An ATC

Yesterday I went into the Newcastle Craft Fair. As I was meeting some people I decided to make up some ATC's. It's been so long since I made one I had to look up the measurements to be sure (2 1/1" x 3 1/2" for anyone else who has forgotten ). For this ATC I used Carte Postal (from the SU Summer Mini) and French Script (retiring at the end of the month!). I got the colours for this from a colour guide that features the current In Colors (SU put on the guide on the demo website), and the colours are Vintage Violet, Perfect Plum, Bordering Blue and True Thyme. I loved how this came out! The French Script was stamped on the Perfect Plum base using Pale Plum ink (since I wanted a really subtle effect) and over that I have stamped various images from the Carte Postale set using VersaMark and Perfect Plum ink. For the flower motif I stamped in Vintage Violet, let it dry thoroughly and then coloured using markers. The Perfect Plum marker was much darker than I wanted so I scribbled it on a Stamp-a-ma-jig imaging sheet and picked some of it up with a Pale Plum marker, creating an in-between shade. The Thyme layer had it's edge sponged before it and the flower motif had their edges distressed. After sticking all that together I finished them off with an adhesive gem as the flower centre.

Anyone in the area reading this I encourage you to pop along to the fair. It was wonderful to have some of those shops come here (though not sure my wallet feels the same). I'm really looking forward to it's return next year.

Again with the Chocolate and Teal!

On Saturday I was in Sydney to attend Sydney Regional training put on by Stampin' Up! I squeezed in some time to make some swaps and this is the first design I did, reprising the colour combination of one of my Christmas cards with a bit of a tweak. The flower and sentiment are from the Carte Postal set, the leaves along the left edge are from the matching Leaves a la Carte wheel (both available in the Summer mini which starts on December 1st). The background is an old favourite - French Script. I swapped metallics, changing the gold I used in this Christmas card to copper.

I had such a great time at regionals. Between all the members of Angela's downline (and downlines of those downlines), and those I know through online groups etc, everywhere I turned there was a familiar face or name. We also had some creative time and focused on the business side of things. If you'd like to hear more about the benefits of being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, contact me and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

Bloom in Orchid Rose

I've been enjoying red and purple combinations for a while, not just in stamping (there were some recent Christmas decorations that I particuarly enjoyed) , so when looking to break in my "In Full Bloom" set, I was inspired by this card by Trudee Sauer.

I used Handsome Hunter for the base card, but I am not sure it was a good move. I think Trudee's use of black made the card very striking. Anyway, I stamped the "French Script" background on the Handsome Hunter cardstock with VersaMark and pierced the bottom corners using the template and tool from the Stampin' Up! Crafters Tool kit. I stamped the flower, stem and leaf using Basic Black (I think, oops. Card is no longer in my possession, and it seems I can't remember more than a week ago!) on Very Vanilla cardstock. These were coloured using the SU! watercolour crayons and a blender pen, including the yellow around them. I then sponged on Barely Banana ink to cover the rest fo the cardstock. The image was trimmed and layered on Rose Red and Orchid Opulence. I stamped a strip of Rose Red with one of the backgrounds from "Itty Bitty Backgrounds" using VersaMark, layered on Orchid Opulence, tied some black hemp twine around them then mounted onto the base card. The main image was mounted over the top using Dimensionals.

Overwhelmed

Yesterday afternoon I got home from school pick-up and finally had some time to get creative (the kids were playing nicely at that stage). I looked at my new stamps... and did nothing! I couldn't decide where to start! So I had a clean-out instead, and I'll try again this morning. So unfortunately no nice, hot off the press card to pretty up the blog for today, but I will post a pair of cards I made on the weekend for a challenge at The Scrappers Stash :

PSX Santa, Stamp-It "North Pole", Penny Black "Seasons Greetings" and Stampin' Up! French Script stamps; VersaFine Olympia Green, Brilliance Lightening Black and VersaFine Imperial Purple inks; Bazzill, Favini, Worldwin Colourmates and unknown cardstock used; DMC gold thread and skinny cream and thin plum satin ribbons