Happy EPIC Celebrations

Now it is the dying days of the SALE-A-Bration promotion and I'm afraid some of you are in danger of missing out. The offerings this year were varied and extensive, it has been quite tricky keeping track of all the loveliness. Epic Celebrations was my second favourite (after Party Pandas) and I have 3 cards to share today, using this stamp set. If you want to add it to your $90 order, you enter #147232 to order wood mount or #147236 for clear mount. Both styles are free with your qualifying order. I am available to help you place an order if you require advice or assistance.

Happy Celebrations #143012 is the other stamp set I used for this series of cards, and it suits the edgie teen-feel of the Epic Celebrations stamp set. You might like to take a look at this stamp set on page 34 of the Annual catalogue. It is a little more expensive than you might expect for photopolymer at $61.00, but it covers a number of occasions and has some great 'grunge' background stamps included. If you were thinking of joining my FUNdamentals team before the end of the month, Stampin' Up! are allowing you to add two stamp sets of any price to your other $235 of goods, so potentially you could score more than $400 of crafting goodies for an outlay of $169!!!

The three cards are a step-it-up series. It is a fun way to show off the possibilities. The first card is fairly easy, except maybe for the little bit of masking to get the sneakers on top,  but after you've seen that done once, it will be super easy for you too. I've shared how I added designer series paper to the letters in this post.

A pencil line was ruled to get the letters straight this time, but another version will show you them placed haphazardly. The word 'happy' was stamped onto the patterned paper and hand cut. Beginning with the first and last letter, adhere in place before calculating where the centre is.

After that, it is easy enough to finish off the word and if you use Tombow liquid glue, you have some wriggle-room to adjust positions slightly. Below you can see Version 2 completed.

Pulling some colours from the DSP ( Picture Perfect Party Paper stack) and the addition of some enamel shapes helps to lift this second version as well.

Here we have the ultimate version! Not really, you can use this stamp set so many ways, just check 'Epic Celebrations Stampin Up' on Pinterest. I used the other two image stamps on this one as well, but there is still 3 more stamps not seen here. Don't you think this is a must-have stamp set?

Here's a quick little shopping list that comes in at $90.75, just 75c over the qualifying amount to claim Epic Celebrations for FREE.

#143012 Happy Celebrations                  $61.00

#145559 Picture Perfect Party                 $17.50

               designer series paper

#140490 Whisper White A4 Thick card $12.25

                                                

Of course once you're shopping you'll see lots of goodies to add, and you might even earn a second SALE-A-Bration bonus, there's no limit. Finishes definitely 31st March.

If your mailing address is anywhere in Australia you can browse anytime in my ONLINE SHOP, or contact me direct.

Mobile 0417 500 681.

Bike Ride On The Waterfront CI#30

Colour INKspiration is a fortnightly blog initiated by Bronwyn Eastley in Tasmania. The design team is made up of Stampin' Up! demonstrators from all parts of Australia and New Zealand.You are at the blog of Rachel Palmieri, Independent Stampin' Up!® demonstrator. I run classes at my home studio in South Morang, Victoria, share Stampin' Up!® products and tools at parties for my customers, coach my lovely team and create cards and the occasional 3D project.

Such pretty stones here, but I was sure the 5 colours would stump me big time. I always begin by getting the ink pads out to see if they 'speak' to me. I'm thinking Berry Burst or Sweet Sugarplum may have been a better 'fit' than Fresh Fig. It is very close to Cherry Cobbler.

I was keen to use Bike Ride, since it hadn't been out for a while, and there are so many parts to it, maybe I would find something for every one of the five. Of course I did, and introduced some neutrals too. The bike frame is Fresh Fig, while the pile of books are Cherry Cobbler & Island Indigo. Sunflowers were added to bring the Pumpkin Pie into the picture, and then I decided a strip of card would be a nice addition too.

Both sentiments are from Happy Celebrations, an extremely handy stamp set, one that would probably be a good idea to choose for one of your 'two free stamp sets' if you sign up to my team before the end of March (there's only a couple of days left).

Next on this blog hop is the brilliantly creative Bronwyn, her project is a MUST for wine lovers.

Even though the Crew are from the South Pacific Region, the challenge is an international one; so if you love all things Stampin’ Up! ®, please feel free to join in.  You don’t need a blog to enter. Click on the badge below to take you to our Facebook page –

Colourful Cockie CI#27

Colour INKspiration has a new colour inspiration for you every fortnight on a Wednesday at 8:00pm. Tonight is that night! The crew is made up of Stampin' Up! demonstrators from all parts of Australia and New Zealand.You are at the blog of Rachel Palmieri, Independent Stampin' Up!® demonstrator. I run classes at my home studio in South Morang, Victoria, share Stampin' Up!® products and tools at parties for my customers, coach my lovely team and love to create cards and the occasional 3D project.

This card was such a lot of fun to put together because it reached a bit beyond my comfort zone. I adore these bright colours, but I tend not to layer on the detail as much as this Bird Banter project.

Birds and flowers come from Bird Banter, the large letters have been stamped on DSP and hand cut. You could, of course use the Large letter dies and just die cut without stamping. They are part of Happy Celebrations, as is 'Birthday to You'. I used a sprig in silver from Petals & More Thinlets - you'll find them with the Petal Palette suite in the Occasions catalogue. The flower on the Pool Party background is from Lots of Lavender, a SALE-A-Bration favourite.

 These balloons are part of Bird Banter too, and the colouring has been done with Stampin' Blends.

What will you make using Melon Mambo, Powder Pink, Island Indigo and Pool Party? You can use very similar colours or just add an embellishment or ribbon the right shade. Don't forget to share it on our Facebook page.
Next stop on this hop is our guest on the design team Hiske MacKay

If you are interested in this opportunity, you can join my team any time that's good for you. However, I must point out that NOW is a particularly good time, because you can order $235 worth of any products on your "wish" list, and pay only $169. Shipping is free on this order, and in addition you get to choose 2 extra stamp sets free (up to a value of $174.00) so I'd be picking a couple of those large expensive sentiment sets like Better Together, Happy Celebrations, Flourishing Phrases, Special Celebrations. Call me if you would like my information.

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If you'd just like to purchase Bird Banter, you can shop in my online shop anytime of the day or night. Remember to use the Host Code and I share the bonus with you the next month.

CTC#156 Annual Catalogue Christmas With A Twist

Welcome back to another week of CASE-ing The Catty. The crew is made up of Stampin' Up! demonstrators from all parts of Australia and New Zealand.You are at the blog of Rachel Palmieri, Stampin' Up!® demonstrator. I run classes at my home studio in South Morang, Victoria, demonstrate Stampin' Up!® products and tools at parties for my customers, coach my lovely team and create cards and the occasional 3D project.

Our mission this week is to CASE the Annual Catalogue and give it a Christmas Twist. Happy Celebrations, Page 34 of the Stampin' Up!® Annual Catalogue, paired with Lovely As A Tree were my choices to CASE the baby card pictured below.

Catalogue Sample

I have to say that I love these trickier challenges, even if I sometimes lose sleep trying to get the ideas to flow. Once I'd studied the Annual catalogue, the design above seemed to fit the bill. The gold and silver acetate sheets seem quite Christmassy, and I've been on the lookout for ways to include them in projects.

It seemed a fun idea to use the debossing folder which also says 'Celebrate', rather than fussy-cut the word. Then I just had to search for a suitable stamp for 'Christmas' as that particular one doesn't come with Happy Celebrations. The chosen stamp set was from 2016 and is now retired.

Lovely As A Tree provided a stamped background, using two stamps. A row of bare-branched trees fill the background with a tall evergreen in the foreground.Some silver enamel shapes. along with Real red enamel shapes were included to tie in with other parts of the card. Emerald Envy with a hint of Lemon-Lime Twist are the Christmas-with-a-twist colours - do you like them?

I must share with you the discarded sample. There are stamps included with Happy Celebrations which make great splatter backgrounds, but I think the overall look was too heavy and constructed, so I tried another favourite technique of mine - smooshing! Usually people say, "The photography doesn't do it justice, so much nicer IRL." I'm saying, "Can't believe that the photography has enhanced the colours. IRL it looks dark and indistinct!" You can see the way my thought process jumped from one idea and then onto the next.

I imagine you have some great ideas to Give a Christmas Twist to something you CASE, so why don't you share it on our facebook challenge. You can link your blog to your post if you have a blog, but if not, just post a picture.

You may have come from Peta Stephen, and now you are on your way to the very clever Fi Cobbin. Just make sure you visit all the blogs for some Christmas inspiration.

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 Any orders in my online shop with the Host code receive a gift from me in the post. Since November is my birthday month, I am adding a handmade birthday card as well, for you to send to someone else.

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