Project Life & Kits CTC90

At CASE-ing The Catty this week we are CASE-ing either Project Life or Kits. You may have come from our guest designer, Fiona Cobbin, but if not, make sure that you visit her and leave a comment. I'm sharing a kit, because they are good value and easy to use. These cards are from Oh Happy Day featured on page 6 of the Annual catalogue. I ordered the kit with my pre-order, and held off opening it until my catalogue launch on June 4th. I wanted the ladies to experience the joy of unpacking a box filled with nearly everything needed to make 20 cards. There are cards, envelopes embellishments, twine, dimensionals, an ink spot, stamp block and 13 photopolymer stamps! You might need some snips to cut the twine, and perhaps another adhesive such as Snail or Tombow Multi purpose glue. 

It all comes in a lovely box, which helps you keep your project all together. One of the Make and Takes at my Catty Launch was a card of their choice from the box, and when I do something like this for a class, I often sort the pieces out beforehand and pop them in a sellophane bag. Sometimes it can be a little confusing getting the right pieces for each card, but it really doesn't matter too much. Nothing to stop you changing things up a little, or a lot if you like. 

These two from the kit, which I made up, are fairly close to the samples on the instruction sheet. For the one on the left, I stamped 'Happy Birthday' from Happy Happenings because there wasn't a suitable birthday sentiment that fitted the label. 'Party Time' didn't seem all that good when she was having a very low-key celebration. The card on the right has had the direction of the banners changed along with the position of the gold heart. These card kits are reasonably priced for all that you get. Watercolor Wishes is on the next page with the same inclusions and they both retail for $61.00 AU. 

They are a great gift for a crafty friend or for yourself so that you can whip up a card quickly for any event and you can still use the stamps after all the cards have been used up. I used my favourite stamp from  Watercolor Wishes. It really seems to suit the mood of the Swirly Scribbles Framelits and Swirly Bird stamp set, don't you think?

Now it is time to head over to sweet Krissy to see what she has to share this week.

Cheers, Rachel

Happy Birthday Kitty CTS #179

It is now the second week of the winter holidays  in Melbourne and I am loving having a little extra crafting time, and not having to race out the door when it is only just light. After a weekend away with hubby, I was all fired up last night to join the challenge at CAS(E) this Sketch. If I am stuck for inspiration, a sketch is often enough to get me sorted, and the instant I spied this sketch I knew what I wanted to do.

I had my first play with Foxy Friends last week, and I am smitten, TOTALLY!!! A pink kitty was just asking to perch in this wreath and flowers, just look at that big birthday grin on her face. I have mainly used Foxy Friends, the leaves are all part of that set, and some flowers from Swirly Bird were already stamped and diecut on my table.

I didn't find the Fox Builder Punch a huge amount of help this time around, although it cut the separate head and tail, it doesn't line up as well on this particular body. I'm prepared to forgive it though, as it works so well with many of the other bodies included in the stamp set.

I've stamped the banner for Number of Years after stamping Happy Birthday from Sunshine Sayings. It is so easy to look through the Photopolymer stamp to see whether you have placed it correctly. To finish this card off, I have layered Sweet Sugarplum onto the Blushing Bride base, followed with a piece of Whisper White and some more Playful Palette DSP strips at top and bottom. There is a sweet little twine bow also. Not only does this finish a card off so nicely, it also helps to balance it when you have many layers stacked on the card front.

Happy 4th of July to those in the U.S. and happy crafting everyone!

Cheers, Rachel

Bonjour Beautiful - Babies & Children - CTC85

Sunday evening and it is time to blog hop with the Crew from CASE-ing The Catty. We are CASE-ing Babies and Kids pages 56-65. Even though my 'kids' are all grown up now, I've been blessed with six gorgeous grandchildren, who seem to love the cards I make them. I probably should be embarrassed to admit that I have nearly every stamp set from this section on my shelves, and quite a few retired sets too, but I need them all so I can ring the changes with these cards. I've been sorting over the last couple of weeks and boxed retired sets that I still 'need' in categories - kids, wedding, Christmas so far. I'm going through and stamping images onto plain PL cards and clipping them together on a ring from Officeworks, so I can refer to the stamp set that has a particular sentiment, image etc.

I've been quite liberal with my CASE this week. I adore No Bones About It and was tempted to make the shaker card on page 64, but it seemed a bit too easy to just straight-out-copy. I kept on flipping through the pages and voila! the answer was a shaker card using Made With Love, Happy Happenings and a tiny flower from Swirly Bird. I adore the InColors this year, every single one of them and I'm sure I've NEVER been able to say that, right at the beginning. Flirty Flamingo pairs beautifully with Watermelon Wonder and Blushing Bride. I love the sweet onesies in Made With Love and Something For Baby and they cut out so neatly with those matching dies.

I CASE-d Page 64 of Catalogue

I do like this dinosaur shaker card too, using the new embossing folder Seaside.

Now, I have only just begun making shaker cards, but boy, am I enjoying it, or what? I used the Lots Of Labels Framelits to cut the window, but any die that comes in graduated sizes works well. The No Bones About It card, has a textured top layer, but I decided to keep it clean and simple. I'd thought about stamping on it too, but in the end, held back. This photo has the card laid down so you can see the sequins, which are retired now. They were the Incolors which were retired 2 years ago (?) I think, but the soft colours suit this card too.

I think 'Bonjour Beautiful' is lovely for a baby girl, and the Happy Happenings set also includes this matching 'Welcome to the World'. Don't you think that's too cute? So, like I said, I really stretched things with my CASE this week at CASE-ing The Catty. Now let's pop on over to  Judy May and see what she has made this week.

Cheers, Rachel

Would you like to join the challenge and CASE the Babies & Children section of the catty? You can link your post here

Swirly Bird For New Team Member

I knew that a number of ladies at my Catalogue Launch last Saturday could hardly contain their excitement at the possibility of choosing up to $413.00 worth of Stampin' Up!® products for only $169.00 outlay and no shipping, just for signing up to be a Stampin' Up!® demonstrator.

 I was so excited for my friend when she joined my team that I immediately went off to my craft room and stamped out this quick card with Swirly Bird and Confetti Celebration.

 Stampin' Up!® are offering this opportunity to anyone who'd like to give it a go, from June 1st - 30th and you're not even obliged to hold parties or workshops. If you just want to purchase for your own use, perhaps sell to a couple of friends, you are still very welcome at Stampin' Up!® and on my team. The reason you get so much is this. Usually you get to choose $235.00 worth of product with free shipping for your sign up order. This month only, you also can choose 2 stamp sets extra, to a total value of $178.00 so best you get some of those expensive ones with lots of sentiments. You choose everything for your kit, so if you already have some supplies they won't be duplicated.

You will get a 20% discount off your craft supplies, and your minimum is $440 every three months, which works out to around $38 a week.

What happens if you can't make the minimum after you've signed up? Nothing really, you'll get a call or email from me warning you that you're about to drop as a demonstrator, but you don't have to return anything.

You don't need to resign, apologise or anything, so what are you waiting for?  You can read the agreement and Join here.

Hope to see you soon,
Rachel

Stampin' Up! Catalogue Launch

This post might be a little bit picture heavy, but I'm so glad that I remembered to pick up my camera 10 minutes before the guests arrived and grabbed some photos of the display. It ended up being too busy during my party and I didn't remember later.
A few weeks before, I sent an invitation to my Catty Launch. It was mainly printed on the computer using a colour similar to Melon Mambo, then stamped with 'Time To Party' from Confetti Celebration. I stamped my name and address at the bottom. On the reverse I used DSP from It's My Party paper stack. Next I added a Botanicals leaf, a strip of the gold glitter washi tape from SALE-A-Bration, and a hand cut flamingo from Pop Of Paradise. At the Catty Launch I showed them how to turn their invitation into a birthday card.

Swirly Bird and the Swirly Scribbles Framelits were the first things on my pre-order. There have been so many brilliant cards made using this particular bundle, so I had a lot of different samples to share. It is perfect for all sorts of things, I'd made kites, yachts, owls and flowers. Pinterest is a great source of inspiration.

The other stamp set I featured was Pop Of Paradise, and I was lucky enough to find this giant paper pineapple in a party store, to tie in with the pineapples I'd embossed in copper or stamped. A little disappointing that my blow-up pink flamingo is still in transit and missed the party!

The make & take was a combination of Swirly Scribbles Framelits and Pop Of Paradise with Timeless Textures in the background. Most of the ladies used my choice of Dapper Denim and Peekaboo Peach, but one guest used Emerald Envy and Flirty Flamingo which was gorgeous too. They loved the leaves from Pop Of Paradise and found it hard to believe they weren't cut out.

