Swedish Christmas

Do you have stamps that you buy and then they sit unused for months? I do and today I unearthed a stamp and some paper that I bought a year ago when I took a trip to Sweden to visit my brother and his family.

My sister-in-law, Helene, is a scrapbooker and she took me to a store called Panduro Hobby, which is similar to the Michaels or Hobby Craft. I can't believe I've had this stamp for a year and not used it - I have 2 others that I bought as well that I should blow the dust off!


The card base is a Fabriano watercolor card and the extras are from Stampin' Up! - a rhinestone and some cherry cobbler seam binding.

I made this card for today's Splitcoast CAS Challenge and Our Creative Corner's Christmas Tree Challenge.

Note: I have a Cyber Monday sale going on in my Etsy store today. And don't forget to check out my new Vintage Page Facebook page.

Happy Stamping!

Ali

First Xmas Card

I made my first Christmas card of the season today for the Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple Challenge, which was a sketch this week.

You'll be amazed to read that this is actually a current SU stamp set called Beautiful Season - I know I usually use my trusted retired sets. I really needed some new holiday stamps, so I treated myself to this one and I love it!

The red c/stock and ribbon are Cherry Cobbler, but I didn't have the ink, so I substituted it with Ranger Distress ink in Barn Red and the match is pretty good. I popped up the little bird on dimensionals and gave the holly berries some pizzazz with Ranger's Rock Candy.


Have you started your Christmas or holiday cards yet? I'm sure you probably have, but at least I've made a start :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Ali

Cupcake Challenge and a Giveaway

Good morning!

I have a clean and simple card to share this morning and a chance to win some of my notebooks.

Janice over at Artisan Crafted wrote a very nice post about my store today and if you scroll to the bottom you have a chance to win a stack of my music notebooks! Head over there and take a peek. While you're there, take a good look around because there's a ton of inspiration on this lovely blog. Thank you, Janice!

Here's today's quick card. It's for the Splitcoast CAS challenge, which is to use cupcakes. This couldn't have come at a better time because my daughter just got invited to a birthday party at a bakery - how much fun is that going to be? They didn't have parties at bakeries when I was 12, but that is a very long time ago :)



The stamp set I used is an old SU hostess set called Out of the Box and the Valentine patterned paper is also a retired SU paper. At least I'm using up my old stuff, right?

Have a wonderful day and don't forget to head over to Artisan Crafted!

Ali

Clean and Simple Halloween Card

I've been away all weekend in Vermont scouring antique stores for vintage paper goodies :) And man, did I get some beauties. I can't wait to photograph them and put them in the store. They are so awesome! I've been busy catching up on emails and orders and didn't think I'd have to stamp, but.....

I couldn't resist today's Splitcoast Clean and Simple challenge because it was a really great CAS sketch. My desk was still covered in Halloween items, so I pulled this together this afternoon.

The main image is from an SU set called House of Haunts and so is all the c/stock. The strip of text is the gothic text from my Etsy store and the main image is stamped on this too (an edge piece with no text on it).

Note: I don't have many of these packs of gothic text left. Get 'em while you can :)

I created the moon in the background by creating a reverse circle mask from a 1 1/4" circle punch and a post-it note, then sponged Dusty Durango ink to create the moon.

I was also intrigued by today's Ways to Use It challenge, which was to use a #2 or HB pencil on your project. I immediately thought of fog and mist with this image, you can see the close up here (hopefully). I shaded with the pencil and then used a blending stump to blur it.

Hope you're having a good start to your week :)

Ali

Paper Pieced Bird Cage

Monday is Splitcoast's Clean and Simple challenge day - my favorite (non Gingersnaps) challenge! I was in danger of missing it because of an emergency visit to the vet with my friend's dog, who we are looking after. Thankfully, all is well and I finally finished my card at 8pm.


The challenge is to use paper piecing on a clean and simple card. It turned out rather understated, but I like it nonetheless.


The bird cage stamp is from B Line Designs and the sentiment is Amuse. The patterned paper is a 6x6 pad called Queen Bee by Pink Paislee.

That's all for now - off to give the poorly dog his medicine :(

Have a good night!

Ali

Candy Winner & Leaf Card

The winner of my blog candy is.....comment #11, Donna from Paper Crows and Dragonflies! Congratulations, Donna! Send me an email at alimanning@charter.net with your address and I will mail out your prize.

Today's card was made for the Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple challenge, which is to use leaves.

I had just been fooling around with some of that French dictionary paper that was still on my desk from the butterfly card a couple of days ago (yes, can you believe I didn't clean up?!)


I mounted a piece of the dictionary paper onto c/stock because I knew I was going to abuse it. I sponged on various Fall colored dye inks, dry brushed on gesso and once dry, sponged a little more ink around the edges.

I then ran the colored dictionary page through my Big Shot with a leaf die. While I had the Big Shot out, I embossed a square on the card base with a Nestabilities die.

The sentiment is from Amuse. That's it - quick and easy!

Herringbone Card

It's been ages since I took part in one of my favourite challenges, the Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple Challenge. But I took advantage of a free half an hour this morning to participate. This week it's a sketch challenge.



To create the panel, I used the Herringbone technique (Technique Junkies newsletter Dec 09/Jan 10) with strips of a retired Stampin' Up! paper cut into 1/4" strips. I love this technique for using up the piles of patterned paper I have, especially SU packs or 6x6 pads from companies, such as Basic Grey. Because all the colors coordinate, it takes the guess work out of choosing different papers from different manufacturers and making sure the colors and patterns look good together.

The sentiment is also Stampin' Up! from the Upsy Daisy set.

Don't forget to enter to win my blog candy in the post below - there are only 6 days left!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ali

Emboss Resist Ferns

I had a little time today between loads of laundry, so I checked out today Clean and Simple challenge on Splitcoaststampers. It's a great sketch by Regina. I still had Rogue Redhead's Floriculture on my work table, so I reached for my favorite from the set, the fern and created an emboss resist panel.


Firstly, I stamped some script onto a cream background, then stamped the ferns with Versamark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I sponged Kiwi Kiss and Old Olive (both SU) inks over the entire piece. Finally, I stamped some more ferns on top with Old Olive, stamping off several times to get a shadow effect. Here's a closer look:


Oops - I hear the washing machine beeping. Time for another load - sigh.....

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful week,

Ali

Finally, Some New Cards

I finally stamped! These are the first cards I've made in 2011 - can you believe that? I think I've had stampers' block or may be I just needed a break! Anyhow, I'm happy with how this trio turned out. They're very clean and simple - just how I like it.


The first card is for the Gingersnap's Supply Challenge - charms. I included two silver leaf charms, which I tied onto a piece of Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon with linen thread.


The other two cards are for this week's Splitcoast Clean and Simple challenge. All three cards have Fabriano watercolor card bases and the main panel is also 140lb Fabriano watercolor paper. I love this stuff!



The leaf image is from Memory Box and is watercolored with various shades of green ink. All sentiments on the cards are from Stampin' Up!

Note: We are having a Design Team Call at Gingersnap Creations at the moment. Check it out!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful day!

Ali

Faux Letterpress Wedding Card

I played the Clean and Simple challenge on Splitcoast this morning. This week they challenge you to use a technique called Faux Letterpress.

I've also seen the technique called Brayered Folder and it is almost identical to TJ technique called Cuttlebug Smoosh (Oct/Nov 07), which uses a rainbow ink pad. The basic idea is to ink the inside of a Cuttlebug embossing folder and run it through your die cutting machine with some neutral card stock. Very simple, but very effective.

This is a wedding card I made with the technique - it's for a friend whose getting married this weekend. I used Bashful Blue ink and vanilla c/stock for the piece of Faux Letterpress. I finished it off with an SU sentiment, some taffeta ribbon and flat pearls. Pretty clean and simple, I'd say.

Don't forget to enter for the blog candy in the post below!

Happy stamping,

Ali

Split Stamping Personality

There hasn't been much stamping or blogging going on here for the past few weeks, I'm afraid. That's what happens during school vacation. I have a little down time this week because my daughter is in camp and I finally managed to stamp today.

I have two cards to share - one I made for a tutorial I wrote on Gingersnaps, but haven't had time to blog. The background behind the woman is a sun print made using a chemically treated paper. You can read how it's done here. I restamped the image (from Artistic Outpost) on cream c/stock and cut out the woman and adhered her on top of the sun print. The pale blue background was made using the Sanded Whitewash technique (TJ newsletter Aug 09).


And the second card is for today's Clean and Simple Challenge on Splitcoast - it's been an age since I did that challenge. It's for my husband because we celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary next week.


Together they highlight my split stamping personality! Generally, I go for botanical, vintage and collage images, but I also have what I call my 'Papertrey' side. I love the clean lines of some of the modern images, such as this one from Stampin' Up (Cute by the Inch).

Quick Tip:

I love these Pitt Artist pens from Faber Castell and use them all the time. They have four different nibs - brush, medium, fine and super fine, and are waterproof and smudge-proof.


I like to run the brush tip along the edge of inchies (or other punched shapes) for definition and these work great. The super fine nib is good for filling in missing parts of a stamped image. Or the dots on this card. Their uses are infinite and at $11 - a real bargain. I got mine at an art supply store, but I'm sure Michaels and other big box retailers sell them too.

Here's hoping for more stamping time tomorrow.

Happy Stamping!

Ali