APE 20 Sneak Peek & BONUS!

It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks for me and I haven't had much of a chance to get online. Unfortunately, this upcoming week is going to be no different... The Craft & Sewing Show starts this Thursday, and runs till Sunday (27-30 Oct 2011) at Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne. If you're coming to the show, do pop by to the Dragonfly Crafts Stand (No 192) and say Hi!

Anyway, just a quick share... this past week, I've been working on a Valentine's Day Feature for Australian Papercraft Essentials magazine, featuring the super cute "Piece of my Heart" clear stamp set by Penny Black and gorgeous Echo Park Country Drive papers. Although I would love to show all the cards here, I think I'll get in trouble with my editor, LOL, so instead, here's a little sneak peek to whet your appetite. The full article will be in Issue 20 which comes out in January 2012.

30-042 Piece of my Heart

I had a few supplies left over after finishing the article, so as a BONUS, I have an extra card to card to share that won't be in the magazine. Hope you like it!

Supplies Used:
Penny Black 30-042 Piece of my Heart clear stamp set
Penny Black 30-087 winter wonders clear stamp set (greeting)
Echo Park Country Drive patterned papers
Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Two
Spellbinders Edgeabilities Classic Scallop
Die-namics Fancy Flourish
TRIA Alcohol markers
1-1/2" & 1-3/8" circle punch & 2" scalloped circle punch

Penny Black Dusk Challenge

"I was really happy to have won last week's Penny Black Collage Challenge (see my card here). I do realise the winners are now picked at random, and not based on merit, but hey, a win is a win! I'll take what I can get, LOL" J

Anyway, as I have been working at a papercraft show (Picture to Page) all weekend, I didn't manage to get to make my Penny Black Dusk Challenge entry until the very last minute... Having had so much fun creating a sunrise/sunset background (see my previous post) for the Penny Black Inspire Card Challenge a few weeks ago, I really wanted to try my hand at it again, and see if I could improve my technique.

Snowdust At Dusk

For this card, I first diecut a piece of white cardstock using Spellbinders Nestabilities Curved Rectangles. Keeping the die in place around the cardstock to create a frame, I masked off the portions of the card, and sponged on Forest Moss & Crushed Olive distress ink for the green "hill" and Antique Linen & Brushed Corduroy distress ink for the brown "hill". I then masked off the two hills with scrap card, and starting in the middle to create the sunset, I applied Spiced Marmalade distress ink with a dauber to create the sun, then applied Mustard Seed, Barn Door, Fired Brick & Faded Jeans distress ink around it with an ink blending tool to form the sunset. When the background was finished, I stamped Penny Black 4102K snowdust with Versafine Onyx Black. I added a few more dots to the image with a black Sharpie fine point marker, then decorated with various colours of Stickles glitter glue.

I am also entering this card in the Penny Black at Allsorts October Challenge, as it falls within the Challenge Guidelines. (To see my previous two entries, click here and here).

Inclinations At Dusk

This second card was simpler than the first. After diecutting the white card stock, I simple sponged on Distress Inks in bands across the cardstock - no masking required. Then I stamped Penny Black 3984K inclinations with Versafine Onyx Black, and decorated with various colours of Stickles glitter glue. Die-namics Fancy Flourish diecuts were stuck to the card with Glossy Accents, and Thinking of You (made by Hero Arts) was stamped and punched out with McGill Vintage Label Punch.

Penny Black Collage Card Challenge

This week on the Penny Black Blog, the Card Challenge is to create a Collage card. I have to admit, I don't own very many collage stamps as they are not really my usual style, but I do love Penny Black 4182K butterfly suite.

To create this first card, I stamped butterfly suite with Memento Rich Cocoa onto white cardstock. I then trimmed the piece to size, so it measured 9.5cmx12cm (approx 3-3/4"x4-3/4"). I then cut it into 4 equal strips (measuring 9.5cmx3cm each). I distressed each piece with a mix of Scattered Straw, Brushed Corduroy & Walnut Stain distress ink. I then attached the strips to another piece of white card, and lightly distressed around it. I stamped the 2 butterflies on a scrap piece of card, distressed with Mustard Seed distress ink, and cut out. They were stuck to the card with Glossy Accents. The paper flowers were also distressed with a mix of distress inks to achieve the right colour and attached to the card with a brad. Some distress stickles were added to the flower image, and clear stickles added to the butterflies. A ribbon, some twine, a few rhinestones & a Die-namics Fancy Flourish diecut were added to finish the card.

This creation of this card is pretty similar to the first card, but I stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black, and cut the piece into 6 strips. Each strip was individually distressed with two matching colours of Distress ink (eg. the blue piece was done with Tumbled Glass & Broken China, the purple piece with Milled Lavender & Dustry Concord etc) to create a rainbow palette. The strips were then attached to a piece of black card leaving a thin border. I then sprayed it lightly with Smooch Spritz Vanilla Shimmer and attached to a piece of lavender card. The coloured backing was created by sticking scrap strips of coloured cardstock onto a black card blank. Coloured buttons were threaded onto black yarn, and the yarn stuck to the back of the card with sticky tape. I adjusted the spacing of the buttons until I was happy, then stuck each one down with foam tape so that they won't move on the card. The sentiment is from a 7 Gypsies Librarie stamp.

Penny Black Critter Card Challenge

This week on the Penny Black Blog, the card challenge is to create a "Critter" card using one of the many Penny Black Critter images - the mice, the hedgies, the cats, the bears... So many cuties to choose from, where do I start? Well, once I got creating, I couldn't really stop at one now, could I?

This first card was relatively straight forward to create. I first die-cut a rounded square using a Lifestyle Crafts Rounded Nesting Squares die. Keeping the die in place, I created a simple background by alternately masking and sponging Tumbled Glass and Shabby Shutters distress ink. This kept a white border around the background to help "frame" the image. Then I stamped the super-cute little hedgehog from Penny Black 30-029 wonderful clear set with Memento Tuxedo Black straight onto the background, then again on a small piece of white cardstock. I coloured the white piece in with TRIA alcohol markers, then cut out just the hedgehog and stuck it over the background with foam tape. A tiny bit of stickles was added to the flowers. The image was then layered onto some backing card, and the large scalloped border at the bottom was created with the Spellbinders Edgeabilities Classic Scallop border die. The greeting is a 7gypsies Library stamp.

For this card, I created it pretty much the same way as the one above, except I used Scattered Straw distress ink for the ground, and the two gift-bearing hedgies from the same Penny Black 30-029 wonderful set. The hot pink frame is die-cut from Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Frames 4, and the purple faux scallop ribbon is diecut using Die-namics Scalloped Ribbon die. The greeting is from Hero Arts LL662 Small Greetings and is punched with circle & scalloped circle punches.

I have to admit that I got the Penny Black 30-066 eat cake clear set pretty much for this image alone. Who can go past this adorable little bear and the sweet smiling tortoise? The image is layered onto a Nesting Lace Circle diecut from Lifestyle Crafts. A Fiskars scalloped border punch was used to create the cream diagonal panel at the back. The greeting is from Hero Arts CL480 Wish You Were Here clear set and is stamped with Versafine Vintage Sepia. A few sakura flower punchies with a rhinestone complete this fairly straight forward card.

The only extra step in this card is that I created the patterned paper for the lace circle frame myself by first inking up a piece of white cardstock with Tumbled Glass and Broken China Distress ink, then I sprayed it with Sea Glass Glimmer Mist. After it dried, I stamped on it randomly with Penny Black 4180J reverie using Encore Ultimate Metallic Blue ink. Then I diecut the lace circle out with a Crafts Nesting Lace Circle die. I touched up any empty spots by stamping with reverie again. The dark blue card blank was diecut with a large circle die from Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Circles set.

CR84FN38 Colour Challenge

Guess, what?? I found another Challenge Blog CR84FN and decided to play for the first time in the CR84FN38 - Bright Pink, Black & Gray Color Challenge.

Supplies Used:
Stampendous CRW061 Cling Cupcake XL stamp
TPC Studio Cupcakes rubber cling stamps
Die-namics Fancy Flourish Die
Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 17& Curved Rectangles
TRIA alcohol markers

I love Cupcake stamps, and have quite a few of them, probably many more than I need, but I find them hard to resist - much like real-life cupcakes, LOL J. I've had this XL cupcake stamp from Stampendous for a while now, but haven't gotten round to using it so decided to get it out for the CR84FN38 Color Challenge. The great thing about cupcakes is that you can pretty much colour them any colour you like. I stamped the Cupcake with Memento Tuxedo Black, coloured in with TRIA alcohol markers, cut out and added a bit of stickles glitter glue. I stamped "You're the sweetest" from the TPC Studio Cupcakes set with Versafine Black, then diecut with a small Nestabilities Curved Rectangles die. The large background labels are Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 17 (my current favourite - just love the beautiful curved shape of it), with the bottom corners trimmed off. The Flourish is diecut from light vellum using Die-namics Fancy Flourish die (it is so elegant & pretty - love it!) and attach with a small amount of Glossy Accents. A few rhinestones, a ribbon bow, punched flower and button, and all done!!

Penny Black Simple Stamping Challenge

Here is a set of cards I created for the Penny Black Simple Stamping Challenge. Penny Black 40-087 circles & lines background as well as 4147H special time was stamped with various colours of Brilliance ink, and layered onto coloured and white cardstsock. Paper flowers were added and flourishes were diecut using Die-namics Fancy Flourish die and stuck on with glossy accents. Rhinestones were added to embellish. Where necessary, I coloured the rhinestones with TRIA alcohol markers to match the colours to the cardstock.