CTC #230 - Retiring Big Shot Project

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where we take a look at one of the sections of a current Stampin' Up! catalogue and use the projects within it to inspire our own creations.

This week we are taking our inspiration from the projects in either catalogue that showcase one of the retiring Big Shot items.

I was inspired by the card on the top left of this image from page 108 of the Annual Catalogue.  While I never bought the Best Birds or Birds & Blooms Thinlits I was really drawn to this card.

My challenge was to try and replicate the card using products from the new Annual Catalogue.  While Best Birds never tempted me the Bird Ballad suite in the new catalogue was one of the first things on my wish list.  Here I have used the main bird image and chopped off the birds to leave just the branch behind. The little bird feet just look like rings on the branch's surface!  I then fussy cut the bigger bird image and coloured with Blends,including where the branch would be and add it to the card with Dimensionals. 

I am so happy with how this card turned out and just love the colours in the Bird Ballad DSP and how many colours it coordinates with, making it so versatile. I used the Well Said bundle for the sentiment, layering the "birthday" onto Basic Black to add some depth and make it stand out just a little. 

  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the samples featuring retiring Big Shot products to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

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

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #229 - Favourite Retiring Punch

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where we take a look at one of the sections of a current Stampin' Up! catalogue and use the projects within it to inspire our own creations.

This week we are taking our inspiration from projects using one of the lovely retiring punches from either catalogue.

I was inspired by this image from page 158 of the Annual Catalogue. Now I don't have this punch or stamp set so I had to get a bit creative in my creation.

I changed it up a little from the original, using some of the DSP from Sea of Textures, I love how soft and subtly textured these patterns are, and it reminded me of the background on the original card. Instead of the Bunch of Blossoms stamp set and coordinating punch, I used Oh So Eclectic stamp set and coordinating framelits for my card. This is another retiring set of products we are saying a fond farewell to, along withe the beautiful Berry Burst, an in-colour that is at the end of its time with us. I just have to remind myself that there are a lot of really great things just around the corner to replace them, and a lot that are carrying over as well.

  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the samples in either catalogue that use our retiring punches to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

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

Happy Stamping
Monique

Kelly's Stamping Friends Birthday Blog Hop

Welcome to my post for Kelly's Stamping Friends Birthday Blog Hop, to celebrate the lovely Kelly's birthday by sharing some of our creativity.

I wanted to share a card I made with the beautiful new Perennial Essence DSP and stamp set that is coming in the new Annual Catalogue. I just adore this DSP as it has these beautiful impressionistic floral images on every sheet and if you look closely you can see the brush-strokes the artist used to create them. 

Because the paper is just so lovely, I didn't want to add a whole lot of additional detail, so instead kept it fairly simple with the sentiment and some flowers fussy cut from the Floral Essence stamp set.  The ribbon is also from the new catalogue, Organdy Striped Ribbon in Petal Pink, and I used my heat tool to make the ribbon crinkle. I really like this effect, but you do need to be careful not to melt it too much!

Happy Birthday Kelly, I hope you like your card :)

  

Time to hop on over and see what the lovely Leonie has created for Kelly's Birthday Blog Hop.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #228 - Favourite Retiring Stamp Set

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where we take a look at one of the sections of a current Stampin' Up! catalogue and use the projects within it to inspire our own creations.

This week we are taking our inspiration from the retiring stamp sets in either the Annual or Occasions catalogue.

I am taking my inspiration from this card on page 38 of the Occasions Catalogue, it is made with the Needlepoint Nook Suite. I really liked this suite but realise that as the catalogue comes to a close I didn't use it nearly as much as I thought I would. One of my favourite pieces of this suite is the Framelit that makes the beautifully stitched image you can see on the Crushed Curry panel on this card. 

As usual I kept my card similar to the original as I really wanted to use the stitched background but decided the Share What You Love DSP would make the perfect background. It keeps with the floral theme but also lets me use another of my favourite retiring products, this paper is just gorgeous and is something that I have used a lot, great for 3D items too because it is a little more robust than normal DSP.

  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the samples from one of the retiring stamp sets to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

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

Happy Stamping
Monique

Memories & More - Storage Solution

I wanted to do a quick post today to share how I am storing my Memories & More card packs, as I thought others might find it useful. While it isn't a new thing to use one of the Full Wide Stamp Cases to store M&M kits, I don't like the way they all flop around inside, so I decided to work on a solution.

I decided to make little pockets out of Thick Whisper White cardstock that let me slip the cards inside, it keeps the little 3" x 4" cards in two sets on the left, and the 6" x 4" cards in one set on the right.  I then discovered that when I closed up the case the little cards on the top would just fall out!

My solution?  This little folded piece of Thick Whisper White that slides in under the cards and fills the gap between the two sets of cards to stop them moving around! In this image you can see it partly slid out, it is easy to remove and comes right out of the case.

This image shows the way the card cases are scored and cut: score on the lines then cut out the two corners. Then fold on the score lines to make a box with an open back that you can adhere to the inside of the Full Wide Case.

Here are the measurements:

Large Cards

• Cut 1 out of Thick Whisper White ...  6-1/8" x 5-1/8"
• Position the longest side to the top of the score board and score at 5/8" and 1" on each side.
• Score again along one of the other sides 
• Fold, cut and adhere to the inside of the case

Small Cards

• Cut 2 out of Thick Whisper White ...  5-3/8" x 2-1/2"
• Position the longest side to the top of the score board and score at 1/4" and 1/2" on each side.
• Score again along one of the other sides 
• Fold, cut and adhere to the inside of the case, one against the top edge and one against the bottom.

Slide

• Cut 1 out of Thick Whisper White ... 4-1/4" x 5"
• Position the shortest side to the top of the score board and score at 1-1/4"; 1-5/8"; 2-5/8"; and 3"
• Fold into shape and slide under each set of the small cards to hold in place.

I haven't yet decorated mine, as I want to make more cards!  Hope this has been helpful, let me know how you go. 

Happy Stamping

Monique

CTC #227 - Retiring Bundle

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where we take a look at one of the sections of a current Stampin' Up! catalogue and use the projects within it to inspire our own creations.

This week we are taking our inspiration from projects in the catalogue made with the retiring bundles.

I was inspired by this image from page 10 of the Occasions Catalogue, featuring products from the Floral Romance Suite. I am sure it is no surprise to those of you who have visited my blog recently that I am going to really miss this suite of products!

As usual when I keep to a fairly similar layout to the original card I do like to switch up the colours just a bit. Although I was tempted to use more of the gorgeous Floral Romance DSP, I decided to switch it up and use three of the patterns from the All My Love DSP also from the Occasions Catalogue which will be retiring soon.  To keep me from getting too sad about all the retiring DSP I added sentiments, both printed and die cut, from the Well Said Bundle which will be carrying over into the annual catalogue, though not as a bundle. For the Happy, I used a sponge dauber to add colour to the top half to give an ombre look which also helped it stand out against the two different DSPs I used. Instead of die cut leaves I added a fussy cut flower and leaves cut from the same DSP to add to the sentiment. 

  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the samples from any of the retiring bundles from either catalogue to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

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

Happy Stamping
Monique