Tropical Oasis – CASEing the Catalogue – Page 38

By | March 16, 2020

Hi there

Finally managed to get to the computer to share another project with you. This one is straight from the catalogue – why reinvent the wheel when somebody has already created a beautiful card? I don’t own the Tropical Oasis set but fortunately one of my team does so I’ve been able to have a play.

After a running the flower die through the die cutting machine a number of times we were ready to create :). To start with I placed the flowers on the card front until I was happy with the placement then set about adhering them with Tombow Liquid Glue. We used three colours – Petal Pink, Grapefruit Grove and Terracotta Tile for the flowers. Old Olive and Pear Pizzazz were used for the leaves.

The card base is Grapefruit Grove with a Soft Suede front which has been dry embossed with the Coastal Weave 3D Embossing Folder. Before embossing the cardstock we ‘swipped’ the Soft Suede ink pad over the inside of the embossing folder. When the folder is wound through the embossing machine the ink transfers from the folder onto the cardstock giving ‘modulation’ (colour variation) to the mat.

The sentiment is from the Timeless Tropical stamp set with the tag coming from the Ornate Frames die.

Don’t forget to use the catalogue for inspiration for your next creation.

Until next time …

Tropical Oasis DSP Shirt

By | March 11, 2020

Hi there

The Tropical Oasis Designer Series Paper is the perfect design to create a ‘Hawaiian’ shirt – great for a masculine card. This design was really handy as I needed two masculine cards last month for family friends of ours. I did one in a portrait orientation and one in a landscape.

The shirt uses a piece of DSP measuring 4″ x 6″ which means you can get 6 ‘shirts’ from a piece of 12″ x 12″ paper. There are a number of suitable designs within the Tropical Oasis DSP pack for making these shirts.

I’ve used the new Coastal Weave 3D Embossing Folder for the front of both cards – this is a design that can be used either orientation as I’ve done with these cards and you could also use either side of the design.

For this card I’ve trimmed a strip off the front so you get to see the inside image. The sentiment is from the ‘Label me Bold’ set inspired by Million Sales Achiever Jasmin Schulze. This set has 5 background images and 7 sentiments.

Here’s a close up of the shirt and the design of the new embossing folder. The ‘buttons’ are created by colouring some pearls with the Pretty Peacock Stampin’ Blends.

For the insides of both cards I used the palm tree image colouring them using the ‘direct to stamp’ technique again with Old Olive and Soft Suede Stampin’ Write Markers. If you haven’t tried this technique I encourage you to give it a go.

Well that’s all for tonight – until next time …

Tropical Oasis Gift Card Holder

By | March 9, 2020

Hi there

New recruits who sign up to become Stampin’ Up! demonstrators during Sale-A-Bration receive this cute Mini Paper Cutter and 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper sampler. Two of the designs included in the sampler are from the Tropical Oasis DSP pack on page 39 of the mini catalogue.

I was in need of a gift card holder following our recent weekend away to friends beach place so this paper was perfect (even though it wasn’t an island setting).

The design of this gift card was from Leonie Schroder an Australian demo. I made a few measurement changes from her design to fit my card.

The sentiment and palm image are from the coordinating stamp set – Timeless Tropical.

I’ve kept the card pretty simple as I really wanted to show off the beautiful design in the paper. The colours in this paper pack are Real Red, Terracotta Tile, Grapefruit Grove, Daffodil Delight, Mango Melody, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Pool Party, Pretty Peacock and Soft Suede. I’ve gone with Real Red for my base . This gift card only uses half a sheet so you can get two from an A4 sheet of card stock.

I’ve carried the DSP through into the inside and added the palm tree stamp on the inside. This is one stamp and I used the ‘direct to stamp’ technique for colouring. This is where you colour your stamp in with your Stampin’ Write marker, give the stamp a little ‘huff’ before stamping the image onto your card stock. Markers are a great way to colour in an image when you need two colours on the one stamp.

