Papertrey Ink has a variety of challenges up at the moment and I found one of them irresistible, where they ask to combine a couple of different floral stamp sets and create a bouquet on a card. You can find the post here. You know I like my florals 🙂 Here’s what I came up with:

It’s a similar card to the one I shared previously, with a Soft Stone base and pops of colour against the white panel, on the loosely put together floral arrangement. It’s what I feel most comfortable with. What I don’t feel comfortable with is how whenever I create a PTI - oriented card, I find my stash outdated and inadequate. Funny how I seem to have quite a few stamp sets, cardstock and inks, but the stamps, if any, I acquire always after long months of eyeing them, when the rest of the stamping community regards them as old and boring and happens to sell their personal stash for half the price. LOL
I always think of my American friends, I hope you know how lucky you are because what we get horrendous international shipping prices slammed on, you get with an achievable option of free shipping. Although it’s a good exercise in rationalism, being able to sieve through tons of product out there and picking only the rare gems that I truly know I will love and get a good mileage from 🙂

All in all, I hope you like the card. All supplies listed below, except from the Botanical Silhouettes stamp set which I believe was an exclusive Anniversary set and no longer available through their store. Peace out!

It’s been a confusing couple of months, craft-wise. I had my fingers itching more than once; I’ve been pulling out paper, stamps, touching them, but never actually stamped. I did enjoy the freedom of having more family time, I sent my older girl to school for prep year (which she’s loving!) and was more at peace with the attention I devote to my two little turkeys, and one big one 🙂
At the same time, my heart bled watching the first WPlus9 release of 2015 being another smashing success, knowing that this time it’s without me and that it was my conscious decision to make it so. I also turned down a few *amazing* Design Team inquiries, which honestly were some of the hardest decisions I ever made. There are certainly many perks of being in the midst of an action, so to speak, but life is about choices and I think I made mine wisely.

Last night I poured myself a drink (for encouragement purposes) and attempted a card. I LOVED it. I’m relieved to know that I still have it, because for someone who crafted like a mad person for years, I’ve gone a bit rusty for sure.
I based my card loosely on the inspiration from ric#77 (below) and went with the style I’ve been most comfortable with last year, using some of my favourite stamps and dies. Hope you enjoy 🙂

Inspiration:

I started by die cutting the ferns with the Hero Arts Palm die and sponging it with WPlus9 Lake House & Nautical Navy inks. I stamped the flowers from SSS / Mama Elephant Summer Garden set on a piece of old Teresa Collins patterned paper and fussy cut them. I do actually own the matching dies but I wanted to border to show around the petals.
I arranged them in a cluster on a white cardstock panel, along with the fern. I then placed the sentiment across the left side, mixing the WPlus9 Hand Lettered Hello die with the matching stamp set. Lastly I die cut the branch from dark grey cardstock, with WPlus9 Foliage Frame die and tucked it behind the cluster. The panel was adhere to the PTI Soft Stone card base.

I will see if I can make it with another post sometime soon. Would it be selfish to say that my mailbox has been missing receiving blog comment notifications somewhat fiercely? *wink*

Hello and happy 2015! I hope you had a fantastic Christmas and you’re off to a great start in the New Year.

I was asked by my friend Michelle to participate in the first birthday celebrations at the Fusion challenge blog. Here’s the graphics we are given.

I used the photo for the inspiration, I combined the WPlus9 Sparkle & Shine Trio die cut in gold foil cardstock, with a few bits and pieces and came up with this:

I would love you to stop by the Fusion blog and have a go yourself 🙂

Thanks for stopping by today! I’ll use the opportunity to let you know that I (regretfully) suspended my duties as a WPlus9 Design Team member, in order to concentrate on my family. Seeing as this is the last of my DT’s to let go of, my posts will now be scarce as I’m only going to be crafting occasionally, when time permits. I do hope that I will be able to get back into the swing of things soon enough.

Have a good one 🙂

It’s been quite a while and I need to apologize for not having been able to join the rest of the Design Team in featuring the great new WPlus9 product during the release days. As you know, my mad crafting days are on hold and I’m taking the time to enjoy my girls and concentrate on the daily life instead. Of course it doesn’t mean that I don’t itch to stamp, it just doesn’t happen as often as it used to. However, I’m back today with a couple of cards and I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I did having them made 🙂

I was in the mood for some Copic colouring, especially that I was super excited about the image that Dawn drew, the moment I laid my eyes on it. I’m talking about the Miss You Lots stamp set, with the insanely gorgeous, vintage-looking girl that I just adore. I had a soft spot for this kind of imagery since childhood and I remember trying to recreate a few images during my young drawing spurs. Colouring this cutie was like a blast from the past.

The girl comes with a matching die but I stamped it directly on the panel and coloured entirely with Copic markers.
dress: BG78, 72, 11
shirt, socks: C5, 3, 1
skin: E00, 11, 21, R11
hair: E41, 43, 44
shoes, cat: E81, 84, 89
ground: YG91, 93, 95, G40, BG000

After stamping the sentiment and adding a few faux splats using the Ink Splats and Dream Believer stamp sets, I added a strip of washi tape to the panel and mounted it on the card front with dimensional tape. Finally I cut my favourite sprigs from Under The Mistletoe Designer Dies from vellum, and attached them to the panel using a mini clothespin. I added drops of glue to the back of the sprigs in a few places, to prevent them from moving and/or tearing.

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The other card I want to show you, features the cute new Winter Pals Clear Stamps. I used the matching dies to cut them out and coloured them with Copics. I added dots of white pen to the owl’s belly.

For the background, I white embossed some snowflakes from Snowflake Backdrops Clear Stamps, sponged Broken China Distress Ink over and added a few tiny, stamped stars from Little Bits set. I never got around to using the latter much (YET!) but it’s insanely handy. A sure staple in my stash!

The finishing touches are a strip of washi tape (again) and a sentiment stamped on a banner but with Banner Trio Designer Dies. These banners are quite possibly one of the most used dies in the history of my crafting. Understated & just the right size.

So here they are, my crafty friends! Thanks for popping in for a visit, I truly hope that I’ll be able to see you again this year! lol
The WPlus9 December Release is now available for purchase in the WPlus9 Online Store, as well as in Simon Says Stamp store. Enjoy the shopping!

Miss You card

Winter Wishes card