Banana Frog Blog

POTD - Have yourself a {black &} White Christmas

Hi all and welcome to my little corner of the Lily pad once again. Today I’d like to share a simple but stylish black and white Christmas.

In the form of these easy peasy black and white stamped cards.

The ingredients: Banana Frog stamp sets; It’s Christmas Deer, Winter Wonderland and Retro Christmas. I also used white card stock, coloured card blanks, Black archival ink, Stickles and some bright festive ribbon.

For each card I cut a white square to fit on the front of each card blank and distressed the edges to add interest. I stamped the main image in the centre with black ink and then stamped a random pattern around the edges with the same stamp.

On some more white card I stamped my sentiments and cut them out, mounting them on the same coloured card as the relevant card blank. I added a strip of festive ribbon across the card and then added the sentiment on top of it with a foam pad for a little added dimension.

And finally I picked out a few little details on each central image with some stickles, well you can’t have Christmas without a bit of glitter!

And that’s it some super simple and speedy black and white cards that have a stylish modern twist!

Well it’s time for this froglet to hop off the lily pad I’m afraid. After much soul searching and juggling of time I have decided with great sadness it is time for me to step down from the Banana Frog DT. I have had an amazing 2 and ½ years with the lovely Bev and all the other froglets and have loved sharing with all of you many stampy projects and thank you all for your lovely comments over my time on the lily pad. I’ve had a blast and I hope to continue seeing you all in cyber space.

Much love MJM x

Project Of The Day : Journal

Hi Sharmaine here
I’ve been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to do some scrapbooking with the Grade 6 kids at our school
We’ve been working on some journals

we have been filling them with all sorts of things
memories, events, goals

For my “things I did'” page I included some Super Stars
in the way of the very cool scribble stars

Love the effect they give

Till next time, stay happy and stay scrappy
Sharmaine

POTD - A spooky twist

Hi all, it’s my turn to share a project of the day with you and I cannot believe it’s October already! As we’re coming up to that spooky time of year I thought I would do a spooky twist on this project that I did way back last summer.

 
I’ve only used one stamp set for this project, Fairytale Princess with some coloured card, co-ordinating distress inks, pro-markers and a photocopier!

 
I stamped the castle image onto some white card with black ink and then took the image to a photocopier, enlarging it by 175%. I printed this into some green card 4 times and when I cut the images out made sure I added tabs to the bottom edge of all 4 and to the two sides of two of them so I can join them together as a square.

 
I also printed an enlarged image onto some white paper a couple of times so I had a template for embellishing the castle. I cut out the sections and cut out 4 of the larger arched windows to make green ones to cover the central heart window (not very spooky!) I also picked out some details with pro markers and coloured in the windows (you could of course cut them out)

 
I joined all the sides together and then cut a base out of green card to add to the bottom. Using my paper templates I built up sections on the castle in different coloured cardstock, using distress ink around the edges to add definition and also added them on foam pads to add dimension.

 
And that’s it a cute spooky castle! This would make a great little table decoration filled with Halloween goodies for a grown up party or why not add a handle and give it out to special trick or treaters. Whatever you choose to do I hope you feel inspired to look at your Banana Frog stamps with a new eye, maybe not seeing the obvious, and get creative?

Thanks for hopping by and until soon Happy Crafting

Love MJM x

 

Project of the Day: Something Fun

Hi Everyone, welcome to my project of the day.  I hope you like what I've done this month, it's been a really fun project to do, using just one set of stamps, Steelfish Outline.  And without further ado, here it is.....

A cute set of alphabet fridge magnets and this is how you make them.  First stamp your letters on plain white card, you may want to think beforehand about what letters you want, I did the whole alphabet but you may want to do extra vowels, certain letters to spell out your family's names or anything you fancy.  I used black Stazon.

Colour in the letters, using whatever colours you want.

Next mount them onto funky foam, I used the stuff that is magnet backed.

You then need to cut the letters out, the great thing about these stamps is that they are pretty easy to cut out, no little fiddly bits!

If you haven't used magnetic foam you will need to add your own magnets at this point.  I also gave mine a quick coat of mod podge to make them a little more robust.  And that's it...simple!!

They will brighten up your fridge....but please, no rude words!!!

xxxx

 

POTD - Tweet and fluffy

Hi all and welcome to my little fluffy corner of the Lillypad for this month. I came across a box of feathers in my studio the other day and apart from wondering why I had them, I also thought what can I do with them and came up with this...

 
 ‘Tweet and fluffy cards’

I used the Hiya chick stamp set with its tadpole sister shake your tail feathers and the It’s all about hearts stamp set alongside my new favourites Letraset flex markers, coloured card, a doodle pen, a crop-a-dile and some black brilliance ink. Oh and some cheap hairspray (all will become clear!)

