Jar Of Love 'n' Leaves CTC#121 Sale-a-bration

CASE-ing The Catty this week, we take a final look at SALE-A-Bration. I do hope you've managed to get everything you wanted during this special time in the Stampin' Up!® calendar. It all finishes up on March 31st so go online if you want to make a last-minute order with free picks for a $90 spend. Earlier this year I shared a CASE of the card on the left, but today I'm looking at the tag at the top of the gift at right in the picture. 

Using the Avant Garden stamp and the three colours pictured, the leaves have been randomly stamped on a white card base. The birthday greeting from the stamp set was substituted for thanks, and I used Stitched Shape Framelits for all my sentiment tags. I decided that I might as well add some splatters also, since that is another handy stamp that is in Avant Garden.

This is a very similar design, using Jar of Love as the stamp set. The leaf in Jar Of Love is about the same size, and I thought the big flowers were a nice way to showcase the stamp set. Although Everyday Jars framelits are available to die cut many of the pieces, this card shows another example of a way to use the stamps without framelits. For the label, I split a sentiment from Happy Celebrations, and placed 'love' from Jar of Love, in between.

This is a "one-with-the-lot card!" Lots of Jars Of Love and a sentiment from Balloon Adventure, with a wider range of colours and some die cut flowers. I saw a card on Pinterest by a German demonstrator, Tanya Kolar, which triggered an idea (as often happens). I used the largest circle from the Stitched Shape Framelits to pencil in the wreath shape. Curving the stems to match the shape, stamp first one leaf and stem and then the other. 

It was a bit of a time-saver to find all of these blooms pre-cut in a container near the stamp set, and so these three cards came together in about 20-30 minutes. Just as well, as we had unexpected visitors this afternoon, before my cards and blog were ready to publish!!!

To join in with our challenge CASE anything from the SALE-A-Bration catalogue and share here.

Now you are heading all the way over to Bunbury, West Australia, and the lovely Kelly Kent. I'm heading to W.A. on Thursday too, for a holiday with my sweetheart before Stampin' Up! Onstage on Saturday 8th April in Perth. Feeling very excited! 

Cheers, Rachel

Jars of Love CI#06

Don't you love these colour INKspiration Challenges? Well, I surely do, because it forces me to look at little used colours. This week it is Calypso Coral which I'm not really fond of, and actually still have the old style ink pad. The colours for the challenge are Night of Navy, Pool Party, Calypso Coral and gold foil.

I've renewed my love affair with Jars Of Love, after one of my hostesses recently requested to use that for her party. It is a lovely set which has a matching framelit set, Everyday Jars Framelits, although it is a super stamp set all on its own anyway. My customer doesn't have a Big Shot yet, although she can use her mother's one when they get-together to craft. I love the way you can put all sorts of things into jars. No wonder they are so 'on trend' now.

For a colour that is not a favourite, doesn't Calypso Coral give a lovely accent on these little flowers from the Jars Of Love stamp set? Tip Top Taupe has also made an appearance as a neutral on the leafy stems.

Tin of Cards stamp set has a great variety of sentiments and I like the way they fit into a Stitched Shape (circle) Framelit. The flowers on the tag were the only item I used the Everyday Jars Framelits for this time, although I was actually cutting a stack of these flowers for another project coming up in a couple of weeks. There is some gold heat embossed trim on the jar on the left ( and plenty more on my big project too!) The little insects (fireflies???) have clear Wink of Stella on the wings and gold Wink Of Stella on the bodies. Just a shame that it is so hard to capture the glimmer in a photograph.

Washi tape makes an appearance, and even some gold metallic thread. It was a fun card to make for the challenge and we'd love for you to join us and share your creation too. Remember, Night of Navy, Pool Party, Calypso Coral and gold foil are the colours. Neutrals are also allowed. We have a Facebook page just for entries and you'll find it by clicking on Facebook here.

