Retro Rubber 55 - Design Team

Love is in the air this time at Retro Rubber with a challenge just in time for Valentine's Day. Just use hearts in your card and don't forget that the stamps you use must be more than a year old. You can use new other stuff - just the stamps have to be retro.

Well, the best thing about this challenge for me is the chance to go back and revisit former favourites. One of my favourites is the retired Flowering Flourishes - so elegant - and that is dated from around 2012. Regular readers of my blog will know that I have recently become the owner of a MISTI and it is with pleasure that I tell you this card might well have been impossible without one and I no longer regret the price I paid for it!

I used MISTI to stamp twice: once with crumb cake on white and once with versamark on Real Red, which I then embossed with white. Then I used a punch and dies from two other framelit sets to cut the hearts out of the red and overlaid them onto the Crumb Cake/Whisper White. Since the success of the design depended on the two images matching up perfectly, you can see why it would be pretty tough without the MISTI. I do like the effect it created.

The 'congratulations' is from the now retired Zoo Babies set, which appeared in the 2013 catalogue. Even the paper is retro, coming from a paper stack that was in last year's Occasions catalogue.

So please, get out your old stamps and show them a bit of love this Valentine's Day and show us what you've done. You have two weeks, until February 10, to join in. Don't forget to tell us how old your stamps are.

Ingredients

Card: Real Red, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, scrap of DSP

Stamps: Flowering Flourishes, Zoo Babies

Ink: Crumb Cake, Real Red, versamark

Other: white embossing powder, Sweetheart punch, Baker's Box thinlits, Mini-treat bag thinlits, pearl.

Colour Inkspiration 2

I find it exciting to be part of a new challenge and am pleased to have got this entry in for number 2 on the very last day of the school holidays. Work tomorrow....

I do love the soft and romantic colour combination on offer by the team at Colour Inkspiration. Ask to join this Facebook challenge group, if you haven't already.

My most recent acquisition is the Special Reason bundle, available in the new Occasions catalogue. Although the Stylish Stems framelits are absolutely, amazingly adorable, for this card I wanted to explore the idea of watercolouring with the stamps. 

The stamps have a slightly distressed finish to them which is even more obvious when applied to watercolour paper. So I stamped them, then added extra colour in places with Stampin' Write markers to help create shadows and highlights before using an aquapainter to blend them. I think it's given them a look of a watercolour painting. 

I've masked in the leaves and used the leaf vein stamp to create some pseudo-branches in the bouquet. The leaves are stamped and not watercoloured as I didn't want to lose the lovely veining on them. The flower centres are untouched except for a lick of Wink of Stella to give them a bit of glimmer.

I masked part of the birthday greeting from the Sale-a-bration set, Avant Garden, for the sentiment. Luckily, I had in my stash some of the retired Wisteria Wonder seam binding and I've paired it with Delicate Details - also a Sale-a-bration set -  to create the grounding for the greeting. The wee nest of Silver metallic thread ties both the circular element of the floral panel and the bling of the rhinestones and Wink of Stella.

Thanks team, for such a wonderful palette to play with!

Ingredients

Card: Wisteria Wonder, Soft Sky, watercolour paper, Whisper White, scrap of Mint Macaron

Stamps: Special Reason, Timeless Textures, Avant Garden, Delicate Details

Inks: Wisteria Wonder, Soft Sky, Mint Macaron, Garden Green

Other: Stampin' Write markers: Soft Sky, Wisteria Wonder; Wink of Stella, Softly Falling embossing folder, Wisteria Wonder seam binding, Wisteria Wonder enamel shape, Silver metallic thread, rhinestones, dimensionals, aquapainter, circle framelit.

As You See It DT Challenge 142

It's so good to have the As You See It challenge back up and running. If you joined us last week for our return, then thank you. If you're just joining us, then welcome! This week we have another sketch for you.

This one turned into a challenge for me as at first I didn't even notice the tucked in elements at each side of the front panel on the sketch we were given! That caused a bit of a rethink!

I've been playing around a lot with wedding and anniversary cards because I'd purchased the Falling in Love DSP and Falling for You stamp set from Stampin' Up plus I recently held a Saturday Special class with a wedding and romance theme. Although this card was not one of the ones I taught, I had all the things on my desk so I naturally played around with them some more - as you do!

I don't know about you, but I find mixing designer papers a bit tricky probably because I so seldom use DSP in my cards. At least with Stampin' Up, you know things will work together.

I'm really liking the lacy edge design from Delicate Details, which is my favourite Sale-a-bration item this year. You can earn the whole set for free with any order of $110. It's so pretty gold embossed but just as lovely in plain ink.

You have until 11.55pm PST on Wednesday 8 February to join us in this challenge. We'd love to see what you do with it.

Ingredients

Card: Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, DSP from Falling in Love

Stamps: Falling for You, Delicate Details

Inks: Versamark

Other: gold embossing powder, 1/4" Very Vanilla ribbon, lace doilies

The Paper Players 328

With the summer holidays drawing to a close and return to work looming large, I did not want to waste a chance to play at The Paper Players.