The second make & take was a card of their choice from the Oh Happy Day card kit. We opened it together, and I love the bright colours. I know that this kit is on a couple of wish lists.

The Swirly Bird theme continued with the goodie bag and tag and I managed to use all the new InColors. Inside there was a card from each of the 5 new colours, a thank you card (blank for them to use for someone else) and some die cut pieces from various sets, some pieces of DSP, and they could add their make & take cards.

This is the nicest combination of In Colors we have had. I usually have reservations about one or two of the colours but I love the whole lot here. We were given pieces of card at Onstage and punched the hearts out for our Colour Chart, but I couldn't throw out these pieces! Seemed a good idea to thread the ribbon through so everyone could see how nicely they match.

 The Affectionately Yours Suite on page 44  mainly features the In Colors from last year, so I punched the card the same as this year's. I don't have any current ribbon, the lace from last year has officially retired, and has been replaced with a striped ribbon, which should be delivered to me next week.

My first shaker card. This is so much easier now that Stampin' Up! have Foam adhesive strips #141825 on page 182 of the catalogue along with all the other adhesives. Painter's Palette is ideal for this, as the blackboard fits the Layering Squares Framelits to make it extra-easy to punch out the window.


You can shop anytime in my online store and if you remember to use the HOSTESS Code ZGGAABEE you will earn a small gift from me.


If you have your catalogue, and you love everything and want it all, you might be interested in the attractive joining offer that Stampin' Up!® are offering for June 1st -30th. It will be slightly different in the different markets, but for those of us in Australia it is the usual, choose $235.00 of products of your choice, pay $169.00, no strings attached, no shipping to pay. BUT, the extra special thing for June is you also get to choose 2 extra stamp sets, up to a value of $178.00, and no extra to pay. Isn't that huge? It certainly is the way to afford those big sets with lots of sentiments like Better Together on page 83 or Flourishing Phrases on page 49, both $85.00 in wood mount. Guy Greetings is another quite expensive, but useful set you might want to add to your collection instead, just saying....

I'd love you to join my team, if you live in Australia and I will support and encourage you in your Stampin' Up!® journey, whichever way you want to do it. Most of my current team are hobby demonstrators. Some of them join me for events like today, and get a buzz out of helping the other guests, and others are quite happy to enjoy Stampin' Up!® products, meeting their minimums and not socialising. You might want to earn extra money from your hobby, and I can advise you on how to do that too.
Have a think about it, email me if you need extra information.

Cheers, Rachel

Catalogue Launch & Open House

At the moment my house is chaotic!!! No kidding, we are busy with family stuff, I have a full class tonight and I'm madly preparing for my catalogue launch on June 4th at 2pm. I've had a second order of new goodies arrive this week. It's so exciting and I want to stay up late at night just trying out the new ink and stamps. One of the new stamp sets and framelits, available as a bundle at 10% off, is Swirly Bird. I bet if you follow Pinterest you've seen lots of samples already. Last night I CASE-d a couple of cards (this one inspired by Katy McGloin) and now I need to share this fun with you.

If you'd like to come to an Open House and share in the excitement, you'd want to be handy to Melbourne, Australia of course, I'd love to entertain you for a few hours, There'll be cake and games and stamping! Lot's of fun plus catalogues & goodie bags to take home. If you leave me a message at 0417 500 681 (name and email would be good) I'll send you an invite with a more detailed address for my house in South Morang. You are under no obligation to order anything and if you just want to collect a catalogue, there will be a $5 charge. However, you will have this refunded if you order on the day and I'm going to try my best to make it attractive to order, by letting you pick a prize for your $50 order, pick a SAB stamp set or an ink pad for your $80 order, and if your order reaches $160, you can choose one of the new Hostess stamp sets. Want to play along online? If you let me know this week, I can get a catalogue mailed to you, and the Hostess Code, which will be open until 11th June for you to be part of this.

If you were making a card for a Make & Take, would you prefer the Flirty Flamingo with a banner, or Peekaboo Peach with the Hello?

I'd better go continue setting up for my class and tidying the house, catch you on Sunday night again with CASE-ing The Catty. I have an exciting 3-D project to share. If you live in Australia, and want to place an order you can go to my online store anytime of the day or night. The Hostess Code for this month is ZGGAABEE


Happy stamping!
Rachel