#CI86 - Colour Inkspiration Challenge

 

I was drawn to the colours for this challenge the first time I saw it posted, and then forgot about it until an entry popped up in my Facebook feed and I was inspired to select these colours to make a card for the man of the house who is having a birthday tomorrow. 

He's at home recovering from foot surgery so I thought I'd better make a bit of an effort and ended up CASEing myself. Back in June 2019 I created this card for another challenge - click here.

This time I've used a base of Coastal Cabana cardstock and sponged Pacific Point ink for my water. I've black heat embossed the image and greeting from Best Catch. The top layer is Shaded Spruce, with a Layering Oval diecut from the centre and then embossed with Old World Paper 3D folder. I've black heat embossed the fish hook and coloured with the three colours above in my Stampin' Markers. Next I've diecut the hook and two small fish with the Catch of the Day Dies. I've added the spots from Best Catch to the fish in Pacific Point ink and sponged around the edges before adhering the pieces to the card.

I love the vibrancy of these colours together! Thank you for stopping by and for allowing me to contribute to the challenge.

#Onstage2019 Country Club Suite - Part 1

Hi everyone

As promised, I'm going to show you the samples I presented in Perth at the Stampin' Up! Onstage Local event held on 16 November 2019.

I was delighted to present the Country Club suite - perfect for the golfers in your life!

There are 8 Cling Mounts stamps in the Clubhouse stamp set that coordinate with a set of 14 Golf Club dies, 6 of which have an embossed element to them.

The DSP has a plaid or argyle pattern on one side and golfing images on the reverse. the white one at the end is actually 12 line art images which you can trim to 4" x 3" and colour with your favourite medium. The coordinating colours are Basic Black, Crushed Curry, Garden Green, Night of Navy, Poppy Parade and Whisper White.

There are also a set of 3 sheets of wooden elements, a twine combo pack and a 3D Embossing folder - Absolutely Argyle.

My presentation involving some 'live' stamping was based around:

The Beginner Stamper - (stamps, ink and paper) with, in my case, some stress relief via colouring with watercolour pencils, and if desired using an aqua painter

The Casual Stamper - a little more than the beginner but not necessarily a lot of equipment - here I used the Stampin' Markers direct to the rubber stamp to achieve the colour, adding a little DSP and using a punch for the inside greeting, with a little more DSP

The Avid Stamper - they tend to have a lot more equipment. I've used the Garden Green ink pad to swipe my Absolutely Argyle Embossing folder with before embossing the Crushed Curry cardstock. I've coloured the same image used in the other cards with Stampin' Blends and die cut the shape, along with a few other pieces. The shield has been turned sideways to become my putting green and a wooden flag embellishment also coloured with Stampin' Blends was added. The greeting has been heat embossed with Black powder. On the inside I've used Stitched Rectangles to diecut the greeting to show how easily this set coordinates with supplies you may already own if you are the avid crafter, teamed up with some of the embossed diecuts from the set.

 Inside the Casual card 

 Inside the Avid card

I then proceeded to show some samples I had made with the items in the suite. I started with my Polo Shirt card. Originally I had wanted to make my card the shape of a polo shirt, but didn't like any of the designs I came up with and decided to zoom in on a photo of a shirt, and this is my take on it using Night of Navy cardstock, Country Club DSP and some of the round Country Club wooden elements as buttons. 

I covered the entire front with an argyle design from the DSP. Next I've embossed a couple of pieces of cardstock with Corrugated 3D EF for my collar along with a Stitched Rectangle for the placket a Layering Oval piece to become the top of the shirt. I painted button holes on with my Basic Black Stampin' Blend. I've dipped the buttons into Balmy Blue ink and added a layer of fine tip glue, but decided I didn't like the shine so wiped them off again before the glue set which took a bit of the ink away and I quite liked the look. My 'logo' is fussy cut from another sheet of DSP.

My next card was to show this suite is not just for the male golfers in your life. This is one of the images from the sheet of DSP cut to 4" x 3" and coloured with Stampin Blends. I have a base of Basic Black cardstock and a mat of Poppy Parade embossed with the 3D Absolutely Argyle EF. I've split the Basic Black twine and used only 3 strands with a bow added. I have a 4" x 3" mat of Basic Black angled with my picture adhered over the top. I've stamped the greeting and die cut with the embossed golf ball. Next was a coloured wooden element with Poppy Parade blends. I've stamped a greeting from Well Said in Poppy Parade and trimmed it to add to the wood. It now reads "You're the Best Thing About Today By Par". My final addition was a little wooden tee coloured with a Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blend.

Here's a little sneak peek of what's to come in the next couple of days - along with a rare picture of me!

CASEing the Catty - #CTC163 Sale-a-bration

We're back over to the Sale-a-bration catalogue this week.

