Quilted Anytime

I'd hate for you to miss out on Christmas Quilt Stamp and Quilt Builder Framelit Dies bundle when it retires on January 2nd, or you'll be begging for it and paying double the price to get it on Ebay, just like last year's favourite, Nailed It. People are still searching for that one, and the prices are quite inflated.

This suite on page 4 & 5 of the Holiday catalogue may be called Quilted Christmas, but it's not just for Christmas, as I hope I can prove with these cards I've popped together using retired designer series patterned papers. I have so much DSP stored in my craft room, and there are many places very grateful to receive these cards, such as Ronald McDonald House, the local retirement village or seniors home and our forces serving overseas. These are all people who are unable to access the shops easily when they need a card.

 These birthday cards have additions from Happy Birthday Gorgeous and  Stitched Shape Framelits. Stampin' Up! have a base range of colours, most of which have been around for more than 5 years, so even when the patterned paper retires, the colours from it are mostly in the range still, so it isn't difficult to match card, and even get original ideas for colour co-ordination from the palette used.

Having said that, this colour is Sweet Sugar Plum, part of a range called InColors, which are in stock for 2 years from release date. This particular colour is due to retire at the end of May, so if you love it, you'd best be ready to order before April, when there is a strong demand for soon-to-retire colours.

  It has been paired with Fresh Fig, which will remain available until end of May 2019. How cute is the needle die cut from silver foil, and threaded with embroidery floss? It was fun to twist the lovely words thinlet die cut around the quilted star.

Although I'm sharing these baby cards last, they are my favourites. Keeping the best till last!!!
Babies and quilts just go together and I thought Moon Baby was a perfect companion stamp to the Christmas Quilt.

If you do happen to want to get your hands on the Christmas Quilt Bundle (and you live in Australia) here is the link to it. It will be shipped straight to you from the warehouse for $5.95. You will find the other stamps I've used such as Moon Baby under red rubber stamps, Happy Birthday Gorgeous is a photopolymer etc.

50th Birthday

A dear friend, who is also a long-time work friend, turned 50 this week and it was quite strange how excited I felt for her. 50 is a marvellous birthday! Usually you have almost finished raising your family, and there is a bit more me-time, and also some us-time to reconnect with your partner. I remember it as a weight off my shoulders, and I hope she also will enjoy new freedom.

 With a favourite colour of blue, I decided on an eclipse card using the large Number Framelits and the pretty flowers from Wood Words. The stamping was fairly basic, as I think that shows off the raised numerals best, but I didn't hold back on layering the card for a substantial card.

The sentiments in banners are from Happy Birthday Gorgeous while the verse on the left is from a new stamp coming in the Occasions catalogue, Picture Perfect Birthday. You'll be able to order that one online from January 2nd. If you need a copy of the catalogue, please let me know

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 By adding the Host Code if your order is under the $250.00 qualifying amount, you allow the whole months orders to be grouped together as an online party, which means I can send you a sample pack along with your thank you card.

World Card-Making Day

 There was no way I wanted to ignore World-card Making Day, but I was busy in the lead-up with a family 30th yesterday. So this morning, once I'd completed the clean-up, I decided to finish off some partly made cards for this event. The front of this card was a demo piece from a Techniques class I held in September. It uses the Detailed Dragonfly Thinlet Die to emboss an image into the card without cutting.

Dragonfly Dreams is a lovely stamp set in the Annual catalogue, and it also has co-ordinating framelits. You'll find Dragonfly Dreams in my online shop anytime you go shopping. As it is photopolymer and you use your own acrylic blocks, it is relatively inexpensive.

To emphasise the dragonfly wings, I've painted several coats of Wink of Stella Clear onto them. Often it is very difficult to photograph, but I was thrilled with the result today.

When I was making my son's 30th birthday card, I began with a standard-sized card and these colours. A BIG birthday deserves a BIG card I decided before I'd gone much further, and I will share it with you soon.

I'm very fond of Bermuda Bay and Lemon-Lime Twist together and the Daffodil Delight certainly helped paint a pretty picture!

Tranquil Tide made it onto the leaves too, and some Burlap ribbon gives it a country feel, don't you think? Painted Harvest has these leaves and the sunflower. It is available in the Holiday Catalogue, which might mean we say goodbye to it at the start of January 2018. It has been very popular though and you will have seen stacks of cards made with it. It is available on its own, or bundled with the leaf punch at a 10% saving on both. That is only till the end of the Holiday catalogue, after that, if they remain in the range there will be no discount.

 I'm glad I was able to share my projects with you for World-card Making Day. On my Facebook page I have asked for readers to share a picture of their creations for this occasion, and I invite any of you too. Just go to facebook and scroll down a little for the post.

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Message In A Bottle

Message In A Bottle is a cute stamp set on page 52 of the Stampin' Up!® Annual catalogue. All the little images can be stamped in the bottle, such fun! I've used a variety of them behind the adorable little mermaid in a sailor hat, stamped in Pool Party on Pool Party card, they make a subtle background.

Inside the card, I decided the whale could be in the bottle this time. Until I stamped him/her, I hadn't seen the tiny heart at the top of the water spurting from his blowhole. It really adds a sweet finish!

Number of Years is my most valuable Framelit in my craft room. I'm always adding numbers to cards. This retired pink card seems to pick up the colour of the Watercolor pencil  the bikini and hat have been coloured with. Happy Birthday, Gorgeous has this label tag outline and scripted sentiments which fit inside. What's more, there is a punch which matches the label tag, called Classic Label, displayed on page 206 of the Annual catalogue with other punches.

While the stamp was out, I mad a set of gift tags for my daughter-in-law to add to small gifts. She has already used a couple of them so I know they were appreciated. The Pizza Box features in the Holiday Catalogue and is perfect for 3" X 3 " cards and the envelopes available which have returned to the range. Pizza boxes are easy to assemble, and perfect to decorate for many small gifts. No doubt you are looking for ideas for Christmas gift-giving and teacher thank you gifts. Would something like this suit your needs?

                                                                                                                                                       
                                         
There is a mistake on one of these cards unfortunately, and this is one which has already been used. Oh dear! It was an easy little project to make with the Stitched Shape Framelits (square) in 2 sizes.
Very simple stamping in the shade of ink which matches the card used.

I'm looking forward to playing again with Message In A Bottle.

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Bella's Birthday

It's not really Bella's birthday, but the stamp set I've used is called Bella and Friends and it has a number of delightful images of this sweet puppy. I've included part of the wreath-like stamp which is stamped on red on this box above. I masked out the 'p.s. I love you' and popped the little cake from Bella & Friends in there instead. The stamp set above, is Seasons of Whimsy and it's a Hostess stamp set from the Holiday catalogue. I'm looking forward to having some free time next week to stamp and watercolour some of those wonky ornaments. You can add this stamp set to your $250 order using your Hostess dollars to pay for it. Need to know more? Contact me by phone 0417 500 681 or email rpalmieri5@bigpond.com

 A card like this doesn't really take too long to put together, especially as I have a lot of card pre-cut to size. I keep Whisper White handy cut to 10cm by 14.3cm - easy if you have the Stampin' Up! trimmer. It has clear measurements in metric and imperial, and both a cutting and scoring blade. I always have card bases cut and folded ready to use, but because this card front was also matted, I cut the white card back another .2 cm. Half a centimetre would also be a good option, so long as your measurements are the same on the 2 sides of the rectangle.

Happy Birthday Gorgeous was the stamp set I had been using this week, preparing samples for my Spring Has Sprung classes. If you are interested in those, there are details under 'classes' at the top of my blog page. Two Friday night classes are close to full, so I have advertised Thursday 19th October at 7pm. I could possibly do a Saturday afternoon if that suited you better. Again, just get in touch.

All the colouring on this card has been done with Stampin' Up!® Watercolor pencils and a blender pen. It gives a fairly subtle and fail safe finish. If you are thinking about shopping in my online store, and your order is less than $250, when asked for a host code you can add the letters below. I post a gift to you (something from the catalogue) in appreciation. If your order is $250 without shipping, then you will be asked to select items for yourself to 10% of the value of your order.

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