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Sandra's Stamping Spot

I hope to see you at my new little spot of the internet soon!

Stamping 411 Sketch Challenge #171 .........

While searching around over the weekend, I came across the Stamping 411 challenge site and decided I'd have my first try at one of their sketches.

I've also been admiring the beautiful vintage style on Kelly's wonderful blog and thought that I'd finally give it a go myself with this sketch.

Here's the sketch -

And my card -

I'm not sure that I really pulled off the vintage look. I think it's more shabby chic than vintage but I'm really happy with it any way. It's certainly a lot different to my normal clean style.

I'd love to hear what you think :)

Thanks for visiting!

Sandra

Supplies - (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated)
Stamp - Happiness Shared
Ink - StazOn, Rose Red, Bravo Burgundy, Old Olive, Early Espresso, Basic Gray, Crumb Cake
Card stock - Bravo Burgundy, Very Vanilla
Ribbon - Very Vanilla satin, wine narrow organdy (retired)
Other - Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Big Shot, aqua painter, 1/2 cream pearls (from Pretties kit retired), Cream heart pin (Heidi grace designs), snail adhesive, Tombow glue

Some Blog Candy at Stamp In Style...

            Amanda has some amazing blog candy up to give away this month.


                                         So what's up for grabs???
                         Not one but three prizes for three lucky readers!


                                                        

Click on the picture above to find out how and to check out Amanda's blog.

Clean and Simple Sketch Challenge....

I thought that I'd have a go at another challenge today. As I was searching around I came across the Clean and Simple FTL110 Challenge and thought it was perfect for an idea that I've had floating around in my head for a little while now.

Here's the sketch -

My card -

And the inside -

While it's not really clean, simple or exactly like the sketch it came together pretty quickly and was inspired by the sketch. I really like how it turned out too.

Thanks for visiting!

Sandra


Supplies -
Stamps - Vintage Vogue, Occasional Quotes (level 3 hostess)
Card stock - Cherry Cobler, Basic Black, Very Vanilla
Ink - Basic Black
Other - Basic Black satin ribbon, pewter jumbo eyelets, paper piercer (to help curl the card stock over) , Stampin' sponge, snail.

A blog make over......

I've given my blog a bit of a make over.

I was having a little play around with a photo of a recent card that I had made when it dawned on me that it might make a nice blog header.

What do you think? Do you like it? Should it stay??

Thanks for visiting!


Sandra

Inkspiration Sketch Challenge #41 again.....

Here I was thinking that I was doing really well completing 2 challenge cards in 2 days. Well how about 2 challenge cards in 1 day?!!! *smile*

My latest Stampin' Up! order arrived this morning with my new Happiness Shared stamp set. This set is perfect for water colouring so I couldn't wait to get out my aqua painter again for this weeks  Inkspiration Sketch Challenge #41 with the additional twist of adding water colouring.

Here's the sketch again -

And my latest card -

And of course the inside -

I can't decide which of my two cards that I've done today I like the best, what do you think?


Thanks for visiting!

Sandra

Supplies - (all Stampin' Up!)
Stamp - Happiness Shared
Card Stock - Early Espresso, Rose Red, Water Colour paper, Very Vanilla
Ink - Black StazOn, Rose Red, Bravo Burgundy, Old Olive, Early Espresso, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Gray
Other - Vintage Wallpaper textured impressionss embossing folder, Very Vanilla 5/8" Stain Ribbon, Sticky Strip, snail, dimensionals, sponge 

Inkspiration Sketch Challenge #41

This weeks Inkspiration Sketch Challenge #41 is being hosted by the very talented Kirsty Brown. She has also added her own twist to the sketch....water colouring. This means that you have to have some water colouring worked into the sketch challenge somewhere.

It took me 3 attempts to get my image coloured so I was happy with it. It's REALLY important to let your image dry between colours. I found that I was trying to rush it too much and the colours were bleeding into each other. If you're not sure where to start or even if you just want some tips on water colouring check out Di Gibbs wonderful water colouring tutorial here.  She really is the Queen of water colouring!

Here's the sketch-

My card-

And the inside-

I decided to try a baby card as I haven't done one for ages. I've used a retired stamp set but this rabbit is just so cute and perfect for water colouring I couldn't resist it. I didn't have any Pacific Point card stock for the circle behind the rabbit (fingers crossed my order is here soon) so I used Bashful Blue and just sponged Pacific Point ink all over it. I've now added the Tiny Tags stamp set and the Jewellery Tag medium punch to my ever growing wish list. I think it would have really finished the card off having a little tag or two hanging off the knot in the ribbon.

Thanks for visiting!

Sandra

Supplies - (All Stampin' Up!)
Stamp - A New Little Someone (retired)
Ink - Black Stazon, Pacific Point, Not Quite Navy, Marina Mist, Early Espresso, Close to Cocoa (retired),
Creamy Caramel (retired), Crumb Cake, Blush Blossom (retired) Pretty in Pink, Basic Gray
Card stock - Bashful Blue
DSP - Celebrations
Ribbon - Pacific Point Striped Grosgrain  (retired)
Other - snail, dimensionals, aqua painter,  sponge

Take a Sip....

As soon as I seen the Take a Sip Stampin' Around Wheel in the 2010-2011 IB&C I knew that I just had to have it. While the Morning Cup set is nice, I don't drink coffee and doubt that I would ever use all the stamps in that set.

I remembered a tutorial that I had seen ages ago on Teneale Williams' blog describing how to unmount the rubber from the wheel and then remount it to be used as a clear mount stamp. I now have a wonderful set of 8 stamps (9 including some of the star like shapes).

These images are perfect to colour with either the aqua painters or blender pens.

Here's what I came up with -

Thanks for visiting!

Sandra

Supplies- (all Stampin' Up!)
Stamps - Take a Sip, Pocket Silhouettes
Card Stock - Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Pretty in Pink, Watercolour paper
Ink - Early Espresso, Old Olive, Not Quite Navy, Pretty in Pink, Daffodil Delight, Bravo Burgundy, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Gray
Other - Blender Pen, Stamp-a-ma-jig, dimensionals, snail, paper-piercing tool, mat pack

Just Add Ink #36

Wow! Two challenges in 2 days :)

Since I still had the colours out from yesterday's Mojo Challenge (you can see that post here) I decided to use them again for this weeks Just Add Ink Challenge #36


Here's the sketch -

And my card -

To make the dragonflies firstly I stamped them onto Rich Razzleberry and Pretty in Pink card stock with Early Espresso ink. I then cut out the wings. After stamping them again on the white card stock, I popped the wings on dimensionals cut in half and placed them over the wings stamped on the card. I love how they turned out!

Thanks for visiting!

Sandra

Supplies-
Stamps - Vintage Vogue, Bugs and Kisses, Short and Sweet
Card stock - Pretty in Pink, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White
Ink - Rich Razzleberry, Early Espresso
Other - Rich Razzleberry grosgrain ribbon, sticky strip, snail

Mojo Monday #157

I thought I'd have a go at my very first Mojo Monday challenge. You can find this weeks MOJO157 challenge here.

Here's the sketch-

And here's my card-

I came up with the colour combination using the new Stampin' Up! Colour Coach. It sure is a handy little thing :) You just pick a colour that you would like to work with and then it has 2 different suggested colour themes on the back for you to choose from. For today's colour I picked Rich Razzleberry and it had Pretty in Pink and Early Espresso as one of the suggested colour combos. What do you think? Do these colours work well together? I think so!

Thanks for visiting!

Sandra

Supplies
Stamps - All A Flutter, Scribble This, Occasional Quotes (level 3 hostess set)
Card stock - Pretty in Pink, Rich Razzleberry, Early Espresso, Watercolour paper
Ink - Pretty in Pink, Rich Razzleberry, Early Espresso, Stazon  Black, versamark
Other - Rich Razzleberry ribbon, sticky strip, aqua painters, Kaiser craft pearls, snail

JAI35 - A Theme Challenge

This weeks challenge over at Just Add Ink #35 is a theme challenge - Just Add Sympathy.

I must say that I have never made a sympathy card before or tried a theme challenge so it was a little bit daunting at first. 

As my new pack of Stampin' Up! neutrals collection card stock had only just arrived I thought I'd try a neutral colour scheme. I'm not sure if you can tell in the photo or not, but the very vanilla background has been embossed with the En Francais stamp. This card really was out of my comfort zone but I'm really happy with how it turned out.


Here it is-

Thanks for visiting!

Sandra

Supplies -
Stamps - Lovely as a Tree, Occasional Quotes (level 3 hostess set), En Francias
Card stock - Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla
Other - Embossing powder, heat gun, snail, dimensionals, sponge dauber, linen thread, black button

Another Inkspirations Sketch Challenge # 39….

I had so much fun the other day with the Inkspirations Sketch Challenge that I thought I'd have another go at it especially now that my box of new Stampin' Up! goodies has arrived.

Here's the sketch again -

And my card -

I flipped the sketch to better suit the monster. Isn't he cute or what????

I made this card for my little monster who turns 2 next week.

Sandra

Supplies- (all Stampin' Up!)
Stamp - Make a Monster
Cardstock - real red, whisper white
DSP - Celebrations
Ink - pacific point
Other - dimensional, snail

Another Just Add Ink Challenge JAI34 - A Colour Combo

I loved this weeks colour combo challenge over at Just Add Ink so much that I thought I would give it another go.

Since I was still waiting on my new Stampin' Up goodies to arrive, I thought I'd pull out a retired set from a couple of years ago and do some water colouring on it.

Here's the colour combination again -

And my card -

Sandra

Supplies -
Stamp - A Little Bit Of Happiness (retired)
Ink - Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Basic Grey, Staz On Black
Card Stock - Crumb Cake, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Watercolour Paper
Other - paper piercer, scallop punch, snail, dimensionals, water brushes

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #85

While I am rather impatiently awaiting the arrival of my new Stampin' Up goodies I thought that I'd try my hand at the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge # 85 for this week. This is the first time I've tried one of Karen's sketches and I really enjoyed it.

Here's the sketch -

And my card-

My card is a bit different from the sketch. I just discovered when I uploaded the photo that when I quickly jotted down the sketch on paper for me to try later I drew it a bit differently to the sketch. Oh well, it's pretty close and I'm actually really happy with the way it turned out.

Sandra

I'm in a bit off a hurry so I'll be back later with the supplies list.
All supplies Stampin' Up

A Sketch and Colour Challenge

I finally had a chance today to sit down and do some stamping. I decided to combine the Inkspirations Sketch Challenge #39 with the Just Add Ink Colour Challenge #34. This is the first time I've entered a JAI challenge.

Here's the colours from Just Add Ink-

And the Inkspirations sketch -

And my card -

I'm really happy with how this card turned out. I think I'll have another try using the sketch and colours seperately later too.

Sandra

Supplies -
Stamps - Flower Fancy, Happy Moments (retired)
Card Stock - Crumb Cake, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Ink - Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Certainly Celery
Ribbon - Kraft Taffeta (retired)
Other - Eyelet Border, snail, dimensionals. stamp-a-ma-jig

The New IB&C Is Here!!!

After a long wait the new Stampin' Up! 2010-2011 Idea Book and Catalogue is finally here!!!

You can view the new IB&C online here or download the PDF here 

Of course if you'd rather see it in person I'd be happy to post one to you for $15.00. Or, even better, email me to find out how you can get one of these exciting new catalogues for free.

Hearts and Brackets Thank You....

The first of September is finally here! That means we have a brand new Stampin' Up Idea Book & Catalogue for 2010-2011. YIPPEE!!!! There are LOTS of new and exciting things in this IB&C and I can't wait to share them with you. If you would like to order a new IB&C or even book a workshop featuring some new items just send me an email. I'd love to share the excitment with you and your friends.

Now for todays card. For some reason I tend to be a bit slack about sending out thank you cards. It's such an easy thing to do to let someone know that you appreciate them. From now on I intend on doing just that and here's the first one. 

This card features the new Hearts and Brackets die from the New IB&C as well as a sentiment from Occasional Quotes which is a new level 3 hostess set. This die has SOOO many possibilities. The first thing I thought of when I seen it was how many ways I could use it on a scrapbook layout. I'll be sure to share a layout or two when I make them but for now here's my card......

What do you think? Will it be added to you wish list? I also got a new watermark...do you like it? :)

Take care
Sandra

Supplies - (All Stampin' Up)
Stamp - Occasional Quotes
Ink - Chocolate Chip, Rose Red
Card Stock - Whisper White, Chocolate CHip, Rose Red, Old Olive
Other - Big Shot, Hearts and Brackets Die, Eyelet Border, Sponge, Dimensional, snail adhesive

Just Add Ink Challenge #31

I know I'm a bit late with the Just Add Ink #31 Challenge. It's actually last weeks. I've had the real red, chocolate chip and kraft (soon to be called crumb cake) card stock sitting on my craft table all this time but I just couldn't work out what to do with them. I think I was struggling with the fact that there wasn't any whisper white, very vanilla or green.  This afternoon I decided that that was it... I was finally going to make something using only those colours.

This is what I came up with -

And the inside -

This card actually came together really quickly once I started. I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned as well (although I'm not too sure about the inside).

Will I use only these three colours together on a card again??? I'm not too sure about that, you'll have to wait and see :)

Sandra


Supplies -
Stamps - Pocket Silhouettes, Short and Sweet
Card stock - chocolate chip, real red, kraft (soon to be crumb cake)
Ink - real red, chocolate chip
Ribbon - 1" double stitched grosgrain ribbon (retiring)
Other - 1 3/8" square punch, snail adhesive,

Just Jawing.....

Today I am sharing a card that was made with the Just Jawing stamp set. This set is on the Last Chance List. It is currently 25% off until it retires at the end of this month.

My friend Donna (hi Donna!) had been looking at this set for awhile and after seeing it was discounted, decided to finally order it. I, being the kind and generous friend that I am (LOL), offered to mount the set for her. Then all of a sudden OOOPS!!! it just happened to fall onto the open Basic Black stamp pad that was sitting on my desk. Well....what's a girl to do??? I couldn't waste that ink so I HAD to stamp it onto some whisper white card stock that just happened to be sitting on my desk as well :)

Now the first image that I had in my head for this stamp set was all rich razzleberry and dazzling diamonds. It's amazing how something can look so good in your head but once it's on paper ..... BLAHH! Then I had another idea and this time it worked!! Yeahh! :) I'm happy with how this turned out and I'm plan to give it to my daughter for her birthday in a couple of months.

Here's the card -

And the inside -

What do you think? I can't wait to see what you come up with Donna :)

Sandra

Supplies -
Stamp - Just Jawing (retiring at the end of this month)
Ink - Basic Black, Real Red
Card - Whisper White, Real Red, Black
Other - Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Photo Corners Punch, Basic Black Stampin' Write Journaler, Clear Rhinestone Brads, Multipurpose liquid glue, snail adhesive, dimensionals

A Scrapbook Page....

Today I thought that I would share a scrapbook page with you. The photo is of my sons when the youngest was only 5 days old. It uses my favourite colour combination of Brocade Blue and Chocolate Chip. I was really disappointed when I heard that Brocade Blue was retiring. Not to worry...I made sure that I've got plenty of it to keep my busy for a while.

I created this page as a Make & Take at my friends 1st workshop. There were only 3 guests, who were all experienced scrapbookers, so it made it a lot easier.

The tag behind the photo mat actually pulls out for hidden journalling. We punched it out with the large tag punch and then stapled some ribbon to it. We made this before I bought the scallop circle punch so we had to hand cut the flower from Petal Pizzazz. The punch makes it so much quicker and easier! :)

Have a good day!

Sandra

Supplies -
Stamps - Petal Pizzazz, Baroque Border (standard wheel), Short and Sweet
Card - Brocade Blue (retiring), Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Ink - Chocolate Chip, Brocade Blue (retiring)
Punches - large tag punch, corner punch
Other - Chocolate Chip ribbon (retiring), chocolate chip 5/16" brad, sponge daubers, snail  adhesive, dimensionals, stapler

Another Male Card.....

I thought that I would share with you today another card with retiring products. And for those of you that struggle with male cards, it may give you some inspiration as well.

You can check out the updated Last Chance List here.


Now this card is a CASE from the wonderfully talented Teneale Williams. You can see her card here. If you haven't seen her work before please check out her blog. I promise you won't be dissapointed.

Here's my card -

And the matching inside as well -

To make the tree multi coloured I used the sponge daubers. I use a different dauber for each colour. After dabbing it onto the ink pad, I then dabbed randomly over the stamp. I did that with each colour then "huffed" onto the stamp before stamping it onto the cardstock. Clear as mud I know! LOL If you have any questions or would like to book a workshop to see this technique in action please email me.

Check back tomorrow for some scrapbook pages we made in my friends (hi Ali!) workshop a little while back using my favourite retiring colour.


Sandra

Supplies - 
Stamp - Lovely as a Tree, Vintage Vogue
Card - chocolate chip, more mustard (retiring), elegant eggplant, old olive, very vanilla
Ink - chocolate chip, more mustard (retiring), elegant eggplant, old olive, versamark
Ribbon - chocolate chip (retiting ribbon)
Other - Big Shot, Top Note die, snail adhesive, dimensionals, sponge daubers, blender pens