Fab Friday plus TGIF Bonus

A few weeks ago, I watched a video by Jennifer McGuire showing her pop-up shadow box card. I was very keen to try it and the challenges at Fab Friday and TGIF gave me the perfect inspiration.

TGIF have a celebratory balloon challenge, while Fab Friday have a lovely summer colour challenge.

For balloons, it's hard to go past Balloon Celebration. The two sizes of balloon in the set help to give a sense of distance, with the smaller ones at the rear. I sponged clouds onto the back panel of the card with a cloud mask and Bermuda Bay ink. I used Stitched Rectangle dies to create the window.

The lovely 'Hooray' balloons come from Happy Birthday Gorgeous. They also work with the Balloon Bouquet punch.

There are balloons in three planes: the back wall of the card, on the frame and one attached to acetate in the middle ground. (That was the best little tip in Jennifer McGuire's tutorial.)

Best of all, this 3-D card folds flat to fit in an envelope.

UPDATE: Delighted to be the FAB FAVE at Fab Friday!

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to be yours and to  help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. Please message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. 

And, of course, you can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand by clicking any of the products pictured below or the SHOP NOW button in the sidebar of this blog or you can message me.

Product List

Balloon Celebration Photopolymer Stamp Set

[140675]

$55.00

Happy Birthday Gorgeous Photopolymer Stamp Set

[143662]

$44.00

Balloon Bouquet Punch

[140609]

$38.00

Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay

[131286]

$17.75

Lemon Lime Twist A4 Cardstock

[144250]

$17.75

Flirty Flamingo A4 Cardstock

[141421]

$17.75

Highland Heather A4 Cardstock

[147010]

$17.75

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

[106549]

$20.50

Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad

[147096]

$15.75

Lemon Lime Twist Classic Stampin' Pad

[147145]

$15.75

Flirty Flamingo Classic Stampin' Pad

[147052]

$15.75

Highland Heather Classic Stampin' Pad

[147103]

$15.75

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

[132708]

$12.00

Rectangle Stitched Framelits Dies

[148551]

$74.00

Stamping Sponges

[141337]

$7.25

Window Sheets

[142314]

$10.50

CAS Colours and Sketches 313

This week's challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches gave me a chance to have a first play with Painted Seasons, one of the sets free during Sale-a-bration, with a qualifying order.  It is only available until the end of March.

The DisINKtive set has a striking flower plus various bits of foliage that lend themselves perfectly to a masked spray.

I used clear Wink of Stella on the leaves which not only added a bit of sparkle but spread the ink to be more like a light wash of colour, while retaining the shadowing.

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. Please message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. 

And, of course, you can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand by clicking any of the products pictured below or the SHOP NOW button in the sidebar of this blog or you can message me.

Product List

Painted Seasons Bundle

[150349]

$0.00

Happy Birthday Gorgeous Photopolymer Stamp Set

[143662]

$44.00

Pacific Point A4 Card Stock

[116202]

$17.75

Sahara Sand A4 Card Stock

[121695]

$17.75

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

[106549]

$20.50

Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad

[147098]

$15.75

Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' Pad

[147117]

$15.75

Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad

[147090]

$15.75

Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

[141897]

$14.00

Rhinestone Basic Jewels

[144220]

$10.50

Colour Inkspiration 25 - Guest Designer

Welcome to the bloghop for Challenge 25 of Colour Inkspiration. I'm feeling very excited at being the Guest Designer this time around and I hope you'll find the time to play along with us this fortnight.

Colour Inkspiration is a Facebook challenge group that offers a new colour challenge on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month. You can find the page for this group here.

The challenges are always beautiful combinations and this one is no exception: so fresh and vibrant!

I knew right away what I wanted to do with these delicious colours. I wanted to make an album card for a special birthday.

I'd stored away on Pinterest a design for a fold-up scrapbook album that I thought would scale down to make a special birthday card. The design and instructions, by Canadian demonstrator Tamara Bertram, are here. I've scaled it down by cutting one piece of 12x12 DSP into 4 6x6 squares. 

So, folded up, it looks like this.

Untied and opened, it's like this.

I've added in some pictures of the family to fit the occasion and more DSP but you could also add in extra messages, if it was an occasion where lots of people wanted to leave a message.

Here's a look into each quadrant.

And, a place to write...

I had such a lot of fun making this and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I can see myself making more of these and in different sizes, too.

I'm looking forward to seeing what amazing things other people make with this wonderful set of colours.

Next up on the  hop is the wonderful Nikki Spencer.

All products used in this project are Stampin' Up and all current items are available for purchase through my on-line store. Just click the SHOP NOW button in the side-bar.

Ingredients

Card: Floral Boutique DSP (retired), Fresh Floral DSP, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Lemon-Lime Twist

Stamps: Happy Birthday, Gorgeous, Floral Phrases, Petal Palette

Inks: Night of Navy, Lemon-Lime Twist

Other: Layering Circle framelits, Stitched shape framelits, white organza ribbon

As You See It 164 - Design Team Card

This week at As You See It, we have a very pretty colour combination. The graphic made me think of a pastel Christmas but that one didn't quite work out as well as I'd hoped!

So for my second go-round, I went for a summery birthday card. I started by making a bokeh panel using the three challenge colours.

Using Happy Birthday, Gorgeous, I made some balloons using Pacific Point and Pool Party. The were popped up on dimensionals and then I scattered some Flirty Flamingo enamel stars to add some more festive notes.

You can join us in this challenge any time up to 11.55 p.m. Wednesday 13 December PST.

We'd love to see how you see these colours.

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. Please message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. If you live in New Zealand and you would like to join my Stampin' Up team, message me for a chat.

Ingredients

Card: Pacific Point, Whisper White, Shimmery cardstock, scrap of Pool Party

Stamps: Happy Birthday Gorgeous

Inks: Pacific Point, Pool Party, Flirty Flamingo, White pigment ink

Other: Balloon punch, dimensionals, sponges, Flirty Flamingo enamel shapes, mask for bokeh.

All products Stampin' Up

As You See It 154 - DT Card

Welcome to another As You See It Challenge. Today we've got a sketch for you and I can't wait to see how you see it. I found the asymmetry of the panel a bit tricky to get looking right, so much so that I wished I'd ignored it and done a curve!

I did enjoy getting out Happy Birthday Gorgeous from the new annual catalogue. It's got some great birthday greetings and some lovely balloons that I've used a few times but I'd largely ignored the many little floral bits and bobs that come with it.

So I used the little stylised flowers, stamping the outline in Fresh Fig and stamping the filler in Powder Pink. Then I had a choice of four different leaves but settled for these simple little ones in Garden Green for the base layer.

Then to decorate the top panel, I used the larger of two roses and a pair of other leaves. The rose was originally Fresh Fig on white but when I got out the Wink of Stella, the ink smeared a bit to give this very pale pink.

It doesn't really show up in the picture but there are a pair of score lines across the very top of the pink panel, just to add a bit of interest. I'd originally intended to use the 'Happy Birthday' on the inside but I've actually left it blank because it seemed to me that 'It's Your Day' could cover many things.

You have two weeks to show us how you see this sketch and we'd love to see what you do!

Please join us.

Ingredients

Card: Fresh Fig, Powder Pink, Whisper White

Stamps: Happy Birthday Gorgeous

Ink: Fresh Fig, Powder Pink, Garden Green

Other: dimensional, clear Wink of Stella, scoring blade

Global Design Project 93

The colours at Global Design Project were so bright and cheery that I made time to play with them today and I might even scrape in before the deadline!

I did go back to an old, old favourite, Awesomely Artistic as a base for this card but added in some newer products, Dragonfly Dreams (certainly destined to be a future long time favourite) and Happy Birthday Gorgeous.

The colours were so vibrant, airy and delicious, they directed the direction of this card no matter quite what I'd thought at the outset. I started by using an acrylic block to stamp the background, then built up some detail with a mix of stamping and embossing.

The dragonfly has a soft shimmer from a coat of clear Wink of Stella and has a Lemon-Lime Twist underling that peeks out from certain angles.

The butterfly is also stamped in Pool Party to give him some detailing.

Thanks for such a fun challenge!

Ingredients

Card: Pool Party, Berry Burst, Lemon-Lime Twist, watercolour paper

Stamps: Awesomely Artistic, Dragonfly Dreams, Happy Birthday Gorgeous

Inks: Pool Party, Berry Burst, Lemon-Lime Twist, Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Other: Detailed Dragonfly thinlits, Stitched Shapes framelits, White embossing powder, clear Wink of Stella, Berry Burst finely woven ribbon, rhinestones, mini-dimensionals, dimensionals.