...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...

...January 2010 Release Day 2 Big Man type hugs to you!!

Welcome to the second day of samples for the new clear photopolymer stamps releasing tomorrow! I know, I told Bonnie the 4th but there's something I really need to show you before I can open the sets for sale...forgive me? LOL!!

The first card here makes great use of the knitted border from the Faux Fun set. You have Bonnie to thank for this stamp - it was Ms Bonnie Sharp that suggested a knitted background to me first, it just happened to tie in nicely with an idea I had for lace border stamps too, and Faux Fun was born!!!

There are 3 'knitted' stamps in Faux Fun, a huge background/border stamp that you can see stamped down the entire length of the card in the first pic.

The second is a small rectangular shape, also in the knitted pattern but in a slightly heavier 'weight'. This is good for creating a panel for a focal point, like I have done in this card.

The third is a little knitted stitch line that's good for accents, you can see it used under the sentiment 'Big hugs' from Sweethearts.

This is a stellar background for all sorts of things - Man cards! baby cards! Christmas cozy cards!! Oh come on, we only have 350 odd days to get ready!! lol!



This brings me to Sweethearts. I have included a number of 'plain' heart shaped stamps in the set. I have a very specific reason for wanting these. Sure patterned hearts are pretty but they might not always match my project. So, using a plain heart and a 'stamp kissing' technique, you can always be sure to have a patterned heart to match your project!!!!

For my focal point above I inked up the knitted pattern stamp and then kissed a plain heart stamp against it to pick up some of the ink in a knitted pattern.

Then I stamped it on the cream card and used a EK success punch to punch it out, The result was that it looked like it was a knitted heart stamp!!! I'm hooked!!!

I did it again with a smaller heart, I had to trim this by hand as my smaller punch hasn't arrived yet! lol! but you can see the possibilities!!!! Use these plain heart stamps with other background stamps to get similar effects, I'm itching to try it with the herringbone border from Little Box labels!!!!!

Now, there are a couple of different ways to try this technique.

Above I stamped with the heart, but below I stamped the rectangular knitted panel that was left after I 'kissed' off the heart - there is a very subtle lightening of ink in the centre of the rectangle, a sort of ghost heart - very suitable for the interior 'Guess who?' sentiment!

You can see it better if you move your eyes back from the computer screen! LOL!


This is the effect you get if you ink up the heart fully BEFORE kissing it against the inked up knitted pattern! it kind of musses up the pattern and gives a lovely dense pattern version of your original pattern! What fun!


OOps inky fingers...lol


Another thing I love to do with solid stamps is to just ink up the outline like I did with the heart on the inside of this card!



And I'll leave you for now with a wee Valentines treat bag I made using the Lace pattern embossed in white. I just love that wee touch of lace for Valentines and other lovey dovey things! I expect my Mum will see it all over her Mothers day cards this year too! LOL


The heart was punched with the EK success heart punch mentioned above and I then used it as a template a drew around it onto white card. I cut it out with pinking shears to make a dinky wee mat that helps 'lift' it from the red background!


Hope they tickle!

...chocolat....mmmmmm January 2010 Release

I'm cheating slightly!! LOL. Yep, I'm previewing my new set, Sweethearts, which is due for release in the next day or two, BUT I'm also showing you another set, Faux Fun, which will follow hot on the heels of the Sweethearts release!! In effect there will be two sets released, one will be available for purchase in the next day or two, the other will go on sale next week!!

I did intend only to release one set in January but the other set is so packed full of frillies that it simply screams to be out in time for Valentines Day, so I'm pulling it forward!! lol! Hope you don't mind!

The upshot is that the January release is split - one set available this week, one set available next week!!

And Yes, of course It will be possible to have both ship together if you like both sets!! I'll explain later.


The Sentiment is from the Sweethearts clear photopolymer stamp set releasing this week! Tempted to open it tomorrow...but I've a few samples to get through, we'll see. I dressed up today's box to be a suitable gift container for sweets. It's eminently suitable for Valentine's but it's also good for any other time you might want to give sweets. It so happens this box is destined for my DH but I can see me using that particular sentiment on gifts of all sorts for my children!!

