CASE-ing the Catty - Mother's Day

Hi there

It's Sunday night and the CTC Crew have lots of inspiring Mother's Day projects for you this week. 

You may have come from looking at the lovely project on Julia's blog, but if you are visiting me, you can start your journey here and continue by clicking on the buttons at the bottom of the post.

  

This week,  I have taken my inspiration from the gift bag shown on the right in the photo above, from page 42 of the Occasions Catalogue.  It uses the 'Special Reason' stamp set and coordinating 'Stylish Stems' Framelits dies and I've translated the layout to a soft and feminine card. I'm sad that these products are retiring at the end of May, but the bundle is still available to purchase, at the moment.

 

I started with a Very Vanilla card base, using some of the new thick Very Vanilla card stock that will be available in the 2017-18 Annual Catalogue. A layer of the bokeh design from the 'Falling in Love' designer series paper forms the backdrop for the layers of embellishments.

 

The'Petal Burst' embossing folder used on the banner works well with the floral elements and I have offset it to the right. The stamped and die cut flowers were layered over the banner with the greeting label sitting on top. The large flower was inked in Blushing Bride and a sponge dauber was used to add some extra colour around the centre, before stamping. The open flower was die cut from Blushing Bride Glimmer paper. 

   

This closeup shows the detail in the stamped and die cut leaves and the pearl embellishment on the glimmer flower and greeting label. The greeting comes from the 'Circle of Spring' stamp set, which is also retiring. It has a great set of small-ish greetings that work well with circles and small label die cuts. The leaves were stamped in Crumb Cake and the open die cut leaf is in Soft Suede.

 

For the inside, I printed (from my computer) a verse on the writing panel in Soft Suede colour first (you can find my chart for printing Stampin' Up! colours here) and then added the strip of Copper washi at the bottom. The small flower and leaves in the bottom corner  finish it off.

Project Detailsou
Stamps	Special Reason, Circle of Spring
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla (thick), Crumb Cake, Blushing Bride, Soft Suede, Falling in Love DSP, Blushing Bride Glimmer paper
Ink	Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Blushing Bride, Pink Pirouette
Accessories	Pearls Basic Jewels, Affectionately Yours Washi set,
Tools	Petal Burst TIEF, Stylish Stems Framelits, Big Shot, Banner Triple punch, Sponge daubers, Dimensionals, Computer & printer

The 'Special Reason' clear mount bundle is still available to purchase and you can find it in my Online Store.

Now it's time to click on the Next button below to hop over to see the lovely project Monique has for you today.  

                             

We would love you to join in with your Mother's Day CASE of any project from the Occasions or Annual Catalogues using our Facebook group. Click on this link or the image below to go there. The first time you will need to click on the 'Join Group' button at the top. Once you have been added to the group, you can go ahead and post your creation and you do not need to have a blog.

You can see the full list of the CTC Crew participating this week over at the CASE-ing the Catty blog.

Thanks for visiting today!

CASE-ing the Catty - Favourite Big Shot Project

Hi there

I'm back this week with the CTC Crew to look at our favourite Big Shot project from the Occasions catalogue. 

You may have come from looking at the lovely project on the blog of the talented Mel Pagano, but if you are visiting me, you can start your journey here and continue by clicking on the buttons at the bottom of the post.

  

I have lots of favourite Big Shot projects in the Occasions Catty, but I decided on one of the bundles that was a must-have purchase, but hasn't seen nearly enough love. So this week, I'm looking at page 4 of the Occasions Catty and CASE-ing the shaker card at the top right of the page.  I've created a girly birthday card using the 'Pop of Pink' designer series paper as the basis for my colour choices. You will have to excuse the artificial lighting on these pics. With the days getting shorter, I need to get my photos done earlier in the day.

My base card is black and I've used the Melon Mambo polka dot design from the 'Pop of Pink' DSP as the mat and background to my shaker element. I die cut the balloon panel with the Balloon Pop-up Thinlits in thick Whisper White and then trimmed it to size. As I wanted to see through the shaker to designer paper background I have used Window Sheet (clear acetate) behind the die cut and then as the 'lid' to the shaker element after placing the adhesive foam strips around the edges. I also added an extra strip of foam tape at the bottom edge of the die cut (just below the bow), to stop the hearts from disappearing to the bottom where they couldn't be seen.

For the front, I have decorated the balloons with Gold Glimmer die cuts, also from the Balloon Pop-Up Thinlits and the middle one is punched out of the gold flecked design from the 'Pop of Pink' DSP with the Balloon Bouquet punch and I've popped it up. Love that these products work together. I tried a lot of options for the banner and ended up with stamping and heat embossing the banner from the coordinating 'Balloon Adventures' stamp set, in gold. I then stamped the 'let's celebrate' in Melon Mambo. 

  

This closeup shows the cute little glimmer hearts punched with the Heart Confetti border punch. To stop your confetti from sticking to the foam strips, run your Embossing buddy around the inside of the strips and then wipe off any dust with a micro fibre cloth.  It does make a big difference. You can see the confetti doesn't go past bottom of the die cut.

For the inside, I've used the black and gold design from the 'Pop of Pink' washi set  at the base of the writing panel. The string of the balloon has been heat embossed in gold and a gold glimmer die cut added to a Melon Mambo balloon punched out with the Balloon Bouquet punch.  

Project Details
Stamps	Balloon Adventures
Card stock & Papers	Basic Black, Melon Mambo, Pop of Pink DSP, Gold Glimmer, Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer
Ink	Melon Mambo, Versamark
Accessories	Gold cabochon (not SU), Pop of Pink washi
Tools	Balloon Pop-Up Thinlits, Big Shot, Balloon Bouquet punch, Heart Confetti punch, Heat gun, Gold EP

Now it's time to click on the Next button below to hop over to see what fabulous project Monique has for you today.  

                             

We would love you to join in with your CASE of your favourite Big Shot project from the Occasions Catty using our new Facebook group. Click on this link or the image below to go there. The first time you will need to click on the 'Join Group' button at the top. Once you have been added to the group, you can go ahead and post your creation and you do not need to have a blog.

You can see the full list of the CTC Crew participating this week over at the CASE-ing the Catty blog.

Thanks for visiting today!

AWH Favourite Retiring Products Blog Hop

Hi there

Today I am participating in a blog hop along with the talented ladies in the Art With Heart Team. We thought it would be fun to share some projects using our favourite retiring products from both the 2016-2017 Annual Catalogue and 2017 Occasions Catalogue.

Select retiring products have discounts of up to 50% off but are only available until sold out. Be sure to place orders before the sun sets on these items on 31 May. You don’t want to miss out – ask me how!

Blog Hops are full circles, so you can start hopping here and then at the end of each post is a link to the next one. There is also a full list of participants at the end in case of any broken links. 

There are so many favourite stamp sets retiring. However, as it is my husband's birthday next week, I thought I would get double value by making him a card with one of my favourite masculine stamp sets - 'Wetlands'. This stamp set (shown below) has 3 fabulous greetings in a lovely font and 3 very flexible images to use singly or together. 

 

  

This set is still available in wood mount, but of course you can always mount the rubber onto EZ Mount foam  to use it with your acrylic blocks. In this card, I've combined both the goose and the sandpiper images in a scene on a sponged background. I cut a rectangular frame using the Layering Squares framelits  (move the square along and cut a second time to create your rectangle) and used it as a mask for my sponged background.  The goose was stamped first, slightly outside of the frame and a mask placed over it before progressing to the sponged background. I started at the bottom and worked upwards to the sky.

 

 

 

 

I stamped the goose a second time in Early Espresso ink and used my Copic markers to colour him. You can see in this close-up that I have fussy cut and popped him up on foam pads for extra dimension. The finished art piece was layered on Early Espresso card stock and I wrapped some Linen Thread around it and finished it with a retired metal button. I'm sad that buttons are out of vogue at the moment, but I hope they make a reappearance in the future. I debated about using one of the greetings from 'Wetlands', but opted for the more low-key 'happy birthday' from the 'Teeny Tiny Sentiments' stamp set. I stamped it in Early Espresso ink and punched it out with the Classic Label punch and sponged the edges in Soft Sky ink for definition. I coloured a pearl with a grey Copic marker to give it a metallic look. The whole panel was popped up onto the Soft Sky base card.

 

 

 

 

For the inside, I did some light sponging at the bottom and stamped my favourite sandpiper image over the top. 

 

 

Project Details
Stamps	Wetlands, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Card stock & Papers	Soft Sky, Early Espresso, Whisper White
Ink	Early Espresso, Marina Mist, Soft Sky, Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake
Accessories	Linen Thread, Pearls Basic Jewels, Basic Metal Buttons (retired)
Tools	Layering Squares Framelits, Up & Away Thinlits, Big Shot, Classic Label punch, Sponge daubers, Dimensionals, Glue dots, Copic Markers

 Now it's time to hop over to see what the lovely and talented Rachel Woollard has to inspire you. Click on the button below.

 

Here is the full list of participants in today's blog hop, so make sure you hop around to everyone and leave them some blog love.

1. Catherine Proctor
2. Ros Davidson
3. Tina Gillespie
4. Monika O'Neill
5. Rebecca Jacovou
6. Kathryn Mangelsdorf
7. Rachel Palmieri
8. Kate Morgan
9. Judy May ---------------------> You are here!
10. Rachel Woollard
11. Claire Daly
12. Andrea Roberts

 Thanks for visiting!

Sweet Teen Birthday

Hi there

Today I'm sharing the card that I made for our niece who turned 13 recently. I went to a Copic colouring class in February and we coloured the image you see on this card, which is 'Sasha' from Paper Roses. I thought it would be perfect for a teen birthday.

I've paired the image with Dapper Denim card stock and lots of bling - blue and silver is a match made in heaven in my opinion! I've used the (unfortunately) retiring 'Hello You' thinlits to die cut the 'happy' in Silver Glimmer and used the coordinating 'Crazy about You' stamp set for the 'birthday'. This is a fabulous  set of products for many occasions and the clear mount stamp set and the dies are still available - get them while you can!  Click on the images below to go to my Online Store.

I've kept the inside very simple with a double mat and the die cut number 13 in Silver Glimmer.

 

Project Details
Stamps	Crazy about You, Sasha (Paper Roses)
Card stock & Papers	Dapper Denim, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer
Ink	Dapper Denim
Accessories	Lace Doilies, Rhinestones Basic Jewels
Tools	Hello You Thinlits, Little Numbers (Retired), Layering Circles Framelits, Big Shot, Copic markers

Thanks for looking!

Product List

Get ready to say goodbye...

2015-17 In Colours

Hi there

We are very close to the release of the Retiring List for the 2016-17 Annual Catalogue.  I just want to remind you that all of the 2015-17 In Colour products will be retiring on 31 May 2017. Here are a few things to think about:

• If you have any of the ink pads for the 2015-17 In Colours you should get your ink refills NOW.  The foam pads do need re-inking sooner than the old felt style as they provide a much better coverage and that means the ink is used up faster.
• If you have partly finished projects, such as memory keeping albums, you may want to purchase additional card stock to ensure you have enough to finish.
• Card stock and ink refills are the first items to sell out when the Retiring List is released. They are never discounted, so get them now and save yourself the grief.

You can click on the image to purchase them from my Online Store.

If you need any advice or assistance, do not hesitate to contact me.