...Feb 2010 release Day 1

Kicking off my samples for this release are 'the guys' - I LOVE these wee chicks.

Once you've had a peep here, pop over to Belinda's and Laurie's to see what they're previewing today!! And don't forget to call back tomorrow, I'll have more samples and links to more DT previews!! AND - you won't want to miss Thursday's release!! we'll be having another blog hop!! There will be eye candy galore and PRIZES to be won!!

From the soon to be released set L'il Buddies, these guys are two separate stamps, so you can team them up here for when you might need two chicks. I've used them to make a card to welcome twins, I know twins don't pop up every day but the sentiment was so minimal it hardly took up any room in the set and since the guys are separate, they can be used loads of different ways.

I stamped them in memento Paris Dusk, I cheated slightly by inking the stamps with the rich cocoa first so's the blue would be even darker and then I coloured them with copics.

I used the knitted border frame from another new set Vintage circles 2 to frame the l'il guys and then cut them out with a spellbinders classic circle from the Classic circles small set.

I made a center band with cream card stamped with the knit texture from Faux Fun (available here) and wrapped a little co-ordinating ribbon around. I stamped the card base with the chequerboard stamp from Off Beat Backgrounds (available here) in versamark just to give the card some depth.


Inside I used the knit frame again and the sentiment 'how tweet!' - which is also suitable for plenty other occasions.


I thought green was a good choice for this 'get well soon card', lol.
I used another stamp from L'il Buddies, the chick pecking at crumbs, together with the sentiment 'feeling crummy?' I 'highlighted' the word crummy with a copic marker that toned with the green card.

Inside the card, one of the chicks from the first card stands beside the punny sentiment 'hope you re-coop soon' geddit?? lol, I'm just cracking myself up!! lol. I'm sorry, I can hear you groaning! I just love punny sentiments! Again a co-ordinating copic marker highlights the pun. I like this casual touch for these punny cards.


This third card completes my trio of chick cards for today, the chick in egg stamp is a complete stamp. The plain egg stamp comes from the Spring Baskets set but matches the chick's egg so I used it here to make a little pattern. I coloured with copics. A simple sentiment completes the card. I really need some more copics, could have done with a darker pink to round out those eggs, they look pretty in real life but the photo really flattens them!!!


Hope they tickle and I hope to see you back here again tomorrow for more!! Thanks for stopping by!

...Today's second Post - Say it with style

You might like to scroll down to see what else was posted today!! If you're new here, you might be interested to know I'm releasing 4 new stamp sets on Sunday!! scroll down to see the samples I've been posting all week!! I'll be announcing the winner of the competition later this evening about 11pm my time, here on the blog and if you don't have any luck in that you could call back tomorrow for another competition and the samples to my next set, as yet unseen! All shipping and cost info will be here on the blog on Sunday in the release post!! look forward to seeing you!


Remember this morning I said you didn't need the labels 4 die to use the frame in the Say it with Style stampset? Well for this sweet little baby card I cut the sentiment and frame out as a plain rectangle and then used a fancy corner punch to add some nice detail to the corners - I think it works beautifully! I couldn't resist adding a little babyface stamp,complete with curl, to the set.

I love it when things have a dual purpose and the heart shapes that I used to stamp the background on the baby card also make fab leaves! There are two sizes of heart/leaf shapes which compliment the three sizes of flower stamps - also in the Say it with Style stampset. You can see them below in the Christmas card. If I had more than 2 red copics I could have done a lovely shading job on the petals!!! They're on my wish list!

The Say it with Style stampset is a very versatile set. The images have been designed with flowing lines of varying thickness that echo the text. The flowers especially are so easy to colour and cut out and would be so suitable for paper piecing.


Right now I gotta run and colour some angels! oops!

Hope they tickle.

Celtic Heritage Day 3

Oh my gosh, I have so many things I want to show you all - there are quite a few images in the Celtic Heritage set. I really spent a long time stuffing as many things in as I could - I seem to be obsessed with fitting as much in as I can - I can't tell you how long I spent just rearranging all the elements to make them fit onto the carrier sheets. There were stamps that didn't make the cut - I may have to do another Celtic set sometime lol!

If you are new to my blog, I just want to let you know that I started my own stamp line last month and I am releasing my next two stampsets early next week, I am aiming to put everything up for sale on Tuesday, which feels like a long way away right now, but I have so much to get through, I'm hoping it will be enough time!!

This mornings first card features a fun baby image, I can't make baby cards without thinking of a certain person who makes baby cards daily, I wonder what she'll make of this one!! lol. It's a little baby wrapped in a 'cable' or 'plaited' blanket. I particularly love this wee image so much that I made two - one solid image that you see here and one 'open' image suitable for colouring or paperpiecing, which you will see later.

I love how you can bend clear stamps - like I did for the 'Congratulations on your' sentiment, tho it's always important to 'unbend them and let them get back to their natural shape as soon as you have finished using them in this way. You don't want to distort the stamp permanently.

The New Baby sentiment is made up from two separate sentiment stamps 'A New' and 'Baby' - I just wiped the excess ink off the letter 'A' before stamping.

The background was stamped in cream ink using one of the lunette stamps I mentioned yesterday. I so love that stamp - it is such a versatile image.

The panel on which the baby is stamped is a nestabilities label 4 with the sides trimmed off to give a nice thin panel. The sentiment banner was made by placing two circular dies, one inside the other annd then using this to cut cream cardstock - you get a nice donut ring shape that you can trim down and cut tails in to make a banner like mine.

This mornings' second card pairs the Claddagh design from yesterday with one of the Irish Blessings. I love all of these sentiments and, like the Celtic Heritage images, they are so appropriate for a wide variety of occasions. This particular blessing is a Toast, probably intended for a bride and groom but I think the sentiment extends to all who live under one roof - including warring siblings! It's a nice way of wishing someone prosperity (may your roof be well thatched) and harmony at home.

I'll be back later today with some more bits and pieces.

The baby card uses Hibiscus ink and card and Vintage cream ink and card from PTI. The Claddagh card used PTI Vintage cream card, Cosmo cricket everafter paper and Palette Raw sienna ink and Distress ink, can't remember what shade brown if you really need to know, leave a comment! Lol.