CASE-ing The Catty #5 Baby

Oh, who doesn't love a new baby? I love to make things for babies, and I'm sure you do as well.

We had a new addition to our family in May and I was asked to make some wall art for his room. Of course, I had to pull out my stamps and Zoo Babies was the ideal stamp set, as these new parents are "Friends of the Zoo" and have also travelled to Borneo to see Orangutans and other animals in their natural environment.
I have shared these before, but I thought I would again, just to demonstrate what you can do with your stamp sets. These are just two of the three, before they were placed in the frames.

Stampin' Up! make a Coaster Board, which is thinner than chipboard, but sturdier than card, so I used it to die cut numbers for the pictures, and sponged colour onto them. The animals are also stamped onto Coaster Board and handcut. I used a variety of different Stampin' Up! stamps to put together the 'scenery'.

Now, onto my CASE of the Catty for this challenge.

I decided the card on page 78 was perfect, but I would give Zoo Babies a rest this time. However, I did use the Lullaby Designer Series Paper and the same layout.
The stamp set is Baby We've Grown, it was first seen in the Occasions Catalogue and it was good to see it appear in the annual catalogue too. I have used this soft bunny for many cards. The outline lends itself to a little water colouring, which softens the appearance even more.

Next, I got so excited by this simple little design, I almost began a production line!!!

I continued with the Lullaby DSP and used Something For Baby, for the stamped and/or die cut images. Something To Say has the two-part sentiment ' a little something cute.... for your cute little someone!'  
I could have kept on and on (except I probably have more than enough baby cards now). Naturally, there is no reason why you can't change things up again, and make birthday cards, or wedding or even sympathy cards.

What are you going to share with us this week at CASE-ing The Catty?

I do hope you enjoy my post, and get inspired to CASE the Catty too!

Cheers...
Rachel

Something For Baby Wood-Mount Bundle

$80.50

Something For Baby Clear-Mount Bundle

$68.75

Something For Baby Clear-Mount Stamp Set

$37.95

Baby's First Framelits Die

$42.95

Baby, We've Grown Wood Stamp Set

$41.95

Baby, We've Grown Clear Stamp Set

$33.95

Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Lullaby Designer Series Paper

$18.95

Vanilla Coaster Board

$9.95

Crisp Cantaloupe Thick Baker's Twine

$5.95

Pistachio Pudding Thick Baker's Twine

$5.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Pale Pistachio Pachyderm

Pistachio Pudding is such a sweet shade of green. It is also so soft that it is perfect for a baby card, either boy or girl. Colour me..! suggested this colour.

I've had this idea brewing for a few days but had no time to put it into effect. Today we ended up having an impromptu family lunch with 16 of us here, before my eldest son and D-I-L took their two boys to an evening football match. After dinner, I have bathed my baby grand daughter, popped her into bed, and added the finishing touches to a card she has been 'helping'  me make this afternoon. We also had a lovely walk this afternoon in the crisp winter air, down to the local lake to feed the ducks.






The Zoo Babies stamp set was used again for this little card, stamped twice onto white, and the head, ears and trunk were cut and raised on Dimensionals. The sentiment came in my order yesterday, its a future hostess set called Good Greetings, and there's 19 of them altogether!!! They are mainly for holidays, but they're all in this pretty font, so I can see a lot of use for them. I chose 'hello love' but perhaps I could have used 'hugs & kisses' just as easily.
I find it difficult to believe that I didn't like the All Abloom Designer Series Paper Stack when I first saw it in the new catalogue, because after I received it yesterday, I could hardly wait to begin using the pretty patterns. So many of them are florals, like this delicate sprigged one under the tag, but the reverse is often geometric, striped or spotted. The Zig Zag paper is from the retired Watercolor Wonder DSP and there's a recently retired Pistachio Pudding embellishment at the corner of the tag too.

Now, I'll just add a couple of family snaps from today's happy gathering.

Isaac and Tyler

Oliver, 3 months, in cardigan Grandma knitted.

Duck feeding with Alice

Thanks for popping by,

Rachel

Zoo Babies Wood Stamp Set

$48.95

Zoo Babies Clear Stamp Set

$38.95

All Abloom Designer Series Paper Stack

$11.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Nuts For Elephants

I had a little fun today with Zoo Babies and Color Throwdown.
Isn't that a tasty looking colour combination?

In addition to Zoo Babies, I also used Nuts About You for the tree and grass, Polka-Dot Pieces for the leaves and Sketched Birthday for the greeting. The first card I made is below, with a giraffe on it, but the zebra came out a little too light. Also, the Bakers Twine bow seems a bit distracting and since I've notched the card to keep it in place, it has to stay.

So, I decided to make another card with the other half of the Nuts About You tree, and my hand was much steadier fussy-cutting those leaves, and I mixed the two greens. Using just the elephant, keeping the picture much simpler, gave a better result.

Lucky Limeade and Poppy Parade are two retired stamp pads I kept, but I was a new demonstrator back then, and didn't order refills for the stamp pads. I have noticed today that Poppy Parade isn't as moist as the Lucky Limeade one. My advice is to buy the refills while they are available to extend the life of your stamp pad. I seem to have almost run out of the Poppy Parade card too, and there isn't a red quite like it yet.

Thanks for dropping by,
Rachel

Sketched Birthday Wood Stamp Set

$42.95

Sketched Birthday Clear Stamp Set

$33.95

Zoo Babies Wood Stamp Set

$48.95

Zoo Babies Clear Stamp Set

$38.95

Polka-Dot Pieces Wood Stamp Set

$35.95

Polka-Dot Pieces Clear Stamp Set

$28.95

Nuts About You Wood-Mount Stamp Set

$24.00

Nuts About You Clear-Mount Stamp Set

$17.00

Folder Arrows Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

$13.95

Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

$13.95

Bitty Banners Big Shot Die Framelits

$25.95

Hello Little Baby

I have some special cards to share over the next two days, both made with the Pop 'n Cuts system.

Our family has recently welcomed Oliver to the crew. He made his arrival 5 weeks early weighing 1.9kg and has been able to come home this past week, weighing 2.3kg. Although still very tiny, he is adorable. His parents asked me to fill some frames to decorate his room, and I continued with the African Animal Theme they had embarked on some months before. Zoo Babies was the answer, and a number of other stamp sets for the vegetation which was stamped in Basic Gray and Smokey Slate to allow the numbers and animals to shine. This is when they were a 'Work In Progress' and I took a pic with my phone to ask the parents if this is what they had in mind. The big, bold, bright sun is from Kinda Eclectic, one of the first stamp sets we were given for a Make & Take session at Convention. I had only just arrived home when I began this project. The numerals are from my pre-Stampin' Up! days, purchased from the US, but the Coaster Board I used to cut them from is all Stampin' Up! Its ID is in a list at the end, and it is lovely for projects like this, cuts well on the Big Shot with a die, and equally well by hand, for the animals.

The Pop 'n Cuts are retiring, but until 30 June 2014, these are still available to buy through me, or your own Stampin' Up Demo (Australia/New Zealand). It's a shame, as once you've mastered the system, they're good fun, and very effective. I've made some cute gift pouches using it too, which you can see if you come to a class with me during June.

Apparently Karen Burniston, who developed this cutting system, has dissolved her partnership with Sizzix, who Stampin' Up! also partnered with to bring us Big Shot and all those fantastic Embossing Folders and cutting systems. It is a shame that we will no longer carry them, or the very popular Dress Form Pop 'N Cut. All on Page 188 of the catalogue and a die for the dress which will also retire at the end of June is on page 187. The two pieces I needed for these cards are Card Base Pop 'n Cuts and Label Pop 'n Cuts, so you cut 2 separate pieces and join them, fold out the pop up piece and move on to decorating.

As always, things co-ordinate perfectly, so it was time to grab the Deco Labels Collection and cut a label to stamp the zebra and toucan onto. The elephant was stamped on another piece of Whisper White, and fussy cut. I have the 'Brand New' from Baby We've Grown, stamped and die cut twice in Marina Mist.

On the outside are two more Deco Label Framelits cut in Whisper White and Marina Mist. The white one has been stamped with 'Sweet Baby' from Baby We've Grown, in Soft Sky, so it is very, very light. I stamped the letters of his name using ABC-123 Sketch Alphabet & Numbers. Luckily I had punched a few extra flowers with the new Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack while at Convention, 'cos I used some on the label too. Isn't the new flower just so cute? There is a small star and heart in that set of three, available after July 1st.
It was easy enough to cut the letters out using the Petite Pennants Builder Punch and I'm looking forward to the new stamp set they're releasing which matches the punch. The current set, Pennant Parade, is retiring.













I'm not permitted to share photos of Oliver on social media, but when I asked about my blog, my son seems to think no one reads it, so that will be okay. We won't tell him that you took a peek at his darling, little son, will we?

You can tell me though, {wink, wink}
Rachel




Card Base Pop 'n Cuts 130099
Label Pop 'n Cuts 130160
Coaster Board 129392
Deco Labels Collection 130102
Pennant Parade 128697 W 122742 C

World Map

Last week was my husband's birthday and to celebrate, our rather large family went to Werribee Open Range Zoo for an outing and picnic. The weather was a bit on the cool side, but the rain held off.  Most of the zoo is accessible on a open-sided bus which takes you quite close to giraffe, zebras, rhinos and hippos. On foot you can see more of the hippos, as well as gorillas, lions and cheetahs. In the photo at right, the boys are 'driving' a jeep, and the windscreen is part of the view into the lions' enclosure. Apparently, the engine part of the jeep is heated at times, so the lions come down and sleep right there, at the window.

I thought I would share the birthday card I made my husband, after seeing this card on Debbie Henderson's blog. I used the same colour scheme and didn't deviate far from her design either. I'm a big fan of Debbie's work and decided you can't improve on perfection.

Stamps: World Map (130342), Chalk Talk (130631), Sketched Birthday (130423)
Framelits: Chalk Talk (129983), Itty Bitty Banners(129267)

You can order any of these from my online store by entering those code numbers, and if you want a workshop on this technique, email me to see if we can find a time and place that suits.

It has just occurred to me that it is rather a funny coincidence that the country that features on World Map is Africa, and the majority of animals at the Open Range Zoo were also from Africa. Maybe I should have included an animal from my newest favourite stamp set, Zoo Babies ( 130453)as well?


Thanks so much for visiting,have a good week
Rachel