Happy Easter Baskets

Oh my goodness! I am on holiday and yet it seems busier than ever. Tonight I have hurriedly put together six Easter baskets for my grandchildren. They were quite quick and easy to make with the Berry Basket Die.
Their parents aren't too keen on them having too many treats (trying to avoid tooth decay) so this way, Grandma feels like she's given a treat, and hopefully the kiddies will be satisfied too. We will see three of them tomorrow, before we head off for a couple of days staying with family out of town. It's been quite a while since we've seen the three out-of-towners, so it will be nice to spend some time with them.

 I cut six different colours using the Berry Basket Die for the baskets, and co-ordinated the bunny or chick from Cheerful Critters for a label. I knew when I ordered that stamp it would be great for birthdays, babies and Easter! I've coloured them with the Stampin' Write Markers. I used two stamps from Crazy About You for one greeting and Hippity-Hoppity is from And Many More. Both these stamp sets have oodles of sentiments!

I do hope that this weekend sees you having some enjoyable times with family and friends also.

Now that SALE-A-Bration has finished, Stampin' Up have another promotion which may be worth looking into if any of these products are on your 'wish list'. This is only from the 1st-17th April, do remember that you can order any time of the day or night with online shopping and delivery starts at $5.95 anywhere in Australia. The hostess code for this month is 6MGVWWGH

There have been a number of products unavailable recently, for several reasons. Firstly, there has been a higher than expected demand for some accessories. Secondly, there has been industrial action at the West Coast ports of the USA, which, although resolved now, means that there is a backlog of product to be shipped. Lastly, there were efforts made to air freight product produced in China,direct from there, but Chinese New Year had an impact on that arrangement. Stamps are manufactured in the US. Sometimes when you place an order, you will be asked if you would like the item to be placed on backorder. If you take this option, the items will ship to you when available with no additional shipping cost. When there is a big backlog of a particular item, Stampin' Up! have turned the item code off temporarily, until they can get the situation under control. Hopefully this will be soon.

Cheers
Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

When Life Gives You Lemons......Love Life! CTC#19

Each week at CASE-ing The Catty we turn to our Stampin' Up! Catalogues for inspiration. We'd love it if you joined us in CASE-ing The Catty too!

This week we are seeking inspiration from the SALE-A-BRATION Catalogue, and use buttons or ribbons. You can copy exactly, use a sketch or layout as an inspiration starter, or maybe a colour combination to create a card, scrapbook page or 3D item. Then just share in your write-up which sketch or colour combination inspired you.

Our challenges close at 5pm Thursday (AEDT)

• Create a new project for the challenge
• Mention CTC in your blog post and link back so others can join us
• Mainly SUO products (retired or current) to be used for these challenges

There is a card on Page 21 of the SAB catty using that very cute bear from Cheerful Critters, and I thought it was a pretty cute little sketch too. I decided it was time to get my FREE stamp set (with a $90 purchase) A Happy Thing inked up. You may have noticed that this stamp set is actually only a single lemon, but its so easy to make a mask with a post-it note so that you have a whole bunch of lemons. If you're still not sure how to go about it, check out the picture below, or contact me, I'd be happy to give you details.

After stamping three images with Momento Tuxedo Black Ink, I used the Daffodil Delight Blendabilities to colour the lemons and the Wild Wasabi Blendabilities for the leaves. This stamp is perfect for learning how to colour, as it is shaded where it needs to be darker. If you don't have any Blendabilities, you can get some of them as SAB freebies too, or use Black Staz-on to stamp and use Stampin' Write Markers or ink and an aquapainter to colour.

It almost seems like magic, the way they come to life after colouring. I've used the SALE-A-BRATION DSP too, Best Year Ever for one layer, and some washi tape under that. Those buttons are also in the SAB catalogue, 4 large, 4 small in three colours. I've left off the Calypso Coral ones. The Coastal Cabana was in the DSP, so I popped on a button in that colour. Remember, lots of the items I;ve used are only available till March 31st, through SALE-A-BRATION and each one is free with your $90 order.

Just so you can see how the layers stack up using Stampin' Dimensionals, here's a side view! Oh, and I happened to have a piece of gold Bakers Twine that I had stolen the gold thread from for another project, so I unravelled it a bit more and tied it through all the button holes to give an illusion that the buttons were sewn on.

I do hope you join in and CASE the SALE-A-BRATION Catty, see you in the gallery?

Rachel

This month's Hostess Code is B3M6SRH7 if you choose to use it when you make an online order, and you allow me to contact you, I will post you a small gift to say thank you. Don't forget, SALE-A-BRATION continues till March 31st - one free item for every $90 ordered.

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Cheerful Birthday Critters

On my 'to-do' list are family birthday cards! My only grand-daughter, adorable Alice is nearly two, so a special card is called for. I haven't had much experience with girls (lots with boys though!) and I've noticed that Alice plays differently to her brothers and cousins. I have a number of handmade teddies about, and Alice loves to collect them up and sit them on stools. I'm not sure what this game is, but it looks a bit like 'school'.

On the other hand, she also seems to think she can be involved in all the rough and tumble with her big brothers, so perhaps she will have the best of both worlds?
It seemed perfect to use Cheerful Critters for her birthday card. Its such a cute photopolymer stamp set, includes some sentiments which are so easy to position because of the see-through quality. Saying that, I haven't actually used any of the words from the stamp set this time. Happy Birthday is from Boys Will Be Boys (Weekly Deal in clear mount $23.21). The number came from Memorable Moments and the 'you're' is part of another greeting (can't remember which). The signs the bear and bunny are holding are perfect for all sorts of messages!

I've had the picture coloured for a few weeks now, just waiting for inspiration on how to finish it off, and that came from the sketch at Retro Sketches, just turned on its side.

I think it's turned out cute enough for our sweet Alice!

Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Cake...And Ice Cream

The blackboard look has been popular in home decor and stamping for a while now and I have new blackboard card to try out. It is very firm and gives a nice crisp image with White Craft Ink.

Fusion Card Challenge are celebrating their first anniversary and used an inspiration picture with a blackboard, banner and birthday greeting so I took my lead from there and used the sketch too. Happy birthday Fusion, and many happy returns!


Do you think the Candy Dots look like the magnets teachers like to have all over the blackboard/whiteboard to hold up worksheets and the like?

There is so much fun to be had mixing and matching stamp sets!! I'm totally besotted with these 'critters' in Cheerful Critters and it has been fun to combine it with one of the free Stampin' Up! SALE-A-BRATION stamp sets, Big Day. It starts to tell a story, almost. It was actually fairly easy to place the second sentiment inside the bear's sign, a very good fit.

Cheers,

Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Hello Baby Boy CMCC#52

So glad to see colour me! back in business for the new year and celebrating their first birthday too! Its a great challenge because we can  choose any colour scheme we like from the last 51. I only went as far as Challenge #8 - Baked Brown Sugar, Soft Sky and Pistachio Pudding. Perfect for a baby card I think, and I can show one of the new stamp sets from the Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalogue. Cheerful Critters is a photopolymer stamp set with three cute, cheerful critters holding up blank signs. There are words to place on those signs but I turned to another new stamp set with matching thinlets.


What do you think of the lovely script for 'Hello'? There are four words in the Hello You Thinlets - happy, you, thanks and hello. The stamp set is Crazy About You and there are 33 stamps in the set, 30 of them are words to start or finish the phrase. The combinations are endless. Oh, and there is a leaf and two flower stamps too.






My neighbour is due to have her first baby at the weekend. We don't know if it is a boy or a girl yet, but there's a very cute bunny in Cheerful Critters which would be perfect for a baby girl.

I have a handy hint to share also. Do you get magnetic calendars from retailers or Real Estate Agents?
I decided to recycle last years calendar by using Fast Fuse on the printed side to glue it into the lid of the stamp set and it is the correct size and perfect for holding these thinlets. I still have the 2015 calendar for my filing cabinet too.

Some of the icons below won't show until the catalogue goes 'live' to the public on 6th January.

Wishing you a wonderful year ahead,
Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog