Christmas (Or Not) - CTC89

Page 32 Annual Catalogue

It's so nice to see you here for CASE-ing The Catty Blog Hop. Maybe you have arrived here from my sweet friend Tina Gillespie's blog. She is our guest designer this week. But if you've started here with me, don't forget to check out what the rest of the crew have shared this week, you're bound to be inspired. Although the brief was to CASE Christmas, I wasn't quite ready to make a Christmas card. Soon our Holiday Catalogue will be released and there are going to be so many beautiful new products in there, not that there is a shortage in the Annual Catalogue either, The place card here provided inspiration for a birthday card in shades of Emerald Envy, Mint Macaroon and Copper Embossing Powder,

The Brushwork letters they used for the name are lovely, but I don't own them- yet! You can find them on page 157 if you want to check them out. I looked through my stash for something to fill the centre panel and settled for the recently retired Hostess set, Happy Birthday Everyone. This is a set I will be hanging onto for a while longer, and doesn't it look impressive heat embossed in copper? Unfortunately, the copper metallic thread wasn't thick enough for my liking, but I just so happen to have a spool of copper, very similar to the gold and silver thicker cord Stampin' Up! had in the last Holiday Catalogue. It just might be SU from a long time past. (Not sure where it came from, possibly my mother's craft room).

Because my birthday card is larger than the place card, I've stamped Wondrous Wreath (off the page) four times. The leafiest stamp was first stamped in Mint Macaroon. Next was the more sparse leaf stamp stamped in Emerald Envy, and lastly, a repeat of that stamp, rotated slightly and inked up with Versamark before sprinkling with copper embossing powder. 

This card seemed to be suitable for a masculine card, and I didn't have any copper sequins anyway, so the card is reasonably plain. I do usually hold back a little with embellishments, sometimes a little too much...

Fully inspired now, I cut a piece of Affectionately Yours Specialty DSP, and constructed the card in a similar fashion to the original CASE. I've used a narrower strip of card because I didn't want to cover the lovely DSP. This time it is a current sentiment from Cottage Greetings. This has been stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with copper embossing powder again.

One more, again using the specialty DSP Affectionately Yours, and this is covered in copper flora. Sadly, you only get one 12" X 12" sheet of each of these 'special' specialty papers in a pack, so I'm trying to make them go as far as possible!!! A narrower strip for the sentiment, again from Cottage Greetings. It is a simple sketch, and can be used in so many ways.

Of course, there is no reason why you couldn't use this sketch for your Christmas cards too, and I might, depending on the stamps I decide to use this year. Do you stamp Christmas cards, and if so, do you make a variety of designs, or lots of one design?

LAST CHANCE!

Don't forget, Stampin' Up!® has a Bonus Days promotion happening through this month. For every $90 you spend with Stampin' Up!® in July, you will be emailed a $9 discount code to use in August. That's like a 10% discount! BUT, you need to do it tonight or you'll miss out.

You can shop in my Online Store if you have a shipping address in Australia, and if you use the Hostess Code, 9Z44PC2P you'll receive something extra from me in the post.

Let's head on over to see the lovely Rebecca, the Paper and Stamp Addict.

Cheers, Rachel

You can post your entry here to join the challenge at CASE-ing The Catty

Botanical Gardens CTC#73

This week at CASE-ing The Catty we are checking out the Botanical Gardens section of the catalogue, from page 26-29.  I fell in love with these flowers the moment they were shown to us at OnStage back in November. I particularly like the flowers with petal which separate, and the variety of leaves. I spend a lot of my spare time, die cutting scraps of card and sorting the pieces into colour families. That way, I have flowers and leaves ready to add to any project. I could hardly wait to CASE the card from the main picture in the catalogue, and as I came home from Onstage with Enjoy The Little Things in my bag of goodies, I only had to wait for Stampin' Up!® to ship the Botanical Gardens Bundle out to me.

I just changed up the colours slightly for my CASE, and made a regular-sized card instead of a square. The long, leafy die is lovely with its gentle curve. It can be used to add an edge with a difference to your cards also. With a sponge dauber, I've added colour to the edges and centre of the main flower, the wee flowers have candy dots.

The sample in the catty may have had the sprinkle of dots added from Timeless Textures, on the next page of the catty, but I didn't have it then, so used the similar one from Perpetual Birthday Calendar. You could use Gorgeous Grunge if you own that set.

 I've had people asking me whether it is worthwhile buying the bundle or should they just get the framelit dies and of course that choice is always up to the customer. I have to admit that I use the dies a lot more than the stamps but I've stamped this sample for my April class, and I really like the tropical appearance of these images. You'll find dates for my classes under a tab at the top of my Stampinpals blog - Classes. Students will make 3 cards, including both of these, using Botanical Blooms and Botanical Builder Framelit Dies and it's usually up to date with availability. Email or text me - 0417500681 - I'm in South Morang on the northern outskirts of Melbourne.

The sentiment is made up from two stamps, belonging to Happy Birthday, Everyone, a hostess set in the main catalogue (page 179). This will retire on May 31st, but although it is a Hostess set, you can purchase it (and have change) with Hostess dollars earned with your $250 order, before shipping. Contact me if you're not sure how this works.
 We would love you to join in the challenge to CASE The Catty with us. You can link your entry here

Don't forget to visit everyone by clicking on the links. You can  pop back to Judy May or continue forward to stop by Julia's blog

Both ladies have amazing projects to share with you!

  

Cheers, Rachel

You've Got This

Sometimes my friend and I just get together to stamp and share a glass of wine and some nibblies. We did that before I went away on holiday, and we both CASE-d the Stampin' Up!® Catalogue, page 113.

That cross-hatch-style background stamp in You've Got This is fabulous and then there is the gorgeous bloom, perfect for colouring anyway you like. We used aquapainters, Watermelon Wonder ink and Tuxedo black Memento ink on Whisper White card. After fussy cutting the flower and adhering with Dimensionals we chose which ribbons we'd use. The current Hostess stamp Happy Birthday Everyone provided a nice bold greeting.  I'm really missing crafting and CASE-ing The Catty, but I'll be on my way home soon.

Cheers,
Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Seafood Birthday Platter CQC#297

I've had quite a play with this subject today and ended up with 3 different versions of a card for the ColourQ Challenge. They all related to the ocean in one way or another,  although I'd love to make little houses too! The one I am sharing with you this time is the second creation, with an added suggestion from my dear hubby to include some sort of net. Butterfly Basics supplied the stamp for that, just a hint of Crumb Cake stamped over opposing corners. These sorts of stamps are great to 'ground' elements of a design, it has a faint honeycomb effect. The ocean creatures (or seafood platter!) come from my well-used set By The Tide. I noticed today that despite careful cleaning, these stamps are holding the ink stains. Nothing wrong with that, they still stamp perfectly.

I picked the largest square that would fit on the card front (it happens to be the largest square in this set of dies anyway) and cut a precious square of Midnight Muse, followed by the next smaller square in Pool Party, and finally, the stamped piece.
The final touch on this card is the big, bold birthday greeting from the new Hostess set, Happy Birthday Everyone. This stamp set is a 'must-have', in my opinion, not only for the large 'Happy Birthday' but for the one liners included such as to an amazing woman, to a wonderful man or to a good friend.

Initially my plan was to use this card for my husband's birthday, but after he took such an interest in the design process, it doesn't quite seem right!


What do you see when you look at these colours? Don't forget to check out the gallery at ColourQ and I will see you again later today.

Cheers,
Rachel