Sneak Peek Week - Day 6!

I know I would normally be posting something for the CAS Colours and Sketches blog this week but I had a Stampin' Up! Party last night - the ladies had a fabulous time as usual - but my craft room is upside down so no crafting for me until I've sorted it out.

When I did my pre-order for the new catalogue I not only bought new product to be released - I also treated myself to a sentiment set as Curly Cute is retiring.

I bought - Sassy Salutations and I think it looks gorgeous on this card using Mosaic Madness and the new In-Colour - Pistachio Pudding.

I haven't embossed either of my first two cards today - as I know lots of people don't have a Big Shot. I couldn't live without mine - it is the best investment I ever made and I use it constantly. Remember if you hold a party and your guests spend £250 to £300 your Big Shot is half price with your hostess credits! Something worth thinking about! Give me a call if you would like to hold a party!

So back to today's cards...

On this one I have used ALL the new In-Colours - they are so scrummy looking. I could almost eat them!

The banner and sentiment are from the Itty Bitty Banner set, the co-ordinating Framelit was used to cut it out. Although you need a Big Shot for the Framelit - you could cut the banner by hand.

Finally this card is a testament to Strawberry Slush... the new In-Colour again!

I coloured white Bakers Twine using the Ink Pad... Embossed the mat with the Mosaic embossing folder, and punched out the stamped images from the Mosaic Madness stamp set using the Mosaic punch. It also has a sentiment from Label Love punched with the corresponding Artisan Label punch.

I hope I have given you lots of inspiration today and I'll be back tomorrow with the last of my Sneak Peek Week samples.

Pxxx

CAS Colours and Sketches Thursday.

I hope I remembered correctly the theme for today - Unfortunately due to home commitments I had to pull out of the Design Team - But I love to support the ladies who put so much effort and hard work into running the challenges. It is a big commitment! Visit CAS Colours and Sketches Blog - HERE

So here is today's card - The only retiring item on here is the Curly Cute stamp set - it's immensely popular and one I shall probably keep hold of as I love it so much!

The leaves are from Stippled Blossoms and the flowers from Secret Garden... I coloured them using a Blender Pen - I love how subtle and elegant they look! And they were cut out using the corresponding Framelits.

Well hopefully as you read this I 'should' be enjoying the sunshine in Tuscany... If not it's wet and miserable and I wish I was crafting!

Take care and I'll be back soon with another post!

Paula xxx

Less is More Challenge

Well I'm still flying high after the regional training. I've been trying out all the techniques we learned and playing with my new stamp set...gutted I can't show it to you yet!

I thought I would get back into the challenges this week. so this card is for the Less is More challenge. This week it's a single layer card using a coloured card blank.

I love purple and pink, so I chose Perfect Plum for my base and Melon Mambo embossing powder as embossing gives better colour on coloured card.

I used Just Believe and Curly Cute stamp sets and scored the card using my Simply Scored to give it more dimension.

I had it in my head I could sponge a shadow to add depth... I'm in two minds whether it worked - what do you think? Do leave a comment and let me know... I cut an aperture in scrap card using my Ovals Framelits, positioned it on my card blank using a couple of sticky notes. I sponged with Perfect Plum - then stamped the image with Versamark. Before adding embossing powder I removed the scrap card so I wouldn't get embossing powder trapped in the cut out.

Why not join in yourself? Just click here to visit the Simply Less is More Blog.

Pxxx

Promises Kept...

Well I'm typing this on Saturday as I will be out on Sunday - Taking my amazing Grandmother out for a meal for her 90th birthday! Bless her. I hope she's still with us for a few years!

Here is the other Stepper card I promised... hopefully yesterdays news has sunk in! This card is made with one of the retiring colours. Bravo Burgundy.

The stamp sets are Curly Cute and Flowering Flourishes and those cute little flowers are made with the Floral Fusion Sizzlits.

I decided to keep it simple and just heat emboss the Flowering Flourishes with clear embossing powder... I just love the way they turned out!

Hopefully you are enjoying the weekend and thinking about all the purchases you need to make! Remember - wherever you are I can take your order and Stampin' Up! will deliver direct for just £4.95.

Why not get in touch and book a party... we'll make one of these fabulous cards!

Pxxx

Something Simple

Yesterday I made a really simple card using one of my Stampin' Wheel Stamps.

I used Lucky Limeade to ink my Bella Boutique wheel, ran it along one side of my card, I cut a single flower from the Flower Trim available from the Stampin' Up! Spring/Summer mini catalogue. I dabbed the flower on my Calypso Coral stamp pad and used one of the Curly Cute sentiments.

The tiny leaves were made by punching a circle from card stock, sticking it on a Post-It note and re-punching to create the ovals.

A really quick and simple card, I hope you like it!

Don't forget tomorrow is the day for the new challenge on CAS Colours and Sketches so I hope you'll join us this week!

Paula xxx

Weekend eve...

... nearly the end of the week! Agility was great last night. Blaze is the sweetest and quietest dog but as soon as he sees the equipment he starts shouting at me. I shouldn't encourage him but it does make me laugh! Tomorrow I am off to Didcot for a training day and then a party in the evening! Sunday I'll be cleaning the house! Yeugh.

You know we hardly use our green food waste recycling bin for veggies - the dogs do that for us! Even the outer cabbage and cauliflower leaves are guzzled down! Anyone would think we starved them. Mind you - they are the only 'tit bits' the dogs get. You don't have to feed expensive diets and not feeding RAW doesn't make you a bad owner. All you need to do is make sure the diet is balanced and that treats are not fattening or excessive! Just like humans - the worst way of ensuring your dog is unhealthy and doesn't have a long life is by letting them get fat!

Anyhow - back to the crafting, and today I have a card to enter in the Paper Players Challenge. 

The flower is from Creative Elements and the butterflies are from Papillon Potpourri. To meet the challenge I had to use all four colours which I find is a lot of colours for one card! The little leaves were Lucky Limeade and to incorporate Early Expresso I just accented the stamps using my Stampin' Write Marker. I was going to lave the sentiment off - but it just didn't look right. The card definitely needed it!

If you want to join in or look at the other entries you can visit the blog by clicking the image below.

See ya tomorrow for another card using my Blender Pens...

Pxxx

On Strike! Embossing Vellum.

Today I am going on strike! Well kind of, I still need to walk the dogs and clean out the various reptiles and furries, but apart from that I'm not going anywhere or doing anything.

In fact once I've posted this I'm sneaking back to bed! Shhhhhh, don't tell anyone! But I deserve a day off!

Today's card is an entry for the Fab Friday challenge #13 and is a Sketch challenge, So I got to choose the colours myself! Certainly Celery and Rich Razzleberry!

I have two techniques for embossing Vellum on this card, the first, is where I have run a strip of Vellum through the Big Shot in the Vine Street Embossing Folder, something I call 'Dry' embossing.

The second, shown up here is where you stamp an image, in this case a Mixed Bunch image, punched out using the Blossom Punch, that I then 'hand' embossed using my Scoring Tool. I just chose selected parts of the image and with the flower on my piercing mat I carefully 'scored' them. Not only does it add the 'white' to the flower but it causes it to curl slightly. What do you think?

Visit the challenge page here, why not join in yourself? It's a fabulous sketch!

Here is another card using the same technique, This time I used Island Indigo and Pool Party, the flourish from Creative Elements, Curly Cute Sentiment and Pool Party 'heat' embossing on the sentiment.

I may be back tomorrow... or I may still be sleeping! Have a great weekend!

Pxx

Less is More Colour Challenge

Blimey - what a week almost every challenge I have made a card for this week is a colour challenge! Today's was slightly tricky as Stampin' Up! seem to be missing a couple of the colours. I had to root around in some old and abandoned card stock to meet the challenge.

Not much Stamping on this one! But I do love it!

I used my 1" Square Punch, Bitty Butterfly Punch, Curly Cute Stamp Set and some Clear Embossing Powder for the sentiment. A quick and simple card. I'm thinking of using this as the project for my next party - book yourself if you would like to! Though obviously we would use all Stampin' Up! products.

Have a look at some of the other entries at Less is More.

Here was the colour combo... Food - typical! People keep pinning food on Pinterest and my figure is definitely suffering already!

See you tomorrow! xxx

CAS Challenge #11

Today hubby finally had his MRI scan so we should soon know what is causing him so much pain. Hopefully the doctors will be able to put him right and our world will return to normal.

In the meantime I am sleeping in my craft room so I am having to tidy it up every night. Not necessarily a bad thing as I struggle to focus among chaos! That'll be my ADHD.

Anyway, today I am entering another challenge, this time from Colours and Sketches.

This was the colour scheme:

I worry sometimes that my creations are very plain when I see some of the intricate cards other people have made. I do like simple designs.

 

The base is Crumb Cake as is the Seam Binding behind the butterflies with a mat of Very Vanilla.

The butterflies, from Papillon Potpourri are stamped in Perfect Plum on Very Vanilla cardstock and the edges sponged with Perfect Plum using a sponge dauber. The sentiment is also Perfect Plum using the Curly Cute stamp set.

I used a 1" punch to cut the squares and my trusty Stamp-a-majig to get the sentiment straight.

I hope you like it! As always I love your comments!

Paula xxx

Joyous Celebrations with Stampin' Up!

I know, not even October yet and Christmas is creeping into our lives. Or in the case of the Stampin' Up! Autumn Winter catalogue it is bringing Christmas to us with a resounding thud!

So many fantastic new seasonal products, harvest, halloween and christmas all in a fantastic 40 pages of gorgeous crafting goodies.

So as soon as my first order from the catalogue arrived I started making Christmas cards. Unfortunately I have been poorly... #stinkingrottencold so have been tucked up in bed feeling miserable and aching to get crafting.

Well here's one I prepared earlier!

Stampin' Up! rubber stamps are available in clear and wood mounted so you have the flexibility to stamp the way you like. In this case I chose clear mounted stamps to use with my set of Stampin Up clear blocks.

The Real Red mat was embossed using the Adorning Accents embossing folder from the Spring Mini - (Shhh but it will be available again in the new catalogue!) I stamped the tree and the reindeer on Whisper White, then punched them out using the Decorative Label punch, then sponged on the corresponding Chocolate Chip and Garden Green to "Distress" them. The December 25th was stamped again on Whisper White but instead of distressing it I used the 2-way glue pen, that enabled me to be more accurate when applying the adhesive, and added a bit of 'Bling' with Stampin' Glitter, Dazzling Diamonds.

The ribbon is the retiring Old Olive satin ribbon. I shall be sad to see the ribbon stock go but there are lots of new ribbons coming!

This final card for today uses the co-ordinating Merry Minis rubber stamp set and the punch set! How cute! I can never resist stamp sets or punches when they go together! Stampin' Up! always seem to create new products that are irrisistable! I used the 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" square punches to make the square mats, mounted them on a strip of patterned paper from the new Festival of Prints set and then punched the borders from co-ordinating Garden Green card stock. The sentiment is from Curly Cute and the end product is mounted on Cherry Cobbler card stock.

If you are interested in buying Stampin' Up! products please get in touch. As an Independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator I can help you wherever in the country you are and goods can be delivered direct to your door. Current Stampin' Up! products are only available through an Independent Demonstrator like myself.

I would love to hear what you think of my cards and especially if there are any products you would like to see showcased here on my Blog.

Please get in touch or leave a comment.

Thank you!

Paula xx

Marina Misting.

To make this card I started with a Whisper White card, I then used the Labels Collection Framelit and cut out a piece of card to use the aperture to sponge Marina Mist ink. I then cut a smaller Marina Mist label to mat on top so the sponged ink formed a frame. I inked the flower from the Love and Sympathy stamp set using my Stampin Write markers in Marina Mist and Wild Wasabi. I used the Big Shot again to cut out the stamped image with another smaller framelit. Having stuck everything together I used my Stamp a Majig to ensure I lined up the sentiment, which was from the Curly Cute set again in Marina Mist. It was a simple and quick card and I love the effect created by the sponging.

If you want to order any of these supplies please contact me.