Stampin Blends ESAD BLOG HOP

Welcome to Stamping Joy !
As you hop around the list of Blogs today, you will see lots of different ways to use the new Stampin' Blends.
I've chosen to show you the simplest method of colouring with the blends on Designer Series paper.
This "Just add Colour" patterned paper is perfectly designed for colouring.

I love how One sheet of paper can make 6 cards or more.
I cut the paper into pieces of 10cm x 14.5cm card fronts, and a few 2 cm x 14 cm strips.

The "Just add colour" paper has large and small flowers drawn with wide watercolour-like brushstrokes.
On my first card I mainly used Pool party, Cherry cobbler and Daffodil Delight with Old Olive for the leaves. It really is quick to colour as the pens are dual tipped with a wide brush for large areas and fine tipped ends for detail.

You can use them just like textas or coloured markers except they are so much more. When you add the lighter tone to the dark they blend and give you a smooth graduation from one colour to another. This second card I went a little over the top on the embellishments lol!

Take a look at this gorgeous Rich razzleberry "purpleness" !
I started by colouring in with the light shade, then coloured in the shadows with the darker shade.
I blended them together with the lighter shade and finished off on the centre petals with the colour lifter.

With a few of the 2" strips that I cut out of the "just add colour" page, I made book marks.
Then to add some depth I coloured in the background with the Slate Grey Stampin blend.
I think it makes the colours pop just that little bit more!

Out of one single piece of DSP I have made 3 full card fronts, 3 half panel cards and a book mark.

Thanks for stopping by, now hop on over to the next blog and dont forget to leave some comment love along the way.

Stampin' Up! Conference #onstage2017

How exciting !!!! 3 days on the Gold Coast with friends and a full day conference learning about and experiencing a ton of new products, tools, stamps and ideas with new techniques.

The first thing i have to show you are my swaps that i took to onstage!
Swaps are a tradition in crafting circles, everyone brings a sample of their work to share, with any and everyone else at the beginning of the conference. Its a lovely way to meet people, share what you love and introduce yourself to people you wouldn't normally do.
My swaps this year were stamped samples that I practiced my blend pens on. This one is the magnolia stamp coloured with pink pirouette and two shades of rich razzleberry. The patterned paper is Colour theory paper stack and a strip of dazzling diamond glimmer paper. Love that stuff!
Then I silver embossed the happy birthday on to a stitched shape framelit circle.

Other swaps used the "Just Add Colour" specialty papers with assorted teapots, cups and succulents on them.
Another gorgeous tradition in Stampin' up! circles is pillow gifts!
These are the two types of pillow gift I made for Team Stamping Joy and friends.
This Big Shot framelit makes a mini treat bag that I put a coffee or teabag and mints into.
This gorgeous stampset is. "Season to Sparkle" it makes me want to start swinging from the chandelier... With a christmas cocktail! But more of that later.

Saturday morning arrived with a sprinkle of rain, but that didn't bother us as we were inside sharing and getting inspired by the lovely Sara and Shelli.

This years theme was Love it! Live it! Share it!
We are stronger together - We help each other succeed and we celebrate!
Stampin up! Are constantly evolving their business and their brand which is all about sincerity, fun and the making a difference through friendship and helping others. Stamping up celebrates 30 years in the US next year, so they've got a few years experience at this customer relations thing!

After a few hours of conference presentations, new product spotlights, secret attendee information sharing and free gifts we spent the afternoon making some gorgeous new projects.
Ill be showing those a little bit later, too!
We met up with Central Coast friends ...

These are the swaps and pillow gifts I brought home.
Did I mention we had a great view from our apartment, when it wasn't raining, and of course the sun did come out on the afternoon before we went home.

See you back here soon for more updates ...

Stampin' Up! Blend pens are here!

They're back...
Do we need another option to colour with? Oh Yes, we absolutely do!
We've got pencils, we've got ink, water based markers and now...
the beautiful blend pens!
I am a tad excited because they only arrived today. I've just had a quick chance to try them out and I love them!

They come in bundles of two per colour. So each colour comes in light and dark.
Rich Razzleberry, Old olive, Night of Navy, Daffodil Delight, Pool party and Bermuda bay ... All available both in pairs or individually.
I can't wait to blend some flower images, but what's not to love about a dual tipped alcohol based marker that comes in all these beautiful colours?
There's Cherry Cobbler, crumb cake, smoky slate, Pumpkin pie and Calypso Coral aswell...

This is my first attempt and as you can see this is an easy way to get a smooth blend from dark to light and there's no trick to it, just colour with slightly overlapping strokes and the colours mix beautifully.
Can't wait for you to get your hands on these and tell me what you think.
They're reasonably priced at $7.75 each.
Questions? or are you ready to order? Send me an order through to nerida_carter@hotmail.com
or go to the online store www.stampinup.com and select your demonstrator Nerida from NSW.

Inksomniacs 2017 Holiday Catalogue Bloghop

Welcome to the very first Inksomniacs team blog hop!

Today is the first day that you can order from the new catalogue
and we have a wonderful group of blogs who are just bursting to share what they love
about all the new stamps, patterned papers and accessories with you.
Its always exciting when we celebrate the launch of a new Holiday Catalogue.

I've chosen the stampset on page 19 of the catalogue.
"Beachy Little Christmas" because its an Australian style stampset which means
no snowflakes, no santas, no snowmen and not even any reindeers.
But instead there's : Seashells, a beach house with surfboard, palm trees, and a christmas tree in a bucket, covered in sea shells and seahorses.
When stamped in basic black ink the images can be easily watercoloured.
Maybe 'cause its 3 1/2 months till Chistmas, or the beach themed images, but i decided to use colours that are not at all traditional ...
Night of Navy, Soft Sky, Pickaboo peach, Old Olive and Daffodil delight for sand.

My second card uses the tree from Beachy little Christmas and as the words suggest "who needs snowflakes when you have sea shells."
Ive mounted the image onto a mat of Merry Music DSP ( also new in the Holiday catalogue).

Lastly, I want to share a third card using "Ready for Christmas" . It has this gorgeous little Dashund image, a table and plate of biscuits, plus a matching set of framelits to cut everything out with.
Ive kept it simple with just a gold metallic doily and a piece of "Year of cheer" specialty gold patterned paper behind.

Thanks for visting Stamping Joys blog today I hope youve found some inspiration. If you havent received a holiday catalogue please send me a text 0468877125 and i will post or drop one to your door.

Ooh and dont forget to share a little comment love with each of the blogs along the way.

And now its time to hop over to Linda's blog -

Wow card.

Technique Tuesday: Faux wood effect

Who doesn't love a new technique?
I thought so, well it's Tuesday and I discovered this new technique today and just had to share it with you. I found this idea on a youtube vid by Caroline Bennie.

Here's all you need to reproduce the faux wood effect that I have created on my card:

4 classic style inkpads (Sahara Sand, Crumb cake, Soft suede, Early Espresso).
A piece of 10 x 14.4 cm of glossy white cardstock.
That's it! - soooo simple, no tools, no stamps, nothing else.

The first step is to wipe the edge of the sahara sand ink pad across the glossy white cardstock.

And wipe it down again.

Step 3. Open up your crumb cake inkpad and wipe the side of the inkpad in a straight line with a bit of a smoosh, and slight swish. ( technical terms for creating an inexact messy wipe of ink).

Step 4. Open up the Soft Suede inkpad and make another couple of smooshy marks and lines with the edge of the ink pad.

Step 5. Open up the Early Espresso ink pad (you're getting the hang of this now) and make a few lines and wriggles on the glossy paper. Being glossy paper the ink doesn't dry immediately so you can add, swipe and dab ink on, or off until it dries.

Every sample comes out with a different faux wood effect. Some times it looks like peeling bark on a gum tree or sawn wood slabs. Either way its a very cool rustic effect and a great technique to try on the glossy white cardstock from Stampin' Up!

It takes only a few small embellishments to finish off a really effective card.
I've stamped the "Label me pretty" - You're the best - stamp and punched out the cloud shape with the new label punch.
And, have you noticed the new copper ribbon?
It's a tube of copper coloured netting that expands however way you pull it.

Anyway, that's my technique Tuesday today for you!
Tell me what you think?
Enjoy,

Nerida

New catalogue ... New techniques to learn.

Hands up if you've seen the new Stampin' Up! Catalogue?
Every year it gets bigger, better and, well... newer! Where to start?
I have had a few creative weeks preparing cards with my new products and wanting to order more as I see new ideas on pinterest and other sites.
My number 1 Best new product has to be ....
Can you guess? - it comes in a tub, already mixed, its white, you spread it on cards stock, and it dries in less than ten minutes ... It has instant texture and dimension. Its very touchy feely!
It is embossing paste!

My second favourite new product is ... The wood patterned papers, they are so realistic and come in a 6"x6" stack in light ash coloured wood photos to dark black woods and all the pines and whitewashed painted textures in between.

Now, the third is a surprise even to me, I thought I had enough flower punches ... Yes!
But no there is a daisy stamp and matching daisy punch. Seen above you can use it to make gerberas too! Just by stamping and or punching a number of daisies and layering them one on top of the other ... Sigh!

We have new framelits ... Ooh they are beautiful... Garden chairs, autumn leaves, flowers and miniature dimensionals ! So cute! So exactly what we needed.

We have a whole new scrapbooking range called "Memories and More".
They are made up of cards, overlays, stickers and matching stampsets and bigshot thinlets to make beautiful memory albums and ... More!

This set is called Colourful Seasons ...

Summer, Autumn, Spring, Winter ... Cards and images for all year round.

Gorgeous, stunning, new sparkly embellishments and oodles of new patterned papers...
Now if you still dont have a new catalogue and thats most of my customers, I know, they're all in a box here, stop me in the street or send me a message and I will get one into your hands.
Talk soon, next question - when is the launch party ?

On stage Local at Luna park, Sydney

May is almost over, and i finally have time to update my stamping joy blog with the excitement of On Stage local... Well there were a few things I couldn't show you because they are coming out in the new catalogue on 1st of June!!! Yes a new catalogue is going live with hundreds of new products and I just cant wait to order!

I know i am so far behind But hey? it's all about the pictures and the ideas and inspiration!
One of the first things we do at an Onstage event is meet and greet in the foyer of the convention space. Its an opportunity to catch up with familiar faces and meet new demonstrators. We swap a card, a book mark, a sample of our work and share how we made it. Its what we all love to do... Sharing friendship and creativity. This year i made a few cardfronts featuring copper embossing, Bigshot bees, BIG ON birthdays stamps and the succulents papers.

Here are a few of the gorgeous samples I recieved from friends - Aren't they just the cutest samples?

We had the chance to play with new stampsets, papers, colours, embelishments and ribbons.

My favourite is the daisy flower, we saw so many gorgeous things to make with it: Gerberas, bunches in jars, 3D ideas, every coloured daisy youve ever dreamed of...
We received some gorgeus new stamp sets and all convention attendee giveaways!
It would seem that flamingos are on trend again this year.

What a beautiful day spent with friends and sharing what we love .... Well thats enogh for one post, I can share some more after the new catalogue goes live.
See you on the First of June!!!