 
I stamped the bird with a big tail from the tadpole set several times onto some letraset paper and then here’s where the hairspray comes in, when the ink was dry sprayed the images with hairspray, this fixes the ink so it doesn’t run when the images are being coloured in.

 
I coloured in one complete bird image and then just sections for layers on another. Flex markers are brilliant if you haven’t tried them. They are lovely to work with and work well with the other letraset markers, they kind of work like coloured blenders.

 
I cut out a bird and its matching layers and curled these for dimension and then added some feathers behind the tails for some fluffy fun!

 
For the pink square card, I stamped out the large heart from it’s all about hearts onto some red card and some paler pink card. I cut out the pale pink heart losing the scallops and cut the red heart out leaving a border around the scallops. I also cut out the centre of the red heart and kept it to one side for another card. Using the small heart stamp from the Hiya chick set and the sentiment from the tadpole set I filled in the pale pink heart.

 
 
Sticking the pale pink heart to the base of the card I added the red frame on foam pads as well as the bird for dimension.

 
 
I used the red heart I had cut out of the previous frame on the blue card and added a sentiment from Hiya Chick. The pink strip of card is doodled with a scallop and cut out then punched with a crop-a-dile. The pattern on the pink card is created using the cute little flower stamps in the Hiya chick set.

 
 
And lastly the yellow card is matted with a teal and a hand doodled and cut out yellow rectangle of card. The sentiment is from the Hiya chick set as is the branch stamp which I stamped 3 times to build a bigger branch for my bird to sit on.

I like my brightly coloured fluffy birds and think they would make great scrapbook embellishments.... oh and they’d look fab on a home decor frame!

Thanks for stopping by the lillypad, I hope you’re well and happy and I’ll see you soon. Until then Happy Crafting

Love MJM x

POTD: One Simple Idea, Endless Cards

Hey Everyone, Beki here! Back after a short break while my study got a little full on and crafty pursuits went out of the window!!  I usually take the opportunity during school holidays to make a litttle stash of cards so that when things get busy and I need a card I can just reach for one.  With this in mind I thought I'd find a simple format for a card that I could replicate but change slightly so I didn't just make a pile of identical ones.  This is what I came up with...

 
Some simple paper piecing that looks really effective.  All you need is your favourite BF stamps that have parts which are easy to cut out, I used That Takes The Cake and Cupcake Greetings (both of which are absolute bargains at the moment!!).  You will also need some paper scraps, ribbons and card blanks.

First stamp your images onto scraps of paper....

 
The rest couldn't be simpler....cut out each seperate part and piece together.  Leave somewhere to overlap them when you stick them together.

Stick them together.  Choose some paper to mat your cupcake on, I used a text design as this is a favourite of mine but grid paper or other monochrome patterns would work well.

 
Create a mat using this background paper and stick to your card. You can vary the design by using different mats. For example, I used the smaller cupcakes and circle stamps from Cupcake Greetings for a different design.

 
Finish with a ribbon.

You could also add a greeting....

 

 

So that's it.  Hope you like it and if you find any other Banana Frog stamps that work well for this, let me know xx

POTD - Simply clear stamping

Hi all, here I am again to share a Project of the Day with you and as promised I expanded on the project I did for the Frog blog hop last Saturday.

 
Sun, Sand, Sea

Stamping onto acetate to create a background page for scrapbooks is super easy but quite striking especially when you add alcohol ink for added interest. All I have used is the It's all about Circles stamp set and the De Louisville Tadpole stamp set for the alphas. I have added to that Alcohol inks; stream, oregano and bottle, black Stayzon, Adirondak ink; denim, Distress ink; weathered wood, Ribbon, hessian, lace, gems and some scrap paper. Of course I also used a 12 x 12 acetate sheet!

 
I printed my photos in draft onto some copy paper and placed them where I would like them to go on the 12 x 12 to give myself a guide for the stamped pattern. I then went to town with the Circle stamp set and some stayzon creating a pattern.

 
Once I was happy with the stamping I flipped over the acetate and dripped the alcohol ink over the stamped areas and the photo area. I didn’t do anything else than drop the colour on and let it do its own thing and I made sure I left some areas clear so the acetate effect can still be seen.

 
Turning the 12 x 12 back the right way when the alcohol ink was dry, which doesn’t take long, I removed the draft photos and built up my layout using proper photos, scrap paper, hessian, ribbon and lace.

 
I stamped the rectangle from the Circles stamps to create my journaling block on to white card using blue ink and weathered wood distress ink to break down the white.

