Pretty Kitties

This card has been a long time in the making, but I finished it off this morning, and a couple of hours later saw a notification that SUO Challenges has a two week challenge for Animal Critters. Sounds like it was meant to be.

 Four little kitties from Pretty Kitty were stamped and coloured  with pencils. The wall has had texture added with texture paste, the window frame cut using woodgrain paper and soon-to-retire Birthday Delivery provided the banner sentiment.

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Eclectic Friend

This card was made for an interstate friend of mine. It was fun to experiment with colour and the textured embossing paste.  I coloured the paste with Bermuda Bay from a re-inker bottle, and it is fascinating the variation of colour, almost like it was planned to fade out toward the edge!

Beautiful Bouquet was one of the stars featured here, but the supporting cast was pretty big!!! Birthday Delivery for the greeting inside the oval (doesn't it fit so snuggly?) The Lovely Word Thinlets pair nicely with Stitched Shape Framelits.

Five For All provides a witty verse for the inside of the card. I've found that a useful stamp set since it was introduced in the annual catalogue in June 2016. In the Occasions Catalogue you'll find another clever stamp set, Birthday Wit. I think that will make it onto my next order as I like some non-sentimental sentiments!

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If you choose to shop in my online store, and use the Host code, I share the bonuses with you.

End Of Year Gifts

Thankfully, I've had some time while off work caring for post-op husband, to pop into my craft room and make some end of year projects which I will now share with you. Of course there is lots more still to do, but at least I've made a start!

I've made a bag and card as a teacher gift, birthday cards for grandson and his little sister, a gift and card for a crafty friend and a scrapbook page for my sweet youngest grandchild.

Mainly these stamp sets, Crafting Forever and Pieces & Patterns along with about a quarter pack of Pick a Pattern DSP and some matching card were all I needed to make these, proving you can do a lot with minimal supplies. I did pull a few other stamps off the shelf to help out, but was pleased to feature mainly two.

 I really enjoyed making this gift for a friend, because I know she'll appreciate it. I'm waiting on my pre-order to deliver, when I will decorate some long notecards and envelopes to place in this box. It's a sneak peek from the Occasions catalogue, beginning 3 January 2018. It seemed appropriate to add the pen to the box, and the acetate window with the word framelit was my addition to this project.

I also added a few extra pens to the pot and enjoyed colouring with Stampin' Blends.

This bag and card is for one of my grandsons to give to his teacher. This is a project which I may have to repeat for the others, but it will be my pleasure. Pieces & Patterns really came to the fore here, with the sentiment and of course the fabulous co-ordinating paper. My Gift Bag Punch Board has paid for itself many times over, as I am always putting together a gift bag in minutes for smaller gifts.

I thought the lines  were going to be helpful for my 7 year old grandson to write his own message to the teacher, but I'll check with my D-I-L about the mr. 6.

Isn't the paper perfect for a kid or teacher?

  This is another of the papers from Pick A Pattern DSP but perfect for a little girl turning 5. The bold Happy Birthday greeting is from Birthday Delivery, a very cute stamp set with co-ordinating paper from the Annual catalogue.The primitive flowers are from Pieces & Patterns.

This card is a standard size and can be posted for the usual rate, but with the four panels, it has a bit of a bang! I decided to leave the images black & white as no doubt a 5-year-old girl might like to colour her own.

 But I couldn't resist and had to add some colour and sparkles here on the front!

Now, big brother is very cool. Nothing too baby-ish for him. I've made mistakes in the past and been growled at because he's not a baby! OMG, I think cash might be the only thing to make him happy.

I'm hoping the jeans pocket with green check is okay for Mr Cool.Again, this check patterned paper is fromthe Pick A Pattern DSP, but the other strip is not. Those numbers are from my most-used dies, Large Numbers.

My littlest grandie always makes sure that Gran gets a lovely calendar each Christmas, so I have made a layout for his scrapbook, to remember the Fridays he spends with me. We usually do some sort of craft each week, and cutting paper is currently his favourite. We do stamp from time to time, and he wants a stamp with his name on it like Gran has. I made his name up with the Labeler Alphabet (first time I've used that stamp). Stamped some lines for jounaling with Playful Backgrounds, and then some primary sploshes, from the same stamp set. This time I really let loose with Stampin' Blends to colour the pot of brushes.

While I had the DSP out, I've put together very simple cards using the co-ordinating stamp, Pieces & Patterns, which I'm sure one of the daughter-in-laws will take off my hands for the many birthday parties their little social butterflies attend.

Let me know if you'd like some advice on making these projects, and I'll try my best to assist. If you'd like to shop with me for your craft needs, I will send you a gift when you use the Hostess code at checkout (if your order is less than $250).

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Happy Birthday Miss 7

Recently, I had the pleasure of my first ever party for a young lady turning 7. She came to my house to see the items I suggested we make, and she was fairly happy, except we changed a card featuring This Little Piggy to the same one featuring Pretty Kitty.

 Never having done this type of event before, but working with primary-age children in my regular day-job, I sort of knew what to expect, but on the other hand, it was an unknown. Just to make things a bit more challenging, my 3 year old grandson was spending the day with me as his other grandparents (and regular Monday-minders) had gastro, plus it was a rainy day.

I'd planned for the 8 girls to make the fox card first, and they did very well with it. Only a couple wanted to use the fox die-cut from the Designer Series paper, the remainder chose to stamp it in black and use watercolour pencils to colour it themselves. I was surprised that no-one chose the poodle I'd used for the alternative card. Obviously, these girls were all 'cat' people!

The fox card was one we'd made at Onstage in April, and made me fall in love with the Birthday Delivery suite. If you read on, you'll see that from 1-10 October you can buy some of the stamp sets with co-ordinating papers at 10% off. This includes Birthday Delivery, at $39.95 in Australia, down from $47.00 and great for kids birthdays. The designer series paper shown below, are buy 3 , get the 4th frree all through October. Yes, you can buy 3 cheaper papers and select a more expensive one for the freebie! How about that? Get together with a friend to share the savings, or keep them all for yourself. I love when Stampin' Up!® has these promotions, and make sure I take advantage of them.

All the girls chose a different colour card base, and kitties doing different things for their second card. I had forgotten the punch for the flower unfortunately, but the girls didn't seem too upset by that and for the folded bookmark, they all wanted to do the Gingerbread Man from Cookie-Cutter Christmas. They had a hard job lining up the gingerbread man and punching him with the matching punch as well, but it is easy for an adult.

They seemed happy with their activity and ran off to play with the new birthday gifts. Problem was, my grandson heard the words 'birthday cake' and was insistent we stay on till after thye cake was cut and distributed. It was a lovely afternoon with these girls, so if you have a budding crafter who would like to do this for her birthday party, contact me.

Check out my online store for all the fantastic offers from Stampin' Up!® and if you remember to add the host code when you purchase, there'll be a gift from me in the mail in the following month.

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Quilted Christmas CTC #144

This week at CASE-ing The Catty, we are sharing with you a glimpse of the Holiday Catalogue. Do you have your copy yet? I get very excited by a new catalogue, and no matter how hard I try, I usually buy more than I really need! We are CASE-ing pages 4-9 of the catalogue, and I settled for a card on page 4 which is a very standard sketch. You can't go wrong using this design for any type of card.

The design features patterned paper as a base, and a strip of plain card with an embellishment on the far left and the sentiment on this wide strip. My card is in the standard Australian measurements, not the square format shown in the catalogue, and children's birthdays is the section in my stash which needed replenishing.

Beginning with one for girls, I used this lovely floral print from the Pick a Pattern DSP and the poodle and sentiments are from Birthday Delivery. The poodle has been stamped on thick Whisper White, die cut and lightly coloured in pink. She is adorable!!!

Because the base is black, it was important to finish off the inside of the card and I do like the inside to be as nice as the front, if possible. The strip of patterned paper has been mounted on a slightly wider strip of black, which does give a really nice, 'finished' look. I do this with most of the cards I send to friends and family, but I don't usually teach it in classes as it would take too long. Do you think it is worth decorating the inside of the card if it is light-coloured? What about envelopes?

Here's the other version, still using the Pick a Pattern papers. No Bones About It is a fabulous stamp set for boys, because dinosaurs are a favourite with boys of any age. It didn't ever come with dies, so I was happy enough to stamp it straight on the white strip. The card has a crisp, clean look about it, despite the muddy footprints!

Again, the inside has been finished off the same way, with patterned paper mounted onto black. A few more of those footprints are trailing along the inside of the card too.

For my third card, I CASE-d the other sketch from the catalogue. Again, this is a good, basic design to use. I followed the square format this time, with a plain base, a smaller square of paterned paper and a thin strip for the sentiment, another slightly longer under and the focal point to the right.

Again, this stamped image is from Birthday Delivery, and I coloured her to match the paper. This pattern paper is Delightful Daisy DSP,  it's very pretty and easy to pick colours from it for the card. Flirty Flamingo and Soft Sky are for the card, the wee girl's dress is Wisteria Wonder.

I've really enjoyed making this set of birthday cards for kids. I do hope you have been enjoying crafting time too. Now it's time to continue around the hop, and it's a big one (plenty of new-catalogue inspiration). You are heading over to the fabulous Jackie Noble in New Zealand

We want you to CASE the Catty too. Anything that takes your fancy on Page 4-9 of the Holiday catalogue and post your picture on our Facebook challenge page.

If you prefer to make your own order, you can visit my online shop any time of the night or day, and don't forget to check out the Clearance Rack for any specials that might help your crafting.

 ERBPDTEM

Another Masculine Birthday

With five sons, and five grandsons, plus a husband, it usually does seem to be masculine cards I need in my personal stash! Today it is the birthday of my 3rd son, and although he is a plumber by trade, he has an interest in wood turning. My husband discovered some lathes at a garage sale recently and he and our son are reading up on wood turning. Sam has even made a few handles for his chisels.

There is no way that I'll let go of Nailed It anytime soon. I actually live in hope that it will return to the catalogue, but it would be very unlikely. This was fun to put together using the Wood Texture DSP stack for the background and those lovely handles on the tools. They look well-used don't they?

Those flag banners are from Birthday Delivery, and the words can be added in later. The words fit perfectly.

The sentiment used inside is from Colorful Seasons. It is a lovely thought for birthdays or weddings don't you think? When the card is for someone special, I really like to finish them off. The white card has been layered onto Chocolate Chip like the outer part of the card, and linen thread has been wound around the layers at the top of the stacked log strip.

With a lot of guidance, his 3 year old son made a card too. Well, Gran did the cutting and gluing and our little man stamped and applied candy dots - all over! I let him pick the stamp from Boys Will Be Boys, another retired stamp that isn't leaving my shelf anytime soon. He said, "My dad likes Lego", so that was an easy choice. I pulled out the older linen stamp pads, because like most children (and some adults) he presses too hard into the newer foam pads.

He practised on a big sheet of paper first, so that we could be a bit controlled when it came to the real thing. He was great at using baby wipes in-between colours, so his technique is beginning to develop. In this picture he had stamped a sentiment, and he asked, "Is that my name?" He'd been playing with my name and contact details stamp and when he'd asked, I'd told him it was my name, so he must think everyone has a name stamp. Well as a matter of fact, Boys will Be Boys has a sentiment that says 'Best Kid Ever' so I stamped that inside with his name printed after it.

 Hope you find some time to create this week,

Cheers

Rachel

Birthday Memories Suite

I've been having a lot of fun playing with new products from the Annual Stampin' Up!® Catalogue. I'm so glad that Stampin' Up!® added embossing paste to the range, as I had been wanting to try it for ages and hadn't got around to it. Too busy designing other samples for blogs and classes!

I used our older masks for these two cards, because I forgot to order the new ones after remembering the paste and the cute little tools! New ones are in the house now, and I've continued experimenting this week. With the poodle card, I added some Sahara Sand reinker to the paste, and then thought it looked a bit bland. That was fixed by washing Melon Mambo ink over it. The poodle and little girl have been die cut from the designer series paper. Isn't that a great idea? You can use those printed images alongside the ones you stamp. On the DSP, the wee girl looks coyly toward you, and when you stamp her, she has her back to you and you can place a bunch of flowers in her hands, or a balloon.

This embossing paste was tinted with Melon Mambo reinker, and it sort of is an oopsie. However lets just imagine it is cupcake icing, that works for me...

The diecut lass has been adhered to a stitched shape oval, just like the poodle above. Then it is placed on top of the cup cake oval, she was cut from. The 'Happy Birthday' sentiment is a fancy one, it's a pretty useful one to have. This is Birthday Memories Suite, with Birthday Delivery photopolymer stamps (a big set of 23) and Birthday Friends Framelits Dies. The stamps and dies can be bundled for a 10% discount with its own special code. Then there is the Designer Series Paper, Birthday Memories DSP in bright colours and patterns. You can even buy paper honeycomb balloons and ribbon in colours to match. That's the real benefit of buying Stampin' Up!® products as they are all co-ordinated.

If you've been looking through your catalogue, and don't know where to start, because there is just so much you want, have you considered becoming a demonstrator. Now before you shout 'No way!", let me tell you that there is room for all types of demos in my team. You might be satisfied with being a hobby demonstrator getting 20% off your personal purchases, and maybe the occasional order for a friend or you might want to give this a red hot shot to see if you can create a business out of something you enjoy.

On Stage Training is in Melbourne on November 11th, 2017

This Demonstrator only event happens twice a year and is a huge highlight of being a Demonstrator. Registration opens August 15th and cost is $120 which includes lunch, make and takes using completely new product (usually 3), a full day of stamping presentations featuring new product, lots of displays to photograph, new Occasions Catalogue Launch (attendees get to order a selection on the day before other demonstrators, and well before customers), stamp set, bag, prizes and giveaways. We have stacks of team members (including me!) excited about attending this event, so if you are looking for an awesome day of Stampin’ Up! fun, you might be interested in joining today so you can come along. 

 There are 3 Great Benefits of Joining in July for just $169

1. You don’t have to reach any quarterly sales requirements until the end of January 2018 so you will be an active demonstrator for all of that time at least;
2. During those 6 months, 2 fabulous new catalogues will launch. The Holiday Catalogue (demonstrators can pre-order products from this catalogue from the 1st of August) and the 2018 Occasions Catalogue which will launch at the OnStage event in November (demonstrators will be able to pre-order from this catalogue either at the event if they attend, or from around December 1st).
3. You are eligible to attend OnStage on 11th November at the Margaret Court Tennis Centre and get to sit with the team and have a super fun day! We have team flying in from right around Australia to attend.

During July (so just a few more days), when you join for just $169, you get lots extra bringing the total value to over $356 and that doesn’t include the free box of catalogues and free kit postage which adds lots of extra value. For $169 you get:

• $235 of whatever you choose
• A new Holiday Catalogue stamp set called Carols of Christmas
• A pack of Grid Paper
• Paper Snips
• Bone Folder
• Snail Adhesive
• 2 x D acrylic blocks (so you can stamp with a friend!)

Do give this opportunity some thought. Stampin' Up! is a great company to work with and the other demonstrators are very inclusive, happy to share hints and ideas to make your crafting more fun.

Cheers, Rachel