Beautiful Bears

You can have so much fun with Bear Hug stamps and framelits. The first card has a turquoise Sunburst layed on top of the soft sky base.  The bear was stamped on one side of the card, before cutting out with the framelit, and stamping again on the back. This is so her arms can be folded to hold onto the four, from Number of Years. Yes, there was a lot of die cutting on this card, but once it was done, it was quite easy to put it all together. These balloons are from Balloon Builders, and they are actually punched out with the Balloon Bouquet Punch.

The bear painting his self-portrait also uses the easel from Painters Palette, a tree from Sheltering Tree and clouds and grass are also from Painters Palette. It is just a fun idea I had, and I haven't added a sentiment or posted it off to anyone yet.

Don't forget, if you're making an order through my online shop, it will ask for the HOSTESS Code before you check out. August 21st - Spetember 20th it is P2KYFUU9

Cheers, Rachel

Beautiful Party CTC#70

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.

This week I took inspiration from the SALE-A-Bration leaflet, second issue, which began on February 16th, It includes two stamp sets - Pedal Pusher and Party Pants - plus a pack of three Metalics Glitter Tape. I broke out the silver glitter tape for these cards, and I'm so thrilled with it! It tears just like washi tape and the glitter is brilliant! I might have got a little bit carried away using it, but is it possible to have too much glimmer and gleam?

My first card was based on the little 'Congrats' card at the bottom right of the catty picture. Very loosely based I could add, but it's so easy to vere off in another direction. I had been playing with the volkswagon from Beautiful Ride. First I stamped it on the white card, and then a second image onto a piece of Perfectly Artistic DSP (one of the earlier SAB items which made way for these new ones). It was easy enough to trim the body of the car and remove the windows. In real life there is a nice impression of the tyres being recessed, quite realisticly. The wee dog in the back seat is a tiny stamp you can add anywhere you please. I taped this onto the Shine On Specialty Designer Series Paper with silver clouds, and added a few candy dots.

For the second card, I was inspired by the gift bag in the middle of the picture. I couldn't stop at one balloon though, and used the Balloon Bouquet Punch to add a couple more. The sentiment stamped on the Pool Party balloon is a very useful one to hang on to and use for a long while after Sale-A-Bration ends. There are eight really handy greetings and the lovely big balloon in Party Pants.

Maybe you'd like to share something from SALE-A-Bration which has inspired you. Here is the link to CASE-ing The Catty where you can do that.

I've jumped into the blog straight after my dear friend Kathryn, in Adelaide, so make sure you go back to her blog if you've missed it. She has shared a gorgeous butterfly on Glimmer Tape (seems like we all like a bit of glitz and gleam!!!)

 

Or just keep on blog hopping forward to another Melbourne girl, Judy May, but don't forget to do a full circle!

Cheers, Rachel

Baby Bear Turns One FMS#222

My littlest nephew is turning one next week. He had his first haircut last week and no longer looks like a baby - he's a toddler!!

I have so many birthday cards to make over the next few weeks, S-I-L celebrated 3rd February, Logan is 6 on the 14th, Stephen is 1 on the 17th, Xavier is 8 on the 21st, Matthew is 40 on 2nd March and Alice is 3 on the 8th March. Balloon Celebration with the matching Balloon Bouquet Punch is my life saver!
I haven't made up my mind yet whether I prefer a punch or a die, but this Balloon Bouquet Punch is fabulous for using up scraps of card, so I have a container of balloons already punched sitting on my table.

Last night, looking for inspiration, I found the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. Aussie Narelle is responsible for this little beauty, and although there are a lot of pieces layered onto this card, I hope it's still 'fresh' enough.
The colours were drawn from the patterned paper, a lovely retired Christmas DSP, All Is Calm. I love these soft, sweet shades. I used the Little Number Thinlets and cut a space in the large balloon so the number lays flat. There was already so.o.o.. much texture happening here, we didn't need any more.

The littlest bear from Bear Hugs has a hold of his birthday balloons and he's grounded by the banners. It's so handy having an easy-to-use banner stamp, and this one is from Number Of Years. I have been using that stamp set most of the time for birthdays, but this little guy needed a petite numeral. The birthday sentiment from Boys Will be Boys fits perfectly inside the banner, always handy when you want to stamp something quickly.

Don't you love the stamped shading on the balloons? Oh, and did you know that if you buy the stamp set and punch together, you get a 15% discount, how good is that!

Cheers, Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Valentine's Day CTC#65

Welcome again to another round of CASE-ing The Catty. Each week the crew take inspiration from a section of a Stampin' Up!® catalogue. Currently we are all so excited by our Occasions catalogue, but this week is Valentine's and we might have CASE-d the Annual catalogue too. CASE is an acronym which stands for "Copy And Share Everything" and we hope by sharing what we have CASE-d, you'll be inspired too.

If you happen to take a look at Page 14, you will see that I have CASE-d a tag there, and placed it on a card. It's hard to see but the patterned paper is Love Blossoms Designer Series Paper Stack and those are rows of sweet little hearts, all in Blushing Bride and white. Balloon Builders is a very cute stamp set, that you might take a look at and say, "What will I use that for?" I decided I'd begin by trying out all the animals etc that were showing on page 14. Some were easier than others, and it is fascinating how a slight change in position alters the look.




I've used this tilted-paper design before with this birthday card but I don't have a magic formula, I just place it and cut off the excess. The 6 inch square sheets in the paper stack might make this process easier I think, and there was a matching piece left over to line the inside too.

I've kept the card quite simple with the flower and sentiment stamped onto a 'no-fuss' circle, mounted on another white circle one size bigger. The sentiment is one of four from Balloon Builders, and a bonus is that two of the stamps can also get punched out beautifully with the Balloon Bouquet Punch, so that's two stamp sets you can use the punch with. I tied a strand of white baker's twine around the top card, and made a bow to finish it.




Strictly speaking this Going Global card isn't really a CASE, but an adaptation of the sample made at November 2015 Onstage in Melbourne, using products from the Going Places suite. After using it at Onstage, the paper stack,
World Traveler Embossing Folder and Going Global stamp set were all on my first order. My husband and I aren't the most sentimental of people. We don't celebrate Valentine's Day, I'd rather flowers for no particular reason and not over-priced arrangements, thank you very much. However, this card is the type I might give him on Valentine's Day (or for no particular reason).
This is a great product suite for masculine cards, and travel-related memory-keeping. I've been loving the other examples for Valentine's Day (or no particular reason) that have been popping up on Pinterest.

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 at CASE-ing The Catty. A winner will be chosen and announced on the first post of the following month.

If you are travelling in reverse around this blog-hop, click on the previous button and go back to see what Kathryn is sharing this week. Otherwise, click on next to proceed forward to Rebecca. 

   

Cheers, Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Balloon Celebration Fusion

 That's a fun inspiration picture by Fusion Card Challenge. I've taken the colours, and the party theme from the inspiration photo and grabbed my new stamp set Balloon Celebration. I'm slightly mystified by the wheel-like images I've used and would love suggestions as to what they might represent. I've just used them as a random geometric shape and heat embossed those and the group of stars in black. Once it was set, I rubbed Watermelon Wonder, Crushed Curry and Melon Mambo, with colour on a sponge. There are 28 images in this photopolymer stamp set, some are outlines, some are solids. There are several versions of the balloons, two sizes, then an outline, a solid, and a shaded version in both sizes. It gives you lots of options to make a great big bunch of balloons. The stars are solid and outlined too, and then there are a heap of options for what we might like to celebrate with - tea, chocolate, coffee, champagne, cookies or cake. All great ideas, yes? I went with the rather simple balloon string which says 'let us celebrate'.

I began the colour-resist with a 2 inch strip, but decided it was too wide for my card front, which left me a narrow piece for the inside of the card. I do like it when it works out like that, all co-ordinated. 

This stamp set is also bundled with a Balloon Bouquet Punch at 15% discount, and I used that to punch a balloon from Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper, Watermelon Wonder and Melon Mambo. The two cardstock balloons were stamped with the shaded balloons.

I'm not quite sure who this will be for yet, so I'll hold off with the additional sentiments on the inside until I know who will receive these birthday greetings.

Don't forget to let me know what you think the image represents!!!

Cheers, Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog