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

Tri-fold Birthday Card

Today was my second grandson's 6th birthday. I won't see him till Sunday, so I do have a little time up my sleeve, but this morning I decided I would make a dinosaur tri-fold card for his birthday.

This was the first time I had made one and I've pretty much bluffed it all the way, so they're not hard to put together. However, the decorating did take quite a long time, because I kept adding. The original idea involved No Bones About It and a different dinosaur, but once the Sheltering Trees were added, the first dinosaur was too tall. 

Next came the party hat and a cupcake (that's from a stamp set in the Stampin' Up!® Occasions Catalogue, out January 5th). Later I added three balloons, then the large one from Celebrate Today was added to hold the number 6. That is also new, Number of Years is the stamp set, and there is a co-ordinating Framelit set with 2 banners and a set of large numbers. I know I will get a lot of use from this set, with some 40ths coming in the next few months, and it its always fun to put an age on the children's special cards. 

Finally, I added two more balloons, so the balloons equal the number of years. The two smaller balloons are also from the Occasions Catalogue. Balloon Celebration has a few variations of sentiments and balloons, and even better, there's a punch for the two sizes of balloon. You're able to purchase this in a bundle at a 15% discount. I'm a sucker for balloons..... well, this sort rather than the real thing, which can unpredictably pop!

There was a large white space on the inside of the middle panel to write a message, and I used the leafy green paper from Botanical Gardens Designer Series Paper to cover two of the front facing panels. I do hope Isaac likes partying dinosaurs, his mum has sent me a photo of his cake tonight and it is a treasure map, so maybe I should have gone down the pirate path!!!!

It is expected to reach 41°C (106°F) here in Melbourne tomorrow,

Enjoy your weekend,

Cheers, Rachel

Don't forget, you can shop for your supplies even during the holiday season. Any image below will take you to that item in my shop or you can shop online here too. There are Year-End Clearance items too!

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Thinking Of You CTC#29

Every Friday night at 7pm (AEST), the CTC Crew will share some ideas with you from the latest Stampin' Up!® catalogue.
***Excitedly waiting for the new catty on June 2nd***
We might CASE totally(Copy and Share Everything), or use a sketch/layout, colour combo or an embellishment to begin the creative process.
You might be starting here with me, or you may have arrived from the CTC Blog, either way, you can continue all the way around until you get back to the start.

This week the challenge was to use the card at the top left of this page, the one with the pink tree and the doiley as our inspiration.  I'll let you in on a little secret too, you'll be seeing more of Sheltering Tree over the coming year. I could so easily have directly CASE-d this card, but decided to try to experiment a little.

I had a piece of card stamped with Hardwood and I've paired it with Lost Lagoon and Soft Sky. The doiley was layered on first, followed by a banner cut from Irresistably Yours Specialty DSP. There is a quite similar DSP coming in the new catalogue too, which I am very pleased about. I used Petal Potpourri for the large flower, and the smaller Petite Petals. Both these flowers have matching punches. Petal Potpourri hasn't made the cut for the new catty though so if you like this stamp set, you need to order it before the end of May. You'll find a link to it at the end of my post. The lovely sentiment is from Sheltering Tree.

I spent last week away on the Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia) at the South Pacific Stampin' Up!® Convention. The motto for Queensland is "Sunny one day, perfect the next." Unfortunately a cyclone came through the week we were up there, and I was very glad that I didn't have too high a floor for the apartment, as the winds were extremely strong. The weather didn't stop us enjoying our convention, it's always so much fun: learning about new products, having inspiring demonstrators share with us, getting together socialising. If you would like to join Stampin' Up!® and be a part of this sort of fun (and pre-order from the new catalogue now) contact me to find out more. rpalmieri5@bigpond.com or phone/text 0417 500 681

A lot of the Australasian CASE-ing The Catty Crew finally met face-to-face for the first time.We tried to get together for a dinner, but there were so many other things going on that only a few of us could go. However, we have finally made a connection and the friendships will continue to develop.

Now you can hop on over to see Rebecca Benson, I'm sure she has something wonderful to share with you.

Cheers,
Rachel

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