Panels of Art

I have to say this week the inspirational photo from Paper Lovin' Gals had be guessing for a while, then I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  Does the photo immediately inspire you or will this one take some thought?  Either way come and play along with us this week.

I loved the artistic shapes of the panels and once inspiration took hold I knew I wanted to replicate them with my punches.  I used the Itty Bitty Shapes punches and the small heart punch, I randomly punched shapes out of Pool Party, Calypso Coral and Poppy Parade card stock before mounting each on Whisper white and then framed each with Basic black.  The DSP layer is from Beau Château DSP collection.  I used Curly Cute for the sentiment, I am loving this set both for variety of sentiments and the font used.  I cut a strip of card stock just over 1" wide and put each end into the Decorative Label Punch to trim off the end to give it a fancy look, I then cut a slightly wider piece of Basic Black, mounted the sentiment on it and trimmed the ends using the same method. What do you think?

Pop on over to the Paper Lovin' Gals blog and check out what the other Design Team members have created to inspire you, then join in the fun.

Happy Stamping

Sunny Lovin'

One of my lovely on-line friends, Shirley McAvoy, has been asked to be a guest on the Design Team for Sunny Challenges & Creations blog, so for her first challenge I decided I definitely had to play along.  Pop over to her blog as well as the challenge site, I just love her creations she has a bright fun style, which really matches her personality!  One of my highlights in going to Stampin' Up!  Convention last year was that I got to meet some of my on-line friends, and Shirley was one of those ladies.  Any-hoo on with the challenge!  This week was to create a card filled with Love - I guess with Valentine's Day not too far away it is a great time to make a card for someone you love.

I decided to use one of the stamps from up-coming Sale-A-Bration called Outlined Occasions.  I just love the fun feel of this set so you will be seeing more cards featuring it over the next weeks and months.  I kept the card fairly simple as I am trying to do more Clean and Simple cards.  I have raised all the hearts up on Dimensionals to give some added depth and spritzed them with a mix of rubbing alcohol and Champaign Shimmer Paint.  Usually this doesn't photograph well but I think this picture managed to capture some of the sparkle.  The line of stamping along the bottom of the card is a stamp in another Sale-A-Bration set called Fresh Vintage, again expect to see a fair bit of this set on my blog as well!  

Happy Stamping

Christmas Trees

Isn't this a beautiful elegant inspirational picture this week at Paper Lovin' Gals?  I love the way that each week people look at the picture and are inspired in so many different ways - how will you be inspired this week?  Will it be the colours, layout, content or one element of the picture?

For me it was the colours and the three little Christmas trees.  I knew what I wanted to do when I saw this and yes, it involved glimmer paper!  I cut three triangles out of card stock - 2 from Always Artichoke and one from Very Vanilla. I put them all through the Big Shot using the Lattice Embossing Folder, with the Very Vanilla one I first adhered some circles I punched out using my Crop-A-Dial and 3/8" Circle Punch.  Once they had the lattice embossing on them I rubbed the surface of each with Platinum Shimmer Paint.  I also used the Shimmer Paint directly on the rubber to stamp the sentiment.  I was really pleased with the way this card photographed, often it is difficult to pick up the look of the glimmer and shimmer on a card, but this shows it off almost as good as in real life.

Happy Stamping

Colours of Christmas

Don't you find that at this time of year time goes so fast!  It went so fast for me that I completely missed last week's challenge at Paper Lovin' Gals! This week there is a great inspirational photo to inspire creativity, a bit different to what you might see in an Aussie Christmas, although we have had some unseasonably cold weather lately.

I love inspirational photos because there is no limitations, whatever the photo inspires you to create is just fine, whether it is colours, layout, theme, or one element of the picture. Let this picture inspire you and join us in this week's challenge. I love the colours in this picture and it made me want to use my favourite Christmas colours, which just happens to be the challenge theme for Stampin Up Only Challenges. 

From the picture I was also quite taken with the windows, and wanted to recreate them in some way on my card.  I used the Lace Ribbon Border Punch to make the frame, I have seen this done with smaller border punches and just wanted to give it a go with this one.  You need to start with a 5" square piece of card stock and punch once in the middle of each side.  In the corners I have used the Postage Stamp Punch in Cherry Cobbler and then the 1" Square Punch in the centre of each.  Can you pick what I punched out?   It is the ornament punch in the Tags 'Til Christmas stamp set, isn't it cute? I also used this set to stamp the feature in the centre of the card, and backed this with a stamped doily from Delicate Doilies. I finished off with some Rhinestones to add a bit of bling.

Happy Stamping

Time to Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American visitors.  We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia, but I think it is nice to have a day where you take time out to focus on things that you are thankful for.  Before I get onto this weeks challenge I thought I would share a few of the things I am thankful for at the moment ... I am so very thankful for my family, my wonderful husband of 20years and beautiful daughter; I am thankful that I am in a job and field that I love and makes a difference in people's lives; and I am thankful that I have stability and a degree of security in my life that fewer people have these days.

Now onto this week's inspirational picture, you can use this picture in any way to inspire your creation. You can use the colours, theme, layout, or just part of the picture like the clouds or the rays.  I look forward to seeing your entry so pop over to Paper Lovin' Gals and see what the other Design Team members have come up with and add your entry.

I chose to use the layout and colours, and kept "Thanks" as the sentiment.  I sponged over punched out scallop circles with So Saffron and More Mustard to make the clouds. I also used More Mustard on a sponge to lightly colour the Velvet Designer Ribbon from the upcoming Summer Mini Catalogue that goes live here in Australia on 1st December. I was happily surprised at how well it took the colour. The sentiment, from Short and Sweet is on a piece that has been doubly cut with the Decorative Label Punch. 

I stamped the sentiment and then punched once, ensuring the sentiment was toward the bottom of the punch. I stuck the punch out onto the back of a post it note to give me something to guide it into the punch with and lined it up and re-punched.  The picture shows how this lines up, and the little tabs on the sides are just perfect for pearls, bling or brads.  I just love finding extra uses for the tools I have, it makes them really versatile and great value.  

Happy Stamping

Inspired by Love

Time for another inspirational photo over at Paper Lovin' Gals!  I just love the white picket fence, and the red hearts against the white of the flags, and of course the word 'love'.  

 What inspires you? Is it the texture, colours, theme, or the layout?  Let your creativity flow and come join us this week.  The thing I like most about inspirational photos is that there is no wrong interpretation!

As I said, it was the picket fence that inspired me and I just knew I wanted to make a fence made from the Tiny Tags Punch, to make the pailings I took a piece of Whisper White card stock and dragged my Choc Chip ink pad over it creating the lines which I think look a bit like wood grain.  Then I cut it into strips 9mm wide, then put one end of the strip into the punch from underneath, so just the end was inside the top of the tag and punched it out, then cut to length.  I guess I could have just made the join lie under the cross beam but that would take too much lining up!  Instead of the hearts I was inspired to use the butterfly and sentiment from the Butterfly Prints stamp set, highlighting the Love with a Real Red marker.   

I hope this has inspired you to come and join in this week, or if you need more inspiration pop on over and check out what the other Design Team have made.  

Stamp: Butterfly Prints
Colours: Lucky Limeade, Real Red, Whisper White, Choc Chip.
Other:  Punch - Jewelry Tag, Punch - Decorative Label, Punch - Butterfly, In-Colour Paper Stack, Pearls

Happy Stamping

Fancy Fold Christmas

A couple of years ago I recieved a Christmas card and the design had me intrigued, so I kept the card and recently used it as the make and take for a workshop I had with a couple of friends.  I just love cards that look a bit different, and this one is no exception.

The top picture is the card closed up, I had to put it into a bag so I could take the photo, these cards just don't like being contained!  You can see what it looks like in the bottom picture, it sits up on the front point.  You can embellish the sides of the card, or as I did, use a decorative paper as a feature.  I used the stamp from Tags til Christmas that goes with the Ornament Punch, and embossed it in gold, and embellished it with pearls.  

Here is another one I made with the Jolly Holiday DSP from last catalogue.  These cards will fit into a regular C6 envelope for easy posting.

Happy Stamping

Treat Yourself ...

Paper Lovin' Girls  #4

This is my first creation as part of the Design Team for Paper Lovin' Gals, and what a great picture we have this week to inspire your creativity.  You can use the colours, lay out, or just pick one feature of the photo and use it to inspire your creation.  I just love all those balls hanging down and knew immediately they would be my inspiration and the focal point of  the card.

I made these balls from some of the DSP paper stacks, there was of course a limit to the number I could fit on the card, so I stopped at three!!!  The scene in the picture made me want a room just like this so that I could just spend the whole day in bed reading, dozing and nibbling on chocolate.  With this in mind I knew exactly which sentiment I wanted to put with this card "treat yourself like your own best company".  The bed cover reminded me of the new SU fabric from the Beau Chateau collection and I just had to re-create that centre cushion by using a button and pearl.

I hope you join us in this week's challenge, pop over to Paper Lovin' Gals blog and see what the other talented DT members have made to inspire you this week. 

Happy Stamping

Secret Sister Swap - Crafters Anonymous

Today I want to share the first of my Secret Sister gifts.  A Secret Sister Swap is one in which you make a card and/or gift for someone but they have no idea who you are until the end of the swap.  Some are done over three months and some are just a one item swap.  I am currently in 2 such swaps, one through Crafters Anonymous and one with a group of fellow demonstrators at Extra Special Australasian Stampin' Up! Demonstrators, and I will be sharing all my 'happy mail' with you.

These are from my Secret Sister in the Crafter's Anonymous swap, aren't they beautiful?  The little box on at the back has a beautiful scented candle in it the fragrance is Orchidberry, and is a similar colour to Rich Razzleberry so now I will always think of this scent when I see that colour!  The item at the back right is a covered 2012 calendar, a month to a page, so great to have in your handbag to keep track of special dates.  The two flowers are actually two magnet clips with the beautiful die-cut flowers adhered to the front.  Can you see the little glimmer brad in the centre of each flower? Aren't they so cute, I just have to own some now!

This was a one off swap, and so I now know who my SS was. It was the lovely Steph who is one of my on-line stamping buddies.  It was extra special to find out that it was made by a cyber friend!  I love the colours Steph has used, so soft and pretty.  

Happy Stamping