Grand Vacation Hawaii Blog Hop

Welcome to my contribution for the Stampin' Up  Grand Vacation Achievers Pillow Gift Inspiration Blog Hop.  If you are following from the start of the blog hop you will have arrived from  Connie's Blog

It was such a treat to be part of this Grand Vacation in Hawaii and so much fun to see the gifts arrive on our bed each evening - we received so many lovely items that it was hard to pick just one for inspiration so I've combined elements from a number of different gifts.

The basic inspiration is the lovely flowers on the little cosmetic bag. I was also inspired by the pink and white of the sarong even 'tho I changed the colours to using some of our new 

2015 -2017 In Colors

Stuart is not used to having time to relax as we own a business that demands 7 days a week attention. 

So amongst all the fun activities and beautiful sights, my husband and I enjoyed a few cocktails, lots of meals together and time to chat while on holiday. We also celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary in Hawaii and I thought I'd create a bottle gift bag using the inspiration colours and shapes. And of course there were beautiful flowers, usually orchids, served with all the drinks and food. The beautiful sunny weather and lovely sunsets added to my lasting colour images of Hawaii.

To create the bag I used 2 x A4 sheets of Watermelon Wonder card stock, scored and cut to fit around a champagne bottle.

I inked Watermelon Wonder on the Beautiful Bunch flower, stamped onto Whisper White then water coloured the white areas with Delightful Dijon. I've also heat embossed the swirl from Everything Eleanor using White embossing powder. The small abstract dotty circles are stamped with Tip Top Taupe.

It is embellished with a tag and bows (Dotted Lace Trim - Watermelon Wonder and Delightful Dijon) tied around the handle of the bag

We have wonderful memories of this vacation - Thanks Stampin' Up! 

I hope you enjoy my bottle bag. 

Now for some more awesome inspiration you should hop along to 

Kim's blog

1. Louise Sharp

2. Sandi MacIver

3. Kylie Bertucci

4. Selene Kempton

5. Connie Stewart

6. Dena Rekow 

7. Rose Marie Coleman

8. Shannean Moncrief

9. Sharon Armstrong

10. Marelle Taylor

11. Betty Button

12. Connie Babbert

13. Ann Craig

14. Kim Gavarra

15. Renee Kohnke

16. BJ Peters

17. Alisa Tilsner

18. Alison Solven

19. Kelly Acheson

20. Linda Higgins

21. Karina Chin

22. Jacque Williams

23. Lynsay Mahon

24. Georgia Giguere

25. Laura Milligan

26. Vanessa Webb

27. Cynthia Millan

28. Genevieve Ko

29. Janet Wakeland 

Collage Stamping Made Easy With Stampin' Up!

Collage Stamping is so much fun and Stampin' Up! have made it an easy task with some of the new release stamps in the new Annual Catalogue. You should check out pages 164 - 165 as these pages contain the 3 stamp sets that combine beautifully together to create exciting cards.

Collage, strictly speaking in Art terms, is:

"A piece of art made by sticking various different materials such as photographs & pieces of paper onto a  backing."

But it can also mean: "a collection or combination of various things", so I think by combining a number of different stamp sets that we are making a collage. Also the concept of stamping over the top of other images relates to the collage concept.

Kinda Eclectic, Work of Art and Gorgeous Grunge are just perfect for this style, and recently I made some cards using different colours and different layouts to demonstrate just how versatile these sets can be.

I used the Beautiful Bunch Stamp set (page 158 AC) as the focal point for my cards, and employed the method of stamping off to obtain the variety of tones in the colours.

Are you loving the purple of the flower? it is one of Stampin' Up's new In Colors for 2014 -2016 and is named Blackberry Bliss. I think this will be a favourite of many people.

And here is another card using the same sets but different colours.

Quite a different look! These colours are Baked Brown Sugar: Lost Lagoon: Strawberry Slush, stamped onto Very Vanilla Card. 

I hope you enjoy my samples and if you would like any of the products you can them order at my on-line store: 

The items will be sent directly to you and you will have me as a contact to assist you with after sales service. 

Until Next Time

Stay Crafty!

Beautiful Bunch Monotone Card.

I am really enjoying the lovely variety in the new Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue that has just launched this month. 

One of the first sets that caught my eye was the Beautiful Bunch stamp set (p. 158 AC) that coordinates with the Fun Flower Punch (p. 219 AC) It has so many possibilities and I decided to use it for my card class tonight. We will make 3 very different cards using a combination of other Stampin' Up! stamp sets, but for this post I will start with the most simple card - a monotone in Lost Lagoon and Whisper White. 

I started this card with a Lost Lagoon card base but ended up with a Whisper White card base to help lighten and enclose the composition. I've added some of the gorgeous stamps from the Kinda Eclectic Set plus the Work of Art stamp set. It is fantastic how all these sets work so well together and with just a small amount of Pool Party Bakers Twine to soften the join between the flower and the banner, this was a quick and easy card to make. 

Here are some detail shots.

This shows the lovely collage effect that can be achieved by stamping different images on top of each other. You can also see the variety of tones that are achieved by stamping off the colour thus getting lighter images.

While the flower was punched out with the Fun Flower Punch, the centre of a second stamped image of the flower has been fussy cut and raised on a dimensional to give some dimension to the card.

This was a fun card to make and as I said, quite quick and easy.

I am entering this card in the Paper Players Challenge #205

I'll post the other cards in the next day or so,

Until Next time,