Cupcake Birthday

My friend is an amazing baker of cakes and seems to be able to turn out enough delicious cakes in an evening (after working all day too) to keep a cafè fully stocked. She always laughs when we tell her that. I put together some cupcakes for her celebration - only mine are paper, because I'm not great in the kitchen, paper is my passion.

For the paper patties I experimented while using Stampin' Markers to colour them. That technique is 'Ink To Rubber' and can come in handy when you want to pick out different features on a stamp, like the spots on some of the paper cases. I used mostly pale pastels, but injected a bit more life with a splash of Island Indigo, Elegant Eggplant and Hello Honey.

There's some texture in the background with butterflies of assorted sizes on the larger Fluttering Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. That is why there's a tiny silver punched butterfly as well. These cupcakes are easy to make, there are two styles of icing and two styles of paper patties to mix and match in Cupcake Party, plus the Cupcake Builder Punch helps to punch them out. I did grab Sprinkles of Life for the sentiments on the front, too cute!

Unfortunately, Cupcake Party and the Cupcake Buider Punch have retired from the Stampin' Up!® range now, to be replaced by Sweet Cupcake and the Cupcake Cutouts Framelits, available as a bundle at 10% off and shown on page 23 of the Annual Catalogue.Sprinkles of Life is still available.
What colour cupcake will you make?


Cheers, Rachel

Happy Easter Chick CTC#71

This week at CASE-ing The Catty we are CASE-ing Easter - from any catalogue. I scanned the Occasions catalogue and found inspiration on page 24 with a card using the Easter lamb stamp and a bag with a star-shaped window cut out. The Stampin' Up!® artists who design all the projects for the catalogues do a fabulous job. It's always worthwhile CASE-ing the catalogue samples to get your own creativity happening. You can change up the colours, or stamps and Framelits, or even begin by copying it outright - that's the whole point of CASE-ing.                                                                                                                                                            I was really glad that Suite Sayings had this lovely big Easter stamp included. You'll find this set of 10 varied sentiments on page 41 of the Occasions Catalogue. Honeycomb Happiness is a SALE-A-Bration stamp set, and that is finishing up on March 31st, so not long left now for you to place your $90 order and get a free item, like Honeycomb Happiness.

The card I CASE-d is on page 24 of the Occasions Catalogue. The artists water coloured the grass and sky around the lamb, but I've used another stamp set to help me out.

Sprinkles Of Life decorated the card with fluffy clouds and small flowers. It will definitely be retiring at the end of May, because it is an annual stamp set dedicated to raise funds for Ronald McDonald House. In fact, $3 of each sale of Sprinkles Of Life goes to Ronald McDonald House in Australia, where I live. Whichever country you make your purchase in, that is where the donation to RMCH is made. Isn't that a great idea? You can find it on the inside of the back cover of the Annual catalogue. It comes in handy for building a scene like I have here around the chick.

It's time for me to get a move on and make some more of these little bags to hold some treats for Easter. It's easy to do with a Gift Bag Punch Board. The paper is 15cm by 25.5cm to make a small bag. At the top I've made a flap closure and the smallest oval has been used to cut a window. The chick from Honeycomb Happiness has been lightly watercolored and adhered partially covering the window.

You can stop by and visit by pressing the next button or pop back to see Judy's amazing project

  

or keep on hopping forward to Kathryn to see her cute Easter treats.

Cheers, Rachel

Birthday Wishes CTC#34

The most celebrated annual event would have to be birthdays, which probably means that it's birthday cards we need most of - am I right?

This week at CASE -ing The Catty, we are focusing on the birthday section of the new Annual catalogue, pages 5-12. You may have arrived here from Kathryn's blog, or perhaps you are starting here. Kathryn and I used the same inspiration sketch, in different ways, don't you love that you can do that? If you keep on hopping from blog to blog, you'll have lots of ideas for your next batch of birthday cards!

Page 5, is where I found heaps of inspiration. I focused on two of the cards and made only minor changes. Mainly, I decided not to use lace, substituting patterned paper from Cherry On Top. I'm using these as class samples for my July class, so wanted to show a couple of different colour choices. This year's In Colors are a delight, so fresh, and Watermelon Wonder is a fave of mine. I really like the way they co-ordinate with the existing colours and just add pizzazz to the range.The Cherry On Top Designer Series Paper Stack co-ordinates perfectly with it, and the Bermuda Bay used on my other pair of cards.

Build A Birthday, a new photopolymer stamp set provided most of these images, and Sprinkles of Life and Cupcake Party helped out a little when I couldn't find a suitable image in Build A Birthday.

I experimented with the fringing too and the watermelon card has fringes of card, while the blue has the Cotton Paper. The ladies at class will have the opportunity to choose which they'd prefer, as the Cotton Paper comes in a pack of four colours.

One class is on Friday 17th July at 7pm or Thursday 23rd July at 7pm, in South Morang, Victoria. Everything is supplied, no obligation to make any purchases, email me, rpalmieri5@bigpond.com for more details or to book in.

Hostess code for online orders under $250 is B6VWKZMJ. If your order is more than $250 you will be invited to make your own Hostess selections at the end of your order (10% of order before shipping).

The blue card reminds me a lot of a pinata, so maybe I prefer that, but regardless, its easy to cut this fringing with the Fringe Scissors.

Next you're heading off to Monique's blog, she has a cheeky little card for you!
And if by chance you get lost anywhere along the blog, this link to CASE-ing The Catty will see you back on track.

Enjoy

Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

It's Sneak Peek Week at CTC#32

Welcome to the CASE-ing The Catty Blog Hop. This week we are giving you a sneak peek of some of the new goodies coming in the about-to-be-released Stampin' Up!® catalogue. You may have come from my friend Kathryn's blog, or perhaps you are starting the blog here. Either way, keep on going around until you have done a complete circuit.

It's not long until the new Stampin' Up! catalogue goes 'live', Tuesday June 2nd will be a busy day, because you can purchase from all three catalogues, just for one day, but at 11.50pm Tuesday, last year's annual catalogue and the Occasions Catalogue will retire. I wonder if you have you marked your new catalogue with post-it notes, like I did? As a demo, I did get to order some select items earlier, and I'm loving playing with those, and planning my classes for the remainder of the year.

My favourite stamp set from Convention might be Sprinkles Of Life.  It could be the variety of cards you can make with these different stamps, or perhaps the Tree Builder Punch which matches it, making those clouds/ice cream super-easy to punch out. You can make cupcakes, ice creams, flower baskets, trees or clouds with just three stamps. They're all so much fun, because of the cute sentiments that go along with them. How about "Hope your day stacks up to be one good thing on top of another" on the ice cream card or "Every cloud has a silver lining - you just have to look up to see it" which is on the card with the grey clouds.

The card with the three scoops of ice cream features a couple of new In Colors:- Watermelon Wonder card and the lovely, soft, Dotted Lace Trim in Delightful Dijon. The new Paper Stack,  measuring 6" by 6" now, Cherry On Top comes in a gorgeous selection of fresh Brights and In Colors. The ice cream is Pool Party, Watermelon Wonder and Soft Saffron, the splodges behind, from Gorgeous Grunge, are stamped in the same colours. One of the new features in the catalogue which you'll love, especially if you don't have every colour in the range, is the co-ordinated packs of plain A4 cardstock which you can purchase to match the Paper Stack or 12" by 12" Designer Series Paper. They have eight sheets of  3 colours, a total of 24 sheets of card for $12.25.

You know another really good thing about Sprinkles Of Life? It's the stamp set that helps support Ronald McDonald House Charities, and $3 from the sale of each of these stamp sets is donated to RMHC in Australia (or the country in which you make your purchase). You can find this stamp on the inside of the back cover of the catalogue.

I CASE-d the Catty to make the card with clouds, just changing the colour of the striped strip down the right side of the card.

Maybe my raindrops are a bit lighter than the original too, and the Stampin' Up!® designers may have used silver embossing powder (I had none) while I have used Dazzling Diamonds. It does look like an awfully close CASE. I love the sparkle of Dazzling Diamonds. If you purchase from my Online Shop and use the Hostess Code B6VWKZMJ I will post you a 'little something' from my stash.

Folks who come to my June classes will get to make three cards with Sprinkles Of Life stamp set and the Tree Builder Punch. There are spaces on Friday 19th June at 7pm- 9.30pm, or if you and a friend would like to attend a daytime workshop in South Morang, Victoria. I am happy to run a class for 2 people, we will just have to negotiate a day and time. The third card, and some other options haven't been made yet but could feature a tree, basket of apples, flowers or something else. I keep my classes relatively small, and allow you a certain degree of creativity with your work. Email rpalmieri5@bigpond.com for more information or text 0417 500 681.

Perhaps you'd better pop along to Emma Palonek's blog now, to see which sneak peeks she is sharing with us all.
Cheers,
Rachel

If you get lost along the way, this will help you get back on track.

CTC Blog - http://caseingthecatty.blogspot.com/2015/05/case-ing-catty-sneak-peek-week.html

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Joy Fold Class

We had a very lively workshop last Friday night despite some last-minute cancellations, or perhaps because the numbers were down, the girls really let loose! I had pre-cut Sahara Sand card for all the attendees, so they all started with this card. One made it as a wedding card, using Bermuda Bay as the accent colour, and two changed it to a birthday card with Big News providing a big sentiment.



Annette also made a second Joy-Fold card using Adventure Bound DSP Paper Stack as her starting point. The dies for Something For Baby provided the soccer top (shhh... don't tell Haris).She has made a birthday card for her soccer playing son.






Genella also had certain people in mind as she put together her three cards. We especially loved her fish card, using By The Tide and Adventure Bound DSP. Unfortunately, it is slightly out of focus at the back of the photo.
Apothecary Art, retiring June 2nd, has made a final appearance here, looking gorgeous in shades echoing the colours of the DSP.


You might notice the theme of Prue's cards was happiness in one form or another!
She was needing a wedding card immediately, hopefully the recipients realise the thoughtfulness of a handcrafted card, Bravo is where the middle sentiment comes from, and of course the Hello You Thinlets has 'happy' and yes, that set is carrying over for another 12 months.


Next month's class is pencilled in for Friday June 19th and we will be using a new stamp set, Sprinkles of Life, Tree Builder Punch and doing some heat embossing. Already two of my regulars have indicated that the date might not suit them, so if you think coming to a class in South Morang, Victoria might interest you, contact me to find out more. It is Friday night at 7pm, although I'd love to start daytime classes on a Thursday or Friday, if two or more people were interested. There's no obligation to purchase supplies from me, the $20 fee covers the class and everything you use. You're more than welcome to collect a catalogue to study at your leisure of course, and anyone in Australia can purchase from my online shop.

Have a great week
Cheers
Rachel

Sprinkles Anyone? FMS186

I've had a busy few days, mainly playing with my pre-order goodies and having some of my team come check them out too. The weather has improved markedly over the past couple of days. so there have been opportunities to enjoy the sunshine outdoors. I could handle weather like this all the time.

I'm loving the new In Colors, I like them all, but seem to be using Watermelon Wonder first. In truth I thought it would be Mint Macaron, such a soft and pretty shade. I did know for certain that I would love the new stamp set Sprinkles of Life, after seeing examples made with it at the South Pacific Stampin' Up!® Convention. It has some great little sentiments and even better, there's a Tree Builder Punch to help with cutting the cloud/tree top/ cupcake icing.

I used Tip Top Taupe as the base behind the Watermelon Wonder and used paper piercing to add a little interest. Jen Brum at Freshly Made Sketches provided the sketch for inspiration. Some paper from Cherry On Top Designer Series Paper Stack was stamped for the paper patty under the pink icing. Paper stacks have been increased in size to 6" by 6", only another 2 inches, but it just means that the paper is more useable for scrapbook pages as well as larger greeting cards.

Looking forward to another big week at work,
cheers
Rachel

South Pacific Stampin' Up!® Convention 2015 - Day Two

Friday was the second day of Convention for me and sunny Queensland wasn't quite so sunny
anymore. There were strong winds and heavy showers of rain. My weather app. wasn't totally truthful about how bad the weather was!
We were at the Convention Centre in time for the doors to open at 8.30am for General session. By now, we'd all had a look through the catalogue, I'd even started post-it marking some of the ones I considered 'must-haves'. There were a few on the pre-order list that I was going to be able to leave off. The budget was looking like it would balance!

Then Sara Douglass demonstrated Sprinkles Of Life, the new stamp set that supports Ronald McDonald House Charities. It makes it seem so much better knowing $3 of the $37 purchase price goes directly to RMHC in the country of purchase. Stampin' Up!® support this charity in other ways as well. We all contribute cards for the occupants to use, and many demos and SU staff take part in community service activities. Above,is one of the cards Sara showed, there are so many super-cute ideas, I can hardly wait to have this one as a class! (I'm thinking....July?) It has a dinky little Tree Builder Punch which co-ordinates with it too! [squeal]

Pam Jorgensen demonstrated a couple of new stamp sets too, and also included Crazy About You. The colours she used for her samples were very vibrant and I was so enthused I added Build A Birthday to my wish list.



Last item for the morning was being taken through the Make and Take before we broke up and went to another big hall to make our card, and eat our packaged lunch. There was an opportunity to play with new products again if you hadn't already, look at and photograph samples before an afternoon of business training.

Sharon and I were heading back to the hotel for a rest before the evening party. It was only raining lightly, but oh boy! were we being buffeted by the wind? This wasn't the only time our umbrellas turned inside out, but Sharon grabbed her phone and snapped me hanging on for dear life. A little later the rain began bucketing down, and we wondered if we'd go to the presentation and party in the evening. After firing a few text messages around, we'd decided that a taxi was warrented, even though it was only about 500 metres and luckily, the taxi drivers had no qualms about short distance fares.

This has turned out to be a rather long story, so I will hold over the evening event for another post.
Let me know if you enjoy hearing about our event, and if there is anything you want to know, just ask.
Rachel