New Catty Sneak Peak -'Sitting Here'

Hi there 

Today I have one of my favourite cards that I created for Onstage Local in Sydney. This was one of the Cucumber Crush samples and it uses the new 'Sitting Here' stamp set from the 2016-17 Annual Catalogue.  It has a collection of elements that you can use together to create a lovely scene or use them individually as design elements on your other projects. The elements include the lovely swing, cat, dog, dog basket, cushions, bird and pot plant. I stamped this image from a friend who received this set for her display board stamping, so I was pleased when all attendees received it at OnStage.

To create realistic 'scene' cards from individual elements you generally need to use the masking technique. This allows you to place some elements in front or behind others as in real life. If you haven't tried this technique before, then please give it a go. All you need is some sticky notes (they are now available as a full sheet of sticky, rather than just the top 1cm), stamps and Stampamajig (or you could just wing it!)

  

To start, I've stamped the pot plant in Basic Black Archival ink onto Shimmery White card stock, as I wanted this image to be 'in front' on my card. I stamped the pot plant image a second time onto a sticky note and cut it out right on the lines with my paper snips. Don't leave any border around your mask image as it will create a white space when you stamp the background image. Pop the sticky note mask over the top of the original image you stamped and then use a Stampamajig to position the swing and stamp it in Basic Black Archival ink.  When you remove the mask, the swing will appear behind the pot plant. I love how simple and effective this technique is.  I water coloured the swing and plant pot with my aquapainter and ink pads.  The flowers are quite small and delicate, so I used Stampin' Write markers to colour them. 

My swing disappears into a cloud of leaves created with the  tree canopy image from the 'Sheltering Tree' stamp. It was stamped firstly in Mint Macaron and then again (the other way up) in Cucumber Crush.  Stamping the second time with the stamp rotated gives you a more realistic blending of the leaves. The cat and cushion were stamped separately and water coloured on Shimmery White card stock and then fussy cut.  While the pieces were still a bit damp, I used the Simply Scored  stylus to create a little hollow on the reverse side of each that gives both pieces a great 3D look. When they were dry I used small pieces of foam pad to fill the hollow and attach them to the swing seat. I added the bird on the back of the swing seat to tease the cat (he is the same colour as my silver Bengal Artie!).

I got a small ink smudge on the very bottom of the piece (don't you hate that!) so that resulted in the sweet greeting 'just sitting here thinking of you' being stamped on the Cucumber Crush strip at the bottom. Not in the plans, but I love how it balances out the card. Such a lovely sentiment for a friendship card.

Project Details
Stamps	Sitting Here, Sheltering Tree
Card stock & Papers	Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush, Shimmery White
Ink	Basic Black Archival, Cucumber Crush Mint Macaron, Soft Suede, Smoky Slate, Watermelon Wonder, Marina Mist, Cajun Craze
Accessories	Rhinestone Basic Jewels
Tools	Stampamajig, Stampin' Write Markers, Aquapainter, Stylus, Dimensionals

Thanks for looking!

OnStage Sample - Grateful Bunch

Hi there

I have another of the samples I created for Onstage Local in Sydney to share with you.  This one uses the 'Grateful Bunch' stamp set in a card highlighting Delightful Dijon.  This is not one of my go-to colours, so creating 4 cards using it as a primary colour really took me out of my comfort zone. Having said that, I found some colour combinations that I really like such as this one using Delightful Dijon with Island Indigo and lots of white. 

 

The flowers were stamped in Island Indigo, Watermelon Wonder and Delightful Dijon and punched out with the coordinating Blossom Bunch punch and layered over the stems.   The greeting from 'Suite Sayings' was coloured with markers  in the 2 focus colours before stamping in the angle created by the two stems. I added a decorative border in the top right corner by using the Simply Scored Board to score lines 1/4" from the edge on the reverse side of my piece, with the second line  a 1/2" shorter. You can see it better in this closeup photo.

I hope you try this is really simple, but effective way to add interest to your cards.  

Project Details
Stamps	Grateful Bunch, Suite Sayings
Card stock & Papers	Delightful Dijon, Island Indigo, Whisper White
Ink	Delightful Dijon, Island Indigo, Watermelon Wonder, Early Espresso
Accessories	Rhinestone Basic Jewels
Tools	Baker's Box Framelits (heart) Big Shot, Blossom Bunch punch, Simply Scored Board, Glue Dots, Stampin' Write markers (Island Indigo, Delightful Dijon)

Thanks for looking!

OnStage Sample -Mint Birthday Blooms

Hi there

Apologies for the drought in blog posts in the last couple of weeks. I was fortunate enough to be selected as a display board stamper for the Stampin' Up! OnStage Local event in Sydney 10 days ago.  I had a very hectic 2 weeks leading up to it preparing my 20 samples and I still seem to be catching up.  

I was selected to work with new 2016-18 In Colours, but there was a little hiccup in the shipping from the US and I received the supplies for the 2015-17 In Colours. However, I did receive 2 stamp sets from the new 2016-17 Annual Catalogue to work with, so I will be sharing samples using those in the next few weeks as we get closer to the 1 June commencement of the new catalogue. I think you will really like the new In Colours - they are very on trend and work well with the existing Stampin' Up! colour collections. As always seems to happen after we get an new set of colours, I am already seeing them in homewares, linen and stationery. 

Today, I am sharing one of my Mint Macaron samples using the beautiful Birthday Blooms stamp set. I'm so glad this has been carried over to the new catalogue. I've stamped it in Basic Gray Archival ink on Shimmery White and water coloured with aquapainter and ink pads. It has been fussy cut  and popped up on a doily. The colours are Blushing Bride and Mint Macaron with a touch of Rose Red.  The 4" 'Tea Lace' doilies that are retiring will be replaced with very pretty 3.5" 'Delicate White' doilies. This is a more versatile size, as it fits nicely on the card with a landscape orientation. 

The lovely sentiment comes from one of the new Hostess stamp sets from the 2016-17 catalogue called 'Gift of Love'. I love the delicate script font which I have heat embossed in white.  I've trimmed it with some of the new 2015-17 In Colour ribbons and a trio of pearls. I've also highlighted the stamens with a white gel pen. Here is a close-up of the new ribbon:

This ribbon is actually Cucumber Crush, but it goes very nicely with Mint Macaron. It is 1.7cm wide (11/16") with a very fine grosgrain stripe alternating with white. It comes in all 5 of the 2015-17 In Colours. 

 

Project Details
Stamps	Birthday Blooms, Gift of Love (NEW to 2015-17 Catalogue)
Card stock & Papers	Mint Macaron, Subles Pattern Stack, 2015-17 In Colour Pattern Stack, Shimmery White
Ink	Basic Gray Archival, Blushing Bride, Mint Macaron, Rose Red, Versamark
Accessories	Cucumber Crush Grosgain ribbon (NEW to 2015-17 Catalogue), Pearls Basic Jewels, Tea Lace Doily
Tools	Banners Framelits, Big Shot, White EP, Heat Gun, Dimensionals, White gel pen.

Thanks for looking!