...January 2010 Release Day 3 - any frill seekers out there?

Well we're on the home straight. Later today, around 7pm my time, I will open both new photopolymer stamp sets for sale in my store. BUT - and please note the following:

As Faux Fun was originally scheduled to release next month, it will be around a week until I have it in stock and so it will not ship until next week. The exact day will be confirmed later.

So, Folks ordering Faux fun as part of their order, should be aware that their entire order will be held until I have the Faux Fun sets in stock for shipping.

In effect folks will be pre-ordering Faux Fun. This also means that folks who wanted to wait on Faux Fun won't risk losing out on the Sweethearts set should it sell out.

I decided to do this so that anyone who wants Faux Fun and Sweethearts can order them together and combine shipping. Folks who don't have Faux Fun in their orders can expect their orders to ship pretty much immediately as normal.

So on with the show! (And don't forget to click on the DT blogs today, Julia, Anya, Belinda and Bonnie all have treats in store!)


First up is a wee basket for Valentines treats! Every time I look at this the annoying term 'Simple pimple' creeps into my head. I read it in one of my daughter's books and I can't get it out of my head! lol.

The simple bit is that you base your basket on a jar lid. So long as your jar lid isn't much over 3 inches in diameter you'll be able to get the sides out of one sheet of cardstock with no joins. You simply use the jar lid as a base and stick the card around the side with extra strong double sided tape. If you're a fussy type like me you'll have first drawn around the lid and cut out a circle to stick on the bottom. On the inside fill the bottom with a little shredded tissue, they'll never see it!


Simply cut a strip of card as high as you want your basket to be and decorate it at will!! I clear embossed the lace border several times on the strip before adding my frilly bits!

Take a peep first at the wee handle, that's the smaller Broderie Anglaise border from Faux Fun! I love that soft cotton fabric with little embroidered pinholes and tiny flower motifs and I created two borders for this set based on it.

I wanted the border specifically so's i could white emboss it onto coloured card and I love the effect but it's also good for plain stamping.

However the Broderie Anglaise borders do come with a Health warning!! LOL. You will absolutely need to stamp them using a piece of fun foam or an upturned mouse mat under your cardstock as they are fairly solid stamps or, believe me, you will not get a good impression. - This tip is good for all solid stamps, like the witch in the Halloween Party set! You can see my example below - here, I've stamped the wider broderie anglaise border on cardstock placed on an upturned mouse mat - it turns out great.


When I first got them I was too lazy to go looking for some fun foam and so I stamped...and stamped...and stamped some more, and then went looking for the fun foam. You just will not get a consistent impression unless you do this. I don't care how heavy you think you are, or whether you can balance your entire weight on the stamp, it just won't wash. You need the foam, or a mouse mat.

Both Broderie Anglaise borders have also been designed so's it is possible to 'trim' them out using a simple EK success corner rounder punch - it's the wee green one that you can take the guide off and use for scalloping paper!!

I used mine to trim either side of the embossed border to make the scalloped handle! Trim the card just over 1/8th of an inch away from the outermost points of the border and then pencil a little dot along the edge at the mid point of each outward curve of the stamp. See the pics for help!



To make the frillies around the basket I used a Martha Stewart doily punch and then stamped little broderie anglaise circlets - a separate stamp in Faux Fun - in line with the punched scallops. A tiny bit of ribbon and it was nearly done. I just had to add a wee tag. A plain heart stamp from Sweethearts was inked up and then the wee broderie anglaise circlet was just 'touched' against it to remove some ink before stamping the heart and punching it out with the EK success punch.

A sentiment (Sweethearts) and a co-ordinating flower motif (Faux Fun) finished it.

I couldn't resist trying the stamp kissing technique with the plain heart and the lace stamp to make this tiny notecard! 'Course I had to throw on some Glossy accents goo! Did manage to get some 'bonus' bubbles in it tho...apologies for the awful pics this is what reflected snow does to my photography!


For my last card I used the bow and arrow from Sweethearts to make a patterned background. I stamped the plain heart in red and then lavished my card with one of those anti-static baggie things before stamping my arrow, (I used a piece of post-it note to mask the centre of the heart) which I gold embossed before adding the sentiment and copious amounts of Antique linen distress ink around the edges! It was very simple but I liked it.



So, if anything tickles you might like to pop back later to see the sets released here on the blog!!

And the competition!!!

I'm going to repeat what I did last month and give away a free shopping basket to one lucky customer! Anyone who places an order after the release is open, and up until Thursday night, (midnight my time) will be chosen at random to have the cost of their order completely refunded including shipping!! lol. (NB orders that don't include either of the new sets will also be included in the draw)

The winner will be announced at some point on Friday hopefully, I will be having extensive dental 'fun' that day and may be groggy until late...