60th Wedding Anniversary SSCC#47

What a gorgeous combination of colours at Sunday Stamps Color Challenge#47!

I needed to make a 60th Wedding Anniversary card this week for a lovely Italian-Australian couple, who are having a celebration party the weekend I am away in Brisbane for Stampin' Up! Convention, so my husband will attend on his own.

This couple were great friends to my in-laws and have been there for our family since my in-laws passed away. She is an absolute dynamo! Recently celebrating her 80th birthday, but still frequently out and about, running messages or driving "the old people" around. Her husband is not quite so lively, but neither is he incapacitated, he just loves being at home.

We haven't made a decision yet on what their gift should be, but I decided the silhouette of the bridal couple from Marry Me (retired) was perfect, stamped with Versamark onto Pretty in Pink card (retiring soon). If you are just beginning your stamping journey, you won't have all the matching stamp pads, so Versamark is perfect, because it stamps on any colour about one shade darker than the card colour (like my bridal couple). You can also use it with clear or coloured embossing powder for a different look.

I mounted the pink onto Midnight Muse, which I had edged with the Scallop Trim Border punch and the Scallop Trim Corner punch (both retiring at the end of this catalogue too).

The Framelits Window Frames Collection cut a beautiful shape from Shimmery White Card for the greeting stamped with Memorable Moments in Midnight Muse and mounted on the next size of Window Framelit cut from Champagne (gold) Glimmer Paper.To finish the card I cut three of the sweet little Vintage Flower Trim blossoms and its finished on the outside.

 With all these amazing events I'm making cards for lately like this momentous wedding anniversary and the recent Hundreth Birthday, along with the children's cards and other special birthdays, I don't know what I would do without my Memorable Moments stamp set. It was one of the gifts for attending Stampin' Up! Convention last year in Canberra - I wonder which of the new stamps we will receive this year?

 In a fortnight I will be flying up to Brisbane for 5 days of fun with lots of Stampin' Up! Demonstrators from all over Australia and New Zealand, so exciting!

Hope you are enjoying my blog and getting some stamping done too,
Rachel

Colour, Sketches, inspiration......

Too late to enter my card for these challenges, but I thought I might just put it up here, regardless, since  it was the last sketch from Tui at Freshly Made Sketches which helped start the creative process, and the colour challenge at Colour Throwdown  pushed me just that little bit further! Aren't those colours delicious? You can still click on those links to see the other submissions that did get linked to the sites, and the very deserving winners!

I had a couple of birthday cards to make for girls at work this week, one birthday is on Friday and another Saturday. Fortunately, I had made one a while back, and blogged it (and it was a Sunday Stamps Top Pick too!!!) so I set to work to make this one as special as possible too.

Just Believe was my chosen stamp set, and I stamped the main image with versamark and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. I then rubbed the image with Crumb Cake ink on a dauber to create a bit of shadow, added in the Boho Blossom Punch flowers and some pearl basic jewel centres, a piece of Victoria crochet trim lace over a strip of Melon Mambo trimmed with the scallop trim border punch.

I know the recipient was thrilled! Happy birthday G,

Happy stamping,
Rachel

It is rainy and chilly weather in Melbourne and looks like it will remain this way for the Queen's Birthday long weekend, so looks like I'll just have to scrapbook and make more cards!
I wanted to share this card I made to showcase the Hostess designer series paper Cheerful Treat on page 9 in the Idea Book & Catalogue and the sweet stamp set above it Posy Punch, with its three flowers. These flowers are easy to punch out using the Fancy Flower Punch. The DSP costs $15 (hostess dollars), the stamp set costs $23 (hostess dollars) for wood mount, $18 (hostess dollars) for clear mount.

It isn't too difficult to earn hostess dollars. When you hostess a workshop, or even collect orders totally $300 (before shipping) you collect Fifty Hostess Dollars which can be used to purchase "Hostess only" products or anything else from the main catalogue or current Autumn-Winter Mini.

I cut the DSP with the Top Note die on my Big Shot, stamped and punched out one of the blossoms, punched a border in Blushing Bride using the Scallop Trim Border punch and punched a small modern label for the greeting. The greeting and flower were raised on Stampin Dimensionals and trimmed with pearls. I used another piece of the Cheerful Treat DSP for the inside of the card and cut a piece of white card with one of the new Framelits dies before stamping another blossom and a greeting.

You can contact me by phone or email.

Hope you find some time to do something you love this weekend.

Cheers, Rachel



Owl Be There!!!

I have had a slightly hectic week, getting ready for convention and working. I don't usually work five days a week, but it just so happened that I needed to attend a conference for work, and since the Principal said I could have a day in lieu, which would help out with the day and a half I am absent this coming week for Stampin Up Convention in Chilly Canberra, I went along willingly! As it happens, it rained like there was no tomorrow in Melbourne on Friday, so I quite enjoyed my day of education, food and laughter!

Now on to stamping, even though it was mostly about punching for this card!
I had an order for punches last week, and as one of them was the Owl Builder Punch, I decided to use mine to make the Thank You card. There is no end to the variety of ways you can use this little fellow, and I kept him fairly simple for this small card, only adding in eyelids by half punching the largest circle, and a wing with a half circle of the smaller Scalloped Circle Punch. He is perched on a branch from the Bird Builder Punch, which my customer had also purchased. I used the Modern Label Punch and Word Window Punch for the greeting, and I think that "Thank You" might be from a retired set. I know my customer is going to love playing with her new punches.

While I was in the mood, I punched out a second owl, the VERY basic model, and added him to the centre of a row of stamped owls. Using the Stamp-a-ma-jig, I stamped the owl from the retired Punch Bunch stamp set, from 2011 Sale-A-bration. Such a shame that it was available for a short time because this set was particularly cute, with baby, birthday and general stamps in the one pack.

After mounting the Crumb Cake panel onto a strip of Pool Party, edged with the Scallop Trim Border Punch, I threaded a button from the Neutrals Collection through Early Espresso Baker's Twine and wound it several times around the join. Quite quick and easy, but cute, don't you think?

And now, I'm off to pack my bag for Convention on Webnesday - WOOOHOOO!!!!