Today was yet another experiment for me. I wondered how things would turn out if I had one bold flower against outlines of foliage, almost acting as a kind of spotlight. I do love Altenew's Peony Bouquet as it's so dramatic and quite challenging to use. It's a multi-step stamp, and I've used the whole four steps for the peony but have only used the outlines for the buds and foliage in the background. I masked them to create a foliage background.

Since this was a friendship card, a yellow flower seemed the right choice.

As this was an experiment, I also made one on a white background with black ink. Sadly, that one just did not look anywhere near as effective has been consigned to the snippets bin.

Update: Delighted to be A Cut Above at The Paper Players this week!

Ingredients

Card: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, So Saffron

Stamps: Altenew Peony Bouquet, Stampin' Up Thoughtful Banners

Inks: Early Espresso, So Saffron, Hello Honey, Delightful Dijon, Tuxedo Black

Other: So Saffron enamel dots, Peony Bouquet die, dimensionals

Cas(e) this Sketch 205 and CYCI 145

Today's card takes inspiration from several places. One is the sketch at Cas(e) this Sketch, one is the colour combination from Can You Case It? and the other is a 'how to' tip that I got from a fellow local demonstrator, Carol. There's a small group of local demonstrators who get together, share events and ideas from time to time and she showed us how to do this very cool crackled background using greaseproof paper, an embossing folder and an iron. I've been looking to use this technique in a challenge and today was the perfect chance.

Isn't Carol's background idea lovely? After embossing a piece of greaseproof paper, you put it into a sandwich of paper and iron it. Then you can colour the paper however you like. I've sponged it with two colours, then stamped and embossed over the top. Softly Falling was the embossing folder used, and it's also used on the front of the card base, behind the decorative panel.

The underdragonfly is silver embossed on Island Indigo. The lacy wings have had clear Wink of Stella applied and in real life have a glimmer of their own.

Update: Delighted to be a Top 6 Pick at Can You Case It.

Ingredients

Card: Heavyweight Whisper White, Whisper White for the panel, Silver foil card, Island Indigo

Stamps: Dragonfly Dreams, Awesomely Artistic

Inks: Island Indigo, Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant, Versamark

Other: Detailed Dragonfly thinlits, silver embossing powder, Softly Falling embossing folder, dimensionals, Wink of Stella, Metallic shapes, greaseproof paper, iron, sponges.

FMS 271 and SIP 82

Before Christmas I bought myself a MISTI. I wanted one but I had to order it from overseas, so kept putting it off. When I saw one in an actual real shop, I bought it without thinking, so stunned was I to see one. So, I thought it was about time I made it start paying its way and today's card is an experiment in MISTI stamping.

Inspiration comes from two places. Firstly, the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

Secondly, the theme challenge at Stamp, Ink, Paper, to incorporate natural elements.

The natural elements occur in a number of ways: the subject matter - trees, the use of greens and browns, the linen twine and the embossing folder which is reminiscent of wood grain or bark. The background is very lightly sponged in Crumb Cake to help bring out the texture.

Ingredients

Card: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Garden Green

Stamps: Totally Trees, Thoughtful Banners

Inks: Elegant Eggplant, Island Indigo, Garden Green, Crushed Curry, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake

Other: Linen twine, MISTI, Seaside embossing folder, sponge.

Inkspire Me 284

By chance the new challenge at Inkspire Me matches up beautifully with the new Stampin' Up supplies I got earlier in the week. Naturally, I needed no more encouragement than this colour challenge to get into my craft room and play around.

The colours in the challenge are all colours that are used in the new Falling in Love DSP. I don't usually use much DSP, preferring instead to use stamps and ink to create my own backgrounds. I often end up buying paper because it's pretty then struggle to use it, so today I made it my own sub-challenge to make sure that I used some.

I spent a bit of time before I was happy with the central flower. I've stamped the flower, put in a layer of vellum then added the outline die cut. The centre of the flower is cut from Sahara Sand then a rhinestone has been added. The vellum toned down the Sweet Sugarplum and let the die cut stand out more and then it's been give a lick of Wink of Stella, which hasn't shown up so well in the photo.

If you live in New Zealand and are interested in any of the products used today, please click on the Shop Now button on the side bar, or visit my Jan Clothier - Independent Stampin' Up Demonstrator facebook page. I would love to be your demonstrator.

Ingredients

Card: Sweet Sugarplum, Soft Sky, Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, Falling in Love DSP, vellum

Stamps: Falling for You, Special Reason

Ink: Sweet Sugarplum, Sahara Sand, Soft Sky

Other: Layering Oval framelits, Sweet Sugarplum ruched ribbon, Stylish Stems framelits, rhinestones, clear Wink of Stella, dimensionals.

All products are Stampin' Up.