Wetland Birdlife CI#08

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.

As usual we've been challenged with some great colours, and maybe I took a wee hint from the subject matter too! I pulled the retiring Wetlands of my shelf, to stamp this 'Thinking of you' card. Thinking of you can be for many things, just as it says, for someone facing illness or another challenge, and even for condolences. It is handy to have a few on hand so that a note can be penned quickly and popped into the post. Recently at Onstage, Sara Douglass, the CEO of Stampin' Up!® asked us whether we had lots of cards at home. Of course, we all chorussed, 'yes' and Sara's reply was - "What's the good of that? Send those cards, so that people know you're thinking about them!" She's right isn't she?

This afternoon I wrote a card for a work colleague whose mother passed away before Easter. It's not a big thing, but I remember the comfort gained when I opened cards with notes in them after the deaths of my parents-in-law and my own mother. So although this is not the card I have sent, this one can take it's place in the box of cards I keep on hand.

Wetlands is a stamp set containing this subtle trail of waterbirds. I've stamped it twice, purposely flowing off the side of the Stitched Circle Framelit. The scalloped Delightful Dijon, and plain circle in Early espresso were added later. As far as I know, the clear mount and wood mount stamps are both still available in this stamp set. Thinking of You and Birthday Wishes are the 2 sentiments included, and there is a large duck and the grassy plant you can see on the inside of the card, also included in this stamp set.

I played about to colour the water colour paper like a setting sun going down into the ocean. Every time you water colour you end up with a different result. I must admit that I'd have loved to add some orange or purple shades in too, but not this time!

Head on over to the lovely Mel Pagano

Cheers, Rachel

Watercolour Wetlands

Often when the new catalogue comes out, all the old favourites are pushed to the back of the shelves, neglected. Wetlands has always been a favourite of mine, especially the stamp with the group of water birds, which reminds me so much of the birds that gather on the tranquil beach where we holiday.

This time I used watercolor paper soaked under the tap, both sides, before dropping ink from Stampin' Up!® re-inkers onto the paper. I believe I've used Sweet Sugarplum, Peekaboo Peach and Old Olive.

Leaving it to dry properly overnight, I cut the paper into useable pieces, then studied it to decide where to place the stamps. I was very concerned that the dark pink splodges were too much, but on completion, I love every one of these cards. It really does create such a soft, soothing scene.

Don't forget, if you're making an order through my online shop, it will ask for the HOSTESS Code before you check out. August 21st - Spetember 20th it is P2KYFUU9

Cheers, Rachel

Stamping and Chatting

The South'n Stampers are a team of delightful women who love to get together for a little bit of stamping. Today they joined me for lunch, a pot of soup on this freezing cold and windy winters day. We'd all made cake. so there were plenty of sweet treats to go with a cuppa, and lots of laughter too. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo to share, but I do have some photos of the cards we made. This is a bit different from a class, for one thing, I get to sit down and stamp too!

I had prepared this card, CASEd from another demonstrator who doesn't blog very often, but shares in our closed FB demonstrator group. We liked the way the scene is surrounded by the Swirly Scribbles Framelit piece, and what's not to love about Wetlands? Gorgeous Grunge provided a vital part of this scene too, and I knew buying the champagne Glass Glitter, only $2.78 on the clearance rack would be a good move. It is perfect inside the shaker, almost a sandy colour.

I pulled out the Foxy Friends bundle and some ink and cards, and let everyone decide which they wanted to make. This is such a cute set, and the animals seem to change personality with a change in the tilt of the head. I thought the SAB stamp set Party Pants had some really cute sentiments, and the girls agreed, not necesarily going with my choice. The little sign with three hearts is from Foxy Friends an is easily hand cut. Again, Word Bubbles Framelits are in the Clearance Rack for $25.79 and you can use a lot of different sentiments inside them. This idea began with some cards I saw by Kelly Kent, in WA.

I've been sorting in my craft room and found a pack I was given at Convention some years ago, using one of the Ronald McDonald stamps, which I've decided to hang onto a little longer. There was twine and banners and labels to stamp on, and I just had to supply more notecards to go around. I hope you can see what fun it is being part of a Stampin' Up!® team, and to top it off, you get all your craft supplies at 20% discount.

Get in touch if you live in Australia, and have thought of joining Stampin' Up!®. If you live close enough, maybe you will be at our next team gathering.

Cheers, Rachel

Winning Watercolour!

It's always very exciting to get picked as a winner in a challenge, so today I'm doing a happy dance with a big smile on my face!!!!!!
This little water colour was picked as one of the three winners at Pals Paper Arts.

I really enjoyed making this card, and while the stamp set was out, I made a few more.

Is watercolouring a technique you'd like to try?






If so, email me and we can pencil a workshop in - maybe a Thursday, Friday or Saturday in the second half of July?

I'm in South Morang, a northern suburb of Melbourne, Australia.

Rachel

Thinking Of You - Wetlands PPA206

I have put some thought into these colours set by Pals Paper Arts this week for challenge #206. I'd jotted down some ideas, but my top choice was a water-colored panel, similar to framed art work I have seen in galleries at a favourite seaside town.

That meant whipping out last year's favourite stamp set, Wetlands, and embossing with black embossing powder. Don't those sea birds come up great each and every time? I had used a strip of Stampin' Up! Water-color paper, so after the embossing was done, I soaked the paper to make it very damp, front and back. This is so the paper doesn't warp, and should be done even with regular card. Then using the nominated colours, I used re-inkers to drop blobs of ink onto a plastic lid, and with an Aquapainter, I spread the ink onto the paper. I was thrilled that it turned out exactly as I'd imagined.


I had tried stamping more on the base card, but ended up choosing the simplest version, just a half of a grass stamp. Thinking Of You is a greeting that says just that, and more. It can be a Get Well, or Sympathy card also.

So this is quite a simple card, I'd love it if you let me know what you think.

I hope your week is a happy one,
let me know if you need a catalogue

Rachel

Sending Sympathy RS#87

It was such a lovely sunny day today, I spent all of it in the garden, so it was quite late when I began to put this card together. This sweet sketch at retro sketches is the inspiration and for some reason, I thought 'sympathy card'. I really do like the clean, simplicity of this sketch and I quickly made two cards.

This pale blue one has the flower sprig from Morning Meadow (a hostess stamp set) and the greeting from Simply Sketched (also a hostess set). I inked the stamps using Stampin' Writes in Smoky Slate and Marina Mist.







The pale green card has the grass from Wetlands and also the bird and grass and greeting from Simply Sketched. I added a little Island Indigo to the bird using a Stampin' Up! Aquapainter.

These are really easy cards which can be made in a jiffy, and always handy to have ready.

Until next time
Cheerio
Rachel