Inspiring Inkin' Challenge #14

This fortnight's challenge on the Inspiring Inkin' challenge blog is an inspiration one using this picture of a gorgeous chocolate wedding cake. This cake musthave taken hours to make all those individual roses and I love the butterflies flying round on wires.

I used the colours and main images - roses and butterflies for my inspiration card. I chose to make a side step card - I love doing these as they are just something a little different. I stamped the base of the roses in Close to Cocoa and then the shading part in Chocolate Chip. The butterflies are stamped in So Saffron with chocolate patterns for the larger butterflies. Gold glitter from the Fine Galaxy Pack was added to each rose using the fabtastic new 2-way glue pen. It makes it so much easier to add glue just where you want it!

This is the side view - you can see the steps better this way.

Recipe:

Stamps: A Rose Is A Rose, Flight of the Butterfly

Papers: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, So Saffron, Very Vanilla

Inks: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, So Saffron

Accessories: Gold glitter from the Fine Galaxy Glitters pack, Butterfly punch

Inspiring Inkin' Challenge 13

The challenge on our Stampin' Up blog this fortnight is a colour challenge using Ruby Red, Close To Cocoa and Old Olive with a side twist of using a new stamp set. Now I have lots of those so that part came easily! These colours are lovely together too - they remind me of Autumn-y colours and could easily be used for Christmas cards too, but I'm trying to not make too many of them just yet as my job this half term is to make the 30 cards I need for the children in my class! They won't be too fancy though!

Anyway here's my offering using the fabulous new Circle Circus. This set has 10 different stamps all using circles as a basis. Combining different stamps with different colours provides endless combinations for creating your own patterned papers. I love the versatility of sets like this as they can be adapted to any occasion and for any person!

Recipe:

Stamps: Circle Circus, Oval All

Papers: Ruby Red, Close To Cocoa, Old Olive, Whisper White

Inks: Ruby Red, Close To Cocoa, Old Olive

Accessories: Old Olive striped grosgrain ribbon, eyelet border punch, oval punch, scalloped oval punch

Inspiring Inkin' Challenge #12

This fortnight's challenge over on Inspiring Inkin' is to use the Split Negative technique with a side of twist of using 3 embellishments.

The basic idea of this technique is to stamp the same image once on darkstock and once on light cardstock using the opposite colour for the ink. I used Elegant Eggplant and Whisper White with the new Whisper White Craft Ink. This is such a fabulous ink! You cut the image in half in the same place on both images and pair opposite coloured halves together. Easy peasy! As well as splitting the whole image I also did the centre as well for a different effect. I just love how this has turned out.

Spot anything else that's new on this card? The Medallion stamp is new as well as the WW craft ink and peeking out at the top is the new WW satin ribbon. This is such a gorgeous quality.

Keep looking back on my blog as I will be showing off even more new stamps as the next few weeks go by.

Recipe:

Stamps: Medallion and Occasional Greetings

Papers: Lovely Lilac, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White

Inks: Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White

Accessories: Whisper White Satin Ribbon, Elegant Eggplant Grosgrain Ribbon, Circle Ice Rhinestone Brads

How many new things can you spot on this card?

My new Stampin' Up goodies arrived yesterday with loads of new stuff from the new catalogue and everything is absolutely fabulous! I got 9 new stamp sets and only 1 was from the old catalogue that had been carried over into the new catalogue - all the rest were new ones, so of course, I had to use one for my first card of the week! I made a tri-shutter card, which is another new style of card for me too. You can find the instructions here on SCS - watch the video - it makes all so much clearer than reading the instructions.

So how many new things do you think you can spot? Some might not look new but they are....



My new things on this card were: Kraft 12 x 12 cardstock (you could only get it in the mixed neutrals A4 pack before!), Bella Bleu Designer Series Papers (these are so elegant and gorgeous!), the eyelet border punch, Flight of the Butterfly stamp set, Butterfly Punch, Piercing tool and Mat Pack (you could only get these in the crafter's tool kit before but now you can buy them separately) and Clear Gem Brads (which you could only get in the Pretties Kit but are now available separately too!). So altogether I used 8 new things on this card! I also used vellum cardstock, which while it isn't new to the catalogue, is new to me as I've never used it before.

Not sure if you can really see but on each of the small panels (like the one on the bottom left) I added a little butterfly from the same stamps set and the middle panel is left blank for a greeting.

I love everything on this card and can't wait to get out my new stash and play again at the weekend!

Recipe:

Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly

Papers: Kraft, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla, Vellum, Bella Bleu DSP,

Inks: Not Quite Navy

Accessories: Clear Gem Brads, Eyelet Border punch, Very Vanilla Grosgrain ribbon, Kraft Taffeta ribbon, Piercing tool and Mat pack

THE NEW STAMPIN' UP CATALOGUE IS OUT TODAY!!!!!

Can't you tell I'm so excited about this new catalogue?! There are so many new goodies in there as well as some from the previous catalogue that are just too nice to take out! There are lots of new stamp sets, lots of wheels, lots of new Designer Papers and tons of new accessories including the all new 1 1/2" striped ribbon!

Now I did promise you a couple of week ago that I would show some of the projects and swaps from my Stampin' Up team meeting that Amanda held down in Fareham. I couldn't show them to you at the time, but now with the release of the new catalogue I can!

This is Stella's gorgeous card using the new Medallion background stamp.


The next one is Amanda's using one of the new hostess stamp sets, Queue Up, that I showed earlier as well as the new eyelet border punch and white craft ink. Craft ink I hear you say? Craft ink is now available in the UK SU catalogue in Whisper White and is a slower drying ink that the other colours in the Stampin' Up range. Therefore, it is ideal to heat emboss and as Amanda showed us, looks great when used with the SU Pastels as well. It really makes the colours pop!

And I did forget to take a photo of my own swap card which uses the gorgeous Trendy Trees stamp set and the new Word Window punch, so I will do that when the light's right and upload it at the weekend. ETA Amanda took a photo of my swap card so I "stole" it from her blog - saves me having to remember to take a photo of it myself - thanks Amanda!

The following card was one of the 4 projects that we made and uses the new Flight of the Butterfly stamp set, the new eyelet border punch and the new Whisper White craft ink.


The next card is another project using the new Circle Circus stamp set and the new Crystal Effects, which is a 3D gloss and just gives a lovely shine and raised layers to your images. This works really well when using stamps such as the Cheers To You set as it really looks like glass on the cocktail and beer glasses.


Our afternoon projects were 3D ones and this first one is a "Bagolope" - an envelope made into a little gift bag. It uses the Good Friend stamp set with the new eyelet border punch and some So Saffron ribbon that was a special offer in August, but unfortunately is no longer available.


The second project was an envelope card. This is what it looks like closed. See anything else new? It uses the new Flight of the Butterfly stamp set, the new matching Butterfly punch and some new Designer Papers called Pink Flamingo. These papers are gorgeous and the colours are so bright and vibrant. I can't wait to get mine!


This is the side view. An envelope has been sealed and cut and stuck inside the card so there are two little pockets inside. This is ideal for a gift card or as a hostess gift full of stamped images or punch outs.

And this is the little notecard we made to put inside using another sheet from the same Designer Paper pack, Pink Flamingo.


So what do you think of these new products from the new Stampin' Up catalogue?! These and many more can be seen by clicking on the link on the picture at the top of this post or on my side bar. If you want to order any of these or see any other products in the next week or so, then give me a ring or email me at saffivort@yahoo.com . I have just placed my first order (of many I'm sure of that!) and can't wait for it to arrive in the next few days.

Inspiring Inkin' Challenge #11 - An Inspiration Challenge

This fortnight's challenge on the Inspiring Inkin' Challenge blog is an inspiration one. The side twist is to use background stamps or wheel stamps on your card or scrapbook page. I love inspiration challenges as people interpret the pictures in so many different ways. I found this picture on the Internet when I was searching for summer time images - this necklace was called Summertime and it is so gorgeous.


Here's my card inspired mainly by the colours that have been used. I used Cameo Coral, Tempting Turquoise, Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery, with a splash of silver!


I used one of the new hostess sets that will be available in the new catalogue that goes live next Thursday! Can you believe how quickly the release date has come round?

Don't forget to check out the cards for this challenges made by the rest of the design team. Just leave us a link to your card for us to see what you did too.

Recipe:

Stamps: Whimsy Wheel, Garden Dream, Sincere Salutations

Papers: Cameo Coral, Tempting Turquoise, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White

Inks: Cameo Coral, Tempting Turquoise, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink

Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Silver Brads

New Stampin' Up Catalogue Sneak Peeks

One of the many benefits of being a Stampin' Up demonstrator is that you get to see and order some of the new goodies a little bit before the release of the new catalogue. This year, demonstrators could pre-order some selected stamp sets and accessories and for the first time pre-order some of the hostess sets at Levels 2 and 3. I was so excited about this as I'm never the hostess when a workshop qualifies for a Level 3 stamp set, so this year I could buy one of them.

I ordered a gorgeous Level 3 set called Queue Up which consists of 6 stamps with different objects all in a queue! There are birds:


...and candles:


...and cocktails:


...and mushrooms (I stamped a section of the stamp separately to make 3 different images for this one):


...and prams (again each image was stamped separately, but there are 5 prams on the stamp itself):


and finally teacups. This is such a fantastic set and to get your hands on one your workshop needs to have total sales of £500 or more. Each of the Queue Up cards also uses a different pattern from the Prints Designer Series papers, just so you can see the range of beautiful patterns available.


Another demonstrator who wasn't ordering a Level 3 set very kindly ordered the other Level 3 one for me. It's called Garden Dream (or Dream A Little in America) and has some lovely single and 2-step stamping flower stamps and a cute hummingbird. I don't know if hummingbirds come in Bashful Blue, but mine did on this thank you card I've made for the demo that sent me this set.


And the last set I ordered was a Level 2 set, which you can get when your order total is £300 or more. This one is called Itty Bitty Buds and there loads of stamps in the set. On this card I have used 1 stem stamp and 7 different flower head stamps. We don't have Kraft ink over here so I used Versamark on this card and the flowers really do pop on the base cardstock with it.

So if you like the look of these stamp sets then place a qualifying order with me after October 1st or book a workshop today!