It's All About You! FMS 96 CTD252

The picture that Color Throwdown produced for this week's challenge really appeals to me, but I found it difficult to place all these colours together.
Freshly Made Sketches and a sketch by Amy kicked off my inspiration, so using Coastal Cabana as the base, I added a strip of Venetian Romance DSP in Crisp Cantaloupe. After stamping some balloons in Versamark onto the background, I stamped two images in Basic Black of 'Happy Birthday Cupcake'. One was punched with the 1 3/4 inch scalloped circle, the other with a 1 1/4 inch circle punch and when it had dried, I watercoloured lightly with Strawberry Slush and Crisp Cantaloupe.The balloons and cupcake are from the Sketched Birthday stamp set.

The tags are cut using two different tags from the Chalk Talk Framelits, the large white tag that reminds me of an over-sized food tag, and another smaller curved one in Rich Razzleberry.

The greeting stamp from Really Good Greetings is fun to ink up with Stampin' Write Markers and doesn't it look good with all those luscious shades and fancy fonts?

A scattering of Basic Jewel rhinestones is the finishing touch.


Hope you're enjoying your weekend, as much as I am. All my children and their families are about to arrive for Sunday lunch, to farewell us as we leave on a big overseas holiday very soon.
Cheers
Rachel

Congratulations Medallion PP155 & DD62

Its been a busy day for me, but I had the pieces of this card stamped and cut this morning before I left, and I've assembled it and photographed since I've been home this afternoon. At least I'm not cooking dinner tonight, one of our boys has had a birthday and we are eating out tonight with his wife and him, plus her family and some other friends. Just a casual dinner, so it will be lovely.

I love this large stamp set  Daydream Medallion. It was a gift to attendees at the 2012 Convention, and I have used it a few times, but not as often as I'd like. It's stamped in Calypso Coral onto Whisper White and is so easily cut out with the Floral Frames Collection Framelits.
The base is Calypso Coral card, then Basic Black topped with a piece of DSP from the This and That Epic Day DSP- its very fiery.

I received an order from Stampin' Up! yesterday too, with my Sassy Salutations stamp set. I'd been wanting it for a long time, it has such a gorgeous, flamboyant font, but I put it off because I really do have so many Greeting stamps sets. My resolve melted when Stampin' Up! offered an extra 25% off, but only till July 31st - and that's next Wednesday! I didn't wait long to ink up the 'Congratulations' to add to this card.

You might be wondering what it is in the flower centre. Well, I coloured some large Basic pearls with my black permanent marker. I love the way they still have that pearly sheen. I'm not quite sure if I have the right number though- do I need more, or less?
I'm  glad to have this sketch from the Paper Players for inspiration  and the colour challenge at Dynamic Duos for guidance too. Why don't you click on the links to see some other great cards?

Cheers,
Rachel

A Slice of (Sketched Birthday) Cake

Sketched Birthday (page 13) is a set of eight stamps which can be used as plain black and white images, they can be coloured, or they can be stamped with white ink onto black card for the Chalkboard Technique.
Coastal Cabana is a NEW In-color which looks great teamed with Bermuda Bay. The DSP is from the In-color DSP Stack, this pattern has polka dots on the other side. Strawberry Slush seemed a perfect colour for the icing on the cake with a Crushed Curry candle flame. The greeting is also part of Sketched Birthday and the Ink to Rubber Technique allows you to use multiple colours.

The inside has more of the In-color DSP Stack, balloons from Sketched Birthday and two greetings from Remembering your Birthday. That is another NEW stamp set with eight paired stamps. In many cases you would be able to place one on the front of the card and the other inside,  or the way I have with both on the inside.

This was another of the cards available at my Pick and Mix class last Friday. Remember you can shop anytime in my online store for any Stampin' Up! products, including these stamp sets, delivery must be to an Australian address though.

