CTC 36 - Love and Sympathy

This week the CASE-ing The Catty team are focusing on the "Love and Sympathy" section of the Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue on pages 19-30.  There are some really beautiful samples in this section, I chose the thank you card featured on page 20 as the inspiration for my card.

I kept the layout almost identical to the one in the catalogue, but changed up the colours to give it a more somber feel. I also wanted to have a bit more of a play with the new 2015-17 In-Colours and used Tip Top Taupe, Watermelon Wonder and Mint Macaron, adding in Early Espresso as a coordinating neutral.  Instead of a thank you, I decided to change the sentiment to fit with the theme and used a lovely sympathy sentiment from Petite Pairs, the second half of which I stamped on the inside of the card along with one of the other smaller images from Flowering Flourishes 

If you want to play along just take inspiration from the Love and Sympathy section of the catalogue, upload a link to your blog to the main CASE-ing the Catty page and we will add it in for you.

Now you are off to hop on over to see what the talented Alison has created.

Happy Stamping
Monique

Blue Flowers

I love it when I have time to get a couple of challenges done in a weekend, I also got to have a stamping get together with another demo friend of mine and have another card to show you from that session - we always do far more chatting than creating lol. This time I am combining Create with Connie and Mary colour challenge with Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

Now I don't always think flowers when I think "blue", in fact there is a fun family story about blue flowers that I'll share at the end of this post.  I was particularly inspired by Margaret's creation and decided to do my own blue flower using You've Got This. All the stamps on this card are from that set.  I thought the Smokey Slate background was a little dark after I stamped it so added a layer of vellum over the top, securing it with Glue Dots and Washi Tape.

Now for the family story.  The night my husband and I went out for dinner with my parents to celebrate our engagement, we were talking about what colour the bridesmaid dresses would be.  My husband said he would like them to be blue, to which I responded "there aren't any blue flowers" so they couldn't match the dresses.  At that point my husband laughs and says "then what are those" pointing to a wall of flowers through the resteraunt window behind me.  Now here the story splits into two versions, his is that the wall was indeed covered in blue flowers. My version is that the lighting outside was making them look blue when they were really a purple colour.

To this day, more than 25 years later, my mum still sends me magazine clippings of blue flowers, and my husband also still brings it up whenever he can!  

Happy Stamping
Monique

Bright and Bold Butterfly

Who doesn't love butterflies and bright flowers?  This photo and sketch from Fusion challenge was just what I need on a cold winter's day to remind me of the warmer months.

This was a fun card to make as I layered the flowers one over the next using masking technique before lightly colouring them with good old colour pencils.  The butterfly was an easy choice with the bottom layer in Bermuda Bay with the cut out layer in Basic Black.  I love how the Bold Butterfly Framlits and Butterfly Thinlits coordinate allowing some really stunning layered butterflies. You are going to be seeing way more of them in upcoming weeks.

The lovely big sentiment is from the hostess stamp set Happy Birthday Everyone, I just love the mixed font and size of this sentiment.  It is one of the Hostess sets available in the Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue, which means you can earn it for free with a qualifying order or workshop total, contact me to find out more.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CASE-ing the Catty - Thanks

Welcome to another CASE-ing the Catty Blog Hop, this week we are taking inspiration from the Thanks section of the Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue - did I mention it has just recently been released? Just because it is a new catalogue doesn't me you have to use new product to join in, just take inspiration in some way from pages 13 to 18.  Don't forget that the front page of each section has a heap of samples too.

I have never tried the bokeh technique before and wanted to give it a go for this challenge.  I CASE-ed the card on page 14, but because I don't send many thank yous I changed it up to be a birthday version instead.  I was pretty happy with how this turned out, but think it is a bit dark, so next time will use lighter colours.  I think also doing it on watercolor paper meant that the sentiments didn't have as crisp an image.

I used stamps from a few different sets for the main panel, and added a few Blushing Bride and Bermuda Bay sequins for some bling.

Don't forget that you can join in by adding a comment to the CASE-ing the Catty Blog with a link to your project, and one of the team will add you in.

Time to hop on over to Emma's blog

Happy Stamping
Monique

Late Mother's Day

Something many of you who follow my blog won't know about me is that I am terrible at posting letters.  Think of really bad, and times that by 100!  This year for example I made a lovely Easter card for my parents, but only sent it a couple of weeks ago, well after Mother's Day.  In my logic I couldn't make my mum a card for Mother's Day until I had posted Easter, so today I finally sat down to do just that (yes Mother's Day was second week in May, so I am running about 4 weeks behind).

The Stampin Royalty challenge "Anything but a card" took my interest and I decided to think outside the box for mum's card.  

I decided to use the Stampin' Up! Mini Treatbag Framelit and use the gorgeous Timeless Elegance DSP - that is one paper pack that is a must have from this year's catalogue.  I have all sorts of new goodies on this little bag, Birthday Blossoms stamp set for the flower and leaves (and if you look really closely at the Blushing Bride tag I stamped the small flowers from this set and embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder), Circle of Spring for the sentiment. and the new Tags and Labels Framelits.  I coloured some Whisper White cotton ribbon with my marker and also added some Blushing Bride highlights to the flower buds on the DSP - it comes with no colour which is really cool and makes it easy to tie in with any project colour scheme!

There is a little card inside also stamped in Blushing Bride with the small flowers from Birthday Blossoms where I have written the message to my mum, you can see a little tag, made with a piece of the Sahara Sand Lace Trim, peeping out of the top of the bag.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CASE-ing the Catty - Birthday

Welcome to another CASE-ing the Catty Blog Hop, this week we are taking inspiration from the Birthday section of the Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue.  If you want to play along, just add a comment to the main CASE-ing the Catty blog and we'll add you to the hop.  Just take inspiration from some aspect of the birthday section.

Stampin' Up! Card - I took my inspiration from this card on page 11 - I just love the stamp set and it was a cute simple layout.

My Card - I just adore the Bohemian DSP, and thought it would be a fun way to brighten  up my CASE card.  I used the matching Bohemian Washi Tape under the little banner, and think my take on the card gives it a bit more of a masculine feel.

Time to hop around and see what the rest of the design team have created, next stop is Rebecca at The Paper Stamp Addict. Don't forget you can join in too,

Happy Stamping
Monique

Ombre Wings

I haven't joined in with Friday Mashup for quite a while, and when I saw this one I had a flash of inspiration, maybe it was my daughter talking about doing her ombre lipstick, or playing with my new stamps, but the two came together for this creation.

I used You've Got This background stamp colouring it with Wisteria Wonder, Perfect Plum, Rich Razzleberry and Blackberry Bliss Stampin Write Markers.  I used sponge daubers to smudge the areas where the colour joined.  I am not sure if you can see it but I added some loops of the gorgeous Metallic Gold Thread behind the butterfly to add just a flash of sparkle.

I added some gold sequins for my cluster embelishments.  I also added a little butterfly on the inside of the card from the beautiful Watercolor Wings stamp set, incorporating the various colours from the front of the card.  I sponged the Butterfly on the front to also give it an ombre look.

Happy Stamping
Monique