Sunday, 31 August 2014

Bright, Fun and Happy Birthday!

Although I have been feeling 'under the weather' this week, the bright, spring sunshine has really lifted my spirits. Something about the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch made me think of my new Little Letter Framelits, and although I had planned a different card for Just Add Ink's  Rainbow challenge, I began to gravitate toward combining the challenges, the more I thought about it.

The bright spotty I Am Me DSP seemed perfect to begin with and it was easy enough to randomly place the letters on it, no worrying about keeping things straight here! I placed coloured squares of card behind afterwards, and a contrasting candy dot in those that required it. There is another piece of Whisper White behind the geometric panel, just to keep everything neat and tidy and then it is raised on Dimensionals.
The flamboyant greeting is from Age Awareness, one of the new sets that comes only in photopolymer, but that does make for very easy placement of the sentiment.



So that's it! Short and Sweet, and Bright, Fun and Happy (just like me?) ha,ha!
Cheerio
Rachel


Saturday, 30 August 2014

Life's Adventurous Bicycle

Often when I see sketches with multiple layers, I'm reluctant to try them. When I do though, I'm often so pleased with the result it makes me wonder why I hesitate. This ended up being such fun to put together, love the colours in these patterned papers.
Stampin' Up!® make it so easy for us with all these lovely papers that coordinate without any thought and I chose a couple from the All Abloom DSP Stack for this. The colours are listed on the cover, so it is easy to pick out the ink, card  or ribbon to match everything up.




There is a guest designer at Freshly Made Sketches this week, thanks Kim for the challenging (and FUN!) sketch.
I used another stamp from the Hostess stamp set Life's Adventure, and  THAT blossom from Petite Petals. I really do need to use some of the other flowers from Petite Petals or they'll feel neglected, but you know how it is when you get a favourite?

I just happened to have a scrap of card from the Fringe Scissors class samples, and it fitted under the strip and matched the colour scheme, so it has been added in. You can even get a glimpse of how I finished off the inside of this card with a matching strip of DSP and some more Petite Petals flowers.



I hope you have something nice planned for the weekend,
Rachel








Friday, 29 August 2014

CASE-ing The Catty #7 Home Decor


Here it is, Friday again and this week we are CASE-ing the Catty pages 94-101. This was the week I was fearing the most (I don't do home decor, apart from making quilts), but I ended up enjoying making both my projects, and probably would try something like this again.For this first canvas piece, I didn't choose any one particular item to CASE, but in general, looking at page 95, I decided that it would be fun to use the Decorative Masks. I decided sponging a cushion cover looked a bit too tricky, so I bought a stretched canvas from an art & craft store. The piece of card the photo is mounted on has been spritzed with the large dots mask, using a Stampin' Spritzer with Lost Lagoon re-inker to colour. It looks very faint in that particular photo.


While that was drying I took a sponge and using Hello Honey, sponged straight from the ink pad. The mask was placed side-ways on the canvas, and needed to be moved a couple of times to cover the area. I liked the way the stars were quite dense on the left and scattered thinly on the right.

This was the first time I'd used Little Letters Thinlets. They needed to be placed in a straight line so I could use the negative of  'FAMILY' at the base of the card, and I used the perspex Big Shot sheet over grid paper to help get everything lined up, and a little bit of washi tape held them in place. The peg and butterfly pennant are actually recycled from a Make & Take from the Stampin' Up!® South Pacific Convention. I've used glue dots to attach everything, and if the photo and card backing become dated/tired, it will be easy to replace them.

For my second project, I had admired the Letter on page 96, which has been covered with DSP. I wanted to stamp mine with I love Lace using Blackberry Bliss. Originally, this was to be my main project, because I'd imagined how beautifully it would turn out. Then, I had trouble getting the white paint work even. Apparently I'm not very good at painting!!!! I'd used what I could find in the shed, which seems to be a gloss or semi-gloss. The letter was too large to stamp just once, and there was a slight overlapping in the stamped image. Finally, I left it to dry for 5 hours, and it still was as wet as ever, so I took a baby wipe to remove the ink and start again.


That's when it became apparent that the ink had taken, and the result was a lovely, lacy shade of pink. I decided at that point to leave well-enough alone and stamped and punched some small flowers for the finishing touch.


My hints for this project:
I'd suggest a flat paint would work better.
Even better, purchase a painted letter, not raw.
I wonder if the ink would have dried with heat applied.

And if you have ever tried doing this, I'd welcome your tips too!!!!

Now, do you know that we'd love for you to join us for this challenge? 
  • Take inspiration for Home Decor from those pages of your countries Stampin' Up! catalogue. In Australia/New Zealand it is pages 94-101.
  • Mention CTC in your blog and link back to the challenge blog
  • Share which project you cased, the page number and catalogue country.
  • Stampin' Up!® products only, current or retired.
Hope to have you join us at Case-ing The Catty,
Rachel


Australian residents, you can shop in my online store 24/7, delivery by Australia Post.

It's Your Sparkling Celebration

I had some friends over last night for a little stamping and the Hostess stamp set, Life's  Adventure was used for the 'inside' sentiment in an 18th birthday card. It's perfect for that, but before I put it back on the shelf, I decided to use it for this card using The Paper Players sketch.


I stamped in Strawberry Slush onto Shimmery White card for another hint of sparkle and then went to town colouring with Stampin' Write Markers in a range of soft colours: Pistachio Pudding, So Saffron, Blushing Bride and Pool Party. The flower is one of my favourite blossoms from Petite Petals, punched out of course. Dazzling Details has added some sparkle and shine with a row of  rhinestones as the finishing touch!
 

Thanks for checking out my blog, Rachel


Tuesday, 26 August 2014

Big Shot & Bundles Ending This Week - Australia


Just popping back to remind you that there is only one week more to take advantage of the Big Shot & Bundles offer. If you've been thinking about taking advantage of this great promotion, you should probably make your decision and act now, because it finishes on Sunday August 31st.

There's nothing worse than making that big purchase, to discover that you don't have anything to cut or emboss. Stampin' Up! are offering four terrific bundles, one bundle is free when you purchase your Big Shot and if you want more than one, the others can be purchased at a 15% discount.

That's a BIG saving in anyone's language, so check out the list below and see which combination will give you the best value. Then pop over to my online shop to place your order. You can see pictures of the bundles in the online shop. These discount bundles aren't in the annual catalogue or the Holiday Catalogue.

If you already have a Big Shot but fancy one of these bundles at 15% off, they are available until 31st August too. Even I took advantage of this temporary special to buy my Stars Framelits with the NEW Bright & Beautiful Stars stamp set.

Any questions? Call me 0417 500 681 or email rpalmieri5@bigpond.com.

Two Choices:
1) Buy a Big Shot and get a free bundle below.
  and/or
2) Buy a discounted bundle below at a 15% discount.
Bundle
Item
Number
Stamp Set
Framelit
AUD
NZD
Sumthin' with Bubbly Words
Clear-Mount Bundle
138920
Sumthin' Sumthin'
Word Bubbles
$ 54.25
 $ 65.25
Sumthin' with Bubbly Words
Wood-Mount Bundle
138923
Sumthin' Sumthin'
Word Bubbles
$ 58.50
 $ 70.25
Decorative Goodies
Clear-Mount Bundle
138921
Oh My Goodies
Deco Labels Collection
$ 62.75
 $ 76.25
Decorative Goodies
Wood-Mount Bundle
138924
Oh My Goodies
Deco Labels Collection
$ 72.95
 $ 88.25
Celebrating Chalk Talk
Clear-Mount Bundle
138922
Day of Celebration
Chalk Talk
$ 65.95
 $ 77.95
Celebrating Chalk Talk
Wood-Mount Bundle
138925
Day of Celebration
Chalk Talk
$ 74.50
 $ 90.75
Flowery Daydream
Clear-Mount Bundle
138910
Daydream Medallions
Floral Collection
$ 82.25
 $ 99.95
Flowery Daydream
Wood-Mount Bundle
138911
Daydream Medallions
Floral Collection
$ 93.25
 $ 113.75
Bright & Beautiful Stars
Clear-Mount Bundle
138200
Bright & Beautiful
Star
$ 75.50
 $ 91.50
Bright & Beautiful Stars
Wood-Mount Bundle
138644
Bright & Beautiful
Star
$ 87.25
 $ 105.95

Monday, 25 August 2014

Celebrate Spring

In my last post I made a passing reference to spring's arrival , but to continue this tale, my husband and I drove out of the city last weekend. We have a holiday cottage about 2 hours drive out of town. Friday night  it was too dark to see anything, but Sunday afternoon coming home was lovely. The fields are so green and lush, and the first of the lambs are with their mothers. They look so tiny, white and cuddly. One Mamma even had the cutest little twins, such a sweet scene. We had enjoyed some sunshine and fresh air while we were away, and then a lovely fire to keep us warm at night. Everything seems so much better with some sunshine, don't you think? Hey, I hope you realise I live downunder, in Australia, and our seasons are totally opposite to the Northern Hemisphere!

I've picked a huge bunch of white (Erlicheer) daffodils and brought them home to enjoy too, they were growing everywhere, even spilling onto the lawn. At least they can remind me that Spring is on its way even though the rain has returned.
On the subject of Spring, do these colours at Colour Q challenge make you think 'spring flowers'? They do me, so I pulled out my brand-spankin'-new Wondrous Wreath, thinking a floral wreath would be perfect. There are some gorgeous cards to see at Colour Q, be sure to take a look.

The Hardwood panel was cut into four pieces, but it hardly shows unfortunately. The wreath is stamped in two parts, and since this stamp is photopolymer, its quite straightforward to line the images up. There is a third stamp with clusters of berries too. Then there are the matching Wonderful Wreath Framelit Dies to cut it all out, and even better, if you decide to buy them at the same time, you'll get a 15% discount on the bundle.


The cute bow comes with this set too, in both stamp and die and I stamped in Wisteria Wonder and die cut, and another die cut from Rich Razzleberry as a shadow. The flowers were easy too. There are flowers in Pictogram Punches and also in Something To Say, which can be punched out with the flower punch in Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack. I wish I could lay my hands on a stamp which says 'Spring' to add to 'Celebrate'. Surely I have one among my huge stash of stamps. I'm very glad that Stampin' Up decided this year to list stamp sets with words in an extra section of the index, it makes it so much easier when you're looking for a particular sentiment. Celebrate comes from Sketched Birthday, with Bitty Banners Framelit Dies to cut it out cleanly.
I thought the sketch at CASE This Sketch was pretty neat, so I used it for a second time. The gallery there is filling up with inspiring cards too.
Hope you have a great week, and get to do some stamping. I'm looking forward to a fun few days at work and then a class at home this Thursday evening,
Rachel