Tuesday Tips & Tricks

Half Full is such a favourite stamp set of mine! Possibly because it's no secret that I do enjoy a glass or half of wine at the end of a day. Most often red wine, but every now and again a Pinot Gris (or Grigio) hits the spot.

I'm not claiming to be the demonstrator who discovered that the label in this stamp set fit into the Scalloped Tag Topper punch, but whoever it was mentioned that she couldn't understand why Stampin' Up!® hadn't shaded the tag in the catalogue to show it had a co-ordinating punch. I agreed that was a very good point, but I have gone a little further. There comes a point in time when you have so many supplies, it is hard to remember which goes with what, so I suggest using a highlighter on the stamp cover to show which have a matching punch. I even wrote Scalloped Tag Topper Punch on the cover underneath this one, but feel the cat is self-evident.

Watercolouring added some colour to the tag, while the leaves from Painted Harvest added background texture.

URYS3BV2

 When you shop in my online shop, remember to use the host code, as I love to send you something from the current catalogues as a thank you gift. Tonight (10th October) is your last chance to order some stamp sets at reduced prices, you will see the special prices in the shop.

Happy Flowers RS127

While I had those stamps, papers and inks out yesterday, I continued to make birthday cards. I found the sketch at RetroSketches rather intricate, somewhat like a puzzle, but fun to put together.

My only disappointment with my work is, by using the rather large Starburst Sayings stamp for the circular image, I have ended up covering most of my favourite paper. However, when I tried a smaller circle I didn't like it half as much, so that's why you see this imposing, "shouting", Oh, Happy Day.

Again, you see Petite Petals in Blushing Bride and Strawberry Slush, with a few leafy sprigs punched in Mossy Meadow and Mossy Meadow is used for the second greeting, And Many More.



Have some fun stamping soon, and share
Rachel

Starburst Sayings Wood Stamp Set

$44.95

Starburst Sayings Clear Stamp Set

$35.95

Starburst Framelits Die

$45.95

Starburst Sayings Wood-Mount Bundle

$77.25

Starburst Sayings Clear-Mount Bundle

$69.50

Petite Petals Wood Stamp Set

$27.95

Petite Petals Clear Stamp Set

$21.95

Petite Petals Punch

$18.95

Builder Bird Punch

$29.95

Tag Topper Scalloped Punch

$39.95

And Many More Wood-Mount Stamp Set

$65.95

And Many More Clear-Mount Stamp Set

$46.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Never too Happy - Melbourne Convention 2014

I'm so happy! I've headed into Melbourne for the annual Stampin' Up! South Pacific Convention.
Even though Melbourne is my home town and I could easily catch the train into the city each day, I look forward to staying in town for three nights. The  mornings get off to an early start and after the day is done, we get to eat out together. Everyone is very friendly and it is so nice to talk face to face with girls we've met in online team forums and so on. The days are filled learning about new products, how to use them, and generally having a lot of fun, with like-minded Stampin' Up!demonstrators. Who knows what delights await us, as the company loves to change things about to keep it fresh and exciting. They not only spoil us with an exclusive Convention Bag, but we also come away with lots of new products. Hopefully, I might even get my hands on a new catalogue.
If you would like to participate in all this fun next year, AND get 20% off all your hobby purchases, perhaps you might like to join my team? There's a link over to the right to take you there.

I thought I'd share this card I made a while back, using SALE-A-BRATION  Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper, and the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch to make the fancy closure. I coloured the stamp from Yippee-Skippee with Stampin' Write Markers so that it would have two shades of blue. It was fun to stamp the Petite Petals flowers down the side of the inside layer. On the banner, one flower is stamped, while two others have been stamped and punched out with the matching Petite Petals Punch. The Happy Birthday is from the retired Hostess stamp set Happiest Birthday Wishes and it seems to nearly match the script of the main greeting. I find it very hard to let go of my retired greeting stamps, but it is beginning to get quite hard to keep track of them all!!!
After I return home at the weekend, I expect to have more to share,
Rachel

Awesome...Thanks for Spring

Oh boy! this ended up being a tricky challenge. Maybe its because our seasons are the opposite and while the northern hemisphere anticipates Spring, we are in the midst of Autumn, and dreading Winter. It was not the sketch so much, but the combination of the sketch and colours. I'm also having heaps of trouble with the lighting for photography, so I've put two photos up, using two different lighting arrangements. Not totally happy with either option.
 The base and panel remained fairly standard all through my design process, but I've stamped numerous images and cut out many shapes before I settled on this one.
The end result is a label cut with a Chalk Talk Framelit and mounted on a black Scalloped Tag Topper piece. First it was stamped with leaves from Summer Silhouette stamp set, then Awesome.... Thanks! is from Yippee-Skippee. A few small flowers from Summer Silhouette were stamped in Coastal Cabana and Mambo Melon and one of the InColor button embellishments in Coastal Cabana topped the left corner of the tag. I do like the way the tag turned out, Summer Silhouette is one of my favourite stamp sets.

The DSP is Eastern Elegance and a few more flower blossoms were stamped onto the Melon Mambo card base.

Many thanks to the design teams that organise these challenges, without you I don't know what I'd do for inspiration!
Try Stamping On Tuesday for the sketch,( and I managed to add blossoms too!)
Sunday Stamps for the  spring color palette: Melon Mambo, Coastal Cabana and Black.

Thanks for popping by, leave a message if you like, I love to read your comments.

Rachel
Happy news for me again, made the top 3 at Try Stamping On Tuesday, thank you, its such a thrill!

Lovely As A Tree Sympathy FMS #129 CTD#285

Just a quick post today, I have so many chores to do and the day is racing away on me.

When I saw Jen's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches, I knew that I wanted to use Lovely As a Tree. This stamp set has been around for about eight years now, it must be the longest of any in the Stampin' Up range! I had originally planned to place the row of trees across the horizontal strip, and I may still do that on another card when I get home from my errands. However, the colours in the Color Throwdown Challenge #285, steered me toward this design. The colours are Sahara Sand background stamped in the same shade with the large background stamp, Hardwood. There is a layer of retired DSP vertically on top, and then across is Natural Chevron ribbon and Linen Thread.After stamping the leaf in Early Espresso, and a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Sentiments it was rolled through the Big Shot, using a Chalk Talk Framelit. Next it was time to pick up the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch, to make a matt for the label in Pear Pizzazz. Finally, a Blushing Bride button and some smudged ink completed the card.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Rachel

Black and White Wedding Card

My husband and I went to a wedding at the weekend. It was a lovely event, and I tried to make a classy card for the occasion.
Shimmery White card #121717 (page 156) is a better card for these types of greeting cards. It is heavier than Whisper White and has a delightful shimmer. I used Chalk Talk for the large stamped label, behind it is a plain black label punched with the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch. It's very hard to see in the large photo but on top of the Chalk Talk Label there is a banner cut from Silver Glimmer paper using the Bitty Banners Framelits, and then a Label stamped with MR & MRS from Label Love and punched with the Artisan Label Punch.

These Framelits and punches make crafting so easy.

At left is another very similar card I made at the same time, to have a spare on hand, and you can see the layering in more detail here.

Happy crafting
Rachel

Tag Topper Punch Class

Stampin' Up! released the Tag Topper punches in the Occasions Catalogue 28 January and initially I wasn't overly impressed. That lasted about a week, when a number of innovative demonstrators had revealed some other ways to use these punches. Need I say they were in my very next order?

There is the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch (133324) $39.95 and the Angled Tag Topper Punch (133323) $39.95.

I am holding classes at my home in South Morang, Vic., during April showing some of the other possibilities with these punches. I will be providing typed notes and photos showing the relevant measurements and so on. In addition, there will be an opportunity to try out some of the large background stamps and see how useful they really are for adding some extra interest.

Thursday 10th April 7pm -10pm:

3 places left

Daytime and evening classes available 7th, 8th, 9th April

Some of the large Background stamps...

Dictionary

World Map

En Francais

Get in touch by phone 0417500681 or email if you have any questions.

Cheers 

Rachel

Sympathetic Birds

I did a lot of chores yesterday, so today I've happily pottered around home. One of the things I had to do today, was replace the ink in my printer and that leads me into my craft space, which in turn leads me to sitting and checking out the challenges! Oh! Is that where the afternoon went?

Sketch #15 at Seize the Sketch seems to follow the lines of the card that everyone is making with the Tag Topper Punches. I thought I could work with it anyway. Then I saw the colours in the challenge at PPA Color Challenge and thought they were perfect for this sympathy card. The birds in a tree are from Serene Silhouettes and 'You're In My Thoughts' is from A Dozen Thoughts.

Inside is a verse from a 2011 stamp set, Thanks For Caring, which sadly, never made it into an annual catalogue. I prefer this verse over all others for a sympathy card. "May you find peace and comfort in this difficult time and know that you are loved."

No doubt you've realised that the colours are Smokey Slate, Night of Navy and Wisteria Wonder. I had Night of Navy card but not ink so I substituted Midnight Muse, and used a piece of the ribbon too. There was a silver foil Starburst circle left over from another card, so I added that too. A tiny Wisteria Wonder Candy Dot is placed on the greeting.

I'm heading out of town tomorrow for my grand daughters first birthday and Monday is a work holiday in my state - Labour Day,  celebrating the 8 hour working day.

Hope you have something nice planned too...
Rachel