Birthday Balloon CTD364

Lately I've been neglecting some of my slightly older stamps and dies. The ColorThrowdown challenge this week is aqua, lime green and coral and this DSP - Birthday Bash, from earlier this year in the Occasions Catalogue, is in those tones, if a little bolder than the sample. Hopefully the Crushed Curry won't disqualify me from the challenge. The Balloon Framelits Dies were introduced in January 2015 along with Celebrate Today, and I have made a lot of cards using them. Now that I have pulled them out again, I might get another batch of cards done using this theme. Celebrate Today has 17 stamps and includes a great variety of sentiments including 'birthday'.

I've decorated the inside too, using the same delightful DSP and a stamp which seems to 'echo' the die cut happy perfectly. "You can never have too much happy" is from Yippee-Skippee, which retired this year, but will stay on my shelf for a while longer.

Thanks for reading my blog
Cheers
Rachel

More Of What Makes You Happy CTC#17

Each week at CASE-ing The Catty we turn to our Stampin' Up! Catalogues for inspiration. We'd love it if you joined us in CASE-ing The Catty too!

This week we are seeking inspiration from the Occasions Catalogue, the Valentines pages. You can copy exactly, use a sketch or layout as an inspiration starter, or maybe a colour combination to create a card, scrapbook page or 3D item. Your card or project doesn't need to be a Valentine, just share in your write-up which sketch or colour combination inspired you.

Our challenges close at 5pm Thursday (AEDT)

• Create a new project for the challenge
• Mention CTC in your blog post and link back so others can join us
• Mainly SUO products (retired or current) to be used for these challenges

For my card, I CASE-ed page 7 of the Occasions Catalogue and that crazy Wood You Be Mine?
picture at the top of the page. It has a hardwood background, totally suitable for a woodcutter, but I chose the gorgeous Happy Heart Textured Impressions Embossing Folder in Cherry Cobbler. I used the last of the Hello Life sentiments that I stamped at my Team Leader's, so now I have to decide whether to order Hello Life stamp set too. I certainly like this huge sentiment, and paired with the "you can never have too much happy" sentiment from Yippee-Skippee makes a perfect match.


I don't usually remember to use Washi Tape, but I buy enough of it, so very glad to remember to put some on here. I echoed the small banner at the bottom of the woodcutter card,with gold foil and instead of twine I went big and used  the lovely, soft (retired) Cherry Cobbler tulle.

On the inside of the card, I used a sheet of paper from the Stacked With Love Designer Series Paper Stack, the Yippee-Skippee sentiment and a couple of Pictogram Punches hearts. There are hearts in the Hello Life stamp set, but since I don't own it...yet, I've had to improvise.

What inspires you from the Valentine section of the Occasions Catalogue? Will you share it with us in the CASE-ing the Catty Gallery?

Hope to see you there...

Rachel



                                                                                                                           

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Happy Birthday Shoes

 I made this card using a retired hostess stamp, Making A Point, which has some great images 'for the ladies', such as shoes, sunglasses, lipstick etc. The paper in the new Occasions Catalogue, Stacked With Love Designer Series Paper Stack seemed to be a perfect starting point and I chose this one with cross-hatched love hearts in various shades of red/pink.

I was super-happy to use the Hello You Thinlets AGAIN and the 'birthday' sentiment from Crazy About You. Starburst Framelits cut the red mat while Circle Collection Framelits have so many sizes in circles, one is bound to be perfect!

What was most fun, was stamping out multiple images of the shoe and layering them to give the slightest hint of dimension. The shoe upper is layer two while the bow is the third layer. I curved slightly with a bone folder.



For a glamourous lady, sparkles are a must so Dazzling Details were added to the platform sole and the bow. A rhinestone was added to the bow after I'd taken the photos.

The inside is finished off with more paper from the paper stack and although each sheet is only six inches by four inches, that is a little more than you need for a full card front, so the little strip left over is better used for a trim than binned.

Stamped in Real Red is the Yippee-Skippee sentiment "you can never have too much happy", which is my absolute go-to when using the large 'happy' from the Hello You Thinlets,

Now, I only hope it has survived the mail!

You know that it's that magic time of the year, for Stampin' Up! enthusiasts? That's because there is a new Occasions Catalogue out. You can click here to connect online or you can go straight through to shop 24/7 with only a very moderate $5.95 charged to deliver your order anywhere in Australia.

BUT that's not all.....

If you need so much that you spend $90, you'll be asked to choose one of the SALE-A-BRATION items to add to your order! Would you really prefer to look through your catalogues on paper, so you can post-it note it all the way through? Then you're a girl after my own heart, and I'd be happy to drop one or post it to you.

AND if you love Stampin' Up! so much that you want it all, or as near to it as storage space allows, I'd love to help you join up.

Thanks for dropping by, you can contact me by phone (0417 500 681) or email if you need a Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalogue or have any questions about how SALE-A-BRATION works, or anything Stampin' Up! related.

Rachel

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HAPPY Birthday CTS#105

I'm so HAPPY that Stampin' Up! gave us some more thinlet words! I first tried them out with the Wondrous Wreath set, and now I'm hooked on the Hello You Thinlets. 
The sketch at Case This Sketch is perfect to show off this large word to it's best advantage. I grabbed the Sweet Taffy DSP to try some different colours, and although I've been a big fan of Blackberry Bliss, it was fun to revisit Rich Razzleberry, which used to be a favourite. The big spot is perfect and the striped paper provided the rest of the palette for this birthday card. The new stamp set Celebrate Today provided the 'birthday'.

You can only just glimpse the inside greeting, but it's "you can never have too much happy" from Yippee-Skippee. To my way of thinking, it is absolutely perfect for this big HAPPY greeting, and the font is almost the same.

How do you think you would use this sketch?

Cheers, 
Rachel

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Never too Happy - Melbourne Convention 2014

I'm so happy! I've headed into Melbourne for the annual Stampin' Up! South Pacific Convention.
Even though Melbourne is my home town and I could easily catch the train into the city each day, I look forward to staying in town for three nights. The  mornings get off to an early start and after the day is done, we get to eat out together. Everyone is very friendly and it is so nice to talk face to face with girls we've met in online team forums and so on. The days are filled learning about new products, how to use them, and generally having a lot of fun, with like-minded Stampin' Up!demonstrators. Who knows what delights await us, as the company loves to change things about to keep it fresh and exciting. They not only spoil us with an exclusive Convention Bag, but we also come away with lots of new products. Hopefully, I might even get my hands on a new catalogue.
If you would like to participate in all this fun next year, AND get 20% off all your hobby purchases, perhaps you might like to join my team? There's a link over to the right to take you there.

I thought I'd share this card I made a while back, using SALE-A-BRATION  Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper, and the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch to make the fancy closure. I coloured the stamp from Yippee-Skippee with Stampin' Write Markers so that it would have two shades of blue. It was fun to stamp the Petite Petals flowers down the side of the inside layer. On the banner, one flower is stamped, while two others have been stamped and punched out with the matching Petite Petals Punch. The Happy Birthday is from the retired Hostess stamp set Happiest Birthday Wishes and it seems to nearly match the script of the main greeting. I find it very hard to let go of my retired greeting stamps, but it is beginning to get quite hard to keep track of them all!!!
After I return home at the weekend, I expect to have more to share,
Rachel

Awesome...Thanks for Spring

Oh boy! this ended up being a tricky challenge. Maybe its because our seasons are the opposite and while the northern hemisphere anticipates Spring, we are in the midst of Autumn, and dreading Winter. It was not the sketch so much, but the combination of the sketch and colours. I'm also having heaps of trouble with the lighting for photography, so I've put two photos up, using two different lighting arrangements. Not totally happy with either option.
 The base and panel remained fairly standard all through my design process, but I've stamped numerous images and cut out many shapes before I settled on this one.
The end result is a label cut with a Chalk Talk Framelit and mounted on a black Scalloped Tag Topper piece. First it was stamped with leaves from Summer Silhouette stamp set, then Awesome.... Thanks! is from Yippee-Skippee. A few small flowers from Summer Silhouette were stamped in Coastal Cabana and Mambo Melon and one of the InColor button embellishments in Coastal Cabana topped the left corner of the tag. I do like the way the tag turned out, Summer Silhouette is one of my favourite stamp sets.

The DSP is Eastern Elegance and a few more flower blossoms were stamped onto the Melon Mambo card base.

Many thanks to the design teams that organise these challenges, without you I don't know what I'd do for inspiration!
Try Stamping On Tuesday for the sketch,( and I managed to add blossoms too!)
Sunday Stamps for the  spring color palette: Melon Mambo, Coastal Cabana and Black.

Thanks for popping by, leave a message if you like, I love to read your comments.

Rachel
Happy news for me again, made the top 3 at Try Stamping On Tuesday, thank you, its such a thrill!

You & Me RS #107

My poor hubby has been in hospital this week for a shoulder reconstruction. It gave us both a bit of a scare when the surgery took almost 5 hours instead of the estimated 1½-2 hours. Just goes to show that he really does have a very high tolerance to pain. I finally was able to bring him home today, and it is a really good feeling to have him safely tucked up at home.

I knew I wanted to use the Ampersand  Embossing Folder for this sketch, and that naturally then proceeded to using 'You & Me' from Perfect Pennants. Those two just fit together so beautifully, and I used my 1¾" circle punch to notch out a spot for the greeting to show. After I trimmed the Strawberry Slush card around the curve of the ampersand, I mounted it on a square of the Silver Foil sheet, and then onto another square, this time Coastal Cabana.

Another greeting which goes really well with this sort of card is 'Never Underestimate the Power of Two' from Yippee Skippee! I used that on the inside with two hearts from the Peachy Keen stamp set and a single flower from Oh Hello. The inspiration sketch is another terrific one from Retro Sketches, I haven't had time lately to enter their weekly challenge, and didn't think I would this week either, even though I have had some time off work. However, the patient is co-operating at the moment, so all is good in the craft cave!!! There's a day or two left on this challenge, why not try your hand at the sketch too? Click on the name to link over to Retro Sketches.

Hope you have some time  this week for what you love...

Rachel

Ampersand Embossing Folder 132970 Occasions Catalogue

More Zoo Babies

Believe it or not, I have done more today than make cards! I spent an hour or so gardening, enjoying the few rays of sun we saw today. I have cooked tonight, baked a fruit cake AND prepared chicken, rice and ginger meatballs for tomorrow nights dinner.

I have been hanging out to try the Circle Thinlet  Die Flip Card, which was in my order on Friday, and you can order it now too. Because I stamped a number of different images trying to get the first Zoo Babies card 'just right' I have some spares. I used a scalloped framelit which came with the Circle Thinlet Die and laid it onto a 2½ inch circle punched from Crushed Curry card.

On the reverse of that cute little rotating circle is the greeting "you can never have too much happy" - isn't that the truth! That one comes from Yippee-Skippee (and that is 25% off till tomorrow night).

Of course I was then tempted to pull out the Stamp-a-ma-jig and stamp happy in a rainbow of colours. I used Curly Cute and inked it up each time with Stampin' Write Markers.

I learnt a few tricks to make even better use of this die recently, so if you'd like me to show them to you, or demonstrate the Stamp-a-ma-jig, send me an email and we can see what we can work out. Pop over to my online store if you want to grab those stamp sets while they are discounted.

Catch you next time
Rachel

African Tales FMS#109

Oh my! Have I spent a lot of time making this card today!

I needed to make a birthday card for a special little boy turning two next weekend, so I went to Freshly Made Sketches sketch 109 for the starting point. Next I turned to my NEW Zoo Babies stamp set.


 I ordered it at 25% off when they went on sale Tuesday and it was in my hands Friday morning - how good is that? Thanks Stampin' Up! and Australia Post! If you want to take advantage of this BIG sale 25 stamp sets for 25% off, there is still time, but only till this Monday night.

The subject and colour inspiration came from Tinga Tinga Tales a BBC program. **Be warned, if you dare to click on the link there is LOUD noise.** Apparently this is a favourite of Tyler, so I've bought a book (which also was delivered very promptly on Friday ) and used the pictures for inspiration today. It has just taken me several attempts to get a result I was happy with, and I'm not so sure that it is totally clean and simple. Sorry FMS, I have tried very hard to simplify it.


I especially like the monkeys and crocodile in the Zoo Babies stamp set, they are a pretty good match for those in the African Tale. There is a purple elephant with black and red patterned ears too, my version is Perfect Plum and Cherry Cobbler. The croc is a mix of Chocolate Chip and Cajun Craze. One monkey is also Cajun Craze, the other is Crushed Curry. I had to pull out two retired stamp sets for grass (Dinoroar) and leaves (Bloomin' Marvellous) and used a variety of greens including Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive and Gumball Green. The 'Happy Birthday' greeting is from Sketched Birthday: I love the border around it and the fact I can cut it out so neatly with the Itty Bitty Banners die. I tried another DSP in Crushed Curry but decided it didn't have enough OOOMPH! and ended up settling on this Christmas paper Season of Style. The pattern 'speaks' to me of Africa.

Have just finished off the inside of the card and decided to add its picture to the blog. When the card is for someone close to me, I usually step-it-up a bit by decorating the inside fairly elaborately. More Zoo Babies and a greeting from Yippee-Skippee.

Zoo Babies 25% off $36.71 (w)

Now I just have to cross my fingers that the rest of the present arrives before the weekend party!

Hope you are having crafty time this weekend, and don't forget to call 0417 500 681, email rpalmieri5@bigpond.com or go online if you need supplies or want to take advantage of the specials.

Cheers,
Rachel