Fox Builder Rabbit and Toadstool Punch Art Card

Without further ado let me introduce Mr. Rabbit and his little toadstool friend who where both made using the new SU Fox Builder punch.

The background was made with the woodland embossing folder by brayering the raised side with blue ink prior to embossing the white cardstock. I then coloured the tree detail using a dark brown marker.

The ground was created with the border strip from the new Swirly Scribbles Thinlits which was mounted on top of darker shaded cardstock trimmed at the top to match the curve of the die.

The ground was attached to the card background with foam tape/mounting squares; as were both my little punch art creations. The card was finished with a die cut "hello".

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Recollections white, colours - various Bazzill and Recollection scraps

Stamp: Foxy Friends - SU

Ink: Marina Mist, Chocolate Chip, Cherry Cobbler, Wild Wasabi - all SU

Punches: Fox Builder - SU, Bow Builder - SU

Dies: Hello Thinlits - SU, Swirly Scribbles Thinlits - SU

Embossing folder: oodland - SU

Markers: white gel pen, Chocolate Chip - SU

Misc.: red/rose chalk, foam tape/mounting squares

Punch art instructions:

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again soon for more fun creations using the new SU Fox Builder punch.

New Stampin' Up Annual Catty

I hope everyone has seen the new SU catalog. Mine, as usual, has so many little post it flags it looks like a banner party is happening along the edges. See the cute little sushi post-it's at the top? I absolutely love these! Got them from my sister as a stocking stuffer last year and put off using them for months.

This years catty is filled with so many wonderful new things I had a tough time trying to stay within budget.  Fortunate for me (not so fortunate for my wallet) unlike some long time followers of SU I only got back into stamping a few years ago. With a hiatus of around 9 years I missed out on many great sets wherefore repeated themes are new to me.

I don't currently own very many masculine stamp sets. I have expanded my collection a little in the last couple of years and added several nature themed sets as well as a couple of nautical themed ones. But there are definitely still some major gaps. What I am still missing are ones such as sports, fishing, cars etc.
I was therefore very exited to see the new "One Wild Ride" set featuring a motorcycle and the "Country Livin' set consisting of a truck, guitar and cowboy boots (perfect for Calgary Stampede theme).


I also quite like several of the new die sets. I missed out on the old canning jar stamps and dies so the new "Jar of Love" bundle made it to the top of my list of must haves.
And as If there could be any doubt, I of course immediately fell in love with the adorable new fox punch and matching stamp set.


The new in colours also look intriguing although I am not sure how much use the green and pink will get from me. I decided to order the markers only for now and see how much I reach for these new colours.

My first order consisted of:
Stampin' Write Markers In Color 2016-2018
Stamp Set Clear Vertical Greetings
Bundle Foxy Friends Photopolymer
Bundle Jar of Love Photopolymer
Bundle Sunshine Sayings Clear
Big Shot Thinlits Swirly Scribbles
Stamp Set Clear Hostess Love You Lots
Stamp Set Clear Country Livin'

And wouldn't you know it, it arrived Wednesday evening. I immediately (I am not joking, dinner preparations had to take second place, much to the dismay of my family) took these new treasures to my craft room and started playing with the fox punch. The ideas just kept coming and I came up with several new creations that are first on my list to share.
Here's hoping I get more playtime this weekend so that I can photograph my creations and write the punch art instructions.

Thanks for stopping by! Come back soon for my fox punch ideas. 

Fox Step Card

I had a request to make a nature themed card. it needed to be somewhat fancy and perfect for a lover of the outdoors. After some thought I cam up with a wonderful idea but needed to find the time to actually work on it.

Well, it took almost three hours but I did it. I finished this beautiful, woodsy fox last night.

I chose to do a center step card, with 3 small steps so that i could create a foreground, the fox in the middle of the woods and hen a background frames by trees on either side.

This is a standard A2, 5.5 x 4.25" horizontal card. The left and right panels are each 1" wide.

The center steps, form front to back are 1", 1.5" and 2" in height

I sponged the sky in Marina Mist, the ground in Mossy meadow and Baked brown Sugar.

Each center panel was sponged with the same ground colours as the front one.

To create the back panel I sponged both ground colours onto the bottom of the Woodlands embossing folder and then using a brayer added the blue for the sky and then embossed onto a white piece of card.

The trees framing the card on either side were embossed on white card and then cut out using an x-acto knife.

All the trees where finished by sponging with a touch of Sahara Sand and colouring in the texture with an Early Espresso marker.

The bushes (a total of 40 are the tree from lovely as a tree stamped in Always Artichoke and sponged in Mossy Meadow and Baked Brown Sugar and then hand trimmed from the cardstock.

I stamped the fox image using Memento ink and then coloured him with Copic markers - C7 around the ears and nose, Y35 and YR24 for the eyes, YR24, YR04 and R24 for the body. The grass is YG25 and the 2 lighter tones in SU's Olive Green Blendabilities.

The background images was trimmed to 4.25" in height and adhered to the back center panel 2 bushes and the fox to the middle center panel (the fox and froth bush using foam tape)

One bush was glued to the front right and then the tree panels are glued to either side panel. The last bush was attached using foam tape to the front left.

the greeting was mounted on skinny banners and attached to the back panel with foam. To match the colours perfectly I inked the matting banners in Baked brown Sugar and Mossy Meadow.

This card would also be perfect for Father's Day.

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Recollections white

Stamps: The Wilderness Awaits, Lovely as a Tree, Remembering your Birthday - all SU

Ink: Mossy Meadows, Baked Brown Sugar, Sahara Sand, Always Artichoke, Marina Mist - all SU, Tuxedo Black - Memento

Embossing folder: Woodland - SU

Punch: 1: square to cut banner tails

Markers: Y35, YR24, Y04, R24, YG25, C7 - Copic, Old Olive - SU Blendabilities

Misc.; foam squares/mounting tape

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again soon. 

Crochet Baby Boy set

For some reason I have not been very inspired to make cards lately. It may be due to everything else going on in my life currently (2 boys graduating, finally getting back to working on the home renovations, beautiful spring weather and a garden to get ready...) I'm not sure, but I can't seem to get myself into the craft room and create. hopefully once the new SU catty is out this will change (there is a ton of new stuff I absolutely love in it).

The only thing I have been finding some time for lately is crocheting. Another relative is expecting this summer so I needed to get working on a handmade gift pretty quick.  I take the crochet bag to work and crochet during most of my lunch hour. It's a nice break during the day and very relaxing. It's surprising how fast these items came together.

I made this cute hooded jacket and matching little booties. Both are approx. 6-12 months size so should fit the baby this winter.

I was quite surprised that I only needed 1 ball of the blue yarn plus a bit of scrap of the fuzzy white yarn from my scrap bag.

The button strap on the booties is actually functional and opens.

I used this pattern here: hooked on crochet for the jacket. I opted to omit the button panel and added the strap under the neck instead and then edged everything in white (2 rows of single crochet).

The booties used this pattern here: croby pattern. I followed it exactly but also added the white edge (1 row of single crochet) instead of the embroidery floss accent to match the jacket.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again soon. 

Sakura Cards - Bold and Black

These next two cards were made from the same upcycled Royal tissue box as the two in my last post.
This time I opted for a more dramatic look with dark and bold choices.

The cardstock accent piece was embossed and then inked with a little dark purple ink. Note I used  5.25 x 4" piece and then cut this in half so I had one piece for each of these two cards. This card uses two pieces form the tissue box. The first was cut into a rectangular piece which was matted on pale pink cardstock. The second was die cut into a small circle shape that has been matted onto a white scalloped circle punch out and attached with foam tape.

The die cut greeting was attached near the top, accented with a bit of baker's twine tied to the cardstock behind the sentiment. For a finish touch little rhinestones were added to the flower centers.

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Bazzill, Recollections

Patterned paper: Royal tissue box

Ink: Blackberry Bliss - SU

Die: Hello Thinlits - SU

Punch: Scallop Circle - SU

Embossing Folder: Cherry Blossoms - Darice

Misc.: foam mounting squares/tape, rhinestones, white/pink baker's twine

The second card, as noted, used the other half of the embossed cardstock, but created an entirely different look.

The background consists of the blossom embossed cardstock and a strip of light pink added to separate the top piece from the dark card base. Little banner tails were added by cutting thin strips form the tissue box and punching one end with the banner punch to create tail ends. The tissue box image was die cut into a circle shape and matted and white circle one size larger and then attached to the card using foam squares. The greeting was stamped onto white and punched out with the word window, leaving a straight edge on the right. Final touches consists of three small rhinestones to right and one to each flower center.

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Bazzill, Recollections

Patterned paper: Royal tissue box

Stamp: So Many Sayings - SU

Ink: Blackberry Bliss - SU

Punch: Word Window, Banner - SU

Embossing Folder: Cherry Blossoms - Darice

Misc.: foam mounting squares/tape, rhinestones



Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again soon.