Kanga and Roo Punch Art

My second punch art creation with a "Down Under" theme is a momma kangaroo and her little joey, or Kanga and Roo if you like.

I created a scenic background based on images I found online depicting Australia's Outback.

I used my trusty Sizzix dies again for the sand, grass and tree.
The background was embossed and sponged with a little blue ink around the clouds. Although I used the Darice cloud folder, you could easily use the SU cloud one as well.

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Ink: Sky Blue - Colorbox, the rest are SU: Cajun Craze, Old Olive, Soft Suede, Pumpkin Pie, basic Black
Stamp: Many Happy Returns - SU
Dies: sand/snow mount and grass - Sizzix (old red Sizzix dies), Tree Branch - Tim Holtz
Embossing Folder: Clouds- Darice
Punches: (for greeting banner) Word Window and Modern Label - SU
Misc.: white gel pen, Black Zig Marker, foam mounting squares

Full Punch art instructions below

Koala Punch Art Card

I managed to finish the instructions for my little koala this morning (Mom Kangaroo and her little joey are a little more involved) so he's the one I'm sharing first.

 

My little Koala is sitting on the ground infront of what I hope can be mistaken for a eucalyptus plant (techinally the leaves are not the right shape but work with me please).

Here is what just the background looks like:

 

I hand cut the dirt/sandy ground. The "eucaluptus" consists of various leaf stem dies that I cut in a light and dark green sahde. I then inked the leaf edges in darket green and inked the stems in brown.

 

Supplies sed:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Greeting:  Teeny Tiny Wishes - SU

Punch: Speach Bubble/cloud - Emagination

Ink: All SU: Garden Green, Always Artichoke, Soft Suede, Pacific Point, Crumb Cake, Basic Black and for the Koala- Basic Gray and Sahara Sand

Die: Leafstem - Sizzix (Old die from the red Sizzix days)

Misc.: white gel pen, foam mounting squares (and I use a little red/pink chalk for the cheeks)

 

Full punch art instructions below.

Down Under Preview

I have been playing with my new camera and I think I have it almost figured out.
My Photos aren't perfect yet but they are getting there (lighting in my craft room is a bit of an issue at times).
I've managed a few acceptable preview shots and hopeg to have time this weekend to write the punch art recipes for my two litte critters from "Down Under".

Here's a quick preview for you:

Instructions coming this week; so check back soon.

Walrus beach card

After having created the adorablly sweet seal from my previous post I realized that the basics of the seal body could also be turned into a walrus.
That is how this little fellow came to be.

 

I created a serene beach background for him which made me think of summer vacation. Which seems to fit a "wish you were here" or a "missing you" greeting quite nicely.

 

Here is just the background:

 

I made good use of my old Sizzix dies (wave, sand/snow, and rocks). The embossed background was sponged with a little sky blue ink (it actually is a little darker than it shows in the photo).

 

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Stamp: So Many Sayings - SU

Embossing folder: Clouds - Darice (could use the SU one as well)

Dies: Old Sizzix (from the red machine) Wave, snow, rocks

Ink: for the sky  Colorbox Sky Blue, the rest are SU: Crumb Cake, Bermuda Bay, Tempting Turquoise and Basic Gray.

Misc.: foam mounting squares to attach the walrus and greeting (banners are hand cut)

 

Full punch art instructions below.

 

 

Circus Seal

Today I am sharing an adorable little Circus seal all ready to celebrate.

 

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Ink, all SU Garden Green, Real Red, Pacific Coast, Basic Gray, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake

Stamps: Express Yourself - SU, Pennant Parade - SU, Hardwood - SU

Punches: Petite Pennants Builder - SU (Ball uses the pennant and a 1" circle)

Dies: Oval Framelits -  SU (largest oval was used for the arena wall)

Misc.: blue/white butchers twine, foam mountin squares, white gel pen

 

Here is a  photo of just the card background, without the cute little seal.

 

And here are the punch art instructions for the little seal.

Gothic Greeting

You may not know this, especially considering I usually create rather cute and cuddly punch art, but I love a touch of goth. Today's card falls into that category.
It has a little bit of an antique touch featuring black, red and white. A hint of aged lace, some crackling, ink staining ... and voila.