If you’d like to join Stampin’ Up! now’s the time to join as you receive extra product during the Sale-A-Bration period (3 Jan to 31 March). If you’d like to know more about being a demo please contact me – I’d love to have you join my team. Check out my Join My Team and Promotions pages too.

Well that’s all for now – until next time …

Peaceful Poppies DSP Pendant Fold Card

By | February 25, 2020

Hi there

This past weekend was spent in Rotorua at our annual Creative Inkers Stamp Camp. We had a great time together – about 50 of us – and were taught some amazing projects. I still need to take photos of these so will share them with you soon. If you would like to be part of this amazing creative team now is the perfect time to join Stampin’ Up!. Not only will you receive your Starter Kit of NZD$285 worth of product for just NZD$189 you’ll receive the Mini Paper Cutter, a 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper sampler plus your choice of a stamp set from a current catalogue (host sets and Sale-A-Bration sets excluded). Check out my Promotions page to find out more about this offer. I’d love to hear from you and have you join my team.

Now on to today’s project featuring the Peaceful Poppies Designer Series Paper and a fun fold.

Peaceful Poppies – Pendant Fold Card

This card uses a 6″ x 6″ pieces of DSP which has been trimmed down to 14cm high x 6″ wide (sorry for the mix in measurements). I then pencil mark about 1 3/4″ or 2″ from the top and bottom on the left hand side (depending on the sentiment I’ll use). I then cut from the top right to the top pencil mark on the left and then again from bottom right to lower pencil mark on the left.

The DSP is then scored at 9.6cm to create the ‘fold out’ flap. The background mat has been cut in Blackberry Bliss using the new Stitched So Sweetly dies from page 20 of the Mini Catalogue. The sentiment on the front and the image on the inside have been die cut using the next size down. The sentiment is from the Peaceful Moments set and the image is from the Painted Poppies set.

The sentiment on the front and the image on the inside have been die cut using the next size down. The sentiment is from the Peaceful Moments set and the image is from the Painted Poppies set. The card base is Blackberry Bliss with a mat of Pool Party.

I was able to use one of the ‘off cut’ corners trimmed down for the inside of the card. The sentiment is also from the Peaceful Moments set – this is my favourite sentiment set.

Well that’s all for now – until next time …

Painted Poppies – Notecard size

By | February 19, 2020

Hi there

On Saturday I held a workshop with a lovely group of ladies. We made two cards and a 3D item. Both cards we made using the Whisper White Notecards and Envelopes. First up is the Painted Poppies card – you’ll have to wait a bit to see the other two projects.

This design can be landscape or portrait and you could have bigger card fronts and mats and create this design in a full sized card too.

We’ve used the Painted Poppies Bundle for stamping and die cutting the images and added the sentiment from Peaceful Moments. These bundles work so well together.

Both flower images have coordinating dies from the Painted Labels die set and there are two leaf dies which makes quick work when cutting out multiple leaves. The leaves are stamped in Old Olive ink on Old Olive cardstock. The ‘swirl’ die ties all the elements together and I can see this die being used on lots of different projects. I stamped the sentiment first then stamped the small ‘splotch’ image in Flirty Flamingo over the top.

For the inside of the cards we stamped the ‘field of flowers’ stamp in Memento Black – I really like the black and white look of this image. The Peaceful Poppies Sequins come in five colours and two designs – round and flower shaped.

Well that’s all for tonight – just a couple more Peaceful Poppy projects to share with you over the coming days but until then …

Peaceful Poppies DSP

By | February 16, 2020

Hi there

The Peaceful Poppies Designer Series Paper is a collection of hand painted blooms and watercolour washes and make a beautiful background or focal point to any card. There are 12 sheets of 12″ x 12″ – 2 each of 6 double sided designs.

Isn’t this paper just gorgeous? You can’t leave it sitting uncut – you have to be brave, cut it up and use it.

So I’m putting my words into action – I cut this sheet in half through the white section then cut each panel into three – the size of a card front to create six cards. Here’s the first one I’ve made.

