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 - #CTC161 Sale-a-Bration

CASEing from the new Sale-a-Bration catalogue - any page! Welcome if you've just arrived from Megan's sweet card...

I chose to adapt the front of the bag on page 12.

My stamp set of choice was one we received at Onstage Gold Coast and I hadn't had a chance to use a lot - Bird Banter.  I went with a toucan, a parrot and a budgie and stamped each in the same colour as the background cardstock used - Bermuda Bay, Lemon Lime Twist and Daffodil Delight. I also sponged around all the coloured edges. The Whisper White background was embossed with Petal Burst and mounted onto the same colour thick base. A couple of snippets of ribbon have been adhered under the 1 /34" circle. The greeting has been chopped and each word has Bermuda Bay around the edge and popped onto the circle along with a fussy cut parrot coloured with an aquabrush and markers in the same colours already used. The bling is from the Iridescent Sequin Assortment and a touch of Wink of Stella on the main bird...

Thanks for all your kind messages and I'm pleased to say, I've advanced to a crutch and ditched the frame. Happy days! Am definitely appreciating my mobility, even though I've got a bit of a way to go.

Hope this inspires you to play along this week. But now pop over to see what Judy has created for you this time round...

CASEing the Catty - #CTC145 Merry Little Christmas

Welcome to this week's Guest Designer - Siobhan Fitzsimmons, as we Case pages 10-19 of the Holiday Catalogue.

I've chosen the left image on the right hand side photo page 17.  

This called out to the shabby chic style I enjoy. Some elements are definitely more shabby than others! I tried to age the truck with my colouring and the uneven toning was intentional. Card base is Very Vanilla thick cardstock. The DSP background is the Tranquil Tide Fresh Florals. Crumb Cake cardstock embossed with Petal Burst TIEF. I stamped the truck from Country Livin' with Archival Basic Black and water coloured using Tranquil Tide, Basic Gray and Chocolate Chip, Garden Green for the grass. 

The greeting is Number of Years, and being photopolymer don't forget you can shape it as you stick it to your block. 

My Wood Textures DSP wreath was more of a challenge than I'd pictured in my head. I cut a circle and distressed it, then started at the middle and tore towards the outside.  I then spritzed and rolled each section out but when I was done it looked too even. I spritzed the whole piece and scrumpled it into a ball, then carefully unravelled it as wet paper is very easily torn. I pressed it more or less flat with my fingers and allowed it to dry. Because it was still a little too even, I then tore off the odd roll to give the rough look I finished with. I adhered it to the coloured image and trimmed it so it was hidden behind the wreath. To finish I added a linen thread bow and used the Fine-Tip Glue Pen to apply a layer over the windows and head lights. I've tried to show that more clearly below.

Time to hop on over and check out what Megan's been up to:

Case the Designer - #GDP084

Decided I should try and play along now that I'm back from school break.  So this card was just the thing to ease back into my crafting, albeit a little last minute! Michelle Last was the designer, and I loved the simplistic but effective look.  I chose white on white, with the ping of Rich Razzleberry and Crushed Curry.  The flowers are from the Botannical Builder framelits and matching stampset which are sadly retiring so this is also the start of my last hurrahs. I used Petal Burst for the background embossing, and the Layering Squares for frame.  The greeting is from Beautiful You, and a few rhinestones - which although are retiring, are being reformatted and are apparently a flat design.  

Thanks for stopping by

Celebrating Good News

Today's card is for a couple of young ladies from Burnside High School who both made it into the NZ U18 Women's Volleyball Team to travel to China in March.  One of them lives in our house and we are super proud of her achievement for the third year in a row. The other is her friend and team mate, so it didn't seem fair not to make her a card as well!  Congratulations Libby and Chloe, along with the rest of your team - best wishes for your upcoming tour - WOW!!

The timing was perfect as I was tossing around ideas to make for the #CI02 Colour INKspiration challenge. The front panel of Soft Sky was stamped with Garden Green and the main image from Marquee Messages. I used a die from Mini Treatbag Thinlits to cut the dots and then embossed with Petal Burst to give some dimension. The image was again stamped with Garden Green onto Mint Macaron, and Whisper White with the appropriate sections fussy cut. The greeting also from Marque Messages was stamped in Soft Sky, then closely overstamped with Wisteria Wonder (this was also the colour used for the mat which was trimmed to allow the base Whisper White card to show through). Stars were also from Mini Treatbag Thinlits.  

Here's a close up of the image, the dots were coloured with a white gel pen

I don't often stamp a greeting on the inside, but this one - stamped in Wisteria Wonder, seemed fitting, from the Designer Tin of Cards:

Mediterranean Moments

A set that jumped out of the new catalogue at me was inspired by $Million sales achiever, Susan Nygaard.  We also saw Liz Collett demonstrate some great ideas using this set at #onstagelive. Of course, once I started, I wanted to use all my samples, and another item showcased here is the Stitched Shapes Framelits which have proven so popular they will not be able to be ordered after tomorrow due until sometime in the future, but they will be in the new catalogue in June.  

First up a card to satisfy the Global Design Project sketch challenge #gdp062.  I have gone monochrome, using only Soft Suede against Whisper White.  The spots on the Fancy Frost Specialty DSP were made using Soft Suede refill dropped into water, then dipping my aqua painter in and flicking lightly.  Of course, I couldn't waste the coloured water, so see below for what else I did.  The image was stamped then diecut with the oh so versatile Stitched Shape Framelits.  The sketch was landscape, but I have gone portrait, and hope it still fits the rules.  The greeting from Jar of Love has been layered onto Soft Suede which I also diecut from the same framelits, just a little bit of tweaking along the way...

Next up, a card for a friend who has just purchased her first home after a change in circumstances - I hope it makes her smile. Greeting again from Jar of Love and diecut with the Tags and Labels framelits, Bow from Pretty Pines Thinlits and a few rhinestones to finish.

Something calming about this picture, so again you don't need to to put much behind your card as the picture says it all. Image diecut from Stitched Shape Framelits and layered onto scallop from Layering Squares. Greeting from Jar of Love and just a couple of plain strips of Basic Black cardstock for the background. 

Most people think of the vibrant blues and reds (along with terracotta) when thinking of the Mediterranean, so this card was a bit of a play on that. I believe it is called Spotlighting Technique, and my spotlights were again diecut from the Stitched Shape Framelits.  My blue is Island Indigo backed with Real red.  Greeting - yes, you guessed it - Jar of Love.

The last card to show you was using the leftover water I referred to from the first photo.  I watercoloured a piece of Whisper White card, and thought the colour wasn't intense enough, so I just tipped all the water onto it.  Of course, that meant waiting for it to dry.  So I sped it up with the heatgun, and like how the ink started to separate so it had a soft yellow haze around the edge.  I stamped it with my image in Archival Black, then ran it through the Big Shot with Petal Burst TIEF, then I actually shifted it a smidge and ran it through again.  I layered that onto Basic Black and now have a fun no occasion card ready to send, or I could pop a greeting on when called for...

Here they are all together.  Hope you love this set as much as I do, although sorry that you have to wait until January to order it.

Onstage Live - Brisbane 2016

How lucky was I to be able to attend Onstage Live in Brisbane last week?  Sharing a room with some amazing demonstrators from Melbourne and Sunshine Coast, provided a lot of laughs. As on previous trips, I came home inspired and motivated by the talent shared within the Stampin' Up community.  We saw several onstage demonstrations and received oodles of ideas. If you've been feeling at a loss and need some sort of outlet, contact me, you might be surprised at the extra benefits being a Demonstrator provides. For instance Therapy with Friends - what more could you want?!! #onstage2016

Today, I wish to share some of my treasures with you.  These are the pillow gifts I was lucky enough to receive from my roomies

And here they are: Julia, Nicole, myself, Fi and Janine

Friday night was a team get together for a meal and a swap.  The size of the swap was 3"x4" and this was my effort (Using Botanical Builder framelits; Petal Burst TIEF, Labels & Tags Framelits, Fancy Frost Sequins, Wink of Stella and the colours were Tip Top Taupe, Bermuda Bay and Whisper White)
:

With nearly 30 people swapping, check out the great ideas I got to come home with:

Another benefit of attending is we get to play with new product along with receiving our copy of the new Occasions catalogue and Sale-a-Bration brochure.  These are the make and takes we did. 

 

Thanks to everyone who made the trip so memorable.

And leaving Brisbane airport - it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

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.

Thoughtful Branches and Watercolour

As you may have noticed, I am making the most of the short time I can share this bundle (Thoughtful Branches) with you but hoping like crazy it will make a comeback in a future catalogue!  I know I've tried to encourage you before to play with your toys and keep trying until you master a technique, but when I try to do the same, I struggle with not using it. I had some non-SU watercolour paper (not a great quality by any means) and thought I could sacrifice that rather than my 'good' stuff. But I liked the look and these are the results.

The first card I wish to show you was an idea shared by Sara Douglass, Stampin' Up! CEO. The background is masked off at the edge, and then washed with 3 different colours and left to dry. I then veered off from using the leaves she had and added the tree you can see here. I unravelled the thick Cucumber Crush baker's twine and added it to the card, tying it with a single strand. The greeting is from Confetti Celebration.  I used my Wink of Stella brush and picked up Daffodil Delight to colour in the words, Then I wanted more bling so I added a few sequins and Wink of Stella to the leaves - see close up.  And it made it to the mailbox yesterday.

For the next card, it was the same watercolour paper, and this time I just lay a stamp pad on it (Tangelo Twist), the ink was very intense and I initially thought that was going to be a big fail.  However I spritzed it with water and left it to dry.  It was fun watching the colour come apart and spread.  I spritzed again and was happy with the how it toned down yet still enough variety to provide interest.  I cut it out with the Beautiful Branches die and was pleased with the result. I cut a stalk out of the same paper and used the Cucumber Crush ink pad then spritzed as before. Once I had my flower sorted, I knew I wanted to pop it into a vase - so out with the Jar of Love and my new copper embossing powder.  I love how the copper melted so smoothly on the vellum I used for the jar.  I used a marker to colour the back of the vellum for my water.  The head of the flower had dimensions in the centre of it and then I used multipurpose adhesive around the edge - gives a more real look to the hydrangea idea. I picked a Touches of Texture image and embossed that twice at the bottom of the Very Vanilla card and ran the top through the Petal Burst TIEF.  I added a copper embossed banner and a greeting which I brought the Cucumber Crush back into.  I also added some copper metallic thread - see the close up.  A lengthy post but lots of detail to try and explain.

Thoughtful Thanks

Have had the need for a few Thank You cards recently, and felt this fitted the cause nicely, Super easy to make using the Thoughtful Branches bundle.  I selected Elegant Eggplant for the contrast against the Whisper White and Garden Green for the stem.  The background was embossed with the Petal Burst TIEF, I liked the debossed effect for this (turning it to the reverse side after embossing). The greeting was from the Thoughtful Branches stamp set and I used a die from the Project Life Cards & Labels to cut it then mounted it on a diecut from the Rose Garden Thinlits.  And the bow?  It came from the Everyday Jars Framelits...