Hip Hip Hooray Card Kit

Hi guys! Just a quick post today to let you know that Stampin' Up! has just released a new product in Australia and New Zealand as part of Sale-A-Bration called the Hip Hip Hooray Card Kit.

This kit is perfect for those new to card making as it contains everything you need to create 20 cards including the envelopes.The only other thing you'll need are a pair of scissors. 

The kit contains 20 card bases and envelopes, 3 cling mount stamps, a clear block, a Basic Grey Stampin' Spot (mini ink pad), self adhesive die-cut embellishments, Stampin' Dimensionals, twine, clips and a full-colour instructional brochure on how to make 20 different cards.

If you'd like to get your hands on one of these kits for the awesome price of only $34.95 AU plus postage, simply click here or on the image in the side bar or simply leave me comment if you'd like to know more.

These kits equal great value for money as they work out to only $2.05 per card including postage. Add a pair of Stampin' Up!'s Paper Snips to the order if you don't already own a pair, and with postage it still only works out to $2.90 each for a card hand made by you! So much better than store bought.  Go on, get crafting!

Cheers
Ange 

Anniversary Card

 Hi guys! Just a short post today, I just couldn't wait to share this card. I made it with the inked watercolour background I showed you how to make last time. I'm sure you haven't had time to try this technique yet, but when you have a moment you really should give it a go. I'd love to hear what you think of this technique and would absolutely love to see how your creations turn out!

My husband and I will be celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary this Sunday, so I turned that background and inked ribbon into an anniversary card for him.

 I'm incredibly happy with the resulting card, I think it looks really pretty, but feel that the black matting and blue and purple colour scheme make it masculine enough to be given to my husband.

 What do you think? Would you feel confident labelling this a masculine card? Please leave me a comment below, I love hearing from you guys!

Punches used in this are Modern Label Punch, Word Window Punch, Small Heart Punch and the two little hearts are from the Owl Builder Punch. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Sentiments and I've stamped it using StazOn Jet Black Ink Pad. I used Basic Black A4 Card Stock, Silver Glimmer Paper and half a doily from a packet of Tea Lace Paper Doilies along with Stampin' Dimentionals and Snail Adhesive. All these items and much more are available in my on line store, simply click on the Shop Now button  in the top left hand corner of this page if there's anything you need! Best of all, it will be shipped directly to you, how convenient is that?

Until next time, keep safe and happy crafting everyone!

Cheers

Ange

Custom Watercolour Background Tutorial

 Hi guys! As I promised in yesterday's post I've done a quick little photo tutorial about how I created that watercolour looking background on the Congrats Soldier card. There's not much involved, just a large acrylic block, stampin' spritzer and some ink pads. I've also done this before using the Stampin' Write Markers and they work just as well.

I've used Bermuda Bay and Elegant Eggplant in this example, I usually use three or more but thought two would be easier to follow and these are two of my favourite colours. Once you've chosen your colour pallet, the next step is to swipe the pads across the Clear Block, making sure to leave a gap between colours to avoid transferring ink from one pad onto another.

Then using a Stampin' Spritzer filled with water, spritz the inked block until it is well moistened and beads begin to form.

Next, place your piece of Whisper White Card Stock directly on top of the wet ink. You can slide the paper around a bit depending on how much you want the colours to blend together.

Lift the paper off and set it aside to dry. If you're in a hurry you can use a Heat Tool to speed up the drying process. On the one below I only moved the paper very slightly just to close the gap between the inks.

On this next one I moved it around a lot to blend the two colours together and completely cover the piece of paper. You could use Watercolour Paper if you prefer for a slightly different finished product, but I quite like the effect of using regular card stock.

I found after doing the first one where I didn't move the paper around much that I still had a fair bit of wet ink on the block so instead of wasting it I thought I'd quickly show you something else.

I grabbed a small piece of Whisper White 1/4" Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon around 8" long and used it to soak up the remaining ink.

So now I have a custom background for a card as well as a custom matching ribbon to finish off the card. How great is that?

I hope I have inspired you to give this technique a go. It really is quite easy even though it can be a little messy, but I find that half the fun. The best thing about this is if you're not happy with how it looks, you can simply wipe your block clean with a paper towel or tissue and start over. And each and every time you try this it will look different. Each one will be a unique little piece of hand made awesomeness you created. Go on now, give it a go!

I'm off to create something with these inked pieces to share with you later, happy crafting everyone!

