I'm devouring the new catalogue

No new creations today. I've spent the day drooling over the new catalogue. While the 2015-2016 Annual Catalogue will not be available to the general public online until June 2, demonstrators got a sneak peek at it today. I downloaded it to my iPad as soon as I could and I have been spending every minute I could pouring over it.

I have a ritual I go through when a new catalogue comes out. I go through the catalogue one page at a time, recording the contents in a note book under pages for different categories - photopolymer stamps, clear stamps, bundles, etc. I know, it's weird, but it helps me to get a better handle on what's in the catalogue. I haven't managed to make my way through the whole catalogue yet but I'm getting there. Here's a sneak peek of what I've been doing.

That's my iPad with part of the catalogue front showing and my note book showing part of my list of clear stamp sets. I record what each set co-ordinates with too so I can get a better handle on what goes together.

I can't wait to be able to share more with you! But guidelines say that's as much as I can share yet. Stay tuned for more.

If you'd like to get your own copy of the new catalogue when it becomes available, drop me a line before May 7 and I'll tell you how you can get one delivered to your door.

A little addition

The above card is is a slightly upgraded card of the below card.

Can you spot the difference? (aside from the obvious colour difference, of course)

I added some little Pearl Basic Jewels Embellishments to the yellow card to give it a little extra punch. What do you think?

I may do more of these, with and without the pearls, in different colours and with different sentiments. They are so fast and easy to do!

If I get six people interested, I'll even do a class. Let me know if you're interested.

To learn more about the inspiration for this card check out my I Simply Love a Simple Card post.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Flowing flowers on a simple card

While browsing pinterest recently, a card from Lin's Another 1-Layer Card post caught my eye and I scooped out my stamps for similar stamps that I could use to create a card like it. I love how simple this card is to make.

First I masked off a strip across the card around the middle. Then I used one of the stamps from the Mother's Love stamp set and used some of the colours from the Brights Colour Collection (Bermuda Bay, Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo, and Pumpkin Pie). After that I inked up just a small part of another one of the stamps in the set with Old Olive and stamped here and there to give the idea of leaves scattered through the flowers. When I removed the mask, I stamped one flower part way in the stamped area and part way in the previous masked area. The greeting was stamped, using Memento, with a stamp from the All Shook Up Paper Pumpkin kit.

Mother's Love stamp set

All Shook Up stamp set

If you are interested in learning how to make a similar card, let me know. I'd love to teach you how to do it.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Simple, One Colour Card

This card was inspired by a card on Heather Telford's Berry Branch - Spring & Summer blog post. I loved how she did four season cards with the one stamp and went in search of my stamps to see if I had a similar stamp that I could use. The closest thing I had was a stamp in the Beauty of the Season stamp set, which sadly is no longer available for purchase. Here's a peek of the stamps in the set anyway

I really love this set. It was in the Christmas catalogue 2014. I used the little twig stamp on the upper left hand side on this card. This is the only card I've made yet but I may attempt to make one for each season eventually.

I stamped parts of the branch on the left hand side of the card in both Pistachio Pudding and Old Olive. Then I masked off part of the card and sponged it with Pistachio Pudding. I didn't sponge a wide enough section to please me at first so decided to sponge it a little wider, but I was left with two distinct lines on one side. Then I decided to just sponge another distinct line on the other side, and I was pleased with how it turned out in the end.

The greeting was stamped in Old Olive using a stamp from the All Shook Up Paper pumpkin kit. 

I think this is a great card for a guy so I'm submitting it in the Make it Masculine Clean and Simple Challenge at Splitcoaststampers

I Simply Love a Simple Card!

This card was inspired by the beautiful, but simple, cards on Jennifer Talley's Meet the New In Colors blog post. I loved the cards in that post and had to C.A.S.E. them. I searched through my stamps for ones similar to the ones she used.

The card above is stamped with Rich Razzleberry using stamps from Butterfly Basics and Nature's Perfection (a stamp set that is no longer available). The butterfly was cut using the Big Shot and one of the Butterfly Thinlits Dies. While I used the Big Shot and die to cut out the butterfly, it could very easily be cut out with just scissors.

This card was stamped with Tempting Turquiose using stamps from Butterfly Basics and Thoughts & Prayers stamp sets, both of which are still available for purchase.

These are two of my favourite stamp sets at the moment. They are so versatile. With these two stamp sets you have stamps to cover birthdays, get well soon, sympathy, general thinking of you, and general wishes. And the images with them are beautiful. They have greetings that can be used both outside and inside the card. With white card stock, one ink colour, and either of these stamp sets you can make a lot of great cards. 

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

My Stamping Buddy bails me out on a busy day

This beautiful card was created by my Stampin' Buddy when she was over to my place stampin' recently. It was inspired by Kylie Bertucci's card in her Natures Perfection Stamp Set - Saleabration post. 

The card base was made with Basic Black card stock. the images are stamped on a piece of whisper white cardstock that is matted on a piece of blue/green cardstock, but I can't remember the exact colour she used.

The stamps used are from the Nature's Perfection stamp set, a Sale-a-bration item that is no longer available for purchase. Sadly, I don't remember what colours she used for the stamping or colouring, but I do remember that she used a blender pen to do the colouring on the big flower.

The greeting, one of the stamps from the Simply Wonderful stamp set (another Sale-a-bration item no longer available for purchase), was stamped with VersaMark and then sprinkled with White Emboss Powder and heated with the Heat Tool.

I love this card and think I'm going to have to make one myself when life slows down again. This is a crazy weekend for us as it's show time for Anna. The past month has been full of rehearsals for Happily Ever After and I finally get to see her play her parts (one of the wicked step sisters, and one of the witch children) tonight! I can't wait!

Spring is in the air - time for pinwheels!

The Wednesday Tutorial at SplitcoastStampers this week was the Pinwheel Fun Fold Tutorial. When I saw it, I thought Anna might enjoy making it, so she and I tried it out today when we finished our school work. 

The picture above is the one I made. Here's what it looks like opened up - 

Here's the one Anna made - 

And here's her's opened up - 

If you look close you can see that her pinwheel is thicker than mine. That's because we made them a little different. I wanted to get a picture of the two of them together to clearly show the different but Anna took off to give her's away as soon as she got it finished.  :-)

In the tutorial, they use the Simply Scored tool and the Simply Scored Diagonal Scoring Plate to make the pinwheel card. I don't have either of those, though I wish I did, so I had to improvise.

First I decided we should try it using the Stampin' Trimmer and the Envelope Punch Board. That's what we used for Anna's card.

It made the pinwheel a little thicker and the center inside a little smaller, but it worked fine.

I just used the Stampin' Trimmer for mine. To make the diagonal score lines I just placed the corners of my paper at the 2 1/8 mark.

The worse thing about a funfold card like this is you have to give the person you give it to instructions on how to open it and how to close it again, so you kind of need to give it to someone in person, or else send written instructions with the card. They are fun though, and the pinwheel seems perfect for this time of year, when Spring is in the air.

Both the paper and the stamp set we used were products from this year's Sale-a-Bration and, unfortunately are no longer available for purchase, but any double sided paper and stamp set would work.

April 2015 Paper Pumpkin Has Arrived!

It's a little late this month but it has finally arrived, and it was worth the wait. Anna looks forward to opening it up to discover what is inside.




Here are some pictures for a closer look at the contents -

12 stamps in the stamp set

2 ink spots

And everything you need to make and decorate eight little note cards and envelope/boxes - twine, dimensionals, glue dots, etc.

Anna set right to work right away!



We forgot to open one of the ink spots so we had to stop taping after she finished putting the envelope together to open that before she could continue on with making the card.



Anna likes to put her own little spin on the projects, rather than exaactly following the included instructions. I love that.

Here she is showing the completed project -

Here's a closer look at the card she completed in the video.

And here's the card in the envelope/box.

She decided that this kit was great for making cards for her friends too, so she set to work and made one for one of her friends right away.

She's going to have great time with this set!

If you'd like to know more about Paper Pumpkin kits, I'd love to talk to you about them. We look forward to the arrival of ours every month.

Watercolour Ways to Use It Challenge: Part Two - Embossing Folder Stamping

The Ways To Use It challenge this past Thursday at SplitcoastStampers was to use a watercoloured background and the challenge contained links to a number of different technique tutorials and I just had to try a couple.Yesterday's post is about my attempt to try one of these tutorials. Today's post is about another one.

The Embossing Folder Stamping Watercolour Technique is so easy, and fun! I used the Lovely Lace embossing folder and using my Stamping Sponges I sponged on some Wild Wasabi, Real Red, Tangelo Twist, and Hello Honey.

When the colours were all on, I misted it with water using the Stampin' Spritzer.

 

Then I pressed the cardstock down onto the embossing folder.

And Voila! this is how it turned out - 

I left it to dry before moving it, but looking back now I think I probably should have soaked up the excess water with a paper towel because it pooled in a couple of places and looked a little wonky, but I managed to cover that with the design of the card when I put it together.

Using my Big Shot and one of the Butterfly Thinlits I cut a butterfly out of Wild Wasabi cardstock. I stamped the greeting with Wild Wasabi using one of the stamps in the Butterfly Basics stamp set and I also sponged the edges of the watercolour paper with Wild Wasabi. I adhered the finished piece to a Hello Honey card base.

Watercolour Ways to Use It Challenge: Part One - Embossing Resist

The Ways To Use It challenge this past Thursday at SplitcoastStampers was to use a watercoloured background and the challenge contained links to a number of different technique tutorials and I just had to try a couple. Today's post is about my attempt to try one of these tutorials. Tomorrow 's post will be about another one.

One of the tutorials was the Watercolour Embossing Resist tutorial.  The card above was made using that technique. It involved stamping an image on watercolour paper with versamark, sprinkling it with white embossing powder, heat embossing it using the heat tool, and then colouring it with markers and water and a paint brush.

I decided to mat the finished piece with Wild Wasabi, and I wanted to give it a framed look, so I cut a 4 x 5 1/4 piece of Wild Wasabi and then cut the middle out of it and adhered the watercolour paper on the back of it before adhering it to a whisper white cardbase.

I used stamps from the Butterfly Basics stamp set. This set is so versatile that I can't imagine anyone not wanting it. It is so much fun to play with.

Earn some Sheer Perfection Vellum - and a sneak peak at some things I'm working on for next week

This simple card is made with a piece of the Sheer Perfection Vellum, which was one of the Sale-A-Bration items and unfortunately is no longer available. This is actually the first time I used any of mine so I have lots left if you want to come play with it.  :-) The pack contains all these different sheets of printed vellum.  Read to the bottom of this post to see how you can get some of this paper to play with.

I simply coloured the back of the vellum sheet with a Stampin' Write Marker and adhered it to white cardstock and then matted it onto a piece of Strawberry Slush. I adhered the matted piece on the cardbase and stamped the greeting and little flower from the Simple Wonderful stamp set (another Sale-a-Bration item and therefore no longer available for purchase, but you are welcome to come play with mine). It contains all these neat stamps.

Here's a sneak peak of a couple of watercolour pieces that I had fun creating today. I am hoping to incorporate these into cards soon and feature them on my blog next week.

Back to the Sheer Perfection Vellum. Here's a chance for you to get some pieces of the Sheer Perfection Vellum to play with. Simply leave a comment on this blog post and/or share a link to my blog. You will also have to send me your mailing address using the contact form for asking questions on the right hand side of my blog so that I can mail your Sheer Perfection Vellum pieces to you. This offer is open until my stock of Sheer Perfection Vellum is deplete.

The Butterflies Have Landed!

Well, butterflies won't be arriving here in Newfoundland any time soon, but the Butterfly Thinlits have arrived at Stampin' Up! headquarters and are available for purchase again. You don't want to miss the chance to get them, and right now you can even get them at a discount!

Take advantage of two special offers through April 30: 

1. Get the Butterflies Thinlits at a 15 percent discount--just $26.30!
2. Buy any of the Butterflies Thinlits Bundles at a 15 percent discount and choose one of three FREE Sale-A-Bration items (only available while supplies last)!
   
   • Best Year Ever Designer Series Paper (item 138633)
   • Best Year Ever Accessory Pack (item 138634)
   • Irresistibly Yours Specialty Designer Series Paper (item 138635)

These are my favourite thinlits right now. I love using them. Here are some cards I've made with them -

The set consists of three thinlit dies. Here's a picture of them, alongside of samples I cut using them.

The Butterfly Thinlits are great to use on their own but they also coordinate with the Butterfly Basics stamp set. You can purchase a Butterfly Basics Photopolymer Bundle for $51.75.

If you decide to order them, don't forget to check out Jac's Stampin' Points to see how you can earn points towards free merchandise.