Gorgeous Banner Blast - SUO Challenges #91

Banners have been becoming more and more fashionable over the last 12 months (or more!) and now you can use a punch to cut teeny, tiny banners. Of course there are also the NEW Framelit dies to cut six different sizes, and naturally, matching stamps to co-ordinate with all of them too.Perfect Pennants matches the Banner Framelits.
 I have a stamping class tomorrow night, and this is a card they may choose to make, using Gorgeous Grunge stamp set, Lovely Labels stamp set and the matching Artisan Label Punch. The banners were punched with the Banner Punch available during SALE-A-BRATION. It goes with Banner Blast stamp set, another SALE-A-BRATION freebie.


 SUO Challenges was my inspiration point, there will be plenty to inspire you too!Colours used here are Bermuda Bay, Pool Party, Real Red, Summer Starfruit and Tangerine Tango.

Happy stamping
Rachel

Lacy and Lovely FMS #124

I'm in the middle of one of my busiest family times at the moment - I have 4 family birthdays over the four weekends. Three are grandchildren, one is my eldest son and three of those birthdays also involve driving out of town for an hour and three-quarters. All very tricky, fitting in the shopping for presents, card making etc. has meant I've been MIA from my blog for more than a week.
I'm about to remedy that with a card for Freshly Made Sketches challenge. It's Karren's first sketch and its a beauty - I know there'll be a lot of entries!

Because I'm supposed to be getting ready for one of those trips out of town this morning, I haven't set up my light box for the photo, so I do hope this isn't too dark. I stamped a panel with Lacy and Lovely stamp set, which I don't actually own (but my lovely upline, Sue Madex does) and she recently held a little gathering for her team where we played with her stamps. I hadn't made anything with this, and I saw Karren's sketch and knew it would be a good fit.

I also used the Decorative Dots Embossing folder from SALE-A-BRATION, and some of the thick coloured twine which is another SALE-A-BRATION freebie. I used the Colour Coach to select this combination of Smokey Slate, Elegant Eggplant and Summer Starfruit. I didn't stamp any of the three lovely greeting stamps that come with Lacy and Lovely, so I pulled out the tried and true Itty Bitty Banners and used the matching dies to quickly cut the banner.

Lacy & Lovely Stamp Set page 117

I'm getting a hurry along, must fly

Rachel

So Grateful

Such a hot weekend, I've spent all my days indoors tidying and crafting. I must get my craft room tidied up because I have a class at the end of the month, and the ladies will need room to get crafty too.

I wonder if it's stretching it to say that Raspberry Ripple is a shade of pink? Possibly, but the rest of the card is definitely pink - Strawberry Slush. The challenge at The Card Concept is 'Monochromatic Pink' and I think this card fits the Clean and Layered category. The label is from the Chalk Talk stamp set, the flowers are the lovely poppies from Simply Sketched, a Hostess stamp set. Don't the dahlia (button) embellishments look bright in the photo?

You probably can't see that I stamped the poppy image two extra times and cut portions of the flower to layer. I can see this as a Mother's Day card, so long as Mum loves pink!

Back to work at my regular job tomorrow! At least it has cooled down slightly.
Thanks for visiting my blog

Rachel

Pink, Red & White Birthday Wish

Another very sweet sketch by Sara at Try Stamping On Tuesday and I found that my card came together very easily.   I had been stamping with Make a Wish from the Perfect Pennants stamp set and there were some images left over, which I was incorporating onto die cut Chalk Talk Framelit pieces as samples for a class.

Raspberry Ripple (red) makes the banner background with a slightly smaller More Amore DSP banner and a sprinkling of rhinestones and silver Glimmer Paper stars. The Circle Thinlet Die Flip Card has this small star amongst the assortment of dies included with the card. I rather like the bold colour scheme, it makes a statement.

I'm a fishing widow this weekend. so I'm looking forward to some crafting time. We are in for more scorching days, so I won't be out and about too much.
Hope you get time to stamp this weekend too!
Rachel

Birthday Sketch RS#100

Happy 100th sketch Retrosketches!

That's an awful lot of inspiration, and week after week I visit their blog to get some for me. Anyone can take part, why don't you challenge yourself too?

I love DSP and always buy it, and then I have trouble cutting it. I've had even more trouble with Quatrefancy DSP, which matches the Mosaic Madness stamp set, because it has 2 sheets of acetate window sheets in it. I love it but find it hard to use. I decided to take the plunge and cut into it for this lovely sketch, and overnight all sorts of other inspiration has popped into my head!

The pretty paper is also from the Quatrefancy pack, in my favourite colour too - Pool Party. Teamed with Island Indigo, such a cool combination. The two pieces of the flower were left over from another project, and using them made sense. I smudged the petal edges using a sponge dauber with Island Indigo ink, and popped a button in the centre. The three Pool Party buttons on the left were in last year's SALE-A-BRATION, its on again now too.

I haven't decided the occasion this card is destined for, so I've left the greeting off at this stage. It could even be placed on the bottom strip of Island Indigo, using white embossing powder.

Thank you for visiting my blog, I'd love you to leave a comment.

Happy crafting!

Rachel

Old Cats for Friday Mashup #145

Isn't this sketch just so good? Sara at The Friday Mashup provided the sketch and an extra challenge if you choose to use it, sponging. I love sponging, and used to ALWAYS sponge edges of punched pieces, etc etc.

If it had an edge, it was sponged. Then I began my CAS (clean and simple) phase and I stopped using my sponge daubers.

I've had an idea for using the different cats that Stampin' Up! has on stamps at the moment - Cool Kid, new in the Occasions Catalogue and Giggle Greetings, in the Annual Idea Book and Catalogue. Toss in a couple of balloons from Sketched Birthday, and the Happy Birthday greeting on the inside, as well as another cat from Giggle Greetings. I sponged with sky blue and  a scallop punch-out to get the clouds.
I've then waited for my Big Brown Box (BBB) to arrive this morning with Just Sayin' stamp set and matching dies, to add a cute greeting in a speech bubble.

And just now in a big rush, with 30 minutes till the challenge closes, I've stamped the greeting, die cut, added to card, photographed, watermarked and then placed on my blog!!!! All before breakfast too!!!!


 Thanks Sara and Friday Mashup for an inspiring challenge
Rachel

Try Stamping On Tuesday

This is the first time I've come across Try Stamping on Tuesday, and then I lost it again, so now I've safely bookmarked it. I love this sketch and had another idea for it, which hasn't worked out unfortunately.
Never one to give up, I tried this idea.
It's another Quick and Easy card, with a bit extra - I'll explain.
Choose a favourite Design Series Paper, this one is from the NEW Occasions Catalogue - Watercolor Wonder. Tangerine Tango is listed as the co-ordinating color in the pack of DSP but with that lovely water-colored effect, all shades seem to match, so I selected Crisp Cantaloupe to cut strips just an eighth of an inch larger. I also grabbed the Envelope Punch Board with its built-in corner-rounder punch to round off just one corner of each rectangle. Once everything was adhered to the Smoky Slate card base, I stamped the scalloped round greeting from Sketched Birthday in Smoky Slate and punched. Next the inner section was inked with Stampin' Write Markers before stamping and punching out with a circle punch. Don't punches make life so easy? Dimensionals between layers raised this greeting up, and its all done!

One suggestion from the challenge was keep warm, and I think my colors are quite warm.














Of course everyone in the northern hemisphere is experiencing winter, whereas, in Australia, especially the southern states, we are onto our umpteenth week of  'above 30 degree' days, frequently above 40 degrees - like today!!!! For those of you still using Fahrenheit, as I remember it, 38°C is 100°F.

I had two of my grandsons spend the day here yesterday, with their parents and it was still okay to be in our little pool, but today you'd be fried alive outside I suspect, (great for stamping indoors) so no difficulty keeping warm here! It was a delightful day of relaxing, sharing the supervision of the boys so the adults could attend to the things that needed to be done. When they went home after dinner last night, they were truly tired, but so happy.

Life is good, I hope you have an opportunity to enjoy some good times too and thanks for reading my blog,
Rachel

Stepping Up with Petal Parade

As a Stampin' Up! demonstrator I have had the opportunity to 'earn' my           Sal-A-Bration freebies early, but they're available to EVERYONE now. You get one free Sale-A-Bration pick for every $90 order (before shipping), so for $180 of course, it's two freebies and so on.

This card has every stamp from the Petal Parade (133599) Sale-A-Bration stamp set, and some Crisp Cantaloupe extra-thick Bakers Twine which comes in a pack containing 3 rolls (the other colors are Pool Party & Summer Starfruit) PLUS some cute little cork flowers & embellishments(133522) which I didn't use this time.
I went to town on this card, stepping it up a notch or two from my last post. I used another of the greetings from Four You (130535), a great set which also has 'Birthday Wishes' and 'Thinking of You' all in lovely fonts. I had a strip of Pistachio Pudding card in my scraps, already textured with Fancy Fan Embossing Folder (127751), and some matching Ruffle Stretch Trim (130020) added another sweet touch.
The base is Sahara Sand, layered with Early Espresso card before the final stamped Whisper White piece was added. If you would like some help to Step-It-Up with your card creations, can I help you out? Check out my class schedule, held in the north of Melbourne VIC at South Morang.



Maybe you need copies of the Sale-A-Bration Brochure or the NEW Occasions Catalogue, both released on 28th January, and you live in Australia, I can post you a copy if you email me your name,and postal address, you can shop online with Stampin' Up! (and me) here.

Cheers
Rachel

No Layers Card SUO Challenge #89

I think I find these single layer cards the very hardest to make, but I have studied others fine results and decided I would give it a go. Well, the whole point of a challenge is to be challenged, isn't it? A 'No Layer Card' is the challenge at SUO Challenges this week for this Thank You card. I chose the color palette from the Sal-A-Bration Sweet Sorbet DSP and used every single stamp from the Petal Parade stamp set, adding a greeting from Four You. Felt quite pleased with the result, sometimes quick and easy is just what is needed!

However I couldn't resist "Stepping It Up" as well, so if you are curious, be sure to check out my next post.
Thanks for dropping by
Rachel