My Matroyshka - Tent topper Card

Quick post today, fighting a cold and I am pretty tired.

This card totally cheers me up every time I see it!

I made 7 of these for a swap at my Upline's later in the week and I had soo much fun.

I used the "My Matroyshka" Stamp set from the New Occasions mini. and I actually cheered when I saw it the first time in the catty - I'm Ukrainian, it's nice to see something that can have a little sentimental value. I did send a card made with this stamp set to my Grandma and it now has a place of honour with the family pictures.

I stamped the dolls with black Stazon and coloured them with a combo of watercolour crayons, markers, ink and blender pens. I then cut them out and coated them with Crystal Effects. That stuff is sticky, so be careful, once it's on it is on!

This is an unusual colour choice for me as I generally do not like orange (Might explain my dislike of carrots), but this colour combo just worked so well. Plus I have all this orange paper, I might as well use it. The patterned paper is also from the Paper Stack in the mini as well. Every piece in that stack is gorgeous! And so is the Satin Ribbon! So lush and fancy, and so easy to work with!

Now this is a new style of card for me called a "Tent Topper Card" and it was surprisingly quick and easy to make.

The card base is 41/4 x 81/2, this is folded in half. I used the Clear circle die for my background.

I decorated the circle and the base of the card.

To attach the circle, I placed my card base on scor-pal, at 51/2, I then centred my circle on the front so it hit the top edge of the scor-pal (You can also use your grid paper) and now my card will fit in a regular A2 envelope!

Dreaming of Spring Card Keeper Workshop Sneak peek

Well, this week illustrated why I need to make some spring themed cards.

Join me and some stampin' friends to make 6 cards ( 2 each of 3 designs) and a card keeper. All are in Spring colours and themes and are GORGEOUS! We will also use some different techniques, including watercolouring.

This little picture is just a snippet of the whole card! Isn't that bird and branch cute? All made with ONE Stampin' Up! punch, now available in the new Occassions Mini. All the projects we will be making will include items from the Mini catalogue and from the Sale-A-Bration catalogue, so you can try them out before you get them for free!

To join in the fun, here is all the info you need!

When : January 23rd, 2010 - 12pm – 4pm
Where : St. Michaels School 437 Donald St. Ottawa
Cost : $35.00 includes the card keeper and all supplies
Contact me : Anna Crossley
(613)774-5753
Annacrossley@persona.ca

Space is limited to 12 spots. To ensure your spot Please register and pay by January 18th. You can pay by cheque, cash, or paypal. This is insure I have materials for you as I have to purchase them to have them for you!

We will be using the new clear mount stamps to personalize your cards, you get to choose your sentiments and greeting, so you can have all the Birthday cards, or Thank you cards you want or mix and match as you please.
Please bring your own adhesive and scissors if you have them.

Christmas Fish?! - making fish with the decoration punch

Sorry for my extremely long absence, but everyday life has been insane! This will be quick post but I wanted to say "Hi".

I seem have a tradition and it is not a fun one. When the first snow of the season comes a long I always seem to ditch the car. I missed last year due to being home recovering from surgery and my excuse 2 years ago was that I didn't have snow tires. This year no excuse, snow tires were on and I was going very slow due to passing 3 accidents. I hit a patch of ice and so it went. That combined with everyday job stuff taking over and the Christmas season being here, I am overwhelmed and unfortunately, stamping has taken a bit of a back seat.

Enough about me- more about the card. See those cute little fish? They are made using the ornament punch. I saw these done on the web somewhere and I was sold. I have quite a few people in my life who like fish and this is just too much fun! This card I made for my friend Debbie for hosting a very fun workshop! She loves fish and when we used the punch for our Christmas Cards I mentioned we could use it to make fish, so I made her this card.

If you love the punch and don't want to miss out make sure to order before January 4th because then it is gone for good when the new mini comes out (which is just too awesome to describe!)

This gorgeous card is made using the Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin' Kit! I have made 2 scrapbook pages, 2 scrapbook boxes and 5 cards and I still have more die cuts and paper to use! I did use some stamps on this one and of course some glitter with heat and stick powder but some of the cards have virtually NO stamping at all! How cool is that? I resisted these kits thinking they might look cheesy or cheap but the images are great, they stick nicely and most definitely are not cheap looking! I can't wait to buy more!

Since my Christmas break is almost here, I cannot wait to do more crafting and more blogging! I f you need any last minute gifts or ideas give me a call or email. Book a workshop in January or February and you will receive free great stuff!

Back soon! Anna

Stamp Club Starting in January 2010!

Space is limited!

Join a Stampin’ Up! Hostess Club and receive free stamps!


Membership Benefits

Receive a FREE Stampin’ Up! Idea Book and Catalog! (A $12.00 value.)

See and learn new ideas and techniques!

Slowly build your Stampin’ Up! collection!

Get together with friends and do something that you love to do!

Each member of the club takes turns being the hostess so that each member has the opportunity to earn FREE stamps and accessories.

Get IDEAS!!

The club will meet six times a year to learn new techniques and enjoy different make & take projects. Each member is required to order a minimum of $25.00 in Stampin’ Up! Merchandise (this enables each hostess the minimum hostess benefits).

We will be meeting the 4th Saturday of every month at St. Michael's School on Donald Steet in Ottawa from 10 am to 1 pm. Each months hostess chooses a project or technique to do for their month. Please sign up as soon as possible to ensure your space! Can't wait to craft with you!

If you have questions or would like to sign up
contact your Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator:

Anna Crossley
613-774-5753
Email: Annacrossley@persona.ca
http://taketimeforstamping.blogspot.com/

Cracked Glass Technique with a unusual colour combo

It is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, so Yay! to time off and my mom's Turkey (everyone says it, but really uh uh! my Moms is the best) It even converted staunch turkey haters into desperate turkey lovers. I hope to actually get some time to stamp this weekend but we are doing the usual travelling Thanksgiving so who knows what will happen. The card I am showing today turned out to be one of my favourites even though the colour combo is very dark and brooding to me.

Both the colours and the layout are from challenges on a favourite website called Splitcoaststampers, where crafty people get together and share their creations, ideas and issue challenges, which is perfect for those days when you just don't know where to start.

One of the techniques I learned ages ago and haven't done since then is the Cracked Glass technique and it is truly one of the easiest techniques to do that has such a wow factor.

To do the cracked glass technique you need to:

1. Stamp you image onto a piece of Whisper White or Very Vanilla Cardstock.

2. Coat your whole piece of carstock in versamark and then coat that with a layer of Glassy Glaze.

3. Heat emboss the glaze and let dry.

4 Repeat Steps 1 -3 at least 2 more times until the image has a nice, thick clear coat of the glaze covering the whole piece. The fun part is you now stick it in the freezer for at least 10 - 20 minutes. The longer it stays in the harder it gets.

5. Take your frozen piece of cardstock from the freezer (it will curl a little from the freezing) and then crack it like chocolate bark. It makes a cool snapping sound and the glaze cracks. It does warm up quick so if you need to you can put it into the freezer again. And then you are done.

Card Recipe :

Stamps : En Francais, Of The Earth (Hostess)

Ink : Crushed Curry, Rich Razzleberry

Paper : Razzleberry Lemonade DSP, Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White Cardstock.

Extras : Circle Fire Brads, Versamark, Glassy Glaze, Heat tool, Mat pack & paper piercer, Sponges, SNAIL adhesive.

I had a lot of fun revisiting this technique. I can always show you how, just ask!

Remember : The Stampin Spa Day is October 24th and space is limited so if you would like to take part, please give me a call by the 14th of October.

Happy Thanskgiving!

Twick or Tweet Diorama Card

I'm back, but really quickly! As promised I bring you halloween! I tried a new card fold called "Diorama" and it is so neat! It's a little tunnel card. I used the "Twick or Tweet" set from the holiday mini. I am not a huge halloween girl, living in the country I don't even hand out candy. I decided I needed at least one halloween set and this won the challenge, cute but also not too cute. I used a lot of both white and black embossing powders and the new Night and Day DSP. It's not just for halloween but I couldn't resistusing it here instead of just plain black! The pumpkin friend is coloured with markers and then given a lovely coating of crystal effects. How I went for this long without this stuff is beyond me, since I seem to use it all the time!

The skeleton actually has a dog attached to his leg, but I just wiped the versamark off the dog and then made a straight line with the versamark on the leg and voila, no dog!

For this stamp set the images also have the sentiments attached. What I did was cut the sentiments off and put them on the end of the wood block, so then I can either use just the sentiment or the image. You can do this with most Stampin' Up stamps, and that way you get double the use out of your stamps.

I had leftovers though from making the little holes, and I just didn't feel satisifed so I made a "leftovers" card.

Seriously, How cute is this? And I used extra bits and pieces so this card took less than 5 minutes to make!

I will be back soon, Sunday is supposed tp be nice and rainy so maybe I can sit for more than 5 minutes.

Lucky you, sad me... Great Deal on Stamp Sets

There comes a time in a young stampers life when they have to go through the goodies and say goodbye. It's a sad time, but also a happy time. I get more space to fill with new goodies and you get new stamps to play with.

Here is a list of the stamps I am parting with, most are from the last catalogue and sale-a-bration. (Click on pictures to see full image).

Also see below for a new card I had to share!



Sweet Little Sentiments (Never used) $15.00


Yummy $12.00








Polka Dot Punches $12.00





Darling Dots $12.00









Cute and Curly $12.00





Scandinavian Season (Never used) $20.00 Sold





Big Bold Birthday $20.00







Sending Happy Thoughts (Never used) $12.00

Three Thoughts $15.00

Congrats (Never Used) $15.00








Lots of Thoughts $15.00

God's Beauty $15.00 (This is a hard one!)

Botanical Blooms $12.00

For a Friend $20.00 (Great for colouring with blender pens)

So Many Sayings (Never Used) $12.00

As you can see they are all great, and the ones I did use, some I did not get to use very often. If there are any you would like please call or email me anytime and I will get them to you. Unfortunately, I can only ship within Canada.

Also, as promised, here is card I just made using fabulous items from the new Holiday Mini Catalogue! The little red bird spins in the card!

This was so easy to make!

1. Cut Real Red cardstock to make a card 41/4" by 51/2".

2. Using one piece of Christmas Cocoa Specialty Designer Paper, cut it 41/8x52/8 and then cut in half lenghtwise.

3. Stamp the bird from Berry Christmas, Stamp twice onto Whisper White CS and punch out with the 11/4" circle punch.

4. Lightly adhere one of your DSP pieces to the front of your card. Using the 13/8" punch, punch through the Real Red card stock and the DSP.

5. To make the spinner card: Place 2 pieces of sticky strip on the back of one of your stamped bird circles. Take 2 pieces of twine, linen thread or here I used the Silver Elastic Cord and attach to the top and bottom of the bird image. Attach the 2nd bird image to the other side, making sure both birds are mirror image. Use more sticky strip to attach the spinner to the outside of the card, centering it in the punched circle. This will be covered by your DSP Layer.

6. Adhere the Real Red Ribbon to the two pieces of DSP, flipping the top piece over to show the alternate pattern on the DSP. Glue this to the front of your card, making sure the circle on your DSP matches the circle on your card stock.

The Sentiment panel is stamped onWhisper White from the Berry Christmas stamp set, The branch is Old Olive and the berries and sentiment are in Real Red. I sponged the edges in Real Red and then layered onto a piece of Soft Suede Cardstock. This was popped up using dimensionals. The cute little birdie is from the "Merry Details" Sizzlits.

My favourite things! The Christms Cocoa Paper is so cool! It has a flocking on some of the designs that makes it feel all velvety and also some of the designs are shimmery!

Next up : My first attempts at a scrapbook page and some Halloween goodies (guess who's order came in Friday!)

Remember : Book a party with me within the next 2 months and get one of the stamp sets from the Holiday mini for just $14 including Berry Christmas! That's more than 50% off!

Thoroughly Modern in Two Ways

In the catalogue, there are quite a few new Designer Papers. Some I wasn't to sure of including this one called "Thoroughly Modern". Then I started to see some projects done with it and also actually saw the paper in real life and I decided that I loved it!
The main colours in the Paper series are : Bermuda Bay, Soft Suede, Rose Red and Sahara Sand.
The first card is one I recently did at a workshop and everyone loved it!
Now the theme of this post is that each card used the Thoroughly Modern paper. So you might be asking where the paper is on this one. Well, behind the stamped vellum is a piece of the DSP that also has daisies on it and it matches really well. I kept this to a two colour palette of Bermuda Bay and Soft Suede and we stampe the floral image from Fifth Avenue Floral using Craft White ink. The had part when stamping on vellum is hiding how you attached it to your backing paper. For this card I placed glue dots behind the centers of my flowers and that hid them. It's a very simple and elegant looking card.


This second card also used the Thoroughly Modern DSP, but only a small strip on the side as an accent.
The medallion stamp which is another favourite, was stamped with versamark and I used the Stampin' Pastels to colour it in. I love this effect, it gives it a nice soft look with a dreamy quality.
Sometimes layering different coloured card stock or DSP's can be all your card needs to jazz it up. I find that this card is just a little more vibrant but still elegant.



Recipes :
Card 1
Stamps : Fifth Avenue Floral, Thank You Kindly
Paper : Thoroughly Moder DSP, Vellum, Soft Suede, Bermuda Bay, Naturals Ivory CS
Ink : Whisper White Craft, Chocolate Chip
Extras : Glue dots, Bermuda Bay 1/2" PD Grosgrain Ribbon, Neutrals Brad

Card 2
Stamps : Medallion
Paper: Thoroughly Modern DSP, Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo CS, Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon, Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware, Circle Ice Brads.

Embossed Crushed Curry

Here is a lovely card I made after seeing someone else use Crushed Curry and Clear Embossing powder on vellum.

The card I saw was monochromatic but I thought I would add just a dash of the Dusty Durango. I am not a huge fan of the colour orange but I am making myself use it more.



To emboss in colour, what you have to do is use your stamp first in the clear versamark and then into the colour ink of your choice. This way you get the Versamark you need for embossing but also don't ruin your versamark pad with ink.

I used Clear Embossing powder but you could also use Iridescent Ice for extra sparkle or Glassy Glaze for a thicker shell.

I also embossed the flower on to vellum, flipped it over and coloured the center spots with the Dusty Durango marker. This was then cut out and popped out onto a dimensional. I like that is is a fairly clean and simple looking card. It actually makes me like orange just a little bit.

I also wanted to change up how I presented my sentiment. This is actually the words but not the design from one of the stamps in the Oval All stamp set. I stamped it in Dusty Durango onto the Crushed Curry, and cut it out with the FABULOUS Modern Label punch, it was nice but I wanted more. So I cut another piece from the punch in the Dusty Durango and offset it behind the Crushed Curry one and I like it soo much better. I think I might become a fan of orange jsut yet (don't get to excited!)



Recipe :

Stamps : Eastern Blooms, Oval All
Ink : Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango
Paper : Crushed Curry, Dusty Durano, Vellum Cardstock
Extras : Crushed Curry 1/2" polka dot grosgrain ribbon, Clear EP, Dimensionals, Glue Dots, Modern Label punch

Shaker Card a la PEI

I love to experiment! New techniques, new colors I love to try it all. When we went to PEI the cottage we rented was lovely and perfect. In the rush to leave home I neglected to grab a Thank You card to leave behind, and could not make myself buy one when I knew I could make a nice one at home.

The two things that everyone knows about PEI is the gorgeous red dirt and the lovely Lupins blooming all over the place. We missed Lupin season but you couldn't miss them on eveything from towels to jams. Of course, we brought home a giant bag of PEI dirt and I thought a card that included these two elements would be perfect.

This is a shaker card and the red dirt is from our stash. You can't see it but there is even a little shell too. This came together so quickly and easily. I have to work on cutting out the centre of the square, but I didn't want to use a punch as that would be too small.

I also got to use my new brayer, and that can either be water or a night sky, you decide! It's sparkly!

This is the inside. I used one of the Pocket Silhouette flowers with Rich Razzleberry and Orchid Opulence markers to make the Lupins and I LOVE them! I will definitely make this type of card again! I really hope the person I send it too likes it as well.

Recipe :

Stamps : Pocket Silhouettes, Thank You Kindly

Ink : Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence, Bashful Blue, Bermuda Bay, Old Olive, Versamark

Paper : Whisper White, Orchid Opulence CS

The extras : Iridescent Ice EP, Scalloped Oval Punch, Sponges, Acetate, Mounting Tape, PEI Red Dirt.

Yes, I know another butterflies and flowers card. But I did get two new stamps sets and I had to give them a work out. The flowers are from the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set that I resisted buying forever and finally broke down and bought. I have seen so many amazing things done with this stamp set. What I did is stamped the flowers on patterned DSP and then embossed with white embossing powder. You can also do the same with Black Sta-zon, other embossing powders. I also broke out my Great Friends stamp set. Another one where even with just 5 stamps the possibilities are endless. It also goes great with the Matchbox Messages Die and Stamp set. Another new purchase and probably for me the most exciting is the scallop circle die. I resisted buying this since I first bought my Big Shot and can't understand why I waited so long. That's what happens though when there are just so many things to love. Want to know my Must Buy List? It's called the 2009-2010 Idea Book and Catalogue!

I also realized that Old Olive and the new In-color Soft Suede go together really well. I also used one of the Soft Subtles colours, Blush blossom for the backing of the embossed butterfly and the butterfly cut using the Beautiful Butterflies die. Take the Butterflies off and this could be a nice masculine card too.

Razzle Dazzle Spotlight

I got some new goodies last week including the new "Razzle Dazzle" stamp set and on Saturday I dived in and had some fun. This was actually a colour combo challenge issued by my friend (and upline) Maggie to use Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry and Dusty Durango together. I kind of cheated because there isn't a whole lot of the Dusty Durango there.

I also tried a new technique for me called "Spotlighting". I stamped my image in Black Stazon, which gives a great crisp image and a contrast colour (although I was toying with using Chocolate Chip to match the card stock). Then I coloured part of my image with my in-colour markers (awesome!) using a circle punch to cut it out and adhere on top of my stamped image.
I do like all the Chocolate chip cardstock peeking through. The other colours are so bright that it tempers them but also makes them pop. The sentiment was from the new stamp set Teeny Tiny Wishes, it comes with 24 different sentiments and all in different fonts so there is such a lovely variety.



I'm shocked I didn't use the Big Shot. Oh well, I made other things that more than make up for it. I also got the Matchbox die and it is pretty cool. Here is what I made (but I had to use the no longer available Raspberry Tart paper and pink pirouette cardstock (but I had to try it!) and I also used to it make tags on another 2 cards. The matching stamp set Matchbox Messages is also a great product.















Thanks for looking! If you have any questions about my projects or Stampin' Up Products feel free to email me.

Anna