Remembering Your Birthday $33.95 (Clear)

Sketched Birthday  $33.95 (clear)

Cheers, hope your week is going well

Rachel

Simply Sketched Thank You - Cas on Sunday

I needed some simple little Thank You notes, and the NEW hostess stamp set Simply Sketched seemed perfect, along with the challenge at CAS on Sunday. The challenge is "Kraft and Twine". Crumb Cake is the  Stampin' Up! kraft colour, and they have many shades of Baker's Twine.

I've stamped two of the leafy image and one of the poppy from Simply Sketched with Early Espresso, before taking my trusty Aqua Painter and adding Strawberry Slush to the flower, Rich Razzleberry to the berries and Old Olive to the leaves.

It was quite easy with the Cropodile to punch a pair of holes to thread the Cherry Cobbler Bakers Twine through and tie a simple bow. There are three greetings included in this Hostess stamp set, Thanks so much is just one of them. So there it is, all completed, with plenty of space inside for a thank you note!

You don't actually need to hostess a party to earn this stamp set but you still need to spend $300 to earn $50 hostess dollars, to be spent on either exclusive Hostess items or other catalogue products. This also applies to sales through my online store.

Cheers,
Rachel

Pick and Mix a Six-Sided Sampler

Another card from my "Pick and Mix" class on Friday night was this Six-Sided Sampler stamped using the Stamp-a-ma-jig. With the huge range of ink colours, plus the lovely patterns on these hexagons, it gave the ladies such a choice in ways to make their own cards individual.
One card was made totally using Real Red and the gingham hexagon and it looked fabulous. Another card maker incorporated a strip of card, paper pierced and hand stitched, because it will be a birthday card for a patchworker. What a perfect idea!
My sample was purposely kept to one layer with just one shape raised on Dimensionals. I used Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding, Coastal Cabana and Crushed Curry.Of course, with the Hexagon Punch to punch those shapes, this was a quick and easy card.

In October, I will be offering Quick and Easy stamping classes, so if you haven't had much experience with stamping, or you tried it, but didn't enjoy it, perhaps a Quick and Easy class in October will be the answer to discovering your creativity too.

Happy stamping
Rachel

Woo Hoo! Cake FM119

What a great challenge from Heidi at Friday Mash-up! A lovely sketch and "use your favourite NEW stamp set" - too easy! Well, that's not to say I'll be one of the picks, but I had a lovely relaxing time putting together two favourites. I have also entered the Seize the Birthday Anything Goes challenge which runs for a WHOLE MONTH and Sunny Challenges & Creations, which also runs for a while.

I discovered the other day how nicely Rich Razzleberry and Island Indigo go together, and when I saw the strip across the bottom, I wanted to use one of the stamps from Six-sided Sampler with my Stamp-a-ma-jig. I made up the templates before my class last Friday night, and the ladies had a lot of success, despite one of them never having used the Stamp-a-ma-jig before. I decided to stick to one stamp only, and thought the diagonal stripe could be very effective. What do you think?

Another favourite that I seem to be using such a lot at the moment is the single stamp Woo Hoo! I love scribbling a little of the Stampin' Write Marker onto a plastic lid and then choosing what I'll colour - a little or a lot? The Aqua Painter makes this fun and so easy, I don't even use Stazon, just the regular black stamp pad.

I used the two colours to mount the Woo Hoo! stamp and just the Rich Razzleberry for the main panel because it was going to be on an Island Indigo base. I think it has turned out to be quite masculine.
Don't forget that the Six-sided Sampler comes with a matching punch, making crafting with it even better.

Back to work tomorrow but I still have a few more cards ready to share so look out for more posts....

