SAB Botanicals Are Just For You CTC#66

This week at CASE-ing The Catty we are sharing another SALE-A-Bration pick, whether it be a stamp set, one of the papers or even Project Life - they're all available for you to pick when you make an order of $90. If you happen to be mad for everything in the Occasions catalogue, you can pick an item for every $90 you order ($180 = 2 items, $270 = 3 items, $360 = 4 etc). If you get as high as that, maybe you should have a chat to me about joining up as a demonstrator, Stampin' Up!® welcomes and supports all types of demonstrators from the hobby demo buying crafting supplies at a discount, through to those making it a full time business. During SALE-A-Bration you get to choose $60 extra, choose $295 of any products from the Annual Catalogue and/or the Occasions Catalogue and pay only $169. Of course, if you prefer to be a customer, you can purchase your supplies through my online shop, or by contacting me, you just need to have a delivery address in Australia.

I was rather impressed with this sample from the catalogue, it is so simple but sweet. If you also like this delightful "Hello" you'll need to put your $90 in pronto, as this SAB freebie won't be available after February 15th!

Unfortunately, I have trouble keeping my creations simple, and I did add three colours and quite a bunch of flowers!!!

Using Watercolor paper and Versamark, the big statement stamp from Botanicals For You was stamped and heat embossed in white. With watercolor paper, there is no need to swipe your embossing buddy over first, the paper has a different composition to regular card. For the watercolor wash, you use an Aqua Painter and squeeze the ink pad with the lid closed, causing some ink to be deposited in the lid. Then you can splosh around to your hearts desire, leaving the colour bold with little water added, or more subdued by using more water. I decided on three shades for my watercolouring, and took up a larger part of the card front.

Instead of the very subtle white butterflies, I went with nearly-as-subtle pastel flowers.The flowers are from Botanical Builder Framelit Dies, and there are so many styles of flowers, stamens and leaves to choose. There are three here in colours to match the inks used, and a ferny leaf the same shade as the card base.

The Botanicals For You fits in so nicely with Botanical Blooms, you'll need them both! Another quick CASE, this one from page 5 of the SAB catalogue. The flowers are like the illustration, but I wanted to see what I could come up with for the boys. These balloons from Balloon Celebration, and stars from Pictogram Punches and Something To Say are great alternatives, and I'm sure there are many more.

If you like doing bloghops in reverse, you'll be clicking on the 'previous' button and heading to visit Helen Heil, but if you've already been there you need to click on 'Next' and head on over to Kathryn Mangelsdorf.

    

Starting this year we are doing a monthly challenge. If you have been inspired by any of the projects in the catalogue or on the blog hop, feel free to share with the linky tool on this post. A winner will be chosen and announced on the first post of the following month.

Cheers, Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

South Pacific Stampin' Up!® Convention - More Swaps

Still here on the Gold Coast, enjoying all the fun of a Stampin' Up!® Convention. Last night a large group from Claire Daly's Art With Heart team went out for dinner. So much fun to catch up with demonstrators from the wider team. They came from as far as Perth, taking a whole day to travel to the Gold Coast via Melbourne and they came from around the Gold Coast/Brisbane area too. Well, I guess the fact that we have a team member from the States at the moment makes Karen our most distant member, but she actually has been living in Melbourne.

I made two other card fronts to swap with other demonstrators, and sadly, after the retired list came out last Tuesday 21st, it seems that both my swaps have retired product on them.

This first one uses mainly Polka Dot Pieces, which is retiring, and I believe clear mount has already sold out. I used the small flowers from Something To Say, punched out with Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack and it has all been grounded on the Starburst Framelit circle which was punched out of my design crew swap card.

Starburst Framelits are retiring too. The circle was stamped with Hardwood. The sentiments in From The Herd have a really nice font, the 'happy birthday' came from that set.The Bird Builder Punch remains in the catalogue, so perhaps there will be another stamp released to co-ordinate with it.

For my other swap, the only item used which remains current is Gorgeous Grunge. I tried for a less feminine card, using some DSP, although those are soft colours. The stamp set is #Hello and incudes a lovely big @, as well as some of those hashtag slogans like #friendsarethebest. I paired it with Hello, which is decorated with the teeny heart from the Owl Builder Punch. On Film Framelits are also retiring, but I will keep them for my own use. The round 'hello' was stapled into position.

Now is a good time to pop over and do some online shopping, you might even score a bargain. Many of the products were sold out within hours though, so I hope you're not disappointed! The product links below will take you directly to the item you click on.

I had no time to make more swaps with current products so I hope the recipients aren't too disappointed.
Cheers
Rachel                                                                                                                                                                    

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Happy @ HB CTC#27

Each week at CASE-ing The Catty we turn to our Stampin' Up! Catalogues for inspiration. This week we are seeking inspiration from the Occasions Catalogue  Join us blog hopping and hopefully it will inspire you. If  a project makes you happy, please leave a comment.You may have arrived from H2 Designs, if so, did you like Helen's card? If you are beginning here with me, you can click on the links at the end of our blogs until you have gone all the way around the team.

You can view the online version of the catalogue with a click here. We are CASE-ing from the Memory Keeping section. My memory keeping is a bit spasmodic, I'm still working on the earliest part of my overseas adventure in 2013, and I'm nearly ready to visit Europe again. Even my family photos aren't really up to date. So, I've used the idea of a window with a word over it, as shown on page 48, to create a masculine birthday card. Happy from the Hello You Thinlets was cut from black Chalkboard Paper, because it is so sturdy. @ , #Hello,was stamped in Cherry Cobbler and shows through a round opening cut in the card front. Sadly, this stamp has made it onto the Retirement List, so you can get it at a reduced price while stock lasts. The clear mount is $23.21, while wood mount is $32.21.

After trying a couple of additional greetings, I settled on HB from Balloon Bash, because the hashtag suits the rest of the card. When it still seemed to need a little more, Gorgeous Grunge filled the need for some splatters in black.

Do you think we'll see Crazy About You and the Hello You Thinlets in the next Annual Catalogue? Not too long till we find out, but I certainly hope so.







Hostess code

If you choose to shop with me to stock up on your Stampin' Up! supplies and remember to use the hostess code, I will mail you an additional small gift.

Perhaps you want to order from the Weekly Deals on a Wednesday, and you're not sure if you might do that again in a week or two. If you use the code each time, all your totals will accrue, giving you a chance to spend some hostess dollars too. I keep track of that for you and contact you with the amount you have available to spend, if the 'Virtual Party' reaches $300 and qualifies for Hostess Dollars.

The code is only 'good' for one month. It is typed above the online shop button over to the right if you are reading this online or just before my signature at the end of this post. Just copy and paste the code into the section for Hostess code on the page where you enter payment details.

This month's Hostess Code is 6MGVWWGH

Next stop on this blog is Rebecca Benson.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

A Star CQC#286

When you are at a loss for a colour combination, one that isn't 'totally safe' you can turn to a number of places. The Stampin' Up!® Color Coach is perhaps the first place, advertisments can be a great source too, but often, inspiration is as close as the colour challenges.

Today I've turned to Colour Q and challenge #286. This blog has the most astonishing combinations and I think this week's is one of those. I'm not sure that I've nailed it, they're pretty tricky colours! I've mixed a couple of different stamp sets, and kept the 'star' theme going all the way through.
 What would you create with these colours?
Cheers,
Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

#birthdaysrock FMS179

#birthdaysrock big time, especially when you're turning 21. Definitely!

This week I had another special order, and this was for a 21st card for a young apprentice carpenter. I don't know the lad personally, but my instructions included trying to get some tools, timber or similar, onto the card. Unfortunately I didn't buy the Totally Tools stamp available a few years ago, and haven't I regretted that a number of times since? I learnt my lesson and bought Guy Greetings from the Occasions catalogue mainly because there is a plumber in the family and  "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey" is a sentiment he's been heard to use.

I began using #Hello this week with my other special order, and so it was still out on my craft table. The large @ and #birthdaysrock are from that stamp set. Gorgeous Grunge seemed to fit the theme too and Hardwood was a 'must'! I found an online colouring in picture for pre-schoolers and reduced it to an acceptable size, to use as a pattern to cut the little hammer and saw from silver foil and card.The hammer looked far too bright and shiny so its gone through the embossing folder and had black ink smeared over it to 'age' the metal.

The sketch by Amy O'Neill on the Freshly Made Sketches blog provided a starting point, and I hope they like this masculine card.

During the day I put the card pieces together, and sent photos for approval, but nothing was adhered until Jacob arrived tonight to pick up his commission. You can see how it looked before all the bits and pieces were added. I'm so glad I ordered the Adventure Bound Designer Series Paper Stack. Don't you love the stacked logs paper?

School holidays begin tomorrow and I am on holiday from my 'other' role. Looking forward to getting to the annual Melbourne International Garden Show soon, catching up with friends and spending some time with my grandchildren.

Cheers
Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

#Miss You More - JAI#255

Just Add Ink have a challenge this week - 'Just Add Eggs or Ovals, and with the oval feature, this card will qualify. This week we are bidding farewell to one of our teacher colleagues, someone I've worked with from the time she began as a raw graduate 11 years ago. In that time she has progressed through the ranks until it was time to move on to a new school and become a Leading teacher. I'll miss her, but will continue to see her regularly as she and her mum like to attend my card classes. 

Friday night they were here for my Bokeh class, but after I saw them off, I went back into my craft room and worked on this card for the team to give her, along with an elegant pair of earrings.

This card measures 5½" by 5½" so there is room for several people to write messages and I have lined both sides inside and done a little more stamping. I love to mix up my stamp sets, and I went to town with this one!

Dictionary provided a soft, random background and Butterfly Basics have a line reminiscent of the edge of airmail envelopes,  a New York postmark and the fern leaf.

Painted Petals made a pretty posy in Perfect Plum, stamped once and stamped off. #Hello has a cute little sentiment - #missyoumore, and as well as the postmark from Butterfly Basics, there's a Paris one in the retired French Foliage. When I saw Prue's new hessian carry-all today, I knew this card was right on track. There was random text and postmarks but I'd held back on the plum butterfly!

Have a great week,
Rachel