A little bird with Moon Lake from Stampin' Up

Living here in the heart of England, I'm lucky enough to be able to step out of my door into glorious countryside and I'm always attracted to stamps with a nature theme - like Moon Lake from the Stampin' Up spring/summer catalogue. Here's a note card made with the cute little bird from the set:

I sponged a background using a mask cut with the 2 1/2" circle punch before stamping this beautiful image.

It was fun to colour using the Stampin' Write markers!

A simple embellishment can really lift a card. I gave this one a double row of pierced holes using one of the Essentials piercing templates, then added a paper clip tied up with the new Painted Blooms twine (you get three spools in the pack and this one is gorgeous Wild Wasabi.) 

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE THIS CARD NOW!
Click on any item to be transported to my online shop!
Don't forget you'll get a free Sale-a-bration item for every £45 you spend

Moon Lake Wood Stamp Set £23.95

Subtles Stampin' Write Markers £23.95

Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack £7.25

Painted Blooms Cotton Twine £6.25

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products from me any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

Sometimes it feels as if I'm feeding animals all day! We have lots of blue tits, sparrows, robins, and other small birds visiting the feeder in the garden and I seem to have cats and dogs queuing up for meals all day! The cat seems to wait until the busiest moments and then turns up in the hallway just like the guy who never gets his drinks order in Fawlty Towers!



Thanks for visiting today. See you tomorrow,

Moon Lake by Stampin' Up - a male birthday card.

Did you see this tropical card I posted yesterday using Moon Lake from the Stampin' Up spring/summer catalogue? Today I've inked up the same set for a very different look - come and see:

I used sponging and watercolour techniques again but these greens and blues and all that white space give the scene a calmer feel don't they?

In this close up you can see that I added a sort of splatter effect. To get this, I loaded my aquapainter with Hello Honey ink and ran my fingernail across it so that it sprayed across the panel. TIP: You can get a similar effect in a much less scary way with the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set!

This could be a very conservative card but I put a little pep in its step with this ticker tape-style greeting made by heat embossing a sentiment from Amazing Birthday.

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE THIS CARD NOW!

Click on any item to be transported to my online shop!

Don't forget you'll get a free Sale-a-bration item for every £45 you spend

Moon Lake Wood Stamp Set £23.95	Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95
Pear Pizzaz Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	Hello Honey Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	Aqua Painters £12.95

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products from me any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

While I was making today's card I got quite carried away dreaming of rowing gently across a tranquil lake. The reality would of course be very different. There'd be mud everywhere, oars falling in the water, puppies barking madly and I'd probably have crashed into the river bank! Perhaps I'd better stick to stamping!

Are you ready for another Artisan Design Team blog hop? Me too - see you here tomorrow!

Moon Lake by Stampin' Up - with extra drama!

I've been playing with the new Moon Lake stamps from the Stampin' Up spring/summer catalogue and thoroughly enjoying them. Today's card was a bit of an experiment but I think it works. Come and see:

I started by stamping the image with Stazon ink and sponging blocks of colour over it. More intense colour was added to the actual image with an aquapainter and ink. Finally, it was framed with a black panel with an aperture cut into it with one of the Ovals framelits.

A washi and candy dot detail on one side of the card prevents it looking too symmetrical. To get the curved washi end, I laid a strip onto a scrap piece of card stock, cut it out with the word window punch, then peeled it carefully off. The beauty of washi is that it's repositionable.

Here's a close up of that image - looking quite tropical and swampy in these colours! If this card isn't really your thing, do come back tomorrow when I'll be giving this same stamp a very different look!

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE THIS CARD NOW!
Click on any item to be transported to my online shop!
Don't forget you'll get a free Sale-a-bration item for every £45 you spend

Moon Lake Wood Stamp Set £23.95	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad ...	Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95
Basic Black A4 Card Stock £6.25	Subtles Candy Dots £5.50	Ovals Collection Framelits Die £22.95

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products from me any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

Talking of swamps, my favourite blonde bombshell makes a beeline for them.

I don't think mum's looking - let's see if there's any mud in here!

Muddy water attracts her like a magnet and a walk isn't a proper walk unless she's disguised herself as a chocolate labrador! The hilarious thing is that we have cream loose covers on our sofas... Our washing machine is seeing some action as you may imagine!

See you tomorrow,

Male birthday card using Moon Lake by Stampin' Up

There's something for everyone in the Stampin' Up spring/summer catalogue and if you love traditional-style stamps I bet you're over the moon with Moon Lake! (Did you see what I did there?!) These natural images are great for male cards - come and see:

Stamp these images in Stazon ink and they're ready to watercolour! There's no artistry required as they're already shaded - you just daub ink onto them and they look great! I masked my panel with sticky notes and scored the edges of the inked part to add interest.

A strip of washi tape and a couple of staples makes a lovely embellishment for a male card - definitely not too fussy or frilly!

Have you checked out the Crazy about You sentiment set in the Stampin' Up spring/summer catalogue yet? It's a really useful set with loads of different words and phrases in a great upper case font - and there are some gorgeous extra images too!

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE THIS CARD NOW!
Click on any item to be transported to my online shop!
Don't forget you'll get a free Sale-a-bration item for every £45 you spend

Moon Lake Wood Stamp Set £23.95	Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	Baked Brown Sugar Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95
Simply Scored £25.95	Stacked With Love Designer Washi Tape £4.50	Crazy About You Wood Stamp Set £46.95

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products from me any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

Our beautiful Golden Retriever pup would feel very at home in the scene I stamped today as she has a double coat, with a waterproof one underneath, and webbed feet - yes really! I've read loads of books about puppies and one of my favourites is The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey. This bit made me laugh: "If you are a fairly reserved person, unused to being silly in public, practise in private," advises Gwen. Well at least that's one thing my family won't have to do since we are all very skilled in that department!

Have a lovely weekend and I'll see you on Monday.