Kinda Eclectic Birthday Purple - FMS #162

Next month,  a friend of mine celebrates her birthday. She readily admits to a love for purple, so I hope Blackberry Bliss suits her!
This colour must be the hardest of all to photograph, I think, so dare I say, it looks lovelier in real life?
I pulled out a few stamp sets for this one, Kinda Eclectic for the leaves, Gorgeous Grunge for the splatters and And Many More for the sentiment to create the card at left. I am lucky enough to have a large collection of stamps, so I may as well make good use of them - right?



Because I have been away for the weekend with my husband, and I need to take some craft, I took some stamped images of Blended Bloom and my set of Blendabilities and I have enjoyed colouring a few of these gorgeous flowers. Last time I had an opportunity to play with my Blendabilities I didn't have many colours, so it was fun to actually mix even six or seven shades together. The Melon Mambo version is brilliant!

I wondered how it would look on this card. Let me know if you like it with, or without the Bloom, I think I will most probably leave it on.




Freshly Made Sketches have provided this  sketch to help me along the path to creativity. I followed it fairly faithfully, even to the Bakers Twine and button placement. I love the way the gold on this twine is crinkled when you unwind it from the twine.











I decided to finish the inside of my card at the same time, as it is so much easier to do when the stamps, ink and DSP are all still on the table.













I'll show you a small close up of the flower too.
Have you had a chance to try Blendabilities yet?

Hope you have had a good weekend too,
Rachel

Blended Bloom Wood-Mount Stamp Set

$20.95

And Many More Wood-Mount Stamp Set

$65.95

And Many More Clear-Mount Stamp Set

$46.95

Gorgeous Grunge Wood Stamp Set

$42.95

Gorgeous Grunge Clear Stamp Set

$33.95

Kinda Eclectic Wood-Mount Stamp Set

$48.95

Kinda Eclectic Clear-Mount Stamp Set

$34.95

Moonlight Designer Series Paper Stack

$11.95

Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Rich Razzleberry Assortment

$20.95

Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Melon Mambo Assortment

$20.95

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

$9.95

Gold Baker's Twine

$5.95

Gold Basic Metal Buttons

$13.95

Blackberry Bliss A4 Card Stock

$11.95

Shimmery White A4 Card Stock

$13.95

Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Tangled Bloom

CAS on Sunday has challenged us to use black,white and one colour this week. I decided to add Daffodil Delight Blendabilities to my zentangled bloom. SUO Challenges are after a Clean & Simple card and Colour Me are after Daffodil and a neutral.

Zentangling is a technique first brought to my attention by my downline, Angela T. who sent me a link. Next day at work, I noticed a big display that the art teacher at school had worked on with the grade 5 and 6 children. I haven't been involved in the art room this year, so often don't notice what they are making. I HAD to give it a go!

It's very relaxing sitting and doodling away, and it's probably something you get better at with practice. I found the trickiest part was thinking up contrasting patterns for Blended Bloom.

I used the Textured Impressions Arrows Embossing Folder to match the geometric feel of this card and Sassy Salutations seemed to suit it very well also.

Cheers

Rachel

Blended Bloom Wood-Mount Stamp Set

$20.95

Sassy Salutations Wood Stamp Set

$41.95

Sassy Salutations Clear Stamp Set

$33.95

Folder Arrows Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

$13.95

Basic Black A4 Card Stock

$11.95

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

$14.95

Stampin' Dimensionals

$6.95

Gold Sequin Trim

$8.95

Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment

$20.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Open House for New Stampin' Up! Catalogue

Just popping back to remind you that I am having an Open House this Friday, 4th July to give you an
opportunity to view new products "in real life" and come collect a copy of the catalogue and a showbag. It's not a class, there's no charge for this event, you can stay and play a while, or just stop in to collect your new catalogue.
Come over between 2.00pm and 8.30pm, have a cuppa and try a few of the new products. I'm really excited to show you some of the new items Stampin' Up! is carrying this year, hope you're feeling excited too!!!!

Project Life Scrap Book System is one new line, and I have been having photos printed and have put together a few pages to share with you. I'd love to hear if you like this style of memory keeping.

Blendabilities are being introduced too. These are alcohol-based markers and I have had some fun trying out the three colour ranges I have bought so far. It gives intense colour, and with alcohol-based markers you can colour all sorts of other things like rhinestones, pearls. Total co-ordination!

The flower at left , Blended Bloom, has been coloured with Calypso Coral Blendabilities. Fellow demonstrator Renee Lynch inspired my creation, see it here. We call it CASE -ing and maybe it translates to 'copy and share everything'. The background was stamped with the enormous Hardwood stamp and then the leaves from Kinda Eclectic were stamped on top. There were three leaves stamped onto white card as well, and hand cut. The greeting is from Kinda Eclectic too. These are two of my favourite stamp sets for this new catalogue, but Work of Art and Something For Baby are pretty special too!
I will have stamping stations set up for you to make some samples so you can try out the new stamp sets, then cut your samples on the Big Shot.

If you want to place an order, and do so anytime between 1st-10th July, each $50 order will earn you a small gift from me. I have set up a hostess code, beginning July 1st and if you order through my online store and quote the Hostess code, 2PDEG76K ,you will be eligible for any hostess benefits this 'party' earns. Only do this if your order is less than $300, once you reach that amount you are eligible for $50 of hostess benefits all for yourself! Not sure how this works? Ask me on Friday.If you view this online, you will see a link (just over there on the right side of the page) which takes you to the new catalogue online.

I decided it is about time I had a de-stash so there are some hand made cards available for $3 each and plenty of retired stock on the bargain table too. There are retired Stamp Sets, Embossing Folders and Designer Series Paper (patterned paper).

If you could send me a txt on 0417 500 681 or email me,  I will try to make sure I have enough catalogues and samples on the day. If you have done that already, thank you,  no need to do it again!!!!  I'd love to write your name on one of the tags!
Actually, maybe I won't write anything on the tag, because I have designed a card so you can upcycle your tag.  I'm quite happy if you want to bring a friend, your mother, sister or daughters - the more the merrier!!!!

Will I be seeing you on Friday?

Rachel

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

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

Stampin' Up! South Pacific Convention - Melbourne - 2014 Part Two

Continuing on with part two of this tale, Stampin' Up! is very much like a family, especially here in the South Pacific (Australia & New Zealand) where the numbers attending Convention are more manageable (<700), unlike the US where Convention is HUGE! Demonstrators help and support each other through online forums, team meetings and we love a chance to meet up face to face once a year. Thursday afternoon was a very full one with six experienced demonstrators sharing business tips. We were also able to participate in three mini Make & Take sessions, two of them using the Kinda Eclectic stamp set we had been given in the morning. You can see two cards in my previous post. The project above resulted in another lovely stamp set to bring home, and you can see a couple of the new In Colors here too. I think they will be a nice addition to the range, although they are fairly subdued, except for the orange.

In our down time, not that there's much of it, we can admire gorgeous displays of new products (the fans are made from a new Designer Series Paper) and all the cards and projects made on stage, are displayed. Demonstrators usually hang one of their swap cards on the display board too and there is always a crowd around these boards snapping away madly.

On Friday, Shelli Gardener showed the NEW photopolymer stamps which must be stored away from light. They are a bit cheaper than the red rubber stamps but not quite as durable. However, the see-through aspect of these stamps is great for placement, and one of our Prize Patrols was a set of letter and number stamps in photopolymer from the upcoming catalogue. Shelli stamped some cards for us, her daughter Sara Douglass shared her Project Life albums and some hints on putting photos into them and getting the journalling done while the memories are still fresh!
I can imagine how useful this system will be for my travel photos too, I'm still working on the trip I took to the UK & Paris last August!

I know that I can order a limited number of items next Friday, and customers can start ordering from that range too on 10th June, before the catalogue goes live on 1st July, when the whole range is available to us all. Its even available on MDS if that's your 'thing' and you'd like to print original cards for the pockets.
Hop on over to my online shop after 10th June to check out Project Life.

Another point Sara brought up, it's a great activity to do with your children of any age. She said that she was having her five children pick out their favourite baby photos even, and getting them into albums so she can catch up with the back log.

Another new and rather exciting product we had a chance to try at Convention was Blendabilities. Like the Stampin' Write Markers, they are a dual tip, color coordinated to the Stampin' Up color range & acid free, but they are also alcohol-based (like a rather well-known alternative brand). This means they don't soak the paper and break up the fibres, they don't 'bleed' and they're permanent. Available in packs of three tones of the same shade they have simplified the process of choosing toning colours. We tried it out on a very small floral stamp, but in a later Prize Patrol we received Blended Bloom and a set of three Calypso Coral Blendabilities. I can't really try it out until I can buy a Memento stamp pad, although if I have time to experiment, I think heat embossing might work just as well.
In case you're wondering, Prize Patrols are one of the perks of going to Convention. That is when they announce that they are going to hand out free product to everyone, to give us a chance to try it before we offer it to you. It really is a terrific bonus, because every stamp set I received this Convention, was one I would have ordered anyway. I love that it saves me dollars.

There will be at least one more part to the Convention Tales so stay tuned...
Rachel