Stampin' Up! Achievers Blog Hop - Colour Me New

 

Hello again and thanks so much for joining us in this month's Grand Vacation Achievers Blog Hop. This month we have a new theme that requires us to
"Use at least two new 2015-2017 In-Colors in your project. Other colors can be used, however please use at least two new In-colors."   You are at Ann Craig's Blog now and I'm so glad you've stopped by.
THEME: COLOR ME NEW!  I didn't think this would be too hard as I am enjoying most of the new 2015 -2017 In Colors, however I have struggled to create something  for this blog hop that I feel is satisfactory. This is what I ended up with...

  I've seen plenty of gorgeous examples of cards using the Vintage Leaves stamp set and thought combining the In Colors would give some wonderful Autumn Colours. I knew I'd be able to neutralise some of the colours by overlapping them and am really happy with the way the leaf turned out. It is a combination of Delightful Dijon, Watermelon Wonder and a little Mint Macaron sponged onto the stamped image and then over-stamped with the original image in Tip Top Taupe ink.  

  You can see that I crumpled it a little before placing one dimensional in the centre and adhering both the tip of the leaf and the stem, to the background of the card. I've used my "go - to" stamp sets - Gorgeous Grunge and Work of Art, to create the background in Mint Macaron, Watermelon Wonder, Delightful Dijon and Tip Top Taupe. The card base is Whisper White with edges sponged in Tip Top Taupe, matted onto Mint Macaron and Watermelon Wonder. 

The tag is stamped with a greeting from "I Think Your Great" stamp set, and the "celebrate" is from Expressions Naturals Elements that I have sponged lightly with Delightful Dijon ink.   

I hope you like what I've made - I'm still not convinced although I am warming to the finished product.

Thanks so much for stopping by....

Now you should hop along to the next link in the list below to get some more awesome inspiration on ways to use the new 2015 - 2017 In Colors.
Simply select the name after my name and you'll be on your way!

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Stampin Up Hawaii Achievers Swap

Hello or should I say Aloha! 

We'll be leaving in a little over an hour, so I just have time to do a quick post on my swaps before I leave. I'm going to schedule the post so it doesn't spoil the surprise for the recipients, But I'm going to be flat out catching up on classes when I get home, so now is a perfect time. 

A sneak peek of the finished card fronts. I love how my colours turned out - they are so bright and summery.

Lots of techniques were needed to achieve the finished card front. I started by using a brayer on A4 size sheets of Whisper White. I love playing with colour and I used combinations of Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Tangerine Tango and Daffodil Delight. The other colours came about by overlapping colours.

I stamped the swirls in Cherry Cobbler and the leaf and flower image with Memento Black as I just wanted a hint of the images, then I used Pacific Point for the zig zag stamp. I had to leave all this to dry over night then the embossed Gorgeous Grunge stamps in both Gold and White.

The butterflies are also stamped in Memento then water coloured  with an Aqua Painter and classic inks. This is such a quick technique and I think gives a really gorgeous effect.

Finally here is a selection of the finished card fronts. I'm really hoping the recipients like them.

You can probably see the variations brought about by using the brayer in a random and "modern" way without trying to blend the colours perfectly. I really like the feeling of light that shines through on a lot of these, and put that down to the inclusion of Daffodil Delight ink. 

These are very colourful and remind me of the tropics (and the 80's) 

You can find a list of the items used below and if you'd like further information please feel free to contact me via my Demonstrator Business Web Site

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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.

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Crafty Tuesday Brayer Class

More fun with the brayer at Crafty Tuesday morning class today. Liz, one of my Stampin' Up! team members is moving to Cairns so she had the choice of what she wanted to do and Brayer techniques is what she chose.

I admit that I had a few "students" who were not happy during the early part of the class. I spent some time demonstrating using the brayer on Whisper White, Shimmer White and Glossy White card stock. Unfortunately Stampin' Up! no longer stocks the Glossy White (which happens to be my favourite base for brayering) but I wanted to show them the variety of finishes that could be achieved. 

I also wanted to stretch the creativity of the participants so challenged them to work "outside their comfort  zone" and try a variety of methods. As many of you know Brayering can be quite difficult and take a bit of practice, but by the end of the class we had some really great results.

I really like the effect achieved on this card using classic inks on Whisper White. Almost everyone tended to apply too much ink too quickly but this crafter used a lighter rolling motion and although she thought it was not good because it was not smooth, I soon convinced her to "see" various scenes in the colours. She added a couple of stamped images from "Wetlands" stamp set by Stampin' Up!, tied a piece of Linen Thread around it and matted on Black and White card. Lovely! I love the colours and balance achieved in this sample.

When the ladies got a bit heavy handed with the ink, I suggested they turn these samples (on the right above) into modern abstract cards that would be great for the men/boys in their lives. There are no better stamp sets to do this than Gorgeous Grunge and Work of Art stamp sets. You can find both of these in the Annual Catalogue - page 165. We actually used a very old Kaleidoscope stamp pad that I have had for  9 years as I purchased it when Stampin Up stocked this item. I wish they would bring these back too! But, by adding some Cherry Cobbler images and embossing with gold and white, an attractive abstract card has been achieved. Again the choice of mat and card base colours is important in the finished product.

 

These 3 images above are brayered onto Glossy White and you can see the difference in smoothness. It is much easier to get the colours to blend on the smooth surface of the Glossy White, and easier again if paler colours are used. 

 

By the end of the class everyone was looking into the brayered backgrounds, seeing different scenes or images. We all agreed the lower one is a face ( a little abstract but none the less - a face) Turn this sideways and you see a great mountain ranged or a rocky outcrop near the ocean - you just have to let your imagination run free, and I'm pleased to say I think everyone was doing that by the end of the class. 

Finally I have my example that I created on Whisper White.

You can see the build up of layers and variety of colours used. Also the combination of techniques:- brayer background; stamped images: heat embossed images. I really enjoy collage stamping and found this morning lots of fun and quite satisfying. Class went way over time but we all had a really good learning experience.

I hope you gain some inspiration from these samples and will give this a try. Experimenting is the basis of creativity - try something different - whether it be a combination of techniques, combining unusual colours and patterns or simply creating images and matting them in unusual ways.

Below is a list of many of the products used in these samples. If you would like to take advantage of the last few days of Sale A Bration and place an on-line order at my store, just use this code: 7VTN9W2P for the chance to win an ENVELOPE PUNCH BOARD. Make sure you leave your contact details in the order as everyone who participates this week will go in the draw. 

Orders close on Monday March 30. 

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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!