Thursday 16 June 2011

Father's Day with Plane & Simple

I love the Plane & Simple set from the mini catalogue. It's so versatile and great for male cards - plus it comes with 3 phrases: Happy Father's Day, Happy Birthday and Thank you, which makes it a really useful set to own! If you've got your eye on it, then make sure you pick it up before the end of September, as we never know which stamp sets from the mini are going to make it into the main Catalogue and Idea Book.

I've not taken part in any challenges for a while, so I thought I'd have a go. I've used the Simply Stampin' sketch challenge from last week along with a colour challenge from the Color Dare blog. The dare this week was to use:

Cajun Craze
Baja Breeze
Not Quite Navy

They are not colours I would normally use together but I think they work quite well. I cut the circle using my Big Shot and the useful Circles #2 die.


I then went on to play with the set a bit more, but this time I paired it with the Newsprint DSP and some of the crumb cake seam binding ribbon. The plane works so well with the map paper from Newsprint.



 And finally, for my last card I tried something a little bit different for me and did a pull tab. I also coloured the plane in using the blender pens and Cajun Craze. The pearls have been coloured in with my promarkers. I hope you like this week's cards.


Wednesday 8 June 2011

A Sense of Time

My husband is going to be 40 this Saturday! Doesn't time fly! I wanted to use one of my favourite stamp sets, A Sense of Time. It's such a great set for male cards. I've paired it with the distress kit from Stampin' Up! and the Square Lattice embossing folder. The Lattice folder is one of my favourites, I just love the texture it gives. It's great for distress effects but also wonderful for a basket weave! Anyway, I hope you like the end result!

The lighting is not great, so you may want to click on the photo to get a better view.

A more detailed description follows below.



Stamps: Sense of Time, Sanded background
Card: Not Quite Navy, Chocolate Chip & Very Vanilla
Inkpads: Early Espresso, Night of Navy, Cajun Craze
Tools: Distressing kit, Big Shot & Square Lattice Embossing Folder

How to!
1. Card: ink up the small cogs stamp in NN and stamp on the right hand side.
2. Ink up the Sanded background stamp in EE and stamp on to some VV cardstock. The stamp the clockface using NN and two small cogs using CC.
3. Using the flat stamp from the distressing kit, gently ink up the sides using the Blue inkpad from the kit. I did the corners first and then rubbed along the sides when there was less ink on the pad. When using the flat stamp you want to start off your card and then rub on in a circular motion. Then go around the edges again and into the middle of the card using the flat stamp and the Tea Stain inkpad (making sure you've used your Stampin' Scrub to clean the stamp first!
4. When you are happy with the distressed appearance, put it in the embossing folder and run it through your Big Shot. 
5. Mount onto Chocolate Chip card and create the greeting.
6. You can then decorate the envelope using the small cog stamp!