 
I stamped the title using the DeLouisville stamp set on some scrap paper ripped into strips.

 
And finally I added some gems to the circles I had stamped.

 
I love the mix of textures against the acetate and the lovely patterns that the alcohol inks create.

 

An acetate layout like this looks great on an easel and creates a great talking point.

Why not have a go at creating with some acetate? Banana Frog stamps lend themselves very well to this technique with the lovely simple graphic patterns, most of which are on sale so grab a bargain while you can!

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share my project with you and until I see you again next month Happy Stamping

Love MJM x

POTD: Eat Cake!

Hello hello - it's time for another Project of the Day!  I love these photographs of my neice - in fact, she makes a very good model generally as she loves nothing more than posing for the camera! 

For this layout, I started with a basic foundation of cardstock and patterned paper, and added a ribbon underneath the photographs. 

Then it was time to add the pretty stuff.  I used the scrummy Cupcake Greetings set to stamp little cupcakes, and added a circular outline of hearts and words.  I love that this set is so versatile - the cupcakes fit inside different outlines, so there's lots of possibilities. I coloured the images with watercolour pencils, and matted them onto punched scallop circles, before attaching them with foam pads to raise them up a little.  I used five (always an odd number, for some reason it just looks better) along the bottom of the page - the repetition gives a nice effect I think. 

The "You're So Sweet" sentiment comes from Cupcake Greetings, and I stamped a border from Sentimental Style (again, it's great that they fit together, and makes your stamp sets so much more versatile).  


The layout title was stamped using Willing Race - a set which you would be horrified to see the state of, I've used it so much! 

And hey presto - one very pink, very girly layout! 

I hope you enjoyed my project - see you back here next month for more Banana Froggy goodness! 

POTD - Happy scrappy stamping

Hi all, well it’s that time again to share another froggy project with you. With British summertime in full swing (?) I woke up one morning to glorious sunshine and blue skies and felt all was right with the world
and that was what inspired me to make this

 
A Happy Day card!

 
The Ingredients

I’ve used a whole host of Banana Frog stamps for this collage project; Greenwich park, Sentimental style, Swirls and butterflies, Shake your tail feathers, Super dreamy and Round in Circles. I also got to use up some stuff from ‘that’ bag of scraps, some brilliance inks and Ranger black archival ink.

 
From ‘that’ bag of scraps I created a collage of blue sky and ripped green hills onto a Kraft card base.

 
Using circles from Round in circles I created a rainbow arch on my acrylic block. Using rainbow colour inks, I graduated my inking onto the stamps and as the base of the arc has got a bit bunched up laid my card onto to the stamps to get the impression then cut out the rainbow.

 
Using 2 different sizes of circles and manipulating them onto my acrylic block I created some clouds with blue ink and cut them out.

 
Next up I stamped the outline tree onto brown scraps and the top of them onto green scraps. After cutting them out (just the top bit on the green pieces) I was able to layer the trees to give them nice green leaves.

 
I assembled the elements so far onto my collage and decided I needed a ‘happy’ bird in the sky. I stamped a bird from the shake your tail feathers tadpole set, cut off his tail and his legs, re attaching these in a ‘flying’ position.

 
A few flowers stamped onto some scraps of patterned paper and a couple of butterflies, cut out and curled for dimension finished the collage.

 
The last thing to add was the sentiment et voila a happy day card that makes me smile!

What will you stamp today that will make you smile? Why not get out ‘that’ bag of scraps and see what you can conjure up. Thanks for hopping by, I’ll see you with another project next month, until then have a very happy July and happy stamping!

Love MJM x

 

 

 

  

POTD 3D Flowers

It's the 13th (already!) so it's time again for my Project of the Day.  I have a bit of a thing for making 3D flowers, I use them to decorate all sorts of projects or sometimes make them just because! I love to find new techniques for making different ones so I thought I'd make my own Banana Frog style!

 
To make these little beauties you will need Banana Frog Superlicious stamps, some plain white or cream card, shimmer mists, grey or black ink (I always use grey for a softer finish), and a couple of brads.

First spray patches of colour onto the card, overlap the colours in different places so you get some really interesting mixes and graduations.

 

Once your card is dry, using the outline flower stamp, stamp several images trying to cover areas of interesting colour combinations.

 

Cut out the flowers cutting between each petal, and using a pokey tool, gently curl and shape the edges of the petals.

 
Layer in threes, securing between each layer with a dot of glue, finish with a brad through the centre. Curl and shape the edges more as required.

 
These can be used as little decorations for lots of different projects.  I had these three little frames that I bought in Ikea years ago so, after a quick lick of paint, they looked a treat with my 3D flowers on.

 
Thanks for joining me!

Beks xx