Let's Go Camping! STS26

This is such a CAS card for me! That is just an acronym for clean and simple, and like many crafters, I keep on adding until my card front is 'balanced'. I have purposely held back here as the sketch challenge at Seize The Sketch seems to call for a minimalist approach.

My eldest son and his family are right into camping, cycling and surfing. They live about an hour and a half from Melbourne on the surf coast and my grandson attends a little country school. They love the life down there, and so I had my eye on The Great Outdoors stamp set for a while. When it was listed in the Weekly Deals last week at a $13 discount I had to have it and it was delivered yesterday while I was at work. It is important to check the Weekly Deals every Wednesday morning, because it is current stock offered at special prices there, for one week only. The Clearance Rack isn't updated as often, but it is well worth checking regularly too.

It was so easy to stamp just a tent on the white background, and a second one on scrap, along with the sentiment from Playful Pennants. I used a speech bubble from Word Bubble Framelits to cut the sentiment.
I think it is called paper tole when you layer images. I used to make pictures for my children when they were young, with paper tole, and it was fun to add dimension to this tent the same way.
Then I couldn't bear to leave the card completely white, so I have sponged a little blue sky and fluffy white clouds.You can add your card to the Gallery at Seize the Sketch too, I'd love to see you there!

Happy camping and stamping,
Rachel

Word Bubbles Framelits Die

$42.95

The Great Outdoors Wood Stamp Set

$51.95

The Great Outdoors Clear Stamp Set

$41.95

Playful Pennants Wood-Mount Stamp Set

$37.95

Playful Pennants Clear-Mount Stamp Set

$28.95

Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock

$11.95

Hello Honey A4 Cardstock

$11.95

Hello Honey Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Stampin' Dimensionals

$6.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Celebrate! STS#25 SUO#102

I love having a session colouring with the new Blendabilities, and I prefer it to be in daylight hours when I can see more clearly, especially using this stamp set. In This Together has a lot of very small parts to colour - think: lips,arms, shoes etc. I haven't ever used Copics, but in the past I have loved using Stampin' Write Markers with Blender Pens and Aqua Painters.(and still do). Blendabilities are quite different, and practice certainly improves results.

What a clean design this sketch by Seize The Sketch and Mona Pendleton is. I have my mother's Creative Memories curvy cutter and because I am a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I don't use it very often. This time I used the subtle curve and it hardly shows on this photograph, but it looks great IRL. I had been cutting gold sparkly stars on the Big Shot already, and two made their way onto this card, surrounding a Celebrate from Starburst Sayings. The lovely lass with the glass of champagne has been cut with Apothecary Accents Framelits. SUO Challenges challenged us to use our favourite new toys, and I think Blendabilities are 'it' for me! go take a look at the DT samples.

Cheers!

Rachel

If you live in Australia, you can purchase any of these items through me. Don't forget to check the Weekly Deals and Clearance Rack.

In This Together Wood-Mount Stamp Set

$39.95

In This Together Clear-Mount Stamp Set

$28.95

Starburst Sayings Wood Stamp Set

$44.95

Starburst Sayings Clear Stamp Set

$35.95

Starburst Framelits Die

$45.95

Apothecary Accents Framelits Die

$42.95

Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Rich Razzleberry Assortment

$20.95

Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Skin Tone Assortment

$39.95

Gold Glimmer Paper

$8.95

Moonlight Designer Series Paper Stack

$11.95

Blackberry Bliss A4 Cardstock

$11.95

Basic Gray A4 Card Stock

$11.95

Card Stock A4 Smoky Slate

$11.95

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

$14.95

Birthday Birds STS 24

Do you like these colours?

Blackberry Bliss is one of my favourites from the NEW In Colors, but if it wasn't for the Moonlight DSP, I think I would struggle to mix it with Hello Honey and Tangelo Twist. I kept my stamping minimalist with Momento Black ink and sponged the Tangelo through a punched-out circle. The stamp set is Serene Silhouettes, and a greeting from Itty Bitty Banners mounted onto one of the cute label shapes from Project Life Cards and Labels Framelits Dies. 
Sieze The Sketch were kind enough to provide this nifty sketch.

Cheers
Rachel

Project Life Cards & Labels Framelits

$42.95

Moonlight Designer Series Paper Stack

$11.95

Serene Silhouettes Wood Stamp Set

$42.95

Serene Silhouettes Clear Stamp Set

$33.95

Itty Bitty Banners Wood Stamp Set

$27.95

Itty Bitty Banners Clear Stamp Set

$21.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

21 Congratulations STS #17

When you ask young girls what their favourite colours are, they usually answer pink or purple. By 21 they probably have revised their faves, I'll definitely have to survey some young women to find that out! I decided to go with Strawberry Slush and Wild Wisteria with a dash of bling for this Happy Congratulations card.

This stamp set is great! Great for weddings, 21st birthdays, Graduation, even new babies and definitely Chinese New Year. There are 4 stamps: the string of paper lanterns, a single lantern so you can colour them any shade, either directly or on scrap and punched out ever-so-easily with a three quarter inch circle punch. There is the Congratulations sentiment and the 4th stamp says, "may happiness be your destination".

To finish, I used Memorable Moments for the numbers, the 'hearts' out of the Adorning Accents Embossing Folder set (3) topped with a silver Glimmer Paper arrow from the On Film Framelit Dies. There's even a scattering of rhinestones, as befits such a celebration!

Although the sketch has been rotated, and the shape changed up a bit, it was the sketch at Seize the Sketch which was the start-point for my card,

Have a great week, thanks for popping by

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

By The Light Of The Silvery Moon STS 314

I found Seize the Sketch for the first time tonight. After visiting the Seize the Birthday Blog in search of ideas, they directed me to Seize the Sketch. I'm not feeling like making birthday cards but the sketch immediately"spoke" to me! The circle behind just HAD to be a big, full, silver moon and so I pulled out Serene Silhouettes and my black Stazon. Love & Sympathy provided the greeting and the only colour is a glimpse of Bermuda Bay with Candy Dots and a strip of Kaleidoscope DSP. The background DSP is also Kaleidoscope, a sombre charcoal. 

Thanks for dropping by

Rachel