Stars Card in a Box

It was a lovely card class here on Friday night, with the girls making Card In A Box cards, all individual and all beautiful creations. The trouble with working at night is a) tiredness b) difficult lighting! We all agree that my electrician son should install some more down lights in the craft room, but trouble is, he doesn't work in the trade anymore because he doesn't like getting into the ceiling space.
The conditions weren't really ideal for photographing their creations, but earlier I had taken a reasonably clear photo of the back of a card being created for Mother's Day which has a Travel/French theme. The front was gorgeous too, but by the time it was finished , it was VERY late! We had some lovely floral fantasies for special birthdays, and a small boy's first birthday card. I'm sure the recipients will be thrilled!
If the ladies email me photos of their finished card, I will edit them into the blog, how about it girls?

Genella's card above and below

During the week before the class, I decided to put together another variation of this fun card. Simply Stars and Starburst Sayings featured heavily in this production. The Starburst Sayings stamps are a breeze to cut out, with their matching Framelits, and you know, if you bundle the stamps and framelits, key in the right code (wood 134817 $77.25: clear 134818 $69.50) you save 15%. If you do it before Monday 31st at 11pm, you'd only have to buy another $20 (approximately) to earn a FREE SALE-A-BRATION item. $90 before shipping qualifies. After Monday, it's all over for another year!

I'm lucky enough to still have a retired star punch, which punches the larger star from Simply Stars. I sell off some of my retired stock to help finance the next purchases, but some things are just too good to let go. I do hope star punches return, or maybe there will be framelits for those in the new catalogue, released July 1st in Australia. The Circle Card Thinlets Die has a star and a heart included, and they were well used in the class.

Label Something stamp set provided the greeting and just like all the stamps in Label Love, it can be punched out easily with the Artisan Label Punch. My girls love Label Love, it has stamps for babies, weddings, birthdays, just for you and more. I've forgotten to point out to them that if they buy the stamp set and the Artisan Label Punch together in a bundle, they can save 15% on the cost as well. It jogged my memory when another clever customer put her order in today, so I'm just pointing that out too. The prices are actually slightly lower than shown in the current catalogue, a lovely surprise when you enter the following codes, although the prices I've entered here are correct - wood mount bundle 132723 $60.25: clear mount 132722 $52.50.

The back of the card is reasonably plain, another star punched out and 'Make A Wish' sentiment from the Perfect Pennants stamp set. That can be bundled with the Pennant framelits for a 15% saving. You just need to find the Bundle and Save  boxes throughout the large annual catalogue or the thinner Occasions catalogue.

You can see a floral card here, or another floral in a different color scheme, plus some childrens cards here.

If you and a friend would like to make your own card in a box, and South Morang, Victoria isn't out of your way, email me for a day or night. It takes about 3-3½ hours. The 8th and 9th April are good for me at the moment, daytime or evening.

Hope you're having a great weekend,
Rachel

Black and White Wedding Card

My husband and I went to a wedding at the weekend. It was a lovely event, and I tried to make a classy card for the occasion.
Shimmery White card #121717 (page 156) is a better card for these types of greeting cards. It is heavier than Whisper White and has a delightful shimmer. I used Chalk Talk for the large stamped label, behind it is a plain black label punched with the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch. It's very hard to see in the large photo but on top of the Chalk Talk Label there is a banner cut from Silver Glimmer paper using the Bitty Banners Framelits, and then a Label stamped with MR & MRS from Label Love and punched with the Artisan Label Punch.

These Framelits and punches make crafting so easy.

At left is another very similar card I made at the same time, to have a spare on hand, and you can see the layering in more detail here.

Happy crafting
Rachel

So Saffron Sympathy FMS #125 & CTD #281

 I need to replenish my supply of sympathy cards, and because when you need them, you're unlikely to be in a creative mode, I like to keep a few on hand. I have been feeling a little off-colour all day and that is my excuse for mirror-reversing Narelle's lovely sketch. It wasn't until I began to place all the pictures here on the blog that I fully realised! I'm sure that it won't cause a problem to the lovely ladies at Freshly Made Sketches, they're a forgiving group and permit 'artistic liscence'. If you visit their blog you will find oodles more inspiration.

I went to The Color Throwdown for some colour inspiration, they are rather cheery colours, I'm not sure how I will feel about them when I need the card, but it seemed a good idea when I started. The stamp set is Happy Watercolor, a greeting comes from Thoughts and Prayers and it is mounted on the baby stamp from Label Love, I really liked the checked pattern in black and white and the Artisan Label Punch makes this stamp set so easy to use. The smaller oval punch was perfect for the greeting and covered the other words on the baby stamp.

Thanks for visiting my blog

Rachel

Gorgeous Banner Blast - SUO Challenges #91

Banners have been becoming more and more fashionable over the last 12 months (or more!) and now you can use a punch to cut teeny, tiny banners. Of course there are also the NEW Framelit dies to cut six different sizes, and naturally, matching stamps to co-ordinate with all of them too.Perfect Pennants matches the Banner Framelits.
 I have a stamping class tomorrow night, and this is a card they may choose to make, using Gorgeous Grunge stamp set, Lovely Labels stamp set and the matching Artisan Label Punch. The banners were punched with the Banner Punch available during SALE-A-BRATION. It goes with Banner Blast stamp set, another SALE-A-BRATION freebie.


 SUO Challenges was my inspiration point, there will be plenty to inspire you too!Colours used here are Bermuda Bay, Pool Party, Real Red, Summer Starfruit and Tangerine Tango.

Happy stamping
Rachel

Happy Birthday

It has been a little while since my youngest son's birthday, so I can safely share the card I made for him using new colours and product from Stampin' Up!

They're not so new now, and you can go to my online shop to place your order (if you reside in Australia). Here is the link to my online store. You even earn the same hostess benefits there as you do when you spend $300 with me personally.
The card colour is Bermuda Bay, an In-colour from the time before I was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and  reintroduced in the brights colour family. Its just beautiful!
The inks I used were Bermuda Bay, Smoky Slate, Midnight Muses and Basic Black.

I have used the lovely new stamp set Gorgeous Grunge on the front of the card and some of the Epic Day washi tape too.  The greeting is from Label Love and cut out with an Artisan Label Punch. I cut a window out of the card front with my 2½ inch circle punch and used 2 of the hot air balloons out of the now (retired) Up Up and Away stamp set and the greeting was also from the (retired) stamp set Word Play. At the time I needed the card, my new greeting stamps were in transit or I probably would have used the Live the life you've imagined from Really Good Greetings. Aaron is at a junction in his life, so to speak, finishing off his science degree with a year of research on site and in the laboratory, before he moves on to the "Real World".

Happy stamping!
Rachel