Virtual Stamping Party

I've been asked by a few ladies about starting up a virtual stamping party, often known in blogland as stampers 6 or stampers 10.

Sooo seeing as we've got the new mini catty being released in just a couple of days time I thought what better time than to get things up and running.

Ok, this is how it works.. as you may know when you hold a party for StampinUp if you reach sales of £150 or more you get to chose a free hostess gift and a minimum of £15 worth of free goods. Great for those who can spare an evening and enjoy the company of some friends but not so great for those who lead super busy lives or find it hard to coordinate an evening with far flung buddies. This is where the virtual groups come in, for stampers 6 six ladies & gents (yes we do have some fantastic male stampers out there) each commit to spending a minimum of £25 a month (plus postage unless local to me in Bristol and you can collect) on StampinUp goodies for 6 months then each month everyone takes a turn at being the host and earning the freebie spends and hostess gift.

Stampers 10 is the same idea but with 10 members it means a longer commitment but a smaller minimum spend of £15 (plus postage) per month.

If you'd like any more info or would like to take part please drop me a note on playingwithpaper@googlemail.com and please remember to let me know your screen name if you know me through any of the forums where I'm often found chatting.

A Dasher Good Christmas

One of the worst things for me at Xmas is deciding what cards to make. So much stash, so many ideas and soooooo many peeps to make cards for. Do I bore myself rigid and make over 100 all the same or do I go through the agonising process for each and every one?

I'll admit to being a bit of a butterfly and hate doing loads of the same thing so I decided I'd chose one colour and predominently one stamp then do half a dozen of each design I come up with.

The colour I chose was blue and the stamp Dasher.

Now I can't decide between marina mist and baja blue so I'll do a mix of each lol




This is using the 3kings template from scs.

Baja blue & whisper white cs, baja blue ink sponged to make a scene which runs around all 3 sides.

Serene Snowflakes randomly stamped to create the frill. White satin ribbon sponged with baja breeze to give just a hint of colour. Base frill punched with scallop trim border punch and a few gems. Sentiment is from Contempo Christmas.




Same card & ink but this time I've used a sentiment from Curly Cute, big square word block from Season of Joy and a flourish from a retired set. All of the panels have been sponged around the edge using the daubers. Pic doesnt really show it but Dasher has lovely sparkly antlers after 1 zig 2 way glued along the stamped line and covered with dazzling diamonds.




Switching to Marina mist cardstock & ink now.


This has to be one of the easiest cards I've ever made, whisper white sponged with marina mist to create a landscape and a sentiment from Contempo Christmas. It probably doesnt show but I've dotted the sky with my white inkessentials pen.






Same ink, same card, same stamps and the same technique but this time I used the waste from a nestie to create a mask.

Tiny bow from silver elastic cord and a wee brad.








Chosing just one colour and one stamp has proven very economical.

Dasher, 116816 £7.95
Pack of 40 whisper white a4 cs 106549 £7.50
Pack of 20 baja breeze a4 cs 106565 £6.25 (marina mist 121682)
Baja Breeze ink pad, 111833 £4.95 (marina mist 119668)
Postage £4.95

Total £31.60

If you'd like to order any of the StampinUp range please just drop me a line at playingwithpaper@googlemail.com

nb, SU don't make card blanks in the size I wanted so I used various white card blanks I've had here for a long time.

More Just Believe

It was mums birthday yesterday and her favourite flowers are daffodils. I've done her plenty of daff cards over the years this time I decided to use the colours found in daffs as the theme rather than the actual flower.

3 of the new In Colors fitted the bill perfectly, peach parfait, poppy parade and pear pizzazz and of course I couldnt not use daffodil delight. I teamed it with a sketch from Truly Scrumptious

In real life the daffodil delight is quite a soft colour for a yellow. I loathe yellow cardstock as a rule but this isnt too bad, will never be my favourite card colour but it doesnt offend me lol.

In colour markers used direct to the Just Believe flower. Peach parfait for the so swirly wheel. Boho Blossom punch teamed with Punch Potpourri and some old olive taffeta ribbon. Scallop trim corner punch used in the top right corner, bit of a liberty with the sketch I know but it looked better for me this way.



A couple more from Just Believe before I had to force myself to put it down and get cracking with Xmas cards.

After the card I made a couple of days ago I decided to use Lap of Luxury DSP again.



Very vanilla, & pretty in pink cardstock, concord crush and basic grey ink. Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon and the scallop trim border and corner punch with just a few gems to finish.

Now I'm hoping that the 2nd card is round the right way, it's saved properly on the pc but blogger seems to want to rotate it, odd. Edited to add, no it hasnt. Very very odd as I've tried with several different jpgs of the card. Even a new photo lol.



This is cased from a card by Lee Conroy, her's is one of the most perfect xmas cards I've seen for a long time. I havent changed much at all.

En Francais & tree trimmings stamped with versamark and embossed with SU gold ep. Whisper white, real red & gold mirri cardstock. Base card is one I cut & scored a long time ago, I rarely if ever make a6 cards any more but it was perfect for this one. Real red satin ribbon to finish. Wish you could see the ribbon in real life as it's so rich in colour & sheen it looks incredibly expensive. Perhaps some of the relations wont think handmade cards are the *cheap* option this year.. if only they knew lol ;o)

Papertake Weekly Challenge

This weeks Papertake Weekly Challenge was to chose any previous challenge, I used last weeks sketch. Loved the sketch but more truthfully was itching to get inky lol.

This is from Just Believe stamp set and has been daubed with basic grey, concord crush & pretty in pink before being stamped onto very vanilla.

Papers from Lap of Luxury DSP. Concord crush & pretty in pink cardstock with pretty in pink taffeta ribbon. Just Believe sentiment punched with word window punch. imho a really boring punch design but in practise sooo handy lol.

Undecided title lol

I couldnt decide on the title for todays post.. it was a split decision between I'm a Donut and Possibly the Best Stamp Set Ever. I'll let you decide which it should have been lol.

Donut, because I've done something so stupid I really can't believe it.... I've been hankering after the bauble punch from SU since I saw it in the US catty last year. September 1st arrives and we get a sneak peak at the new catty and woohoo we've got the punch... fast forward 4 weeks and I can finally order it.. I've got my need list all tidily arranged on a spread sheet so I don't forget anything. Woohoo the very nice man from UPS arrived early this morning with a ginormous box. I was very restrained... and rammed my tea & toast down my throat, washed the raspberry jam from my fingers before hacking at the box to get in it as quick as humanly poss. Squeals of delight as I grab my new goodies then it dawned on me.. delightful decoration stamp set yes, xmas wheel yes, jolly holiday papers yes, old olive ribbon yes, where's the bauble punch..Yep I forgot to copy & paste the code number for the punch. Gutted isnt the word to describe how I felt for all of the 10 minutes it took to log in and order it (and a few other things lol).



Possibly the Best Stamp Set Ever?

This is what really lifted the disappointment.. Just Believe. I'll be honest when I first saw the catty I was so busy looking at other things this one was overlooked until I happened to be looking in the SCS galleries.. WOW. I needed this set and I needed it straight away. Not often I use the same set 5 times in a single afternoon but I couldnt help myself. I can see me playing with it some more tomorrow.




This is the first card I made and was inspired by the Saturday Challenge Blogs theme for the week, distressing. Sorry about the photo, it doesnt sag in the middle.. I took the photo at a dodgy angle and used the perspective tool in PSP to right it.. not a good idea lol

Soft suede, crumb cake, & very vanilla cardstock, early espresso, crumb cake and soft suede ink.

En Francais script background, perfect punches sentiment, Just Believe.

Very vanilla taffeta ribbon and 3 new punches, scallop trim border, scallop trim corner and curly label extra large.


I fell in love with soft suede & crumb cake a long time ago when they were US colours. Teamed here again with early espresso & very vanilla again.

The central image is from the same set and was decoupaged. The larger background image was using a 2nd impression with crumb cake.





Again the same 3 colours but I used some of the champagne glitter paint and dauber to sponge some glitz over the vase.

Not sure about the layout (sketch from stamping411). It was going to be recycled into a different card but hubby loved it so it had a reprieve lol.

Vase made with the new oval extra large punch.





This is a stamp that cries out for multicolour stamping. Markers are something that I've tended to overlook a lot lately thanks to copics but that's about to change, well when I've saved enough pennies for the SU markers in the new colours.

Just because there's been a colour renovation I still like and will use the older colours. This is using 3 of the retired greens and real red markers. Coloured on to the stamp, huffed on then stamped on to very vanilla. If you look at the leaves carefully you'll see where the shades have merged together. Lovely technique and only possible with dye based pens. Sentiment from the same set, Just Believe but the top layer was punched with the curly label extra large. The bottom layer was cut by hand very carefully lol. Old Olive cardstock.




Odd colour combo time, old olive, melon mambo and elegant eggplant. Everything screams at me that it shouldnt work but somehow I think it does, or have I just got dodgy taste lol. I do think it might have been better if I'd used old olive as a border and the melon mambo as the base, maybe next time.

Not a card, this is a rather large corner bookmark. The old olive base was stamper with versamark. The main image was using daubers to dab the three inks in place. It's a similar technique to using the pens but if you look at how the eggplant & melon have merged it's a much softer look. I'm so chuffed with how they look in real life I'll be daubing a lot more eggplant & melon. Scallop trim edge & border punches also used.

CAS bauble

I love clean & simple and I'm really pleased with how this one came out.

Whisper white masked with the waste from a nestie ornament and strips of torn paper. Baja Breeze sponged over for a background. I did try with some cutndry to speed things up but wont show you the dogs dinner it made. Daubers are best for this as you need to control the ink.

Lovely as a tree stamped with Pacific Point before being overstamped with versamark heat embossed with heat & stick powder then dusted liberally with dazzling diamonds. Sentiment from Contempo Christmas and stamped in pacific point. All matted on to baja breeze cs.

Mixed bag

Bit of a mixed bag from me today, you've got no idea how good it is being able to play with inks again!


This one is simulating a crimper technique on SCS. I used a hougie board instead of a crimper.. next order that goes in is going to have the new A4 crimper!! All that lining up and scoring was a bit like hard work :o(

Contempo Christmas was used for the tree and sentiment (my idea of a perfect sentiment stamp, love the design)

Whisper white, garden green and real red cs/inks with just a pinch of dazzling diamonds on the star. Pic doesnt show it but it really sparkles in real life. For me real red is the ultimate in true xmassy reds and I normally use loads of it at this time of year.



Christmas colours again but this time I've used old olive, cherry cobbler and very vanilla. Cherry cobbler is a blood red in real life and has a very rich tone to it. Perfect with many of the SU greens and vanilla.

I used a couple of the stamps from Artistic Etchings and the box was cut with scal & my cricut. Very easy to make if you have a circle template. There is a step by step at scs which uses an envie template.




This has been on my to finish list for a wee while. It's a bingo board that I started at Yeovil playday with some of my crafting buddies.

There is a pic of me somewhere in the dc gallery spraying the board with gold paint, trouble was I had my hand in the cast, was spraying outside Sandras kitchen shop and it was blowing a gale lol.

One of my all time favourite stamp sets, pocket silhouettes. Rich razzleberry, soft suede, pumpkin pie card & inks. Boho blossom, scallop border (pencil holder) and bird punch. Rich razzleberry grosgrain ribbon.

A few cheap gems, ikea pencil that happened to be in my pocket and a small post it note pad.