Menagerie of Balloons

Balloon Builders was a cute little stamp set brought out a couple of years ago when they introduced the Balloon Builder Punch and isn't that a totally handy tool? I guess this stamp set has now run its course, as it is on the retiring list. It is still available in my online shop -$28.00 (as I write this) and I want to share some cards made using this set.

For these I CASE-d the catalogue, used the colours in the DSP (designer series paper) for my colour choices, and incorporated a retired stamp set for the verse inside and 'Baby' on the front. To me, the 'bear' needed eyes, so there are dots in the appropriate place.

This 'mouse' is celebrating a birthday, but it's hard to see if she's having a good time or not. You know every time you stamp these critters they turn out quite differently from the one before?

Another 'mouse' and balloons, but with longer 'arms' and this one isn't one of the 3 blind mice, she has her eyes, and nose on what is going on. I glimmered things up a bit with Wink of Stella clear too. When you look on Pinterest, you'll see endless possibilities for this stamp set - rabbits, dogs, lions, flowers - you name it. I've hardly explored the possibilities.

What about a big bunch of blue balloons? Nice, quick & easy.

I hope you are spending time doing what you enjoy on this longer than usual weekend.

Cheers, Rachel

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

Wildflower Birthday Wishes SAB CTC#68

   This week at CASE-ing The Catty we are sharing another SALE-A-Bration pick, whether it be a stamp set, one of the papers or even Project Life - they're all available for you to pick when you make an order of $90. If you happen to be mad for everything in the Occasions catalogue, you can pick an item for every $90 you order ($180 = 2 items, $270 = 3 items, $360 = 4 etc). If you get as high as that, maybe you should have a chat to me about joining up as a demonstrator, Stampin' Up!® welcomes and supports all types of demonstrators from the hobby demo buying crafting supplies at a discount, through to those making it a full time business. During SALE-A-Bration you get to choose $60 extra, choose $295 of any products from the Annual Catalogue and/or the Occasions Catalogue and pay only $169. Of course, if you prefer to be a customer, you can purchase your supplies through my online shop, or by contacting me, you just need to have a delivery address in Australia. 

One of the great things about being a demonstrator is being able to really plan your spending to take advantage of these promotions. This is the time of year when I stocktake my card, dimensionals, glues - really all the consumables I use for classes. Naturally I spread it over the three months of Sale-A-Bration so it doesn't do too much damage to my budget, and I usually end up with everything from the SAB catty. I love the SAB products, possibly because they have to be earned and there are generally less of them around. On the other hand, have you noticed what fantastic sets of sentiments they have during SAB. You can't ever have enough variations of 'happy birthday' greetings, can you?

The card in the catalogue with the cute chick is so sweet, I could have happily CASE-d it for my project. However, where's the challenge in that? Using that layout as my base, I took the Wildflower Fields DSP, Flowering Fields and Perfect Pairings rubber stamps, and this is what I came up with. I'm just a tiny bit besotted with the wee butterfly too, it's such a sweet little addition. This is a simple little card really, you could use this design for so many different cards.

With that challenge on my mind, I've substituted a baby bear for a cute chick. Bear Hugs comes with dies to cut the many pieces, and Balloon Builder of course has the matching punch, but this exercise was to show what you could do with less supplies. Cherry On Top is the paper stack used at the bottom of the card, it has helped me to pull a variety of colours for the card. I am wishing that I'd put a wee butterfly over baby bear's head (and I think I might just do that before it leaves my hands!)

Would you like to learn how to make cards like this for your family and friends? I have a simple beginners class on Thursday 10th March. Come at 10 am or 7pm, it will only take 1-1½ hours to make two very easy cards. The location is South Morang, Victoria - more details given when you make contact. Email-  rpalmieri5@bigpond.com

If you'd like to play along at CASE-ing The Catty, you can link your project here.

You may have arrived from CASE-ing the Catty

and perhaps now you're going to head off to Helen at H2 Designs

Have fun hopping

Cheers, Rachel

Farewell To Some Sale-A-Bration Items

Most of you are probably aware of the Stampin' Up!® annual promotion which always takes place in the New Year. It's the reason I joined up as a hobby demonstrator nearly 5 years ago. (My anniversary is February 28th) and every year I've loved the SALE-A-Bration collection, and usually hang onto the stamp sets. They often have great sentiments and images, and because they are only on offer with a qualifying purchase (for less than 3 months too) they are a little bit different.

Two stamp sets, and one Designer Series Paper are leaving the collection early - Monday 15th January will be the last day to add them onto your qualifying order. $90 if you want one, $180 for two or $270 for all three!

It's hard to pick a favourite out of the three. I've enjoyed using The Sky Is The Limit a lot. I used it for my January class and loved the way each of the ladies put their own spin onto my sample. They're a clever lot, those girls!





It's a great masculine stamp set and it fits in rather nicely with Traveler and Going Global stamp sets, so I will hang onto it. I made another pair of cards this week so you could see the DSP, which comes in six shades, 2 12" x 12" double-sided sheets per pack.




Now these neutrals don't really do the paper justice, but I'm sure when you see the pink, which is Melon Mambo one side and Blushing Bride the other you'll be more impressed.
Quite a contrast, isn't it? This is the other retiring stamp set, Hello.


As well as the word 'hello' in a large clear script, there are 4 sub-titles: Little Sunshine, Birthday Girl, Birthday Boy and My Friend.
For the Melon Mambo version, I've used only stamps from Hello. The little party hat is also part of it, along with a smiley face and a sun. They're designed to fit on the 'e' or the 'o'. The Blushing Bride card has some flowers from A Whole Lot Of Lovely, which was out because I was making a card to send off to a team mate who is unwell.

I couldn't resist putting a card together for a Birthday Boy as well, using Boys Will Be Boys for the Lego and Balloon Builder for a balloon, but of course there are so many balloon stamp sets around at the moment, it could come from anywhere. If you have boys under 10 in your life, Boys Will Be Boys is a 'go to' stamp set too. The different coloured Lego were water-coloured using ink and an aquapainter, easy enough, and the background lego were just stamped out in matching ink.

The inside of this card was a bit of fun too! This time the lego were stamped in 4 different colours, there is some brightly coloured washi tape at the bottom and two sentiments from Party With Cake.
You can see the little smiley face here too, but I haven't yet used the sun or Little Sunshine. I bet they'll fit into the Sunburst Sayings range rather nicely though. So which of these SAB items do you NEED in your stash?



Want to Join?


Another thing I'd like to remind you of. During SALE-A-Bration is a great time to join Stampin' Up!® especially if your wish list is a long one. The joining special is "pay $169, but order $295 retail of Stampin' Up!® products". There's no shipping to pay on that order, and you have until end of June to make your $440  quarterly minimum. Not sure what I'm talking about? Email me with a question, or a phone number and suitable time for me to call you and maybe you'll join the Stampin' Up!® family too.


It's totally okay to join for the discount, maybe you'll take your hobby further but Stampin' Up!® (nor me) will ever pressure you to do that. One of the unexpected bonuses for me has been the fun friendships and support I've received from other demonstrators. Oh, I'll just share the card I've posted to my team mate too. Its so pretty in shades of Smokey Slate and soft, subtle pastels.

I am an Australian demonstrator, living on the outskirts of Melbourne. My team, the South'n Stampers, is small and friendly. We try to meet up every couple of months to stamp together, sometimes a bit hard with work commitments and family, and I hold a class once a month. Email me at rpalmieri5@bigpond.com if you need to know more. If you have a long list from the Occasions Catalogue and Annual Catalogue ready to go now, you might want to click on the link to read terms and conditions.

Cheers, Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Valentine's Day CTC#65

Welcome again to another round of CASE-ing The Catty. Each week the crew take inspiration from a section of a Stampin' Up!® catalogue. Currently we are all so excited by our Occasions catalogue, but this week is Valentine's and we might have CASE-d the Annual catalogue too. CASE is an acronym which stands for "Copy And Share Everything" and we hope by sharing what we have CASE-d, you'll be inspired too.

If you happen to take a look at Page 14, you will see that I have CASE-d a tag there, and placed it on a card. It's hard to see but the patterned paper is Love Blossoms Designer Series Paper Stack and those are rows of sweet little hearts, all in Blushing Bride and white. Balloon Builders is a very cute stamp set, that you might take a look at and say, "What will I use that for?" I decided I'd begin by trying out all the animals etc that were showing on page 14. Some were easier than others, and it is fascinating how a slight change in position alters the look.




I've used this tilted-paper design before with this birthday card but I don't have a magic formula, I just place it and cut off the excess. The 6 inch square sheets in the paper stack might make this process easier I think, and there was a matching piece left over to line the inside too.

I've kept the card quite simple with the flower and sentiment stamped onto a 'no-fuss' circle, mounted on another white circle one size bigger. The sentiment is one of four from Balloon Builders, and a bonus is that two of the stamps can also get punched out beautifully with the Balloon Bouquet Punch, so that's two stamp sets you can use the punch with. I tied a strand of white baker's twine around the top card, and made a bow to finish it.




Strictly speaking this Going Global card isn't really a CASE, but an adaptation of the sample made at November 2015 Onstage in Melbourne, using products from the Going Places suite. After using it at Onstage, the paper stack,
World Traveler Embossing Folder and Going Global stamp set were all on my first order. My husband and I aren't the most sentimental of people. We don't celebrate Valentine's Day, I'd rather flowers for no particular reason and not over-priced arrangements, thank you very much. However, this card is the type I might give him on Valentine's Day (or for no particular reason).
This is a great product suite for masculine cards, and travel-related memory-keeping. I've been loving the other examples for Valentine's Day (or no particular reason) that have been popping up on Pinterest.

Starting this year we are doing a monthly challenge. If you have been inspired by any of the projects in the catalogue or on the blog hop, feel free to share with the linky tool at CASE-ing The Catty. A winner will be chosen and announced on the first post of the following month.

If you are travelling in reverse around this blog-hop, click on the previous button and go back to see what Kathryn is sharing this week. Otherwise, click on next to proceed forward to Rebecca. 

   

Cheers, Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Birthday Balloons Sneak Peek FMS#213

It's the end of a busy week, the house is clean (because I had a class last night) and my husband is away for a couple of days. What does that mean? Ooooh! Time to play with new stamp sets I picked up at Stampin' Up!® OnStage last Saturday. Freshly Made Sketches always remind me that there's still time to play at this time every week, and today I totally agreed. {wink}

Balloon Builders was included in our goody bag at registration, and a gift is always a treat, don't you think? I've started out with an easy card for the first inking, but I can hardly wait to try out some more adventerous ones. I picked up four bold shades and after masking a strip at the bottom (for the sentiment) and two sizes of balloon, I stamped away. A few balloons have their strings dangling and then I took the mask away and stamped 'Happy Birthday' along the white space.




It's time I used some of the washi tape I've been collecting [hoarding] for ages - just two strips on the card today, but it's a start!!!
I can hardly wait to get my hands on the punch that goes with this stamp set and another one from the NEW Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalogue out at the beginning of January.You have to love a new punch - they're so much FUN!!! A big thank you to Amy at Freshly Made Sketches for a cute sketch!

Have a great [crafty] weekend

Cheers, Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog