Another Birthday FMS#152

Another lovely sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week. I decided to rotate it 90° because it would accommodate my sentiment better with that orientation. I've been giving my Flower Shop stamp set and Pansy Punch some long-awaited attention over the past few days, and I'm glad to be back spending time with these 'old friends'.
I was in a 'purple' mood, and Blackberry Bliss is so rich and luscious! I mounted the strip of  Moonlight Designer Series Paper Stack onto another strip of gold foil for that touch of glamour. I already had a curved strip of Blackberry Bliss left over from another project, but the curve adds some interest, doesn't it? The sentiment is from a retired hostess set, Simply Sketched and the leaves are from Kinda Eclectic.

Hope you're having a happy weekend,
Rachel

Flower Shop Wood Stamp Set

$41.95

Flower Shop 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

Gold Foil Sheets

$6.95

Pansy Punch

$27.95

Shimmery White A4 Card Stock

$13.95

Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Simple Flower Thanks PP196

I made this simple little 'Thank You' card a while back to illustrate how you can 'step up' a card. You know, you've made a card, and it just seems to lack something.
With this one, I added the Smoky Slate mat, and a strip of SALE-A-BRATION DSP, Sweet Sorbet, also on a mat. The stamp sets are Simply Sketched for the flower and the thanks, and Off The Grid for a bit of background interest.
Ann, at The Paper Players has called for a Clean and Simple Floral and I think this just might qualify!!!
Hope you've had a lovely stamping day,
Rachel

Heartfelt Sympathy HSS#184 & DD#100

Aren't these colours for Triple Treat Week at Dynamic Duos so soft and soothing? They would make a lovely birthday or new arrival card, but I have chosen to make another sympathy card. What is sad is that this 100th challenge is the very last challenge for the team at Dynamic Duos. While I haven't entered every week, I frequently use the suggested colour pairs as a reference point.

My other inspiration this week is this sketch for Hand Stamped Sentiments. This is such a sweet sketch, and I decided to use some leaves from the Peaceful Petals stamp set. Shelli's favourite Postage Stamp Punch teamed with a 1" Square Punch are a perfect pair. Eastern Elegance DSP has a lovely Smokey Slate paper for the background. A couple of the DD Design team also used this same paper and as we near the end of the catalogue, these papers will retire,and new exciting ones will replace them. I took the sentiment from Simply Sketched, a hostess stamp set. This stamp set will soon be retired also, as Hostess sets only exist for the life of a catalogue, whether it be a mini catalogue or the annual catalogue. It also has a leafy branch that I could have used instead of Peaceful Petals.

Wishing you a peaceful week
Rachel
Remembering my dear mother, Judith 01.10.1926-30.04.2009

So Grateful

Such a hot weekend, I've spent all my days indoors tidying and crafting. I must get my craft room tidied up because I have a class at the end of the month, and the ladies will need room to get crafty too.

I wonder if it's stretching it to say that Raspberry Ripple is a shade of pink? Possibly, but the rest of the card is definitely pink - Strawberry Slush. The challenge at The Card Concept is 'Monochromatic Pink' and I think this card fits the Clean and Layered category. The label is from the Chalk Talk stamp set, the flowers are the lovely poppies from Simply Sketched, a Hostess stamp set. Don't the dahlia (button) embellishments look bright in the photo?

You probably can't see that I stamped the poppy image two extra times and cut portions of the flower to layer. I can see this as a Mother's Day card, so long as Mum loves pink!

Back to work at my regular job tomorrow! At least it has cooled down slightly.
Thanks for visiting my blog

Rachel

Morning Meadow Birthday RS

With all the craziness of Christmas, it is easy to overlook birthdays! I have a friend whose birthday is the day before, so in among my Christmas list is a note to choose a gift for her also. when I wrapped her gift in its pretty soft green paper, it struck me how similar the pattern was to the sprig of flowers in the Morning Meadow stamp set.

Using Pistachio Pudding I stamped on Whisper White and over -stamped in Baked Brown Sugar and the birthday greeting from Simply Sketched. I then used the Circles Collection to cut the white circle and a larger one in Crumb Cake and popped an In-color embellishment on the corner. It is loosely based on this sketch at Retro Sketches.





Thanks for looking,

Rachel

Sending Sympathy RS#87

It was such a lovely sunny day today, I spent all of it in the garden, so it was quite late when I began to put this card together. This sweet sketch at retro sketches is the inspiration and for some reason, I thought 'sympathy card'. I really do like the clean, simplicity of this sketch and I quickly made two cards.

This pale blue one has the flower sprig from Morning Meadow (a hostess stamp set) and the greeting from Simply Sketched (also a hostess set). I inked the stamps using Stampin' Writes in Smoky Slate and Marina Mist.







The pale green card has the grass from Wetlands and also the bird and grass and greeting from Simply Sketched. I added a little Island Indigo to the bird using a Stampin' Up! Aquapainter.

These are really easy cards which can be made in a jiffy, and always handy to have ready.

Until next time
Cheerio
Rachel

Simply Sketched Thank You - Cas on Sunday

I needed some simple little Thank You notes, and the NEW hostess stamp set Simply Sketched seemed perfect, along with the challenge at CAS on Sunday. The challenge is "Kraft and Twine". Crumb Cake is the  Stampin' Up! kraft colour, and they have many shades of Baker's Twine.

I've stamped two of the leafy image and one of the poppy from Simply Sketched with Early Espresso, before taking my trusty Aqua Painter and adding Strawberry Slush to the flower, Rich Razzleberry to the berries and Old Olive to the leaves.

It was quite easy with the Cropodile to punch a pair of holes to thread the Cherry Cobbler Bakers Twine through and tie a simple bow. There are three greetings included in this Hostess stamp set, Thanks so much is just one of them. So there it is, all completed, with plenty of space inside for a thank you note!

You don't actually need to hostess a party to earn this stamp set but you still need to spend $300 to earn $50 hostess dollars, to be spent on either exclusive Hostess items or other catalogue products. This also applies to sales through my online store.

Cheers,
Rachel

Simply Sketched Sympathy FMS90

I can hardly wait for the new catalogue to be released in Australia - just over 2 weeks to go now!

Ever since we had a sneak peek at Convention, there has been excitement in the air. Now many of us have our hands on the new In-colors and returning colours plus a few stamp sets and accessories we are desperate to show them off to our customers.

Sneak Peek!

Last week I was at my Upline, Sue's house, and she let me stamp off some images from a hostess set from the coming catalogue, Simply Sketched.

I only stamped two of the three sketched images, and one of the greetings, because that is what I needed at the moment, but as well as this sweet poppy there is a sprig of  leaf with a few berries, and a darling little bird, which I've now seen very subtley water-coloured too. The other greetings are Happy Birthday Wishes and Thanks So Much.
There I was this morning with a page of stamped images, a sketch from Linda Callaghan at Freshly Made Sketches and an urge to break out my new ink pads. I began by cutting the images with a variety of Framelits, this one is two sizes of  the Labels Collection Framelits. These were the first ones released and mine are very well-used. I have used Crumb Cake as my base, and teamed it up with Pistachio Pudding, the prettiest shade of green ever. I embossed a piece using the Fancy Fan embossing folder through the Big Shot. At convention we were given a stamp set (in the New Catalogue) called Gorgeous Grunge, and it definitely is that. These diagonal stripes (or half chevron, if you like) are stamped in Strawberry Slush using, probably, the least grungy stamp in the set. If you love splodges and sprinkles, this stamp set will be a "must have". I finished it off with a Very Vintage button threaded with Calypso Coral Bakers Twine.

I have had the Aquapainter for ages, but had only ever used one of them to bleach stamped images. I thought that Stampin' Write Markers and a Blender pen were all I needed for watercolouring. However, at the weekend I spent some time with a fellow demonstrator and she showed me the water colouring she had done with an Aquapainter, so I decided to give mine another try. Oh my goodness! It was so much fun, and I love the effect, so soft and pretty. So once I have earned the Simply Sketched stamp set, I will really be giving the Aquapainter a work out. You can order a pack of two for $19.95, and you don't even have to use the water colour paper, although I think that would give a nice finish to this image.

You get to choose from our lovely Hostess only stamp sets if you host a demonstration, and your sales reach at least $300. Another way is to hold a "Virtual" party and collect up the orders and money from your friends totaling that amount, or you might be Stampin' Up! obsessed, just like me, and have no trouble putting together a $300 plus order all by yourself!

I've already finished my "other job" working week, and I look forward to the next few days stamping up a storm, although my darling husband and I are travelling into the city tomorrow night to see "Jesus Christ, Superstar".
Hope you have something nice to look forward to, as well
Cheers
Rachel