Watercolour Flowers

Occasionally I like to sit down with a cup of coffee and take a look at what other people are doing with their Stampin' Up! supplies, and one person who can always wow me with her talents is Michelle Zindorf (go on, take a look - I'll wait here till you get back).

Normally, Michelle is the queen of brayers - many of her tutorials cover the use of the brayer to create multi-layered backgrounds that are just amazing - but this one in particular caught my eye.

 And to my surprise, I realised that I had all the stuff I needed to make it (actually, knowing how much "stuff" I have, this probably shouldn't have been surprising at all).  So I sat right down to give it a go (literally!  I dug everything out and started as soon as I saw the picture!).

As it turns out, the only things I didn't have were a Tempting Turquoise marker (but the inkpad will do in a pinch), and the Crisp Cantaloupe inkpad (one of the new In Colors - I have it on my wishlist, but I just haven't got around to placing my demonstrator pre-order quite yet).  Luckily the former In Color Calypso Coral is now staying around as part of the rejigged Subtles range and while it's a much stronger colour, it has subbed in quite well :-)

I wish you could see the colours properly - the light when I took the photo was a little dim, and the vibrance of the original hasn't come across well in these photos.

Here's a detail of the flowers - you can see the white gel pen highlighting the tops of the flowers, and the marker lines at the bottom for shadow.

Images © 1990-2013 Stampin' Up!® 
Supplies used:  
Stamps:  Summer Silhouettes
Cardstock:  Old Olive, Pool Party
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Calypso Coral, Pool Party Stampin' Write Marker, Old Olive Stampin' Write Marker, Always Artichoke Stampin' Write Marker, Calypso Coral Stampin' Write Marker
Accessories:  Watercolour Paper, Clear-Mount Blocks, Chevron Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, uni-ball Signo Gel Pen

Summer Flowers

I'm still loving this set - Summer Silhouettes - lots of scope to mix 'n' match the stamps to create your own bouquet or garden of summer flowers :-)

I ran across this card on Pinterest the other night and knew I had to try my hand at something similar.

Here's my version.  More Crumb-Cake-y, less Sahara-Sand-y, but you can see the inspiration.

The scalloped border was created by trimming a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock with the Large Scallop Edgelits, and then carefully positioning the Delicate Designs embossing folder so that only part of the design was embossed.  I felt that the whole border pattern would be a little too overwhelming on an otherwise simple design.

And here's a closeup of that scalloped border:

No greeting yet - once I've decided just what occasion it's for, I'll sort that out :-)

 Images © 1990-2013 Stampin' Up!®
Supplies used:
Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, En Francais Cardstock:  Crumb Cake, Whisper White
Ink: Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Raspberry Ripple
Accessories:  Large Scallops Edgelits, Delicate Designs Embossing Folders

80th Birthday!

My dad celebrated his 80th birthday last week - wow, I can't believe I just wrote that :-)  My brother had the family over to his house in the country for lunch and cake and general get-togetherness and a great time was had by all - specially Dad!  He was proud as punch to be surrounded by not only his kids, but his grandkids as well.

To mark the occasion, what could I do but make a special card for him?  This turned out to be quite a challenge, as a "milestone" card like this can't be just any old thing - it has to be something special!

I hope that this card meets that expectation:

Inspiration was heavily drawn from this card which I found on Pinterest - which was in its turn, inspired by another picture on Pinterest ... I wonder if my card will end up on Pinterest in some sort of Pin-vortex?

Anyway, I specially liked the cut out circle with the image below - I dressed mine up a little using the Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack and my trusty paper piercer.  And that embossed layer is popped up a little with Dimensionals ... lots and lots of Dimensionals.  I can honestly say I've never used so many Dimensionals on one card before :-)

Images © 1990-2012 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used:

Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Memorable Moments
Cardstock:  Basic Gray, Lucky Limeade, Midnight Muse, Whisper White
 Ink: Lucky Limeade, Midnight Muse
Other:Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder, 2-1/2" Circle Punch, Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack, Midnight Muse Striped 3/8" Satin Ribbon, Apothecary Accents Framelits, Stripes Embossing Folder, Apothecary Accents Framelits, 3/16" Metallic Brads, 3/4" Circle Punch

In Colors 2012-14

Every year, a new batch of In Colors arrives, and every year it takes a little time to warm to them. A card like this one does help, though :-)

I found myself heavily inspired by the card linked above, and so combined Gumball Green, Raspberry Ripple and Summer Starfruit for myself ... I love the "wild garden" look of it, and realised that these three colours actually look good together (I had my doubts)!  It also gave me the opportunity to open up another new stamp set, Summer Silhouettes - love this set! 

You can build your own flowers using the separate stems and flower heads, and there's also a cool background stamp as well (take a close look at the green layer below to see what it looks like).  I had to do a little careful positioning to get the stamp to fit all the way across the cardstock - and then realised that it was going to be covered up and didn't really matter *sigh*.  You would be proud of the effort I went to if you could only see it, honest.

One last thing before I forget ... see that gorgeous satin stitched ribbon?  Fancy getting something like that for FREE?  Don't forget that, during the month of October, for every $60 you spent on catalogue goodies (not including shipping), you can get a FREE roll of 2012-14 In Color Stitched Satin ribbon.  The ribbon normally retails for $15.95 - can you say BARGAIN?!

Don't miss out - contact me to place your order today!

Images © 1990-2012 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used:

Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Itty Bitty Banners
Cardstock:  Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green, Summer Starfruit, Whisper White
Ink: Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green, Summer Starfruit

Other: Bitty Banners Framelits, Summer Starfruit 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon