Andrea's Stampin' Moments

18th Birthday!

  A Happy New Years Eve to you all, I hope you have an enjoyable one!

I started with a sketch in mind that I wanted to do, but the end result is nothing like how it started out!  You know when something just is't going to work?

The main image is from Papertrey Ink, and is a great one for a male birthday card.  It has been stamped using Palette Ink Burnt Umber, and SU! Certainly Celery.  I have cut the image out using  a new Spellbinders die, and sponged the inner border.

In the background I have used a beautiful DS paper from SU! and wide Chocolate grosgrain ribbon across the centre.  The die cut images over the ribbon are also from Spellbinders - aren't they gorgeous!?!

I needed to personlise the card, and the JustRite stampers worked once again.  Using the Brayton font both for the number and the name on the front of the card.  The sentiment is from the same PI set as the tree.

Have a safe and Happy evening - we spend a quite time at home with the boys, keeping us up at least until midnight - if they can!

If you get time over the next week or so I would love it if you could do a quick survey to the right of screen.

Happy Stamping this 2009!

In Your New Home - TECC48

  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and are ready to begin with a sketch challenge from Taylored Expressions.

This card is for a young family that have recently moved in to their new home just before Christmas.  I have used the set Boards and Beams from Papertrey Ink, and I loved taking the time out yesterday to colour with my 'new' Copic markers.  It's amazing how things come together, with todays readings and homily at church being all about 'family' and 'home'.

I didn't have a button large enough, so I have simply used an inch circle punch, pierced four holes and threaded cotton, and then distressed the edges to give it a bit more depth - and it doesn't look too bad!

The green is actually a lot more subtle than what it appears in the photo, and I used the chisel end of the Copic to draw the border around the image.

One of our guests - because I had to sneak away! - came in and said "Is this your relaxation?" Absolutely!

I hope you get a chance to 'relax' as well.

Have a great day.

Treat Yourself - TECC47

This is a card I made on Saturday for the weekend sketch challenge, but I couldn't post it because I was having trouble with my editing program.  A very quick call made to Adobe and the problem was fixed! ...I wish I knew more about programs and computers.

  A really fun sketch from Taylored Expressions this week, and as I have finished my Christmas cards - Woohoo - and posted them, I thought I would use my new Our Craft Lounge set 'Life is Sweet'.

The gorgeous paper is from Inque Boutique and is called 'Isn't it Romantic' - don't miss the sale on these products!

The main image was coloured with my Copic markers, and die cut with one of the new Spellbinders dies.

I alomost forgot to mention...The Dew Drops are Rose, and the white ribbon is the new Double Sided Satin ribbon.

I hope you all had a great weekend, and thank you to those that left a comment on my Freebie Friday post.  I decided to use the random.org for a bit of fun this month and it produced the number '9'..congratulations to Jill Haddad.  Email me when you can with your details and I will send the goodies out to you.

Happy Stamping everyone.

Freebie Friday Give-away!

 Welcome to the last blog candy for this year!  This is open to everyone, and all you need to do is leave a comment on this post.  I simply couldn't decide what to include, so I hope you like the little package of Christmas Cheer!

In your parcel your will receive

-1metre each of my new double sided satin ribbons

-1 jar of Lilac Dew Drops

  - and a packet of Inque Boutique brads.

The winner will be chosen Monday morning 9.00am AEST.  Good luck everyone.

Another Box

  When I made the two boxes last week I had in mind that the gift cards would be the 'normal' size, and as it turned out one stores gift card is approx. 19cm x 10cm!  So I set about making another using the same paper and method as in this post, but in a rectangle.

I am having the final 'Freebie Friday' for this year tomorrow, and it will be open to all, near and far!  So pop on over some time over the weekend to see what is up for grabs.

Happy Stamping!

Birthday Balloons - TECC46

  A little late this weekend for the Taylored Expressions sketch challenge, but they do say better late than never!

I have used my new set Lil' Pea-Nut from Our Craft Lounge, and isn't she adorable?

Stamped with Palette Noir black and then coloured using Copic Sketch Markers, I think she came up a treat.  I have never coloured such a large plain section using my Copics before, but I am happy with my first attempt, these markers are incredible - well I think.  I have such fun with them.

  The red balloon and two presents were stamped and then cut out, and foam tape was used to adhere to them to the main picture.

The border of elephant prints in this set made a fun addition to the bottom of the picture.

And finally just a bit of a close up so you can see how cute she is.

Enjoy your Sunday.  I am off to Mass and am doing the childrens liturgy outside today.  They are usually so good, but do get a little loud towards the end before we go back inside.

Happy stamping,

Boxes for Men!

  I was aked to make a couple of boxes for a friend, that would suit men and big enough to put in a gift card and maybe just a few choccies.  This is what I came up with, and I have simply used the same design and size as the ones in this tutorial.

Using DSP from SU! that I had in my collection I set out stamping the outer rims using the borders from the JustRite Stampers Christmas Ensemble.  I then cut them out with the Spellbinders Circles. 

The tree in this image is from the SU! Holiday Spirit set, which is stamped with Palette Burnt Umber and coloured with Copic Sketch Markers.  All the edges of the box bottom and top have been sponged, as well as both stamped images.

This box uses the Christmas Tree set from Kitchen Sink Stamps, and has been stamped using SU! Always Artichoke.

The Dew Drops are from the Rose collection, but looked a little pink for this project so once attached I coloured them with my Copic markers to make them more red.  Don't you just love these markers?

The ribbon holding the box together is newsatin edged organza I now have in stock and will be online very soon.

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope your Christmas preparations are moving along steadily.

Anna Mae Birthday - TECC45

  I just had to try my new Our Craft Lounge set - Anna Mae - and isn't she cute.  I can see that this set will get used a lot.

I nearly have my DH convinced that I need some new Copic markers for Christmas - we set a small limit for each other - and I would love some nice pinks!

She was stamped using Palette Noir and then cut with Spellbinders classic ovals.  I am still working on shading, and used a light yellow across the front of her dress to lighten it.

As well as the cake in this set there is a present, words, a balloon and different ways to decorate her dresses and stockings/socks - I went for stripes this time!

The embellishments are the Bird of Paradise Dew Drops, which if you haven't checked them out yet you can see them here.

I had better dash!  Have a great Sunday.

Life Is Sweet!

  I have my camera back, and I have lots of photos to take and edit, but I thought I would show you this using the new 'Our Craft Lounge' stamp set Life is Sweet.

The ladies at OCL have a sketch challenge up and running and this card is based on their design which you can find here if you would like to see some incredible cards.

The images were stamped using Palette Burnt Umber and coloured with my Copic Sketch markers.  The thick plastic sheet that these stamps are stored on have beautiful coloured images of the stamps, which is perfect for people like me still learning how to use and colour with Copics.

I am still learning how to shade, but they do say practice makes perfect, so that means lots more stamping! 

The DSP is from Inque Boutique, and don't forget the entire range of IB is 20% till the end of December, including this beautiful paper.

The grosgrain ribbon is fromTLOCS.

Also new in this week to The Little Online Card Shop are Dew Drops by Robins Nest.  These are gorgeous little drops of colour that add to any project.  They are easily adhered using pop dots, crystal effects or anything similar.  I will say check them out a little later today when I have all the photos taken!

Here is the weekend cupcake challenge from Taylored Expressions and I hope you can join in.

Happy Saturday Stamping!

Our Craft Lounge Stamps have arrived!

Well I am not able to take photos at the moment, but I thought I would share with you some very exciting news....My stock of 'Our Craft Lounge' stamps have arrived and are now available in store!

These stamp sets come in pink crafty cling rubber and crafty clear, and are  attached to the best system I have seen so far for storage.  Check out one of the designers blogs here for some great photos on how these stamps are stored, and what they look like.  I have been reading Cambrias blog now for a little while, so I was very excited when they announced their line of stamps.  I hope you like them as much as I do.

Happy Stamping,

Tutorial Tuesday - Christmas Ornament

  Now I know that I am probably the last one to try making one of these ornaments, but it is one I have been going to try for years.  So I went in search of some easy instructions to help me through, and I found some absolutely beautiful ones you would not believe!

Some were quite large and I knew that I wanted smaller ones, and some even used a die to cut and emboss - how fantastic would that be!  It would certainly make them a lot quicker, which is why I only made one.

Firstly I had to work out how big to make the centre triangle.  So punching my circle using a 1 3/8" punch I took my ruler and measured across approx. 1/3 of the way down the circle.

Using this measurement I cut out a triangle of equal sides, but found it was still a little big, so I trimmed each side down until the triangle sat inside the circle.  You need it to sit in the circle so that when you use a bone folder to score, the points of the triangle meet.

Punch out 20 circles in total, score them all using your triangle, and decorate if you like - I have used a star stamp and some AED White Fizz glitter.

To begin joining them it is very simple.  You need to form a top and bottom using five for each.

Then take the final 10 and join them as in the picture.  I found the glue pen made this very easy.  Work your way around with the top and bottom, remembering to put some thread in the centre to hang!

I am without a camera for the next few days - taken on camp by our son, but in between the Christmas cooking I hope to make a few things, so expect to be bombarded over the weekend!

Have a great week!

Stamp set draw!

  Happy 1st December!  So the count down begins, and we all know how quickly that passes us by.

I thought I would include a simple card today so I could announce the Freebie Friday winner for this month.  The names were printed out and Nathan reached deep in to the bag to pull out the name...SANDIE CARTER.  Congratulations Sandie!  If you could email me to confirm your postal address, and I will get that out to you ASAP!

This is a simple card I am doing for an order, and although you can't see in the picture the Olive cardstock forms a frame around the image.  I have firstly punched a smaller square, and then used a larger square punch for the outer.  The tree image is from Kitchen Sink Stamps, and the words from Papertrey Ink.  The white cardstock is a linen texture from TLOCS.

Have a great day!