This sentiment fits beautifully in my fancy label die from who else but Spellbinders!!lol.

I used the large spotty heart from the Sweethearts set. It is easily punched out with an EK success paper shapers heart - (it's a pink punch, I believe the smaller pink heart punch also works with the med size heart from this stamp set, Bonnie used it on a card but I don't own the smaller punch to show you here, however I'm remedying that as we speak...lol)

I then used one of the smaller hearts stamps from the set and over stamped it on the spotty heart. Once dry I glossed over it with some of that Ranger glossy accents stuff, love that goo, the way it dries shiny, it makes it look like one of those wee dome sticker thingies!!lol



On the inside of the box lid below you can clearly see a lace border satmp - this is one of the stamps from next weeks set - Faux Fun. Here, I've embossed it in gold to match my colour scheme, which comes from the sweets I'm giving away in my box. I also lined the inside of the box with a co-ordinating gold card.



I've used the lace stamp again on the outside of my box (the cardstock was stamped and embossed before sticking to the box), I love how it fills the space with lots of detail and interest without being too busy. I deliberately finished the end of the lace stamp with one pointed end and one grooved end. This allows you to make longer lengths of 'lace' for scrapbook pages etc, tho the border stamp is a cracking 6 and 1/4 inches long!

Below you can see how I arranged the stamping so that the pointed end of the lace stamp just finishes before the point of the box on both sides and also on top where I stamped it with versamark.


I covered my box completely in card, and I want to share a few tips with you for doing this. The top of the box was easy. I just traced around the lid and cut out the heart shape for the top. I versamarked and 'gilded' the edges with gold embossing powder and the heat tool. As well as looking pretty nifty it camoflages 'wobbly' cutting! LOL.

Before adhering the heart to the top of the box I covered the sides of the lid. I taped the card to the sides easily enough and made plenty of snips along the top so's I could fold the excess down. It's not necessary really, I'm just a footerer. I could have cut the card the exact height of the lid and just stuck the large heart shape on top but If you're going to do that, take a moment to go along the 'raw' edges of your box with a matching copic marker, or even a matching child's marker, I didn't have the matching brown and so I used a brown felt tip that Santa left one of the wee folk! lol. Scroll down to see the areas I coloured before covering my box, it makes the final presentation so much neater and professional. There are no pale patches of box showing out anywhere.



Here is the product I started with, its a set of 3 card boxes from Ikea. I used the middle sized box. They are fab and come with this fancy open work lid, which I didn't need on this occasion as I wanted mine plain. You could of course use any heart shaped cardboard box, I just thought I'd show you what I used.


Hope it tickles!!

...Seasons of Love - everyday! Sept new stamps day 8

...and Competition!

ED - the competition is now closed - click here to see who won!!

OOOh, I am so tired this eve!! lol we just finished putting together my daughters new bed (Ikea!) and we're frantically trying to get her room organised!

Anyhow just time to pop on and put up a few examples of how you can use Seasons of love - Tags outside of Christmas!! (this new, clear stamp set is due for release here on the blog on the 29th, next Tuesday!!)

The scrap page above (8x8) uses the heart tag coupled with the little co-ordinating journalling lines so's you can write a little note!! I think this is so sweet - amd many thanks to my big chickie for letting me use her pic!! - It's a couple of years old and she's happy that her school buddies might not recognise her!! - I think it's lovely!! kids!!

The card below shows the heart tag made up for the other major Season of Love - Valentines day!!!!!! there are even a couple of sentiments in the set geared towards Valentines!!! Papers from both projecs are Cosmo Cricket. Everafter I think, but don't quote me...


This little baby card features the star from Seasons of Love - Tags and the sentiment and baby face are from the already released Say it with style available now in the store.

The spotty background is from to up coming Off Beat Backgrounds (releasing next Tue) as is the subtle stitched border - either side of the ribbon. I did stamp the ribbon with polka dots to match the background but the memento ink I used has spread throughout the ribbon, made it a rather nice pale blue...should'a used Palette...lol



Hope they tickle.

