It’s been some considerable time since I blogged and, boy, have I missed it! 

My absence hasn’t been because I’ve not been stamping or had nothing to share with you. Quite the opposite! I had a run of workshops which kept me very busy, but also life outside of stamping was demanding lots of my attention and energy. And the longer it got between blog posts, the harder it was to get back into it.

BUT  rather than proscrinate any longer (which I’m particularly good at), here I am back blogging.

Yesterday I went to the Stampin’ Up Melbourne Regional training day and it was so incredibly inspiring. Soooo many great ideas that I’ll be trying out soon. Today’s card is the one I took as my swap to Regionals. 

Do they look familiar? No prizes for guessing that my swap was inspired by the cover of the ‘Popular Penguin’ novels. And although there’s no ‘penguin’ on my ‘book cover’ I think  there’s enough of the iconic design of the cover to make it instantly recognisable.

There’s nothing difficult about this card – in fact, it’s super easy!

I scored an extra line with my bone folder to make it look like the card has a spine. The corners have been ‘dog eared’ and the edges of the Very Vanilla daubed with River Rock ink to make it look like a well loved book. The cute little rabbit stamp from the Forest Friends stamp set was my ‘penguin’ and I used the white gel pen to make it more like the logo you see on the books.

I know what card I’ll be sending out to all my book-lover friends!

All the products used to make these cards can be purchased through me.

Adele
xxx

I suspect that the gorgeous new ‘Contempo Christmas’ stamp set and its coordinating ornament punch made it onto many of your wishlists. And I must say, this one’s a no-brainer! Anything that comes with a coordinating punch, triples its must-have value in my books.

I made the little flip open gift tag (top left) by folding over my Very Vanilla cardstock. When I slide it into my ornament punch I positioned the fold of my cardstock at but not beyond the top so that when I punched it out, the fold was intact. I wouldn’t recommend it with anything thicker but it punches through two layers of Whisper White or Very Vanilla with no trouble at all.

The little 3-dimensional bauble (top right) was made using five stamped and punched shapes, folded in half and then stuck edge to edge with a length of crochet thread along the middle. (I’m going to use this in a card project that I’ll show you tomorrow.)

And how sparkly are the Stampin’ Up self-adhesive rhinestones! I know there are cheaper ones out there but truly, you get what you pay for and if you’re doing a special project, particularly if you’ve spent a squillion hours on a scrapbook page, then you’re going to want to use these babies! If it’s worth blinging up, make it good bling.

And here’s a super simple Christmas card!

I’ve used the ‘noel’ sentiment from ‘Many Merry Messages’, the snowflake from the set ‘Snow Swirled’ and the bauble and sentiment from ‘Contempo Christmas’. (If you don’t have the Many Merry Messages stamp set you could improvise by getting the Early Espresso marker and doing it be hand.) 

The cardstock is actually River Rock (although it looks more like Sahara Sand in the photo) and the inks are Early Espresso, Poppy Parade and Sahara Sand (only because I don’t have River Rock ink yet, otherwise I would have used that). I’ve punched out the bauble shape with my ornament punch and popped it up on dimensionals. Seriously, this card took all of 2 minutes!

And how easy would it be to make gorgeous handstamped Christmas wrapping paper this year! All you need is a roll of white or kraft paper and stamp away! Great job for the kids (if you can trust them with your stuff!).

The Contempo Christmas set contains four stamps and is very reasonably priced – just $26.95 for wood and $21.95 for the clear-mount set! The ornament punch is $33.95 so together that’s not a lot to pay considering it’ll take care of your Christmas cards, gift tags, Christmas wrapping paper and some Christmas decorations in one fell swoop! So if you want to take care of your Christmas business, send your order through and I get it processed.

Adele
xxx

Happy sigh….. Would you like all these products free? No – it’s not a trick question.

If you join Stampin’ Up before 15 October that’s exactly what you’ll get – a mixed pack of cardstock, five markers and five ink pads in the new gorgeous in-colors!!! That’s to add to the great new-look starter kit (below) for the new-look price of just $289 (valued at over $515, and now $600 with all the freebies). So if you’ve been toying with the idea of signing up, please get in touch today! I can send you out an information pack and we can take it from there. There’s no harm in enquiring, and heaps and HEAPS to gain (((grin))).

