Party Animal

Happy New Year everyone! Hopefully there aren't any of you regretting being so much of a party animal this morning... which leads me to todays card, another look at the Balloon Builders set from the Occasions catalogue - which launches tomorrow!

You may have noticed in the Occasions catalogue there is already a lot of inspiration for this set:

When I returned home from OnStage - where everyone received this set - I decided to see what other animals and things I could come up with:

Yeah, I think this set is going to be a lot of fun!

Normally I have a vision in my head of the card I want to make before I start - though things often get changed along the way. For this card I made it up as I went along. Working from my sheet of test stamping, I replicated the horse for my card, stamping the ballons on Whisper White cardstock with Crumb Cake ink. I then used So Saffron and Calypso Coral on the long and short skinny balloons respectively, stamping the images in a rough circle to create the sun rays. The sentiment was stamped on So Saffron cardstock with Calypso Coral ink then punched with a 1 1/4" circle punch. I laid it in position without adhesive so I knew where I wanted to trim the top edge, and once trimmed I attached it to the cardfront with a couple of dimensionals.

Todays colours are:

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Occasions Catalogue Sneak Peek

As I mentioned last week, over the weekend I attended one of the new events put on by Stampin' Up!, OnStage Local in Melbourne. Other than the usual catching up with old friends and making some new ones, we got to see a lot of new product from the upcoming Occasions catalogue - oh boy I think this one is going to be as popular as the current Holiday catalogue! We also got to see product the upcoming Sale-a-Bration catalogue. Everyone received a few of the new goodies, and I had to get stuck in and have a little play yesterday. Another perk of attending was being able to purchase more product before the pre-order period offically begins, so I am crossing my fingers that arrives before the weekend so I can have more of a play. I know, I know, I am teasing you horribly. So here's a glimpse of what is in store:

This is the Balloon Builders set, which has a variety of balloon shaped stamps that are fabulous for combining to create other images - it's a great one for letting your imagination run wild! Along with the stamped images I used some sequins (just like those that were scattered on the tables at OnStage, that felt fitting) to jazz the card up a little. I even tucked some clear ones behind my cardstock layers, which you might be able to see a little better below (above the T and diagonally up to the left from my watermark):

I also decided to make a stripped back version, for those who don't like the jazzing-up:

Like what you see? Let me know if you'd like to receive a catalogue, when they become available I can pop them in the mail for you to drool over. If you book a workshop you could even earn some of the products for free!

Colours used:

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Sponged Scallops

I have't quite finished playing with the Striped Scallop die, and have used it in a more expected way for this card (another Father's Day card, but works just as well for a birthday card if you wanted).

Well... a little more expected than using it to embossing the design into cardstock. I did use it to diecut this time, but have used the little cut out pieces to create my background this time. I cut the die out three times from Shimmery White cardstock to give myself plenty of scallops to play with. I then applied some temporary adhesive to my grid paper, laid down the scallop "frame" and placed the scallops back into it and getting them to stick. I then lifted the "frame" up and sponged the scallops. I thought I had taken a photo of the grid paper once I was finished as the effect was equally cool, but alas there was no such photo when I connected my camera to my computer :( After my scallops were all sponged I laid the "frame" onto the cardstock and stuck all the little scallops down before removing the frame and leaving the scallops all perfectly spaced. I was so happy with how this came out! Here's a close up of the scallops so you can see the shimmer better.

And here are the colours I used:

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Mixed Bunch Farewell

For me Mixed Bunch was a surprise inclusion on the retiring product list this year. The clear-mount version is sold out so if you are still thinking about purchasing woodmount is your only option and you need to get in quick! There's only 2 weeks left to order retiting items, but remember they are only available while stocks last.

For this card I once again decided to use an image in the set that I hadn't used that often. I thought the little dots on the petals would team well with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder that is also retiring. And then I had to give Itty Bitty Banners a last hoorah to finish the card off!

Do you like the colours I have used on this card? I thought I would start using a simple graphic to give an easy reference for colours I use on projects so you don't have to piece together the info from the product list :)

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