FF@Five'ish!

Welcome to my blog

and FF@5'ish. 

This week I've been playing with my BigShot machine, some dies and an embossing folder to make a quick and easy Christmas card.  I also hand dyed my own white seam binding ribbon too.  I buy the white seam binding in bulk and dye lengths of it as I need it.  I did a "how to" blog post quite a few years ago showing how I do it.  Leave me a comment below if you would like me to re-post that tutorial. It's so easy to do and you'll always have ribbon to go with any project.



I stopped buying coloured ribbons and flowers long ago. I love that a little re-inker, some rubbing alcohol and a mini spritzer can give you the exact colour you are after for a project, any time of the day or night.  It's why I suggest to my customers, when purchasing ink pads, that they should also get the re-inker at the same time.  Re-inkers are not just for re-inking dry ink pads, that's for sure in my world ;-)

So for my card, using whisper white thick card stock cut down to a folded card base, I ran the front side of it through my Bigshot machine with it inside the embossing folder "Seaside" which is on page 210 of the current Annual Stampin Up Catalogue.  I then cut out using the

Using the thinlits die set "Swirly Scribbles" (page 216, annual catalogue) and gold foil card, I've cut out a little bird's nest, adhered it to the front of the card towards the top  with Tombo Multi purpose liquid glue (it's the best).  I grabbed a little wooden bird from my huge stash of embelishments (not sure the brand, could have been Prima) and glued it to the top right hand side of the gold wreath.  Here and there I've stuck some glitter dots and rhinestones.  I've added a bow made from my hand dyed silk seam binding. I dyed it Real Red.   My sentiment is from the  Cookie Cutter Christmas photopolymer stamp set stamped in Old Olive, the edges sponged with Real Red ink then layered onto some gold foil card.  I've adhered to the card front with a strip of foam adhesive strip.  Sponged the out edges of the card with some Real Red ink and there you have it, done.  I'd say it only took me all up, once I'd settled on the design, 15 minutes to put together.  That included drying time to make sure the bow and little wooden birdie stuck well.



Hope you liked this week's project. Remember, if you want me to post the tutorial for how I dye my ribbons, leave me a comment and I'll get to it and post it asap.

Til next time,

Happy stamping, colouring and creating!

 

FF@F'ish ie Fabulous Fridays at 5'o'clock!

Welcome back to my new, and hopefully improved, blog site. 

This week has been rather interesting.  Firstly my one and only son, Benjamin, turn 26, yes 26. How did that happen? LOL, seems like only yesterday we were arguing over who's turn it was to use the computer.  He's grown into a lovely, handsome, responsible young man. If I do say so myself.  Can't wait to see him on the weekend!



This week I'm revisiting a stamp set that has proved to be a big favourite since it's release a few years ago.  Sheltering Tree is a beautiful photopolymer set that has many uses.

Today, I've inked up the tree trunk/branch stamp firstly with Versamark then Early Expresso so I could then sprinkle embossing powder onto it straight away and heat emboss it.  By doing the Versamark first then the Early Expresso, you can get the embossing powder to stick.  I love how shiny the tree trunk and branches has come out.



Next I spritzed the whole piece of water colour card that I stamped so it was very saturated.  Taking my aqua painter brush I then dipped it into the lids of my various ink pads to pick up colour and let it splash onto the water colour card.  With it being so wet, the colours bled into the card to make this lovely washed effect.





I've used a fine tip journaling pen to draw around the outer edges to give a bit of a framed look and distressed up the edges using the blade of my little paper snips.  Mounted with tear and tape onto a basic black card base and there you have it, easy peasy!  Whilst I was photographing, a certain little furbaby wanted to see what was going on.  That's my little Miss Pip checking out the finished card this morning.

Hope you like this week’s creations, til next time,

Happy stamping, colouring and creating!

Shop now at : http://stampoutyourartwithvirginia.stampinup.net

Tutu Tuesday, 14th November 2017!

Hi everyone,

Yes it's Tuesday and as many of you may already know, I love Tutus!

This is a quick post to let you know I'm currently working on my next FF@F'o'clock'ish post.  I am slowly moving most of my posts over to this location because I feel I have a lot more control here and less chance of my posts vanishing before they go live.   I will have lots of  news to share with you over the coming months as well so do check back regularly with my little corner of the web!

Today is also my one and only son Benjamin's 26th birthday.  How did that happen? LOL.Many happy returns my dear son, your father and I love you much, have a fabulous day!



For now,  I'll leave you with one of my favourite Tutu images.

Til next time,

happy stamping colouring and creating!

My latest FF@Five'o'clock'ish post...

Sunday, 12 November, 2017

Better late than not at all....

Hi everyone,
I'm so sorry there's been no FF@F'ish posts for the last couple of weeks.  All kinds of things have been going on in my little corner of the world so I've been very distracted.

For now I want to share with you a rather cute and easy gift tag I made using supplies left on my desk and a stamp set that is not just a holiday themed one but also in the Annual catalogue so it won't disappear after Christmas.  I've used the the Cookie Cutter Christmas stamp set and the lovely matching punch. Stamped the Santa and coloured him with water colour pencils. Punched him out and layered him onto a scrap of patterned paper from the Wood Textures Designer Series Paper stack (this stack has an amazing array of backgrounds, do check it out!)

I rounded the corners of the patterned paper by using the corner round that is at the top of the Envelope punch board.  NOTE: There isn't an individual punch to round corners available anymore, but if you have our Envelope punch board, don't forget it DOES have a corner rounder in it, very handy to know that.

I then trimmed down a scrap of Chocolate Chip card stock and punched one end with the Scalloped tag topper punch, used the envelope punch board to round the bottom two corners of the tag.  Glued the paper onto the Chocolate Chip piece then adhered my little Santa on with foam dimensionals. For my light blue ribbon on the tag, I hand dyed some white silk seam binding using pool party re-inker mixed with rubbing alcohol.  Easy peasy and a little tag that will brighten any gift.

I hope you liked this little project. It's so lovely to receive gifts that
have a handmade tag on them, something many people love to
keep and even use as bookmarks!
til next time,
happy stamping, colouring and creating!

Product List

Cookie Cutter Christmas Photopolymer Stamp Set [142043] $37.00	Cookie Cutter Builder Punch [140396] $31.00	Wood Textures Designer Series Paper Stack [144177] $17.50
Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad [140931] $12.25	Chocolate Chip A4 Card Stock [108599] $14.00	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549] $15.75
Watercolor Pencils [141709] $27.75	Tag Topper Scalloped Punch [133324] $38.00	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Ink Refill [122933] $6.50
Aqua Painters [103954] $20.00	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $7.00	Envelope Punch Board [133774] $32.00
Stampin' Trimmer [129722] $50.00