Pretty Pink Birthday Wishes FMS192 & PP202

I wasn't planning to make a card today. I had this sketch at Freshly Made Sketches pinned to my blog for a number of days, but wasn't sure what I wanted to make. Then last night I noticed Sandy's Tic Tac Toe Challenge at the Paper Players, and I quickly decided the bottom row was exactly what I wanted.
So there are a couple of shades of pink:- Strawberry Slush and Blushing Bride.
There are pearls, because pearls are so refined and elegant!
And there is embossing: Modern Mosaic Embossing Folder.

That particular embossing folder gives great spots to pop a tiny flower, these are stamped before punching with the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack flower. The flower stamp (and a star and heart that also have punches) are all included in a super new stamp set, Something To Say. It was one of the first things I added to my pre-order nearly a month ago, and I've been making pretty things with them ever since my parcel arrived. You can order too, in less than 24 hours! The Happy Birthday greeting is from a stamp set I've had for ages now, its very well-used. Itty Bitty Banners comes with matching Framelits, so you get a very precise cut around the greeting.
I'm going to save this card for a work colleagues birthday in a month or so.

Have a great day!
Rachel

I enjoy playing with card, stamps, ink, ribbon and other embellishments that make it onto cards. I get a real kick out of creating a card. Often it is for a challenge, but in the back of my mind are also the other family & friend events that I will need a card for, and so that might set the theme too. I'd love to share the fun with you too. If you think its something you might enjoy too, ask me how you can get a 20% discount on all the goodies in the Stampin' Up! catalogue. As long as you live in Australia, you can join through me. There's a "Join my Team" tab to the right of my blog, or you can ring 0417500681 or email me. for more information.

Sweet Baby Girl CTD298 Card Concept13

I paused in my preparations for  my Catalogue Launch this coming Friday, to spend some time this morning
creating. Actually, it doesn't take a lot to distract me from cleaning and tidying!
Color Throwdown have presented the prettiest combination of colours, and I love the flowers in the picture too. I've included the crumb cake in the card base and the tiniest touch to bunny, applied with a blender pen. There is only a hint of Wisteria Wonder too, its mainly Blushing Bride which I used instead of Pink Pirouette.
The Card Concept have challenged us to create a baby-themed card - one of my favourite types of card at the moment.I'm pretty sure my style is clean and layered, click on the link and see what your style is.
A combination of stamp sets worked really well here too, Baby, We've Grown has provided all the stamped images, and Something for Baby is a stamp set with matching Framelit Dies. The onesie is cut from patterned paper.

In the NEW Stampin' Up! catalogue, which begins next Tuesday in Australia, you will find Something For Baby stamp set, Baby's Firsts Framelit Dies (you can bundle & Save 15% with those two) and a new paper piercing template - Eclectic, which has images for Kinda Eclectic, Angled and Scalloped Tag Toppers, Stars, Chalk Talk, Word Bubble Framelits, and all on three small sheets. Very Eclectic indeed!!!

Rachel

Australian readers - You can shop for supplies in my online shop, there's only today and Monday till the mini Occasions catalogue and main catalogue finish. Lots of retiring bargains and weekly specials too.
After July 1st you can order lots of fabulous new products!
Just a little hint, in this upcoming catalogue you will find the clear stamp sets and photopolymer stamp sets VERY affordable. My preference, wood mount, are still about the same price point as previous years.

Hostess code C2KVNKJJ until June 30th

Catalogue Launch: Friday 4th July 2pm - 8.30pm
If you'd like to come, ring 0417500681 for more details, or email me.

Classes for watercolouring available if you are near to South Morang (Melbourne) VIC

Thursday 17th July 7.00pm - 10.00pm

Friday 25th July 7.00pm - 10.00pm

Saturday 2nd August 2.00pm - 5.00pm (daytime)

Celebrate Your Birthday

I think this Just Add Ink challenge was designed especially for me so I can add the piece I had left over from the last time I entered into their challenge -LOL!!!!
It was a few weeks ago when they had a Nautical But Nice Challenge and I made this card. So if you check it out, you'll see I cut a piece off the side of my water-coloured panel, and there it was lying on my craft table.

Setting The Scene: I need to get tidied up here for my Catalogue Launch next Friday, but I am distracted by my computer. Next I spy some of the design team entries popping up on FB and click on over to JAI to view the sketch. WOW! that's perfect for my left-over scrap. So the tidying goes to the back-burner AGAIN, while I throw together this card.

Maybe I'm being a bit silly and light-headed because I have just begun two weeks of school holidays but... do you like this card?

I embosssed Strawberry Slush card with the Decorative Dots Embossing Folder from SALE-A-BRATION. What a surprise that something from SALE-A-BRATION has gone into our new catalogue, but I'm VERY happy about it. I think the dots from Happy Watercolor looks very similar, so I stamped then with the Gold Encore stamp pad. The young lady, champagne glass in hand, has been very roughly watercolored, using Stampin' Write Markers and an Aquapainter. There are three images in this stamp set, In This Together and you can purchase from July 1st. Amazing Birthday has the Happy, Happy Happy, Happy birthday to you, so I stamped in gold and then scattered a few rhinestones about, cos you can't have too much sparkle, can you?

It's so windy in Melbourne at the moment, quite worried that a big tree doesn't fall on the house...
enjoy your weekend
Rachel

NEW! -Amazing Birthday

NEW!- In This Together

Retiring June 30 - Happy Watercolor

Australian readers - You can shop for supplies in my online shop, there's only 2 days till the mini Occasions catalogue (time to order Happy Watercolor w 133188/c 133191) and main catalogue finish. Lots of retiring bargains and weekly specials too.
After July 1st you can order Amazing Birthday w134225/c134228 and In This Together w133866/c133869
Just a little hint, in this upcoming catalogue you will find the clear stamp sets and photopolymer stamp sets VERY affordable. My preference, wood mount, are still about the same price point as previous years.

Amazing Birthday Colour Me Playful PP201

I loved having some time to create this morning. I need to build my stash of masculine cards, with three sons celebrating birthdays between now and beginning of October. The colours at the challenge this week for colour me..! look to be perfectly playful for my card using Amazing Birthday stamp set. You'll find it in the new Stampin' Up Catalogue, and it was a Make & Take stamp set for us at Stampin' Up! South Pacific Convention.

The sketch at the Paper Players looks like you should use patterned paer for the centre strip and I bet it looks just great that way too, but I was sure this would also team beautifully with this pennant style greeting stamp. I could have used one of the circular greetings which come in Amazing Birthday, but decided on Love Ya from Just Sayin' . Maybe I will add Sam's name to this too. My pennants at the top are from Tape It, I used that stamp set for Aaron's card too. It's not a new set, but I'm seeing it with fresh eyes at the moment.

I've been hanging out for the end of the week (my working week anyway) because I am so exhausted from moving offices at work. We do begin our school holidays in Victoria this Friday too, but at some stage over the holidays, our team will need to go in to work to finish off - after the moving men have tackled the heavy cupboards and filing cabinets. Us 'girls' handled the moving of four desks on a trolley, assisted by my dear hubby.Plus there was a myriad of smaller items to lug across the whole school, so it was probably more exercise for me than I'm used to!!!

Thanks for visiting my blog, if I can help you in any way, you can leave a comment, or see some more details below...
Rachel




I'll be showing off the new stamp sets, In Colors, Blendabilities and Framelits at my Catalogue Launch on July 4th. You're most welcome to come if you are near to South Morang, Victoria (north of Melbourne). Its FREE! Email me or phone 0417 500 681 for details.

Australian readers - You can shop for supplies in my online shop, there's only 4 days till the mini Occasions catalogue and main catalogue finish. Lots of retiring bargains and weekly specials too.

Hostess code C2KVNKJJ

Classes for watercolouring available if you are near to South Morang (Melbourne) VIC

Thursday 17th July 7.00pm - 10.00pm

Friday 25th July 7.00pm - 10.00pm

Saturday 2nd August 2.00pm - 5.00pm (daytime)

Another Beautiful Blended Bloom

I've continued on with my Blended Blooms creations over the weekend and used this sketch from one of the half dozen on offer for the Paper Players 200th Challenge. I knew I was too late to link it in, (they've picked their winners before I've even posted) so if you've dropped in to read my blog, thank you so much for spending some time here with me.

Nance Leedy chose this sketch as her inspiration, the sketch, way back at Challenge 65, was originally by Anne Marie Hile. When I was making the previous card with the red bloom, I thought the reverse of that DSP from the Fresh Prints Paper Stack would be perfect with the Coastal Cabana range of three blues in Blendabilities. These shades of blue are among my top favourites, but they seem to be the most difficult to blend with these new alcohol-based markers.

I tried leaving the flower on a square of white, then a circle but it really covered up too much of the patterned paper, so in the end I cut the flower out by hand. The greeting is from Really Good Greetings, it comes up a treat when coloured with a couple of Stampin' Write Markers, and the dies from Chalk Talk provide a nice outline for this one.

The finishing touches are a scattering of sequins and a red Glimmer brad. The sequins have picked up some of the colours on the card, but I am looking forward to some coloured sequins coming in the NEW catalogue!!!

Hope your week is a happy one...
Rachel

Hip Hip Hooray, Its Your Special Day

 I know a friend of mine is celebrating a significant birthday soon, and I'm pretty sure it's this coming week. She's been a bit evasive about the details though, and "Facebook doesn't know." It seems to me she isn't feeling overjoyed about this milestone, so I won't reveal the number, or refer to it on her birthday card.

I  like the fancy, patterned Crumb Cake card, and its retiring in a few days. It looks particularly nice teamed up with gold embellishments, so the Fusion inspiration picture suited quite well.  Hip Hip Hooray comes from the Designer Card Kit of the same name and it fits beautifully on a banner. Celebrate is from Starburst Sayings, I've used it on a number of cards, love that it has a Framelit die to cut it.

The sketch is from CAS(E) this Sketch, its a keeper isn't it?
I wasn't planning to use a butterfly but in the end I wanted a tiny touch of Pistachio Pudding, so the little butterfly from Kinda Eclectic was added, along with a length of NEW Pistachio Pudding Bakers Twine.
I will pop this in the post tomorrow, hope it arrives on the right day!

Happy birthday, Judy!

Rachel

Beautiful Blended Bloom

Ever since I received my Stampin' Up! pre-order (for the new catalogue), I've had so.o.o.o.o much stuff to play with! I bought two colour packs of the new Blendabilities and we were given another pack in the coral tones, PLUS the Blended Bloom stamp at Convention.

They're all nice, but I'm particularly delighted with the Cherry Cobbler pack that I used on Blended Bloom. Since the yellows weren't on my initial order, I've used a sponge dauber to colour the flower centre Crushed Curry. I found the sketch at Seize the Sketch  perfect to show off this fabulous flower, and the design team at Sieze the Sketch have some lovely cards on show too.

Because I had no narrow red ribbon, I coloured a white piece using one of the red Blendabilities. It is an alcohol-based marker, so takes no time to dry. I love the way the colours just "POP" off the page, it's gorgeous isn't it? It was a great chance to use a piece of DSP from the Fresh Prints Stack. It retires at the end of this month but you can still pick it up in my online shop.

I'll be showing off the new stamp sets, In Colors, Blendabilities and Framelits at my Catalogue Launch on July 4th. You're most welcome to come if you are near to South Morang, Victoria (north of Melbourne). Its FREE! Email me or phone 0417 500 681 for details.

I hope you're inspired to try the Blendabilities when they're released onto the market.

Rachel

Something To Say CTD297

I couldn't resist making a second card with these colours! I told you in my last post that they are favourites of mine, didn't I? Trouble was, there were some pieces left over and I can't waste them can I?

Actually, this is one of the easiest cards I've made recently. Number one reason, I stamped with only one stamp set, the new Something To Say. You'll be able to get your hands on it from July 1st, or come to my afternoon Catalogue Launch on July 4th to play before you buy! There is a set of three small punches - a heart, a star and a small flower which match the stamps and make it so easy to put a card together. Its called Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack and I'm positive that these two items should be right at the very top of your Wish List.

Pop on over to Color Throwdown via the link and maybe you'll use these colours to make a card this weekend. Now... I really must get to the supermarket!!

Rachel

Australian readers - You can shop for supplies in my online shop, there's only 10 days till the mini Occasions catalogue and main catalogue finish. Lots of retiring bargains and weekly specials too.

On July 1st, the new catalogue goes live across Australia and if you buy Something To Say stamp set, page 104 of the NEW catalogue, wood 134177 $51.95 clear 134180 $37.95 and the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack 133787 $29.95, I will post you a pack with bits and pieces, including envelopes, to make 4 cards with your new purchases.

Flowers On The Fence RS#119 CTD#297

This old fence is just a touch wonky, and a little quaint with flowers rambling over.

I think this is one of my favourite colour combinations, mainly because I love Bermuda Bay and those other hues set it off so nicely. I 'built' my fence with Hardwood, stamped on Smokey Slate with Smokey Slate, and then sliced into 'planks' with some 'nails' here and there. I've seen someone else (maybe a demo friend?) use those same 'nails', which are actually tiny button-brads, Vintage Trinkets (118764) and on the retirement list.


I stamped with So Very Grateful, a stamp set we say goodbye to at the end of June also, and the 'Hello" is part of a stamp from Six-sided Sampler. The inspiration picture with its cascade of flowers helped in designing this card. There are flowers from Petite Petals (that set carries over into the new catalogue), the NEW (available 1st July) Something To Say flowers and both of those have matching punches, plus tiny Daffodil Delight flowers punched with the 4-petal punch from Itty Bitty Accents Punches, which is also retiring.
Many thanks to RetroSketches for another great sketch and Color Throwdown for a inspirational color palette.


The weekend looms......YAY!

Rachel


Australian readers - You can shop for supplies in my online shop, there's only 10 days till the mini Occasions catalogue and main catalogue finish. Lots of retiring bargains to be had and weekly specials too.

Hostess code C2KVNKJJ

Classes for watercolouring available if you are near to South Morang (Melbourne) VIC

Thursday 17th July 7.00pm - 10.00pm

Friday 25th July 7.00pm - 10.00pm

Saturday 2nd August 2.00pm - 5.00pm (daytime)

Sunshine and Happiness CTS#80

It's beginning to feel a bit more like winter here in Melbourne now. I don't like dull days and dreary rain too much.  To cheer myself up, I decided to work with bright shades of yellows, and that progressed to flowers and butterflies. It worked anyway!!

Thanks to Joni Andaya for the sketch on CAS(E) this Sketch, it was just what was needed to encourage me to break out some washi tape and my new stamp set, Kinda Eclectic plus an older set, Feel Goods.


To my way of thinking, this is perfect for a RAK card. That is:- Random Act Of Kindness, if you haven't come across it yet. I think it can be rather special to get unexpected "Happy Mail" and I'm sure I will think of someone to post this to. On a much larger scale, I recently saw a RAK clip on YouTube. Young people went around giving out back packs filled with gifts, to homeless people. It was very moving, these gentlemen were so thrilled by a gift of a backpack to keep their meagre possesions in, and you should have seen their faces light up when they discovered a new notebook, or a $10 voucher for Subway!
It's titled 'He Set Out to Make People Happy' and you might care to click the link and watch.

 Thanks for reading my blog, have a happy day,
Rachel


Australian readers - You can shop for supplies in my online shop, there's only 12 days till the mini Occasions catalogue and main catalogue finish. Lots of retiring bargains and weekly specials too.

Hostess code C2KVNKJJ

Classes for watercolouring available if you are near to South Morang (Melbourne) VIC

Thursday 17th July 7.00pm - 10.00pm

Friday 25th July 7.00pm - 10.00pm

Saturday 2nd August 2.00pm - 5.00pm (daytime)

Nautical but Nice

I have limited stamps for a nautical theme, but Stampin' Up! stamp set The Open Sea is in my stash. I think I will invest in the  new Traveler stamp set very soon too, I had intended to buy it on my pre-order, but somehow left it off!!! How could that happen?

Just Add Ink challenged us to use the retiring colours for one last time and I grabbed Midnight Muse, Summer Starfruit and Primrose Petals. Oh, you should have seen the mess I got myself into with that!!! I inked up a large acrylic stamp block by wiping the ink pads across the surface and then I soaked watercolour paper and sprayed the acrylic block too so the ink was running all about. I love the shades it makes when the colours run together. It makes such a glorious sunset background for the sailing boat and then I felt it needed to have 'Live the Life You've Imagined' from Really Good Greetings.

This would be a great Bon Voyage or retirement card, I think. I remember in 2011, my husband and I took our first overseas trip together, including a 10 day Mediterranean cruise. A highlight was visiting Santorini, a picturesque Greek island which involves being brought ashore by tender. When it was time to return to the ship, I was thrilled to bits to be among the group who were taken on a sailing boat (with engine!!!) which looked very much like this one, it was a magical moment.

This card also fits really well with The Card Concept challenge of a nautical theme.
I followed some online instructions for this sailor's knot which I tied using some of the Summer Starfruit Bakers Twine from SALE-A-BRATION, isn't it great? And I did remember to pre-order all the Project Life I was allowed and the greeting was cut with Project Life Cards and Labels Framelits, there are some handy shapes in that pack. The arrow shaped paper clip is from Hung Up Cute Clips and the Labels Collection Framelits cut out the shaped panel.

Happy stamping!
Rachel


Australian readers - You can shop for lots of supplies in my online shop, there's only 12 days till the mini Occasions catalogue and main catalogue finish. Plenty of retiring bargains and weekly specials too.

Hostess code C2KVNKJJ

Classes for watercolouring available if you are near to South Morang (Melbourne) VIC

Thursday 17th July 7.00pm - 10.00pm

Friday 25th July 7.00pm - 10.00pm

Saturday 2nd August 2.00pm - 5.00pm (daytime)

It's A Girl RS118

I have been having a bit of a craft room clean-up today, and in between, running out to the shopping centre to the bank, Medibank and all the places that aren't open outside office hours. I do get very easily distracted from the job at hand though, which is why the craft room is never totally organised or tidy!!!

I wanted a card for a baby girl, and decided this sketch at RetroSketches was just perfect. I have lots of little pieces of white card to stamp some little images, to cut one inch squares etc, so away I went. I've had to redo the pink duck this afternoon, as I wasn't a bit happy with the way the first one came out - all motley. The bootees side-by-side didn't fit into a one inch square, but leaving one stamped in the square and hand cutting the other to lay on top worked.
Today was the first time I'd used the banner framelit from the Label Card Framelit (133479) and I love it! It looks so much like a folded banner, but its just inking. Delicate Designs Embossing Folders (127023) added the touch of lace I was after, I'm so glad it made it into the new catalogue.

The new stamp set, Something For Baby, supplied the main images and the sweet saying comes from A Dozen Thoughts.

Something For Baby has framelits for most of its images, and I used a One Inch Square Punch and layered those white squares onto Blushing Bride squares punched with Postage Stamp Punch.

Now I'm looking forward to the weekend and an invasion tomorrow of children and grandchildren.... Hope yours is a happy one too!
Rachel

Hello There, Work of Art FMS140

I decided it was time to break open one of my new stamp sets and have a play tonight. Well, play is what I did, with only the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches as a guide, the five new In Colors from Stampin' Up! and Work Of Art stamp set, which seems to me (judging from Pinterest) to be a runaway success!!!! Oh, and I did add a few little flowers from the Something To Say stamp set which has a matching punch. There is a star and heart in the stamp set and the punches come in a set of the three images.

I know the demonstrators in the US have had their pre-order for a month more than us, and the catalogue has already gone 'live' over there, but a lot of the Aussie demos are still waiting on our postal service to get the boxes to them. As usual, the staff packing the orders for Stampin' Up! did a stellar job, but Australia Post sometimes fails to deliver.

I played with colours and patterns, and I like some better than others, but I won't let on which are favourites. These will be on display on the inspiration board at my Catalogue Launch in July, so that customers can also get a feel for these new products. No doubt they will come up with some more original art work of their own too! I slipped in the 'Hello There' from a new hostess stamp set, called....Hello There! Demonstrators who attended the South Pacific Convention received this, among the many gifts bestowed on us at this fan-tab-u-lous event.


The possibilities are endless with these eleven stamps, I'm sure you'll be able to let your imagination run wild too!

Thanks for dropping by,
Rachel

Winning Watercolour!

It's always very exciting to get picked as a winner in a challenge, so today I'm doing a happy dance with a big smile on my face!!!!!!
This little water colour was picked as one of the three winners at Pals Paper Arts.

I really enjoyed making this card, and while the stamp set was out, I made a few more.

Is watercolouring a technique you'd like to try?






If so, email me and we can pencil a workshop in - maybe a Thursday, Friday or Saturday in the second half of July?

I'm in South Morang, a northern suburb of Melbourne, Australia.

Rachel

Hip Hip Hooray For Birthdays!

Usually on Thursday morning I go for a swim, but this morning I needed to do some work on the computer first and my fingers strayed to some challenge sites. I ended up making this card using the colours in the Colour Q challenge and the sketch from Cas(e) This Sketch. As well, I should give some credit to LeAnne Pugliese at Wee Inklings who frequently inspires my creativity.

The main stamp set I used was Tape It which was new this time last year. I had it on my 'wish list' straight away, but then probably used it only once. Don't know why, I still think its  a great stamp set with lots of possibilities, so I will resolve to use it so much more. I actually stamped all the pieces out in three colours, the Pacific Point, Summer Starfruit and Coastal Cabana so I could choose from a variety to layer on my card. The one piece from Tape It stamped in Calypso Coral has been stamped direct to the card front. You will be able to see in the close up that all the other pieces of Tape It have been stamped, cut out and adhered with Snail.

I thought the Hip Hip Hooray from the card pack of the same name, was an ideal greeting stamp to cut rough across the top, echoing the pieces of tape. I stamped first in Calypso Coral, then a second piece in Summer Starfruit, which was glued over and wrapped with linen thread.

Hopefully this is a masculine card, but I'm not too sure that it is (maybe I need the greeting to be in the blues, after all).

Just sometimes I feel a need to round off corners, and today was one of those days! Its great that two layers of card fit into the corner rounder on the Envelope Punch Board, so you can cut the front and back of the spine of a card too. Then the Whisper White and Summer Starfruit layers, also received the treatment before everything was stuck in place.

Now...away for a swim for me.
Hope your day is productive too!
Rachel