#CTC314 Favourite Retiring Punch

Welcome to our blog hop for #CTC314 - CASEing a Retiring Punch Project from the annual catalogue:

I've used the Butterfly Duet Punch and CASEd the card on the top left of Page 16:

Onto a base of Thick Basic White, I've added a piece of Hydrangea Hill DSP. 

On a piece of Basic White, I've Gold heat embossed the rose leaf image from Rooted in Nature randomly and attached a strip of Purple Posy Scalloped Linen Ribbon before adhering it to the card. Using Butterfly Wishes I've stamped butterflies in Pretty Peacock onto Whisper White and punched them out with the Butterfly Duet Punch. Also using Pretty Peacock ink I've stamped a greeting from Butterfly Gala onto a scrap of Rococo Rose cardstock and adhered the bottom with glue and the top half with Stampin' Dimensionals. The butterflies were added with Stampin' Dimensionals as well.

Angle shot with the sun catching the embossing:

Simba is having a quiet day after a seizure yesterday. Not the first, but they wipe him out so he wasn't protesting at photos today.

We look forward to having you play along with the crew. Post your project to our Facebook page using the link over on the right.

Until then, please continue on the hop to our lovely friend Rebecca:

Social Stamping - New (Normal)

This week Kelly Kent's theme for the Social Stamping Covid Blog Hop is "New (Normal)". What has become your New Normal? 

For me, life has been pretty quiet. We are fortunate in New Zealand to be looking at moving to Level 1 soon, and one of our bubble will return to University, a five hour drive away from us. It has been lovely to have her home through lockdown though.. 

We've been lucky to have experienced a mild autumn and able to get outdoors for walks. The neighbourhood put teddies in the window for people to look out for and that went down a treat - not just with the kids! Did they do that where you live too?

My creation is based on the leaves we've watched falling on our walks. And not even funny - within 24 hrs of creating my card - we have had the coldest day in a very long time - along with the rain, so I just might have tempted fate when I added my umbrella and gumboots!! 

I've used the rose leaf stamp from Rooted in Nature and Very Vanilla cardstock. My ink pads were Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze and Early Espresso to stamp the leaves, I started with the lightest colour and stamped off a little as I went, then progressed to darker. I've added a greeting from Under My Umbrella in Early Espresso ink along with the umbrella handle. My 'new' for the theme is the In Colour 6" x 6" DSP - in Bumblebee! I've stamped the umbrella and boots in Early Espresso and fussy cut, popping them in place with Stampin' Dimensionals. 

I've used some retired Old Olive Linen Thread to wrap around the card and matted the top layer with Early Espresso, adding it to a base of thick Whisper White cut in half lengthwise, so it forms a tent when folded. Lastly I tied a bow around the thread.

I wish I had some polka dot gumboots like these - alas I'm stuck with my trusty black 'Perths'! How appropriate for the social stamping Kelly and our Western Australia friends? - along with the greeting!! 

Thanks for stopping by! Stay safe and please continue on the hop to my fellow CASEing the Catty friend, Shannon:

If you get lost along the way, you can find all the links here: Kelly Kent

#CTC204 - Favourite Holiday Big Shot Project

The crew are back after a break to attend global Onstage events and here to inspire you with their favourite Holiday Big Shot project CASEs

I've combined two projects, the card on the right of this photo on page 8:

And the card in the middle of page 18:

Aren't those little elves delightful?? I've dulled down the snow effect due to living where we are supposed to get warm at Christmas, so the elves still have their snow covered Pole but the trees and the rolling green hills in the background are more suited to us.

I've used the layout of the top card with thick Whisper White as my base, and Pear Pizzazz my top layer. I've used Balmy Blue for the sky colour and placed that onto my base card.  The window was cut using the Layering Ovals. I've cut the oval a couple of times to form hills and sponged the edges with Garden Green. The top layer was embossed with the Pinewood Planks 3D TIEF. The Rooted in Nature trees were stamped in Garden Green and die cut with the Nature's Roots framelits then placed into position on the hills and behind the little elves.  My trolley is loaded up a little more than the original and all were easily die cut with the Santa's Signpost Framelits Dies from the Santa's Workshop Specialty DSP. I used the Bronze Stampin' Blend for the wood signs (stamped from Signs of Santa) and the greetings from the same set, were stamped on top in Memento Ink. Finished off with Whisper White Baker's Twine and a bow.

Thanks for stopping by. It was so great to catch up with a few of the crew last week when I was in Melbourne attending Onstage, and one of them was the lovely Fi - let's pop over and see what she has for us:

And when you've finished hopping, why not play along? Create a card and add it to our Facebook page using the link over on the right...

#CTC199 - Country Lane

Hello and welcome. This week we head to pages 42-47 of the Holiday catalogue for our CASe - feel free to play along, we look forward to what you may create and post using the link over to the right

So many choices that suited me but I went with page 46, and the card at the bottom:

I've once again CASed the layout, but kept everything very similar.  I started with a base of thick Whisper White, layered with another thick Whisper White using the stunning Tin Tile Dynamic TIEF. I've seen this used a lot online of late and liked it, but seriously, it is way better seeing it in real life. I think I'll be using this folder a lot.

Next layer was Granny Apple Green, to co-ordinate with the DSP I chose (love how you just check the label on the DSP to see what colours co-ordinate, makes it so easy!). My corners are from Swirly Frames with half the frame masked off. I chose Shaded Spruce for the ink colour. DSP strips from Tropical Escape layered over this, with the top having a piece of Whisper White Baker's Twine added. I've used the sunflowers from Bike Ride, stamped in Shaded Spruce with Mango Melody flowers and Crumb Cake wrapping. This has been raised with Stampin' Dimensionals and a baker's twine bow to the side. The greeting from Rooted in Nature fit the purpose for this card.

Next on the hop today we have the lovely Judy May - click the Next button to find out what she has for us today:

#CTC195 - Festive Farmhouse

Hi and welcome to our weekly blog hop. This week sees us at the Festive Farmhouse Suite from pages 12-17 of the Holiday catalogue.

Page 12 for me and the card on the top right:

I kept with the layout and switched my colours around.  I've used a Cherry Cobbler base card, with another Cherry Cobbler piece embossed with the Dynamic Corrugated TIEF. I've sponged all my edges with Night of Navy. How long since you've added sponging to your project? I forgot how much I like the look.

Laid onto the corrugated piece was a strip of the foliage DSP from All is Bright. Banner cut and spritzed and scrunched for a little texture. Onto that a piece of cheque pattern DSP from Under the Mistletoe which had some Night of Navy embellishments diecut from the Pretty Pine Thinlits. A stitched circle from Cherry Cobbler was added to the middle of the card. The trees from Rooted in Nature were stamped onto Cherry Cobbler, diecut and added over and above the CASe to give some balance to the empty space I had. A strip of Night of Navy was added behind the banner greeting from Snowflake Sentiments (the top half only), the bottom section having been masked off. Finally a metal button threaded with Night of Navy baker's twine (both now retired). 

Now we're hopping over to see Rachel's super cute projects this week. Please join us, create a card from the section above, and add it to our Facebook page using the link over on the right.

April Onstage Global Blog Hop

Welcome to our Blog Hop sharing projects we had the pleasure of creating for recent Stampin' Up Onstage events held at various locations around the world. I went to Auckland along with 230 fellow demonstrators.

Firstly I must give immense thanks to my talented and generous friend, Kelly Kent from Australia for her assistance with the setup and graphics... and secondly thanks to Susan Wong who urged me to step outside my comfort zone and ask if there was a hop I could join. That led to a lot of demonstrators in the same position and we created a hop for ourselves - so a big thank you to the other participants for signing up - I can't wait to see what you've all made!

This was how my display was setup on the day:

 And here they are closer up. I'll try and keep brief on all the cards for the hop, and if I expand later, I'll add links rather than being too wordy here. (if there is something specific you'd like to know - feel free to ask in the comments).  

Gold foil sheets, Gold Heat Embossing

Left - Copper foil sheets, Copper heat embossing
Right - using Stamparatus and markers, adding layers on the tree until I was happy; Soft Suede, Tranquil Tide & Lemon Lime Twist - greeting stamped onto the Mini Ruffled ribbon

My happy accident card - I initially Gold heat embossed the greeting, but it didn't stand out so I repeated with white embossing powder and got a very shiny finish which I liked, but to make it pop a little more, I used my Tranquil Tide marker and 'shadowed' the right side of the letters

Random splatter by splashing water/tombow mix then heat embossed with Gold

Tiny goggle eyes (non Stampin' Up) bring these crazy guys to life

Faux tearing for ground, So Saffron cardstock masked for moon, sponged with Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight and Pool Party. Kangaroo stamped and coloured black

Shimmery white cardstock, watercolour washed, die cut and matted with Basic Black

Stamparatus assisted and some irony  - this 'little' fella was fussy cut and added later

Woven Mini Ruffled ribbon, background made by diecutting stencil leaves and sponging colour through. Frames Elements wooden embellishment under words coloured with Tranquil Tide marker and covered with Fine Tip Glue. Stamparatus used to change the alignment of the greeting

Frames Element coloured with Lemon Lime Twist marker and covered in Fine Tip Glue. Greeting inked with Versamark then Lemon Lime Twist and Clear Embossed. New Glitter Enamel Dots.

Frames Element coloured with Berry Burst marker and covered in Fine Tip glue, Silver foil diecut and Silver Heat Embossed greeting

In-colour DSP in Lemon Lime Twist and Tranquil Tide with diecut leaves

I know less is best but once I start adding, I can't stop... Started by flicking bleach onto Early Espresso 12"x12". Die cut So Saffron with giraffe print die and added to Cajun Craze before die-cutting Large Letters. Spot the giraffe lurking on the A in PARK? Leaf Ribbon wound around letters before adhering.

 

Trimmed the Lemon Lime Twist Mini Ruffled ribbon to thread through the buttons and knotted it

I didn't have leaf stamps to match my dies, so some of my leaves were created by randomly stamping with Tranquil Tide the leaf images from Rooted in Nature on Lemon Lime Twist cardstock then spritzing with water until the colour blurred a little. The others were Tranquil Tide card spritzed and screwed up while wet then both were diecut after they had dried again.

DSP as above this time in Berry Burst, Powder Pink and Fresh Fig. Each rhino was stamped in the same colour ink as DSP and then watercoloured a little with an aqua painter.

 

And my final set - using Blends to colour. Background on left is stamped, and the oval was Brusho on shimmering White carstock. Greeting is Congratulations Graduate, in Pool Party and clear embossed.
Balloons are highlighted differently with the color lifter Stampin' Blend. The left uses comma strokes, and the right sort of square shapes but shaped as if on a curve. 

Thanks Stampin' Up for this fantastic opportunity - I was able to use all the goodies in the mystery box and happily not too many retiring items, something we don't know when we are given the chance to create. I loved the challenge and I hope you feel inspired. Please now venture over to Western Australian and Kristel Rimmer