 

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Stamps: French Script background - SU, Crackle background - IO, Mixed Medley - SU

Ink: Colorbox red, StazOn white.

Dies: Elegant Flourishes - Tim Holtz, Distressed Doily - Tim Holtz

Punches: 2" circle - PB, 1 3/4" scallop Circle - SU, 1 1/4" circle - PB, 1 1/4" Scallop circle - SU

Misc.: 3/8" dark red braid, 4 x 1/4" rhinestones, foam mounting squares 

 

On a side note, I received a parcel p/u notice in my mail box yesterday. So later tonight I should be the proud owner of a new camera. This means more cute punch art critters are on their way!

 

 

 

Craft Room Update

I'm pleased to advsie that my internet issues have been resolved. Apparently Shaw had an outage in my area of the city this morning.

I thought it high time to post an update on my craft room.
If you haven't peeked inside my little corner, the original post on my room is here.

First notable change is my little display wall that I have right at the entrance:

 

I display favourite creations and/or newest creations here.

 

The biggest change is to my peg board wall as I purchased two Expedit units (before they were discontinued) from Ikea. They offered much better storage for my small space.

You can really see difference when you look at the before:

 

and after photo (wow, those daylight bulbs really make a difference):

Please excuse the mess on the corner of my main worktable (you can see it in the bottom left of the photo)
As nice as the paper trays were they took up a lot of space. As you can see I have all my 12 x 12 and 8.5 x 11 paper in 6 cubes verses 3/4 of the wall space.
The small sterilite 3 drawer units (there are 4 in total) I now use for scrap paper. Each drawer stores a different colour (white/beige, yellows, oranges, pink/red, purple, blues, greens, teal/turquoise, naturals/bronws, black/gray, Specialty (metallix, glitter...) and patterned.
The rest of the horizontal Expedit unit serves as a work table top. This is where I permanently store my Scoreboard and my envelope board - it's always ready to use.

My Stamp desk has changed a little too, after all I have aquired quite a large number of stamps in the past 2 + years. And I also converted almost all my wood mount stamps to cling.

 

I added small inserted images of the drawer content to my after photo as it gives a better overview.

 

There are also a few changes in my die and punch room, here is the before: Sorry I have to show 2 images frrm the before as the left one doens't show the far right wall at all. 

 

 

As you can see, I no longer have my old red Sizzix machine on the counter. This place is now reserved for my little Cuttlebug.

 

I have also added 3 shelves to the right wall. These house some of my dies, my Xyron, a few corner/border punches...

 

Beside the Cuttlebug I have all my various shims and cutting plates (for both the Cuttlebug and my AccuCut)

Behind the Cuttlebug are 2 little wooden crates. One holds my Embossing folders (I have managed to accumulate over 100) and the other my thin wafer dies.

 

I made the catagorized divers for the embossing folders using my envelope board. The dies are not as organized at the moment, but then I only own around 30 sets.

 

Hope you enjoyed my little update tour, and maybe I even helped inpire you to find some new storage solutions.

A week of Mondays

A quick lunchtime update.
I seem to be experiencing a bit of bad luck in the last few days.
On Sunday my camera died. The shutter no longer opens/closes and the zoom is stuck. Lovely.
As the camera is 4 years old I decided a new one would be the better option. I order it online Sunday night and received an email this morning that it's shipper, yippy!.
I should have it in my hands Thursday or Friday.

So last night I frantically worked on backing up all our photos. This really confirmed how out of date my PC is (you don't really want to know how old it is, let's just say I bought it just before my now 24 yo graduated high school). Every 4th photo or so my PC would freeze for 2-3 minutes. It took me 2 hours to back-up 250 photos. Just dismal! Not sure if I will be able to buy some of my 'must have' SU items as I should probably invest in a new PC.

The lack of a working camera of course means I can't take any decent photo's of my most recent creations (I have 4 adorable critters just waiting to pose for you). Fortunately I have a couple of things photographed and thought I'd share those even though they were planned for later.
However this morning when I tried to go online from home my internet refused to work.