I have so much more that I wanted to show you with the Seasons of love tags but tomorrow I really need to move on to another set - there are still two you haven't even seen yet, and I'm running out of time...!!lol!!

Oh Nearly forgot!! Huge competition!!

Right - Up for grabs is the entire release!! One each of the 6 new sets releasing next Tuesday could be yours if you would like to enter this competition!!!

BUT I want you to do something for it!! lol, I want you to make a card, it's a sort of a challenge, lol!! Use your favourite stamp, any stamp, i don't care who made it, but it must be your favourite, obviously, I'll be tickled beyond belief if it happens to be one of mine!! lol

AND - use the colour green!!, lots of green, any shade! lol, of course you can use other colours as well!

Post it on your blog, or SCS, or a gallery somewhere and leave a link here in the comments for this post and tell me why it's your favourite stamp.

I tried to get a Mr Linky up and running but alas, it won't work for me...

Make sure you link to the exact post and not just your general blog url, it will save us all time if we don't have to go hunting for it! lol. OOh and one entry each please, so make it a goodie!! lol !

You have until Sunday night! - I will announce the winner, chosen by random number generator, on Monday.!! Quick!! run!!

...Journaling card

There are a million reasons why I don't scrapbook (yet), time, where to start etc. God knows I have plenty of photos, but I do love Journaling cards.

Wanted to make a quick card with this Journaling card from the Bloom paper kit from My Minds Eye (In stock at Precious Scraps). Angled it, cut out a heart (nestabilities), stamped a simple image (Beyond basic borders - PTI), little bit of sponging and added some sparkle.

Dark chocolate ink and ribbon (PTI), and a bit of matching sheer from my stash.

Hope it tickles.

...valentine's card

Made this the other night while footering about with some PTI stamps - It's busy, busy, but it was fun to make - everything is PTI except the brad - papermania I think.

Hope you are all gearing up for a lovely Valentine's day - I've been busy with PTI challenges all week and haven't had a chance to make himself a card yet - must make an effort!! Lol.

Happy Tuesday!!

...love notes

Look what I made with the papers from the Irresistible paper pack from My Mind's Eye - Beverly at Precious Scraps sent me this pack and you can get this paper from Beverly as her brick and mortar and online stores are opening any day now !!!

I covered a tin to present three wee cards in. I want to thank my buddy Serendipity also - the raffia I tied round the tin came in a little box of trinkets that she sent me as a RAK!!!

I have nothing approaching a large flower punch so I cut ovals with my nestabilities and layered them to make a flower shape, a weeny cuttlebug flower makes the centre. Just about everything is edged in versafine scarlet ink.

All of the paper in this wee set is from that one pack. I just used a bit of pink cardstock for the little card bases.

hope it tickles.

...it was Alli's fault

Alli Miles made a card using the swiss dots embossing folder and score lines together - it was gorgeous, see it here. (hope that's not one of those bold hot link thingies, haven't quite got my head round that yet.)

I so need a light box tent thingy - sorry about the poor pics.

Anyhow - after spotting that I was inspired to try something similar - I laid out a few nestability dies and ran my orange card (It could be PTI summer sunrise, not sure tho' - it was a scrap) through the cuttlebug, then I scored some lines and rubed it all over with orange ink (Versacolour). Paired it up with some more of that Basic Grey Ambrosia paper and added ribbon.

I don't usually take pics of the insides of my cards but I thought this one was worth a look.

The sentiment is from PTI Mixed Messages.

Hope it tickles.

...Happy Valentine's Day

I hate to leave Christmas behind (and I haven't quite yet - few things to show you soon,) but When a box of goodies containing these glorious My Minds eye papers arrived at my door, I had to jump into Valentines mode.

My friend Beverly Nash is opening a store soon (card making/scrapbooking supplies of course) and she sent me these papers. Beverly is one of the loveliest people I know and she is working extremely had to get her store ready, she's hoping for a February opening but she also hopes to be online soon - I really hope you all pop over to her Blog and check out the IMMENSE amount of work this lady has undertaken.

