Terrific Techniques - Embossing 101

These are the 3 cards the Terrific Techniques girls made last month for our Embossing 101 class. We covered the Faux Metal, Cracked Glass & Stained Glass techniques. The next class will be on the 27th of June if you're interested in joining us. The girls are great and we always have fun.
Faux Metal
Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly, Eastern Blooms, Short & Sweet
Ink: Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red SW Markers; Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red, Versamark
Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red, Old Olive, Whisper White
Accessories: Silver EDP, Silver Brads, Word Window, 3/4" & 1" Circle Punches
Stained Glass
Stamps: Bloomin' with Beauty, One of a Kind, Weathered Background
Ink: Regal Rose, Rose Red, Always Artichoke SW Markers; Elegant Eggplant, Creamy Caramel, Versamark
Cardstock: Regal Rose, Elegant Eggplant, Going Grey, Vellum
Accessories: Black EDP, Silver Brads, Small Oval, Large Oval & Eyelet Border punches; Regal Rose 5/8" Grosgrain, Sponge
Cracked Glass
Stamps: Best Yet, Embrace Life
Ink: Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery, Pale Plum SW Marker, Versamark
Cardstock: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Candy Lane DSP, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Clear EDP, 1 3/8" & Scallop Circle Punches

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Just My Sketches - Love You

Here is my April reveal for Just My Sketches. The heart shaped photo's were actually meant to be circles but I think Deanne will forgive me as they are something other than your regular 6x4's...
This layout is a little bit of an inside joke, the photos are of Stefan & Charlotte when we were in Albury recently. Stefan is Sarah & Mark's son, Sarah is probably the closest thing I have to a sister, she has known me since I was alot younger than these 2 are and it doesn't seem to matter how far away I go (because I'm the one who moves, she has stuck around, now she literally lives around the corner from where I grew up lol) we always keep in touch and we can always just pick up right where we left off and hang out as if it hasn't been over a year since the last time we saw each other, so we were really really excited to find out that we would be having our first child at around the same time (there are about 3 1/2 months between Charlotte & Stefan) and then we were even more excited when I had a girl & Sarah had a boy (neither of us found out ahead of time what we were having) and we decided the day Stefan was born that he would have to marry Charlotte so we could be related! Because of all this I thought it was only fitting that the journalling should read "Charlotte & Stefan - True love forever..."
The funniest part of the whole thing is that these photo's were probably the loviest they acted towards each other the whole weekend, when you have 2 only children under 18 months they don't tend to share very well and we had a few little barnies lol
I have used the Stained Glass technique for the flower in the top corner & I have cut out another heart from the love you in DSP and popped it up on a dimensional.
If you want to have a go of the sketch here it is:
PS I have just realised that by the time this post goes live the Ginger Blossom DSP & possibly the stamp sets will be retired, so I am really sorry about that, I try to publish only current products on my blog so that if something inspires you the products are still available.
Stamps: Big on Spring
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Versamark, Earth Elements SW Markers
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Ginger Blossom DSP
Accessories: White EDP, Black EDP, Sewing Machine

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould for Deanne Burton

Ginger Blossom Thank You

Another card using this piece of Ginger Blossom DSP. I kept it very simple with the Embrace Life blossom & the Short & Sweet "Thank You". I'm loving this River Rock ribbon from the Beach Ribbons Original Pack, I hope there's something similar in the new catalogue!
PS I've been on a real Kraft kick lately, has anyone else noticed?
Stamps: Embrace Life, Short & Sweet
Ink: Earth Elements SW Markers, Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral
Cardstock: Cameo Coral, Groovy Guava, Kraft, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Beach Ribbons Originals

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Another Embrace Life & Ginger Blossom Card...

I set myself a little challenge to use every last piece of this sheet of DSP from the Ginger Blossom pack (not that it's a hard challenge it's just so pretty) so you'll be seeing just a *little* bit of it over the next little while, I have used a bit of it recently so hopefully you won't be too bored of it by the time I've finished lol.
The flower in the centre is made with the stained glass technique & coloured from behind with Groovy Guava, Ruby Red & Cameo Coral.
Stamps: Embrace Life
Ink: Cameo Coral & Ruby Red SW Markers, Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip & Close to Cocoa
Cardstock: Kraft, Ginger Blossom DSP, Vellum Cardstock
Accessories: Versamark, Black EDP, Blender Pen

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Embrace Life

My upline Lisa lent me the gorgeous Always set out of the Spring Mini catalogue for a project I needed to do and I thought I should send her a little thank you card when I sent back the set.
I used the Embrace Life stamp set with the matching Ginger Blossom DSP and using Ruby Red & Old Olive Markers I coloured direct to rubber for the flower, then I used a blender pen & my Groovy Guava ink pad to lightly shade some areas of the blossoms.
Because I was mailing the card in the parcel rather than sending in an envelope I decided to play around with a different sized card & used a Matchbook Fold covering the staple on the flap with the reverse side of the DSP used for the front.
Stamps: Embrace Life
Ink: Ruby Red, Groovy Guava, River Rock, Earth Elements Markers
Cardstock: Kraft, Ginger Blossom DSP, Cameo Coral, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Blender Pen

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Happy Birthday Marcia!

I'm a little late posting this here because I wanted to make sure that the birthday girl got it before I showed you it, but here is the card I made for Marcia's birthday.
Marcia is a super talented stamper and I am lucky to have become friends with her through SU! I haven't met Marcia in real life yet but we chat online and email each other all the time so I feel like I've known her for ages!
Stamps: Embrace Life, Family Phrases
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red
Cardstock: Ginger Blossom DSP, Kraft
Accessories: Ginormous Pieces On Board Chipboard, Jumbo Eyelets, Fire Rhinestone Brad, Corner Rounder

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Back in the saddle

I absolutely loved Kristina Werner's challenge #36 but I was too late to play along officially so when I saw Makeesha's first sketch challenge for the year I decided I needed to get back in the saddle so to speak after my break so I set myself another little mini challenge to use the beautiful colours from the old Colour Inspiration challenge with Makeesha's challenge. I'm a bit rusty with my watercolouring but I thought I did alright...
Stamps: Embrace Life, Short & Sweet
Ink: Old Olive, Stazon, SW Markers; Old Olive, Pretty in Pink & Rose Red
Cardstock: Kraft, Bali Breeze DSP, Watercolour Paper, Pretty in Pink
Accessories: Felt Fusion, Pretties Kit, Aqua Painter, Pretty in Pink Taffeta

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Journal for Mum

I covered another Journal for my Mum as her Christmas present. This time I used the Spring Flowers DSP. I love this DSP but for some reason seem to forget that I have it and as such it rarely gets used, so when I was picking out a DSP to use for Mum I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to use it.
The Embrace Life flower was coloured using my blender pen & inkpads in Cameo Coral & Barely Banana (taken from the colours in the DSP). Then I traced the stamens(?) with the fine end of my close to cocoa marker.
As I know that journals get more wear and tear than the average card or scrapbook page I have lightly singed the ends of the ribbon with a lighter to stop them fraying (I actually keep one with my stamping things for this purpose).
Stamps: Embrace Life, Rough Edges Alphabet
Ink: Stazon, Close to Cocoa, Cameo Coral, Barely Banana
Cardstock: Spring Flowers DSP, Mellow Moss, Close to Cocoa (for the inside cover)
Accessories: Scallop Edge & Spiral Tab Punches, Chocolate Chip 1" DS Ribbon, Mellow Moss Tafetta Ribbon

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Makeesha's Inspiration Challenge #1

Here is my entry for Makeesha's Inspiration Challenge, I am loving these Challenges, they are so much fun with lots of different types of challenge to keep it interesting! I will be sending this card to someone who I am pretty sure will read this so if it turns up in your mailbox just pretend you haven't seen it before ;o)
I actually had another card in mind for this challenge but I got half way through and made the little scalloped piece (I didn't use the scallop square punch just another, smaller, one of these) and it didn't work on the card I was making but it looked so cute I had to use it straight away so it didn't get lost in the bottom of the scrap box. Anyway, this is what I came up with the use the square.
I have the Kraft base purely because I wanted to use the Kraft Taffeta as it reminded me of one of the cushions on the bed. The flower is stamped in Stazon on Whisper White Cardstock and coloured using my aquapainter with Bashful Blue & Soft Sky Ink pads. I went over the tops of the little stamen's with my white gel pen. "Embrace Life" is stamped with Craft Ink.
Stamps: Embrace Life
Ink: Stazon, Soft Sky, Bashful Blue, Whisper White Craft Ink
Cardstock: Kraft, Soft Sky, Whisper White & Bashful Blue
Accessories: Kraft, Whisper White & Bashful Blue Taffeta Ribbon, Soft Subtles Brads, 1 1/4", 1 3/8" & Scalloped Edge Punches, Aquapainter

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Kwernerdesign.com - Colour Inspiration #30

Here is my entry for Kristina Werner's Colour Inspiration Challenge #30. I took advantage of the challenge to get another birthday card made.I have embossed the blossoms with black EDP then coloured with my Certainly Celery & Old Olive Markers (Don't forget about the individual Markers available this month only), and used my Aqua Painter to blend. I know green is a slightly unconventional colour to make blossoms but we have this tree in our yard that flowers about the same time as the cherry blossom tree and the blossoms look almost like cherry blossoms but then at the last minute they get this beautiful green in them so when I decided to use the new Embrace Life set with this colour challenge I knew I had to do green blossoms.
The square was made using my Scallop Edge Punch & this tutorial from SCS. It was great as I wanted scallops badly and the scallop square punch was too small for what I wanted it for, and as I don't own any die-cut machines (holding my breath for the big shot) I have no easy way of getting larger scallop squares or rectangles.
Stamps: Embrace Life, Short & Sweet
Ink: Old Olive, White Craft Ink, Versamark, Old Olive SW Marker, Certainly Celery SW Marker
Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Sahara Sand, Whisper White
Accessories: Aquapainter, Black EDP, Colour Spritzer, Certainly Celery 1/4" Grosgrain, Beachfront Ribbon Originals

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Embrace Life To-Do Board

I saw this idea on Di Gibbs' blog, she had used a normal photo frame and turned it into a gorgeous white-board and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to steal... umm I mean CASE that idea!
I got this great frame from Target (who by the way have 35% off frames until Wednesday) and I have used the gorgeous Ginger Blossom DSP from the Summer Mini with a touch of Cameo Coral Cardstock to match. I used the coordinating Embrace Life set in Chocolate Chip to match the frame. I added the rubon from the hidden garden rubons to the inside of the glass, I wasn't sure how it would go backwards but I think it turned out well, I didn't want it on the outside of the glass so that I can still write on that area if I have to. Have I mentioned that rubons are 20% off at the moment?The great things about this idea is that you could scrap a photo and put that inside, or any time you get a little bored you can just change it up with some new DSP.
Stamps: Embrace Life
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Cardstock: Ginger Blossom DSP, Cameo Coral
Accessories: Beachfront Ribbon Originals, Scallop Edge Punch, Hidden Garden Rubons

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould