Very Vintage Fresh Vintage !

Hello !
I have had a little break over half term catching up on life so hence the lack of posts ! I am still obsessed with Fresh Vintage and can't put it down, so have a couple of cards to share with you today following on from my last post. These are a little more vintage in style and I have inked edges and scrunched paper to get a nice worn effect. Vintage is my favourite style but I don't go too grungy as I like my work to look clean; having said that I do like to get really messy when I am having a play with all my inks and bits !

Both my cards started on a crumb cake card base and are made from one sheet of A4. This one uses a piece of duck egg blue paper which was destined for paper recycling but went so well with the Everyday Enchantment papers that it was a shame to throw it away ! I have of course used the SAB stamp set Fresh Vintage and made a layered flower from the fancy flower punch. I also added a layer of stamped vellum but I do struggle with a good glue to use with vellum as it always seems to show, so don't look too closely ( it looks fine in the flesh but my photos seem to show up every flaw !!! ) Both cards feature the use of the scallop trim border and corner punch as well as the the eyelet border and scallop ribbon border.

Lots of inking in crumb cake on the petal edges gives a vintage feel as does all the crinkling; I finished off the centre with an antique brad. Other inks used are riding hood red, whisper white and pool party.

Here is a different combination of all the above mentioned SU stash . The thing I like most about crafting is how you develop from where you started. I used to buy so many ready made embellishments which cost a fortune and I really like that now I mostly make my own because I have the right tools and have learnt the skills to do so. Once you have invested in the right tools and equipment you can make so much that you may have previously bought and cards are just the tip of the iceberg ! As you can see I am into making flowers at present ! This one was scrunched from layers of paper and stamped vellum. Here is a little more detail; click on the photo for a close up view !

I must put this away now and go and play with a different stamp set !

The Sale - a - Bration runs until the end of March and anyone wishing to help get my team off the ground by joining me can be assured of a very warm welcome. I am part of the biggest SU team in the UK and now is THE TIME to join ! As well as an amazing starter kit worth in excess of £250, up to 30th March you can also choose an extra stamp set from the catalogue up to the value of £44.95 and in addition I am offering extra SU goodies to try and tempt you !!! All of this for just £119 including postage; this really is a great offer and the best time to join SU . I will give you all the support you need to get going and help you along the way with regular phone or e-mail chats so you always feel confident and secure in the running of your Stampin' Up business. It may be that you just want to use SU to buy stash for your own crafting needs and get a regular discount of 20% on every purchase and that is fine too, I'll still be there to give you help, tips and advice !

If you are tempted then please contact me by e-mail at janegoldman1960@gmail.com for a no obligation chat so I can fill you in with all the details !

Have a good day ( hopefully a crafting one ) wherever you are !

Hugs Jane x

Fresh Vintage - Simple and not so Simple !

Good Morning ! (Just !!! )
Hope your Sunday is good ? Nothing exciting to report here; just the usual Sunday morning, Hubbie and I unwinding from a busy day yesterday, Rosie off to work at the garden nursery and the dogs doing what they do best - lazing around !
I have, like many other demos, fallen in love with the gorgeous SAB stamp set - Fresh Vintage and have two very contrasting cards to share with you today. The first is very typical of my style and is a more detailed card. 

I love edging punches and have used three here - scallop trim border, eyelet  border and the dotted scallop ribbon border. I have also made use of the scallop circle punch and the larger version ( available in the mini ) to make my flower and of course one of my new favourite ( even though it has been going for a while now ) the scallop oval punch to frame the  sentiment. 

I have used all the reds from the DSP Everyday Enchantment available from the SAB to make my flower and crinkled it and added inked edges for definition and to tie in with the vintage theme before attaching it to the card with an antique brad. The sentiment inked in cherry cobbler is from the stamp set oval all. I used riding hood red ink for stamping the image. My card stock is naturals ivory. 

So, here is my simple card. Not my usual style but the image is so lovely and I coloured it in using my Stampin' write markers from the regals colour range. I then double mounted the trimmed image onto some not quite navy card and then onto some very vanilla. The sentiment is from the stamp set sincere salutations and is stamped in not quite navy ink .

Here is a little more detail, this stamp really lends itself to this kind of inking and it is quick to achieve lovely results; I like the surprise you get when you lift the ink pad as you never really know how it's going to come out !!!

Much milder here today and lots of tweety birdies in the garden; I think they are yearning for Spring as much as I am !

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit, have a good day !

Hugs Jane x

Fun Flowers !

Morning !
So chilly and damp here today; I think we've had enough winter now, roll on the spring ! Luckily I took my photos for this post yesterday when we had slightly better light levels ! I designed this card for my little class today having had a request to make a big card with a matching tag! This one is 8 inches square and is some card stock from my own stash; I used it as it is quite robust and stands up well, which is essential  for the size of card ! I have not been with SU for that long ( around seven months ) and I got rather carried away with my initial purchases ! I now find that I have lots of papers which are now retired and I've not touched them; so here is an airing of a lovely DSP ( Springtime Vintage ) which I probably should have used last year but didn't get round to it !!!

I have used a current DSP - Beau Chateau - for the background and the flowers can be made from any DSP of your choice ! They were die cut using the Bigz die fun flowers and the flower on the tag also features the scallop circle punch. I made the paper ribbon from whisper white card stock using the lace ribbon border punch .

Here is a little more detail. The flowers are edged in baja breeze ink which was also used to stamp the large medallion. Edging in ink on a large flower is needed for definition and adds more interest to your project.  I used old olive ink for the flourish which is from the gorgeous Everything Eleanor stamp set and finished both flowers off with some old buttons.

A sentiment from oval all was used and punched out with the scallop oval punch to complete the card which is really quite simple in design.

Off to tidy up ready for class now !

Have a great day wherever you are and happy crafting !

Hugs Jane x

Love Tokens from You Are Loved.

Hello !
Well, the snow we were promised came bang on time at 3pm this afternoon just as I returned from doing my shopping ! It was lovely to come in and have a nice cup of tea and slice of cake and feel all cosy ! It's settling well now and we have about 4-5cm; it looks very pretty but I'm glad to be inside blogging !
I have had a lovely time playing with a newish stamp set ( it's in the current mini ) from SU called You Are Loved; it is supposed to be a Valentine set but I think it is so much more and will use it all year round as it is so sweet. I made some little love tokens using the top note die as a base and I worked on whisper white and pretty in pink card stock. 

Just two inks were used - rose red and the ever faithful crumb cake  (where would I be without this ink !) I used a few little additions to finish off my projects - pink SU ribbon (now discontinued but similar available in the current catalogue ), an antique brad, some flowers made from my itty bitty punch set, a few pearls and a heart made from the embosslits die scalloped heart of hearts.

Finally I have a card to share with you from the same stamp set. This also uses the eyelet border and dotted scalloped ribbon border punches. I used pretty in pink and rose red inks and layered one heart on top of the paler one using dimensionals. I also added some rhinestones and covered the heart with crystal effects ! I am so glad I got this stamp set as I think it will be well used and the images when stamped are of a good size so I will be able to use it on larger cards too.

I think we are in for a mini hibernation this weekend; thankfully we have nowhere we need to go tomorrow so I think we'll just enjoy a day in and have a nice Sunday lunch and chill !!! Good weather for crafting ! LOL !

Keep warm wherever you are and thank you so much for stopping by !

Hugs Jane x

Back to my Roots !

Hello !
I have been in seventh heaven since Monday as my lovely order arrived from SU and I have had fun playing and sorting and trying to find space for it all! Space is becoming an increasing problem as I don't seem to have enough! I think this is a common problem when you have an out of control habit like crafting !
I decided to go back to my roots , so to speak , for this project and using only SU materials and tools create some cards in the style I used to craft in before I joined Stampin' Up ! ( Have a look at some of my cards at the beginning of this blog back in the summer of 2011 ). My style has really changed as what you have to work with sort of determines the outcome and of course when you are a new demo you don't have everything in the catalogue ! So these cards were a challenge; I hope you like them !

I worked on very vanilla card stock and used watercolour paper for the topper. I always save tissue paper from packaging and it is nice to stamp on   so I have added some to both my cards today. Through SU I have made some lovely friends ; some I see and some are bloggy friends. A couple of weeks ago my friend Paula came to play ( well, chat really ! ) and she is so very kind and brought with her a little gift for me containing some SU goodies that I had not previously used or owned. This project gave me the perfect opportunity to use them as I wanted to add in lots of different elements. Just using a tiny amount of the crotchet trim and one of the little mini vintage tags has given the card extra layers of interest , so thank you Paula !

The stamp sets I have used are Blessed Mother, French Foliage and Nature Walk. I put soft suede and wisteria wonder inks together here and really like the result. I treated myself to three new punches - scallop trim corner,scallop trim border and the scallop ribbon border and have used them with my old favourite the eyelet border ; I like to mix my edgings together ! To finish I tied a bow of the linen thread around the cut out stems of the flowers and popped some pearls on just to finish .

I follow Vicky at "craftingclare" and she made a beautiful card at the weekend inspired by some lovely tissue paper flowers and I had a play at an earlier date with little success ! So I went back and tried again, they are not perfect but they are supposed to be a bit shabby chic !!! So thank you to Vicky for the inspiration ! One of my new stamp sets is Oval All as I thought it would be one of those sets you would go to time and time again; so it has had it's first airing and I'm sure it won't be the last ! More lace here and some yummy crumb cake seam binding ribbon finished off with more pearls and some itty bitty flowers punched from scraps.

The flower was stamped using Delicate Doillies  and I  punched 4 layers with the fancy flower punch - back your tissue with a scrap of printer paper so the punch doesn't " eat " the tissue paper! I smudged some pretty in pink ink onto the petals which I also used for the stamping along with crumb cake and soft suede. An antique brad was used to attach the flower to the card.

It was very satisfying to make these more fiddly cards and I think I may have to explore more options along these lines !

I have been very remiss with my lack of quotes recently so have a great one for you today from Albert Einstein who was a great believer in the power of imagination !

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon imagination

Imagination is more important than knowledge

Knowledge is limited

Imagination encircles the world."

Until next time happy crafting !

Hugs Jane x