Gift Vouchers and Mothers Day Cards with Vintage Vogue, Manhattan Flower and Pendant Park

Here are some of the cards I've made over the last week or two in preparation for Mother's Day - Sunday week, 9th May. Would you like to receive some Stampin' stuff from your family?? It's not too late for delivery in time, orders placed by Monday 3rd should be fine for the eastern states.
And, for those hubbies who tend to leave things until the last minute, you can save their bacon by dropping hints about my gift voucher service. These can be posted anywhere in Australia, with a free hand-made card, and can be made out to any value you like. Something to remember if they forget completely and you wish to maximise the guilt value!!

OK, so the top card is one we made at my Autumn/Winter Mini launch last Saturday. It started with an idea of using the 2step Bird punch to create a big and little bird like this one I saw on Valita's Fresh Folds blog. She's a clever girl that one!
I had a brainwave when I'd made one large and one small bird - to make them into mother and child bird for Mother's Day.
The card base is Soft Suede, the overlay panel is Naturals Ivory, and I used my Circle Scissor to cut the two concentric circles in Kraft and Very Vanilla. I stamped the gorgeous tree from "Pendant Park" in Soft Suede ink onto the Vanilla circle. All of the layers were sponged with ink for definition.
Now for the birdies: The Mummy bird is straight from the punch, but with the addition of long stick legs cut from Soft Suede. Baby bird's construction really highlights the versatility of this punch (get you wishlist and pen handy, because you're gunna want this punch on there!!) Baby's body is the wing piece!! Same stick legs, but shorter. But what about the beak and baby wing?? Ah! So clever - they are simply two leaves cut from the branch and glued into position.
The layers have been sponged with Soft Suede ink for definition, and I added an eye with Chocolate Chip marker and a dot of white gel pen. The band is constructed from the border stamp in the "Pendant Park" set, stamped onto Naturals Ivory. Behind this is a scrap of Soft Suede Designer prints paper - not available here in Australia, but as Soft Suede will be joining the core colours come September, I have high hopes for its inclusion in the next catalogue. The sentiment is from the brilliant "Teeny Tiny Sentiments" set, also new in the A/W Mini and I finished with a scrap of Polka dot ribbon in Soft Suede.

Back later for the deets on the other cards, off to have a play with some new goodies!

And the card info...

Sorry, I was going to post the details about the card in the image below along with the Circle Scissor tips, but it was already pretty long by the time I'd finished with the tips so I called it a night there.

The card was inspired by the sudden ability to cut multiple concentric circles in whatever size appealed. I cut two from Whisper White and two from Old Olive, and inked the edges.

The card base is Real Red, and I sponged the edges with Real Red ink. I stuck them down as shown, taking care to lap them so I would have somewhere to put a greeting. To make the Old Olive circles stand out, I used the White Gel pen to put some faux stitching around the edges.

Next, I took the gorgeous butterfly stamps from "Butterfly Prints" and stamped a selection onto Whisper WHite in both Real Red and Old Olive ink, before punching out. Easy peasy! I attached them using Mini Glue dots, so that their wings could be bent slightly for dimension.

I used my Stamp a ma jig to position the greeting at the bottom right and a Jumbo Grommet at the left side to secure a structured bow of Real Red polka dot ribbon. It was quite tricky to get the prongs of the Grommet through all the layers of the ribbon, so next time I will use Sticky Strip to hold the folded ends in place, and then the Grommet will only need to go through one ribbon layer instead of 2.

Flight of the butterflies and Circles - Circle Scissor tips for use

I had a lot of fun playing with my Circle Scissor tool (new in the Summer Mini Catalogue) to make the set of circles on this card. I am yet to actually take step by step pics of what I have gleaned from my Circle Scissor (CS) practice (one day, one day) but I can give a few tips on how to get great results every time:

* You really do need the GLASS MAT to go with the CS, there's no getting away from that. A traditional green OLFA style cutting mat is too soft and 'grippy' and will catch the blade so it drags and stutters, giving a rough result. The hard slippery glass surface allows the blade to glide smoothly.

* The principal secret is judicious use of a good removable adhesive, such as Dotto (#103305 page 154 in the main Idea Book and Catalogue) The paper or cardstock needs to be firmly attached to the glass mat so it won't budge while cutting. But, you do want to be able to extract your perfect circle without ripping it to shreds, hence the 'removeable' aspect!

* Next, have a close look at the CS tool and glass mat, and notice a few features

- Note the large rubbery black grip along one half of the tool

- Note the blade holder hole has a little arrow which is pointing anticlockwise

- Note the concentric rings and 'cross hairs' on the clear rotating section

- Note the grid on the glass mat, there are standard card sizes in bold and also a grid pattern

* Firstly, cut the cardstock into a square or rectangle about 1/2" bigger all round than the circle you would like to cut, and apply a small 1cm-ish splodge of dotto on each corner and in the centre. Firmly smooth down onto the centre of the glass mat, and rub to make sure it isn't going to slip. The reason for cutting first into the approximate size is that it saves both cardstock and adhesive - it's much more useful to have square bits and rectangle scraps than A4 sheets of cardstock that look like swiss cheese, and you don't need to apply yards of dotto to hold the whole sheet in place!

* Now place the CS over the centre of the cardstock, with the rubber hand grip between 6 and 12 if you were looking at a clockface. Rotate the clear plastic centre until the (empty) blade holder is at 9 o'clock, and use the black centre dial to adjust the scale to the desired size.

* Swing the clear plastic centre around, while looking at the pointer to make sure your cut can be completed without going off the outside of the cut piece, adjust the base position if necessary so you have clearance on all sides.

* Insert the spring loaded blade knob into the holder, lining up the little ridges so it fits smoothly. Note that the blade knob is springloaded, but this doesn't mean you need to use a lot of pressure to make the cut.

* Holding the black rubber grip with your left hand spread apart and the blade knob with your right, press down moderately and rotate 360 degrees ANTICLOCKWISE from 9 o'clock to just a tiny bit past 9 o'clock - you will feel the cut complete itself.

* STOP! Don't move anything yet, if you wish to cut a frame you have just made the first, smaller cut of the two. Without moving the base, adjust the dial by the width you want your frame to be, and make the second cut just as the first. If you try and make the larger outer cut before the smaller one, there will be insufficient adhesive to hold the circle while the second cut is made.

Ta da!! Now you can repeat again and again, and have lots of fun with circles! It's a good idea to periodically remove the dotto residue from the glass mat, with either your adhesive remover or some goo remover liquid. And slide the blade cover back onto the blade, because that tiny sucker is SHARP when you find it on the floor with your foot!

I hope you find this useful, and drag out your CS tools for a good practice - it's certainly the easiest and best circle cutter I have ever tried :)

Razzle Dazzle, Circle Scissor and a side serve of Rubons

Hi everyone,
Here's a card I made using lots of products from the Summer Mini cataloge. Razzle Dazzle is my most favourite set from the entire mini, and I will be sad sad sad if it doesn't make a reappearance in the new Idea Book and Catalogue this September. So will you, so make sure it's on your list and get your order to me before March 31st!

The first step was to create a half-wall effect with the border stripe stamp, stamping in Chocolate Chip on Chocolate Chip cardstock, using my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line the images up across the base.

For the 'dado rail' (continuing with the wall theme) I took a strip of Riding Hood Red cardstock and applied one of the beautiful Dots and Designs rubon panels to it.

For the 'pictures' hanging on the wall, I used a series of circle punches and the Circle Scissor. I inked up the large motif stamp using markers, and stamped onto Whisper White. I did this twice, and selected a smaller section to punch out.

I mounted some of the circles using Stampin' Dimensionals to give some lift, and used a piece of Hodgepodge Hardware and the large oval punch for the sentiment.
I've also sponged the edges of all of the sections.