Black Lace Birthday

Today was Melbourne Cup Day, which gave me a day off work. A day off for a horse race! Can you believe it? I have only ever attended Flemington once in my life and couldn't see the horses for the crowd. Today I did get the second placed horse in the Cup Sweep organised at work. Not sure yet how much I'll get for my $2 investment.

I had a sleep-in this morning, then after a leisurely breakfast, I had  time to journal some Project Life about Stampin' Up! Convention 2013 in sunny Brisbane.

Later I made a card for a friend who celebrate's her birthday this coming weekend. I used the Fusion sketch for inspiration with a floral image cut into three panels with Framelits. The colours came from the Fusion challenge too.

The background is I Love Lace stamped with Versamark and embossed with black embossing powder. Gorgeous Grunge provided splatters of colour, but I'm not sure if it's really 'finished'.

Thanks for looking,
Rachel



I

I Love Lace Wood-Mount Stamp Set

$30.95

I Love Lace Clear-Mount Stamp Set

$24.95

Gorgeous Grunge Wood Stamp Set

$42.95

Gorgeous Grunge Clear Stamp Set

$33.95

Chalk Talk Framelits Die

$42.95

Heat Tool

$49.95

Embossing Buddy

$9.95

Black Stampin' Emboss Powder

$8.95

Versamark Pad

$12.95

Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Crushed Curry A4 Card Stock

$11.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

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Celebrate Your Birthday

I think this Just Add Ink challenge was designed especially for me so I can add the piece I had left over from the last time I entered into their challenge -LOL!!!!
It was a few weeks ago when they had a Nautical But Nice Challenge and I made this card. So if you check it out, you'll see I cut a piece off the side of my water-coloured panel, and there it was lying on my craft table.

Setting The Scene: I need to get tidied up here for my Catalogue Launch next Friday, but I am distracted by my computer. Next I spy some of the design team entries popping up on FB and click on over to JAI to view the sketch. WOW! that's perfect for my left-over scrap. So the tidying goes to the back-burner AGAIN, while I throw together this card.

Maybe I'm being a bit silly and light-headed because I have just begun two weeks of school holidays but... do you like this card?

I embosssed Strawberry Slush card with the Decorative Dots Embossing Folder from SALE-A-BRATION. What a surprise that something from SALE-A-BRATION has gone into our new catalogue, but I'm VERY happy about it. I think the dots from Happy Watercolor looks very similar, so I stamped then with the Gold Encore stamp pad. The young lady, champagne glass in hand, has been very roughly watercolored, using Stampin' Write Markers and an Aquapainter. There are three images in this stamp set, In This Together and you can purchase from July 1st. Amazing Birthday has the Happy, Happy Happy, Happy birthday to you, so I stamped in gold and then scattered a few rhinestones about, cos you can't have too much sparkle, can you?

It's so windy in Melbourne at the moment, quite worried that a big tree doesn't fall on the house...
enjoy your weekend
Rachel

NEW! -Amazing Birthday

NEW!- In This Together

Retiring June 30 - Happy Watercolor

Australian readers - You can shop for supplies in my online shop, there's only 2 days till the mini Occasions catalogue (time to order Happy Watercolor w 133188/c 133191) and main catalogue finish. Lots of retiring bargains and weekly specials too.
After July 1st you can order Amazing Birthday w134225/c134228 and In This Together w133866/c133869
Just a little hint, in this upcoming catalogue you will find the clear stamp sets and photopolymer stamp sets VERY affordable. My preference, wood mount, are still about the same price point as previous years.

Kinda Eclectic Thank You CTS#78

I'm very lucky to be able to play with stamps, and extra lucky that I have some great customers who support my little business. I try to let them know how much they're appreciated by sending them Thank You cards. Sometimes life does get in the way and I run a bit behind, but I do try to acknowledge these lovely ladies.

Hey, if it wasn't for your enthusiasm, support and patience, I wouldn't be able to keep on going.




This month I had quite a bunch to make, so I've kept it fresh and simple. The sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch was exactly what I was after.

I picked up my lovely, new Stampin' Up stamp set, Kinda Eclectic and used just two stamps from it - the leaf, which I stamped three times without re-inking, and the little dotted border (which has typed letters on the dots). It's really too cute! I stamped it off once on scratch paper, to lessen the intensity of the Night of Navy ink.
The only other stamping was a thank you from Happy Watercolor. That stamp set hasn't made it into the new catalogue, so if you love it as much as I do, you'd best order it before the end of June. I used a Bitty Banner Framelit to cut the thank you out.
Those Speech Bubble clips I've used are retiring too, they're called Hung Up Cute Clips (129389) and there's a coat hanger and an arrow as well.


Hopefully, if you've purchased from me recently, you've received your card in the mail by now.
Cheers...
Rachel

Stampin' Up! Convention 2014 - Melbourne - my swap card

It was amazing how quick it was to stamp this card. I had two of my grandchildren staying overnight the weekend I started,  but after they'd gone to bed I went off for some creative time. I grabbed some stamp sets from the shelf and a handful of my favourite colours, planning to use the splash from Happy Watercolor and a couple of feathers from Fine Feathers, positioned like the paint was dripping from them.

As you can see, that is not exactly the way it developed. I used the same stamp sets I'd picked but the design is quite different. In addition to those first two stamp sets, I then pulled Gorgeous Grunge from the shelf and Really Good Greetings for the sentiment. After designing the card face, construction of a bulk card is a step-by-step process, just like working on a factory production line.

My design process is a very hands-on, so the first card was stamped out completely and I made any changes to positioning at this point. Then, like I said previously, I treat it like a production line. All the splashes in one colour times the number of card fronts. Clean the stamp, move on to the next colour and so on. It just saves time and ink to work this way.

You might wonder why you would ever need or want to make cards in bulk like this? If you choose to make just one or two designs for your annual Christmas Card, this can be a very efficient use of time and materials. Perhaps you need to make many invitations for a birthday, wedding or some other event.
Well..... I was preparing all these swaps to take to Convention. At Convention there are lots of lovely demonstrators to swap with and you get to collect up a lovely range of cards, made with current products and colours, but often using techniques you haven't tried for a while, stamp sets you don't own and in a style different to your own.

This is my box of swaps all set to go, with the project 'recipe' on the back, and bagged up in cellophane. Maybe you're a fellow Australian or New Zealand demonstrator who swapped with me, I hope you like my card. Perhaps you're just browsing my blog looking for ideas - would you like to become a demonstrator too? You can email me, or contact your own Stampin' Up demonstrator, we're a happy and inclusive group of people.
I have posted this to be published while I am still away at Convention, learning heaps of new techniques, how to use new tools and seeing some of the new catalogue items. The catalogue will be released to customers on July 1st, Very exciting!

Cheers
Rachel

Happy Birthday Mambo Curry! RS#115

I've been too busy to make any cards for a little while, but after work last night I made an effort to put together a card for RetroSketches. It's such a cute sketch, but I found deciding colours a bit tricky today.                                                                      
 I wonder what you think of Crushed Curry and Melon Mambo?

I used Peaceful Petals stamp set for the flower, Happy Watercolor for the splodges and spots and Petite Pairs for the 'happy birthday wishes'. Peaceful Petals and Happy Watercolor are in the Occasions Catalogue and it finishes in Australia at the end of June, so if you need these stamp sets, you'll need to order them soon. Petite Pairs is one of the staple greeting stamp sets: something for every occasion and you can use just one part, or two, of the pair.
I used non-Stampin' Up! rhinestones this time, but when we receive the Blendabilities, we will be able to color rhinestones, pearls etc. to match our projects. I wonder if we will see them at Convention this week?

I leave for the South Pacific Stampin' Up! Convention today, Shelli and Sterling have arrived, Bonnie has been here since Monday, I think. There are demonstrators from all over Australia and New Zealand streaming into town and we are all set to have a ball in beautiful Melbourne. It's the end of Autumn and we have had 10 days in a row over 20° (that's 68°F)and the sun is shining brightly on our city today!

I'm not sure that I will be able to update posts while I am away at Convention, but I have a couple of posts scheduled to be released while I'm away, so feel free to pop back in the next couple of days.
Have a great week

Rachel

Super Dog Birthday PPA202

I love this Cool Kid stamp set. Its so easy to use, with all the individual stamps to pop onto your composition. I've kept it fairly simple with just a paper plane, because the recipient of this card is a champion paper-plane-maker.It was easy enought to colour the collar and boots with a Stampin' Write Marker in Real Red to add a bit of dash to this Super Dog.

I have to admit, I was inspired by this card by Anne Marie Hile, just because she used red glitter for the cape! I only had silver, so silver it was! I've used one of the red Glimmer Brads, which isn't going to make it into the next catalogue, to fasten a little banner cut from the reverse of the paper across the bottom of the card. I found that it was easy to make a card for the Pals Paper Arts color challenge as these are the colours in the Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack, from the Occasions Catalogue, finishing June 30. Many others have thought along the same lines as me and there is even another appearance from the dog!

Happy Watercolor, which is also in the Occasions Catalogue, has a 'splodge' stamp and I used that to stamp over the 'Happy Birthday, from Bring On The Cake stamp set. That is another stamp set which isn't included in the next catalogue, and its amazing how frantic I get to use these items when I know they are being retired. I seem to view them with fresh eyes! Thank goodness the On Film Framelits made the cut and are in the new catty.

Please excuse the dull photography, it is a cold, wet dreary old Sunday here in Melbourne. Absolutely awful for photography, but perfect for card making! Anyone want to join me?

Rachel

En Francais Birthday FMS 131

This morning, when I was tidying up I decided to make a card with some of the background pieces I'd demonstrated at last night's workshop. The girls were making Scalloped Tag Topper cards once they had stamped a background. I'll pop a photo of some samples near the end of this post.

The En Francais stamp makes a lovely background with its flowing script, but it was handy to have Cindy H's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches to give me some fresh inspiration on how to use it a different way. The colours here are Pool Party, Coastal Cabana and Bermuda Bay, such an awesome trio~!

I don't usually leave such a wide margin around my layers, so that was a bit of a change for me, as was the strip of patterned paper laid over both. I'd had the Pool Party ruffled ribbon out for the class, as one of the ladies had used this colour scheme too.

I also love the Happy Watercolor stamp set, and have used the longer flower (looks like a native orchid to me) on the panel. I stamped the 'splash of paint' stamp from that stamp set three times without reinking. Using the darkest shade, Bermuda Bay, then huffed* on the rubber, stamped, huffed* again and stamped, to get the faintest image at the top.The dotty image is also from Happy Watercolor, it has been stamped in gold ink. Itty Bitty Banners has been getting a lot of use lately too, the framelits to cut the banners make it so quick and easy.

* huffed - technical term to describe breathing heavily through the mouth!!!

The girls were able to make a variety of cards using background stamps like Hardwood, En Francais and World Map before trying a couple of ways to use the Tag Topper Punches.

I've been busy with my grandchildren today and now they are in bed I am quickly catching up with my blog. We are keeping two of the older ones for a few more days, so it will be busy for a while before we return them to their parents. It isn't really helping that the weather has turned cooler and drizzly for a number of days now. We took them to a concert today and it was just as entertaining watching their reactions, as the performers were!

Thanks for popping by,
Rachel

Love You FMS#127

This card has meandered off in its own direction! I find it funny how they do that sometimes - just take over! I had been looking through the Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack for colour inspiration, never expecting that this piece of patterned Crumb Cake would 'be the one.' I had even had my Real Red Ink Pad at the ready as I was sure the paper would include red somewhere. Well, Raspberry Ripple is a lovely, luscious red and there's a length of the lovely silky ribbon on the card as well. I have three layers of banners in Crumb Cake, White and Raspberry Ripple. The white has been dry embossed with a retired Embossing Folder (can't remember its name but a pretty script).

There is a small rectangle of DSP taken from the current Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack and mounted on white card. I stamped the Crumb Cake base card with the flower from Happy Watercolor that looks like an orchid and the word 'love' from Fabulous Phrases.

No button for this card, it doesn't really need one, and I will finish the inside later with white card, and a partial stamped flower. Just beginning to run short of time (and light).
Don't forget to pop over to the gallery at Freshly Made Sketches, for lots of inspiration. There are more than a hundred submissions, plus the teams very fine designs too.

Happy stamping
Rachel

Thank You Banners

Do you have a favourite stamp set in the Occasions Catalogue? I'm beginning to think mine just might be Happy Watercolor. There are just so many different ways to use those two flower stamps and the font on the words is such a nice one. I've put together a card today using both the flowers, for a thank you card. I hadn't planned to combine RetroSketches with the colour challenge at Create With Connie and Mary, or the Paper Players 'thank you' challenge but somehow the three of them just came together!

I have resolved to try to use Summer Starfruit more frequently, and it seems that those who dream up color challenges have the same mindset too - how strange!

I also thought I would give my Starburst Framelit Dies a rest, and pulled out the Banners Framelits Dies. I KNOW they will be a big favourite too, especially when I start using the Perfect Pennants stamp set with them.

Paper Players are thankful for spring, and I totally understand that, after the horrible winter they've had in the northern hemisphere. Those of us in the southern hemisphere (I live in Melbourne, Australia if you don't know yet) are thankful for autumn and some respite from the heat and  bush fires, and yet our temperatures are still over 30°celsius!

Thanks for dropping by my blog,
happy crafting,
Rachel

So Happy ColourQ #230

Wow!

 Love these colours at Colour Q , absolutely electric! (The shoes are pretty amazing too.)
I've had a night of creating (my husband is away for the weekend) and it is amazing when you get on a roll, you just can't stop. Only fatigue and my aching back will make me call it quits.

I am going to wait till morning to photograph my card, but I did enjoy playing with these colours. I've had to substitute Coastal Cabana for Cool Caribbean. The ladies in my stamp class last night also love Summer Starfruit, and yet when we first saw it, everyone was a bit half-hearted. I've reminded them, it will be a retiring In-color very shortly, but I can see myself using this combo again before long.

Happy Watercolor was my choice of stamp for this card (again) and just a greeting and a single poppy were stamped onto the die cut circle. I ended up stamping with Gold ink the stamp that is a little like confetti onto the Crumb Cake strip,(very hard to see) and then some on the lighter die cut circle too. I had misted a series of circle shapes with a pale blue wash earlier in the evening, but again, it is so subtle, you can't really see that in photos.        A second circle was cut in Summer Starfruit using one of the Starburst Framelit Dies, still out from my last card. Summer Starfruit looks a lot like gold foil too. A piece of the lovely silky Summer Starfruit ribbon knotted around the Crumb Cake card and a scattering of loose sequins are the finishing touch.

Cheerio, happy stamping
Rachel

So Saffron Sympathy FMS #125 & CTD #281

 I need to replenish my supply of sympathy cards, and because when you need them, you're unlikely to be in a creative mode, I like to keep a few on hand. I have been feeling a little off-colour all day and that is my excuse for mirror-reversing Narelle's lovely sketch. It wasn't until I began to place all the pictures here on the blog that I fully realised! I'm sure that it won't cause a problem to the lovely ladies at Freshly Made Sketches, they're a forgiving group and permit 'artistic liscence'. If you visit their blog you will find oodles more inspiration.

I went to The Color Throwdown for some colour inspiration, they are rather cheery colours, I'm not sure how I will feel about them when I need the card, but it seemed a good idea when I started. The stamp set is Happy Watercolor, a greeting comes from Thoughts and Prayers and it is mounted on the baby stamp from Label Love, I really liked the checked pattern in black and white and the Artisan Label Punch makes this stamp set so easy to use. The smaller oval punch was perfect for the greeting and covered the other words on the baby stamp.

Thanks for visiting my blog

Rachel

Envelope Punch Board Boxed Cards

Now that life is beginning to settle back to normal routine, I've had a chance to have a big play with my Envelope Punch Board. I tried out various sizes of envelopes, a bow for a card, a bonbon (mine is more a Valentine's Day version) and some gift boxes. All good fun, but I wanted to try out some small boxes or large envelopes to hold a set of cards. There are lots more samples at Just Add Ink's blog, they're setting the Envelope Punch Board or Thinlet card as their challenge.

I wasn't sure where to go until a fellow demonstrator pointed me here, to Stamp & Scrap with Frenchie. Frenchie has sorted out the formula for making boxes of any size, its well worth taking a look.
 So, for some reason I decided to make a set of cards 5½ inches square. That's WAY big really, and it meant I had to search out a piece of 12" by !2" card for the box. Never mind, I had some So Saffron that size and even though it isn't listed as a co-ordinating colour on Watercolor Wonder DSP, like most of the Stampin' Up! colours, it fits in beautifully. These papers are gorgeous, you'll find them in the NEW Occasions mini Catalogue, so I mounted a 4½ inch square of DSP onto another shade of card and kept stamping to a minimum. Did you notice the rounded corners? The Envelope Punch Board has a corner rounder incorporated, so now I don't have to go searching everywhere for my long lost corner punch. Some of the cards are stamped with an image or two from Happy Watercolor, also in the new Mini catalogue. Others have a greeting from A Dozen Thoughts. Between those two stamp sets you have things covered. The envelope is quite easy to construct, fits 4 cards and 4 envelopes very comfortably (could possibly fit more) and then you get to decorate.

Envelope, Bonbon & Bow

I decided to go crazy with my flower punches and the leaf die from Secret Garden. I crumpled the flowers and worked them with my bone folder to soften the paper fibres and you get a softer looking flower. That is attached with dimensionals, and then you can slip the tip of the envelope under neath to hold it all closed. I added a belly band, only for decoration in this case. I love the gelati colours, what do you think?



I have a lot more crafting and blogging to do before I head back to my "other" job next week. Would you like to leave a comment so I know you visited?

Catch you soon
Rachel