Birthdays and Butterflies FMS

 What a fun sketch to start your card with this week at Freshly Made Sketches. So many possibilities for this, but I settled for the Six-Sided Sampler, a great hexagon shape with different patterns on each one. There are so many ways to use this versatile stamp, but I've put together a vision in shades of purple for a workmate's birthday.

The card colours are Blackberry Bliss, Wisteria Wonder and Whisper White  while the ink colours are (from the bottom) Blackberry Bliss, Rich Razzleberry and Perfect Plum.




I punched the same shades with the Hexagon Punch, and very easily trimmed the white border left around the stamped image, to show a border of the plain card. They're raised on Dimensionals and some gold thread is held behind the hexagon too.
 Because that wasn't near enough gold, there is a strip of sequins and a punched butterfly too, beside the small sentiment from And Many More.



Cheers,
Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Flowers On The Fence RS#119 CTD#297

This old fence is just a touch wonky, and a little quaint with flowers rambling over.

I think this is one of my favourite colour combinations, mainly because I love Bermuda Bay and those other hues set it off so nicely. I 'built' my fence with Hardwood, stamped on Smokey Slate with Smokey Slate, and then sliced into 'planks' with some 'nails' here and there. I've seen someone else (maybe a demo friend?) use those same 'nails', which are actually tiny button-brads, Vintage Trinkets (118764) and on the retirement list.


I stamped with So Very Grateful, a stamp set we say goodbye to at the end of June also, and the 'Hello" is part of a stamp from Six-sided Sampler. The inspiration picture with its cascade of flowers helped in designing this card. There are flowers from Petite Petals (that set carries over into the new catalogue), the NEW (available 1st July) Something To Say flowers and both of those have matching punches, plus tiny Daffodil Delight flowers punched with the 4-petal punch from Itty Bitty Accents Punches, which is also retiring.
Many thanks to RetroSketches for another great sketch and Color Throwdown for a inspirational color palette.


The weekend looms......YAY!

Rachel


Australian readers - You can shop for supplies in my online shop, there's only 10 days till the mini Occasions catalogue and main catalogue finish. Lots of retiring bargains to be had and weekly specials too.

Hostess code C2KVNKJJ

Classes for watercolouring available if you are near to South Morang (Melbourne) VIC

Thursday 17th July 7.00pm - 10.00pm

Friday 25th July 7.00pm - 10.00pm

Saturday 2nd August 2.00pm - 5.00pm (daytime)

Thanks Much Six-sided Sampler

This is a simple CASE of a card in the Stampin' Up! Catalogue, page 125. It uses the stamp set Six-sided Sampler and a clever (but easy) little punched out centre.
The colours are Coastal cabana, Smoky Slate and Pistachio Pudding ; lovely and restful, aren't they?
I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement, it didn't end up exactly the same, but very nearly. The dimensions of the cards may be different.
Another difference is the 'button' on the greeting. I don't have any Smoky Slate buttons, so  I punched a 3/4 inch circle and placed a large pearl on top. I think it looks really cute.
We have had a lovely time in Ireland with relatives who live there, I must get this card in the post to them.

Have a lovely day,
Rachel

Pick and Mix a Six-Sided Sampler

Another card from my "Pick and Mix" class on Friday night was this Six-Sided Sampler stamped using the Stamp-a-ma-jig. With the huge range of ink colours, plus the lovely patterns on these hexagons, it gave the ladies such a choice in ways to make their own cards individual.
One card was made totally using Real Red and the gingham hexagon and it looked fabulous. Another card maker incorporated a strip of card, paper pierced and hand stitched, because it will be a birthday card for a patchworker. What a perfect idea!
My sample was purposely kept to one layer with just one shape raised on Dimensionals. I used Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding, Coastal Cabana and Crushed Curry.Of course, with the Hexagon Punch to punch those shapes, this was a quick and easy card.

In October, I will be offering Quick and Easy stamping classes, so if you haven't had much experience with stamping, or you tried it, but didn't enjoy it, perhaps a Quick and Easy class in October will be the answer to discovering your creativity too.

Happy stamping
Rachel

Woo Hoo! Cake FM119

What a great challenge from Heidi at Friday Mash-up! A lovely sketch and "use your favourite NEW stamp set" - too easy! Well, that's not to say I'll be one of the picks, but I had a lovely relaxing time putting together two favourites. I have also entered the Seize the Birthday Anything Goes challenge which runs for a WHOLE MONTH and Sunny Challenges & Creations, which also runs for a while.

I discovered the other day how nicely Rich Razzleberry and Island Indigo go together, and when I saw the strip across the bottom, I wanted to use one of the stamps from Six-sided Sampler with my Stamp-a-ma-jig. I made up the templates before my class last Friday night, and the ladies had a lot of success, despite one of them never having used the Stamp-a-ma-jig before. I decided to stick to one stamp only, and thought the diagonal stripe could be very effective. What do you think?

Another favourite that I seem to be using such a lot at the moment is the single stamp Woo Hoo! I love scribbling a little of the Stampin' Write Marker onto a plastic lid and then choosing what I'll colour - a little or a lot? The Aqua Painter makes this fun and so easy, I don't even use Stazon, just the regular black stamp pad.

I used the two colours to mount the Woo Hoo! stamp and just the Rich Razzleberry for the main panel because it was going to be on an Island Indigo base. I think it has turned out to be quite masculine.
Don't forget that the Six-sided Sampler comes with a matching punch, making crafting with it even better.

Back to work tomorrow but I still have a few more cards ready to share so look out for more posts....

Rachel