Anyone For A BBQ? CTC197

Welcome back to another week of CASE-ing The Catty. The crew is made up of Stampin' Up! demonstrators from all parts of Australia and New Zealand.You are at the blog of Rachel Palmieri, Independent Stampin' Up!® demonstrator. I run classes at my home studio in South Morang, Victoria, share Stampin' Up!® products and tools at parties for my customers, coach my lovely team and create cards and the occasional 3D project. This week the design team are focusing on pages 28-35.

In an effort to be organised, I am creating a little ahead of time although with a little further thought I would have made this a Happy Anniversary card! The sentiment from Sitting Pretty is perfect for an anniversary card. My hubby and I celebrated 41 years of marriage last Friday, so we gave ourselves a weekend away on the coast.

 I made really good use of DSP for the card with Wood Textures for the background and the 2018-2020 In Colour DSP for the BBQ apron. Both of these are in 6" by 6" packs containing 48 for the Wood and 40 for In Color.

 Apron of Love is the stamp and Apron Builder Framelits are the dies. You can buy them bundled together for a 10% discount through to June 2019. There are dies for baking utensils as well as the BBQ set.

We do enjoy a glass of wine, usually while we cook dinner, so I stamped a single glass from Half Full, for a splash of colour (and humour?)

 Can you see how the red card from Timeless Tidings inspired my card? I decided not to put anything along the right under the banner but I liked the banner with the flagged ends facing into the card, and lowered a little from the top.

Now you can head on over to the remarkable Rebecca Scurr

Do you want to enter the challenge? Here is the link.

RJN76UGK
September

AWH Colour Creations Blueberry Bushel

We are a group of Stampin' Up!® demonstrators from the Art With Heart team. With the Stampin' Up!® colour revamp, Catherine Proctor suggsested we might like to blog hop, featuring a different colour every week. This week the spotlight is on Blueberry Bushel. If you pop back to Catherine Proctor you will see a full list of participants.

Have I mentioned that blue is my favourite colour? Actually colour - full stop - is my favourite really. I watched a video by Ronda Wade showing how to make a gift bag and hanging card from 2 sheets of 12" X 12" paper, which was fabulous, but I wanted to use this pretty paper. Someone mentioned that if you halved the measurements it would work the same for a 6" square paper, so I tried it out, and it did! Contact me if you'd like the measurements, happy to help.

That even worked for the tiny hanging card, which I more-or-less winged so that it would fit through the slot. It meant cutting a sliver off to fit it through with a backing card measuring 2 inches. The Stitched All Round bundle is just perfect with this lovely stamp which sits very nicely on top of the die cut fancy stitched circle.

Here is the tiny tag so you can see the 'hanger' - I do rather like that idea, no sticky tape or envelope needed. I popped a couple of Tombow inside the bag to give an idea of the size. Don't forget that you can stock up on patterned paper (DSP) in July with buy three, get one free. hop over to the shop to see more.

Abstract Impressions also received an inking this week. I'm on holiday from work, so although I have just spent three days away at my son's home, I've still had enough time for crafting. I've kept the stamping fairly simple as I get used to these 'different' shapes. Call Me Clover and Pineapple Punch, both part of the same InColor family as Blueberry Bushel, fit in to the picture just fine.

I became just a tad excited when the sun came out one day, and the temperature hit 17° - not a bad effort for a winters day. I took my card outside to have its photo taken!

This is another DSP from Garden Impressions DSP in the 6 inch square format. It is also one of the papers on offer for July in the buy 3, get the 4th one free promo. Get in touch for details. I've noticed that it looks quite similar to my sign off  image, but they haven't added the speckles of gold. The stamp set is new for the Annual catalogue, Sitting Pretty, with some sweet sentiments. I heat embossed 'best friends' with white embossing powder, it stands out better that way. The bird looks a little startled, maybe its not sure about the bulldog?

TEM	DESCRIPTION	PAGE	PRICE (AUD)	PRICE (NZD)
146338	Nature’s Poem Designer Series Paper	189	$19.25	$23.00
146284	Twinkle Twinkle Designer Series Paper	189	$19.25	$23.00
146921	Under the Mistletoe Designer Series Paper	189	$19.25	$23.00
146902	Animal Expedition Designer Series Paper	190	$19.25	$23.00
146897	Best Route Designer Series Paper	190	$19.25	$23.00
146913	Petal Promenade Designer Series Paper	190	$19.25	$23.00
146331	Tranquil Textures Designer Series Paper	190	$19.25	$23.00
146289	Garden Impressions 6" x 6" (15.2 x 15.2 cm) Designer Series Paper	191	$19.25	$23.00
146916	Tropical Escape 6" x 6" (15.2 x 15.2 cm) Designer Series Paper	191	$19.25	$23.00
144177	Wood Textures 6" x 6" (15.2 x 15.2 cm) Designer Series Paper	191	$19.25	$23.00

If you decide to shop with me and remember to add the Host code, you'll receive something extra from me. You'll be able to check which papers are part of this offer when you go to shop.

GR9CWSP3
July Host Code

Weekend Catalogue Launch

Every year on June 1st, Stampin' Up!® releases a new Annual catalogue. That's around 250 pages full of colour and inspiration, exciting for crafting addicts. When one of my team was just a customer, she used to be forever asking me when there'd be a new one!!! I ended up recruiting her so that she'd be amongst the first to know, and buy. So even if it's not the most exciting thing this side of Christmas for you, there are many who just LOVE a catalogue launch.

If you follow my blog, you possibly already know that I had the honour of being one of the display artists at our last convention (and Annual Catalogue release for demonstrators) last April in Sydney. In February I received a lovely box of products to create with, and no Pinterest to go to for inspiration, because the products were all brand new. Most of the samples in the photo above had already previewed in Sydney.

The In Colors were sort of new to me though as I had received three colours of embossing powder, and those same colours in ribbon, but a pack of clips which showed the 5 colours. I made the jar card after I'd ordered the inks and a  pack of mixed card colours.The cycling card was made using Enjoy Life, the 5 In Colors and a technique with the Stamparatus.

 I was shopping for birthday gifts when I spotted a couple of these vases and asked the shop assistant to find me a 3rd, which she did.

They seem to complement the invitations I sent out to my event, don't you think?

I hung a couple of my scrapbooking layouts so my guests could see how you can incorporate stamping into scrapbook layouts. The one on the left was the piece I used in my submission to be selected for the gig, and the one with two boys is the one displayed in Sydney. The left hand one uses Labeler Alphabet, Crafting Forever and Playful Backgrounds. The other used Love What You Do, Lined Alphabet and Sitting Pretty. Sitting Pretty had two great sentiments - best friends & Anywhere with you is better than anywhere without you. Aren't they perfect for a pair of close brothers?

I forgot to let my guests know that ALL the Stampin' Blends are in the warehouse and ready to be shipped to you now. Check out pages 204-205 for a full list of colours. In August, you will also be able to increase your colour collection of Watercolour pencils with 10 NEW colours.. I've been hanging out for that for ages!!!

There is nothing better than getting to try something out before you buy it. I saw the Stamparatus demonstrated late last year and after seeing the step-stamping, I was prepared to order it without ever touching it. I gave my ladies the chance to see it demonstrated in several different ways on Saturday before showing them how to make their own project. If you weren't able to get here last Saturday, you could gather some friends for a party at your place and request that I demo the Stamparatus. Or perhaps you'd prefer to book in for a private class, one hour is $20 and 2 hours is $30. We can look at stamp sets you are interested in and/or tools you want to check out. 

 I think you can see where the inspiration for this two-step flamingo card came from. I've had Fabulous Flamingo for a couple of years and actually made the invitations for my catalogue launch in 2016 with this one. I have to say, it is so much easier to line the pieces up with the Stamparatus.

Some of the quicker ladies even moved on and made a second card using Various Vases. This card was designed by a demo friend of mine, Rachel Woollard, and shared at a team day we had in May. I'm sure some of you who follow Stampin' Up! demos will have heard of Mary Fish, a top-selling demo in the USA. She recently reached a million dollars in sales, and those who do are given the opportunity to meet with the company artists to design a stamp set. Mary suggested these vases for her stamp set and there is even a punch, which we used to punch the solid coloured vases. There are stamps to colour the flowers too, but I kept it simple as we had some absolute beginners on Saturday. Of course, it's easy enough to colour with a flick of the stampin' Blends, Stampin' Markers or Watercolour pencils. So many options, what's your favourite?

This is a wordy, picture-heavy post, well-done you if you've read to the end. I'll be back tomorrow night with an Art With Heart Blog Hop.

2BEUMMY3
until 4th July

Onstage April Part 3

You may know that I have  number of grandchildren, and this time it was Tyler and Logan who were the stars of my scrapbook page. My son and D-I-L supplied this gorgeous photo. The new stamp set Sitting Pretty supplied the sentiments for this layout. "Best Friends" and Anywhere with you is better than anywhere without you,' suits these boys to a tee. I guess it usually suits a lot of siblings - fighting like crazy one minute and playing happily the next. My box only had the Lined Alphabet stamps, no framelits, but after trying them hand cut, I redid my layout with them stamped to the background. Blends were used to colour these letters.

 I pulled some splodges from Love What You Do stamp set, it is just a sensational set! Having the big stack of paper from the Share What You Love suite, I knew that Blackberry Bliss and Mint Macaron were returning colours so I used them, along with a spot or two of Calypso Coral. I was absolutely thrilled with the products I had to work with for my Onstage display. I felt like they had been chosen with me in mind, but that may just be because these will be our most popular stamps this catalogue. What do you think?

For cards with Sitting Pretty I was able to mix in some sentiments from Love What You Do as the fonts are similar. The stamp only has the wrought iron seat, and I could picture it at the end of a day, with the glow of a sunset shining through. So pleased that the dies include this one and a bench-style seat, as well as the bulldog, squirrel and plant. It does make life so much easier, for those of us with arthritic hands. Can still wind the handle on the Big Shot, just the scissor action isn't so steady!!!

And one without the sunset. Doesn't Blackberry Bliss look so good with Tranquil Tide? Such a strong colour combination.Seems quite suitable for a bloke with the linen thread and all.

For the new InColors, all I received was 3 colours of ribbon, a pack of clips and those same 3 shades in heat embossing powder. I matched a piece of Old Olive ribbon with the Pineapple Punch ribbon & tied them with linen thread to introduce the colour to my project.

All the patterned paper I used for my display is from Share What You Love Specialty Designer Series Paper. There is a great range of colours included, a little something for everyone. I can hardly wait to share this suite with my customers during May, they're going to love it!

The stamping of the 2nd step, colour onto the little critters could have been better, but I have my Stamparatus now, so I expect next time I ink it up, will be much bettter. I'm thrilled to bits with the co-ordinating dies, which I tried out the day they arrived. The Big Shot is my best friend, as you might be able to tell with all the die cutting on this particular card. Missing you was from a part of a bigger stamp and I coloured only the words I wanted by covering the remainder with washi tape. This is removed before stamping.

There is still more to come but for now I will leave you,