#TGIFC131 | Eclipse Technique

Hello, Hello! Here's to the weekend. A time to rest, rejuvenate and maybe even fit in some time for creating. If you are looking for something to get that creative mojo going why not check out the new challenge over a TGIF Challenges.

We are playing and creating with a new technique, the Eclipse Technique. Have you seen it yet?

It's fun and quite easy to do. If you're not sure what it is just Google 'Stampin' Up! Eclipse Technique' or search the same in You Tube and you'll be able to see what the fun is all about. You'll love it!

 Basically you stamp on your card background layer and then use an Alphabet Die like the Large Letters Framelits to cut a word in the stamped background. You then pop those letters up with a foam adhesive so you can just see the shadow of the letters on the card. Super fun and super easy.

I've gone with a Christmas Card today and I've made a long card in the landscape orientation. I don't think I've made a card this size before and the only reason that I did this time is so that I could fit the word 'Merry' across the card front.

I repeatedly stamped the holly image from the Carols of Christmas Stamp set with Crumb Cake Classic Ink on Crumb Cake Cardstock. Loving that tone on tone look and because the card front is quite busy with the stamping and the die cutting the tone one tone stamping makes the stamped images a bit more subtle and just tones the whole card back a little bit.

I die cut the letters out of the Crumb Cake and then cut another whole set out of Basic Black and layered the Basic Black underneath. This just adds to the whole shadow effect and the eclipse look to the card.

I've teamed up the Crumb Cake layer with Cherry Cobbler and the gorgeous Merry Music Specialty Designer Series Paper. I don't know why I haven't used this DSP yet cause it is just AMAZING!!!
And then finished off the some of the 7/8" Striped Ribbon, Basic Black Baker's Twine and some black sequins from the Metallics Sequin Assortment.

Make sure you check out all the amazing inspiration from the rest of the design team!! Why not give this fun technique a try and join in this fabulous challenge over at TGIF? Can't wait to see your Eclipse creations!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Stampin' Up! Artisan Blog Hop | Count My Blessings

Hello, Hello. Welcome to today's Stampin' Up! Artisan Design Team blog hop. We are creating with either the Gourd Goodness or Count My Blessings Stamp Sets. As its not Autumn here in Melbourne, but Spring, and this set shouts autumn to me I wanted to create with the Count My Blessing set so I'm on Team Count My Blessings. Any set that I can colour with I will naturally gravitate towards and use that.

Its a fabulous set to let the loved ones in our lives know just how much they mean to us or that we are thinking of them.

I've gone with some thinking of you cards and some colouring with the Watercolour Pencils and the floral image in this gorgeous set. Because I've made some 'Thinking of You' cards I wanted them to have a clean look and not too much 'fanfare'. I really wanted the seniment to be the main focus so that the 'Thinking of You' sentiment was the first thing that you saw and the floral image, DSP, Ribbon and Trim came through second. What I'm trying to say is that I didn't want it to be too OTT.

I've stamped the images on to Crumb Cake cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black in and then embossed over it with Clear embossing powder. I do realise that I do emboss the images on nearly all my creations but I just love that gorgeous, shiny sheen that the clear embossing powder gives to any stamped image. And it's another added element of prettiness and texture.

Once the ink and clear embossing powder were ready I used the Melon Mambo and Old Olive Pencils to add some colour. The best way I like to use the pencils is to, with an Aqua Painter, pick the colour up straight off the pencil lead and then 'paint' that colour down on to the image. Keep going with the picking up colour and then painting it down until you get the desired look and colour to your image.

Loving the light wash of colour on these cards with a little bit of the crumb cake showing through. When colouring on Crumb Cake don't use too much water as your cardstock will start to pill and ball up. The Crumb Cake Cardstock isn't designed for watercolour but if you use a light hand and less water you can do it.

I've used the Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker to rule an edge around the card and the I've finished it off with Linen Thread, Burlap Trim, Merry Little Christmas DSP and some Mini Gold Sequin Trim. Super pretty and not too 'OTT'.

Loving all that clean space to these cards and then the gorgeous sentiment with the gorgeous font and the beautiful floral images. Sometimes its nice to strip the cards back and give them that clean look.

Now on to Shannon all the way over in Canada with her colourful creations and her love of colour.

Allison Okamitsu

Aurelie Fabre

Cathy Caines

Dani Dziama

Holly Stene

Jennifer Sootkoos

Jessica Winter

Katy Harrison

Kimberly Van Diepen

Louise Sharp 

Maike Ulbrich

Martha Inchley

Mercedes Weber

Mindy Bingamon 

Miriam van Eyden

Paula Dobson

Rochelle Blok

Shannon Lane

Sylwia Schreck 

Tanya Boser 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Just Add Ink #382 | Just Add a Colour Combo

It's Friday! Yay! And there's a new Challenge over at Just Add Ink! Yay! We have an awesome colour combination suggested by the gorgeous JAI DT member Patrice to get you creating over the weekend.

While initially I thought this combo was a bit 'meh' and wasn't too fussed by it once I got creating though I could have kept on adding and layering and adding and layering. I really had to stop myself and say 'Enough is enough'.

Even though we have the fabulous 2017 Stampin' Up! Holiday Catalogue on the go at the moment we need to remember the sets from the 2017 - 2018 Annual Catalogue too. And that is what I've done for you today. I've stamped with the Flourishing Phrases stamp set and then used one of the sentiments the set and embellished it with the 'leaves' from the co-ordinating Flourish Thinlits Dies.

I usually make a white card with some pops of the challenge colours when Whisper White is in the colour combo but this time I'm loving the Smoky Slate as the main layer colour and the pops of all the other colours on the card.

The flourish across the Smoky Slate was first stamped with Versamark Ink and the heat set with Whisper White Stampin' Emboss Powder. I then splattered some Basic Black in across the Smoky Slate layer by flicking the brush tip end of the Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker. That fine mist of Basic Black splatter makes for a fun look and some added interest.

Once the Basic Black splatter was dry I then looked for various ribbon, trims embellishments and DSP that fit in with this weeks challenge colours. I just kept playing around with different products till I was happy with the layering of products. Sometimes there is no method to my madness. And most of the time my cards come together with left over pieces sitting on my desk from other creations. I try not to waste things. There is always a use for something.

I hope that you've been inspired by my use of this weeks challenge colours and sparked your imagination and creativity to get the creation with this weeks colours too. If you need some more inspo check out the rest of the Just Add Ink Design Team's creations and then while you're there check out how you can enter this weeks colour challenge. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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#TGIF129 | Sketch Challenge | Introducing Stampin' Blends

Hello and welcome!! It's time again for the most awesome TGIF Challenges challenge and this week its a fabulous, my favourite, a sketch!!!

It's pretty straight forward and you can make it as is or change it up a bit to make it what you want.

Ive pulled out an older stamp set today, Birthday Blooms, because I wanted to play and have a create with the new Stampin' Blend Alcohol Markers. While these marks are only available to Stampin' Up! demonstrators at this moment I wanted to whet your appetite to show you how gorgeous they are.

These markers will be available to customers sometime later this year but right at this moment there is no definite release date. Fingers crossed it is soon.

There are 12 colour combo packs, all with a Dark and Light Marker. There will also be an Ivory and Bronze marker which are great to get those skin tones and last but by no means least there will be a colour lifter. Lots of options! 

The colours that the markers will come in are Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight, Night of Navy, Old Olive, Pink Pirouette, Pool Party, Pumpkin Pie,  Rich Razzleberry and Smoky Slate.

I've used here today the Old Olive markers and the Pink Pirouette markers. I didn't even think but because the Pink Pirouette is a light colour it makes it quite difficult to photograph, well for me anyway. I hope that you can see the graduation in colour with the Pink Pirouette as it looks beautiful on the card in real life.

Birthday Blooms is perfect to use with the Blends as it is and open line image and gives you lots of fabulous options to practice your colouring skills. The way that the image is drawn it shows your where you should make the image darker or leave it a bit lighter.

When colouring with the Stampin' Blends I like to put a little bit of the dark colour down first and then use the lighter marker to blend over the harsh lines of the dark colour and draw some of that dark colour out and so it blends. When colouring though try not to put down too much colour as the colour from the markers may bleed out of the lines of the image. Maybe when colouring don't put the colour all the way to the edge of image. This will help if there is a bit of bleeding from the colour.

 

I really enjoyed playing and practicing with the new Stampin' Blends. I'm looking forward to practicing and playing with them more. Watch this space as I'm sure I will have lots more creations using the fabulous markers. And as soon as we get a date on their release for customers you will be the first to know. 

Make sure that you check the rest of the fabulous creations from the rest of the design team over at the TGIF Challenges Blog and come and join in with this weeks fabulous sketch challenge. Can't wait to see your amazing creations! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Stamp to Share International Design Team Blog Hop | Painted Harvest

It's time again for our monthly Stamp to Share International Design Team Blog Hop. We are group of demonstrators from each Stampin' Up! market worldwide and we like to showcase a different Stampin' Up! Bundle for each hop and this time we bring you the Painted Harvest Bundle which includes the Painted Harvest stamp set and the Leaf Punch.

Its a fun two-step, photopolymer stamp set to create a watercolour like look. Super gorgeous and super pretty and without all the work of actual watercolouring!

I've made two cards for today's hop. Both using the same colours but with two different looks. I'm loving the fresh crisp white and the pops of the bright Crushed Curry Sunflowers and the Garden Green leaves. The contrast of the white to the yellow is beautiful!

I've also decided to go with some square cards today.  I normally make a standard sized card, all the time, and just wanted to change it up a little for a different look.

The first card, with the fabulous brick pattern embossing paste, I used the masking technique to layer the stamping of the sunflower and the leaves. I first traced around the Stitched Circle Shape die so I could roughly know where to stamp the sunflower and then stamped the layers of the sunflower so it was sitting more to the left of the circle.

Once the sunflower was stamped I then stamped the two images of the sunflower on a Post-It-Note and then fussy cut the image out. This Post-It-Note is then placed over the stamped image on the card stock so that the image is completely covered and then I stamped the leaf layers so that it looks like all the images have been layered together.

It takes a little bit of time to fussy cut the sunflower on the post it but I think the masking when stamping all the images makes for a fabulous look. 

The second card again involves some more fussy cutting (lucky I like it and find it therapeutic).

I sponged some of the Crushed Curry Classic ink in the corner of the card stock layer to give a graduated colour look and then arranged the fussy cut flowers over the ink for a bright and fun look.  

I was going to have the sentiment embossed in gold on vellum for the second card also but I preferred to have the gold embossing straight on the card. Just a personal preference. I liked it better without the vellum.

I know that there are lots of creations out there on the internets using this bundle but I hope that I've given you some more ideas with this fun stamp set and punch. Its such a fabulous bundle and reasonably priced too at $58.00 AUD. There is just so much you can do with it and if you google Sunflower Colours, yes they come in other colours other than yellow, there are so many different colour variations you can come up with.

Now on to the ever fabulous Sandi MacIver in Canada. Sandi is amazing and her creations are too. I'm sure you will love them as much as I do.

If you do get lost along the hop, here is a list of the Design Team members - Just click on their name to get you going again.

Monica Gale - UK
Amy Koenders - USA
Rochelle Blok - Australia - You are here
Sandi MacIver - Canada
Paula Dobson - New Zealand
Barbara Becker - Austria
Moira McIlroy - France

For some more Painted Harvest ideas, check it out here.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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 Recreate these cards at home using the following Stampin' Up! products. Click on the images below to see the product information and to shop from my online store.

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World Cardmaking Day Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to this special blog hop to celebrate World Card Making Day! We've got 19 talented Stampin' Up! Demonstrators from all around the world for a fun and creative hop.

With this hop having no specific theme I decided to finally pull out the Floral Statement stamp set and get creating and colouring with that. I've been meaning to ink up this stamp from the moment I got it when the new 2017 - 2018 Annual Catalogue when live but just haven't had the chance. So I thought today would be a good time to get this set all inky.

I inked up the stamp with the Tuxedo Black Memento ink and then used clear embossing powder to emboss over the image. Embossing over the image gives the image an added element and added texture. And I love the shinny look the clear embossing powder gives. So pretty.

Once the word was stamped and then clear embossed I pulled out the fabulous Stampin' Up! Watercolour pencils to add some colour to those gorgeous flowers. I used the Melon Mambo pencil for the flowers and the Old Olive one for the leaves. 

The way I like to use the watercolour pencils is to pick up the colour straight off the lead with my Aqua Painter and then colour in the image with the Aqua painter. If I then want the colour to then be a little darker I put some colour down with the pencil and then move that colour around on the cardstock with the Aqua Painter. I know everyone is different as to how they use the Watercolour pencils but by doing it this way I find I get the best results.

 Once I got the colour to the depth and shade that I wanted I added some Linen Thread, the leaf die cute from the Flourish Thinlits, a piece of the Flirty Flamingo Grosgrain Ribbon and a wooden emebellishment from the Touches of Nature Elements.  Just a fun layering of elements for some added interest.

The card is then finished off with the word 'Friend', from the Thoughtful Banner stamp set, embossed with White embossing powder on Basic Black Cardstock and then all finished off with a scattering of some Black Sequins from the Metallics Sequin Assortment. Love it!

Just a fun card for a fun and exciting day.

Up next on the hop is Cheryll Miller. Make sure you keep hopping around by clicking the next blog button below for more amazing World Card Making Day Creations.

Cheryll Miller

Here is the full list of hoppers if you get lost along the way
Anja Luft
 Brian King
Sue Plote
 Maria Willis
 Carolynn Sander
Charlet Mallett
Natalie Lapakko 
Jay Soriano 
 Rochelle Blok - You are here
 Cheryll Miller
Jenny Hall
 Amy Koenders
Kelly Kent 
Paula Dobson 
Lee Conrey 
Janneke de Jong 

 Cathy Caines

 Holly Stene

 Jessie Holton

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Live in Australia?
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 Recreate this card at home using the following Stampin' Up! products. Click on the images below to see the product information and to shop from my online store.

 

To celebrate Wold Card Making Day, from October 1-10th only, select stamp sets and note cards are on sale, PLUS there's an amazing deal of Fast Fuse!

You can see all the details for the World Card Making Day Sale in my Online Stampin' Up! Store Here (Australian Residents Only)

Make sure you get in quick before these items are all back to full price!

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Stampin' Up! Artisan Blog Hop | More Merry Patterns

Hello, Hello. It's that time again for some fun and creativity from the Stampin' Up! Artisan Design Team. We've got some more fabulous ideas and creations using the promotion hostess set, Merry Patterns. 

What could make hosting a Holiday Catalogue party even more exciting?? How about the chance to earn an exclusive stamp set for FREE?? Simply host a party with $450AUD in sales by 31st October and you will earn the Merry Patterns host set for FREE.  Your party guests will also love shopping from our selection of our Designer Series Paper, now on SALE - By 3 get 1 FREE, making it easier to reach your $450 AUD and earn your FREE Holiday Stamp set. Don't miss out on this fabulous opportunity. FREEBIES for everyone. Contact me TODAY for more details on these fabulous promotions.

I've had a play around with the deer image and some of the DSP from the Christmas Around the World DSP from the Holiday Catalogue. This DSP captures the festive spirit with traditional Christmas images from all around the world. And the best thing is this DSP is on the Buy 3 Get 1 FREE promotion at the moment. Perfect to get those Christmas Cards started so you are organised by the time December 1st rolls around.

I first chose the Snowflake DSP because there was snowflakes in the deer image and then I really loved the colouring of the Pool Party Spotty DSP so decided to make a second card as well. Why not really.

 These two cards are same, same but different. It's just down to a personal preference as to which one you like.

I did start with having the deer stamped in black and then embossed with Clear Stampin' Emboss powder for that added gorgeous touch to the black. I changed the deer to the Silver Stampin' Emboss powder as I couldn't get the black to stamp clear and crisp as I wanted it. It just wasn't working, at all. I'm glad I changed to the Silver Stampin' emboss powder and I think the deer looks stunning in it. I literally gasped when I heated it up. It's just super gorgeous.

How stunning is that black and white striped ribbon? It just goes with everything! Love it! While the ribbon is a gorgeous size, I think it looks even better trimmed down to this smaller size.

Super gorgeous, super fun and super festive. 

 Now on to Shannon all the way over there in Canada. Has she got something super gorgeous and super fun for you too. Love that gal!!

Allison Okamitsu

Aurelie Fabre

Cathy Caines

Dani Dziama

Holly Stene

Jennifer Sootkoos

Jessica Winter

Katy Harrison

Kimberly Van Diepen

Louise Sharp 

Maike Beimler

Martha Inchley

Mercedes Weber

Mindy Bingamon 

Miriam van Eyden

Paula Dobson

Rochelle Blok

Shannon Lane

Sylwia Schreck 

Tanya Boser 

Thanks so much for stoppping by!

Live in Australia?
 Shop for Stampin' Up! with me 24/7

 Recreate these cards at home using the following Stampin' Up! products. Click on the images below to see the product information and to shop from my online store.

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