While Jar Of Love was still out, an idea came to me. I was planning swaps for Stampin' Up!® Onstage in a few weeks, but I've canned this idea. The thought of lining up a dozen fish on multiple cards would NOT be fun. It worked out fine here with some lines pencilled in and rubbed out afterwards, but not something you'd want to do over and over. 

After realising it required a larger than standard card front, I decided on a 5½ inch square card, which gave an opportunity to use the Seaside textured embossing folder. I really like that embossing folder which made its first appearance in the Annual Catalogue in June 2016. I can hardly wait to see what surprises Stampin' Up!® have in store for us with the next Annual Catalogue.

Thought I'd share a bonus card this week, not in challenge colours, but showing some more fun things to put in jars. Beetles and Bugs is a new stamp in the Stampin' Up! Occasions catalogue. I wonder if it will make the cut to the next Annual catalogue? I bought it especially for my young grandsons' cards. The goldfish comes from the Jars of Love stamp set, a cute addition to any jar. Happy is from Happy Celebrations and the streamers are from Balloon Adventures, all Occasions catalogue items.

Now you're heading over to visit with Rose Packer, you'll love her project

You can join our colour challenge here on Facebook

Cheers, Rachel

Party With Stampin' Up!® And Me

We had a fun party this weekend, getting our craft happening on a Saturday afternoon in Melbourne. I've partied with some of these ladies before, and wanted to share the Envelope Punch Board. My skills at making an envelope are pretty good, so that part of the demonstration went well. I made an envelope to fit this Double-Z card. It measures 6 inches square, and I also demonstrated a rectangular envelope.

This Envelope Punchboard Gemstone Box, designed by Sam Hammond Donald (Pootles) had been easy enough to make earlier in the week to hold the Hostess gift. If you click on the link it will take you to Sam's post and a Youtube video. I was fairly sure I could make it from memory and dazzle the guests. The paper measures 8 inches by 8 inches and you punch and score at 2", 4" and 6 " on all 4 sides.

  Cutting, scoring and punching were no problem, and I confidently moved along, gluing the sides together - and ended up with a regular square box!!!! Massive fail on my part, and we never really had the time to check the video and see where I went wrong. Just let me assure you, when you make it alongside Pootles video, it is a breeze! One lady said it gave her more confidence to see that not everyone gets it right every time.

The box for my hostess was finished with the cute bow thing from the Balloon Pop Up Thinlets, and I had added a banner saying "For You" by the time I presented it. (Just forgot an updated picture).

The make and take was based on the Jars of Love Bundle, on page 75 of the Annual catalogue. I had brought these two samples along of a basic card using washi tape and stamping and a more advanced card with the washi, stamping and die cutting with the Big Shot and Everyday Jars Framelits. I then demonstrated something in between the two cards, which I've presented to the hostess, it actually ended up without a jar on it, which was still very cute.

 The ladies had a great time making their own individual cards, each and everyone quite different.
Hope you've found time for crafting over the weekend too
Cheers, Rachel

Holiday Tags CTC#99

Apparently Christmas is fast approaching! All I can say is, "Thank goodness we don't have to celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving in Australia, or there just wouldn't be enough time to fit Christmas in!!! We are having a VERY long school term in Victoria: 11 weeks and 2 days, when the optimum time is meant to be 10 weeks. It won't only be the teaching staff that are tired and towie, the kids will be uncontrollable by the last few weeks.

You may have just hopped from my friend Kathryn's blog, but if you started here with me, make sure you go full circle for your weekly dose of inspiration. This week at CASE-ing The Catty we are focusing on some tags. I took a look through the holiday catalogue, and decided that tags made with the jar stamps and framelits would be super cute.

After cutting a couple of strips of extra thick Whisper White card, I stamped the jar shape from Jar Of Cheer. There are now three different stamp sets that co-ordinate with the Jar Framelits. The first one was Jar of Love in the Annual catalogue, Jar of Cheer and Jar of Haunts in the Holiday Catalogue. You can still save 10% if you bundle and save the Jar of Love stamps with Everyday Jars Framelits. 

Once the jars were die cut, I began stamping out the sentiment. Next, it was time to tackle the lids and so far I have made them with the Gold and Bronze foil paper, and I think silver may just get a look in too. I CASE-d the jar from the Christmas card on page 25 of the Holiday Catalogue, but I don't have the Pretty Pines framelits, so I improvised and used a small leaf from Jar of Love.

If you take another look at the top picture, you'll see that to and from is stamped on the back. This stamp is a handy little one from Merriest Wishes. The tags are finished off with a bow tied in Cherry Cobbler Bakers Twine. This comes packaged with a roll of Garden Green and Gold, so there is plenty of variety for all your Christmas crafting. If you'd like to shop for some crafting goodies, my online shop is open for you all day, everyday and when you use the Hostess code before checkout, (M7F6343W) you'll receive a little something from me in the post too.

We love it when you share your projects with us at CASE-ing the Catty. Just link up here.

Now it is time to hop along to see what clever Kelly  has shared on her blog.

Cheers, Rachel

Everyday Occasions - CTC92

Sunday has arrived very quickly for me this week, but it might just be that I have an awful lot on my plate at the moment. Welcome back for another turn of CASE-ing The Catty blog hop. Did you like Julia's  pretty card made with Thoughtful Branches? We are always telling you how there is so much inspiration to be found within the pages of the catalogue. I do hope you are finding it useful to check out the catalogues to see what the talented designers at Stampin' Up! have made before CASE-ing it. That might mean using the sketch, the colours or some other aspect to stir your creativity into action.

The first card CASES the sketch on page 70 of the Annual catalogue, but changes the colours from yellows to pink and plum. Instead of stamping on the base card, I used my favourite piece of patterned paper from Blooms & Bliss DSP. The stamp set is the same as the catalogue sample, Crazy About You and I even used exactly the same Hello You Thinlet and sentiment. 

The second card uses the same idea, but the banner has been changed to a piece of washi tape, the Hello You Thinlet  has been used with a different sentiment along with Jars of Love stamp set. Jars of Love is one of my favourites amongst the new additions to my stamp shelves, and just wait until you see the Christmas version in the Holiday Catalogue. It is called Jar of Cheer and you can order from the Holiday Catalogue from September 1st 2016- January 3rd 2017. Although I've only used the matching thinlets to cut flowers on this card, they can come in quite handy when you want to make a shaker card using this set too, as I did a while back. 

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

Next you're heading over to the lovely Krissy Buck, to see what loveliness she is sharing this week. I love it!

We'd love you to share your creations here too. The link to do that is here at CASE-ing The Catty.

I will be absent from CASE-ing The Catty for a few weeks while I take my hard-working hubby on a well-deserved holiday in the sun. There will be other posts from me over the next couple of weeks, but its too hard to link in with the CASE-ing The Catty Crew from afar!!!

Cheers, Rachel

Thoughtful Jars GDP#046

I've been itching to do something with the cute Jar of Love stamp set (page 75) and co-ordinating Everyday Jars Framelits. Such a fun set, that leaves lots of options for the jar contents.
I love a window card, but only recently learnt how to make them. The cut out window piece is included with the dies, and I backed it with the oh-so-pretty DSP Blooms & Bliss.




This sketch at Global Design Project sparked this idea and I've entered their challenge for the very first time.

The design crew there have some amazing cards to share with you.

How gorgeous are the new In Colors? Sweet Sugarplum features here, some stamped off, some full strength, and a bow of Rich Razzleberry. Some accents in Smokey Slate and silver, with a touch of bling in rhinestones and Blushing Bride sequins. The sentiment has been borrowed from Birthday Blossoms. There are a pair of leaves from Thoughtful Branches, you'll be able to order that set next week.

Cheers, Rachel