge daubers and ink pads. I coloured one side of a piece of white crocheted lace using the Banana ink pad and the other with the Guava ink pad. It was then tied around the card.


Finally, the main image was adhered to the card and For You (from the Sparkling Spring Collection stamp set) was stamped in Guava ink in the bottom corner.

(The card was photographed a bit lop-sided, sorry!)

This card and the previous one were made with white card and the Super Assortments So Mod paper pack. This time I stamped the image 3 times: once each in Guava, Artichoke and Grape ink. I then cut out the Guava flowers and the Grape butterflies and mounted them onto the artichoke image. (I've just realised that one of the flowers is still green - whoops! :) )

The reason that I cut around one side of the flowers is because I'd smudged ink on the white card! I'm a messy stamper :) I highlighted the bobbles on the pink ribbon with Guava ink (hard to see in the photo) and adhered it to the front of the white card on one side and under the card on the other side.

 A flower border from the Borders Collection stamp set was stamped in Guava onto a strip of pale pink card, layered onto a strip of darker pink card and then attached to the white piece, covering one end of the Pom Pom ribbon. This whole piece was then layered onto pale pink and then dark pink card. I stamped the top and bottom of a purple card with a small image from the Sparkling Spring Collection stamp and then attached the main piece to the front of the card.

The  Frame  (from All Occasions Phrases Collection stamp set) and For You (from the Sparkling Spring Collection set were stamped in Guava. The frame was cut out, sponged with Grape ink and attached to the card.

 Most times I can't resist adding Crystalina glitter glue to my cards and this was used on the flower centres.

A lot of the items I used were from the Basic Tool kit (photo corners, adhesives, gold pen, sanding block) and the Introductory Stamping kit (ink pads, sponge daubers and 2 of the stamp sets) but these items are also available separately. Other items used were:

Stamp sets - $22.00 each - CO723124 Finishing Touches Collection

                                       CO723122 All Occasions Phrases Collection

CDGXCF88 12" x 12" Smooth Snowcap cardstock ($7.50 for 10 sheets)

CDASM Super Assortments So Mod cardstock ($67 for 80 sheets)

Specialty ribbon - $5.00 each: ACR58244 Blush Pom Pom (3 yds)

                                            ACR58208 White Crocheted Lace (2 yds)

CO721996 Crystal Gemstones - $2.25

CO721971 Crystalina Glitter Glue - $4.00

Hopefully I'll get the chance to make some more cards tomorrow :)

Happy creating,

Helen.

                                            

I used my supplies for the first time today, and made 3 cards. Here they are:

I embossed 3 pieces of card (one black, 1 white and 1 pink) with a Romantique Embossing Folder on page 73 of the catalogue called "Breeze". (Item no. is CO723164). These embossed images were the basis of the 3 cards that I made.

For the card above, I cut off the top half of the black embossed piece and adhered it to the white embossed piece.I then cut the middle section out of the pink embossed piece and adhered it to cover where the black and white pieces met.

This is where I made a boo-boo: I glued the wrong side of the pink piece! There are never any mistakes in card-making though :) so I glued the correct side down and then covered the exposed glued side with glitter.

I then trimmed this piece down and layered it onto some pink card.

I filled in the black raised areas with a silver gel pen (item no. PK230Z) and the white raised areas with a black Millenium pen (ZMS05010). Both of these pens can be found on page 23 of the catalogue and were received as part of the basic tool kit.

The Happy Birthday frame was stamped in Guava ink using the All Occasions Phrases Collection set. (I cut the happy birthday stamp in half so that I could stamp it length-ways). I then cut out the frame and adhered it to the base card.


I was going to stamp the 3 butterflies from the Springtime Collection stamp set  in a ColorBox Bubblegum dye ink pad - until I realised that I didn't own a bubblegum ink pad! The only pink ink pad I have is Guava (CO8110) so I stamped them in the Guava ink onto some matching pink card. I cut them out, added some detail with the same black pen that I'd used earlier, then mounted them (using CO721964 Foam Mounting Tape) onto the base card. They were then highlighted with Silver Glitter Glue. (CO721970).

The white flower is from the Adelyn Flower Collection - Floral Sampler (CO723073) and I attached it to the card with a black brad from my stash. (I'm waiting on the arrival of 2 Doodlebug Paper sets that I have on back-order. These contain brads, as well as papers and other accessories).  I should have attached this before layering everything onto the pink base card, but it doesn't matter.

This card uses the remaining pieces of the embossed pink card piece. I sanded the raised images on both pieces and coloured in part of the bottom image with a dark blue pen from ZWSBRO2 Zig Watercolour System Brush Markers.

The Best Wishes stamp is from the Springtime Collection Stamp Set and The Frame is from the All Occasions Phrases Collection set. I coloured them with the same blue pen used above, using the flat side of the broad tip of the marker. The butterfly is also stamped by colouring in the image with the blue pen. The top pink piece of card is trimmed with some Blush Pom Pom ribbon (ACR58244) and then both pieces of pink card are adhered to a dusky blue card.

I then sanded around the edges of the card. Also I coloured a sponge dauber with the same blue pen and smudged it around the edges of the card, the stamped frame and a white Adelyn flower. The butterfly was then mounted onto the card and the frame and flower were adhered. Some pearls and Crystalina Glitter Glue finished the card.

