Holidays and Birthdays.CTC#138

Welcome back to another blog hop with the crew from CASE-ing The Catty. Do keep on hopping along, to see what else the crew are sharing. Our challenge this week is to CASE from the NEW Annual Stampin' Up!® catalogue, Holiday section, from page 112-125.

Although I'm holding Christmas classes in July, I haven't really got into the mood for Christmas cards as such yet. I had no difficulty CASEing page 118 of the catalogue for another birthday card. You've Got Style recently arrived in my studio, and the first stamp I used was the sentiment on this card. Love it! "Hope your birthday is as bubbly as you are! Happy Birthday!"

Bubbles from Playful Backgrounds decorate the art piece, with a section left clear for the flute glasses, which are from a retired stamp set, Making Spirits Bright. If you're after something current, Mixed Drinks (page 60) has a single flute, a wine glass, beer mug and one of those jars you put a straw into. Just a whisper too, the new Holiday Catalogue has another stamp set which includes different types of wine glasses, flutes etc. Let me know if you'd like a Holiday catalogue when I get my hands on them. They go 'live' on September 1st.

Petal Garden Designer Series Paper Stack (that means there are 48 6 inch square sheets of pattern paper) has some really unusual colour combinations. Rich Razzleberry with Pool Party and Calypso Coral with Pool Party and Old Olive are a couple which I find really striking. I used a sheet as the background on my card, and then chose ribbon and card to tone.

These Glitter Enamel Dots are so pretty. You can almost catch the glimmer, but I had no luck picking up the Wink of Stella champagne!

The card I CASEd is the red & white stripe one. First I tried to put the banner across the middle of the art piece but it just didn't work. I did however CASE the ribbon behind, which I wouldn't normally do. I'm great at buying ribbons and all things pretty but a bit hopeless at using them.

Next stop along this blog hop is the very clever Fi Cobbin. She has CASEd the same card as I did, but put her own slant on it. Such a cute reindeer.

Birthday Memories Suite

I've been having a lot of fun playing with new products from the Annual Stampin' Up!® Catalogue. I'm so glad that Stampin' Up!® added embossing paste to the range, as I had been wanting to try it for ages and hadn't got around to it. Too busy designing other samples for blogs and classes!

I used our older masks for these two cards, because I forgot to order the new ones after remembering the paste and the cute little tools! New ones are in the house now, and I've continued experimenting this week. With the poodle card, I added some Sahara Sand reinker to the paste, and then thought it looked a bit bland. That was fixed by washing Melon Mambo ink over it. The poodle and little girl have been die cut from the designer series paper. Isn't that a great idea? You can use those printed images alongside the ones you stamp. On the DSP, the wee girl looks coyly toward you, and when you stamp her, she has her back to you and you can place a bunch of flowers in her hands, or a balloon.

This embossing paste was tinted with Melon Mambo reinker, and it sort of is an oopsie. However lets just imagine it is cupcake icing, that works for me...

The diecut lass has been adhered to a stitched shape oval, just like the poodle above. Then it is placed on top of the cup cake oval, she was cut from. The 'Happy Birthday' sentiment is a fancy one, it's a pretty useful one to have. This is Birthday Memories Suite, with Birthday Delivery photopolymer stamps (a big set of 23) and Birthday Friends Framelits Dies. The stamps and dies can be bundled for a 10% discount with its own special code. Then there is the Designer Series Paper, Birthday Memories DSP in bright colours and patterns. You can even buy paper honeycomb balloons and ribbon in colours to match. That's the real benefit of buying Stampin' Up!® products as they are all co-ordinated.

If you've been looking through your catalogue, and don't know where to start, because there is just so much you want, have you considered becoming a demonstrator. Now before you shout 'No way!", let me tell you that there is room for all types of demos in my team. You might be satisfied with being a hobby demonstrator getting 20% off your personal purchases, and maybe the occasional order for a friend or you might want to give this a red hot shot to see if you can create a business out of something you enjoy.

On Stage Training is in Melbourne on November 11th, 2017

This Demonstrator only event happens twice a year and is a huge highlight of being a Demonstrator. Registration opens August 15th and cost is $120 which includes lunch, make and takes using completely new product (usually 3), a full day of stamping presentations featuring new product, lots of displays to photograph, new Occasions Catalogue Launch (attendees get to order a selection on the day before other demonstrators, and well before customers), stamp set, bag, prizes and giveaways. We have stacks of team members (including me!) excited about attending this event, so if you are looking for an awesome day of Stampin’ Up! fun, you might be interested in joining today so you can come along. 

 There are 3 Great Benefits of Joining in July for just $169

1. You don’t have to reach any quarterly sales requirements until the end of January 2018 so you will be an active demonstrator for all of that time at least;
2. During those 6 months, 2 fabulous new catalogues will launch. The Holiday Catalogue (demonstrators can pre-order products from this catalogue from the 1st of August) and the 2018 Occasions Catalogue which will launch at the OnStage event in November (demonstrators will be able to pre-order from this catalogue either at the event if they attend, or from around December 1st).
3. You are eligible to attend OnStage on 11th November at the Margaret Court Tennis Centre and get to sit with the team and have a super fun day! We have team flying in from right around Australia to attend.

During July (so just a few more days), when you join for just $169, you get lots extra bringing the total value to over $356 and that doesn’t include the free box of catalogues and free kit postage which adds lots of extra value. For $169 you get:
• $235 of whatever you choose
• A new Holiday Catalogue stamp set called Carols of Christmas
• A pack of Grid Paper
• Paper Snips
• Bone Folder
• Snail Adhesive
• 2 x D acrylic blocks (so you can stamp with a friend!)

Do give this opportunity some thought. Stampin' Up! is a great company to work with and the other demonstrators are very inclusive, happy to share hints and ideas to make your crafting more fun.

Cheers, Rachel

Seventy Birthday Wishes CTC #137

Welcome back to another blog hop with the crew from CASE-ing The Catty. Do keep on hopping along, to see what else the crew are sharing. Our challenge this week is to CASE from the NEW Annual Stampin' Up!® catalogue, Artistic Expressions pages 132 - 181. I have a lot of stamps from this section, but so far not this one right at the start of the pages. You may have arrived here from Kelly Kent, do make sure you hop around to see what all the crew are sharing from the Stampin' Up!® Annual Catalogue.

I've CASEd the bottom left card, the one with the Stampin' Up! insignia partly covering it. I've taken artistic liscence with it, as we are inclined to do, but some basic design similarities are echoed. The new Ruffled 3D Dynamic TIEF was my choice for the back ground. The birthday sentiment, from Happiest Of Days was stamped toward the bottom of the white card, which was trimmed to size. I wanted maximum exposure of the gorgeous textured background. The sample also had a smaller panel to show off more background.

Since the sentiment says 'birthday wishes' I could see no reason not to simply place the copper foil '70' above it, and there you have '70 birthday wishes'. If you own a Big Shot, an essential purchase is the Large Number Framelits. The leafy swirl and small flower are all part of the sentiment, and I coloured them lightly with an aqua painter and some ink in the lid of my ink pads. The tiny leaves were coloured with a quick stroke of the Stampin' Writer - so easy! The larger flower stamp is a single stamp, which seemed to balance the composition. Instead of the folded ribbon behind the art piece, a copper foil piece from the Swirly Scribbles Thinlets was cut, again on the Big Shot.

Inside has been finished with a layer of Blackberry Bliss (retired) card, a layer .5cm smaller of Petal Garden DSPS, one of the packs with 48 6" X 6" squares of pattern paper. Then another smaller square of Whisper White with another sentiment from Happiest Of Days.

Another quick look at the inside to see how the Rich Razzleberry flowers tie in with the base of the card. I love the 'pop' of Pool Party, to give it a lift. This card will be needed next weekend, but I'm pretty certain that it is safe to share it here.

Now it's time to hop off to Megan Lenske

Happy crafting, Rachel

CASE-ing - What, How & Why

I applied to join CASE-ing The Catty when it first began about 3 years ago. I already was using the Stampin' Up!® catalogue for inspiration, so it felt quite natural to step up to the challenge. Sometimes when CASE-ing, especially from the catalogue, which is not called an inspiration book for nothing, I might make an almost-identical copy first. Then usually a spark of inspiration will happen, and I might end up with an original.

So, how do you CASE? Something appeals to your eye - it might be in the catalogue, on Pinterest, a magazine etc. It might be just the colours used. Perhaps it's the design sketch like I'm sharing today. No matter what, there are ways to use the inspiration and not just copy.

I would NOT usually blog about a card like this because it is too close to how the original inspiration looked. However, it is useful to explain the way CASE-ing can be helpful when you've run short of inspiration. This Father's Day card was totally CASE-d from Kris McIntosh at Stamping with Kris. She had used the shoes in circles down the left, designer series paper (different colour) at the bottom of the sketch, and a different sentiment. I was quite pleased with this card to add to my stash. Guy Greetings is a big favourite on my shelf, with some fun masculine images but even better sentiments, including some for relatives.

When I made the next card, I changed the orientation of the patterned paper to down the left side and laid circles on top with a flower cut with the Flourish Thinlets. Such a lovely set of dies, there would be all sorts of variations you could make, with leaves or another of the flowers. The Clear Faceted Gems had just arrived and I was keen to try them out, they do make a nice flower centre.

This CASE of my CASE has had the orientation of the whole card changed from portrait to landscape. The patterned paper is a lot wider, and the circles have been placed on squares, with the feature (stars and rooster) from Wood Words also raised.

It would be difficult to pick that my third card had been inspired by Kris McIntosh at all, and yet she was responsible for reminding me of some design principles. 

1. Use items in odd numbers such as three or five.

2. Use colour unevenly - Gallons, quarts and pints (measurements I understand because I am old enough to remember before Australia went metric). Doesn't seem to convert as well to litres and millilitres. Kris used a lot of white, a medium amount of Crushed Curry and a little Black. In my card above I have used a lot of Crumb Cake, a medium amount of red, and a little white.

In summary then...

WHAT is CASE-ing? To Copy And Selectively Edit is one explanation. Another is to Copy And Share Everything. There is nothing wrong with doing it in the crafting world, but people appreciate being given credit for it.

HOW is by looking for a sketch, picture colour scheme to inspire. The Stampin' Up!® catalogue samples are fair game as they have been produced to help sell the product and the artist has been paid for their work. It is good manners to acknowledge another source, perhaps even contact them. I am much happier if I've been mentioned as the source of inspiration, with a link back to the post on my blog. I have done the same here for Kris.

WHY is because you need to make something and you just can't think. Sometimes its for a sad occasion, or a momentous one, and maybe it's just because you'd feel happy if you made something pretty.

I hope this has been a helpful post, I'd love you to leave a comment with your thoughts on the topic.

Keep on crafting

Rachel

Lovely Inside CI#13

Colour INKspiration is a group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators from the South Pacific, all through Australia and New Zealand. We love to get together for these colour challenges, to inspire each other, and you, to create. We love it when you join in with our challenges to share your work and all you need is a Facebook presence. You can link in here on Facebook.

Our colours this week are Sweet Sugarplum, Wild Wasabi, Lemon Lime Twist and Fresh Fig. These seemed a tricky combination for me, so I made two cards, picked one of them and rustled up a matching gift bag with the Gift Bag Punch Board, I know you can buy these little gift bags for about $2 at the discount chains, but do they match with the card? You can even potentionally match the gift to the bag to the card, as my lovely crew mate Kelly Kent does so frequently.

You'll be pleased to know, these two projects are beginners level. Yes, truly they are. After you've followed the instructions printed on the Gift Bag Punch Board to make a couple of these bags, you'll be able to make them from memory. I used a piece of card 11 inches by 6 inches, and a sheet of card costs approximately 58 cents in Australia. Then you stamp and use a small amount of strong adhesive to finish it off. Why wouldn't you want to make your own? You can use pattern paper too, again to totally co-ordinate.

The key to a good-looking card or other paper-crafting project is pecise cutting. That means it needs to be straight. The measurements need to be accurate and you probably need guidelines on your cutting tool to make sure the corners are exactly 90°. A lot of this comes down to practise, but owning a great paper trimmer like this one by Stampin' Up!® will help considerably too. As well as a cutting blade, there is a scoring blade, and you can buy replacement blades and scorers through my online shop as well.

This is a slightly 'stepped-up ' version of the card. The background paper is actually DSP (designer series paper) called Color Theory. The flowers were stamped on thick whisper white card before cutting out, as were the leaves. There are a couple of strips of card. to 'ground' the work. I've used a big and bold srntiment this time, stamped in Wild Wasabi.
Three is a magic number in crafting, so there are three bursts of colour (flowers) and three splodges (leaves). There's a mix of the colours and Fresh Fig stamped twice, one full strength, one was second generation stamping.

I used a die from the Layering Circles Thinlets, so the edge wouldn't be straight, then snipped around with paper snips. I did have thoughts of adding buttons for flower centres, but wasn't keen on the way it looked, plus we don't have any current ones to suit.

Here are both cards and the small gift bag, all grouped together.
Next your visiting Bronwyn Eastley in Tasmania,

Happy crafting

Rachel

Thanks CTC#136

Welcome back to CASE-ing The Catty Blog Hop. This week we are featuring pages 126-131 of the Annual Catalogue. When you've lost your creative mojo, the catalogue is the place to turn. Experienced designers create beautiful designs to illustrate the catalogue, and it might be the layout of a card that catches your eye, or a colour combination. It doesn't matter what sparks your enthusiasm, CASE something inspired from this block of the Catty, share what inspired you and share it on Facebook.

My CASE for this week is pictured on page 126, right at the start of this section. It's the card on top of the crate made with strips of paper and possibly washi tape.

I cut strips from Whole Lot Of Lovely DSP, because I wanted to share this gorgeous range of new papers.Often you have strips left over when you cut card fronts.The ombre ribbon in Calypso Coral was the other new thing used on this card, imitating the ribbon tied around the catalogue sample..

Rummaging through my left overs box, I found the sentiment stamped on a stitched circle as well as a gold foil butterfly. I used a strip of tiny joined rhinestones which have retired from the Stampin' Up!® catalogue and have now been replaced with slightly different ones. I do love it when I can use up my left over bits, because I'm a real hoarder of all things colourful. Are you like me, or can you toss 'bits'?

I can hardly wait to see what the lovely Liz Gross has made. I bet she is like me and hoards her bits and pieces!

Keep On Crafting, Rachel

Birthday Delivery

So very cold here in Melbourne, a perfect excuse to sit in my studio and make cards. Birthday Delivery is a particularly interesting suite, because there are stamps, framelit dies and Designer Series Paper which co-ordinate so well, it almost hampers your imagination. Oh, NO!!!

I decided to see what I could do with Pool Party, this soft aqua-blue, which is one of my favourites. I've been enjoying colouring the chef and the cake in, and the little piece of retired ribbon finished with a flower from Jar Of Love seemed to tie in with the flowers on the cake.

For my next card, it's just a little bouquet of flowers which the wee girl could hold behind her back. There are a couple of squares cut with Stitched Shapes and the words are softly stamped in Basic Gray archival ink. It's a quick and easy card to put together, but rather sweet, don't you think?

I couldn't resist adding some of those new Glitter Enamel Dots, it's great the way the colours are variegated and these came from the softer end of the spectrum.

This is one of the other features of this suite. Some of the dies can cut both a stamped image and the designer series paper. Do you want to take a quick look in the shop? It's not a bad idea to purchase a bundle like this in July, because Stampin' Up!® will email you a code to use with your order in August which gives you a $9 voucher for every $90 purchased this month. That's a 10% discount!

Use this Host code ( MSV9HQST ) in my online shop, and you'll get a gift from me in the mail too.

Any questions, you can leave a comment and I'll do my best to help out.

Keep on crafting, 

Rachel