Little Trees

A quick post because I should be asleep!

The stamped and sponged layer is raised on dimensionals but this doesn't show in the photograph.

I sponged the edges with White Craft ink and stamped the snowflakes from the Confetti stamp set. The card base is Crumb Cake and the trees are made from the Regals DSP Stack in Cherry Cobbler. A rhinestone tops each tree and there is glitter on the centre of some snowflakes.

The trees would look good in any colour ...... and I have the Holly Berry DSP paper on the way so I can't wait to try that.

Atissue!

Well a tissue box or three!

The first is using one of my favourite colour combo's, Baja Breeze and Crumb Cake. The tissue's have starfish and shells on them, hence the sort of  'sea' theme. I stamped the twill tape in Baja Breeze, with the SEA bit from Season's Greetings, one of the stamps in the Curly Cute set of sentiments. I also so used the splat from French Foliage in Crumb Cake. I used the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder and the Eyelet border punch. The shell stamps are not SU.

 

 This one is Crumb Cake and Pear Pizzaz. I used the En Francais background stamp and the Simply Soft stamp set, which is one of the sets available with hostess pounds. The pink is Blushing Bride stamped twice. I used the new Chantilly Crochet Trim, which is gorgeous and I think it goes very well with En Francais.

  The third is using Wild Wasabi and the corresponding paper from the Subtles DSP stack. The Flower Daisy #2 die makes fantastic flowers and always get a WOW! I covered the centres with Flowers Soft (I was bought it as a pressie and not used it up till now). You could use the distressing tool on Daffodil Delight paper and stick the 'fluff' you get on the centres.  As usual my photography skills are somewhat lacking and the sentiments are blurred. One is from Faith in Nature and the other from Precious Butterflies, both new hostess sets.

So if you host a party you can buy one or more of these Hostess sets with your Hostess pounds. See the table below.

I have been getting ready for my first workshop, so back soon with hopefully some positive news.  I wasn't even going to do workshops!!!!  Luckily Zoe my Team Leader is coming to help and lend moral support, which is very kind of her as she is quite a drive from me. A link to her blog Stamping Scene is on my side bar, pop in and have a look.

Woooooo Hoooooo

It's the 1st October!!!

That means that the new Stampin' Up! catalogue is now available!

That means that we can order from the new items and breathe a sigh of relief that some of the older items are still there!

That means you can browse online by clicking the image on the left sidebar!

That means there are a set of new In Colours!


That means I'll be eating beans on toast for the next few months :)

Butterflies

  I will be so sad to see the Strength and Hope set disappear at the end of September. All the elements are beautiful, but I especially love the gorgeous butterfly, it is so delicate and finely detailed.  You can still order this set up until the 30th September and remember it is for a good cause. Find it in the mini catalogue on the left sidebar.
I used the rock and roll technique on this card with Baja Breeze and Soft Suede Ink. The sentiment frame and sentiment are from Just Believe. The ribbon is Baja Breeze seam binding which is so soft and easy to work with. I wet it and scrunched it up for a different look.

The butterfly garland is much prettier in real life as the glittering does not show on the photograph. I saw one in a shop at an horrendous price so I made my own.

A Departure From the Norm

 When I made these cards I decided to use colours of ink and cardstock that I wouldn't normally have as a first choice, or put together. They are Pear Pizzazz, Peach Parfait, Poppy Parade and Concord Crush from the 2010/2011 In Colours. I missed out Blushing Bride which is the fifth In Colour, a pale pink.

I'm more of a blue/neutral kind of person so this was a bit of an adventure!!

I used the Greenhouse Garden stamp set plus a leaf and the splat from French Foliage (if you're reading this Zoe, you want it!!!), to stamp a background sheet on Whisper White. The sentiment on the first card is from Wedding Sweet, the others from Just Believe.

If you think that any white cardstock will do, think again. Stampin' Up!'s Whisper White is amazing. Any stamping you do on it looks as though it is printed on the card, it takes the ink that well. Quite a few of my friends have been fooled by this and were convinced it was a printed paper. So invest in some today, you won't be disappointed.

I've ordered the Colour Coach so look out for more daring (well for me anyway) combinations.

Wedding Day

 I was asked to make some wedding cards for a friend and her daughter who were going to the same wedding, and another one for the daughter going to a different wedding the following week. The colour scheme for both was white and coffee. I used crumb cake card but didn't have crumb cake ink so used Soft Suede stamped off a couple of times. The colours appear darker in the photo's than they were on the actual cards.

What I Like

Now I have had my kit for a fortnight and had a good play with all of the goodies (and placed another order!!!), here are some things I really like about Stampin' Up.

First the Stampin' Scrub. Gone are the days of endless baby wipes, or an old damp flannel on an ice cream box lid! In comes the oh, so neat, and compact, Stampin' Scrub. Millions of fine fibres clean your stamp on one side and dry it on the other. Spray the 'wet' side with Stampin' Mist Stamp Cleaner and you're good to go. A bonus is the pleasant smell which my daughter thought was perfume!

My Fiskars cutter which measures in eighth's and sixteenth's! My old cutter only did quarters and so this had saved me loads of fiddling and measuring. I forgot to order the refill cutter and scorer blade but this is no biggie as I can score on it with a bone folder.

The SU card stock is such good quality, it creases beautifully - not like cheap cardstock that can crack when you score and fold it. It comes in such gorgeous colours, you are never stuck for choice and by using the Colour Coach you can pick perfect colour combo's with ease.

The Designer Series Paper is beautiful and I love the way that the colours used in the designs are written in the description so that you can co-ordinate with the cardstock. A bit of a misnomer to call it paper as it is certainly not flimsy. It is more like thin card.

In fact the genius of SU is the co-ordination throughout their range, the card, inks, ribbon, brads, marker pens, water colour pencils and crayons, paper stacks etc etc ALL CO-ORDINATE!!!  No more starting a project and not having the right colour ink or ribbon. The hard work is all done for you!
Well maybe not all the hard work. You do have to decide what to buy! Which with so much craft candy in the catalogues can prove to be a little frustrating.

You will want it all, and you will want it now!

More Results

 These two are made with items from my kit apart from the red ribbon and the brad which are from my stash, and the sentiment which is from another SU set. Both cards have a background made from the Soft Holly wheel and a Versamark ink pad, this shows up more on the Joy card, I love the Broadsheet Alphabet used on the tiles.

 

 Three mini handbags using Elegant Soiree DSP and the In Colour DSP stack.

 Post-It note holders made from In Colour card and DSP paper, with the circle stamp from Just Believe.

 A small covered notebook and mini bag.

 

A box using the balloon stamp from Crazy for cupcakes. Another mini carrier bag, with monogram from the Broadsheet Alphabet and using two of Stampin' Ups fabulous punches that are so easy to use.

Strength and Hope! I love this set, each stamp is so beautiful and useful. I made this pillow box for a friend who now wants to order the stamp set. I love this colour combo of Soft Suede and Baja Breeze.

On the left a different style of Post It note holder and on the right a small gift box made with Crumb Cake card.

Well that's all for this set of photo's. I will try and get better as I go along but the natural light wasn't very good yesterday and using a flash was too much and bleached the colours.
The blog is a bit of a learning curve also but I have managed to add a link to Zoe's blog, so I must be doing something right :)

Results

Hmmmmm I think I need to practise my photography skills, but here we go! The cards etc are not all made from the materials in my kit, some items I had already.


 Two from the set Just Believe. The top one was copied form the 2011 Ideas book and catalogue.

A set using French Foliage, which I love. The text and splatter stamp are so useful. I only have the white taffeta ribbon that came with the kit and some Baja Breeze seam binding so I made my own. I cut a strip of soft suede card, wet it, distressed it and dried it, I rather like the effect.

 Greenhouse Garden, again using card for ribbon, this time Pumpkin Pie sewn with the linen thread. I love the notebook edge punch which I bought from Zoe ages ago.

I (heart) Hearts, using the kissing technique that I saw on Zoe's Blog here . I know the text from French Foliage will be backwards but I won't tell if you won't and I like it anyway. I suppose I could have stamped onto a shadow stamp and then onto my card, but I have only just learnt to kiss!!

The card on the left is from a hostess set in the mini catalogue. The one on the right Crazy for Cupcakes with some In Colour DSP and the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder. I coloured the white ribbon from the kit with Blushing Bride ink that I had already.

Play Day

I've had a great time playing with my new Stampin' Up goodies. I had so many ideas of things I wanted to make that I couldn't get them all fitted in. I think I have used a bit of everything that came with the kit, and  I need to reorder card colours already!!!

I mastered my wheel, although I inked straight from the pad and haven't used the cartridge yet. I even managed to get straight lines with my secret weapon ..... the edge of a clear stamp case, which is just the right height :).

I even made use of the brown paper packing to make some flowers using the scallop circle punch!!

I will try and post some pictures tomorrow, so watch this space.