This is the last card that I made today, using the remaining piece of embossed black card which was sanded and then adhered to a yellow card. The image at the bottom is from the Springtime Collection (stamped in Licorice ink). The With Love and Frame stamps are from the All Occasions phrases sets. The frames and the words in this set are separate from each other so that they can be mixed and matched.

The butterflies from the Springtime Collection set are stamped in Banana ink onto white card and highlighted with the black pen before mounting them onto the base card. (I tried to highlight them also with a white gel pen but my old one died - I need to order a new one).

Both the top embossed and the bottom stamped images are also highlighted with a gold gel pen and a black pen. A white Adalyn flower is attached and the whole card is then finished off with some Crystalina Glitter Glue and some Crystal Gemstones.

Here are the materials that I used in the 3 cards:

Stamp sets: CO723121 Springtime Collection $22.00

CO723122 All Occasions Phrases Collection $22.00

CDGXF88 Smooth Snowcap 12"x12" Cardstock - $7.50 for a pack of 10 sheets

CD90 12"x12" Jet Black cardstock - 90 cents per sheet

The pink, yellow and dusky blue cardstocks used were from the Super Assortments Collection Pads on pages 52 and 53:

CDSAE Super Assortments Elements

and

CDSASM Super Assortments So Mod

These pads each have 80 sheets (2 each of 40 colours) and are $67.00 each.

I used a lot of items that I received in my basic tool kit, including: 

PK230X Gold Pen - $5.25

PK230Z Silver pen - $5.25

ZMS05010 Black journal pen - $5.50

CO723060 Sanding Block - $6.00

I used Premium Dye Based ink pads that I received in my Introductory Stamping Kit:

CO8107 Licorice

CO8105 Banana

CO8110 Guava

All these pads cost $6.75 each if ordered separately.

I also used these items from the same kit:

CO721949 Acrylic Block set (to mount stamps on when using them): $22.50

CO723061 Sponge Daubers (set of 10) - $17.00

Extra items used were:

ACR58244 Blush Pom Pom ribbon (3 yards) - $5.00

CO721996 Crystal Gemstones - $2.25

CO721998 Moonlight pearls - $2.25

CO721970 Silver Glitter Glue - $4.00

CO721971 Crystalina Glitter Glue - $4.00CO723073

Adalyn Collection Flowers - White Floral Sampler (pack of 24 flowers) - $12.00

If you want to order any of these items, please email me at

createandplayhelen@gmail.com

I think that's the lot! Hope you like the cards. I'll be back with more soon! :)

Happy creating,

Helen.

Stamps Have Arrived!

And they're all beautiful. They are acrylic (see through) stamps which makes them very easy to use.

These are the sets that I received yesterday:

CO723130 Borders Collection

CO723127 Sparkling Spring Collection

(These 2 sets were the random ones that I received as part of the Introductory Stamping Set - very pretty!)

Also I ordered these sets:

CO723122 All Occasions Phrases Collection (an extremely useful set)

CO723124 Finishing Touches Collection

CO723121 Springtime Collection

( I accidentally deleted the photo of this set so had to take another one when it was used, hence the pink-tinged stamps! By the way if the stamps get stained by the ink that you use, it doesn't at all affect their use in the future).

CO723129 Timeless Collection

While cleaning out my craft room, I found 2 A5 sized binders with protector sheets in them, so I thought that for the time being I would use these binders to store my stamp sets in:

Back soon with some cards that I made today :)

Happy creating,

Helen.

Completed Craft Room

Finally I have finished photos of my completed craft room. I'm lucky to have such a large area, but it's because we used to operate a telecommunications business downstairs and the business has now moved to larger premises If we move houses one day I'll never have a craft room like this again!

First of all I want to thank Tammy for correcting me on the size of our cutting mat. She is right, it is 15" x 15", not 12" x 12" as I originally posted! I must have been thinking of 12" x 12" cardstock when I typed that. Sorry! :)

Here is a view looking in from the  downstairs front door. This used to be the receptionist's desk and was already here when we moved in, as was a lot of the other furniture. The previous owners ran a garden furniture design business from home. The house was painted in these colours when we moved in too - wacky I know, but I love them :)

I need to order some cardstock to fill up those paper racks! The noticeboards are empty I know, but I'm waiting for the rest of my order to arrive so that I can start creating. (The stamps should hopefully arrive next week).

This work area in the middle of the room probably will sit 4 people comfortably, so I'll probably limit the classes to 4 people for the moment. 

Love that receptionist's desk! (It will probably never be this tidy again though!)

Having crafted for many years, I have amassed a large amount of craft stuff - as most of us do! I'm going to concentrate on creating with Create and Play Club items now, so it's sort of like starting all over again. I've put a large pile of craft stuff aside to sell (probably will have a sale at the beginning of August) and have stashed my most favourite items away for the time being. (I can't get rid of everything!) :)

A lot of great products that I ordered have already arrived, but I'm just waiting on a few key items (i.e. stamps and a couple of paper packs) so that I can start creating. I'll share what I make as soon as possible. (Judging on the way my camera performed today, I might have to buy a new one before then though. I think it's about to die!) :(

Happy creating,

Helen.