Sunburst 40th - Artistic Expressions - CTC 87

Thanks for joining me on the CASE-ing The Catty Blog Hop again. This weeks CASE is from the Artistic Expressions section of the catalogue.This covers pages 92 - 157, another HUGE section of the catalogue. This card on page 99 caught my eye, with the stitching, plus the faux stitching on the card base.

I had to get my sewing machine out to take in a skirt, and I'd been putting it off for months, so I was rather pleased that this was going to 'kill two birds with the one stone.' At the moment, I'm up to date with all the 40ths my son and daughter-in-law are going to, but I decided to make it a 40th card in more masculine tones anyway, for when they spring the next one on me.

Island Indigo and Crushed Curry are my picks this time. My feeling was the Island Indigo was more masculine, but of course we needed the 'sunny' yellow. It was speckled with one of the stamps from Timeless Textures, and I stamped with white Craft ink onto black card, just like in the catalogue sample, using Sunburst Sayings. I cut 40 from the Little Numbers Thinlets (retired now, unfortunately) and then stamped in black above the numbers with 'Look who's turning' from Number of Years.
Actually, I did the sewing before I proceeded too far with all the other steps, in case I had to begin again. Luckily it worked out beautifully. There is no doiley on mine, but a few Bermuda Bay sequins made an appearance.





The inside has been layered and decorated very lightly with a stamp from Sunburst Sayings, again, the one that looks a bit like stitched lines.

Cheers, Rachel

Don't forget, Stampin' Up!® has a Bonus Days promotion happening through this month. For every $90 you spend with Stampin' Up!® in July, you will be emailed a $9 discount code to use in August. That's like a 10% discount! You can shop in my Online Store if you have a shipping address in Australia, and if you use the Hostess Code, YM3FDRCM you'll receive something extra from me in the post.

You should head over to see Tricia Raineri next

If you'd like to join in with CASE-ing The Catty, this is the link to post your entry

Baby Bear Turns One FMS#222

My littlest nephew is turning one next week. He had his first haircut last week and no longer looks like a baby - he's a toddler!!

I have so many birthday cards to make over the next few weeks, S-I-L celebrated 3rd February, Logan is 6 on the 14th, Stephen is 1 on the 17th, Xavier is 8 on the 21st, Matthew is 40 on 2nd March and Alice is 3 on the 8th March. Balloon Celebration with the matching Balloon Bouquet Punch is my life saver!
I haven't made up my mind yet whether I prefer a punch or a die, but this Balloon Bouquet Punch is fabulous for using up scraps of card, so I have a container of balloons already punched sitting on my table.

Last night, looking for inspiration, I found the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. Aussie Narelle is responsible for this little beauty, and although there are a lot of pieces layered onto this card, I hope it's still 'fresh' enough.
The colours were drawn from the patterned paper, a lovely retired Christmas DSP, All Is Calm. I love these soft, sweet shades. I used the Little Number Thinlets and cut a space in the large balloon so the number lays flat. There was already so.o.o.. much texture happening here, we didn't need any more.

The littlest bear from Bear Hugs has a hold of his birthday balloons and he's grounded by the banners. It's so handy having an easy-to-use banner stamp, and this one is from Number Of Years. I have been using that stamp set most of the time for birthdays, but this little guy needed a petite numeral. The birthday sentiment from Boys Will be Boys fits perfectly inside the banner, always handy when you want to stamp something quickly.

Don't you love the stamped shading on the balloons? Oh, and did you know that if you buy the stamp set and punch together, you get a 15% discount, how good is that!

Cheers, Rachel

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40th Birthday CTC#61

CASE-ing The Catty is back from our short holiday break, reinvigorated and ready to create for another year. I do hope your holidays have been happy, and that you've been able to enjoy the perfect amount of family and friends, as well as a little time-out for yourself. Our design brief for this week was to choose a favourite from the NEW Holiday Catalogue. Have you seen it yet? Not forgetting that SALE-A-Brations kicked off at the same time. If you live in Australia I'd be happy to mail you one of each, send me an email with 'catalogue' in the subject line, followed by your postal address in the body of the email.


Birthdays don't take much of a holiday in my large family, and we've already kicked off the month with a 40th, for a very lovely lady. When I spied this set of stamps and matching framelits at Stampin' Up!® Onstage Live last November, my mind immediately turned to this particular birthday and my son's 40th in March. Then there'll be a 60th late in the year, and so it goes on. I've been enjoying using the Little Numbers Thinlets on kids' cards, but the Number of Years set is large, dramatic and ready to make a BIG statement!

Beginning with those numbers, I stamped Blushing Bride onto thick Whisper White, and once it was cut out (and admired lots by me) I added some Wink of Stella. This is a new, subtle glittery pen/brush in the Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalogue. So far I've only 'invested' in the clear version, but we also carry the gold, and no doubt that will find its way to my house at some stage soon!!!

It is also very challenging to capture in a photograph too, I've discovered.

I CASE-d the card on the most left of page 8 in the catalogue, using Birthday Bouquet Designer Series Paper, along with a retired paper in Blushing Bride. The central panel appealed to me, and the patterned paper took away the need to stamp here. Deciding how I was going to 'ground' the numbers, I spied white tags, which were sitting in a dish on my work table, and 40 sits nicely on the tag.

I saw the "let us celebrate" going through the "birthday" on Artisan Krista Frattlin's blog. This select group of demonstrators always inspire me. However, it seemed to look messy on my card,so I've separated them this time. I'm glad Krista brought that particular stamp in Balloon Celebration to my attention, I think I'll use it lots. The "th" on the flag attached to the number is how it was used on an anniversary card on page 10, so ideas have been gleaned from many sources. I know many on the design team have CASE-d this card, it will be a VERY popular bundle I think.

When I make cards for my family members, I generally layer the inside up with one or two layers of card too. Can't do that so much in classes or the ladies would be here until the wee small hours!! I used Lost Lagoon and then white, with a 2cm strip of the fabulous floral to tie it all together. Maybe my card has also inspired you to take it in another direction, and great if it has. All I ask is, if you blog about it, it is polite to acknowledge the inspiration source, and link back to the blog, like I have with Krista's, even though she lives in Canada and is hardly likely to ever see my work.

Now, perhaps you started here with me, and you'd like to visit the previous blog of Judy May. 

If you'd like to travel forward, you're heading off to Bronwyn Eastley at AddINKtive Designs

Cheers, Rachel

If you can't wait to get some of these goodies in your hands, and you'd like me to be your demonstrator, you can shop in my online store here. Australian buyers only. My phone number ifyou have any questions is 0417 500 681. If your order is less than $250, it would be great if you used the Hostess code 4G296SCD when you checkout.

The email address if you're in Australia and wanting those catalogues sent is rpalmieri5@bigpond.com

   

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Favourite Holiday Bundle -CTC#56

It's Sunday evening here in Australia, time for a CASE-ing The Catty Blog Hop. Perhaps you are just starting out here with me, but do make sure you hop around all the blogs to see the creation inspiration we have for you. I spent yesterday at Stampin' Up! Onstage in Melbourne, getting the 'whisper' on what we have coming up in January. Such a fun day chatting with other demonstrators and getting inky with NEW stamps. It's all so lovely, hard not to want everything!!!

Catalogue picture

This week we are sharing our favourite bundle from the Stampin' Up!® Holiday Catalogue.
Just wait till you see the new bundles! I've chosen Snow Place Stamp Set with Snow Friends Framelits Dies as my absolute favourite, even though they're all so great. Since I've had this stamp set, I've been really enjoying playing with different combinations of the stamped pieces and the matching dies. It's a bit like playing paper dolls!!! Wouldn't it be fun if Stampin' Up!® released another stamp with more cute outfits and accessories for these guys?

I hadn't planned to buy this bundle originally, until I realised that two of my young grandchildren lug soft toy penguins every time they come here to sleepover. They've spent some of the school holidays at the beach and they loved going to see the real live 'Little Penguins' coming ashore one evening. I've also spent a few days away with them and took the stamp set with me so the children could stamp out some pictures with snowmen and penguins. Photopolymer is a bit better than my usual wood mount stamps for use by the children, they can't ruin the blocks getting ink all over them!!! The Snow Place stamp set retails at $45.00 for 22 stamps, there are 15 dies in Snow Friends Framelits Dies retailing for $45.00 also but together as a bundle, you save 15%.


This card was originally inspired by the card at top right of the catalogue picture, but this cheeky chappie has been dressed to suit our summer Christmas.





My fellow demonstrator, Petra Tailor has already done the shirt & ice cream idea, now I've put my spin on the theme. I used the die for a penguin as a guide to the shape for the shorts and shirt, and then did a few alterations with paper snips. The clouds are punched with the Cupcake Builder Punch, you could also use the Tree builder Punch. I've enjoyed the mix-&-match aspect of this set: - top hat, Santa hat, ear muffs, ties, scarf, but sadly, no sun hat for when he eats ice cream at the beach!

I've made this pair of fun Christmas cards as part of the selection for my Christmas card class next Friday 21st, with penguin and snowman wearing Santa hats with an added sprig of holly.

This stamp set doesn't have to be restricted to the yuletide season though. Because my small grand-daughter adores penguins, I decided to make her next birthday card with three lady penguins. They've dressed up for the occasion with necklaces and a bow in the hair of the youngest. It seemed a good idea to try out the Sleigh Ride Edgelit Dies, the curved landscape added interest to the scene, even in the very neutral Crumb Cake. I finally ordered the Little Numbers Thinlets, and its a great size for cards. "Look who's turning" is from Hooray It's Your Day, which was in the Occasions Catalogue back in January this year.

Lastly, you get to see a card my son made for his girlfriend's birthday last month, CASE-ing mine above. This time we have a boy and girl pair, the trees from Sleigh Ride Edgelits Dies and a handcut sun from Over The Rainbow. Aaron chose the bold birthday sentiment from Sassy Salutations. I think his card is gorgeous, and such a shame he only makes this one card a year.
Can you see why I'm loving this bundle now? Check below for product codes if this is one you'd love to play with too. I'm looking forward to seeing which bundles the other members of this design team have favoured and what they have shared.

Here's a picture of my friend from Adelaide, Kathryn Mangelsdorf with me at Stampin' Up!®

Onstage in Melbourne yesterday.It was great to catch up, so glad Kathryn was able to come over from Adelaide. You'll find her blog after Stasia's.We have so much fun at these events with lots of chatter and stamping and product give-aways. This time we were checking out the Occasions Catalogue and Sale-A-Bration catalogue, in preparation for their release in January 2016. We can order new goodies already and play with them for 6 weeks before they're released to our customers. There's a lot of beautiful stamps, thinlets, punches and paper coming your way!!!!
I'll tell you more about Onstage later.
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And in the meantime - there will be a 20% discount on selected stamp sets from Monday 16th November, but only through till Thursday 20th November, while stocks last. Click here for my online shop, open all day, every day.
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 It's time to be hopping along to Stasia now, enjoy!

Cheers
Rachel

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