All About the Guys - Stampin' Creative Global Blog Hop

Hello!  Happy Thursday and welcome to another awesome Stampin' Creative Global Blog Hop!

Each month demonstrators from around the globe offer you our creations around a common theme.  This month the theme is "All About the Guys"

I'm Tamara Bertram, creating up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and I wanted to create a card that I could use for my Dad this Father's Day.  This is what I came up with:

This card TOTALLY speaks to me and I know my Dad will love it.  One of my earliest and fondest memories of spring involves Cattails.  I was FASCINATED by them - they were fuzzy!  Dad LOVED the outdoors as a young man; fishing, hunting, camping ... he spent a LOT of hours amongst the reeds and cattails.  This one is all about him!

I used my new stamp set and coordinating dies "Friends Like You".  I'm sad!   This bundle is on the "Retiring Products" list but the items ARE carrying over (just not at the 10% discounted bundle price). This one is a KEEPER I tell ya!  Just LOOK at those cattails!  This was SUCH a quick and easy card to put together!

• I started with a standard size Crumb Cake base (5 1/2" x 4 1/4")
• The Very Vanilla layer is 5 1/4" x 4"
• I used my layering ovals dies to first cut the large oval in the Vanilla layer, and then a smaller oval to cut the actual Crumb Cake base.  I added a 5 1/4" x 4" Very Vanilla piece to the inside of the card and then I stamped the image in Early Espresso through the hole.
• I cut the grass and Cattails out of Old Olive card stock and coloured the cattails with my Espresso marker.  I actually cut TWO sets.  One piece is attached to the front (with glue) and another was tucked in between the base and Vanilla layer and glued in there.
• The top Vanilla layer is attached with dimensionals.

The dragonflies are stamped in Early Espresso and cut out with the matching dies.
I couldn't resist bringing in the leaping from cut out form the By the Dock bundle.

On the inside I added some more grass/cattails that were cut out of Very Vanilla card stock.

I love the clean, simple look of this card.  It really takes me back and I can almost smell the water and feel the breeze ... and watch the cattails sway back and forth.

I hope you like it too :)

Click on the links below to see what everyone else came up with and have a stampy day!


Tam

Split Negative Technique - Kylie's Maui Achievers Blog Hop

Happy Monday! ... well, Monday in Edmonton, Canada, where I'm coming to you from.  Thanks for popping in to check out this month's Maui Achievers Blog Hop!  Each month demonstrators from around the globe create a new project that we hope excites and inspires you.  Our projects are all using current Stampin' Up! products.  We hope you enjoy what we've created!

My offering this month is VERY simple ... yet striking!  I've used our new Ornate Garden bundle of products (available for in April ... but then not again until JUNE!) and an old technique called "Split Negative".  I kept the colour palette VERY simple - Whisper White and Old Olive.  Adding additional colours and/or textures really does take away from the beautiful simplicity of this image.

I will be doing a Facebook Live video showing you how to make this card tomorrow night, Tuesday, April 21st, 2020 at 7:00 pm Mountain Time.  Find me FB page "Tamara's Paper Trail" here and check it out! 

I can't provide you with EXACT dimensions, but roughly ...

Card Base - Standard Whisper White card base of 5 1/2" x 8, 1/2"

Mossy Meadow card layer -5" x 3 3/4"

Whisper White layer and Old Olive Layer - 4 3/4" x 3 1/2" - you need one of each

General technique:

• Using your stamparatus, stamp the image on your Whisper White layer in Old Olive ink.
• Cover the wet ink with Crystal Clear embossing powder and heat set.
• Using your stamparatus, stamp the image on your Old Olive layer in Old Olive ink.
• Cover the wet ink with White embossing powder and heat set
• Cut both layers in half (about 1 5/8" is the half way mark)
• Switch one of the Old Olive pieces with one of the Whisper White pieces and attach to your Mossy Meadow layer.  You want to line up the images of two pieces so the are exact.  This will require a bit of trimming!
• Pop the Mossy Meadow layer up on dimensionals
• Stamp your sentiment in Old Olive - pop up on dimensionals
• Add faceted rhinestones to finish it off

This technique is really quite easy ... and you get two cards for the price of one - but it really is easier to understand when you SEE it being made.  I hope you can either catch my LIVE video or the replay, on my Facebook Page.

I hope my project inspired you to try a new technique!  Check out all the other projects on the blog hop by clicking on the links below.

Have a stampy day!

Tam

Free as a Bird Picture Frame Card

Happy Saturday! ... and Happy Easter Weekend :)

I hope you're having a relaxing weekend so far - I am!  The girls and I started painting our bonus room window yesterday to add a little cheer to the house.  Naturally it's making Craig a little twitchy about how easy it will be (or won't be) to get off! lol.

I am also spending a bit of time in my Craft Cave, in between family games, watching RuPaul with Alicia and prepping for Easter Sunday dinner.  I FINALLY made a new YouTube video for my channel!  Something I haven't done in many many months!

Here is the card I created last week.  I drew the inspiration from a card created by Sharon Hashimoto Burkert over at "As the Ink Dries".  She made a card I'm calling a "Picture Frame" card.  Here's what I came up with:

I absolutely ADORE this card!  I have 10 more in the works, now that I have about 100 of the birds fussy cut out of the delicious Bird Ballad designer paper!  This is a REALLY quick and easy card to put together.  Check out my 16 minute video!  While you're there I'd LOVE if you would subscribe to my channel!  The plan is to do MANY more videos in the coming months as I get back to business in this new world of ours.

I HAD to laugh when I realized that the card WASN'T the wrong orientation after all!  *lol*. You just never know what you're going to get with MY videos! lol (did you notice I referred to the square as a circle??  lol).  Polished to the end! .... not ... hee hee.

Have a blessed Easter everyone!  Stay healthy; Stay safe. xoxox

Tam

Stampin Creative Global Blog Hop - Seriously The Best Monochrome

Happy Thursday! ... and Happy Blog Hop Day!

Tamara Bertram from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada checking in ... albeit 3 hours late!  Oops!  I honestly had my card done by 1:00 pm yesterday ... alas "life" happened and .... well .... here we are *lol*

Thanks for popping in to check out our Stampin' Creative Global Blog Hop for March.  This month a number of demonstrators from around the world are sharing our "Monochrome" projects with you.  Grab a cuppa, settle in and hop along.  We hope you find some projects to inspire you!

I actually created two OTHER cards for our hop this month ... alas, I decided they weren't TRUE Monochrome .. so I created a third ... this is it:

Pretty, yes?  I love how it turned out ... and it happened so FAST!

I started up by inking up my sentiment from "Seriously the Best" stamp set (it coordinates with our "Seriously the Best Card Kit) in Mango Melody.  Now, happy "accident" ... my ink pad wasn't very juicy and had been inked rather unevenly so when I stamped the image it came out quite ombre!  Love it!.  I used my stamperatus for the stamping so, to get the other two sentiment images I simply moved the plate down one notch, inked, stamped, moved the plate down another notch, inked and stamped.  Bam!  Sentiment perfectly aligned in seconds!

I use a 4 3/4" x 3 1/2" mat of Mango Melody.  The top Whisper White (sentiment) layer measures 4 1/2" x 3 1/4" and is popped up on dimensionals.

For a little glitz and interest I punched out three Mango Melody butterflies from the "Natures's Thoughts" dies (they coordinate with the Positive Thoughts stamp set), added some Wink of Stella to them, attached with glue dots and added three rhinestones.  Done!

I LOVE how it turned out! ... and the same idea would work in any colour!  What a fab way to use up any retired card stock you have on hand!

Want to see my "not-so-monochrome" card?  Ok!

SORT of Monochrome ... but not 100%.  I'll save my third card for another post :)

I hope you liked my projects!  Now hop along to see my friends' projects ... and have a stampy day!


Tam

Ornate Garden Sneek Peek - Kylie's Maui Achievers Blog Hop

Happy Blog Hop Day!

Tamara Bertram from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada checking in!  Thank you for popping into our Blog Hop for March!  As you know, every month a number of demonstrators who earned the trip to Maui come together to share some projects that we hope will inspire you.  The theme of the hops are always "anything current" so you never know WHAT you're going to see!  Now full confession time.  My products aren't current!  ... YET!  In one week, April 1st, 2020, they will be available for purchase.

This is my project, featuring items from the upcoming "Ornate Garden" Suite of products.

I LOVE IT!  Not gunna lie - when I first got it I found the paper a little busier than I like ... but I made it work!  Not a fan of colouring?  I AM ... but for those who aren't I recommend trying out the "Spotlight Technique"!  Just a little pop of colour is all you need!

 - I used my 1" circle punch to punch out my "spotlights"

I used my circle framelits for the 1 1/4" circle mats (you can also use your retired 1 1/4" circle punch if you have one)

  I added a bit of glitz with my Wink of Stella Pen ...

I stamped the sentiment in White Craft Ink and then heat embossed with white embossing powder.

I added some of the new faceted gems for a little more interest and BAM!  Done!

Contact your demonstrator April 1st to get YOUR Ornate Garden Products.  They are beautiful and make a fun card REALLY quick and easy!

I hope you and yours are safe and comfortable during this difficult time.  Stay healthy My Friends!

Hop along top see what my friends have come up with ... and have a stampy day!



Tam

Stampin' Creative Global Blog Hop - CASE Shelli

Happy Thursday! ... and Happy Blog Hop Day!

Tamara Bertram from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada here!  Thanks for popping in to check out our Stampin' Creative Global Blog hop!  Each month a number of demonstrators from around the world share our projects with a common theme.  This month the them is "CASE Shelli"!  Grab a cup of coffee or tea, get comfy and hop along.  Just as Shelli inspired OUR cards, we hope our cards inspire YOU!

I spent quite a bit of time scrolling through Shelli's Blog "So Shelli".  Shelli has a fairly distinctive style.  She like soft colours, vintage, nature and/or boxes!  My research led me to THIS card that was presented at the On Stage in Dortmund, Germany last fall.  This was the inspiration for MY card.

Somewhat shockingly I do NOT have the stamp set Shelli used on this card!  She used "Genuine Gems".  I was actually kind of GLAD I didn't have that one as it made me think outside the box a bit and stretch my creativity.  

Here's my card ...

This was fun to make!  I started with a Blushing Bride card base and use a Whisper White layer measuring 5 1/4" x 4".

I grabbed two AMAZING stamp sets ...

I started by placing the sentiments on my layer ...

 ... then I used my largest block to pick all of the stamps up at once

I stamped them in Blushing Bride ink.

I then stamped them another time (on piece of scrap) in a very juice Soft Suede ink, covered them with Gold Embossing Powder and heat set them.  Why didn't I use Versamark instead of Soft Suede ink?  Well a) my versamark was waaaaaaaay over on the other side of the room and b) I actually prefer to work with ink than versamark.  I find I get a lot of "halos" when I use versamark.  I tend to ink too hard ... and then I stamp the image too hard and get halos.  When I use ink I have less of that.

Once I heat set the sentiments I fussy cut some of the words and popped those words up using mini dimensionals.

I used the "Positive Thoughts" stamp set to stamp the images in Soft Sea Foam and So Saffron inks.

I thought the card needed a little "something" more ... but it was already quite busy.  Sequins and other embellishments were too much ... so a grabbed an OLD tool that hasn't seen the light of day in quite some time ... my "spritzer" tool!  Remember THIS bad boy?

You insert your marker into the holder and then squeeze the "bum".  Air poofs out against your marker and the ink splatters.  Messy fun!  Of course you CAN get similar slatters just from tapping your finger firmly on your marker but this was more fun lol.

 I popped the layer up onto the Blushing Bride base with dimensionals and BAM!  Done!  This was actually quite a quick card to put together!

That's it for me!  I hope it inspires you to try something new and move outside your comfort zone.  

Check out what my friends have to offer ... and have a stampy day!

Tam

Honey Bee Meets Noble Peacock

Happy Sunday!

It has been QUITE a while since I have done a non-Blog Hop Sunday post!  Being Canadian my first instinct is to apologize for that but I'm working on NOT apologizing for everything all the time.  Truth is, life has been happening over here and there simply aren't enough hours in the day to do everything I WANT to do.  If you follow me on my Facebook page you'll know that my fluffy buddy Koda was diagnosed with diabetes back in November.  Since then about two hours a day have gone towards caring for him and trying to get his sugar levels under control.  We are still a long ways away! ... and now he's starting to lose his eyesight.  Hours are eaten up with appointments, research, testing ... and stress.  I'm not complaining.  We are still VERY blessed in SO many ways.  This is just life and a small price to pay for the hours of fun, love and companionship our pet has given us over the last 8 years.  It just means there isn't time for other things, like blogging.  So bare with me - I absolutely WILL be posting when I can. 

I'm so glad you popped in today.  I created a FABULOUS card last week for my Honey Bee class that was held Friday night.  This card was loved by all so I wanted to share the details here.  Check it out!

 Look at the shine on this bad-boy!

It is such an easy card to make - the paper does 90% of the work.  The other 10% is cutting and die cutting lol.

I used the Noble Peacock Specialty Designer Paper and Noble Peacock Foils for that POW of colour and shine.  Up until this week I had OWNED both products but never USED them.  THAT ended fast lol.  The Designer Paper is $20 CDN and the foils are $13.50 CDN.  WELL worth the money!  The bee cut outs and sentiment are from the Honey Bee Bundle ($55.75 CDN), in the 2020 Mini Catalogue.  (** just a heads up, this bundle is currently on backorder and soon will be unavailable for purchase until at least mid April so if you love it, get it NOW!)

If you want to make your life a LOT easier with this card you want to pick some Adhesive Sheets to put on the back of the foils before you cut out the bees.  I have a large stash of the Sizzix Adhesive Sheets we used to sell, before they retired.  No longer available through Stampin' Up! but you can get them at other places.  I HIGHLY recommend getting some to avoid the hassle and mess of glue or tape.

How about some details?

- Whisper White - standard card base - 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" folded in half
- Whisper White layer - 5 1/4" x 4", run through the die cutting machine with our "Subtles" Embossing Folder
- Noble Peacock Old Olive patterned layer - 4" x 2 3/4"
- Bermuda Bay Foil layer - 4 1/4" x 3" *** before you attach the top Whisper White layer to this one punch out two bees ... and two 1 1/8" scalloped circle pieces from the middle.  You don't want to waste any of this gorgeous foil and since 90% of the layer will be covered no one will know the middle of it has been used!  Save the second bee and the second scallop for another project ... or use them to decorate the inside of the card and/or the envelope! 
- Whisper White top layer - 4" x 2 3/4"
- Attach the Subtles layer to the card base with snail adhesive
- Attached the Old Olive Foil layer with snail adhesive
- Attach the bees to the top Whisper White layer, the white layer to the Bermuda Foil layer and then pop THAT layer up on dimensionals to the Old Olive foil Layer
- stamp the sentiment in Old Olive and punch out with your 1" circle punch
- attach sentiment to 1 1/8" scalloped circle foil piece
- attach foil + sentiment to the card with a dimensional

That's it!  Like I said, once the paper cutting and die cutting are done the card comes together VERY quickly.  SO pretty!

I encourage you to dig out those pretty foils you're hoarding and cut them!  A little goes a long way and you can make a beautiful card with very little stamping!

That's it for today.  Thank you again for popping in.  I'll post again when I can.  In the meantime, have a stampy day!


Tam

On To Adventure - Kylie's Maui Achievers Blog Hop

Happy Blog Hop Day!

Tamara Bertram from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada here :)  Thanks for popping in for Kylie's Maui Achievers Blog Hop!  Once a month a number of demonstrators who have earned the trip to Maui this summer come together to share some projects that we hope will inspire you.  The theme of the hops are always "anything current" so you never know what you're going to see!

For MY share this month I wanted to step away from the FABULOUS Mini/Occasions catalogue and Sale-a-brations brochure.  I don't know about you but after I have played with my "new toys" I miss my old ones and I turn back to the Annual Catalogue.  I had been itching to ink up the On To Adventure set that had been sitting and waiting patiently to be inked up for MONTHS.  I am thrilled with the results.  Check out these ADORABLE characters!

Aren't they just the CUTEST??  Anyone reminded of the movie "Cocoon"?  (OK - I just Googled it.  It came out in 1985 WHAAAAATTT??  That was 35 years ago!!!  NOW I feel old ... and like I could star in the remake! lol)

You'll notice that the layout for both cards is the same.  I have been doing Sketch Challenges with my team lately and got my jumping off point from this image from "Freshly Made Sketches".  I find once I have a general layout the card comes together really quickly!

For my travelling gal I used the Tropical Oasis designer papers.  The square is 3" x 3", making the most out of my 12" x 12" sheets - no waste!  The banners are both 1 wide.  The longer one started off as a 5" strip; the shorter as a 4" strip.  Our Triple Banner punch was used to flag the end.  My 2 1/4" circle punch was the perfect size for my image and the Coastal Weave Embossing folder added some texture to the 5" x 3 3/4" layer.  I stamped the sentiment on Daffodil Delight card stock several times and used my snips to trim.  I used my Blends and markers to colour her.  Light Daffodil Delight, Light Mossy Meadow; Light Crumb Cake and then my Lovely Lipstick marker for the pink accents.  Some Wink of Stella on her glasses, a pearl on her hat and some dimensionals brought it all together.

For my golfer guy the dimensions are the same, just switching out the elements.  I used the Argyle Embossing folder, Country Club paper and the blends used were Light Old Olive, Light Smoky Slate and Light Crumb Cake and I used my Garden Green and Night of Navy markers for the accents.  Soft Seafoam card stock for the sentiment and dimensionals to add some interest.

All four characters in the stamp set are ADORABLE and this is a "must have" stamp set.  Not only does it work perfectly for those retiring but also for anyone going on vacation or pair it with the "Grandma's House" for a fabulous new grandparent card.

I hope my projects inspire you!  I encourage you to grab a set that has been sitting on the shelf just waiting to see some ink and use it with the sketch above.  I'd love to see what you come up with!  Before you do that, though, hop along to the next blog and see what my friends have created.

Thanks for popping in.  Have a stampy day!

Tam