Card Swap Chain Series 4A - CASE-ing Julia

Back in May 2025 we started the fourth series of the Card Swap Chain, arranged by the lovely Tracy Held. The idea is the we each made a card and sent it to another person in the chain. That person would CASE (Copy and Share Everything or Copy and Selectively Edit) the card and send it to the next person who would in turn CASE it and send it on. There are 10 of us in this chain so quite a few variations between the first and last card, and these blog hops take you on the journey through the CASEing process. 

Julia's Card

This chain started with this lovely fun-fold card from Julia, I love how she used the scenery DSP on the front of her card. You should start this hop at Julia's blog so you can see the progression of the card, you can find it first in the blog hop list at the end of this post.  

I was ninth in the chain, and it is great to see that the fun-fold has continued through the chain. My choice of DSP was the lovely Modern Christmas collection, as was the sentiment. The layered labels were cut using the Traditional Labels dies.

This is a look at the inside of the card, I used trees stamped and cut using the Ornamental Christmas Bundle, using gold embossing powder to keep with the very Lux look of the card. The writing panel is on the back, and left blank to leave lots of room for a nice Christmas greeting. 

Time to keep hopping to see how this card was interpreted for the rest of the chain, and if it is still recognisable by the end of the chain.  What elements do you think made it all the way down the line?

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #542 – CASE The Colours of Autumn Toile DSP

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking inspiration from the colours of the Autumn Toile DSP

Here is a better look at the colours for this challenge: Cajun Craze, Pecan Pie, Early Espresso, Gray Granite, Mossy Meadow, and Very Vanilla. I will be honest, these are not colours I reach for often, at least not together and it took me a while to work out what to do with them.

When I struggle with colours, I often reach for my Aquapainter and Watercolour paper as it lets me play around with the colours, getting lighter shades and blending different ones together.  I chose the flowers from Charming Day and used all the main colours except Early Espresso and Very Vanilla to colour the flowers and leaves. The sentiment from Sweet Blooms seemed to pair well with the design and the floral images.  The twine is a newer addition to my stash from the Black and White and Gold Baker't Twine from the Modern Christmas Suite Collection. 

  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use colours in the Autumn Toile DSP to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

Time to hop on over and see what the lovely and talented Julia has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #541 - CASE A Mini Catty Bundle

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking inspiration from the bundle section of the September to December Mini Catalogue, pages 49-54.

I was inspired by this card from page 49 of the Annual Catalogue, I liked the simple layout and the monochromatic background. 

I chose Cherry Cobbler as my card base and used coordinating sheets from two DSP packs, both carry over from the last Annual Catalogue, Regal Distressed Patterns and Season of Elegance. This is another one of my "no-stamping" cards using one of the new DSP packs from on-line exclusives Modern Christmas, cutting the Christmas trees from one of the sheets. The sentiment is from Greetings for You Mix & Match Ephemera Pack. I love how Stampin' Up! products make card making so easy.

I used another trimmed piece of the Modern Christmas DSP and strip of Seasons of Elegance to carry the images into the inside of the card.  I added some bling to the front using the Traditional Sparkling Sequins, which I have used on so many of my cards recently. I chose the red sequins rather thank gold to give a subtle effect. 

  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the projects in the bundles section of the mini catalogue (pages 49-54) to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

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

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #539 - CASE The Peaceful Garden Suite

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking inspiration from the Peaceful Garden Suite which can be found on pages 32-35 of the Mini Catalogue. This suite was available as a very early pre-purchase for demonstrators so you may have seen projects using these products for some time and not realise it was from the latest Mini Catalogue. It is a great suite featuring mostly shades of blue and beige/brown - Basic Beige, Crumb Cake, Pecan Pie, Cloud Cover, Misty Moonlight and Secret Sea. It has a Christmassy theme, but a lot of non-specific patterns as well so a really handy addition to your collection.

I was inspired by this card from page 34, I liked the simplicity of featuring strips of DSP over some lovely glimmer paper which is also part of this lovely collection of products. 

I kept with the basic idea of the strips of DSP, but because I use metric card sizes my card has a little bit more showing than the original (metric cards are longer and thinner than those in inches). I also mixed up which of the glimmer and DSP patterns I used and swapped out the sentiment for on from the Traditional Labels Bundle. Definitely worth checking that bundle out, I think it has a selection of some of my favourite sentiments and label shapes ever. 

  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the projects associated with the Peaceful Garden Suite to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

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

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #357 - CASE The Traditions Of Christmas Suite

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking inspiration from the Traditions of Christmas Suite on pages 21-27 of the September to December Mini Catalogue. This is one of my favourite suites, combining traditional Christmas colours with pinks and blues to give it a modern twist. There are beautiful floral images as well as great label shapes with festive sentiments that fit within them.

I was inspired by this card from page 21 of the catalogue as I love the way the floral pieces are layered behind the sentiment. In this sample the red flowers behind the red label reminded me of the old style Christmas tree ornaments that my Nana used to have on her tree (not the round baubles you get these days.

I decided to take a literal approach to the ornament on the front of the card, and while I have otherwise kept to the original layout, decided to focus on the non-traditional Pool Party as the primary colour of my card and DSP players.  The DSP is from Nests of Winter, a carry over product in the Annual Catalogue, I love that it also has a simple lined pattern much as the original card.  The embellishments are from the Traditions of Christmas called Traditional Sparkling Sequins, a name I find a little misleading as these really aren't sequins at all, but rather little dots cut from the glimmeriest (my new word) glimmer paper and really give a lovely sparkle to the card. 

  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the projects in the Traditions of Christmas Suite to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

Time to hop on over and see what the talented Kathryn has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #536 - CASE The Mini Catalogue

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking inspiration from the brand new September to December Mini Catalogue, released on 3 September. 

I was inspired by this card from page 49 of the mini catalogue, I am not sure what it was that caught my eye with this one as I don't usually make shaker cards. It might just have been the cute little squirrel!

I CASE'd the basics of the original card, but used products from the stunning Ornamental Christmas suite. This suite includes gorgeous gold embossed DSP, coordinating dies and stamps as well as shaker stars and gold hoops, and two spools of bakers twine.  I love this pattern from the DSP pack as it has mini images that match the stamp and die bundle. I embossed these with gold embossing powder to keep with the gold theme.

To create the shaker I cut a square from the DSP using the stylish shapes dies, flipping over the cut out piece to show the gold embossed star pattern on the back, and popped it into cello bag. The bag was a bit big so I folded it over and secured with tape  before adding the cute little Gold Shaker Stars (also from the new catalogue). 

  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the projects in the new September to December Mini 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 Kathryn has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

Let's Craft Together - Craft With What You've Got

Welcome to the monthly Blog Hop by Let’s Craft Together and thank you for joining us. We are a group of multi-cultural Stampin’ Up!® demonstrators in Australia who have developed a strong friendship though our love of stamping and our admiration of each other’s style of crafting.

The challenge this month is to create a project with a mash-up of current products and things from your stash that might even be retired. 

Apart from DSP, the things I have most of in my retired items stash are embellishments and they often coordinate really well with current products. For my project I have also used a retired embossing folder for the background and paired these retired items with brand new products from the upcoming September to December (Holiday Mini) catalogue. The new products are mostly from a suite called Traditions of Christmas Suite Collection which has stunning DSP, two stamp and die bundles as well as embellishments and ribbon!  The catalogue goes live on 5 September and there will be a link on my side bar. I love that this suite uses traditional Christmas colours, but also brings in blues and pinks, and adds non-traditional flowers to the stamped and DSP images. 

Time to hop on over and see how the rest of the team have met the Craft With What You've Got brief for this challenge. 

Happy Stamping

Monique

CTC 535 - CASE The Annual Catalogue

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking inspiration from the 2025 Annual Catalogue, which gives us a lot of projects to choose from. 

I was inspired by this card from page 53 of the Annual Catalogue, a card using the Beautiful Gallery Suite Collection.

I kept to the original layout and used the Branching Out Dies (a sneak peek from the new Holiday catalogue) to create the frame. I added some ink around the edge to give an aged look. I have to be honest that while I love the look of the Beautiful Gallery DSP, I have been a bit challenged to use it, but I love how this pattern looks as a background. 

  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use any of the projects in the Annual 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 Andrea has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #534 - CASE A Punch or Die Project

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking inspiration from projects featuring dies or punches. 

I was inspired by this card sample that is part of the online exclusives from the online store.

I have recently ordered the Sweet Jar Builder punch and the Jar of Joy Christmas themed coordinating stamp set, so wanted to replicate the original card. I mixed old with new for this card, choosing carrying over Seasons of Elegance DSP and adding in the gorgeous new Traditional Sparkling Sequins and Black & White & Gold Bakers Twine.  These new products are coming out at the beginning of September from the Holiday Mini catalogue and online exclusives. I did change up the colour of my gingerbread as I like mine quite dark so used Pecan Pie and Early Espresso on the two step stamping. 

  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use punch or die projects to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

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

Happy Stamping
Monique