Treehouse Adventure With A Foxy Friend

Kids are my life. I've brought up five sons to adulthood, and now take great joy in watching them raise my grandchildren. Even now, after almost twenty years in the job, I work in a primary school, assisting children aged 10-13 years who need support in the classroom. I love to make things for kids and with kids too. Today I am sharing some inspiration using Foxy Friends and Treehouse Adventures stamp sets.

I have both of these stamp sets in my collection too, because they are great for kids. Even little ones can assemble the pieces to create an animal with Foxy Friends and apart from a cat or Fox you can search on Pinterest and find heaps of inspiration for other animals. This pin from my board is from two demos in USA - Twins & Twine is their blog.

This pink cat is my favourite that I have made so far, it reminds me a little of the Cheshire cat in Alice In Wonderland.

I ordered Treehouse Adventure recently, and have just started playing with it. I like the bold printed sentiments, despite the fact they've used uppercase letters. So far I have only stamped, but I do own the Up & Away Thinlets which co-ordinate with the leafy foliage, so it won't be long before I CASE the catalogue to make that lush tree. My card, below, is a CASE of the Treehouse one in the catalogue picture.

The door and window shutters are a bit wonky, but I'm not going to worry, just keep on practising.

You might have noticed that I have skewed both of the art pieces. My reasoning was that there was no need to be precise - kids=casual/informal. The red layer of the second card is precisely half a centimetre larger than the art piece, so it could have framed it exactly. I like to share this at my card classes too, as sometimes it is nice to change the style.

Please get in touch if you would like some more information, need to order supplies (and live in Australia) or perhaps have even been thinking about joining my team as a demonstrator.

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Birthday Foxes

Another birthday celebrated this past weekend and I just had to use some foxes on this one. The one on the left is from the Foxy Friends stamp set in the Annual Catalogue, and the other is from a hostess set at the front of the Holiday catalogue, Cozy Critters. That also has the branch I've inked with Stampin' Write Markers and the owl with enormous eyes.

The tree stump is from Foxy Friends too, just hand cut, whereas there is an owl punch and a fox punch if you don't much fancy hand cutting.
I used a tutorial from Bronwyn Eastley (addinktivedesigns.com) for the basic dimensions of this card, and it fits beautifully into a Stampin' Up! envelope.




Mine is a much simpler card, Bronwyn's are absolute works of art.
Kirsten was thrilled with her card when she opened it, and I have to admit, it gave me a lot of pleasure making this Z-Fold card. I'm wondering if anyone wants to come and do a class for this card - let me know if you do.

Have a productive week
Cheers, Rachel

Punch Bunch Class August 19th

I've designed and made the samples for my August and September classes, mainly because we are taking off for sunny Hawaii in between these two classes. It is always challenging to manage my regular day job, my family commitments and my Stampin' Up!® business, plus time out, but organising in advance seems to be the answer. That is why I text my daughter-in-law to check months ahead, if I'm needed for babysitting!!! A full life is a happy life!

So in August I've planned that we make cards with the Stampin' Up!® punches, so you can find out how easy they are, and how much fun. There is the Fox Builder Punch, the Tree Builder Punch (that's the sweet cupcake) and the Bow Builder Punch. You will find these on page 188 of the Annual catalogue, and in Australia they retail at $31.00 each. The Fox Builder Punch can be bought with a co-ordinating stamp which comes in very handy, and is offered at 10% off if you use the special code to buy as a bundle. Check with me to find out what this is if you're unsure. I'm offering any of my customers who have already ordered this bundle through me, or those who do prior to August 19th, the opportunity to attend the class at half price, $10. Alternatively, order two Builder Punches from page 188 and the class will also be half price.

In case you've made heaps of cute kitties and foxes already, would you want to have a go at the puppy or mouse? I might even have another critter or two to share on the night. There are a couple of other 'extras' on the other two cards also. The Cupcake card has a window filled with 'sprinkles' and the Bow Builder card has a 'pleated skirt'.

If you are ordering from my Online shop, could you please add the HOSTESS CODE 9Z44PC2P You will earn a small gift in the mail from me, plus any orders reaching $90 earn a $9 voucher from Stampin' Up!® to use between 2nd-31st August. It is emailed to you, and you need to keep a record of the code, as head office will not be able to reissue it.

Gotta love a bonus, it's like another 10% discount and you just might want it next month when this sweet bundle is available. Thoughtful Branches is on offer only for the month of August, although demonstrators have been able to order it during July too. We always get to try out the products a month before our customers so we can make up wonderful samples for you. Have you seen it on PINTEREST? just search for Stampin Up Thoughtful Branches and see all the great ideas by other demos pop up. I've just begun to play with it, am loving the versatility of the set. I'll most likely share some cards using Thoughtful Branches over the next few days.

Cheers, Rachel

Happy Birthday Kitty CTS #179

It is now the second week of the winter holidays  in Melbourne and I am loving having a little extra crafting time, and not having to race out the door when it is only just light. After a weekend away with hubby, I was all fired up last night to join the challenge at CAS(E) this Sketch. If I am stuck for inspiration, a sketch is often enough to get me sorted, and the instant I spied this sketch I knew what I wanted to do.

I had my first play with Foxy Friends last week, and I am smitten, TOTALLY!!! A pink kitty was just asking to perch in this wreath and flowers, just look at that big birthday grin on her face. I have mainly used Foxy Friends, the leaves are all part of that set, and some flowers from Swirly Bird were already stamped and diecut on my table.

I didn't find the Fox Builder Punch a huge amount of help this time around, although it cut the separate head and tail, it doesn't line up as well on this particular body. I'm prepared to forgive it though, as it works so well with many of the other bodies included in the stamp set.

I've stamped the banner for Number of Years after stamping Happy Birthday from Sunshine Sayings. It is so easy to look through the Photopolymer stamp to see whether you have placed it correctly. To finish this card off, I have layered Sweet Sugarplum onto the Blushing Bride base, followed with a piece of Whisper White and some more Playful Palette DSP strips at top and bottom. There is a sweet little twine bow also. Not only does this finish a card off so nicely, it also helps to balance it when you have many layers stacked on the card front.

Happy 4th of July to those in the U.S. and happy crafting everyone!

Cheers, Rachel

Stamping and Chatting

The South'n Stampers are a team of delightful women who love to get together for a little bit of stamping. Today they joined me for lunch, a pot of soup on this freezing cold and windy winters day. We'd all made cake. so there were plenty of sweet treats to go with a cuppa, and lots of laughter too. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo to share, but I do have some photos of the cards we made. This is a bit different from a class, for one thing, I get to sit down and stamp too!

I had prepared this card, CASEd from another demonstrator who doesn't blog very often, but shares in our closed FB demonstrator group. We liked the way the scene is surrounded by the Swirly Scribbles Framelit piece, and what's not to love about Wetlands? Gorgeous Grunge provided a vital part of this scene too, and I knew buying the champagne Glass Glitter, only $2.78 on the clearance rack would be a good move. It is perfect inside the shaker, almost a sandy colour.

I pulled out the Foxy Friends bundle and some ink and cards, and let everyone decide which they wanted to make. This is such a cute set, and the animals seem to change personality with a change in the tilt of the head. I thought the SAB stamp set Party Pants had some really cute sentiments, and the girls agreed, not necesarily going with my choice. The little sign with three hearts is from Foxy Friends an is easily hand cut. Again, Word Bubbles Framelits are in the Clearance Rack for $25.79 and you can use a lot of different sentiments inside them. This idea began with some cards I saw by Kelly Kent, in WA.

I've been sorting in my craft room and found a pack I was given at Convention some years ago, using one of the Ronald McDonald stamps, which I've decided to hang onto a little longer. There was twine and banners and labels to stamp on, and I just had to supply more notecards to go around. I hope you can see what fun it is being part of a Stampin' Up!® team, and to top it off, you get all your craft supplies at 20% discount.

Get in touch if you live in Australia, and have thought of joining Stampin' Up!®. If you live close enough, maybe you will be at our next team gathering.

Cheers, Rachel

Fox In Socks Birthday Greeting

My 'baby' turned 26 today. He is beginning to show a lot more maturity....sometimes. He bought his own birthday cake, and sensibly requested warm work socks as his birthday gift!!! Naturally, socks led me to think about Fox In Socks for his birthday card, and of course I'd been looking for a reason to try out the Foxy Friends stamp set, and the Fox Builder Punch.

I always find these builder punches lots of fun, there's the recently retired Bird Builder Punch, the Owl Builder, Bow Builder and even a Tree Builder Punch. I'd love to have a punch class some time soon. I used a lot of the blues and greens for card and stamping: -Bermuda Bay, Tempting Turquoise, Cucumber Crush and Island Indigo.

Inside the card, the fox is a stamped specimen, you get quite a few variations in the stamp set and there are a total of 29 photopolymer stamps included in Foxy Friends. I think he is rather sweet. I've ended up even stamping the greeting from us this time, since Thoughtful Banners includes them all. It even goes as far as including both Mum and Mom, looking after all the English-speaking markets. I'm looking forward to making some other cheeky creatures soon too after one of my customers shared a pink kitty-cat she made for her small daughter. It looked quite delightful.





The 'Yay' is a great sentiment from Confetti Celebration, hand cut in this instance. Thoughtful Banners has this solid bar stamp, suitable for stamping the many words included in the stamp set.
I used the retired rotary word stamp to stamp "Fox In Socks" on a strip and the 'Happy Birthday Son' is three stamps from Thoughtful Banners. "Oh Happy Day" is another, while "From Us" is a fifth.
The fox on the front has been mainly punched out of Cajun Craze card with the legs and face stamped. Don't you love that cute little white tip to its tail?

It is truly winter in Melbourne with a VERY cold day expected tomorrow, so maybe I will stay rugged up at home and do my shopping online. Perhaps my latest box of Stampin' Up!® goodies will even get delivered. If you are wanting to do a little shopping and choose to shop in my online shop, you can visit at any hour of the day or night, no matter what the weather is like. The HOSTESS CODE is YM3FDRCM, and if you add it to your order before checkout, I will post you a thank you gift.

Happy crafting
Rachel