CTC #113 - Sale-A-Bration

Welcome to another CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, this week we are taking our inspiration from pages 4 - 7 of the Sale-A-Bration Catalogue.

I was drawn to the card in the above image from page 5 of the catalogue, not only in the layout but also in the DSP stack and natural feel to the card.

I haven't had a good play yet with my new Dragonfly Dreams stamp set, and this was the perfect opportunity.  I was a bit worried with the wings overhanging the edge of the card, and was going to trim them off, but once finished I decided to leave them as they are. The sentiment is from Oh So Succulent which was out on my table and was just the right size for this card. I hadn't realised that the set had a Mother's Day sentiment so that was a nice find!

I had such fun using the Watercolor Pencils on the dragonfly wings, I was trying to capture the range of colours you see as they flash in the sun. To add some extra luminescence I finished off the wings with a touch of Clear Wink of Stella, but haven't tried to capture it in the photo because it never does it justice. 

  

I hope I have helped to inspire you to join in this week, just follow the link above to add a picture of your project to the album.

  

Time to hop on over to see what Elizabeth has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

Colour Inkspiration #2 - Masculine Window Box

Welcome to another Colour Inkspiration Blog Hop Challenge, we have a great colour combo for you based on this beautiful image:

• Wisteria Wonder
• Soft Sky
• Mint Macaron
• Whisper White
• Garden Green 

While I absolutely love succulents, and was tempted to be inspired by them  in my creation, but I had been playing around with my new Window Box framelits and decided to use the colour combo to make the cute hexagon box in a masculine style. I used one of the box toppers and inlaid strips of Wisteria Wonder and Soft Sky into the slits to tie the colour scheme together.

I was on a roll so decided to make a matching card, if you look closely you can see how I inked up the diagonal stripe stamp alternating colours to match the top of the box.  I am really happy with how this turned out and it has opened up  a world of possibility with this cute little box die.

  

Time to head over to Kelly's blog and see how she has used the combo.

If you would like to join in this week, head on over to the challenge Facebook page and upload your creation to the album for this challenge.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #112 - Cupcakes & Carousels

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty, this week we are taking our inspiration from the Cupcakes & Carousels section of the Occasions Catalogue, p 8-13.

I took my inspiration from this card that you can see on page 10, I liked the colours and layout of it, and wanted to use both in my creation.

As you can seek the sketch shifted a bit over the course of my creating, but I did stay true to the colours used, I do like how they go together. This is my first inking up of my new Oh So Succulent stamp set, and I had fun playing around with which colours looked best.  I love these little succulents, as well as the framelits that they bundle with, I can't wait to show you the 3D one I made.  The sentiment is stamped with one of the great sentiments in Layering Love and cut using the Layering Ovals framelits.

I like adding some coordination to the inside of the card, and for this one I simply stamped one of the succulents in the corner. 

   

We have moved the challenge to Facebook, so if you would like to join in just follow the link above. If you are not yet a member, join the group to be added.  Each week we will be having  "most popular" card and a "crew choice" awards to give out.  Don't forget to add your picture to the album for this week to be in the running for one of the awards.

  

Next on the hop is Elizabeth, pop on over to see which project she was inspired by.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #111 - Sale-A-Bration

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty, this week we are taking our inspiration from the the whole Sale-A-Bration catalogue!

I pulled my inspiration right off the front cover of the catty with the cute little Tasty Trucks stamp set which I have to say I am falling in love with. 

I love that you can add cupcakes, tacos, ice creams, or even hot dogs in the window of the truck as well as a range of banners, including the two cute flags on the top of my van.  I used the new Watercolour Pencils to colour this image, I love how I can get different depth of colour depending on how I use them. For the cupcakes I also added a thin outline with my Melon Mambo Stampin' Write Marker

  

We have moved the challenge to Facebook this year so if you would like to join in you can just upload your photo to the album there. Just click on the album for this challenge and add your link.

  

Time to hop on over to see what the very talented Jackie has created.

Happy Stamping

Monique

Window Box Birthday

I have had time today to play with some new toys that arrived from the 2017 Occasions Catalogue from Stampin Up!  I just love a new catalogue, and better still I have time to play with them as I don't go back to work until next Monday! What do I do when I have time on my hands? I go looking for challenges, and I found two that gave me a great chance to create. Freshly Made Sketches, and TGIF Challenges.

I made the panel for this card using one of the little panel thinlits from the Window Box Thinlets. To get the colours for the candles I used 1/4" strips of card stock and a strip of 3/8" glimmer paper for the flames.  The photo really doesn't show how the glimmer paper really makes the candles come alive unfortunately. I added some washi tape and a greeting from Endless Birthday Wishes, I like the predominantly black and white of the card and the pop of colour with the candles. 

Stay tuned for lots more projects with the new products that I made today and will continue to make over the next few days, I am having so much fun.

Edited to include better photograph of the card now my camera is working!

Happy Stamping
Monique

Colour Inkspiration #1 - New Challenge Hop

I have some exciting news to share; I’m on the Colour INKspiration Crew! It consists of a team of talented Aussie and NZ Stampin' Up! ® Demonstrators that create projects based on Pinterest inspired colour swatches. There’s also a Facebook group for Stampin' Up! ® enthusiasts who would like to share their paper craft projects using the colour combinations.

There are more details on how to join us at the end of this post, I'd love to see you there!

Now onto our first challenge with this image that is just perfect for summer. You can use any 3 or more of these colours and add in neutrals or metallic colours as well. In case you have trouble reading the fine print the colours are

• Bluhsing Bride
• Mint Macaron
• Sweet Sugarplum
• So Saffron
• Tempting Turquoise
• Peekaboo Peach

I chose to use a combination of Blushing Bride, So Saffron and Peekaboo Peach on the background before "splattering" it with Gold Wink of Stella. For the background I used Shimmer White cardstock as it allows a bit more flexibility with blending colours, and gives such a beautiful shimmer. I wanted to really show the contrast of Tempting Turquoise so emphasised it with a thin mat of Basic Black for the base card. I wanted to soften it for the main butterfly so added a vellum butterfly.

The sentiment is from Designer Tin of Cards stamp set. I thought it needed just a touch more "something" so after some playing around I added some paper piercing to signify a flight path.

  

Time to hop on over to see what Rachel has created.

Inspired to join?  Here’s how it works:
Every second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 7 pm (AEDT), a new colour swatch will be uploaded to the Facebook Colour INKspiration Group and the Colour INKspiration Crew will get the ball rolling by providing inspiration for each challenge with a blog hop. This is our first hop, so we are all very excited.

Members of the Facebook Group have the option to join the Colour INKspiration 'Challenge' by uploading photos of their projects and can link back to their personal blog if they wish to. Not a member of the Facebook group yet? No problem, just click on the link below and ask to join Colour INKspiration, add the group to your favourites and share it with your crafty friends so they can join in with the challenges too.

Happy Stamping
Monique

ESAD Blog Hop - SAB & Occassions

Welcome to another ESAD Blog Hop as we introduce the new Occasions and Sale-A-Bration Catalogues. 

I chose to use the Lift Me Up Bundle of products, including hot air balloons with matching sentiments and framelit shapes, always good so no fussy cutting.  You can see here how I have used the framelits to cut sections of cardstock to create the layers of colour behind the intricate balloon.  I have also added some Wink of Stella to some of the coloured sections, although you can't see it in the picture it looks totally amazing in person.

I was inspired to use this colour scheme from the beautiful Falling in Love DSP which is full of soft colours and images. I added a strip of the DSP to the inside of the card, one of my favourite ways to easily add some interest to the inside. I used the framelits to also cut the two clouds from vellum and added them to the balloon before raising it up with dimensionals. I think this gives the balloon more of a floating on air feel.

Don't forget that during Sale-A-Bration you can earn free unique products from the SAB catalogue for ever $AU90. The great thing about the Lift Me Up bundle is that it comes in just over the qualifying amount!

My second card features another one of the sheets from Falling in Love DSP which goes beautifully with the biggest flower from May Flowers Framelits. 

Time to hop on over to see what the very talented Kelly has created to inspire you: 

  

Happy Stamping
Monique

Freshly Made Celebration

Being Christmas break I have had a little time, and surprisingly only a little time, to get my creative juices going and what better way that join in with a cute sketch from Freshly Made Sketches?

I have been loving my new Beautiful You stamp set and the very versatile Falling in Love DSP so this was the perfect opportunity to put the two together. Add in some colouring with my new Watercolour Pencils and I was in heaven!  I stamped the sentiment and image onto vellum and coloured directly onto the vellum, I found that this gave me some great variation with the depth of colour.  To make the lady pop I stamped again in Whisper White, did some fussy cutting and adhered her to the back of the vellum.

Happy Stamping
Monique