I've been having a play this week with the Brusho Crystal Colours. Those of you who love messy play most likely already know about this - but they are watercolour ink crystals (a very intense watercolour powder) and the first instruction we are given is do not open the lid - the potential is that it will go everywhere! So all you need to do is poke a hole into the top of the container and that will provide you with loads of colour without the risk of too much mess. Check out page 26 of the Occasions catalogue for more detail.

I've stopped at page 4 of the Sale-a-bration catalogue 
  

I was also lucky enough to be given the chance to play with the set "You're Inspiring" and after a play it may have to go onto my wish list too. Such lovely images and versatile words. I have stamped the image with Basic Black archival ink and left it to dry well.  I tapped some of the Yellow Brusho into a container and spritzed with water and just stirred it up so that I had my pre-blended colour, rather than pops of colour you can't control the same with this product. With a 1" paint brush I just slip slopped back and forth until I had used up all the mixed colour. I had used whisper white cardstock and when wet it can curl a bit so as it dries. To help smooth it out I decided to add some texture and run it through the Petal Burst TIEF but it was a little more intense than I wanted, so back to the Big Shot and a shim to flatten it out. Got just what I wanted, a hint of texture without detracting from the simple image. I used Delightful Daisy DSP offcuts for the trim and had the pattern run the same way as the cased card. Have you seen the organza ribbon on pg 23? It is 1/4" wide and you can sponge it to colour if you want, however I left it white and love how such a little touch can add so much interest. The greeting is from Bunch of Blossoms and Layering Ovals were used to create the shape and scalloped background. A baker's twine bow to finish.

I did do some more playing with the Brusho Colours but I will make another card to show you next week. Meantime, on with the blog hop, click to see what Rebecca has in store for you. Feel free to join the challenge - link over on the right.

CASEing the Catty - #CTC156 Christmas Twist

The brief is actually "Case any project from the annual catalogue and give it a Christmas Twist"... why don't you play along?  Make your card and link using the badge on the right...

 

This week, my inspiration came from the card top right of page 98

The base is thick Whisper White with Be Merry DSP. I wanted to see more of the DSP than above and opted to lose the middle layer with the embossing. My oval is Whisper white cut with the Layering Ovals framelits.  Attached to that is a Pretty Pines Thinlits branch, along with the Cherry Cobbler bow from the same set.  I sponged some whisper white cardstock with Soft Suede and then cut the birds using Birds & Blooms thinlits. This colourway reminded me of one of  my favourite garden birds, the thrush. I am especially grateful for the assistance they give me in eliminating snails from my garden! I added a bit more Christmas twist with the santa hat from Santa's Suit - as you can see I had to do a bit of reverse stamping to get it facing the way I wanted, and it may be a size too big but it will hopefully brighten the receiver's face! The greeting I used fit the purpose, as they live in a different country, so Holly Berry Happiness was used and mounted onto a Garden Green banner.

Thanks for stopping by and you must hop over to check out the amazing set Julia Quinn has created!

Baby Themed International Blog Highlight

Doesn't seem a month since I last got to play along with the other blog highlight entrants where the top ten voted get invited onto a blog hop.  The theme is "Baby' and I've tried to keep it simple, but steer slightly away from the normal pastel colours associated.  All things being equal, I created a Tempting Turquoise for the boys, and Melon Mambo for the girls.

This cute little image is one stamp from Moon Baby. I've chosen to water-colour in the same shades as the mats and add a little Daffodil Delight to the stars, another stamp from the same set (I used the trio stamp although there is also a single star). The little lamb has a Wink of Stella tummy and the background stars have all been Wink'ed too...see further below for a close up. Both mats have been elevated with Stampin' Dimensionals with a little silver metallic thread behind the top mat.  If you like what you see - I'm #31

Close up to show the sparkle:

A Learning Curve

Today is the first official post from my new blog!  Fingers crossed it all works.  I have copied over all my posts from my Demonstrator Web blog so you should be able to see all my posts on either site now. 

Recently NZ Demonstrators were invited to submit content to decorate the walls of the Auckland Stampin' Up office.  I opted for one of my go-to projects for a little bit of Wow, and incorporated the Canterbury colours of Red and Black (my go-to being a Tri-Shutter card). I have also used a technique called Inlaid Embossing, where you adhere your layers together and then emboss.  I used the Rose Garden Thinlits to cut some flowers and stems from Whisper White, and glued these to Real Red, then ran them through my Big Shot with the Petal Burst folder. I also cut a Real Red Rose image for the front of the card and added it to the oval cut using the Layering Ovals framelits.  Another oval to compliment it had the greeting from Rose Wonder - "For some things there are no words".  The bird in Basic Black is from Birds & Blooms Thinlits and I added a little Real Red behind it.