Rachel

Pick and Mix Class

Last night I had a Pick and Mix Class at my home. Such a cold, wet wintery night, so I was very glad that the ladies made the effort to brave the weather to join me. I decided to showcase three different stamps available now, to show the different ways they can be used.
This post I will mainly share one of the single stamps that is available only till August 31st, Woo Hoo!
I ordered this stamp as soon as it became available, because I could see it was a fun, easy to use stamp. And it only costs $11.95! Because of the style of the image, it lends itself beautifully to the Chalkboard Technique which is so popular currently. It also makes for a superbly simple water-colour image, as it isn't necessary to colour EVERY bit.

I had the card completed, apart from it having the plain black-and-white image, and demonstrated some easy water-colouring using the Aqua Painter (page 164) with a little ink from some Stampin' Write Markers scribbled onto a plastic lid.
The colour is Crisp Cantaloupe, an In-color for this year, and I used a spotted paper from the In-color DSP Paper Stack (page 152- $37.95). A Tangerine Tango layer of card and a button from Sale-a-bration threaded on to some Calypso Coral Bakers Twine finished the card off.

The Chalkboard Technique is super-easy too. You need Stampin' Up! Craft Whisper White Ink (page 145) and a piece of black card.It's just a matter of stamping the image, smears and smudges are okay too, it just adds to the chalky effect.
The image is hand cut (easy-peasy) and mounted onto colored card, in this case Rich Razzleberry, but it looks good on any colour. This Modern Medley DSP is a pack of interesting black and white prints: Newsprint if you're missing First Editions DSP, and musical notes, bold hounstooth and more.(page 154)
This was the popular choice for my class and they chose their own colour combinations.

You can order from me if the items are shipping to an Australian address. Either email me or phone 0417500681 with credit card details, or order 24/7 from my secure online store.


We finished up rather late, but it is another wet, cold day, so I shall probably stay home quite happily all day.

Cheers
Rachel 

  

Sweet Talkin' Bird DD#61 CTS#36

During the week I tried to make a card for two challenges:-
Dynamic Duos which is always a colour challenge, and CAS(E) this Sketch.

The colours for the DD challenge were Pink Pirouette and Sahara Sand, though I've used a little Early Espresso too.
The label stamped is from a gorgeous new stamp set, Chalk Talk and the main image is Animal Talk, so its all about talking, quite obviously!!! I really didn't do that intentionally, didn't even notice till I typed the names in. I used the Woodgrain embossing Folder to dry emboss a little strip of Sahara sand and stamped the inside with the matching greeting from Animal Talk and a birdcage from Aviary (retired).

Animal Talk $37.95 (clear)

Chalk Talk $35.95 (clear)

Happy Stamping

Rachel

Pink and Pretty DD#61

 It's surprising how difficult I found this challenge to use Pink Pirouette and Sahara Sand, do you ever find that?
I've had a couple of attempts to make something through the week, but it was only last night when I couldn't sleep, that this idea came to me. Hasn't it turned out so soft and subtle? Almost suitable for a sweet baby girl, but I went with birthday, 'cos you can never have too many birthday cards.

I went all-out for Mosaic Madness: stamps, embossing folder and punch. Add Label Love and the matching Artisan Label punch. You have to love stamp sets with matching punches, it just makes the job of creating so..o..o..o... easy.


The label was inked with Stampin' Write markers in Sahara Sand and Pink Pirouette. I'm getting lots of use from this stamp.A Bitty Butterfly added the finishing touch to the label along with flowers punched with one of the Itty Bitty Shapes punches with lots of pearls to finish everything off nicely. I'm quite happy with how this pretty card ended up. The colour inspiration was courtesy of Dynamic Duos challenge.

I'm looking forward to my Pick and Mix Class at home here tomorrow night, still places available at the table and a chance to try some new stamp sets, punches and the Big Shot Magnetic Platform if you like. Give me a call 0417 500 681 if you'd like to join me at 7pm Friday night in South Morang (north of Melbourne).
Enjoy your weekend
Rachel

You Made My Day

I'm having such a lot of fun with the new catalogue goodies, but my most favourite item has to be the new Big Shot Magnetic Platform. In the past, I was a little bit reluctant to use the Adorning Accents Edgelits because they always ended up crooked and it took so many pieces of card to get the result I was after. There are magnets inside the platform to hold your edgelits and framelits in place and it REALLY works!
I've been making good use of it this weekend, you'll see I used it twice to cut the Crumb Cake and Bermuda Bay card with the Adorning Accents Edgelit and I also used it to cut the Apothecary Accent Label.
The stamp set is an older one, still current though and a VERY useful one, for the tree image and this graceful floral bough. Its called Thoughts and Prayers, so it also includes some lovely greetings for bereavement and ill health. I've punched the flower pot using the Cupcake Builder Punch out of Venetian Romance DSP (so is the label at the top of the card). The colours in these papers are Crisp Canteloupe, Island Indigo, Pistachio Pudding, Soft Suede, Tangerine Tango and Very Vanilla.
I added some Itty Bitty flowers in Strawberry Slush and Crisp Canteloupe punched with one of the Itty Bitty Shapes Punches with pearl centres. There is a piece of the Bermuda Bay 1/8" taffeta Ribbon and a small button from the new Brights Button range, with a pearl on top too.

The sweet greeting is from a fantastic Hostess set Express Yourself. It contains 12 greetings in this script and you can earn this and other benefits if you hold a party in your home with sales over $300. Or you can party on your own and by submit an online order totalling $300, before shipping costs are added and you will receive an additional $50 worth of products of your choice, which might include Express Yourself.

Last Sunday I had some much appreciated help from my friend, Alison Douglas, (check out Alisons blog here) to learn a bit more about the Stampin' Up! MDS (My Digital Studio) and I thought I'd send here a card to say thanks. Inside I've used the greeting, you made my day, which comes from a new stamp set A Dozen Thoughts.

Catch you soon
Rachel

Thoughts and Prayers- $35.95(clear)

Express Yourself - Hostess

Page 184 $69.95 (Australia)

Cupcake birthday CTS#36

My inspiration today was CAS(E) this sketch challenge 36, a much 'cleaner' look than is usual for me, but change is good, or so I'm told!!!!
It may look very plain, but I really went to town with my lovely new Stampin' Up! purchases beginning with a very sweet label stamp from Hostess stamp set Morning Meadow,  stamped in Smoky Slate. There are six super sweet stamps in that set, and I just had to have it after I saw some cards made by others.
Next I used the Happy Birthday from Sketched Birthday, stamped in Melon Mambo and cut with the Bitty Banners Framelits, because it fits so perfectly. Create a Cupcake is the next stamp set, it isn't new but its pretty cute with its matching punch and all the different patty tin cases you can put your cupcake into. I stamped the cupcake case next, again with Melon Mambo and punched it out with the Cupcake Builder Punch before stamping the icing in Pink Pirouette, and punching out. Those pieces were mounted onto a tag cut on the Big Shot using the Chalk Talk Framelits, so easy to use multiple pieces with the NEW Big Shot Magnetic Platform holding the framelits in place so beautifully. Lastly I added lots of tiny pearl sprinkles to the icing, and mounted natural card onto Melon Mambo, and that onto Smoky Slate.

Inside the greeting comes from Remembering Your Birthday, I'm not sure if you can read it but it says Today calls for something pink with sprinkles on top! Isn't that cute? Another patty tin case stamped directly on the card but the icing is a spare punched one decorated with multi-coloured sprinkles (Stampin' Write Markers).
I've had a fun day today with a friend over this morning so I made scones with jam and cream for morning tea, yum!
Hope your weekend was pleasant too....
Rachel

Best of Butterflies

Just a quick message to let you know the next "Best of..." stamp set has been released and it is ...... Butterflies.


