Monthly Archives: March 2016

Party Pants meets Lighthearted Leaves

I was looking for some challenges to enter – I’ve not done many lately, I’ve been mostly focused on my cards for the Design Team at CAS Colours & Sketches. But this weekend I went looking for others and found CASology where this week it’s a cue card of DOODLE. Sounds like fun.

Stampin' Up! Party Pants and Lighthearted Leaves and Tin of Cards

Here’s the banner for the challenge:

One of my favourite recently retired sets is Lighthearted Leaves and that looks very doodled. I played around with it for a bit and then decided to pull out my so far unused Party Pants set and realised that I really like the base of my doodled leaf taking over the full stop at the end of the sentiment. I stamped both of these in the archival basic black. I added some colour with my bermuda bay Stampin’ Write marker and looked at my piece of whisper white on a bermuda bay base. I liked it, but there was something missing. I knew that I had a doodled sort of border somewhere. I started a full table scan of my stamp sets and found what I was looking for when I got to the Ts. Yes, they’re alphabetised, it’s impossible to find what you want otherwise.  Well, for me anyway! Tin of Cards has this fun border and I stamped it around the edge, masking off when necessary so that I got a good frame. I then glued my whisper white piece onto a bermuda bay card base and lined the envelope with the retired backgrounds DSP using the envelope liner framelits dies.

I was inspired by this month’s Paper Pumpkin to use bermuda bay – it apparently isn’t a colour that I use very often. I really like it, so I’m not sure why I don’t use it very much. It may appear more often in the near future. I encourage you to take a look at your cards and cardstock and pull out a colour that has been neglected. It’s quite fun.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Perpetual Birthday Calendar Improved!

I bought a Perpetual Birthday Calendar and started working on it last year but what with my Spanish trips and then starting my new job I didn’t quite finish it. A couple of weeks ago, I offered a class to make the project and hilariously two of the attendees had last minute birthday related surprises that meant that they couldn’t make it. We rescheduled to a Sunday afternoon and spent a happy time playing with the kit. I had already done 9 of the months but although everyone followed my January sheet, by February they were choosing other coloured hearts (included in the kit) and by March they were off doing completely their own thing. It was really fun. Encouraged by the group, I started making a few additions to my previously “completed” months as well as finishing the missing three months which I’ve posted recently. And yes, as per our “rule” of whether it was a good stamping time, we ended up with glitter on our faces.

Stampin' Up! Perpetual Birthday Calendar project kit

I was going to say that there were quite a few additions to these half dozen months, but on reflection I find that all but three of the nine that I’d already completed had something added! I posted about December recently so nothing has changed there, but for November, I added the N which I first dabbed onto the mossy meadow ink pad. I then put the sticker over the banner and used the clear Wink of Stella to give it some glimmer and shine. I felt that August was a little plain so I added the clear Wink of Stella to the blackberry bliss butterfly and then a few of the sequins that came in the kit. Yes. I used sequins!

I jazzed up July a little by adding some of the stars that I cut out of silver glimmer paper with the confetti stars punch – it was easy since they’d already been cut out for December. April is one of the months that was left unchanged. For March, after seeing what James did, sequins had to be added to my March page.

Stampin' Up! Perpetual Birthday Calendar project kit

I blogged about September and October recently since they were two of the unfinished pages. June and January haven’t been altered from their original state but who knows what might happen when we get together for the others to complete their calendars!

February had the clear Wink of Stella added to the heart – this new sparkly brush pen was a huge hit at the class, I can see why it’s currently on back order. May has had significant change – it felt as if there has been something missing on this page for a long time but I couldn’t decide what to add. I tried all sorts of shapes and even ribbon but nothing worked. In fact I only realised what I wanted this morning and finished it just before taking the photos. I cased my own idea with the double layer of flower cut out using the Botanical Builder Framelits dies where the bottom is melon mambo and then using the It’s My Party enamel dots as the centre of the flower. It’s extremely fortuitous that I used melon mambo on May because the enamel dots only come in three colours – mint macaron, crushed curry and melon mambo.

So there’s my new and improved Perpetual Birthday Calendar. I hope it inspires you to order the project kit and stamp set and gather a few friends and make your own calendars. The kit and stamp set together are only $40 (and of course you only need one stamp set between you) which puts you very close to a Sale-a-bration freebie. And very close to a whole load of fun!

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Paper Pumpkin March 2016

According to the tracking information, my Paper Pumpkin March 2016 – Pocketful of Cheer – will be delivered today! I couldn’t resist though, and took a look at the youtube video giving a sneak peek.

I later saw on FaceBook that this was Shannon West’s first Paper Pumpkin video and actually there was a bit of a hint because she also stamped her #ImBringingBirthdayBack on one of the cards. Very cool.

This is Paper Pumpkin’s third birthday and apparently also the millionth kit was shipped out this month. Here’s Sara, the interim CEO, with a video on that.

As you heard, there’s going to be a bonus gift of a stamp set in the box, and according to the write-up under the video, it’s a $17 value which makes signing up for the April kit a no brainer at $19.95. If you sign up and name me as your demonstrator, I’ll send you a gift from me too.

In case you’re not familiar with Paper Pumpkin, here are the details:

  • Each month you receive a unique, surprise kit with a project. It’s colour-coordinated and everything is pre-cut
  • Each kit includes stamps, ink, paper, accessories and instructions – everything but adhesive.
  • Each kit gives you about 30 minutes of fun
  • 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 or put your subscription on hold at any time.
  • Just click on the Paper Pumpkin button on the left hand side to join up.

Also until the end of the month, a three month prepaid subscription is only $55 and that gets you a freebie from Sale-a-bration as well as the bonus stamp set next month.

I’m going to work on my taxes now so that when my kit comes, I can start playing!

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Picture Perfect using CC&S colours and sketch

We had another new hire this week and I wanted to make a card to welcome him. And I wanted to reuse the colours from the new challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. Two blues sounded like sea and sky and the coral made me think of the Picture Perfect set and the starfish. I am also continuing to play with last week’s sketch challenge which apparently really grabbed me – thanks to Jane for these.

Stampin' Up! Picture Perfect and Gorgeous Grunge and Welcome Words

The banner for this challenge is:

It’s quite a tricky combination in my opinion and I played with it for a while before deciding on this design. Martin asked why a starfish on a welcome card; I decided it’s because work is hard, we’re trying to do a lot with not enough people (hence the hiring) so Rod will need extra arms and hands to get everything done. A stretch perhaps…

The starfish is stamped in watermelon wonder on watercolour paper – it’s a 2 step stamp and one was stamped off first once and the other is full strength. I then fussy cut this. Why watercolour paper? Well I intended to use watercolour paper for the background and I played with it a little but in the end, after also trying white shimmer paper, I ended up with ordinary whisper white. So the background has marina mist and night of navy washed on with an aquapainter and, once that dried, I actually used Gorgeous Grunge to add the night of navy spots. I must remember to warn my sister Caro about the use of Gorgeous Grunge. It’s not something I use much at all whereas she loves it. Next I cut a square of night of navy slightly larger for the mat. I kept the squares slightly smaller than the starfish – I like the overhanging look. Before adding anything to my base of thick whisper white, I stamped the sentiment from Welcome Words in night of navy. There’s not much worse than gluing elements to a card and then messing up the stamping. Once the stamping was done, I started construction.

Stampin' Up! Picture Perfect and Gorgeous Grunge and Welcome Words

I popped the starfish up with dimensionals and then coloured it in with some clear Wink of Stella. I know that this pen is on backorder and I can see why – I need to get a back up one because I’m using it a lot. I used some of the retired backgrounds DSP in night of navy to line the outside of the envelope flap.

I hope that you’ll pop over to the challenge site to see what the rest of the Design Team have created with these colours and have a go yourself.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

 

Hexagon Punch for CC&S

I don’t know about you, but mostly what I’ve used my hexagon punch for is the end of banners. I decided to actually use it for its true purpose and at the same time use the colours from this week’s challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches.

Stampin' Up! Hexagon Punch and Rose Wonder

Here’s the colour banner for this week:

I went to the regals and subtles DSP stacks for night of navy and marina mist and cut out hexagons. I also used one of the retired backgrounds DSP stack in night of navy. There were of course many more hexagons cut than appear on this card – I’ll probably make another out of the surplus. First I stamped the sentiment from Rose Wonder in watermelon wonder and then placed my hexagons. I noticed that they don’t perfectly tessellate (how often do you get to use that word?!) because if I started at one side with an edge of a hexagon parallel to the card, when I got to the other side, that hexagon wasn’t parallel. And it should be. To get over that issue I started from the edges moving in and then popped up the middle hexagon so that it wouldn’t notice that it’s very slightly off!

Stampin' Up! Hexagon Punch and Rose Wonder

The envelope is lined with watermelon wonder from the DSP stack, cut out with the envelope liners.

I hope that you’ll check out the rest of the inspiration from the design team and have a go yourself with these colours. I found them really hard to start with, but in the end, I made two cards. I’ll share the other one tomorrow.

See you tomorrow,

Liz