Best Fishes

Best fishes to you all on this fine day.

Believe it or not this cute card was made using a christmas stamp set.

The fish bodies are stamped with the dotty ornament stamp from the delightful decorations stamp set shown on page 26 of the 2010 - 2011 idea book and catalogue which can be viewed here

http://www2.stampinup.com/gb/eng/543.asp

The item code for this stamp set is 116517 and its price is £21.95. This set can be used for so many things and has a co-ordinating punch set so there is no need to cut it out, The punch is on page 105 of the catalogue item no 119847 price £15.50. These items will be featured a lot in my up coming christmas projects also which will show how versitle these sets are and how they can be used all year round, with a little imagination.

For this card I stanmped two ornaments one in pumpkin pie and one in daffodil delight. I then punched out three of the branches from the two step bird punch in old olive cardstock. I then punches out two of the five petal flower punches. One is pumpkin pie and one in daffodil delight, This punch is also on page five item no 119880 price £15.50.


I also punched out with the small heart punch (page 106 item no 117193 price £5.75) one heart in pumpkin pie and one in daffodil delight this will make the lips of the fish.

I used the 1/2 inch circle punch (page 106 item no 119869 price £5.75) and the 1/8 handheld circle punch (page 106 item no 100391 price £6.75) to make the eyes. I punched two 1/2 circles in white and one daffodil delight and one pumpkin pie. I then punched out two 1/8 inch circles in black.


I also cut a top note in baja breeze with the top note die and the big shot (which can be found in the mini catalogue by clicking the link below).

http://www2.stampinup.com/gb/eng/543.asp

Ok now lets put this together. As usual the card base is an A4 sheet  cut in half to make it A5 and then folded in half to make it an A6 card which is the size of the standard Stampin Up envelopes. The card base for this card is in whisper white.

I used the snail on the top note die to stick it to my card base. I then cut off two petals of the 5 petal punch to make the fish tail and then a further two petals and then cut it in half to give me single petals for the fins. I then used the tombow multipurpose glue to stick the fish parts to the ornament punch fish bodies.

I decided where to position my fish on the card and then stuck down the seaweed branches with tombow glue under where my fish bodies would go. I then placed some dimensionals on the back of my fish and added them to my card.

All the adhesive offered by Stampin Up can be found on page 100 of the catalogue. For a finishing touch I used basic rhinestones as bubbles. These can be found on page 99 of the catalogue along with all the other embellishments. The item no is 119246 and they are £4.50 for 150 which is a lot of bling!

I hope you have enjoyed this project. Stay tuned for another project soon.

Sorry I have been gone so long ....

As you can see I set this Blog up a little while ago and have not got round to using it how I intended. All that is about to change.

I have been working on a number of projects which I have not until now uploaded so I have lots in store to show you starting now.



This is an A6 card which will the size of all my cards unless otherwise stated. A6 cards are made by cutting an A4 sheet of card in half and then folding it in half. This means that it fits in the standard envelopes available from Stampin Up (item no 106588 in Whisper White and 106589 Very Vanilla and are Priced at £5.75 for 40 featured on page 87 of the catalogue).

The catalogue can be found here

http://www2.stampinup.com/gb/eng/543.asp

The base of this card is Pear Pizzaz which is a member of the in colour family and can be found on page 81 of the catalogue. A pack of 24 A4 sheets of card would be £6.25 and would mean that you would be able to make 48 card bases! You can order 24 sheets of Pear Pizzaz (item no 121693 £6.25 for 24 sheets) or you could order a colour assortment and you would receive 20 sheets of card 4 of each of the 5 in colours for the same price. More information on this can be found on page 81 of the Catalogue.

I have then placed a mat of whisper white card stock which is 1cm less than the card base to give the card a layered look. Whisper white card stock is £7.50 for 40 sheets item no 106549 and can be found on page 85 of the catalogue.

I then punched out with Stampin Up's fabulous hand held shape punches (punches can be found on pages 104 and 105 of the catalogue). I punched out 3 scallop circles with the scallop punch (item no 119854 price £15.50). I punches one in Pretty in Pink, one in Chocolate Chip and one from So Saffron.

I then punched out a square with the large square punch (item no 119877 price £15.50) in Crumb Cake card stock which is a craft coloured card from Stampin Up for the cone. I cut two triangles of the sides to give the cone its shape. A top tip here is to cut one side and then use the first triangle as a template for the other side so that they are equal.

I then ran the cone through my Big Shot using the Swiss Dots embossing folder but you could also use the waffle folder or leave it flat if you do not own a Big Shot, yet. The big shot is a die cutting and embossing machine which can be found in the mini catalogue. I ahve to say that the Big Shot is a bit of an investment at £85 but there is so much you can do with it as I will show in my following updates and projects.

I would also say that if you host a workshop it would be possible to get the Big Shot at a reduced price with your hostess benefits which could make it more affordable for you. Contact me for more information on how to do this and for details on the other benefits to being a hostess.

I then sniped the scalloped circles.I counted 9 scallops and then cut the remaining scallops off. I then inked the edges of all the punches pieces in Chocolate Chip with a sponge dauber.

A dauber or a "finger hat" as a good friend of mine calls them are a little sponges that you place on your finger and use to give definition and texture to your punched pieces or edges of your card. The daubers are found on page 103 of the catalogue item no 102892 and are £8.75 for 12. A dauber can be used for many projects and used many times.

I then used my snail adhesive to stick the cone base to the card. Snail adhesive is a tape runner which is sold by Stampin Up and makes gluing your cards together quick simple and mess free. This is a must have item. The snail adhesive is £5.50 item no 104332 and can be found on page 100 of the catalogue. The snail can be refilled making it very affordable as the refills are £3.75 item no 104331.

I then placed Stampin Up dimensionals on the first ice cream scoop. I placed 3 on this scoop as it is the base for all the others. The second layer I placed two dimensionals on the bottom of the scoop and placed that on the base scoop at an angle with one scallop showing on one side and two on the other. I then repeated this with the third scoop and angled it the opposite way to the last scoop.

Dimensionals are little foam adhesive stickers which are double sided and are used to raise items up from the card base. They can be found on page 100 with all the other adhesives sold. The item number is 104430 and they are £3.25 for 300!!! You can get more than 300 foam pieces from them as every scrap can be used. You can snip the edges to size for the smaller items. There is no need to waste anything with Stampin Up.

I then stamped Happy Birthday in chocolate chip ink on to whisper white card using the perfect punches stamp set. These stamps can be found on page 66 of the catalogue and are available in wood or clear mount options depending on your preferance.

I then punched the Happy Birthday out with the large oval punch (page 105 item no 119863 price £14.25) and then layered that on to the scallop oval punch (same page item no 119856 price £15.50) cut in pretty in pink. I then placed two dimesionals on the back and added it to the card.

The last step was to add some sparkle. I used the two way glue pen item no 100425 price £3.25 and dabbed it on the top card and added some dazzling diamonds glitter item no 102023 £3.75 per 12g pot. This glitter goes a long way if you are careful.

I left the inside of this card blank for your own message. I would add to this something like "sending you sprinkles of fun on your Birthday".

I hope this is not too long winded and confusing as I have tried to pack a lot into this update. Please email or add a comment if you have any questions.

If you would like to book a workshop I would be happy to show and your friends how to make this card (or any other project) in the comfort of your own home.

Many thanks for your time and happy crafting x