Retired Stock, but I love it

Today I was cleaning out my craft area trying to make room for the new goodies from the latest Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue, and came across all sorts of things that had sort of been pushed to the back of the cupboard. Didnt realise I had so much Not Quite Navy Cardstock and Baja Breeze, and more than one packet of Twitterpad I thought "Blow it, I am going to play!" I decided to make a Z Fold card, havent made one of them for ages. Dont know why I dont make more of them they are so quick and easy and they look lovely too. I used the Not Quite Navy for my card base and for the inside and also the outside flap. I layered it with the DSP and Baja Breeze. Then for the front panel I used Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze and Whisper White. For the inside panel I made it the same size as the one on the front so that when it was closed the top panel would sit over the bottom one. My intention was to use my new Flower Shop Stamp set to decorate the front when I glanced across my desk and what did I see but a "Pretties Kit" tin. Now these have been retired for at least a couple of years, and I think I have used one or two pearls and thats about it :(
This tin has been sitting there for quite some time, and I was going to put it in a garage sale that I have been contemplating having. I grabbed three of the flowers in different sizes and coloured them with Baja Breeze Ink Refill and water. Old olive and the Bird Builder punch took care of the leaves and basic Rhinestone in the centre of the flower. Sentiment stamped with Well Scripted stamp set in Not Quite Navy. I think this is a really pretty card, and I am so glad that I got to have a play. Now its back to cleaning the craft cupboard to get ready for the delivery I am expecting this week.....much excitement, cant wait. Till then, happy stamping.

Sunny Challenges 77/13

Hi Stampers, This week at Sunny Challenges and Creations, Vicky set the challenge and it was to use the sketch, and added the theme was to be either Mothers Day or a Female Card. I thought this week that rather than use stamps as the main component, I would take myself well and truly out of my comfort zone and I would use use my Big Shot and punches to create my card. I used Whisper White as the base and topped that with Whisper White again which I embossed using the Lattice Square Embossing Folder. The scallop circle was cut using the Scallop Circles #2 Die in Bashful Blue. A Whisper White mat was cut using the 2 1/2" Circle Punch. For the Bashful Blue flowers I used the Blossom Party Originals Die and for the centres I used the same die and used a scrap of Silver Glimmer Paper that I had on my desk and sponged them with Daffodil Delight. The leaves I used my old favourite Old Olive and the Bird Builder Punch, trimmed them off and placed them behind the flowers. The sentiment I used my Black Marker Pen and only inked the word Mother onto Whisper White. This was punched out using the Large Oval Punch and I matted this onto a Scallop Oval which I had punched out in the Bashful Blue. I had placed a small punched flower in Baja Breeze to which I added a large pearl from the Basic Pearls. The Punch I used for this flower is a retired Stampin' Up Trio Flower Punch. Dont forget to check out the challenge blog and visit our other designers, and check out their beautiful creations for this challenge. You now have 2 weeks to enter our challenges so you have plenty of time to get your creations to us, and who knows you may well be our next Ray of Sunshine! Till next time....

Triple Twisted Easel

Yesterday I showed a Double Twisted Easel Card that I made, and then thought if I can do a double, then why not a triple! It was a lot of fun once I worked it out, and once again I used a little tutorial from Sharon Field that showed a really quick and easy way to do a double bow. There are so many possibilities for this card and the way it can be presented, in regards to the way the easels face, twisted or not, a bit of both the choice is yours! I chose to do a twisted easel each end and a 'regular' easel in the centre. For this card I used Pink Pirourette cardstock and placed a peice of Pink Pirourette Designer Paper upon the base. The Pretty in Pink panels I ran through the Big Shot using the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder and attached them to the easel. The centre panel I used a piece of Presto Designer Speciality Paper and sponged it over with a mixture of Pink Pirourette Re inker and Frost White Shimmer Ink. I then ran it through the Big Shot Using the Scallop Oval Die, and then ran some Pretty in Pink through as well but this time using the Ovals Die. The sentiment I stamped onto a piece of Very Vanilla in Regal Rose and lightly run the edge around the Regal Rose Stamp pad. To assemble this I just mounted them one on top of the other using the Snail adhesive. I also used Snail Adhesive to mount it on the Pretty in Pink base.

The Double Bow was so easy and it looks lovely. I used the1/2" Chantilly Lace. It is the first time I had used it and I am so glad I did, it lent the card some delicate trim. The first panel I once again used the Scallop Oval Die, the Oval Die and the Large Oval Punch and matted them as shown. Using the Scallop circle punch I punched out three in Concord Crush, Rose Red and So Safron, and made three roses, which I had learned to do at a class held by Kris McIntosh some little while ago. I used Certainly Celery and the Little Leaves embosslit for the leaves and placed them on the diagonal. The flowers were attached using Crystal effects, and the Scallop Oval was attached using dimensionals. I placed strips of pearls to act as the stopper for the easels so that they would stand up. Now I am going to have to come up with a envobox to put it in! :))

I hope you like this card and keep an eye out there is another to come tomorrow

Bye for now,,,,,,,

Double Twisted Easel

There is peace and quiet in the house at long last.............the noise I hear is silence! Time to drag out my projects that I have had on the go, but had to put away until all the visitors had gone home. I have been working on some easel cards, my ladies are going to be doing these in class next week. I decided that rather than do straight easels that I would do twisted easels. The first card I made was a double twisted easel, which I am sharing with you today. I might add I had changed my mind about three times for the colour scheme and went back to the original colours that I had chosen to work with.Perfect Plum was used for the card base and Lap of Luxury designer paper was used for the Scallop Ovals and Concord Crush for the Large Ovals.The Pretty in Pink was embossed using the Finial Press embossing folder. I had some glitter thread (not SU0 and decided to to a little bit of 'string art' on the ovals. Lap of Luxury Designer paper was also used for the birds. Vintage Vogue was stamped in both Perfect Plum and Pretty in Pink and I placed the rhinestone brads in the centres of each one. Well Scripted was used for the sentiment. I cut 2 Modern Labels usi ng the punch of the same name, one in Very Vanilla and the other in Perfect Plum. The perfect Plum Label I cut in half and off set ita bit to look as tho there is a second label behind it. The ribbon is a CASE of a tutorial by Sharon Field I love this idea for the ribbon so different. I had a lot of fun making this card an I do hope that you like it too. Bye for now

River Rock Self Challenge

Today's self colour challenge was to use River Rock from the colour coach. It told me to use Cherry Cobbler and Marina Mist as well. The OceanCommotion set I used was the other choice from yesterday, but it lost out to Tropical Party in the draw from the hat! I used Marina Mist as the base for my card and layered a strip of Cherry Cobbler and then a smaller strip again of Marina Mist. I decided to use the Scallop Square Die for the River Rock just to add interest, then stamped it with ink of the same colour and the reeds from the Ocean Commotion set. The seahorse is in Cherry Cobbler as is the sentiment and the fish in Marina Mist. You can not notice it all that well in this photo but I have attached small rhinestones to where the eyes are one each image. I have just done the self challenge draw for tomorrow and the colour is Baja Breeze. I almost redid the selection but thought to myself if I do this now with a colour I really love working with what am I going to do with a colour that doesnt "do it" for me so to be fair to myself (and the little challenge I have set for myself) I am going to do the Baja Breeze Challenge and will be using Animal Stories set of stamps. Apparently the next set I will be using will be Friends 24-7 and the colour coach selection has not been made yet! So stay tuned!! Well thats if from me today, hope you like what I have done, leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Bye for now. Gwen