Anyhow the upshot is that very soon there will be a new place for you to go if you are handy to Dover, Tennessee, and also a new place for you to go if you are handy to the internet!!

In the meantime I think Beverly is taking requests by email which you can find on her blog, or even leave a comment - I know things are hectic for Beverly at the moment so go easy on her!! I can't wait till opening day!! It's going to be fantastic and Beverly so deserves every success, she has worked SOOO hard - you folks have no idea. (Good luck Beverly and God Bless!)

Back to the pics, I had an idea for a cute gift box in the shape of a tower and I made the original for the Guest Star Stamper monthly competition over at PTI. It's in the January comp so you won't be able to see it yet, but credit for this version must go to my 8 year old daughter. She saw my other one and drew me a diagram of a Rapunzel (you know, she of the long hair) looking out the window in a tower.

I grabbed the papers Beverly sent me and got to it - I am so happy about how it turned out!! It's not that I think I'm wonderful, it's just that my daughter really, really likes it. I think it's the perfect Valentines treat for anyone's little girl, I have to make another one now for my other wee woman.

I Used PTI Dark chocolate cardstock as my base and stuck sections of patterned paper to that. I cut the wee window out of the paper and folded it out to make shutters, lining it with some of the dark chocolate cardstock that I had run through the cuttlebug in a textured embossing folder, I used this for the tower roof as well - I rubbed it over with PTI cream ink to pick out the detail.

A piece of recycled clear plastic from a PTI carrier sheet (those things your stamps come on) is the actual window and I used a 1/2 inch circle punch to cut Lavender moon cardstock to make Rapunzel's face. Same punch to cut the crescent shape that makes her wee wimple thingy and the triangle for the hat are the lovely Gold shimmer cardstock also from PTI. Her 'hair' is a random piece of yarn that was lying around here, probably for 10 years or more waiting to be needed.

The patterned papers are all from the My Mind's eye 'Quite Smitten' collection, and they are all over the card as well - beautiful papers that go so well with chocolate, mmmm chocolate - I thought I'd fill my box with Chocolate fudge brownies - I cut them into smallish squares and they stack up quite nicely in the tall box, wrapped a little baking paper around them to stop them gooing up my box.

Thought the "Be my Princess?' sentiment was quite appropriate since this was going to my wee daughter and I used the wee PTI alphabet stamp set. Since I was too lazy to line it up neatly, I used the excuse that I wanted a 'whimsical' touch, and let it wobble all over the place. Embossed it with white embossing powder to give it strength to stand out.

Scalloped and plain heart nestabilities on the card.

The 'flagpole' s a cocktail stick inked up with dark chocolate ink.

Hope it tickles - and don't forget to click over to Beverly's place!!

...a thank you card

This is a thank you card for my very best friend Bob who very kindly let us stay in her tent over the weekend. They were camping in Sligo and we went down to visit Bob and her family for the day and didn't go home!! We had a great time - our kids are all friends - and the craic was great. Edit - craic here refers to the banter/chat/fun that people have when they get together - i'm kinda scared to ask what it means in the US... I had to change the post because i spelled it as it sounds earlier and aparently that means something I don't want to be associated with!!

I'm going to give this card to her later today but there's just a chance she might see it here before I get to her house! lol, she sometimes reads my blog - so if you're there Bob - a big thank you from all of us - we loved camping with you!!!

I stamped the red squirrel from the My Punny Valentine onto shrink plastic and roasted it with the heat gun (on loan from Bob ). I made the background patterned paper using the PTI Guidelines set and a stamp from the Faux ribbon set. The Guidelines set is so good - I spent a while playing around with it and the possibilities are endless.

The sentiment is from Year round Puns - also PTI - stamped on a little square cut with scalloped nestabilities. I used a making memories slot punch tool to cut the tiny flaps to hold the square in place. Plain brads hold the chocolate ribbons on.

Hope you like your red squirrel Bob. see ya later.