Crazy Crafters Blog Hop November 2015 - My Most Used Stamp Set

 

Welcome to the Crazy Crafters Blog Hop for November. This month we are showcasing our most used stamp set! We hope you like our choices and find great inspiration from the projects.

You may just be starting the blog hop here at my blog - Stephanie Fischer, The Crafty Thinker - or you may have come from the person before me in the list. If you get off track at any time, the full lineup below will help you to move along from blog to blog so that you see all of the projects.

My most used stamp set would have to be Lovely As A Tree!  It was my first stamp set purchase and remains one of my all-time favourites!  It really gets a work-out because it's just so versatile - it's equally suitable for Christmas cards, birthday cards (masculine or feminine), sympathy cards ... pretty much everything really and it also lends itself very well to many different techniques and so it can look very different, depending on the techniques and/or colours you use.

Lovely as a tree painted with embossing powders. Greeting from Six Sayings

I created these cards by "painting" with embossing powders - and a lot of fun it was too!  First I stamped the image with Versamark and then I very carefully sprinkled small amounts of three different embossing powders roughly where I thought I'd like them.  I tipped the card down to remove the excess powder and so the tops of the trees remained very white and little bit of "snow" fell onto the ground too. Then I tapped off any excess and used the heat tool. 

For a great tutorial on the technique see Sandi McIver's PDF here.

In this one, I used black, gold and white on Sahara Sand cardstock which I layered with Elegant Eggplant and Gold Foil cardstock.

I wanted the tree trunks and bases of the trees to be darker and the tops of the trees to be lighter and so I concentrated my embossing powders accordingly.


For this card, I used black, silver and white embossing powders on smoky slate cardstock (layered with black, Basic Grey and Silver Foil cardstock). 
  

Another version in gold

 

One of the joys (and sometimes frustrations!) of this technique is that it looks different every time!  Here are a couple of other cards to show you what I mean.

I hope you've enjoyed these cards and I welcome your comments. 

Thanks for taking part in our blog hop. Remember that currently you are at my blog - Stephanie Fischer - so check the blog hop line up list to see who is next in the list and click on their name as you don't want to miss out on seeing any of the blogs and the amazing inspiration they contain.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Crazy Crafters Blog Hop October 2015 - Fun Fold

Welcome to the Crazy Crafters Blog Hop for October. This month we are excited to show off some amazing fun folds. We hope you find great inspiration from the projects.

You may just be starting the blog hop here at my blog - Stephanie Fischer, The Crafty Thinker - or you may have come from the person before me in the list. If you get off track at any time, the full lineup below will help you to move along from blog to blog so that you see all of the projects. At the moment you are visiting Stephanie Fischer, The Crafty Thinker.

I'm a bit in love with easel cards at the moment!  They're so easy but effective and they make a nice display for the lucky recipient of the card.  There are many good tutorials available for easel cards and I don't really know to whom I should give credit for this great fun fold but, whoever you are, thank you!

The colours in this easel card are Smoky Slate, Elegant Eggplant and Wisteria Wonder.   
 

Flurry of Wishes Easel Card

 For the snowflakes I used the Flurry of Wishes stamp set (from the Holiday Catalogue), stamping with Versamark onto Silver Foil and heat embossing with Silver Embossing Powder before punching out with the matching Snow Flurry Punch.  I then used Dimensionals to adhere them to the card and placed a Rhinestone Jewel in the centre of each one.

Closed position

The greeting is from the Lots of Joy stamp set (in the Annual Catalogue), which I stamped onto Smoky Slate card and cut out with the Tags & Labels Framelits.  I added a layer of Elegant Eggplant cut with a larger Tags & Labels framelit and placed it onto the card front with dimensionals.

To create the Elegant Eggplant label that supports the easel, I cut a rectangle and then made decorative ends using the Tags & Labels framelits and the method I described in this blog post.   

Symmetrical label from Tags & Labels framelits

I'd like to thank Sheri Pearson at Inkspirations for the inspiration and technique tutorial for the pillow top panel.  Click here to see her tutorial.   

Pillow top background inspired by Sheri at Inkspirations

Following Sheri's tutorial, I scored the pattern onto the Wisteria Wonder cardstock.  Then I folded each score line and inked both sides of the fold with Wisteria Wonder ink.