Here are the details about this Monthly Promotion:

• All Best of stamp sets will include 3-5 images, including a never-before seen image, and will be priced at $25.95.
• While we are releasing just one Best of stamp set per month (with a new theme each month), all of the Best of sets will be available until April 2014, while stocks last
• All Best of stamp sets are available in Clear-Mount only.
• The stamp images may be sized differently from the original stamp sets.

Sale: 25% off three of our greeting sets! 

Don't put off ordering if you are needing greeting stamps, use my online store here, or email/phone me. (0417500681)

Dates: 2-31 July, 2013

Sale Price	Retail Price	Description	Item
$31.46	$41.95	Sassy Salutations Wood-Mount Stamp Set	132070
$25.46	$33.95	Sassy Salutations Clear-Mount Stamp Set	126707
$26.21	$34.95	Sweet Essentials Wood-Mount Stamp Set	132085
$20.96	$27.95	Sweet Essentials Clear-Mount Stamp Set	126457
$37.46	$49.95	Petite Pairs Wood-Mount Stamp Set	128706
$29.96	$39.95	Petite Pairs Clear-Mount Stamp Set	122497

Sweet Essentials

Sassy Salutations

Petite Pairs

Thumping Again with Betsy's Blossoms

I wasn't very satisfied with my last card. That sometimes happens when you create in the middle of the night when you really should be sleeping!!

It was nice enough, but the "Thumping" was a bit faint, so after a stimulating afternoon outdoors tending to my garden, I had another go at Betsy's Blossoms. This time you can definitely see the colours, can't you?
I've used exactly the same colours, Crushed Curry is the main colour again, but this time I stamped off once onto scrap paper before thumping with Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral and Tangerine Tango. Popped a couple of leaves from the stamp set this time too, and used the Lucky Limeade as the card base. I textured a strip of Crumb Cake by embossing with the Woodgrain Embossing Folder and used some Daffodil Delight stitched grosgrain ribbon across as well before placing the Stamped Square over.

I have to show you the inside of this card though. I modified the Thumping Technique for these tiny blossoms. I stamped into Crushed Curry, stamped off once, and then rather more methodically stroked the Lucky Limeade into the centres and Calypso Coral and Tangerine Tango around the edges of the petals. I really like this effect and think I will try that again with different flowers and colours.

I will link into Freshly Made Sketches challenge again, I don't know how to remove the one already there, but they don't limit the entries, so here goes....
Rachel
By the way, here is my first card, with much less distinct colours.

Betsy's Birthday Blossom FMS93

I have been wanting to use the Thumping Technique again, ever since I had such fun back in May with this creation, even though I was calling it bouncing back then! Bouncing sounds so much friendlier!

This time I've used the large bloom from Betsy's Blossoms and inked it up with Crushed Curry. What a hot shade of yellow this is! Teamed with Crumb Cake, the Crushed Curry really does take centre stage.


After the main image is inked up, you pick up some Stampin' Markers (Calypso Coral, Tangerine Tango and Lucky Limeade were my choices) and you thump them over the surface of the stamp.  I see that I appear to have been a bit light-handed with mine, maybe its because I'm bouncing not thumping - Oh dear!
I did some background stamping with some little leaves from a Sale-a-bration set (retired) and all of a sudden this card speaks to me of Autumn. Well, we are experiencing some very windy Winter days in Melbourne, so that might have been the inspiration!

The SU linen thread adds a nice 'earthy' touch to the card, as does the Naturals button.
Happy Birthday is from Sketched Birthday, a new set I received free at Stampin' Up! South Pacific Convention last May, but only mounted and inked up yesterday. I love the border surrounding the greeting, and of course, this is another stamp that can be cut with the Bitty Banners Framelits.
 The sketch by Allisa at Freshly Made Sketches is a great one for showcasing any image or technique, there's still time for you to have a go.

I stayed bunkered down yesterday, but I'll have to venture out today for a few supplies, so best I get on with that now.
Have a great weekend,
Rachel
Postscript: I made another card a few days after with more definite thumping! Which do you prefer?

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