Adele
xxx

It’s time to reveal another of my ’10 favourite things from the new catalogue’ and it’s……. Apple Blossoms!

Now Apple Blossoms isn’t available for purchase – it’s one of the new level 2 hostess sets – so the only way to own it is to place a big order for yourself or host a workshop or catalogue party of $600+ in orders. But it’s a super set!

So here’s today’s card. This was my very first attempt at emboss resist using Stampin’ Up’s glossy cardstock and a brayer, and is one of those techniques I’d never quite gotten around to experimenting with. I definitely need a few more attempts before I’d consider myself a whizz with the brayer but I’m still happy with it. What d’ya think?

The red piece started life as white glossy cardstock. I then stamped the tall leafy image five times across my gloss card with Versamark. I have the Apple Blossom set in clear-mount which made the job a lot easier. I then sprinkled the Versamark with a mixture of clear embossing powder and dazzling diamonds and gave it a blast with my heat tool.

I inked up my brayer on my Poppy Parade (new in-color) ink pad and rolled it over the cardstock for the big reveal. That’s the best part – not quite knowing what you’ll get until you do the brayering (it’s also when you discover a few fingerprints, LOL). I wiped it with a tissue to just clean up any ink from the top of my embossed images. (The photo below hopefully shows the sparkle of the embossed images a little better.)

The sentiment (‘happy thoughts make happy days’) is also part of the same stamp set and I’ve stamped it right over the top in Stazon. And just like the names suggests it ‘stayed on’ right over the top of the glossy card and the embossed parts – no smudges or colour changes. Very impressed!

Adele
xxx

I’ve beeen waiting for a sunny day to take some photos and, boy, did Melbourne turn it on today! Mind you, it wasn’t feeling nearly as warm when I headed out the door at 7am to be on duty for the Father’s Breakfast at my son’s school, but it’s looking like my kinda day now.

Thought I’d show you a quick “group shot” before I delivered my next batch of cards to the shops. (If you’re around the Balwyn area, ’Blooms’ the florist is now fully stocked.)

You’ve seen the card on the right in an earlier post so let me just show you the other two just quickly.

I was so happy to see Razzle Dazzle return in the new catalogue. Not sure how I’d classify this floral image but I love it! Makes me think of Moroccan fabrics…. Anyway, easy peesy card. Sahara Sand, Riding Hood Red and Basic Grey ink, bang, bang, bang (using a Stamp-a-ma-jig), hand drawn stitch lines with my marker, a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Sentiments and a button to finish it off.

This card below (inspired by this card by Carole Kisch who’s blog I love to stalk visit) uses the gorgeous Level 1 hostess set called ‘Because I Care’. The one below is a stepped up version of the set I did for the shops. It’s been distressed and ‘daubed’ and then finished off with the exquisite new satin ribbon in Very Vanilla. It’s a bit hard to see in the photo but the hydrangea has been randomly stamped on a Cherry Cobbler cardbase in Versamark. And can I say….. Oh how I LOVE Cherry Cobbler! If you love Riding Hood Red, you must get this colour!! It’s like RHR in high definition!

If I had my time again making this particular card, I would have made two changes, actually three….. I would have tied the knot at the other end so that it lined up with the stem of the flower. I would have made the centre cardstock a touch wider so that the last scallop was complete, and I probably would have used a different colour of ribbon…. black … old olive… Oh well. Does anyone else do that? Finish a card and then pick it to pieces. Or am I the only one? Think I might just need to get over myself (((grin))).

Adele
xxx

I was on a roll with my blog posting and then this arrived mid week ….

I’m sure you can understand why I’ve been missing in action for the last few days. Check out all the ribbons!!

Now I promised I’d share one more idea with Artistic Etchings and here it is!

This set lends itself wonderfully to invitations. I’ve used it here in a very subtle way to provide just a little bit of detail and elegance. I used Sahara Sand ink and stamped off on my grid paper before stamping onto the cardstock. I’ve got the clear-mount set so I was able to do all of the stamping without using my stamp-a-ma-jig – and that’s a big time saver when you’ve got 80 to make!

You could use it in much more dramatic ways … you could use red ink … or what about silver embossing … white embossing on Basic Grey cardstock ….

If you’ve been having fun with Artistic Etchings, leave me a comment with a link to your creation so that I can see how you’ve been using it.

And if you don’t yet own the set, get in touch and let’s fix that up right away! Seriously, $33.95 for the wood-mount set and $26.95 for the clear-mount set – you can’t go wrong!

Join me this week for favourite number 2 from the new catalogue. It’s a beauty!!

Here’s my next batch of cards before they go off to the shops. This design mixes vintage imagery and contemporary design but somehow it works, d’ya think?

The ornate – not sure what to call it - scroll (?) in the middle seems to pull the design together. And I added a bit of bling in the centre with Stampin’ Up’s new self adhesive jewels and voila!  

There’s a straight shot bottom so you don’t crick your neck. Ooooohhh, how I love this stamp set!

Tomorrow I’ll share one more idea using Artistic Etchings before revealing favourite number 2.

Adele
xxx

Today I’m kicking off my ’10 favourite things from the new catalogue’ series with the beautiful stamp set…..

Artistic Etchings

 $33.95 (wood) Item no. 121478
$26.95 (clear) Item no. 120573

Did it make your list? 

A month before the catalogue was released, demonstrators were able to buy selected products. This particular set was available during the preorder and it immediately caught my eye. But I have to say, it breaks all the rules for what I typically look for in a stamp set.

I like to choose stamp sets that are versatile, that I can use with different techniques, that I can use in surprising ways to perhaps depict things other than what you initially see, that represent value for money and that have general appeal because I want to be able to use it in classes and workshops throughout the year.

And then there are times when all those rules are thrown out the window and I buy a stamp set because I simply absolutely totally LOVE IT!! And Artistic Etchings fell into that category. I love the fine detail … I love everything French … I love the metal-work, etchy images … and so I bought it.

And the most suprising thing of all – having played with it non-stop for weeks – is that this stamp set actually does tick all my boxes afterall. It’s super versatile and worth every penny in my book. I’ll share more photos over the coming days of what I’ve been making with it, but here’s today’s card, made using Artistic Etchings, the Newsprint designer series paper and the Vintage Wallpaper and Polka Dot embossing folders. Does it look familiar? It was inspired by one of the cards on the cover of our new catalogue!

Adele
xxx

Here’s one of the sets of cards we’ve been making at my Christmas stamp-a-stacks. I’ve had four classes already and I was ready for a break from Christmas cards – and then I got the new ‘Contempo Christmas’ set from the new catalogue. Boy, is that going to get a workout!

These particular cards were inspired by my friend and fellow demonstrator, Leonie Hegarty. I loved how she combined Lovely as a Tree with the En Francais background stamp in these cards so this is my take on it. And here’s a close up.

 To get the ‘patchy’ background I sponged Versamark onto the stamp, deliberately missing areas. I was really happy with the way the vintage-look label turned out. The shape was cut out of Confetti Cream with the Big Shot and the Lots of Tags die. I stamped the Christmas sentiment from the set Teeny Tiny Sentiments in Soft Suede and then stamped some very light images of the trees by stamping off on my grid paper first (it’s a bit hard to tell in the photo – probably clearer in the top photo). Then I scrunched up the label, unravelled it and then sponged the edges using my dauber.

If you saw my post yesterday you’ll know I’m about to do a series of my top 10 things from the new catalogue. I’d love to read more of your comments about what’s at the top of your wishlists. 

Have a great weekend!

Adele
xxx

There’s so much to love in the new catalogue, isn’t there!

It was launched to the wider world yesterday but as a demonstrator I got to see a copy a month ago. So you’d think I would have had my wishlist well and truly worked out by yesterday, wouldn’t you. Well, truth be told I was on version 4 and still crunching the numbers and doing mental gymnastics about what I should order first.

So, what made the final cut? How did I narrow my list from a squillion things down to 10? (Okay, so it wasn’t quite 10. But the real number wouldn’t make such a catchy blog post heading so let’s stick with my top 10.)

Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to be sharing my thoughts on my 10 favourite things from the new catalogue, why I chose them and what I’m going to make with them.

And I’d love this series to be really interactive. I’d love to know how long your wishlist is and what you’ve put at the top, and why it’s up there. So make sure you leave me a little note in the comments section.

Keep checking back here and let’s see if we have the same favourite things or if there any surprises.

See ya!

Adele