This design definitely falls under the ‘focal point’ category. I added a piece of ribbon with a bow and a sentiment and I’m done. The sentiment is from the Peaceful Moments set and has been heat embossed in white. The die cut is from the Stitched So Sweetly set of dies on page 20 of the 2020 Mini Catalogue.

I’m getting better at remembering to take a photo of the card inside :). This image is from the Painted Poppies and has been coloured in with Blackberry, Old Olive and Mossy Meadow Bliss Stampin Blends.

Well that’s all for tonight. Until next time …

Poppy Moments and more

By | February 13, 2020

Hi there

I don’t know about you but I often have bits and pieces (stamped images, dies cuts etc) on my desk that have been left over from previous projects. I found some of those ‘bits’ under some papers so decided to make them into a card. I think I’d been playing around with colour combos and how the two parts of the leaves and flowers fitted together. I also found the leftover Scallop Rectangle from my last post.

The base for this card is Calypso Coral with a Pool Party mat and a Whisper White top layer. There are three layers to the flower and two for the leaves. This really helps in giving the images dimension. The sentiment is from the Peaceful Moments stamp set.

The flower base is Calypso Coral with the overlay Poppy Parade. The leaves are a combination of Old Olive and Mossy Meadow. The colour arrangement for this flower is the opposite arrangement from my last post. When I started putting the card together I felt that a plain card base didn’t look right so I stamped the ‘field’ of flowers in VersaMark to give a subtle background.

I also found this insert on my desk which I’d made for another card and then decided not to use it. The image has been stamped in Memento black and coloured in using ink and Blender Pens. Have you noticed that the flower on this stem isn’t the one that is part of the actual stamp? I used the masking technique to create this ‘new’ image.

Well that’s all for now. Until next time …

Poppy Moments Die Cut Card

By | February 8, 2020

Hi there

Within the Peaceful Poppies Suite there are two bundles – Painted Poppies and Peaceful Moments. For my next card I used the Peaceful Moments Bundle. This bundle consists of a stamp set and dies. The stamp set – Peaceful Moments has 10 sentiment stamps and Poppy Moments Dies has 16 dies – great value for NZD$109.75.

Peaceful Moments Bundle

I’ve also used one of the Scallop Rectangle dies from the new Stitched So Sweetly Dies from page 20 and some images from Painted Poppies on page 26 of the 2020 Mini Catalogue.

I’ve gone with traditional poppy colours for this card – Poppy Parade for the solid part of the flower and Calypso Coral for the overlay. The leaves are Old Olive for the base and Mossy Meadow for the highlight. I die cut the Scallop Rectangle from the middle of the card to expose the base which has been stamped with the outline images from the Painted Poppies stamp set. I made sure I had enough of a frame at the bottom so I could stamp my sentiment from the Peaceful Moments set. This is such a versatile set – the sentiments cover so many occasions. I held on to the scallop cut out – check back soon to see it used on another card.

As the Peaceful Moments stamp set is sentiments only I used the bunch of poppies from the Painted Poppies set and stamped it in Memento Black. I really like the plain outline rather than it being coloured in.

Here’s a closeup of the die cuts plus you can see the background stamping which was done in VersaMark.

I hope you’re enjoying seeing these projects featuring the Peaceful Poppies Suite – there are still more projects to come.

Until next time …

Painted Poppies – Stepped up masking

By | February 6, 2020

Hi there

Yesterday I shared a card using a simple masking technique. Today I have another card where I’ve used the masking technique except this time it’s a bit stepped up as it has multiple layers of masking – get that Post It Note pad handy.

Painted Poppies – Masking Technique

This card was CASED from one of my team members who had CASED it from somebody else – sorry I’m not sure who the original creator was but ‘thank you’ for creating a gorgeous layout.

To start I stamped the images multiple times on Post It Notes and fussy cut them out. Next stamp the flower images to the Shimmery White card front in Memento Black. Place the Post It Note cut outs over top of the stamped flower images and stamp the leaves where you want them. I stamped some leaves then had to add Post It Notes on top before stamping more leaves.

Now the fun begins with the colouring in of the outlines – I used my Stampin’ Blends. The flowers have been coloured in with Light and Dark Pumpkin Pie and the leaves are a mix of Light Granny Apple Green and Old Olive, Light and Dark Old Olive while the stems use Mossy Meadow. The trio of ‘dots’ have been hand done with a Journalling Pen. This has then been matted with Pear Pizzazz before adhering to a Pumpkin Pie card base. Once assembled I added the small pearls.

The flower and bud image have been coloured in using the same colours as the front flowers.

It’s amazing what a change of colour does – what other colours are you using with the Painted Poppies?

Until next time …

Painted Poppies – simple masking

By | February 5, 2020

Hi there

Here’s one of my first creations with the Painted Poppies stamp set. I’ve used a simple masking technique to create the flower on the front and on the inside of the card.

The card base is Poppy Parade with a Basic Black mat. I’ve used Shimmery White to stamp my images on as I wanted to do a bit of colouring using the Blender pens. I have found that if I use ordinary Whisper White cardstock with Blender pens and Aqua Painters you have to be careful with the amount of water as the cardstock soaks up too much water. The Shimmery cardstock is a bit softer in colour than the Whisper White.

I wanted to use the single two step flower for this card and as there isn’t a stem image on it’s own I created a mask and combined three stamps to get my one image. First I stamped the flower outline to the card mat and restamped the same image on a Post-It note to create a mask. Aligning the mask on top of the already stamped image I then inked up the flower/leaf/stem image and stamped on top of the mask. When you remove the mask you have a complete flower, stem, leaf and bud.

The background ‘splotch’ image is stamped in Crumb Cake. The sequins are from the Peaceful Poppies Sequins – there are five colours black, clear, gold, dark and light Poppy Parade. The sentiment is from the Peaceful Moments set and has been die cut using the Ornate Frames dies which carried over from the Holiday Catalogue.

I then coloured the stem in with Mossy Meadow, the leaf with Old Olive and the bud with Poppy Parade. As these were small and narrow lines I used my Blender pen as this gave me more control.

The ribbon that comes as part of this suite is the Whisper White 1/4″ Crinkled Seam Binding. The Shimmery White cardstock has a warm tone to it and I felt white ribbon wasn’t quite right so I dyed some using my Poppy Parade reinker. Once it dried it turned out lighter than I had wanted so next time I’ll add a few more drops of ink into my container. It’s more Flirty Flamingo than Poppy Parade but that’s OK as Flirty Flamingo is one of the colours in this suite.

I repeated the masking technique but this time used the small single poppy and left it all in black. The inside sentiment is also from the Peaceful Moments set – this is a great set and covers all occasions. This was stamped in Poppy Parade.

Well that’s all from me. Until next time …

Painted Poppies Wedding Anniversary Card – in Yellow

By | February 3, 2020

Hi there

Last month Phil and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary and I’m going to share with you the card he gave me. Now we have a rule in our house – no store bought cards are to be given for birthday, Christmas or wedding anniversary. That’s easy for me being a card maker and it’s also very easy for Phil. He has his own personal card maker – and it’s not me.

He calls her his ‘other, other girlfriend’ – and I’m fine with that as she’s my friend and downline :). Who’s his ‘other’ girlfriend you might be asking – well that’s Annabel Langbein – the New Zealand celebrity cook.

Painted Poppies in Yellow

Everybody knows that my favourite colour is yellow and I just love how three shades of yellow have been incorporated in this card. The panel on the left is Crushed Curry then we have Daffodil Delight in the middle and So Saffron on the right. The flower image from the new Painted Poppies set has been heat embossed with white embossing powder. I’m loving all the elements in the Painted Poppies suite – they coordinate so well together.

The card base is Very Vanilla and the front has been dry embossed with the Stone 3D embossing folder from page 15 of the Sale-A-Bration brochure.

I can’t show you the inside but the sentiment stamp is perfect – “The best moments in my life happen with you” which is from the Daisy Lane stamp set (page 23 of the Annual Catalogue). Thank you Phil for a beautiful card and personal words to match this sentiment.

And thank you ‘other, other girlfriend’ – I love my card.

Until next time …

Little Ladybug – Pop Out Swing Card – Team Swap

By | February 1, 2020

Hi there

Yesterday I shared the first card I made for our team swaps using the Sale-A-Bration Lily Pad products. Today’s card uses the cute host set – Little Ladybug. Keep reading to see how you can get your hands on this cute set.

Little Ladybug

So here’s my card – it’s a fancy fold that I’ve called a Pop Out Swing Card.

Little Ladbug – Pop Out Swing Card

This card uses a standard card base and with a few cuts it creates a fancy fold card.

Using the Layering Squares I die cut a square from the front of the card base – put this aside as you use it later. The front was then randomly stamped with the Ladybug images in VersaMark.

The insert is scored at 2″ and 4″ and folded in a ‘mountain’ and ‘valley’ fold. The images have all been coloured in with Stampin’ Blends. As I was making 24 of these I coloured them in batches of 8 using Pineapple Punch, So Saffron and Daffodil Delight for the flower and either Ivory or Petal Pink for the ‘tummy’ of the ladybug. The flowers were also coloured in with 3 different shades – Rich Razzleberry, Highland Heather or Purple Posy. Poppy Parade, Smoky Slate, Soft Suede and Old Olive were used on all of them.

The ‘pull’ out tab is the Circle Tab Punch and has been adhered to the square cut out before the stamped image was attached.

View from the top

If you’d love your own Little Ladybug set you can get this Host Stamp Set FREE when you host a qualifying party or place a personal order totaling $575 NZD or more during our Sale-A-Bration promotion (3 January–31 March 31 2020). These cute little ladybugs are eager to help you spread some love with fun handmade cards for birthdays, thank you, thinking of you, encouragement and more!

As a demonstrator I was able to earn this stamp set in my pre-order back in November after our OnStage event. There are so many wonderful perks for being a demonstrator. If you’ve ever thought of joining Stampin’ Up! (as a Hobby Demo or Business Demo) now is the best time and here’s why – build your Starter Kit by picking NZD$285 worth of product for just NZD$189 PLUS exclusive to Sale-A-Bration period (Jan-Mar) you will receive the Mini Paper Cutter, a 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper sampler plus your choice of a stamp set from a current catalogue (host sets and Sale-A-Bration sets excluded). I’d love to have you join my team and share in the great fun we have.

I’ll be back soon to share some projects using the beautiful Painted Poppies Suite. So until next time …

Lovely Lily Pad Sale-A-Bration Gift – Team Swap

By | January 30, 2020

Hi there

Each time a new catalogue is release I like to participate in our team swaps. What is a swap you ask – a swap is where you make a card using new product from the chosen catalogue and then replicate it multiple times depending on how many sign up for each swap. You then give one of your cards to each member of the group and they give you one of theirs so you end up with multiple different samples. It’s a great way to get ideas and be able to showcase a wider range of products – I can’t buy everything even though sometimes I wish I could 🙂

So last month we had a ‘swap’. I participated in two so I made two different designs. For my first card I used the Sale-A-Bration Lily Pad products – stamp, dies and paper. I had received the Lovely Lily Pad stamp set at our November OnStage event so it only seemed fair to get the coordinating products 🙂

Lovely Lily Pad Sale-A-Bration products

I think I ended up making about 24 of these – 12 of each colour. I did some extras for my own team and some for friends birthdays.

Lovely Lipstick card base
Gorgeous Grape card base

The Lily Impressions DSP has 16 different colours – I’ve picked out Lovely Lipstick, Flirty Flamingo, Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather, Pretty Peacock and Pool Party.

Lovely Lipstick/Flirty Flamingo

The image stamps come from the Lovely Lily Pad set which is one of the FREE Sale-A-Bration gifts you can get when you place an order of NZD$110 between now and 31 March.

This stamp set is a ‘reversible’ set (similar to some we had in the Holiday Catalogue) which means you can stamp using both sides of the stamp.

Gorgeous Grape/Highland Heather

For this design I stamped the outline image and then coloured it in with our Stampin’ Blends. There’s no ‘fussy’ cutting needed for this set as there is a coordinating die set which is also another Sale-A-Bration product. You can receive the dies when you place and order of NZD$220.

The front ‘swing’ panel has been die cut with the largest square from the Stitched Shapes Dies, the swinging ‘arm’ has then been attached behind. To make it look nice from the other side I added a Layering Square die.

The ‘Happy Birthday’ is from the Little Ladybug stamp set which is a FREE stamp set for a hostess or personal order over NZD$575. Be sure to check back soon to see my second swap card which uses the Little Ladybug set.

Until next time …

Welcome to the Team

By | January 27, 2020

Hi there

On top of making birthday cards for all the staff at work I’ve decided to make ‘welcome’ cards for new staff members. We’ve already had a couple of new starts this year and have another 3 starting tomorrow.

When the new catalogue came out last year I spotted the set ‘Welcome to the Team’ stamp set and bought it. It’s been sitting on my shelf uninked but that has all changed. Here are the first cards I created – I look forward to having some fun with this set.

The card mat is Balmy Blue and I’ve used two new dies from the Stitched So Sweetly die set. The larger one is Night of Navy and then the smaller one is Whisper White. I love how these ‘nest’ inside each other. The image was stamped in Memento Black and then the chair was coloured in with our Stampin’ Blends. I’ve used Granny Apple Green for the seat, Basic Black for the arms and then Smoky Slate for everything else.

I love this caption and I hope it makes our new staff members feel right at home. I then write a personalised message to each new employee welcoming them to the team.

Here are the other colour combos I made. I’ll have to get cracking and make another batch as we have more staff starting in a couple of months.

Granny Apple Green stitched mat, Night of Navy chair
Granny Apple Green stitched mat, Dark Poppy Parade chair
Crushed Curry stitched mat, Light Poppy Parade chair
Pineapple Punch mat, Rich Razzleberry stitched mat, Dark Poppy Parade chair
Flirty Flamingo mat, Soft Suede stitched mat, Merry Merlot chair

When I got to creating the colour combo for the above card I realised we don’t have a Merry Merlot Stampin’ Blend so I used the Stampin’ Write Marker instead 🙂

Well I’d better head off to bed as tomorrow will be a busy one in the office. Until next time …

A Good Man – Happy Birthday

By | January 26, 2020

Hi there

It’s another beautiful summers day here in Auckland – perfect for a long weekend.

Today’s project is the last of the work January birthday cards. I found two prestamped images from the A Good Man set on my desk so I’ve used them to create these cards.

I’ve used this image so many times for masculine cards and as it’s a line art image the final result is always different. For these cards I’ve used our Stampin’ Blends – I love the sharpness of colour they give.

First up we have the Granny Apple Green combo. I’ve paired this with blue tones – Balmy Blue for his shorts and Night of Navy for the chair. His hat is a combination of light and dark Soft Suede and his skin is Ivory. I’ve gone over this a couple of times to give him a ‘tanned’ look. Today he’s at the park so sitting on some Old Olive grass 🙂 The sentiment on the side is from Itty Bitty Birthdays and on the inside it has ‘Happy Birthday’ also from Itty Bitty Birthdays.

For this guy he’s at the beach sitting on Crumb Cake sand – I hope he remembers to keep and eye on the kids in the water! You all know that yellow is my favourite colour so I’ve chosen Mango Melody for his shirt and paired it with Granny Apple Green shorts and a Poppy Parade chair. When I lived in England I can remember seeing chairs like these in Green Park. His hat is a mix of light and dark Night of Navy.

I’ve also used a mix of Layering Squares – plain and scalloped to frame my image. The Basic Black works so well with both the Granny Apple Green and Mango Melody.

Until next time …