Bright and Flowery

 In the mood for more creating I went searching for a sketch and colour challenge and found the Hand Stamped Sentiments sketch and Stampin' Royalty sketch challenge.  I liked both of these and thought it would have been easy to do the sketch with a traditional doily and in vintage colours, the challenge came to do the sketch in the bright colours instead.

I wasn't really sure about the card when I was finished, and eventually made some changes.  The original had no stamping on the So Saffron or the two flower banners, and the base was just So Saffron.  After consulting with hubby who said it was busy in the centre but the rest was too plain, I took the front off the card and used VersaMark ink to stamp flowers across the background and the flags and then trimmed the background to mount it on Strawberry Slush card base to tie in the layers.  I was very pleased with the amended result.  It is a bit hard to tell but the two flowers are stamped and embossed in white then punched, the bottom of each banner is punched also with the flower sitting above the punch image on a dimensional - not sure if that makes sense, so click on the image for a closer look :)

The colours haven't turned out so well in the photo, I don't have a spot for my light box in my new craft space so just took it under my natural light desk lamp.

Happy Stamping

My Challenge Helper!

Let me introduce the newest member of our family, Makucha, he is an adorable little rescue kitten and is clearly my kitten.  This morning he had fun on my desk as I tidied up the mess and when it was all clear he chose the centre of my workspace as the perfect place to have a nap.  Even after I carefully slid the paper he was on off to the side (I have a huge desk), he stood up, stretched and moved back onto my cutting mat!

I decided the best thing to do was go through my Feedly feed and see what new posts were up on some of my favourite blogs.  I spotted these two challenges from Friday Mashup and Just Add Ink and started planning my creation.  Luckily kittens don't sleep for too long before they are off to explore the next thing and I got chance to create.

I loved the lovely yellow colours in the inspirational photo so chose some of the new Watercolour Wonder DSP and coordinated my colours with that. I have really enjoyed using negative space lately and did so again on this card, I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark and used White embossing powder, I sponged around the sentiment with Tangerine Tango to give some depth.  I also sponged around the DSP layers, I haven't sponged as much lately but do love the way it accentuates the edges and adds depth.  I finished off the card with some cute little flowers from Petite Petals, again tying in the inspiration photo.

And wouldn't you know it, the kitten is back! Maybe he can help me tidy my desk again.

Happy Stamping

ESAD SAB Blog Hop - Banner Punch

It's that exciting time of year again, Sale-A-Bration (SAB) is about to begin! For those new to SAB it is a wonderful time of year when you can earn beautiful Stampin' Up! products for FREE!  In Australia just spend $90 on anything from the main or occasional catalogue and you can chose something from the range of SAB products.  To get you in the spirit the Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators have made some great creations with the free items.  You may have hopped on over from Little Scraps of Paper and Delys's lovely creations, or you might be starting here - it doesn't matter, just follow the links at the bottom of each post until you have hopped around all of the blogs!

Now onto my creations ... I chose to showcase the cute little Banner Punch. I love a product that has more than one use and so I got to work looking at alternative uses for this cute little punch. 

Firstly I wanted to use it in a fairly traditional way, by making three little flags down the side of the sentiment panel. This is great if you have a bit of spare space on a card.  The background DSP, Sweet Sorbet, is also from the SAB free products and is so pretty, matching with the 2013-2015 In-colours. 

This next card I have used the Banner Punch to make longer flags for my sentiments, to do this cut strips of cardstock 1.5cm wide and insert one end into the punch, line up and then punch.  By stamping the sentiments first you can get the length of the banner just right.

The little flowers are punched from Sweet Sorbet DSP using the Petite Petals punch, which is a sneak peek from the new Occasions Catalogue also going live on 28th January.

Finally I have used the Banner Punch to make a faux banner on the front of this card.  By cutting a strip of card stock 1.5cm wide, adding a sentiment, then laying it over two banners punched from the same colour cardstock it provides some added interest to the front of a card.  I used dimensionals to pop it up slightly to add to the effect. In this card I have also used the Banner Blast stamp set to create a border along the top and bottom edges of the card, I stamped using the flat edge of the banner alternating two of the patterns.  The DSP on this card is also from Sweet Sorbet, this paper has such a lot of different looks and you will get lots of use out of it.  The centre butterfly and sentiment banner are stamped on Brushed Gold.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have enjoyed my creations. Now it is time to hop on over to the next blog:

Creating Cards With Andrea 

If you get lost along the way there is a full list of all the blogs at the bottom of this post, don't forget we all love it when you leave comments to let us know what you think of the things we have created - happy hopping!

What is ESAD?

 ESAD stands for "Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators" and it is an on-line group just for Australian and New Zealand Stampin' Up! demonstrators. We so love what we do and not only do we love to share it with our customers, friends, and wonderful blog visitors, but we share our love for what we do with each other as demonstrators. We run swaps, challenges, tutorials, product know-how, and cyberstamps, and we are always there to help and support each other when it is needed. So if you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand, then please feel free to contact me for an invitation to this wonderful group.

Narelle Hoggard
Kathryn Ruddick
Nikki Sadler
Emily Campbell
Keryn Campbell
Leonie Schroder
Chloe Evans
Amity Knight 
Alisha Watson
Ann Gerlach
Delys Cram
ME - Monique Fielder
Andrea Buckland
Paula Reid
Pauline Bennetts
Dianne Dunk
Tamsin Adams
Corina Beyer
Richelle Fletcher
Mel Sharp
Christie Kunkel
Nerida Carter
Gail Kirby
Michelle Grech
Sally Williams

Happy Stamping

Blackboard Fusion

Boy have I been busy today, time for another challenge ... Fusion Card Challenge is a fairly new challenge site that I thought I would play along with this picture and/or sketch challenge this week.

I know immediately I would use both the inspirational picture and the sketch in my card, who could pass up an opportunity to use the blackboard technique? I chose the colours from the picture as well.  While the sentiment is pretty easy to pin down, can you guess what I used to make the wood grain?  It is the lined stamp from Gorgeous Grunge! I added the chevron stamp from Tape it for the banner.

Happy Stamping