Sunset Snow Globe Scene Dies

Somebody asked earlier this week about where people find inspiration. I get inspiration from lots of different places. Pinterest is a favourite, but so is the world around me. I am fortunate to live on a farm so am surrounded by gorgeous views. Last week I saw a gorgeous sun rise over the hills. It had similar colours to a gorgeous card by a fellow Demo Chloe Evans, it was a gorgeous gorgeous card but had more colours and dies than I used on my cards.

I love ink blending and used a number of different brushes to create the background using Petal Pink, Balmy Blue and Misty Moonlight ink.

I love that you can change the card by adding the different die cuts and that the card works both on a portrait and landscape card.

I hope this inspires you to create some sunset scenes. I love the gold foil bears which is your favourite?

How I choose and use Designer Series Paper

When it comes to choosing Designer Series Paper, I look through the catalogue to identify DSP which I can use and also which is versatile. I also where possible sign up for a paper share to receive a taster of all the papers as it can be difficult to judge papers from the catalogue.

 I love the Playing with Patterns paper as it has made gorgeous cards for birthdays, Easter and Christmas (although Non – Traditional for Christmas.)

I love the colours and also that some of the patterns are suitable for stamping on rather than just using them as background to add layers on to. I love the appearance of the dark night of navy on the patterns,

When I order a pack of DSP, I check to ensure that I have card stock and inks in the co-ordinating colours (I have nearly all the colours although Pumpkin Pie is one, I never remember to add to my order). When receive a pack of DSP, I check the colours recorded on the packaging and also in the catalogue (the packets do not always have all the colours on.)  I go through looking at the colours in the papers, sometimes there are some extras. I pull out all the co-ordinating papers and make card blanks and layers for all the colours.

I also pull out all the ink, Stampin’ write markers and also blends, so when I begin creating I do not need to start looking for them.

Next, I look for sketches which will work with the papers and then choose a stamp set which will work with those sketches. My favourite birthday set was Itty Bitty Birthdays, but it is retiring on May 3rd. I have included some of my favourite sketches on here.

Sketch 2 and 3 are my go to Sketches. I love the simplicity of them and they don’t take a lot of brain power to create a beautiful card.

How do you choose and prepare your designer series paper?

Last Chance -Snow Globe Scenes Dies and Still Scenes

I love the Snow Globe Scenes dies, it was a set that grew on me, I did not buy it when it was first released. I wasn’t sure that I needed another Snow globe die kit (I have one from a while ago). However, the gorgeous inspiration on Pinterest, Facebook and You Tube cracked my resolve and led to me purchasing the dies. I love the inspiration that I get from everyone and decided that the dies were so pretty and my other snow globe set was more of a card creation set and didn’t include the bear, church, stag or trees. Although the Snow Globe Scenes dies co-ordinate with the Still Scenes set, I think that they can stand alone, being used with any stamp set. For these cards I used the Still scenes stamps as well.

Card 1

My Metric

10.5 cm x 14.5 cm (10.5cm x 29cm scored at 14.5cm)

Inside White Panel - 10cm x 14cm

Snow panel - 10.5 cm x 7.5 cm

 

Metric

10.5 cm x 14.8 cm (10.5 cm x full length scored at 14.8 cm)

Inside White Panel – 10cm x 14.3cm

Snow panel - 10.5 cm x 7.5 cm

Imperial

4." x 5.5" (Tent fold) (4” by full length scored at 5.5”)

Inside White Panel - 3.75” x 5.25”

Snow panel - 3” x 5.5

Card 2 and 3

My Metric

10.5 cm x 14.5 cm (10.5 by 29cm scored at 14.5cm)

Inside White Panel - 10cm x 14cm

Metric

10.5 cm x 14.8 cm (10.5 by full length scored at 14.8cm)

Inside White Panel - 10cm x 14.3cm

Imperial

4." x 5.5" (4” by full length scored at 5.5”)

Inside White Panel - 3.75” x 5.25”

The video below shows how I assembled the cards.

I hope you like my cards, I felt that there were lots of cards using the snow globes so I thought would put a different spin on it. My favourite is the watercolour background. What is yours?

Last Chance to buy - Still Scenes

One of my favourite Christmas sentiments is part of the Still Scenes stamp set. I love the message for inside the card, I also love the concept of the snow globe and that you can place whatever you like inside. I think that it is super pretty, I have an older snow globe set in my stash with a Ballerina, but this set called out to me due to the gorgeousness of the sentiment and the base which looks amazing if stamped in Versamark and embossing powder added and heated.

The cottage is a perfect stamp to practice colouring on, my video shows the different ways to use watercolour pencils.

My first card uses the cottage and sentiment. The second uses the snow globe, cottage and sentiment. The third uses the sentiment and snow stamp. I have used the inside sentiment on all the cards.

Measurements

Cards 1 and 2 - Cottage Cards

My Metric

10.5 cm x 14.5 cm

Inside Panel  10cm x 14cm

Metric

10.5 cm x 14.8 cm (10.5 by full length scored at 14.8cm)

Inside Panel  10cm x 14.3cm

Imperial

4." x 5.5" (4” by full length scored at 5.5”)

Inside Panel  3.75 x 5.25”

Card 3- Gold Embossing Card

My Metric

10.5 cm x 14.5 cm (10.5 by 29cm scored at 14.5cm)

Gold and Inside white Panel  10cm x 14cm

Navy Panel - 9.5cm x13.5cm

Metric

10.5 cm x 14.8 cm (10.5 by full length scored at 14.8cm)

Gold and Inside white Panel 10cm x 14.3cm

Navy Panel - 9.5cm x13.8cm

Imperial

4." x 5.5" - (4” by full length scored at 5.5”)

Gold and Inside white Panel Inside Panel  3.75 x 5.25

Outside layer – 3.5” x 5”

I am super sad that this set is retiring. It is definitely a set that I shall be keeping in my Stamp Library. What are you planning on keeping?

How I clean my stamps

Following my recent embarrassment of unclean stamps which stamped purple instead of red. Although in my defence I realised later it was because I used a brush with purple on rather than red, always check your brushes before you use them! (so two crazy rookie mistakes in a short period, ooops.)

I use a number of different items depending on what I cleaning. The Stampin’ Shammy is something that works on Photopolymer and cling stamp sets. I have two, one I used for coloured inks and the other I use for Momento and Versafine. (I use Versafine for watercolouring and also Stampin’ Markers, I am not a fan of Stazon.) I store them in a storage case (is also use these to store my dimensionals and embellishments).

If my stamps aren’t sticking to the block anymore, I soak them in water and also add a bit of the Ranger water based stamp cleaner and leave them for a few hours, I then dry them off on a cloth. I also use a lawn fawn shammy as it is thinner and more maleable for cleaning around my blocks.

I use a Ranger Water based stamp cleaner for photopolymer stamps and then I use the Stampin’ Mist with my Stampin’ Scrub for cling stamps. One side is wet, which I add Stampin’ Mist and water on to before I start stamping and then a dry side to ensure that your stamps are dry.

Every now and again I remove the wet side for cleaning and soak it in washing up liquid, before leaving it to to dry. I know some people have multiple Stampin’ Scrubs, I don’t stamp enough to need lots, but it is an amazing tool to help keep your stamps clean.

If I do use Stazon I use the Stazon Cleaner with a Rub it Scrub it from Ranger, it is one side of the Stampin’ Scrub. I love it to get my stamps clean.

Hope this helps you not cause the chaos I have with different colour stamps! What tricks do you use to keep your stamps clean?