Just thinking about Papillon Potpourri

 Just thinking is one of the the single stamps in the Seasonal Catalogue which just happens to come to an end on 30 June. It is designed to be used with the Window framelits but as I have done here you can just ink up the words and use them as a feature by themselves.

 I love using this naturals white paper ( it comes in a pack of 40 sheets). It is thicker and a little rougher than whisper white which lends more to the home made feel of this card.
It is a little girly I guess with the butterflies and the delicate lace embossed edge.

Only two weeks left to buy stamps and accessories from the retiring 2013 annual and seasonal catalogues, so give me a call, order through the Stampin' up! online store or email me nerida_carter@hotmail.com to get your goodies before they go!

My Convention swap cards

 

 This year I only made ten cards to swap at Convention. With 700 women who are potential friends to swap with I swapped mostly with people I know. I used a design I'd come up with using my favourite technique at the moment called thumping with markers.

 No two of my cards ever turn out the same especially with the thumping marker technique, I love how the colours flicker on the Swallowtail butterfly stamp.
Then I stepped it up by creating a 3D effect with layering a second butterfly wing on top. Time consuming but worth it! Really love these colours together: Elegant eggplant, Island Indigo and Gumball Green with a touch of Wisteria Wonder.

Here are some of the swap cards I received - I am so pleased to share these with you. I always enjoy the personal touch stampers have when they share how they made their card and what they feel about it.

 Karen Pinkerton - How gorgeous is this red glimmer paper dress contrasting with the black Stippled blossoms? And the scallopped edgelit behind is just a lovely touch.

 Michelle Walker - I love the Everything Eleanor blossoms in Soft Suede against the patterned Poetry paper. And the sentiment is also one of my favourites.

 Vanessa Webb has created a hybrid card using My digital studio - Isnt it professional and effective?

And on the other side is the handmade hand stamped tag with a bottle top embellishment.

I might prefer the handmade side, but if you were making invitations or thank you cards in large numbers the My digital studio is definitely a contender ... I am going to try these out, perhaps for business cards and Thank you cards!

Tanya Mulhall - using Secret Garden and the Curly label punches works so well with the delicate lace design at the bottom, so pretty!

 Michelle Johnstone silver heat embossed her swallowtail and used a Designer builder brad from page 12 of the Season Catalogue. (retires on 30 June!!!)

 Anne Farrar shared this great colour chart showing the different effects you can get with two step stamping the Stipple Rose.

Cheere Robinson - Take a close look the Lattice die cut in Timeless Portrait Fabric. This really looks stunnning against the Pretty in Pink Cardstock. (The fabric and Pretty in Pink are retiring at the end of June).

More to show you tomorrow!

Raspberry Ripple Book marks

 Jess and I had a lovely time on the weekend making cards and playing with the Big shot.
While I busily made some swap cards for Convention (next week) Jess enjoyed herself with any supplies she could find on my table.
These are her book marks for her reading books.
Her favourite colour is Raspberry Ripple and Pretty in Pink goes so well with it.

 The stampset is Hearts a flutter and its matching heart shaped framelits to cut them out makes them a fun set to make bookmarks, cards, anything with.
We added Raspberry Ribbon and Pretty in Pink stitiched ribbons to them.

Simple butterfly - Papillon Potpourri

 See I can do simple cards!
This one is based on texture and just two colours: the Elegant Eggplant and Pool Party colours go very well together don't you think?
My textured cardstock is created with the ever faithful Big shot machine... that I can not do with out.
Behind the butterfly is: Cloudy Day and on the base of the card: Lacy Brocade.

My cute little butterfly is a stamp from "Papillon Potpourri" punched with the Bitty Butterfly punch.
Don't miss those pretty pearls ... I said I have them on everything!
We could make this card at your place - contact me to book your party during May and remember you will receive a FREE Classic INK PAD from me AND $60 extra product when your order reaches $400!!!
Using the $120 worth of free product you could have a Big shot machine for only $50!
Ask me how we can do this for you during May's Hostess special.

Doily dresses

I found this idea on Pinterest yesterday and couldn't wait to try my own doily dress.
You can buy doilies in a pack of 24 from the seasonal catalogue (Autumn mini) for $4.95 it goes wonderfully well with the tea for two designer papers.

Watercolouring my Secret Garden

 It is such a long time since I watercoloured on  a card. Perhaps a year atleast. But it is one of the easiest ways to step up a line art stamp.
I have been featuring the same stampset "Secret Garden" all this week from the seasonal mini catalogue. It makes me happy to stamp, and cut, and stick a few flowers onto a textured card, so why stop at one?

 The centre of the flower is gently painted with Wisteria wonder ink on an aquapainter brush.
While the outside petals are painted with Rich Razzleberry ink. You can vary the depth of the colour depending how much ink is on your brush. And these stamps make it just a simple task of staying "almost" within the lines.

Keeping the purple theme going I have used some spotted Elegant Eggplant ribbon tied around the card.
And some Rich Razzleberry printed paper on the bottom third of the card.
The top third is filled with Honeycomb textured embossing on Naturals white cardstock which is very nice to watercolour on.

The Secret Garden in Wisteria wonder and Pool party

Today I am showing some more Secret Garden card ideas from the Seasonal catalogue - I just love how easy it is to stamp and cut out these flowers. I have scattered them across the card and stuck them down with dimensional adhesive to pop them out from the background.

Another new product on this card is the set of Oval framelits.
I have stamped the pool party oval, textured the Gumball Green oval and stamped the Happy Birthday on another white oval from this set of framelits. Loving these pretty colours together.

Artisan Embellishment Kit Scrap page

 How easy was this scrapbook page to create?
OK, I was inspired by the front page of the Impressions magazine.... for the layout and excited about using some of the gorgeous embellishments from this kit.
Beautiful laces, ribbon, buttons, ceramic flowers, hearts, doilies, tickets, fabric flowers and love heart tags.

 I have hardly even used what is in this kit and have made several cards and a scrapbook page AND there is still heaps more left to use in this kit. It makes lumpy bumpy cards, or you can use the doilies and lace for flatter projects. You could sew the buttons, lace and ribbons to clothes!!!

 My favourite part of this is how it all coordinates with the same clean vintage style and goes with Pool party, primrose petals, crumb cake and very vanilla (as well as white).

I have stamped the Best things in life aren't things (from the Feel Goods stampset) inked with my Stampin' write markers. All our stamping up markers match the cardstock and ribbons so you know that you always have the right blue, green, red or crumb cake to match your papers. 

Another scrap book page completed - Enjoy!

Paper doilies and butterflies

 I know who would have thought Paper doilies would come back into fashion?
But the crafting world is going all vintage and there are many different ways to go vintage.
Grungy, Pretty, old world, shabby chic, monochrome... and colours too.

 On this card I have used a mix of products from the Autumn mini catalogue or Seasonal catalogue (for those northern climes who arent experiencing our beautifully warm Autumn) and some Saleabration products too.
I let the "Sycamore street" Designer series paper set the colour mood for this card.
It has lots of Pool Party ink and sponging (just love this pretty minty blue) and Island indigo to stamp the bicycle (from Feeling sentimental stampset)  and Happy birthday sentiment.
Love these little butterflies? I have punched them from the sycamore street paper (FREE during saleabration) using the Bitty Butterfly punch.
 The doily stands on its own no sponging needed, just layered on the naturals white cardstock.
Makes me think of cups of tea and butterfly cupcakes at my aunties country house in Scone...

Warning: Feeling sentimental stampset and Sycamore street papers are only available during SALE-A-BRATION which ends on 22 March and these FREE with order items won't be available again.
You can place an Order by emailing me at nerida_carter@hotmail.com.

A Whole latte love on your birthday!

 The central image on this card is from the Sale-a-bration set: Patterned Occasions.
A patterned cup with hearts sends a whole latte love for someone's birthday.
How perfect is it when all the colours combine and work beautifully together?

 The Sycamore street patterned paper has Island indigo, Pool party, Summer starfruit and Tangerine tango on this piece.

 Are you liking the window frame framelits? You can turn them this way or that and get a squarish frame or a circular frame.
There are several other images in the "Patterned Occasions" saleabration set.
I particularly like the recover rapidly bandaid, so cute when stamped in More mustard ink.
Butterflies and flowers are from the other saleabration set: Bloomin' Marvellous!

Feeling sentimental in three designs

Last week of the summer holidays here. In between visiting friends and chilling at home I have made a few cards with the new sale-a-bration stampsets.

I have really been experimenting with different styles to feature the "Feeling sentimental" stampset.

Which one is your favourite?

Oh so simple is this technique of using the Clear stamp blocks as rectangular stamps.

As you can see I have stamped the A block in summer star fruit, H block in Pool Party and the D block in sahara sand.

My Ferris wheel is stamped with Early Espresso and the universal "Celebrate" greeting up the top.

I have added a button, tied with a linen thread bow, and finished with a flag of patterned paper from the Sycamore street DSP pack.

The Second card is inspired by red telephone boxes we had many decades ago for public phones.

I have created a window in the front of the card with my Window Frames Collection framelits.

The "hello" sentiment is from another Sale-a-bration FREE set called Pretty Petites and a matching Petite curly label punch.

For someone who can only coordinate her shoes with an outfit if they're black I love how stampin' Up's products co-ordinate so beautifully.

Check the  Raspberry Ripple stitched ribbon, the patterned paper, ink and cardstock in the same gorgeous deep red the colour of raspberries.

And to complete the collection is this penny farthing bicycle.

Have you got your Sale-a-bration on yet?

Snow Flakes Christmas card

 We had a fabulous day stamping yesterday (Thursday) ... making christmas cards.
It was kind of an end of year Christmas lunch and last minute stamp a stack rolled into one festive Day.
Jill and Soph made a few of these ones above with the Snow Flurry Big shot die using whisper white and silver glimmer paper.

 We stamped our own background using the Greetings of the Season stampset in Not Quite Navy ink.
Then stamped the Season's greeting stampset from "Snow swirled" just because it fitted easily into the apothecary accents framelit die that we liked the shape of.

And the second card was made with all the little bits of snow flakes left on the table after I put away all my toys. Kind of like random snowflakes falling - not that we have snow here at this time of year but I always think snow flakes symbolise  freezers and air conditioners, which is where the chilled champagne comes from. So who couldn't love snowflakes at any time of year?

Teacher's gift

 Its that time of year when we make calendars, notebooks and gift boxes to say thank you to teachers. Whether it's just thanks for putting up with my child for 4 terms or thanks for something more, or like me you just like wrapping up parcels of chocolate, biscuits and tea bags in cardstock and ribbons.

So this is what I have made today. A kind of emergency kit for the school day.... what every teacher will appreciate: a strong cup of tea, gingerbread biscuits and some chocolate !

Recipe:

Whisper white and cherry cobbler cardstock

Ink: Early Espresso, cherry cobbler and Gumball green.

Stamps: Scentsational Season, Musical notes wheel,

Builder wheel: Snowflake party and Good cheer.

Tools: Blossom punch, small scallop circle, snow flake die, Big shot.

Word window punch.

Scallopped tulle ribbon: cherry cobbler and Crumb cake.

Simply scored tool.

Quick and simple cards

A quick and simple card with only one stamp and a sheet of patterned paper?
Add this to a couple of framelits and edgelits and you have a christmas card for a nephew who has just moved out of home into his first house.

Card Recipe:

Stampset: Heart of christmas

Ink: Baja Breeze, Primrose Petals and Soft suede (inkpads and markers)

Cardstock: Whisper white, Gumball green and Crumb cake.

Designer series paper: Snow Festival

Big shot, Apothecary accent framelit, Adorning Accent edgelits.

Owls for Christmas

We are in the last rush for Christmas day ... only twenty days to go!
I know where to get the turkey, I have posted my international mail and am still making the local Christmas cards. This set of Owl cards came to gether with two of my stamping friends: Soph and Jill only last Tuesday. This little stampset packs a lot of character and has several little detail stamps to create a variety of scenes.

 This is my Real Red and Baja Breeze version with Christmas hat, christmas stocking and holly.
I have added the Baker's twine and embossed woodgrain for background texture.
He's bright and hopeful!

 Then I added a few dazzling details on the hat, eyes and stocking for sparkle.

 Difficult to photograph but so special in real life. A little bit of bling lifts every card out of the ordinary.

 I think I like this colour combo of Baja breeze with Cherry cobbler details.

 Isn't he so cute?  I think I might add some presents falling into, or out of that stocking...

 And the current collection inspired by the photos in the Holiday catalogue ... no two of these cards are the same. Are you needing to order before Christmas?
Remember we have only 5 more shopping days at Stamping Joy before Christmas, so send me an email nerida_carter@hotmail.com with your order before Friday 14 December and I will do my best to get it to you for Christmas week.