Monthly Archives: January 2016

Balloon Celebration for CC&S

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There’s a new challenge over at CAS Colour & Sketches today and it’s a colour one. Usually my favourite type but I really struggled with this combination for some reason. For the last couple of days I’ve been sharing cards that I started, intending them to be for this challenge but they kept insisting on extra colours. Do your cards have firm opinions on their evolution? I hope so! Today’s card is completely different from any of my initial plans and I’m not entirely sure where the idea came from! Admittedly the set Balloon Celebration was sitting out on my kitchen table, but so were a lot of other sets!

Stampin' Up! Balloon Celebration

Here’s the colour banner:

I stamped a number of balloons in rose red and so saffron and then experimented with the soft suede, stamping off a few times to see what looked best as the bubbles on the balloons. In the end the so saffron balloons preferred a double stamp off and the rose red a single. Yes, the stamps have opinions as well as the card. I then decided that it would be fun to have the balloons carrying off the sentiment. Martin thought it would be fun to have more balloons, even 99 (anyone else remember the song 99 Red Balloons?) but I pointed out that I’d have to use so many dimensionals to get that many balloons on the card, it would need to be sent in a box. And it would hardly be a CAS card!

So the sentiment (also from Balloon Celebration) is stamped in rose red with a soft suede string linking it to the balloons (only one of which is popped up with a dimensional, sorry Martin). I did punch out a partial balloon which I then trimmed with paper snips and glued under the so saffron balloon on the left to ensure it was at one height rather than having the right hand side raised due to being over the right hand so saffron balloon. Then my whisper white piece is glued to a rose red card base. My original card didn’t have the sentiment as angled, but the skylights again had an opinion and dripped on my DT card and I had to make it again. And I like this one better. Between Martin and the skylights, I have some tough critics.

By the way, if you decide to get this stamp set, get the bundle which includes the punch. You save 15% and a lot of time cutting out balloons. Win win.

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I hope that you pop over to the CAS Colours & Sketches website to see what the rest of the Design Team have created and also to have a go at the challenge yourself.
See you tomorrow,
Liz

Flowering Fields Window Box

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As I was making yesterday’s card with Flowering Fields, I thought of the window box in the Happy Home stamp set and decided to make another card using it.

Stampin' Up! Flowering Fields and Happy Home and Hearth & Home thinlits dies

As before, I stamped one of the flower images from Flowering Fields three times in basic black ink on watercolour paper. I then coloured in the flowers using so saffron and rose red (the same as yesterday) and my aquapainter. This time I used wild wasabi for the leaves. I positioned this over to the left so as to leave room for the butterfly that is on its way to see the flowers. That’s coloured using different strengths of rose red and also, on the wings, a dash of the clear wink of Stella. I showed the wink of Stella to Bilma last night since she loves glitter and she’s excited to use the pen. Then I stamped the window box image from Happy Home in basic black on soft suede card and cut it out with the matching thinlits. I popped it up on dimensionals so that the flowers really look inside the box.

I matted this with a piece of soft suede to match the window box (with fast fuse as usual when using watercolour paper) and then mounted that onto a rose red card base. The envelope is lined with some of the retired backgrounds DSP in rose red (lining envelopes is a great way to use up retired paper), cut out with the envelope liner thinlits and the big shot.

In case you’ve forgotten, Flowering Fields is one of the sets that you can get for free until the end of March. It’s one of the items in the Sale-a-bration brochure (pdf is on the left) that you can select every time you spend $50 before tax and shipping.

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See you tomorrow,

Liz

Flowering Fields

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Here’s a card that I made at the weekend when I was trying to make a card for the CAS Colours & Sketches Design Team for the upcoming challenge. It’s funny. It started off following the colour challenge but as I played more, things changed and it ended up somewhere completely different.

Stampin' Up! Flowering Fields

This is one of the plant stamps from Flowering Fields, stamped three times using stazon black on watercolour paper. I was trying another colour but it blurred when watercolouring but I liked the design of the card and started again using stazon. I then coloured in the flowers using so saffron and a fairly watered down rose red. The leaves are in pear pizzazz. I attached the watercolour paper to a skinny border of basic black using fast fuse (my favourite when using watercolour paper) and then onto a card base of rose red with the multipurpose glue. It doesn’t show in the photo but the flowers are also highlighted using my just received clear wink of Stella. It’s really fun in person. Just be careful when you first use the pen. You remove the black ring and then put the pen back together and squeeze the pen GENTLY so that the ink flows into the see through part of the pen by the nib. After that I haven’t had to squeeze at all so far. If you squeeze too hard, you get a nice puddle of ink on your (hopefully) scrap paper.

I lined my envelope using the retired backgrounds DSP in rose red and the envelope liners framelits.

By the way, there’s still time to play in the sketch challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches before it changes to a colour challenge on Thursday.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Botanical Gardens Designer Series Paper

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The Sunburst Sayings and thinlits die was a bundle that was delivered at the end of last week and another thing that I had to play with immediately rather than going to bed! I also got the Botanical Gardens designer vellum stack which is one of the freebies in the Sale-a-bration catalogue and it matches the Botanical Gardens DSP.

Stampin' Up! Botanical Gardens DSP and Sunburst thinlits die and Sunburst sayings and Botanical Gardens designer vellum stack

I used the sunburst thinlits die to cut out the vellum and then cut out the piece of DSP to match. I stuck the vellum down with the multipurpose glue in the middle where I was going to have the sentiment and then flipped the DSP over and started trimming. I’d done three sides before I realised that I should’ve left the ends and folded them over the paper and glued then on the back of the DSP. Instead I put tiny drops of the glue, using a paper piercing tool, onto the vellum where there was stamping. It worked pretty well and it’s hard to see which of the four sides is folded under. Which side do you think is folded?

I then stamped the sentiment from the Sunburst Sayings, which I got in a bundle with the die and saved 15%. Gotta love that. I cut this out with the coordinating 1 1/4 inch circle punch and then cut a matching mossy meadow mat using the circles collection framelits dies and my big shot. I like how it gave me a narrower border than using two of the nested circles framelits. I popped the sentiment circles up on dimensionals and then glued this to a mossy meadow card base.

I also cut another piece of the DSP and glued it to the back flap of the envelope and then trimmed the excess with my paper snips. It’s a quick and easy way to dress up the envelope. I don’t think I’ve sent out a “naked” envelope in over a year now!

By the way, it’s the right hand side of the card which had the vellum folded under.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

January Paper Pumpkin – Cute Conversations

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Yesterday I got this month’s Paper Pumpkin – it’s a surefire way to get me to empty the mail box!  Here’s the Stampin’ Up! Youtube video showcasing this month’s kit.

In case you don’t know what Paper Pumpkin is, here’s a recap:

  • Each month you receive a unique, surprise kit with a project. It’s colour-coordinated and everything is cut for you
  • Each kit includes stamps, ink, paper, accessories and instructions – everything but adhesive.
  • Each kit gives you about a 30 minute creativity escape.
  • Your Paper Pumpkin ships around the 15th of the month.
  • You need to sign up for a kit by the 10th of the month to get that month’s kit. If you sign up on the 11th of the month, your first kit will come the next month.
  • A Paper Pumpkin membership is $19.95 per month (and shipping is included!) There’s no commitment, you can cancel your monthly Paper Pumpkin at anytime. You can also skip a month if you want.
  • Just click on the Paper Pumpkin button on the left hand side to join up.

During Sale-a-bration, the 3 month prepaid subscription is on sale for $55 (normally 59.85) and better than that, if you buy it you also get a free item from the Sale-a-bration catalogue. I’m definitely doing that myself.

I’ve started a class on (usually) the last Friday of the month to get together and put together the kits. I’m also including an extra project. If you’re local to Randolph, NJ, sign up and come on by for some fun.

See you tomorrow,

Liz