I layered this decorative panel on to Elegant Eggplant before adding it to my Smoky Slate Easel front.  Once all my elements were in place, I added a dab of Dazzling Details to each intersection of the lines.  I was rushing a bit and didn't do a very neat job but it doesn't seem to matter as much as I feared it would.  I'll do better next time!

I hope you've enjoyed this card and welcome your comments.

Thanks for taking part in our blog hop. Remember that currently you are at my blog - Stephanie Fischer - so check the blog hop line up list to see who is next in the list and click on their name as you don't want to miss out on seeing any of the blogs and the amazing inspiration they contain.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Stencilled glitter Christmas cardsI

Everything except the glitter is from Stampin' Up!

This is a card that I made as a sample for one of the lessons in the nine week course I'll be teaching soon.

It uses die cutting and embossing using the Big Shot and a fun but messy technique with glitter!

To create the glittery ornament I first die cut a piece of double sided adhesive Jac paper using the Delicate Ornaments Thinlits Dies.  Having adhered one side to my label, I then peeled off the protective backing to reveal the sticky film.

I put a little soap onto the back of my stencil (in this case I used one of the Happy Patterns stencils) and placed it - soap side down - onto the sticky die cut (the soap is to make it easy to remove again).

Next I sprinkled on my first colour of glitter (in this case purple).  I rubbed it in well (burnished it) with my finger before removing all the excess glitter with a large, soft brush.  It's important to use ultra fine glitter for this technique.

The next step was to carefully remove the stencil, revealing the remaining sticky parts, which I then coated with the second colour of glitter (green) and rubbed in with my finger.  Don't worry - if you're careful to remove all the excess glitter, you won't up end up with contaminated glitter.

The last step was to add the little ornament top and a bow using the new glitter ribbon.

Here's another card I made using this glitter technique but this time I used one of the dies from the Delicate Ornaments set as the stencil.  The sentiment is from the matching Embellished Ornaments stamp set (available as a bundle with a saving of 15%).

I used a die as the stencil when I added the glitter to the ornament

My nine week course is being held at Learning in the Hills, Baulkham Hills starting Tuesday 13th October.  Places are limited so if you'd like to attend call to book your place:  (02) 9639 7918
 

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Crazy Crafters Blog Hop September 2015 - Holiday Catalogue - Poinsettia

Welcome to the Crazy Crafters Blog Hop for September!  

You may be just starting the blog hop here at my blog or may have come from the person before me in the list below.  If you get off track at any time, the full line-up below will help you move along from blog to blog so you see all the projects.  At the moment you are visiting Stephanie Fischer, The Crafty Thinker.  

This month we are excited to showcase some of the fantastic new products in the Holiday Catalogue - what a feast!  

Where has the time gone?!!  The year is disappearing so quickly and many of us are already well into the joyous swing of Christmas/Seasonal Card  production!  I love this time of year.  Christmas cards seem to not only condone but encourage the use of bling, glitter and glitz and I can be as over the top as I like!

Easel Card featuring a poinsettia created with
the the Reason for the Season Bundle

Having said that, the card I've chosen to include in this blog hop is really quite restrained (for me!) and I decided not to use traditional Christmas colours - I think I haven't quite reached the red and green stage of the year yet! 

 For some reason, I'm making a lot of easel cards these days.  Maybe because they look quite impressive even though they're so quick and easy to make!

I made the card in Tip Top Taupe and added a panel of Early Espresso followed by a panel of Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper.  

I stamped and punched two poinsettias using the Reason for the Season Bundle (a 15% saving as well as everything I need to make a beautiful flower!) and then intermingled the parts - one I stamped with Early Espresso on Tip Top Taupe card

Dimensionals add enough height to
keep the card propped open. 

 and the other I heat embossed with Gold onto Early Espresso Card.  I put a Metal Rimmed Pearl in the centre for a little more restrained bling. 

The sentiments are from Versatile Christmas - heat embossed in Gold onto Tip Top Taupe card and die cut with the Project Life Cards & Labels Framelits.

I "prettied-up" the strip of glimmer paper on the inside by trimming the ends with the smallest of the Deco Labels Collection Framelits.

Alternative colours for the card

Then I used the other poinsettia to make a second, similar card.

Afterwards I wished I'd mixed up the petals even a little bit more.

I hope you've enjoyed these cards, I would really welcome your comments.

Thanks for taking part in our blog hop, there are so many amazing ideas and so much inspiration that you don't want to miss.  Remember that currently you are my blog - Stephanie Fischer - so check the blog hop line up list to see who is next in line in the list and click on their name as you don't want to miss out on seeing any of the blogs and the amazing inspiration they contain.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Woodland 3 ways

The Woodland Embossing folder is one of the great new products in the 2015 Holiday Catalogue which will be launched on 1st September.  One of the benefits of being a Demonstrator is the pleasure of pre-ordering from new catalogues.

I can't believe that I nearly didn't buy this beautiful embossing folder!  It took me a while to see its versatility and what I could do with it.  I really had a lot of fun with it yesterday!

There's a masculine feel to this card

 I thought this would be good for a masculine birthday card.  I embossed some Lost Lagoon card and then sponged the trees with Lost Lagoon and Soft Suede.  Then I layered it onto a piece of Soft Suede before adhering it to my Island Indigo card.  I stamped, coloured and fussy cut the stag from the Wilderness Awaits stamp set and then stamped the greeting from Tag Talk in Soft Suede onto Sahara Sand card and punched it out.   

"Hello up there!"

   This time I embossed Whisper White cardstock.  I ran my 2-way glue pen over the embossing and then sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. Then I layered this onto my card of Thick Whisper White.  I stamped the bear from White Christmas, added a little shading with Soft Sky ink and fussy cut him before sticking him down.  He's looking up at the bird from Santa's Gifts which I stamped onto Whisper White, Coloured and cut out.  The greeting is from Happy Scenes - I just manipulated it to fit into the banner from Project Life Hello December 2015 (one of the advantages of photopolymer stamps!).  I coloured it with Soft Sky and Pool Party inks and cut it out.  I placed it at an angle in the corner to complete my triangular composition.

Let's go, Rudolph!

I inked my embossing folder with Soft Sky ink before I added the Whisper White card and ran it through the Big Shot to get a coloured background.  Santa and rudolph are both from the Santa's Gifts stamp set.  I added some Dazzling Diamonds to Santa's fur and Rudolph's nose.  The greeting is from Petite Pairs which I punched out with the Large Oval punch.  The base card is Soft Sky. 

I hope you enjoyed these cards.

 The Holiday Catalogue is being launched on September 1st 2015! Would you like a copy now so that you can start looking at all the amazing new products (not all limited to Seasonal products)? You can! Please ensure that you read these requirements - 

• Australian Resident
• Currently NOT a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator
• If you have a demonstrator that you order through - to be fair to both them and me, please ask them for a catalogue.
• You are happy to order product through me

If you can't wait - then join now and shop for new Holiday Catalogue items right now PLUS at a discount! $235 of ANY product you like and you only pay $169 PLUS free postage. Its such a great deal - you then get 20% off any items you purchase after you sign up for the starter kit. There is no obligation to sell - you can join just to get great products cheaper.

'Til next time

Stephanie

Holiday Catalogue 2015 - Sneak Peak!

Christmas sleigh ride!  

I know, we don't have snow at Christmas in Austalia .... we still like our traditional (Northern Hemisphere) Christmas images though, to get us in the spirit!

The lights are on but is anyone home?

I set out to create depth by placing dark colours in the foreground fading to lighter in the background.  By using a monochromatic colour scheme, I was aiming to evoke a silent, late night sleigh ride.  The only colour comes from the cosy, warm houses on the distant hill.

This card provides a sneak peak at several new products in the Holiday Catalogue:

• Softly Falling Embossing Folder
• Sleigh Ride Edgelits
• Glitter ribbon (it will also be available in gold) - NB I used two pieces side by side on this card.

I also used the Lots of Joy stamp set, the star from the Itty Bitty Accents punch set, Tags & Labels Framelits and some silver glimmer paper - all from the Annual Catalogue. 

I've added a little of black ribbon from my stash and a couple of tiny crystals.

The Holiday Catalogue is being launched on September 1st 2015! Would you like a copy now so that you can start looking at all the amazing new products (not all limited to Seasonal products)? You can! Please ensure that you read these requirements - 

• Australian Resident
• Currently NOT a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator
• If you have a demonstrator that you order through - to be fair to both them and me, please ask them for a catalogue.
• You are happy to order product through me

If you can't wait - then join now and shop for new Holiday Catalogue items right now PLUS at a discount! $235 of ANY product you like and you only pay $169 PLUS free postage. Its such a great deal - you then get 20% off any items you purchase after you sign up for the starter kit. There is no obligation to sell - you can join just to get great products cheaper.

You can order an item by clicking on the picture below.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog