CASE-ing the Catty - Pretty Flowers Embossing Folder

Hi there

Welcome to CASE-ing the Catty for this week!  

I'm visiting family in Western Australia this week, but I managed to make a card for this week's challenge before I left, so thanks for stopping by.

You can continue your journey to see the other inspiring creations from the CTC Crew by clicking on the buttons at the bottom of the post. 

This week we are CASE-ing an Embossing Folder project from either of the current catalogues. 

I chose the card above from page 14 because it uses the technique of inking inside the embossing folder. I haven't used it for ages, so a great opportunity to revisit it. The Pretty Flowers Embossing Folder is perfect as it has random flat areas between the floral design.

This technique works best with darker colours, so I have used Orchid Oasis card stock, the same as the sample project. The tone on tone effect that you achieve with this technique reminds me of brocade fabric with the shades of light and dark colour. Open the embossing folder and swipe the Craft White ink pad over the entire surface (the side with the Stampin' Up! logo on it). You only want the ink on the raised areas, so don't push too hard. Place the card stock carefully in the folder and run it through your machine. My ink pad probably could have done with reinking, but I really like the softer look that has resulted. The embossed panel was adhered to the Thick Basic White card base. Make sure you rinse off the embossing folder immediately you have finished.

I've kept my embellishment simple as I wanted the embossed background to be the hero. The sentiment from Framed Florets was stamped in Orchid Oasis ink and cropped with a circle from Stylish Shapes Dies and then matted onto a Pool Party circle cropped with the Layering Circles Dies. The flower from Two-Tone Flora was stamped in shades of  Flirty Flamingo ink and I added it to a die cut stem in Garden Green cropped with the Sentimental Park Dies. The greeting is adhered flat, to make it easier to balance the edges of the stem and the flower was popped up. I finished with 3 tiny flowers in the same colours using the Sending Dies and a Dragonfly Trinket.

For the inside, I've stamped the small flower cluster from Two-Tone Flora along the bottom of the writing panel in Flirty Flamingo ink. To soften the colour I swiped the edges of the panel of Orchid Oasis with the Craft White ink pad before adhering the writing panel.

 

Project Details
Stamps	Two-Tone Flora, Framed Florets
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Orchid Oasis, Pool Party, Garden Green
Ink	Orchid Oasis, Flirty Flamingo, Craft White
Accessories	Dragon Fly Trinkdets, Iridescent Pearls
Tools	Two-Tone Flora Dies, Sentimental Park Dies, Stylish Shapes Dies, Layering Circles Dies, Pretty Flowers EF Stampin' Cut & Emboss, Dimensionals,

 

We would love to see your CASE of an embossing folder project from either of the current catalogues, this week. 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 head over to the lovely Julia to see her fab project and follow the hop to see the inspiration from the rest of the CTC Crew.

Don't forget that the new Online Exclusives release is LIVE in my Online Store. These are brand new products that you will only see in the online store; they will never appear in a catalogue. There is no end date on them as such and some will be restocked and others may not, so if you love something it's best to grab it while you can. It is a little tricky to find them, so you can click on the links above or to navigate yourself,  click on Menu> Shop Products> Online Exclusives.

Thanks for visiting today!

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Waxing Lyrical

Hi there

You will have to pardon the pun in the title of this post, but I couldn't help myself! Yesterday I had a great time stamping with some of the girls from the Art with Heart team (waving to Claire, Erica, Fiona, Rachel, Ros and Di) and learning a couple of new techniques.  The cards I have to share with you were designed by Claire and incorporate the 'Wax Paper Resist' and 'Baby Wipe' techniques. I'm happy to say both are really easy and produce great results. 

You can find the Wax Paper Resist technique described here and there are a few video tutorials on the Web as well. We used a variation on what is shown in the tutorial by brayering a light colour (Baja Breeze) onto the glossy white card stock first and then ironing on the wax paper and brayering the darker colour (Not Quite Navy) over the top.  If you are using wax paper that is waxy on both sides, you can create 2 pieces of background at the same time by sandwiching the wax paper between 2 pieces of glossy card stock. 

I love the resulting effect on the Top Note background on the first card below. We used the Ocean Commotion stamp set for the images and I went for a 'Nemo' style colouring on the fish created using the 'Baby Wipe' technique.  This is really a custom ink pad created on a folded baby wipe using a few drops of your desired reinker colours. You will get the best effect from the colouring using stamps with a fairly solid pattern and you can stamp quite a few images from your temporary ink pad to get value out it. The fish were cut out and then matted on Basic Black for definition and then cut out again - a bit fiddly, but worth it I think. The seaweed has been white embossed and provides a great contrast to the blue background.  This is a bright fun card and would be great for a childs birthday. The details of the colours used are below.

Card Details
Stamps	Ocean Commotion, Family Phrases
Cardstock & Papers	Tangerine Tango, Glossy White, Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink	Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Tangerine Tango, Versamark
Accessories
Tools	Reinkers (Only Orange, Summer Sun, Ruby Red), Baby Wipe, Top Note Die, Big Shot, Word Window Punch, White Embossing Powder, Dimensionals, Wax Paper

The second card uses the same techniques and the colouring is much more my normal style. I love the green background under the butterflies using Certainly Celery and Always Artichoke with the Wax Paper Resist. The matting on the Curly Label Punch is created by turning the matting label sideways as it is rectangular rather than square - really simple, but effective. Thanks for that tip Claire!

 

Card Details
Stamps	Flight of the Butterfly, Heard from the Heart
Cardstock & Papers	Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, Glossy White
Ink	Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, Versamark, Stazon Black
Accessories	Pretty in Pink Taffeta ribbon
Tools	Reinkers (Rich Razzleberry, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink), Baby Wipe, Curly label Punch, Butterfly Punch, White Embossing Powder, Dimensionals, Wax Paper

I hope I've inspired you to give these techniques a go.

Getting Relaxed!

Hi Everyone

I hope your Christmas celebrations were everything you hoped for. Mine was relaxing and low key, no stress and no mountain of leftovers to consume, thankfully! I'm fortunate enough to be relaxing for a few days before another year commences.  I can't believe it is the start of a new decade already - life hurtles along with or without us, so taking some time to smell the roses is essential to recharge the batteries. I can't say I've accomplished very much apart from some gardening, reading 'The Lost Symbol' novel that my husband got for Christmas and tidying up my craft room.

We went into the post Christmas sale melee to purchase my combined birthday/Christmas present - an air conditioner for my craft room.  I could do with it right now, as it is 37C in Melbourne at the moment and I've had to retreat to the bedroom to keep cool.  I need to organise the installation, but that will probably take a few weeks with so many people away on holiday.

Anyway, today I decided to try a technique that I read about recently in the Australian Cardmaking Stamping & Papercraft magazine. It involves bleaching coloured cardstock that has been stamped and then colouring it again with watercolour pencils or crayons. I experimented with Stampin' Up! cardstock and it is not suitable for this technique because the colour is solid all the way through. You will need to experiment with your supplies to find something suitable, but you only need to test a very small patch to know as it should remove the colour quite quickly.

I have used Stazon 'Timber Brown' on the Soft Summer stamp from the last Spring Mini and then clear embossed it on pink cardstock. I like this colour for outline images because it is softer than black.  I added a small amount of household bleach to my second Aqua painter and painted the image. The embossed edge helps, but you need to apply it carefully and not too close to the edges as it does spread. Make sure it is completely dry before attempting to re-colour the image. I used my Watercolour Wonder Crayons for this.  

The rest of the card is pretty simple, but I have used one of the new Sale-a-bration stamp sets called Vintage Labels for the sentiment. This is one of 4 great stamp sets that you can choose for FREE from 25 January 2010 when you make a purchase of Stampin' Up! products over $100 (excl. postage). Each of the label stamps in the Vintage Labels set matches existing Stampin' Up! punches and also includes 3 versatile sentiments. I have stamped the sentiment and then punched it out with a 7/8" circle punch (not SU), sponged the edge and popped it up on a dimensional in the centre of the label, which matches the scallop circle punch. The full detail of products used is at the bottom.

 

Card Details
Stamps	Soft Summer (retired), Vintage Labels
Cardstock & Papers	Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Regal Rose, Pink Linen (not SU)
Ink	Stazon Timber Brown, Close to Cocoa, Regal Rose, Versamark
Accessories	Mellow Moss taffeta ribbon, Chocolate adhesive flat back pearls
Tools	‘Victoria’ embossing folder, Cuttlebug, 7/8”  Circle punch (not SU), Scallop circle punch, Scallop edge punch, Watercolour Crayons, Dimensionals, Aqua painter, Bleach, Clear embossing powder.

I'll be back in the New Year, stay safe and enjoy.

Judy.

Faux Silk & Soft Summer

Hello

It has been a busy time with a quick trip to Perth last week to visit my Mum who is in hospital for 6 weeks. It was a nice surprise for her and I also able to catch up with some dear friends who had me to stay at short notice (waving to Karen, Glenn, Ryan, Kate & Grace).

The card I have for you today is for my Mum and uses the Soft Summer stamp set from the Spring Mini Catalogue. I decided to give the Faux Silk technique a try after seeing Sue Madex demonstrate it at the Stampin' Up! Regional training day.  It is really easy and gives a unique finish to the centre panel. Here is a link to a tutorial on SplitCoast if you want to give it a go. Interestingly I only had a newsagency type glue stick available to stick the tissue paper to the cardstock and I've noticed that the colours have changed on the image in the last couple of days. I'll be purchasing a Stampin' Up! acid-free Anywhere Glue Stick for my next try at this technique.  Not having a suitable sentiment to fit the circle, I used my computer to create one and punched it out. Here it is and the details are below.

 

Card Details
Stamps	Soft Summer
Cardstock & Papers	Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla, Candy Lane DSP, Tissue Paper
Ink	Stazon Timber Brown, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Close to Cocoa, Mellow Moss, More Mustard Stampin’ Write Marker
Accessories	Regal Rose grosgrain ribbon, Chocolate brads (not SU)
Tools	Circle punches, Scallop circle punch, Dimensionals, Paper piercer & Mat Pack, Victoria Embossing folder and Cuttlebug

 

I would also like to show you the gorgeous cards my stamping buddies Claire, Christine  and Leanne gave me for my birthday. It is such a joy to receive a handmade card. I think it is a pleasure to make them and to give them to others but it is nice to be reminded how lovely it is to receive one as well. Thank you all!

I hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Judy.