Category Archives: General

Gift of love hostess set

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As you know, I placed a fairly substantial order at the beginning of the month (7am on the first day!) and it meant that I had some hostess dollars to spend. Here’s a card using one of the hostess stamp sets, Gift of Love, that I added to my order for free.

Stampin' Up! Gift of Love

It’s a “two step” stamp set although it’s actually three stamps. First I stamped the image in pear pizzazz and then filled in the leaves with more of the same colour. The flowers are a third stamp and here I used rich razzleberry, stamped off twice to give a delicate look. The sentiment is also from Giftof Love and that’s in full strength rich razzleberry. I matted the whisper white with some pear pizzazz and put that onto a rich razzleberry card base. I used a liner that was in my stack of liners to line the envelope. If you have the envelope liners I find that it makes sense to cut out multiples at the same time and have a stash of them. I won’t use them as much as I did since they aren’t available any more – I’ll have to find other ways to jazz up the envelope.

I can see this set being used a great deal – it’s a beautiful flower and the typeface of the sentiments is great. Remember to take a look at the 6 hostess sets – they are at a the back of the catalogue – because they are a great use of your Stampin’ Rewards.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

 

 

Garden in Bloom

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Challenges are good – they stretch you and lead you in a completely different direction. The challenge this week at CASology (actually I’m sliding in under the wire here) is MOVE and I decided to use the bee stamp from Garden in Bloom.

Stampin' Up! Garden in bloom

Here’s the banner which inspired my card

I decided that the bees were busily buzzing in a circle and thus moving. I stamped them first opposite each other and then filled in the gaps. Originally I had just four bees until Martin commented that he thought that bees were usually hexagonal. This worked much better. After stamping the bees from Garden in Bloom with the archival basic black, I coloured the stripes with my Stampin’ Write hello honey marker. I then cut out a piece of basic black about 1/16 inch larger than the whisper white piece and glued it on to give a narrow border.

To give the bees something to buzz about, I took a piece of hello honey and dry embossed it with the retired spring flowers embossing folder. I glued this to a hello honey card base and then popped up the bees with dimensionals.

To jazz up the envelope, I cut out a liner using the retired backgrounds DSP in hello honey and the envelope liners framelits. I love that it’s so easy to coordinate but  I can’t believe that the envelope liners framelits are retiring.

Just a reminder that tomorrow is the deadline to sign up in order to receive this month’s Paper Pumpkin and, unusually, this month we got a sneak peek. Check out my post from last week showing it.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Happy Home

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Apologies for the late post, I’ve been fighting with my computer again. The Home IT desk thinks it might be the motherboard, so I’d better get myself set up on one of the other (numerous) computers! I’ve been playing with Happy Home again – I’m sad it’s retiring. Right now, the Happy Home set and the matching framelits come in a bundle. The framelits aren’t retiring but there’s nothing in the new catalogue that they match with – I’m guessing that something to match is coming out at Christmas or next year,  but I’m not giving up this stamp set!

I decided that I’d join another two of the scenes together for the Paper Players challenge today and when I went looking for my watercolour paper, I found the shimmery white paper first. So I’m using that instead – I usually forget that I have it.

Stampin' Up! Happy Home

Here’s the banner which inspired my card:

I stamped the image in wisteria wonder which gives it a lovely soft look and then used my aquapainter to put a wash of colour for the ground in pear pizzazz. I purposely made it not a uniform green to avoid the impression that it was completely flat. Then I used my pink pirouette stampin’ write marker to colour in the shirt, added a little more wisteria wonder to the shorts and coloured the kite and flower in so saffron. The greeting, also from Happy Home, is stamped in pear pizzazz. I contemplated adding an extra mat to the card but it didn’t fit with the hand drawn look of the card, so I just glued the shimmery white paper onto a so saffron card base.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Picture Perfect for my sister

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Today is the start of a new month at CAS Colours & Sketches which means that it’s time for a new challenge hostess. This month it’s my sister Caro’s turn and she’s chosen to do a farewell to some of the retiring in colours.

Stampin' Up! Picture Perfect and Watercolor Wishes

Here’s the banner which inspired my card.

Of course, I first thought about flowers or sunsets but it just wasn’t coming together for me and I was determined to make a card that didn’t look autumnal even though these colours hint at it. Then I noticed Picture Perfect in my “staging” area and decided to play with that. I have the majority of my stamp sets in another room but I have a box that my father built for me that holds about 20 sets that I keep on my table and store my “just used” or “thinking about using” sets. Hummingbirds come in an incredible array of colours, some of which look completely unnatural and improbable (just check google), so I felt that I could use these colours to make a fun bird. It also really highlights mossy meadow which is my favourite of these three colours.

It’s a 2 step stamp, officially, although 4 step stamping would be more accurate! I stamped the three body images all in mossy meadow, stamping off twice for the first one, once for the next and full strength for the last. I decided to reuse the “throat” stamp on the wing to add in the hello honey – an idea that I saw on Brandys cards. The sentiment is from the set that is currently my favourite for sentiments – Watercolor Wishes. After stamping the sentiment in mossy meadow, I glued the very vanilla piece to a mossy meadow card base.

I lined the envelope with retired mossy meadow backgrounds DSP using the (retiring) envelope liners framelits. I hope that you’ll take a look at the CAS Colours & Sketches challenge site this week and admire the inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and then have a go yourself with these colours. It would be great to see your card in the gallery.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Fluttering Watercolor Wings

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So I finally used the Fluttering TIEF, I’ve had it for ages and just haven’t used it. I have no idea why. But in the shower today, I thought about spotlighting a butterfly over a matching textured background. So here it is.

Stampin' Up! Watercolor Wings and Fluttering embossing folder

I used the Fluttering TIEF on a piece of whisper white (actually also on crushed curry but that didn’t work for today’s project. I’ll use it soon) and then turned my attention to the butterfly. This one is from Watercolor Wings and it’s a two step stamp (actually three, but we never seem to call it by the actual number of steps!). I stamped the solid butterfly in crushed curry and added pumpkin pie for the edges of the wings. Then it was melon mambo for the details. I cut out a piece of melon mambo 1/16 inch bigger to frame this. The textured piece of whisper white is mounted onto a melon mambo card base and the butterfly is popped up with dimensionals.

The envelope is lined using the envelope liners whilst they are still non-retired and the brights retired backgrounds DSP stack. It’s an easy way to dress up an envelope.

I noticed this morning whilst browsing the pre-order items (a perk of being a demonstrator) that there’s a new punch coming out called Sprinkles. It cuts out the confetti that I cut yesterday using the Party Pop-up thinlits dies – much easier to use a punch. I’m going to wait until tomorrow to put in my preorder when cutting blades will be available. But soon I’ll have my hands on the new incolours. Can’t wait!

See you tomorrow,

Liz