Nailed It with this Stampin Up Stamp Set

It took me a while to use the Nailed It Bundle from Stampin' Up! but now that I've started, it will be hard to stop. 

I combined Nailed It with some of the images from Gorgeous Grunge - such a versatile set for creating backgrounds and adding small details to a composition. 

I used a limited palette of Cajun Craze, Night of Navy and Smokey Slate and am really happy with the outcome. The images have been stamped in both Night of Navy and Cajun Craze and some of the outline colour used to shade with a Blender Pen. I really wanted a combination of colours and as many of you know, I love my Aqua Painter, so I added some more colour onto the images with the Aqua Painter. 

The background is made up of stamping Gorgeous Grunge, firstly in Smokey Slate and then stamped off images using Night of Navy.

The little nuts and bolts are wonderful for filling in some of those blank spaces that just need "something" to balance the composition, and the Regals Enamel Shapes provide a finishing touch to the sentiment banner. 

Just a reminder to you all that SALE-A-BRATION  only has 4 more weeks to run. If you want some of these great products for free, you only have to place an order of $90 or more. Like wise if you are thinking about  joining Stampin' Up!, now is the time to do it. 2 additional free stamp sets of your choice can be yours, but only while SALE-A-BRATION is on.

You can choose from any of our catalogues plus the Holiday Carryover List or the Clearance Rack

Here are the products used in this project. If you live in Australia,  you can purchase them on-line if you wish - they will be posted directly to your home address.

Best Wishes and Happy Stamping!

 

Work of Art and Summer Silhouettes Collage Stamping Card

After owning Summer Silhouettes for quite some time I have only just started to use it, and I now realise how versatile it is as a stamp set.

For today's card I have combined it with another favourite stamp set from Stampin' Up! - Work of Art.  And of course I had to add a little bit of Gorgeous Grange to balance out the design. I decided to use the Subtles colour range of Classic Inks for this card and chose Pear Pizzazz, So Saffron, Pink Pirouette and Pool Party for the background. 

I love a bit of contrast in my cards, but this time I kept with the Subtle colours and opted for contrasting shapes in the background - the zig zag and leaf shapes, rather than contrasting colour. These shapes are stamped in Wisteria Wonder.

Black silhouettes would have been too stark on these soft colours so I stamped the flower silhouettes in Elegant Eggplant and I love the effect. The greeting is also stamped in Elegant Eggplant with soft leaf images that have been "stamped off" in Pool Party. The greeting is raised on Dimensionals and embellished with a button from the Soft Subtles range. Some White Bakers Twine tied into a bow finishes the effect I wanted.

To enhance the colour choices I placed this on a mat of Pool Party card stock then onto an Elegant Eggplant card base.

This was such a fun card to make and my Crafty Tuesday ladies enjoyed it a lot. Collage stamping is one of my many favourite techniques and I think the stamp sets Work of Art, Summer Silhouettes and Gorgeous Grunge combine beautifully.

Thanks for stopping by

Here is a list of Stampin' Up! products used for this card. You can order any of these product from my on-line store or contact me via my demonstrator website me with your requests.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

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!

Fun With The Stampin' Spritzer and Re-Inkers

It's been too long since my last post, and I've missed you all. Sadly life gets in the way sometimes.

But I'm back with a fun project that will stretch your creativity and be lots of fun in the process.

FUN WITH THE STAMPIN' UP!® STAMPIN' SPRITZER. 

These little beauties are just $4.95 for 2 and you'll want to get one for each colour re-inker that you own.

Here is the project I did in this weeks TECHNIQUE class. It is a Gate-fold card decorated with the spritzed and stamped panels.

I've used Basic Black card as the base, but let me tell you about the process of creating the panels. 

1. We started with an A4 sheet of Whisper White card and chose 3-4 colours of re-inker to make up into the sprays.  
2. You simply pour Isocol (alcohol) into the bottle and add the number of drops of re-inker that will give the desired strength of colour. 
3. Start with 5 - 10 drops and test the colour on your white card. If you require a darker effect simply add more ink a few drops at a time. 
4. Repeat this process with each colour so that all your spritzers are ready to use.
5. Start with your lightest colour and spray randomly over the white card. 
6. Repeat with each of your colour choices -HINT- the darker the colour the less you spray on!
7. Remember the colours will lighten a little as they dry.
8. Choose a stamp set that will compliment the colour range you used and stamp images using the same colour inks.
9. Make a negative mask that will be the size of the panels you need for each side of the card and move it around the page to find the best sections. (To do this you cut out the shape and retain the outside that acts as a frame that you can move over the panel and see what will be included in your selection)
10. Trace inside the mask. Cut the panels out and adhere them to the black card.
11. I needed to sponge the edges of each panel to "seat" it onto the card. (just because....)
12. Use framelits to create any shape closer and cut out 1 each of the black and decorated shapes.

 You can see the build up of layers and the delicate spritzing in these photos.

Collage stamping is one of my favourite techniques and it just became more interesting by incorporating this technique.

I've used my all time favourite stamp set: FRENCH FOLIAGE and I'm devastated that it is being retired from our catalogue. So if you would like to own it  you'll need to purchase it in the next 3 weeks. You can do this at my on-line store and as a bonus your order will be shipped directly to your door. While you are there have a look at the other promotional specials that we have for you at Stampin' Up! and don't forget if you'd like to discover My Digital Studio, you can download a free trial version.

I hope each of you will roll up your sleeves, prepare to get a bit messy and have loads of fun with this project.

Until Next Time

Stay Crafty,

Create Unique Papers With Stamps

At our recent Stampin' Up! Convention we were entertained by many of our fellow demonstrators who brought fantastic ideas with them. This idea of creating your own unique background papers for scrap pages really struck a chord with me as I love to Collage Stamp. I've also recently re-discovered the fabulous Patterns Designer Series Paper Stacks, as they come in all the coordinating colours of the Stampin' Up! inks. 

This is what I came up with ...

 I started with So Saffron patterned paper that had lots of writing on it. You'll see it more clearly in one of the detail photos. I added lots of images using my favourite Stampin' Up! stamp set - French Foliage, plus some other images from Nature Walk and Wedding Suite. 

Stampin' Up! Classic Ink Colours are Cajun Craze, Old Olive and Not Quite Navy. Then I sponged randomly around the edges. Next  I tore some Well Worn DSP to create the contrasting strip across the page, and to make the round flowers. The leaves are stamped from French Foliage, sponged and cut out.  I also used the fantastically versatile Framelits - Labels Collection  to highlight either side of the photograph.

Here you can see all the Collage Stamping as well as just make out the original background. I gave this challenge to my scrap class this month and they really enjoyed it after their initial hesitation. Made them think outside the box!!

Well that's it for today,

Until Next Time

Stay Crafty and Stay Happy!

Field Flowers For Paper Players Challenge

I promised myself I would enter more creative challenges this year, so today I created this card using the "Field Flowers" stamp set from Stampin' Up!

 I followed the sketch from Paper Players Challenge #84

and combined it with the colour challenge for Colour Q # 126

The colour combination of Daffodil Delight, Lucky Limeade, Pumpkin Pie and Early Espresso had me stumped for a little while, especially as I wanted to finally ink up this beautiful stamp set. It  dawned on me that I could create some very interesting neutrals by combining some of these colours without totally  loosing the integrity of the colours.

This is what I came up with. I love how the colours "glow".

After struggling with these elements to fit with my vision, I'm  reasonably happy with the outcome. 

There are lots of techniques used including water colouring with an Aqua Painter, double stamping, stamping off, fussy cutting, spritzing, dry embossing and sponging. I managed to get the flowers looking different even though I used the same stamp. The lowest flower is cut out and raised on dimensionals.

The "white" background is dry embossed using the "Stripes" embossing folder from Stampin' Up!
It has been pre-inked with Pumpkin Pie and Lucky Limeade classic inks.

Some of the detail photos show these techniques more clearly

Don't you just love the "Postage Stamp" punch? Team it with the 1 inch square punch and the possibilities are endless.

I blind stitched around the edge of the top piece of card using my sewing machine then used Linen Thread to sew a cross at the top Left hand corner. Linen Thread is also used to ground the sentiment.

 Here you can see me reverting to my favourite "Collage"style  where I've stamped multiple layers and used a variety of stamps from 2 stamp sets: - "French Foliage" and  "Field Flowers". 

Both are available in the current Stampin' Up!®  Idea Book And Catalogue.

I hope you get some inspiration from this card. I really enjoyed playing around with techniques to create something a little different.

Thanks for visiting and 

Until Next Time

Stay Crafty

 

.......and late mail makes me one happy stamper. This card was chosen as a Colour Queen Courtier in the Colour queen Challenge #126. Thanks girls!