Mrs Moo And Her Crew!

A friend came to craft with me this week and I let her pick which stamp set we inked up. I was slightly surprised (but pleased) when she chose 'Over The Moon.' This is one of those stamp sets that I can't really envision as a class stamp - but feel free to let me know if I'm wrong! I've ordered it purely on a whim for its cuteness, ...and the grass, oh...and maybe because it seems to match 'This Little Piggy' which came onto my shelf for the same reason.

For our first card we turned to Pinterest and CASE-d (copy and selectively edit) a card by Kylie Page, an Australian whose blog is www.stampersworkshop.com
She had made a cowhide background using a couple of little stamps from Love What You Do, and it looks so realistic. I haven't changed very much about her card because it was perfect to begin with, but we do seem to have a slightly different style of colouring.

Next was an exercise in post-it note masking to create a herd of cows. As I was creating this, I thought about my young grandson who went through a stage about a year ago, where my backyard was his farm, and we were always having to close imaginary gates to keep the imaginary animals (cows or ponies, as he fancied on a particular day) under control. Maybe I should send him this card!!!

Finally, I had to try out another card I'd spied by Gail O'Neil, where she has this dreaming cow and flying pig over. Apart from that, the cards are different. I have tried to colour the grass 'a la' Paula Dobson, who made a video tutorial you too can watch on youtube. It was a lovely ' find' when I noticed the cloud stamp in This Little Piggy.

"You Make Me Happy" is attached to this piggy stamp and suited the card I had in mind, so I didn't bother to mask it. "Hello Friend" is from Well Said, a huge set of words and also can be bundled with word dies. The pig holding a daisy and the cow also bearing a flower, face in the same direction. I wanted them to be facing each other (as friends would) and used a little trick to mirror the image. Because my stamps for This Little Piggy are wood mount, I couldn't do much about him, but my Over The Moon stamps are of course cling mount.

By placing the stamp you want to mirror onto the Stamparatus and using a silicone craft sheet to stamp onto you can very easily achieve a mirror image. Next place the piece of card in position and stamp down again, which adds pressure onto the ink stamped earlier. This way you have the identical image stamped onto both sides of the card.

This would be an ideal technique to die cut and have a two-sided image. Probably worth doing if you were making a box card which might be viewed form multiple sides. Let me know if you like cows or pigs on cards. Would you be offended if you received one?

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I'd love you to choose my online shop to purchase from. Use the Host Code when asked at check out, & I will send you a gift, along with a handmade card. The items listed below were used in my cards above, and link to that item in my online shop. Thank you to all of you who have already shopped with me this month. I have only one more of the month's thank you cards left, all the others have already been posted/delivered. I still need one more purchase of Daisy Lane to qualify for a Stampin' Up! challenge, and only 9 more days to get that sale. For just the stamp order #149325, or for the stamp and medium daisy punch bundle, saving 10% off the price, order #151118

Product List

Over The Moon Cling Stamp Set

[149331]

$35.00

This Little Piggy Clear-Mount Stamp Set

[143922]

$35.00

Love What You Do Photopolymer Stamp Set

[148042]

$37.00

Well Said Cling Stamp Set

[148796]

$77.00

Stamparatus

[148187]

$85.00

Silicone Craft Sheet

[127853]

$10.00

Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock

[140490]

$14.25

Basic Black A4 Card Stock

[121688]

$15.25

Poppy Parade A4 Cardstock

[121694]

$14.75

Granny Apple Green A4 Cardstock

[147014]

$15.25

Balmy Blue A4 Cardstock

[147007]

$15.25

Clear Block A

[118487]

$7.00

Clear Block C

[118486]

$12.00

Clear Block D

[118485]

$14.00

Multipurpose Liquid Glue

[110755]

$7.00

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$6.00

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

[132708]

$10.00

Paper Snips

[103579]

$17.00

Pink Pirouette Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack

[144604]

$15.50

Seaside Spray Light Stampin’ Blends Marker

[149567]

$7.75

Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack

[147274]

$15.50

Soft Suede Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack

[147273]

$15.50

Flirty Flamingo Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack

[147278]

$15.50

Highland Heather Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack

[147276]

$15.50

Basic Black Light Stampin' Blends

[147940]

$7.75

Poppy Parade Dark Stampin' Blends Marker

[146879]

$7.75

Happy Birthday Miss 7

Recently, I had the pleasure of my first ever party for a young lady turning 7. She came to my house to see the items I suggested we make, and she was fairly happy, except we changed a card featuring This Little Piggy to the same one featuring Pretty Kitty.

 Never having done this type of event before, but working with primary-age children in my regular day-job, I sort of knew what to expect, but on the other hand, it was an unknown. Just to make things a bit more challenging, my 3 year old grandson was spending the day with me as his other grandparents (and regular Monday-minders) had gastro, plus it was a rainy day.

I'd planned for the 8 girls to make the fox card first, and they did very well with it. Only a couple wanted to use the fox die-cut from the Designer Series paper, the remainder chose to stamp it in black and use watercolour pencils to colour it themselves. I was surprised that no-one chose the poodle I'd used for the alternative card. Obviously, these girls were all 'cat' people!

The fox card was one we'd made at Onstage in April, and made me fall in love with the Birthday Delivery suite. If you read on, you'll see that from 1-10 October you can buy some of the stamp sets with co-ordinating papers at 10% off. This includes Birthday Delivery, at $39.95 in Australia, down from $47.00 and great for kids birthdays. The designer series paper shown below, are buy 3 , get the 4th frree all through October. Yes, you can buy 3 cheaper papers and select a more expensive one for the freebie! How about that? Get together with a friend to share the savings, or keep them all for yourself. I love when Stampin' Up!® has these promotions, and make sure I take advantage of them.

All the girls chose a different colour card base, and kitties doing different things for their second card. I had forgotten the punch for the flower unfortunately, but the girls didn't seem too upset by that and for the folded bookmark, they all wanted to do the Gingerbread Man from Cookie-Cutter Christmas. They had a hard job lining up the gingerbread man and punching him with the matching punch as well, but it is easy for an adult.

They seemed happy with their activity and ran off to play with the new birthday gifts. Problem was, my grandson heard the words 'birthday cake' and was insistent we stay on till after thye cake was cut and distributed. It was a lovely afternoon with these girls, so if you have a budding crafter who would like to do this for her birthday party, contact me.

Check out my online store for all the fantastic offers from Stampin' Up!® and if you remember to add the host code when you purchase, there'll be a gift from me in the mail in the following month.

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Friendly Frolic

I've said before that I'm not really sure why I like these pigs so much but I wanted to share my portrait of  these friendly frolics between a couple of fun porkers. They look so happy and full of life, they certainly put a smile on my face!

This Little Piggy is easy to colour with ink and an Aqua painter, some of the smaller details are easier with Stampin' Write markers. The grey pig scored some patchers applied with a sponge dauber.

Have you noticed this cute little Circle Tab punch in the catalogue?  You can see it on page 43 where it is bundled with Tabs For Everything stamp at a 10% discount if you buy both. You can also see the punch on page 207. It came in handy when I put tabs on my catalogue to make it easier to find different sections in the catty. Makes it so much easier!

Happy crafting

Rachel

For Babies & Children CTC#134

Welcome back to another round of CASE-ing The Catty Blog Hops. If you're a new visitor, I'm waving hello from Melbourne, Australia. You may know that blog hops are called that because you hop from one blog to the next, via the link buttons at the end of the post. We do hope you will visit everyone on the crew, and please leave a comment if you are impressed, inspired or excited by something!

I'm a little bit besotted with this cute pink porker, and thought she was an ideal candidate to use when CASE-ing the card on the bottom left of those four pictured above. From that layout I've borrowed the central banner with a circular element, containing the feature piece. The patterned back ground was swapped for plain, and the banner became the patterned piece. I also used linen thread tied around the banner in a bow, just like the catalogue sample.

This one came together so quickly, I had time to CASE another card from the same section, and this time for a wee baby girl. I could hardly wait to order this bundle, it is so cute! There are the three 'wild' animals (bear, lion & elephant) who look so sweet and cuddly, as well as some other cute pieces and sentiments. Then there are the dies which really add such value to this set.

The animal tags cut the front and back of the animals out, joined, as in a tag, but they are easy enough to snip apart, and who says these cute creatures can't have their backs to the audience?

Once the flower was added above Ellie Elephant's ear, it was clear to all that she is a little lady. Super, super easy to do as I stamped onto Smokey Slate, die cut and snipped the back off and she was ready to go.

Those stems of leaves (?) which I've cut in pink add a lovely texture to the card. Because there is more layering with designer series paper and cardstock on this card, this card is more for the person who papercrafts semi-regularly.

The secret to a neat card, is accurate and straight cutting. My personal crafting style is 'clean & layered' so I often don't remember to add embellishments, but I love a couple of layers. It makes it quite a challenge for me to make a single layer card, but they are a bit easier for someone just beginning their card-making journey.

This is a single-layer card for the beginning stamper. Your stamping is all done on Shimmery White card, and die cut afterwards. You can pick the best image to die cut, and with the words, make sure they are straight and centred by moving the die around. I'd love to introduce you to the fun of stamping if you haven't taken the plunge yet. You can come for a "Quick & Easy Class" or a more extended session. There are more details under Classes.

This fabulous adhesive sheet really makes these fiddlier pieces so easy to handle. It is item #144106 on page 203 of the Annual Catalogue, or see it here in my online store. There are 12 sheets in each pack measuring 6 inch by 12 inch, which you can cut as required. You might also be interested in Vellum which is super thick and can add a layer of interest.

And now you can head off to my friend Julia's blog

Happy crafting

Rachel