Tuesday, May 31, 2011

About Amazing Creations Stamps – getting the best out of your Stamps!

You will discover that a large majority of Border, Strip Borders, Square Frames, Corners, Writing and Picture stamps have been designed and sized so they fit inside each other, allowing you to create stories and easy, quick layouts without any effort. This allows you to create many, many different designs with only a few stamps.
You will find throughout our catalogue, square picture and message stamps, that fit inside the square border stamps. If the picture stamp you’d like to combine with your border stamp is too big, cut it down to the right size or use doubled sided foam tape, to place it over the top of the border.
Borders have been left empty so you can choose a different message or picture stamp each time you use it. There is a rectangular range of borders in which long greetings can fit inside with two or three lines depending on the height of writing. All writing is similar so you can mix and match your phrases and always be able to say the right thing for whatever event is happening in your life.
The long strip borders are great to create an edge, your own backgrounds or a border the exact size you want. Simply mask the end or selectively ink the stamp using pens or an ink pad.
The strip border stamps are long enough to go right off the edge of a standard sized card. This was designed for greater diversity of the stamp.
Use the bow on the border stamps its design goes with, or make a present using a strip border and a square of coloured paper, make a bouquet of flowers using the flowers from the long stemmed flower range.
Corner stamps are extremely versatile stamps to have. Not only for classy cards and memory albums, also make squares with them or backgrounds or even borders by stamin them with their longest side following a straight line.
The L shaped corner can be stamped twice to make a small square. Stamp it four times with the longer tips touching and you have a star shape in the middle. Use these to create a border or as a background by randomly stamping card.

Friday, May 13, 2011

How to Have a Really Great Stamp Collection #3

3. GREETINGS
Essential stamps if you are making cards! It’s good to get a few general sayings that can be used in lots of different occasions. I try to get writing that goes together so I can mix and match them and so get more mileage out of my stamps. This is not as important as the first two points about greetings, but try to compliment them with your theme stamps.
Most importantly – enjoy and have fun stamping!

How to Have a Really Great Stamp Collection #2

2. BACKGROUNDS STAMPS
Background stamps can be small or large. Great to fill spaces (cover mistakes) and create backgrounds or textures. Includes border stamps, stars, insects, flowers, clouds, snow, etc. The ones you need depend on your “theme” stamps, and it makes it easier if they complement each other. I also include border stamps in this group.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

How to Have a Really Great Stamp Collection #1

Being a stamp addict myself, here are some thoughts on having a really great stamp collection.

You need a good variety, not a lot, but a good spread to cover most occasions.

Look at the stamps you already have, and divide them into three groups: -

1. THEME STAMPS

These are picture stamps. If you have a love of something, maybe teddies, geckos, butterflies ... use this as it means a lot to you and you will be able to create even greater things than you thought possible.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

3 Orchid Thank You Card

Hi Amazing Bloggers

Welcome to our first downloadable Card instruction blog.
We think our thankyou card is pretty special, and if you think so too and would like the instructions, you can click on the download now button, and for the price of $1-00, the instructions, including pictures, are all yours to keep and reuse the techniques.
 

Tips & Techniques #1 - Sticky Scissors

If your tools, especially your scissors get all tacky from cutting tape or get glue on them, even the removal of sticky labels off products, apply a little eucalyptus oil to a cotton ball and gently rub until the sticky substance is removed.

Make sure you then wipe the oil off the product, even rinse or wipe with a clean soft cloth using light detergent to remove all traces of the oil, as the oil is very acidic and will damage surfaces if not cleaned off properly ( ie. it will pit plastic).

Scissors shown are small 3.75" and large 4" (link: Scissors 4")

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Platform Shoe Gatefold Card



Hi again Amazing Bloggers

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to post a blog as, if you’ve seen our website, we were hacked without mercy, not once but twice and had to pull our old website down. I’m in the middle of trying to reconstruct it, but as with all good things, it takes LOTS of time and patience – not only from me but my customers also.

Well, my household survived croup, pleurisy AND the flu (not swine luckily) during the holidays, so a little crafting time was called for. My eldest Stephanie (aged 8) asked if she could set up and make some cards using some of her stamps. I also gave her my Ultimate Crafter’s Companion Pro (UCC) (just ask me about this – I LOVE it!) and showed her how to make tri-fold and gate-fold cards to give her something else to work on. With all the dry embossing features on the UCC, there’s just hours of experimenting to do.

Well, Miss Stephanie came up with a card, which I just thought was so wonderful, that I had to share it with you. This is my version, which is exactly the same technique, just refined skills.

Products used (codes for products available through Amazing Creations will appear in brackets in italics): -
1 x A5 White card (A5white)
1 x A5 Kula Cream card (A5KulaCream) or any other colour you may choose
1 x scrap Black Gloss card (A5BlackGloss)
1 x stamp – D720 – Platform Shoe (R) (or any other stamp that you think suitable)
Ultimate Crafter’s Companion – Pro (UCC-Pro)
Black Embossing Pen
Black embossing Ink (Crafter’s works very well)
Clear Embossing Powder
Puff Static Away Pillow (PSAP)
Paper Trimmer
Small Sharp Scissors (E-7100-PK or E-7083-PK)
Heat Gun
Double Sided Adhesive Tape (DST-6)
Foam Mounting Tape (FT-6)

These instructions presume that you have used or seen the UCC in use. If you buy the UCC-Pro, it does come with an instructional book, however the additional purchase of the DVD I found to be inspirational. Using the UCC, score your A5 White card down the A5 Gatefold line, then reverse the card and repeat. Fold the card down the score lines towards the centre and using the stylus or bone scorer, flatten the folds to give a crisp and professional finish.

Using the Kula Cream card, mark 7cm along the long side of the card and cut to have card 14.8 x 7cm, position card along the short side and dry emboss the wavy line. Carefully cut along the wavy embossed line so that you have a nice flowing line (try not to get any sharp corners). Using the straight edges and double sided tape, adhere these two pieces to either side of the gatefold line. Using a piece of scrap Kula Cream card, wipe the Puff Static Away Pillow across it to give a static free workspace. Using the Crafters (or any other suitable stamp pad for embossing) stamp the D720 Platform Shoe (or your other chosen image), sprinkle the embossing powder. Shake off any extra and using the heat gun melt the embossing powder. Set aside to cool. Using the Embossing pen, VERY carefully run along the wavy edge of the cream card on the white card, to form the wavy lines. Try to keep your edges as smooth as possible. While still wet, sprinkle embossing powder along the drawn lines and heat set as before. Repeat for both sides.

Trim your embossed image (Platform Shoe) so that it looks centred on your piece of card and then layer it on using some scrap black gloss card to give it a framed look and your double sided tape. Using the foam mounting tape, place along ONE side of the back of your embossed and mounted image, peel of backing paper and centre over gatefold opening. This centres your image, but still allows your card to be opened.

Finished! I’ll make another variation of this card to show it’s versatility along the track.

If you have any queries regarding any of my products or my instructions, please call or email me – I love hearing from you.

Until next time – Happy Crafting – Robyn