I re-booted; I disconnected the hub, disconnected the cable box; no luck. I checked several wireless devices no connection on those either. Our local network between PCs is working so my guess is the issue lies with our internet provider and not our hub. Of course trying to call Shaw before going to work isn't an option as it is bound to take too long and it would be rather difficult to explain to my boss why I'm late. Hopefully I can get this resolved tonight when I get home.

Here's hoping I can post something inspiring tonight.

Lattice Window Christmas Card

We've made it to my 5th and last "A Season of Peace" card.

Not long ago with one of my most recent SU orders I finally purchased the lattice die that's been on my wish list forever. Once I received it however it went on my die shelf and sat there unused.
I couldn't think of a better time to make use of it than this challenge.

Note, this card is 5.5 x 5.5"

 

I started with the scenery background. The trees were stamped with Green Colorbox ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder. I then stampd falling snow with Versamark ink and embossed in white. Using a make-up sponge and Sky Blue ink I filled in the sky. I set the ink with my heat tool and then wiped away any ink covering my trees and snow with a baby wipe.  I cut the image to 5 x 5" and I glued it to the front of my card.

 

I cut the lattice die from white card. The card front was cut to 5.25" square. I then die cut the window in the centre and glued the lattice in place from the back (at the four corners). Then I stamped the dove and greeting into opposite corners and adhered the layer to the front of my card with foam squares. I then added my bling and some subtle shading tot he doce image using  my Versamark marker.

 

Supplies used:

Stamps: A Season of Peace - SU

Ink: Colorbox (Sky Blue, Green), Versamark

Dies: Lattice - SU, Window Frames Framelits  - SU

Misc.: white embossing powder, Versamark marker, 9 x 1/16" rhinestones, 2 x 1/8" rhinestones, foam mounting squares

Christmas Dove

Today I am sharing my 4th "A Season of Peace" card.
This time I did not use the tree but rather focused on the dove image.

First I created my background using the snowflake and falling snow stamps. I wet embossed the flakes in silver and the snow in white. the background was then inked along the edges. The dove was stamped on white card and I added very subtle shading with my Versamark marker.

 

I then inked the egdes of the white card and mounted it with foam squares onto a double mat trimmed with a strip of silver mesh. The double mat is again foam mounted for more depth.

 

Supplies used:

Cardstock: unknown source

Stamps: A season of Peace - SU, Petite Pairs - SU

Ink: Lavender - Colorbox, Versamark

Misc.: silver mesh, 5/8" white organza ribbon, foam mounting squares, Versamark marker.

 

 

Two trees one stamp

Today's cards show the different looks that can be achieved using the same stamp.
Both cards feature the tree stamp from A Season of Peace, with completely different results.

On my first card, Snowy trees, I created a winter scene.

 

First I stamped just the tree in dark green. You can use an ink marker to ink up only the part of the image you wish to use. I find however that when it's a large solid area like this tree it's not only time consuming but sometimes the marker lines show on the stamped image. So I use my ink pad to ink up the stamp. I simple wiped the ink of any parts of the image that I do not wish to use with a baby wipe before stamping. My center tree is the full tree, the one on the right is all but the very bottom row of  branches and the one on the left is only half the tree.
I restamped each tree using Versamark off setting the image by about 1/8" in height and embossed with white embossing powder to create the "snow" on the trees. I then stamped some of the snowy landscape between the trees as well as the falling snow and also embossed this in white. I matted my winter scene on dark green cardstock and mounted with foam squares for added dimension.

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Bazzill (Hunter green) the blue is an unknown source.
Stamps: A Season of Peace
Punches: Scallop Trim Border - SU, Large Tag - SU (the mat was hand cut)
Ink: Always Artichoke - SU, Versamark
Embossing folder: Decorative Dots - SU
Misc.: white embossing powder, 3 x 3/8" pearls, 5/8" white organza ribbon, foam squares.

My second card, Christmas tree, is a decorated tree.
I again inked my image and wiped the landscape strokes with a baby wipe before stamping. I then used the snowflake background stamp to create my ornaments (I used Versamark and embossed with a glittery red). I gold embossed a little star at the top and added a few tiny rhinestones to finish the tree. I cut the image with my oval framelit and matted on gold. Both the tree image and the greeting banner are mounted with foam squares for added dimension.

 

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Bazzill (unknwon green), Scrapbook Sally - red, Diamond Dust gold.

Stamps: A Season of Peace - SU, More Merry Messages - SU, Banner Blast - SU (little star)

Ink: Always Artichoke - SU, Versamark

Dies: Oval Framelits - SU, Banners Framelits - SU (I trimmed the width of my banner)

Misc.: 5/8" gold organza ribbon, gGold embossing powder, 10 x 1/16" rhinestones, foam mounting squares.

A Season of Peace

The very first Stampin Up set I purchased was A Season of Peace. I used it that Christmas to make pretty much all my cards for that year and have barely touched it since.
So my self imposed challenge continues with this very set.

I again I made five cards.
I'm sharing the first today and then I'll pair them up for the next two posts.

For this first card I decided simple would do. All I did was (wet) emboss the tree image in white. The background strip is embossed aluminium foil tape.
The little snowflake at the top left comes from a pack of clear plastic snowflakes I found at my local Dollarama last Christmas (it does not photograph as well as I had hoped).

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Ink: Smokey Slate - SU, Versamark

Embossing Folder: Decorative Dots - SU

Stamps: A Season of Peace - SU, More Merry Messages - SU

Misc.: 7/8" silver organza ribbon, 3/4" clear plastic snowflake, 1 x 1/4" rhinestone, white embossing powder, aluminium foil tape.

 

Here's a photo of the snowflakes.

 

They were in the Christmas decoration isle.

A pack of 60 (30 in each size for $1.50. I couldn't pass on that deal).

Season of Joy Christmas Cards

As I didn't post yesterday I will share both remaining cards created with Season of Joy today.
I have to admit these two cards are my favourite of the five.

First up is this shiney silver creation.
I absolutly love the look of embossed aluminium foil tape. Not to mention that it is very inexpensive.
I covered about haf a sheet of white cardstock with the foil and then cut my two mats. Once they were trimmed to the correct size I ran them through my cuttlebug to emboss. The greeting was heat embossed in silver. Although it doesn't show too well in the photo the greeting is attached with foam mounting squares for a little added dimensions.

 

Supplies used:

Stamp: Season of Joy - SU

Cardstock: Bazzill

Embossing folder: Snowflakes - Sizzix

Misc.: 7/8" silver organza ribbon, silver mesh, silver embossing powder (All Night Media), Versamark, foam mounting squares, aluminium foil tape.

 

For my last card using this stamp set I decided on a snow theme.
I created a background using the swirl stamp. For the greeting I used ink markers to only stamp the "Joy". The snowflakes were also inked with markers. This time I did not emboss the aluminum foil. I decided for the small mat it wasn't warrented.  The greeting as well as the three snowflake ornaments are attached using foam squares.

 

Supplies used:

Stamp: Season of Joy - SU

Cardstock: Bazzill

Ink: Night of Navy - SU, Marina Mist - SU, Soft Sky - SU

Ink markers: Night of Navy - SU, Marina Mist - SU, Soft Sky - SU, Pool Party - SU

Punches: Key tag - SU, Decorative Label - SU

Misc.: 7/8" silver organza ribbon, silver mesh, foam mounting squares, aluminum foil tape, 3 x 1/16" rhinestone (Recollections)

Merry Christmas

Here is my third Season of Joy card.

I created the background paper using the swirl, small flower and the star stamp.
The little silver banenr is again aluminium foil tape. The tree image was hand cut.
The tree and the gretting are foam mounted for added dimesnion.

Supplies used:
Stamps: Season of Joy - SU
Cardstock: Bazzill (celery, pumpkin and not sure what the red is called)
Inl: Crushed Curry - SU, Real Red - SU, Old Olive - SU,
Ink markers: Chocolate Chip - SU, Crushed Curry - SU, Old Olive - SU
Dies: Banners Framelits Dies - SU
Punches: Key Tag - SU, Decorative Label - SU
Embosing Folder: Holiday Fraeme - SU, Devine Swirls - Cuttlebug, Forest Branches - Cuttlebug
Misc.: 2 x 1/4" red rhinestones, foam mounting squares and aluminium foil tape.