Cheers

Ange

Congrats Soldier

Hi guys! How's everyone's week been? Thanks to all who joined in the ESAD blog hop last weekend, I had an absolute blast posting in my first one as well as drooling over all the fantastic products everyone created. I really loved the feedback too girls, thank you, it was much appreciated. If you missed it you can join in all the fun here.

This time I've got a card to share with you that I made as a custom order for a friend who's son was graduating from army training. She wanted a congratulations card to give him at his marching out parade. I didn't have anything Stampin' Up! that was army themed, so I had to think outside the box a little. I've used three stamp sets on this card that are retired, however if you want to recreate this card the main set called Daring Adventure is available as a digital download for use with MDS along with Morning Post Numbers used on the envelope front. The third set was an old Sale-A-Bration set called Sprinkled Expressions and isn't available but as I only used the saying "You did it!" this could easily by typed in MDS.

I thought this quote was quite fitting for a soldier at his marching out parade. This was a larger card, one made using a whole A4 piece of card stock so I needed to make an envelope for it as well. Cue my trusty Envelope Punch Board. These things are so handy and good for creating more than just envelopes too, but that's a whole other post.

I created the custom background on the front of the card using ink pads, large clear block and spritzer, I'll post a tutorial in the next couple of days for those who haven't seen this technique before. This was actually my second card front as on the first one I'd tried using Morning Post Alphabet Stamp Set to stamp the Congrats and I didn't like the way it fitted. But waste not want not, I used a strip from the messed up front on the inside of the card and stamped the "You did it!" and then punched it out as well.

Products used are Whisper White A4 Card Stock, Early Espresso A4 Cardstock, Neutrals Designer Series Paper Stack, Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad, Always Artichoke Classic Stampin' Pad, Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad, Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad, Gorgeous Grunge Stamp Set, ABC-123 Outline Alphabet Stamp Set, Petals Parade Stamp Set (SAB), Daring Adventure Stamp Brush Set, Morning Post Numbers Stamp Brush Set, Sprinkled Expressions Stamp Set, Modern Label Punch, Deco Labels Collection Framelit Dies, Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine, Envelope Punch Board, Stampin' Trimmer, Hung Up Cute Clips, Neutrals Candy Dots, Clear Block F, Stampin' Spritzer and Adhesives.

The marching out parade was today and I received feed back that the young soldier loved his card. That totally made my day. I'm a Stampin' Up! demonstrator who loves all things paper craft, I admit I'm addicted to stamps and paper and embellishments, but it's the pure joy shown on peoples faces when receiving a handmade card or gift that encourages me to keep doing what I do and sharing it here with you. Thanks for stopping by,

Cheers

Ange

ESAD Occasions Catalogue Blog Hop

Hi guys! I'm super excited today to be participating in my very first blog hop. I'm the final stop on the ESAD Occasions Catalogue blog hop for 2014.

What is ESAD?

ESAD

stands for "Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators" and it is an on-line group just for Australian and New Zealand Stampin' Up! demonstrators.

We love what we do & love to share with our customers, friends, and wonderful blog visitors. We also share what we love in our ESAD Demonstrator community, through swaps, challenges, sharing knowledge, ideas & friendship, and we're always there to help and support each other.

So if
you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand then please feel free to leave me a comment with your email address then I'll contact you with information on how to join our group.

I joined this group shortly after I joined Stampin' Up! and it has provided me with so much support and inspiration that I cannot recommend it enough to any demonstrator who has yet to jump on this happy band wagon.

Now as I mentioned I'm the last stop on the hop, so if you came to this post from Paula Reid's Blog I hope you've enjoyed the journey. If not make sure to check out her page and I'll list all the demonstrators involved at the end of this post so if you stumbled across my post first you can see everything all these talented ladies created.

For this blog hop we've all chosen a different product or bundle from the 2014 Occasions Catalogue to showcase and I selected the new Hardwood Background Stamp. I created two cards and a layout using this stamp. The first card I simply used the stamp as (surprise, surprise) the background, on the second card I used it to paper piece a background and on the layout I used it for colour blocking and embellishments. I've tried to use different colour schemes on all three projects to highlight the versatility of this stamp. It never ceases to amaze me that by simply changing the colour of the paper or ink you can completely transform the look and feel of a stamped image. Any hoo, that's enough ranting from me, on to what you came to see...

I'm loving the look of this stamp on coloured card stock using the Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad. Have I convinced you yet that you need this stamp? If not, see it this card tips the scales for you...

 

What do you think of my kitty on the Hardwood fence? It's my first attempt at punch art and I'm pretty happy with it. Has it helped you decide if you have to have this stamp or are you still sitting on the fence? If so hopefully this layout will cinch the deal and have you rushing out to buy this stamp from your friendly Stampin' Up! demonstrator!

I hope you've enjoyed your journey around our blogs and have found lots things to inspire you in your crafting endeavours with the awesome products available from now until June 30th in the 2014 Occasions Catalogue. If you haven't already seen all the blogs make sure to grab yourself a cuppa and take the time to check them all out starting with the the lovely Jenny Hayward. These are a very talented bunch of demonstrators!

1. Jenny Hayward

2.  Libby Dyson

3.  Yvonne Walker

4.  Emily Campbell

5.  Delys Cram

6.  Gail Kirby

7.  Monique Fielder

8.  Sharlene Meyer

9.  Amity Knight

10.  Clare McIlhatton

11.  Ann Gelach

12.  Andrea Buckland

13.  Narelle Hoggard

14.  Keryn Campbell

15. Sally Williams

16.  Liv Ingle

17.  Chloe Evans

18.  Kathryn Ruddick

19.  Nikki Sadler

20.  Kelly Kent

21.  Alisha Watson

22.  Dianne Dunk

23.  Debbie Lamb

24.  Paula Reid

25.  Angela Harders (you are here)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the hop! Feel free to leave me a comment if you want to know any details about any of the products used in this post, I haven't listed them all individually as I normally do just because there are more projects in this post than I normally include in one posting and the list would be super long and quite boring to look at when there's so much eye candy on offer. Happy crafting!

Cheers

Ange

Happy Together

Hi guys! I've been doing a little happy dance, my box of goodies from the new Occasions catalogue arrive yesterday!!! Well actually it was the replacement box sent on Monday after I rang the Stampin' Up! to say my order hadn't arrived. Talk about skin of my teeth, I've joined my first blog hop which happens tomorrow where a group of demos will be showcasing products from the new catalogue and the stamp I needed was in that box. So on top of doing my happy dance I've been crafting my butt off trying to come up with some cute projects to tomorrow's post. So make sure to pop back and check that out, it's all happening at 10am EST.

But back to today, I've got another 12x12 layout for you that I made using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set. I posted this week on my facebook page that I'm in love with this set, it's just so versatile. In my last post I used this same set on a card along with the gold sequins that also show up on this layout, but with quite different effects.

This photo is of my brother and I as kids in 1986. I drew inspiration for the colour pallet from the t-shirts we're wearing. So Safron, Smokey Slate, Basic Black and Whisper White. This little camera image is from the set Around The World. I stamped it in black then used my stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp the HAPPY from the HAPPY FATHER'S DAY stamp from Teeny Tiny Sentiments exactly where I wanted it on the small polaroid part of the camera image. I used my Smokey Slate Stampin' Write Marker to only color the HAPPY and not the whole sentiment. Then I fussy cut around it before using a Stampin' Dimentional to attach it to the embossed Artisan Label punched piece of Smokey Slate card stock. It ended up being quite a cute little embellishment.

Products used in this layout are Modern Medley DSP, I Am Me DSP, Neutrals A4 Card Stock, Gorgeous Grunge Stamp Set, Around The World Stamp Set, Teeny Tiny Sentiments Stamp Set, A Dozen Thoughts Stamp Set, So Saffron Classic Stampin' Pad, Jet Black StazOn Pad, Smokey Slate Stampin' Write Marker Argyle Embossing Folder, Big Shot Die Cutting Machine, Artisan Label Punch, Gold Sequin Trim, Paper Snips, Stamp-A-Ma-Jig,  Stampin' Trimmer and Adhesives.

Over all I'm very happy with how this page turned out. Let me know what you think of it. And don't forget to comment below if you'd like me to post a catalogue out to you if you don't currently have a demonstrator. Happy crafting everyone!

Cheers

Ange

Gold Sequin and Gorgeous Grunge Birthday Card

Hi guys! How was everyone's weekend? Hubby and I spend Saturday at the 128th Annual Tolmie Sports Day so expect to see some layouts in future posts with photos of wood choppers and dog jumping as they were some of the many entertaining events we saw. It was a great day even with the heat as it's been this weekend in North East Victoria, hot, hot and hot. At least we've been spared the damaging fires that burned around Melbourne outer suburbs and the Gippsland area so far.

I'm still waiting on my new goodies to arrive so in the meantime here is a quick look at a card I made using the stamp set Gorgeous Grunge with a few of the new gold sequins thrown on for good measure. These are the only other item from the new Occasions catalogue that I pre ordered. They come stitched together to form a trim which can be used to some extent like ribbon, but can also easily be pulled apart and used individually on a project.

I've simply used dabs of Tombo glue to adhere the sequins to the card front. I love the shine they add to the card without making it all glittery and girly.

Products used on this card are Whisper White A4 Cardstock, Marina Mist A4 Cardstock, Marina Mist Classic Stampin' Pad, Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad, Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad, Gorgeous Grunge Stamp Set, Label Love Stamp Set, Artisan Label Punch, Gold Sequin Trim, Stampin' Trimmer and Adhesives.

I hope you like this card and are managing to stay cool and safe during this hot weather and bush fires currently happening around Victoria. Even though houses have bee lost in fires yesterday, I'm glad it was only houses and not any lives. The homes can be rebuilt, but loved ones cannot be replaced. I'd like to say a big thank you to all the fire fighters and other services that managed to keep everyone safe yesterday. Job well done. Continue to stay safe everyone.

Cheers

Ange

See Ya Later Set

Hi guys, how are you? I'm good, but disappointed my box of Stampin' Up! goodies didn't arrive today. Hopefully they will appear on Monday, it just means no new stamps to play with this weekend. Not that I should be complaining, I do have lots of stuff already, but it's always nice to have something new to get the creative juices flowing. Plus I have an 8x8 inch layout I want to finish off and I'm waiting on a stamp in that order to add that last little touch. Oh well, next week. I'll show you once it's complete.

Today I wanted to post something as it's been a while, so I grabbed the new Sale-A-Bration stamp set called See Ya Later, and my paper-piercing pack that I've had for over a year and had yet to use and challenged myself to create a quick couple of cards. I'd pre-ordered the festival of prints paper stack from the new Occasions catalogue (one of the joys of being a demonstrator), so even though my big box of goodies has yet to reach me with all it's new Occasions products, I can still show you a little something from the new cattie.

The first card I used one of the Whisper White Note Cards as a base and the birthday stamp from the SAB set. I was going for a masculine card, something I admit I can struggle with at times, but I'm happy with how this one turned out.

I used markers to get a multi coloured stamped image and sponged the edges of all the pieces to help them all go together cohesively. 

Products used on this card were See Ya Later Stamp Set (SAB), Whisper White Note Cards & Envelopes, Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack, Baked Brown Sugar Classic Stampin' Pad, Baked Brown Sugar A4 Cardstock, 2013-2015 In Color Stampin' Write Markers, Brights Stampin' Write Markers, Subtles Stampin' Write Markers, Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine, Labels Collection Framelit Dies, Festive Paper-Piercing Pack, Paper-Piercing Tool, Stampin' Pierce Mat, Stampin' Trimmer, Sponge Daubers, and Adhesives.

The second card I used half an A4 sheet of Whisper White cardstock as my card base. I didn't ink the edges  of the elements on this card as I wanted to keep it light and floaty and not weigh it all down like the previous card.

This flower is a retired product, and not listed in any current Stampin' Up! catalogue. However they are available while stocks last at a heavily discounted price in the Clearance Rack online here along with many other discontinued products. There are a few Classic Stampin' Pads listed and these are the old pad style not the new firm foam ones which is why they are in the Clearance Rack. If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Products used on this card are Pop-Up Posies Designer Kit, See Ya Later Stamp Set (SAB), Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack, Whisper White A4 Cardstock, Blushing Bride A4 Cardstock, Blushing Bride Classic Stampin' Pad, Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad, Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine, Window Frames Collection Framelit Dies, Festive Paper-Piercing Pack, Paper-Piercing Tool, Stampin' Pierce Mat, Stampin' Trimmer, Small Heart Punch, Sponge Daubers and Adhesives.

This stamp set is very versatile, all four stamps are very cute and cover a range of occasions. I'll endeavour to make a couple of cards using the other two sentiments soon so you can see for yourself why I love this set. And the best thing about it is you can get it for free until March 31 with any order of $90.00AU.

Thanks for stopping by and having a look around, let me know if there's anything I can help you with on your  very own Stampin' journey.

Cheers 

Ange