Monthly Archives: April 2016

Happy Home and Hello Honey

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Today’s title is a little alliterative (not a word one gets to use often!) and the card is continuing my “use it before it retires” philosophy. I wasn’t happy to see that Happy Home is being retired – I love the Christopher Robin type illustrations. I hadn’t used it with the matching framelit before, so I decided today was the day. I have been through the new catalogue (well, the pdf) a couple of times and I’ve checked with my sister but neither of us can see anything that coordinates with the framelit. I’m assuming that means that there’s a stamp set to coordinate in either the next holiday or Occasions catalogues. I’d say that I’m looking forward to that, but there’s SO much in the new annual catalogue that I don’t have space to look forward to anything else!

So I stamped my favourite image from this set in archival black ink onto very vanilla card stock. This is now the only black ink I use unless I’m doing major watercolouring and need the stazon. The black memento ink has not been used since I got the archival and it used to be my firm favourite! The archival black is a really great ink – it doesn’t run, it gives a great crisp image but you do have to be careful to give it a little time to dry for fear of smudging.

Stampin' Up! Happy Home

I coloured the image using the cover of the mossy meadow ink pad and my aquapainter, making sure it wasn’t uniform so as to give an impression of different depth. Then I used my tangelo twist Stampin’ Write marker for the shirt and the kite. Next I used the Hearth and Home framelit to cut out a Hello Honey window and used the 2 way pen to glue the two pieces together. I really like the 2 way pen for delicate work – there’s no oozing. I wanted to add some texture so I used the Elegant Dots embossing folder and a piece of hello honey which I then glued to a hello honey card base. Delightful Dijon is close, but I’m really going to miss this colour. I contemplated a sentiment from the Happy Home set (some of which are completely unused for no good reason) but decided that the card didn’t need it. I used dimensionals to give the window lift from the texture.

Stampin' Up! Happy Home

The new hostess code for the next four weeks is J46QU3Z6. If you spend $65 with me (before tax and shipping) I’ll send you the pearl basic jewels. All the details are on my Customer Loyalty Program page. If you love the home and hearth framelits and the Happy Home set, you might want to consider ordering them as a bundle – it will save you 15% and of course Happy Home is retiring and is only available as supplies last.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Paper Pumpkin April 2016 Alternate 5

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This is my Paper Pumpkin April 2016 Alternate 5 plus some odds and ends. I’ve been trying to use up DSP and other retiring consumables lately as well as play with my Paper Pumpkin kit. Today I started off looking at the retiring in colours (which I’m sorely going to miss) and this card developed from there.

Stampin' Up! Paper Pumpkin Lovely Little Wreath

I looked at the ribbon that I have in the retiring in colours (all of it is already retired actually) and found that I had about 6 inches left of the satin mossy meadow. I tried to tie a bow but there just wasn’t enough. I’m still seeing the flower/starburst image from this month’s Paper Pumpkin, Lovely Little Wreath, as a celebratory image. This led me to choosing the celebrate sentiment from the bonus stamp set, All About Everything,  and stamping it in mossy meadow placing it above my line of ribbon. Next the starbursts were added in mossy meadow and I constructed the card gluing my very vanilla layer to a mossy meadow card base. This was when I decided that my clean and simple card was just a bit too clean and simple.

Stampin' Up! Paper Pumpkin Lovely Little Wreath

I got out all my embellishments and played around with the botanical jewels, bow tie clips and buttons. Nothing quite worked. This was when I remembered that the Home For Christmas enamel dots are in mossy meadow (as well as very vanilla and cherry cobbler). Three of the smaller very vanilla dots on the ribbon worked perfectly. I realise that these are retired and if you love this card (and don’t happen to have the enamel dots left over) it’s hard to make. However, it would work just as well using whisper white and the white perfect accents. I think I may make this card up in the four other colours whilst I’m thinking how to use up the mossy meadow enamel dots! And whilst looking at my stash of retiring DSP. I’ve seen the new paper and I want it all! I’m definitely signing up for a share of my upcoming DSP and ribbon share!

Welcome to my new email subscriber, I’m so glad that you signed up to get my daily posts.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Sheltering Tree

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This is a card which started off as a design team card for CAS Colours & Sketches this week – a colour challenge of blushing bride, chocolate chip and tempting turquoise. I changed my mind midway through, but didn’t want to abandon the tree. So this morning I completed the card which can be used for several occasions.

Stampin' Up! Sheltering Tree

As you can see from the retiring list, Sheltering Tree is here to stay for the upcoming year so this is my mini celebration of that fact! I stamped the trunk in chocolate chip and then, after using the embossing buddy, stamped the leaves in versamark and heat embossed with blushing bride embossing powder. To continue the cherry blossom theme that the blushing bride embossing started, I added a piece of blushing bride cotton ribbon (on the retiring list) and also a bow. I decided to leave the white space that remained rather than squashing in a sentiment. I think this draws attention to the beautiful tree as it should. I realised, as I was halfway through this post, that the blushing bride embossing powder has retired. In fact – the cherry cobbler powder is on the retiring list and the crushed curry is on the clearance list so if you want either of those, you’d better move quickly. The iridescent ice powder has already sold out. I’m a little disappointed about this – I’d like to have the embossing powder in almost all the colours. But at least we’re keeping Sheltering Tree!

I must say that being on the Design Team and therefore having to enter each challenge is very good for me. I’m pretty sure that I would have walked away from the chocolate chip, blushing bride and tempting turquoise challenge at the beginning. But now, I’ve got three cards (admittedly today’s doesn’t have the turquoise and yesterday’s added pool party) that were inspired by that challenge. And I’m really thrilled with my design team card – I loved how it came out plus it used up retiring DSP. Win-win. So I’d encourage you to try challenges and not be easily intimidated. Even better if you join us at CAS Colours & Sketches!

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack

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I got the Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack as a Sale-a-bration freebie and have barely used it. Actually I rarely use vellum – I should work on that! This card started as a potential design card for the CAS Colours & Sketches challenge this week – a colour challenge of chocolate chip, tempting turquoise and blushing bride. I used an aquapainter to get the card fairly wet and then added a pale wash of blushing bride at the top and tempting turquoise at the bottom. After using the heat tool to dry the paper, I stamped the image from Wetlands in chocolate chip. There seemed to be something missing so I added the sentiment from Watercolor Wishes to the bottom in more chocolate chip. I just couldn’t get this card to cooperate and be sufficiently CAS for the design team so I put it to one side.

Stampin' Up! Wetlands and Watercolor Wishes and Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack

After playing with various mats, I decided to try the Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack as a mat/background. Apparently after going to the opera last night and a pedicure tonight (on top of work) I was tired and couldn’t cut the vellum the right size. After the second failure (!) I decided to cut a quarter of an inch off the card base to fix the issue! I used fast fuse to fix the watercolour paper to the vellum and also to the card base of soft sky. The tempting turquoise was just a bit too loud to work with the washed out colour that I’d put on the paper.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Wildflower Fields DSP for CC&S

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Here’s a use for a retired Sale-a-bration DSP which you probably still have in your stash. I know that I have plenty! Today is Thursday which means it’s a new challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches.

Stampin' Up! Wildflower Fields and Watercolor Wishes

This week Louise has chosen quite an interesting combination of colours. It definitely had me thinking for a while. Here’s the banner for the challenge – go for it, have a go with these colours.

I took one of the sheets of Wildflower Fields and used the stampin’ write markers in tempting turquoise, chocolate chip and blushing bride to colour in some of the circles. I then cut this piece on an angle and added a sentiment from the Watercolor Wishes set in tempting turquoise. I may have mentioned that I love this set – I’m so happy that it’s carrying over. I glued this piece onto the whisper white card stock.

Next I cut an envelope liner using the (retired!) envelope liner framelits and then coloured in more of the DSP (yes, as mentioned, I have loads!) with the three colours.

And there you have it. Lots of white space. No embellishments. A CAS card. My favourite type! It’s amazing what you can do with a piece of black and white DSP and a few pens.

See you tomorrow,

Liz