Bloom & Grow FMS#392 PP#445

Today I noticed some challenges which seemed to 'call' to me, and instead of getting on with my chores, I snuck off to my craft room! There is nothing like a bit of crafting in a sun-filled studio (it's winter in Australia, so sunshine is a bonus) to start the day off right.

Bloom & Grow is a favourite of mine, lovely clear images, so easy to colour with Stampin' Blends. There wasn't an ideal sentiment in that set for this particular card, so I picked a stamp I received this week, Parcels & Petals and used this sweet sentiment.

This sketch from Freshly Made Sketches provided a perfect layout, and the colour palette from The Paper Players challenge suited the flower image. You can join their challenges too or just check them out, by clicking the links.

Have a happy crafty day!

BXM793PR

Product List

Bloom & Grow Photopolymer Stamp Set

[149229]

$45.00

Bloom & Grow Bundle

[151069]

$91.75

Parcels & Petals Cling Stamp Set

[149317]

$37.00

Parcels & Petals Bundle

[151107]

$88.00

Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack

[147274]

$15.50

Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack

[144603]

$15.50

Highland Heather Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack

[147276]

$15.50

Highland Heather A4 Cardstock

[147010]

$14.75

Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock

[140490]

$13.50

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

[132708]

$10.00

Liquid Multipurpose Glue

[110755]

$7.00

Rainbow Balloon #PP385

After work today I was totally in the mood for this challenge!  Lift Me Up has been very neglected of late, but isn't it glorious in these rainbow shades? The greeting is from Picture Perfect Birthday, and I've used another from that stamp set on the inside, alongside a stamped hot air balloon.The clouds are from the Myths & Magic Glimmer Paper which is the perfect size in the 6" square format.

It certainly is a bright and breezy card don't you think? Emerald Envy and Peekaboo Peach used here are two of the five colours retiring at the end of May. Probably a good time to stock up on your favourites while SALE-A-Bration is still on.

Don't forget to pop over to The Paper Players and see all the other rainbow creations.

Eclectic Blues CI #20

Colour INKspiration is a group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators from the South Pacific, all through Australia and New Zealand. We love to get together for these colour challenges, to inspire each other, and you, to create. We love it when you join in with our challenges to share your work and all you need is a Facebook presence. You can link in here on Facebook.

What a beautiful inspiration picture! The colours are so 'country' - looks great! We have Calypso Coral, Dapper Denim, Cherry Cobbler and Always Artichoke, if you'd like to join in and use the challenge colours to enter. Our guest designer this week is Fi Cobbin, She was two stops ago, have you seen her project yet? Don't worry, keep on clicking the links at the end and you will make your way back to the starting point.

I added Post Script, a large background stamp to the Dapper Denim layer, before cutting with the Oh So Eclectic die and adding Champagne Foil behind. The Oh so Eclectic flowers are beautiful too, and they've been stamped and die cut.

Birthday Blossoms was perfect for the sentiment, and another complimentary sentiment has been stamped inside the card too.

The sketch at The Paper Players came in very handy for me this week. Sometimes it's just a little hard to decide how you want your project to look. Update: Just a tad excited for this card to be picked by Paper Players as a winner!!!!

I was last on the Colour INKspiration Bloghop this time, but if you started with me, you can continue to my lovely friend Elizabeth from Lillylovespaper.

URYS3BV2

Guiseppe's 90th Birthday Card PP276

After seeing this great new set Number Of Years, a bundle of number stamps and framelit dies, I knew they would be top of my pre-order. We have a lot of birthday's to celebrate in this family, and I knew there were several milestone birthdays coming. It's such a nice touch to personalise a card with the age being celebrated (maybe the daughters-in-law aren't quite as thrilled, but the children sure are!!). Hopefully, when the first of my girls turns 40 this week, she isn't going to be too sad!
The Paper Players have a great challenge to start the year with, All About Numbers, so this is a perfectly-timed challenge to take part in.

So there I was, on holiday and playing about with my new Stampin' Up!® products when I took a break and walked to the mailbox, and what should I find, but an invitation to Guiseppe's 90th birthday!!! Oh WOW! I couldn't believe that this gentleman, still active, and living a lovely life with his wife in their family home, was actually turning 90!

 The new Going Places paper stack seemed very appropriate for a man who migrated to Australia from Italy as a young man. He and his wife were longtime friends of my husband's parents, who also migrated more than 50 years ago with their two young children. There is an old map of the world behind the large numbers, it does have Italy and Australia there to show the beginning of Guiseppe's story, and his destination. I wanted to include the ship from Traveler, but my husband insisted that the long sea voyage was not a particularly happy memory so I should leave the ship off!!!

The banner containing the sentiment is part of the framelit set, and so is the little banner and the "th", numbers 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,. The stamp set is photopolymer, making it easier to see where you're placing the stamps, although I still prefer stamping first and die cutting second. With the 90, I've die cut it three times and glued them all together. There is also this statement included in the stamps: - 'the number of years the world has been a better place because you're in it.' Think I'll use that one quite a bit too! The inside of the card has two layers of card and a strip of the antique map to give it a 'finished' look. Don't forget to check out the gallery at The Paper Players.

Cheers, Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Happy Mother's Day PP240

These three colours are my all-time favourites of the retiring In Colors, and I've stocked up (hope you have too!).
I nearly ran out of time to complete my card for the Paper Players colour challenge, thanks Joanne for these lovely colours, but after I'd done my exercise this afternoon, instead of lying down for a very tempting 'Nana nap', I've gone and put the various pieces together.

I've used Pictogram Punches a lot lately, because it is the stamp we're using at my class this month, and I like to show examples of its versatility. This means that there's likely to be a spare or two from the stamp set already stamped when I come to put a card together. Saves a bit of time, especially when they're the right colours!

I really enjoy punching out those cute little flowers, stars and hearts - and did you know that Something To Say has another 3 of those images in it as well? The vase has to be cut by hand, but it's easy enough, and even the three stems don't present too much of a challenge. The polaroid frame was already cut from  Coaster Board from when I was designing my Convention Swaps, but I chose to use the film frame instead on those. On Film Framelits have a couple of these handy shapes.

Speaking of handy shapes, I'm finding the tiny shapes in the Perpetual Birthday Calendar come in handy too. When I get more organised, I think that stamp set will prove to be very useful for making journalling cards for Project Life.

Cheers
Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

My Feathered Friend PP233

Just a quick post today for a fairly quick card. It was too hard to ignore the challenge 'suggestion' at The Paper Players, I HAD to use feathers and a bird. This one is another quirky creature that Stampin' Up! artists seem to be favouring currently.


The colours came to me as I drifted off to sleep last night. Bermuda Bay, Perfect Plum and So Saffron look so good together but I can still imagine this bird in many different hues.

Have a happy weekend,
Rachel

Softly, Simply.... PP229

No need to re-invent the wheel for this challenge at The Paper Players! Thanks Jaydee for this very practical sketch which allows me to show off my SALE-A-BRATION DSP, along with a piece of the ribbon and a button. I can't believe how lovely this paper is, some of my favourite colours feature here.

The flower is from Crazy About You, the stamp set featuring at my class on 13th February. I haven't decided on the sentiment yet for this card, and it may just be a card for when I write a short note. It was a lot of fun to put this card together today, as I didn't need to fuss with the detail. I would love to make another with a bit more "Fuss & Fancy" if you know what I mean, but I probably won't get it done in time to enter the challenge again.

Looking forward to the weekend here,

Rachel

Happy Sentiments PP228

I'm feeling like I'm "off my game" lately. Can't really put my finger on why, but my creativity has been holidaying somewhere else. I have all these lovely new 'toys' but the inspiration is missing. The solution is to go check out some challenges, and this one at The Paper Players to 'make the sentiment the feature' tickled my fancy today. Thanks LeAnne for giving me a kickstart!!!



A few weeks ago,  I had a chance to use some of the stamps I haven't purchased when some of our team met up. Since I am mainly a hobby-demonstrator, who runs one or two classes per month, I have to think about the dollars. I'd seen Painted Petals used a lot since the Occasions Catalogue was released, but I hadn't been convinced that I needed another floral stamp - until I played with it! It now sits on my shelf, along with the Happy Heart Textured Embossing Folder that I wasn't going to buy either. I also used, but haven't yet purchased the biggest stamp from Hello Life.

I stamped the Painted Petals over the greeting at the time, but I brought home two card-front sized pieces to think about. For this card I've chosen to cut the sentiment out with the second largest oval Framelit, layered onto the largest Deco Label Framelit in Melon Mambo, which in turn sits on the largest plain oval in Blackberry Bliss. Still have one plain sentiment to use somewhere, before I decide whether Hello Life joins my stash too.

Because my card is 5¼ inches square, the embossed sheet had to be taken through twice. I love how crisp those hearts emboss, just gorgeous! You could do so much with this folder, I now have an idea brewing for my almost-two-year-old grand daughter's birthday card. You have to love it when those ideas start to pop into your head!!!!

Hope you're creativity is alive and well too!

Rachel

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Irish Christmas PP225

I hope you're not feeling too stressed in the lead-up to Christmas. I'm a lot more relaxed, now that I've posted my cards to relatives in Ireland today! It had been worrying me, because it involves writing a resumè of the year's events and there was quite a lot to include. 2014 has been an eventful year with many challenges, but we survived, and are stronger for it.

I've also wrapped the majority of my gifts too, and isn't that a weight off my mind!

I've gone as fancy as I dare on this card, what with international post. It already costs $2.55 to post each card overseas, so I'd hate to pay a penalty for extra thick. There are still a few layers but only one lot of dimensionals. The base is natural card, really good for writing a letter on.  Next is a layer of Blackberry Bliss behind a layer of Texture Embossed Pear Pizzazz. Another Blackberry Bliss layer has been cut with the Apothecary Label die, while the stamped piece was cut with Deco Label Framelits. Endless Wishes is the stamp set here and I stayed with the same two colours. Another little bit of fancy was the Glimmer paper banner in silver, and some rhinestones.It is so hard to see these little bits of shine!

I do hope the post between Australia and the UK isn't taking as long as the post between Sydney and Melbourne! My pre-order for the Occasions catalogue left the warehouse on Monday and still hasn't arrived Thursday night. Same with the complimentary catalogue that Stampin' Up! post to all demonstrators. It's not here either, but so many others have it in their hot little hands. That should be here tomorrow too, hopefully. Fingers crossed.

So how did I know what I wanted to order? I watched the live stream of the unveiling from the US last week, with a group of team members. Also, we can access the online catalogue already, but our customers have to wait till January 6th. Just another one of the perks of being a demonstrator.

Cheers
Rachel

Endless Wishes Photopolymer Stamp Set

$27.95

Rhinestone Basic Jewels Embellishments

$8.95

Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Blackberry Bliss A4 Card Stock

$11.95

Pear Pizzaz Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Pear Pizzazz A4 Card Stock

$11.95

Big Shot

$149.95

Big Shot Magnetic Platform

$69.95

Apothecary Accents Framelits Die

$42.95

Deco Labels Framelits Die

$42.95

Lucky Stars Textured Impressions Embossing Folders

$13.95

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