justBstamping.blogspot.ca: August 2017

Wednesday 30 August 2017

Baby Quilt Card & Gift Card Holder

I love babies, particularly now that my baby is a seven-year-old video game and sports fanatic with little time for cuddling. That may be why I instantly saw pretty little baby quilts when I first saw the new Quilt Builder Framelits and matching Christmas Quilt stamp set. Is there anything sweeter than a newborn wrapped in a pretty little quilt? Or an infant playing blocks on the quilt spread on the floor? But I digress.

My mom is an avid (and fantastic) quilter, and I know I'll be making her a card for her birthday next month with this set, but I had to get baby quilts out of my system first! The bundle also has a matching paper pack full of gorgeous stitched paper in Real Red and Garden Green (hence the Christmas connection), as well as some coordinating embellishments. This is such a fun set to play with that I made some samples in Christmas colours for my upcoming Holiday Catalogue Open House (September 9, see my events page for more details) too! I could spend all day mixing and matching!

Yep, that's a match baby sock gift card holder you see--how cute is that?! I took another Christmas set, the Christmas Stocking Thinlits, and made a 3D sock with a pocket that is perfectly sized to hold a gift card for the new mother's favourite baby store.

Here is a close up of the quilted front of the card...

Can you see that beautiful stitched embossing folder background? It is sooo pretty in real life! To make my quilt I cut the die out of Whisper White and Powder Pink cardstock. I inked a floral stamp in the set with Melon Mambo on Powder Pink to make the centre of my quilted square, inlaying the pieces into the Whisper White frame (a modern take on paper piecing). I used the same floral stamp with some Smoky Slate ink to make some contrasting pieces, and then stamped the corner pieces with another stamp from the set. Did you notice the beautiful Smoky Slate stitching? That was stamped after assembling the whole piece! Such a delicate detail to really finish off the look.

The quilted square was mounted onto a Powder Pink panel, and then on to the embossed Whisper White panel, and finally onto the Melon Mambo card base. I added a strip of Whisper White with a sentiment from the Happy Birthday Gorgeous stamp set, stamped in Basic Gray, and I stamped the inside of the card with a cross-stitched border stamp.

In the name of gender equality, I had to make a set in blue too! I used several different colours to make my quilted square here, and so removed one of the mats, as I thought there was already enough going on. The colour combination of Pool Party, Night of Navy, Bermuda Bay, and Smoky Slate are just manly enough for a special little boy.

I used the same embossing folder for the blue set, but I used it to de-boss the paper, which offers a different look altogether. You can really see it in the picture above.

I think they make a very pretty and unique way to celebrate with a special mom-to-be!

Thanks for stopping by!
Barb

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Monday 21 August 2017

Frozen Lemonade (or Strawberry Daiquiri?)

Well, that was another whirlwind weekend!

On Friday I hosted my watercolouring class and it was a lot of fun! I had a great time showing three different ways to watercolour, and while the "smooshing" technique was a little tricky, I think my three classmates were happy with their completed projects. Crafting with some like-minded people was a great way to unwind after a long and stressful work week.

We also had soccer finals this weekend (on both Saturday and Sunday, as all three kids played soccer again this summer). A's team ended up winning the tournament, after almost being eliminated in their very first game, so it was an exciting run, although time consuming as they played three games to get to the end! S's team turned in a very fun performance (it's so much fun to watch 7-year-olds play!), and M's team put in a solid game on Sunday. We have another round of medals/trophies to add to the shelf, and will be putting away the cleats and shin pads for another year.

Although I enjoyed all of our weekend activities, they didn't leave a lot of time for crafting! I did get a card or two created though, and I also worked on some items for my upcoming Holiday Catalogue Launch Party! I'll be hosting an Open House on Saturday, September 9th and showcasing some of the fabulous new products for Fall, Halloween and Christmas. Check out my Events Page in the next few weeks for more details.

On to this week's card....

It was a HOT week last week as we made our way through the Dog Days of Summer. I have already designed my Coffee Café items for my September Card Class (Sept 15), one of which is an iced coffee card, perfect for sending to someone you haven't seen all summer, but are ready to catch up with as the summer winds down. I, however, do not drink coffee. I'm a frozen lemonade girl, with the occasional frozen daiquiri or margarita added in for good measure :). And that is what is inspired my blog card this week:

Yep, that's more watercolouring! This time I tried "no line" watercolouring, and I think it turned out very well (although I could use some more practice for sure!). I also used a new double-bow-tying technique, which was so easy, you'll be sure to see more of those bows moving forward!

This is such a simple but pretty summery card, and the watercolouring is really the star of the show. I started by stamping the coffee cup from the Coffee Café bundle in Crumb Cake (just use the lightest colour ink you have on hand) on watercolour paper, and then used a combination of Melon Mambo and Powder Pink with my aqua painter to create the lemonade. I then cut out the finished cup with the coordinating framelits from the bundle. The sentiment is from the Mixed Drinks set and I stamped it on watercolour paper, then adhered the straw (in Basic Black, and again cut with the coordinating die) to a stitched oval.

I used the Timeless Textures stamp set to create a very subtle background of water rings, and I love that this set pairs so well with the Coffee Café set. This was mounted onto a piece of Powder Pink cardstock, after I had tied the Powder Pink bow. The Basic Black card base really helps that Melon Mambo pop!

Here's another view:

I think anyone would love to receive this card and an invitation to get together and catch up on how their summer has gone!

My countdown is on to my vacation week next week, where I hope to spend a lot of time creating holiday items for my open house, between doing last minute summer fun with the kids, and getting them ready for back-to-school. The time will fly for sure!

See you next time,
Barb
justBstamping

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Friday 18 August 2017

Blog Hop Featuring Carols of Christmas

Welcome to my first blog hop--I'm so excited you landed here! I enjoy being part of the Tri-City Stampers so much and am always inspired by what my teammates create, so I hope I represent myself well!

This month's hop theme featured the Carols of Christmas set, which I adore! It's so easy to make a beautiful Christmas card with these large central images and very little else. I also have the coordinating Card Builder Thinlits, which really helped amp up the overall look. This stamp set is available as a pre-order for customers, ahead of the official catalogue launch on September 1. It's a great way to get a head start on your Christmas crafting! Just click on the shopping link (to the right) to check out all the other great stamps in this set.

Here is my card!

This is yet another one those times where I wish I could take lovely photos. :( The upper half of this card in real life is so pretty with the silver heat embossing on the sentiment, as well as the "night sky" I stamped across the upper edge of the front panel. Hopefully you can use your imagination!

As I said, I heat embossed the sentiment and star/snowflakes in silver on a Basic Grey panel. I used the tree dies in the Card Builder framelit set to make a tree line out of Whisper White that was adhered directly on to the panel, and then cut a few extra trees which I popped up on dimensionals in front of the background trees, to create some depth. Check out the photo below to really see that layering effect.

Hmm, not sure if that stands out or not? I see a photography class in my future!

I tied a pretty bow in the wonderful new Powder Pink finely woven ribbon (absolutely lovely ribbon to work with!!), and then adhered my panel onto a Basic Grey card base.

Because my card front is very simple and clean I decided to keep the inside fairly simple as well. I used one of the Card Builder dies twice to create the border around my inside panel. It's a very versatile die, as it can be used on any length of rectangle, and you can even use it just once to dress up either the top or the bottom of the piece. I used a stamp from the new Hearts Come Home stamp set for the inside sentiment, as I thought the reference to "peace" really suited this design.

And for good measure, here is one more picture of the full card.

Please continue hopping and check out the ways my teammates used this great set. They are sure to inspire you!

A La Cards (Leena)

Hofkissed (Stephanie)

LollyandSand (Sandy)

Until next time, I'll justBstamping--will you? :)

Barb

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Sunday 13 August 2017

Growing Old(er) with Humor

I don't know about you, but I stopped counting my birthdays several years ago. I didn't, however, lose track of the count for those people who are, and will always be, older than me! The way I see it, the only way to feel better about getting old is to make fun of the people who get there before you. :) Kind of like a bait and switch.

My second oldest sister celebrated her birthday last week and this was a prime opportunity to have some fun! I knew just the stamp set I wanted to use: the Five for All set has a bunch of fun sentiment pairs to make any birthday a little easier to take. Once I had decided which one I was going with, I knew exactly how I wanted the completed card to look.

I thought the sentiment alluded to the big philosophical question most of us face as we get older, so I wanted to make the card reflect that sort of "big picture" thinking. I inked a street scene in Whisper White on Basic Black cardstock using the In the City hostess set, and then white embossed the first half of the sentiment below. I sponged the light glow in Crushed Curry just above the sky line of the buildings. Then I sponged the night sky in Night of Navy, letting it naturally get lighter as it got closer to the skyline. It's hard to see in the picture but I added some sparkly stars with my Wink of Stella pen. The street scene is attached to the night sky with dimensionals, and then the whole thing is matted to some silver glimmer paper before adding it to the Night of Navy card base.

The inside sentiment reads "...like 'Why did I walk into this room?'". Funny, because I know I do that all the time!! And I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. There's nothing quite as demoralizing as standing in front of a filing cabinet seriously trying to remember what you walked two feet to get! And there are so many more great funny sentiments in this set, and not just about getting older, so I know I'm going to get lots of use out of it.

Now for some news: I am very excited to be joining the Tri-City Stampers Blog Hop this month! Stay tuned for my post later this week (Friday) and then please make sure you check out the other blogs, as they always have amazing work to showcase.

See you Tuesday!
Barb

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Five For All Clear-Mount Stamp Set

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