Splitcoaststampers Creative Crew Challenges - July 2015 - Part 2

LIFE'S A PICNIC

With the Northern Hemisphere heading into Summer, the focus this month is on the sights, smells, colours, places, food and family that Summer brings: Summer birthdays, graduations, family reunions, a day at the beach or just a backyard BBQ with family and friends!

Play along with the Creative Crew Challenges to get those creative juices flowing! 
See the Creative Crew Gallery here for further inspiration.

CCREW0715, CreativeCrew, SUO -Scrapbook & More Focus
A food or family Scrapbook Page, table favours, signs etc!

Curvy Keepsake box, A World of Thanks stamp, Vintage Leaves

I made a Curvy Keepsake Box with Perfect Plum cardstock, which I stamped with Versamark using the A World of Thanks stamp.
The leaf is made with the Vintage Leaves stamp set and matching Leaflets Framelits.  The grapes are lots of 1/2" circles punched from Rich Razzleberry cardstock and edged with Blackberry Bliss.  These are overlapped and stuck together to form a bunch on top of the leaf and I gave them a coating of Crystal Effects for shine.  I stuck my bunch of grapes to the box and finished it off with a bow of Tip Top Taupe Dotted Lace Ribbon.


CCREW0715, CreativeCrew, SUO - Holiday Focus

Bohemian DSP with Early Espresso
& Delightful Dijon

Apparently July is National Ice Cream Month for our American friends who provided these fun facts:
1st July - Creative flavour day, how creative can you get with icecream?
7th July - Ice cream cone day
23 July - The ice cream cone's birthday.  It was invented in 1904, so the ice cream cone is 111 years old this year!

The ice cream cone is stamped onto Whisper White cardstock and coloured (I used the new thicker version because it stands up to watercolouring so well).  The cone is Crushed Curry and Delightful Dijon.  The ice cream flavours are Chocolate Chip, Watermelon Wonder and Mint Macaron. The cherry is (rather appropriately) Cherry Cobbler with a coat of Crystal Effects for shine.  The base cardstock is Early Espresso with panels of Delightful Dijon and Bohemian DSP.  The ribbon is Early Espresso Seam Binding.  I was inspired by this card by Sharon L Johnson.

Inspiration provided by this
card by Sharon L Johnson

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Splitcoaststampers Creative Crew Challenges - June 2015

I can't believe another month has gone by already and here we are in the middle of the year!  The challenges and gallery are up and running for June, so pop over and take a look at all the inspirational creations or, better yet, play along!  These are my entries for the four June challenges.

CCREW0615DF, SUO, Color Focus: 

Hostess stamp set - Best Thoughts

With the focus on the In Colours, I just had to choose Watermelon Wonder - I think it's the pefect pink!  It's not too bright and not too pastel and has a lovely warmth to it.  Perfect!  I've layered the Watermelon Wonder cardstock onto Cherry Cobbler and I like them very much together.  I stamped onto Whisper White cardstock with black Stazon so that I could watercolour the images with ink: all of the new In Colours (Watermelon Wonder, Delightful Dijon, Mint Macaron, Tip Top Taupe, Cucumber Crush) and a touch of Cherry Cobbler to add depth to the flower.  The butterfly wing is popped up with a dimensional, although it doesn't really show in the photo.  The bow uses the new Dotted Lace Trim in Watermelon Wonder.  The flower is from the stamp set Best Thoughts which is available to hostesses (worth holding a party for, I think!).  On this occasion I've used a sentiment from a different stamp set -
A Dozen Thoughts.


CCREW0615CF, SUO, Catalog Focus:
I found it really quite difficult to focus on just one new item in the new Catalogue - I love so many of them!  So I cheated a little bit and featured several!  Probably my most favourite at the moment is the stamp set You've Got This (although I think there might be some more favourites once all my new products arrive - I'm fickle like that!).  I stamped the flower onto Whisper White with Stazon and coloured it with Delightful Dijon.  I used a touch of Rich Razzleberry in the centre of the flower, cut it out and gave it a little more glam with a touch of Dazzling Diamonds. 

The cardstock colours are: Blackberry Bliss, Delightful Dijon, Bermuda Bay and Island Indigo.  There's also a touch of Very Vanilla in the banner.  All the colours are drawn from one of my other new favourites - Bohemian DSP.

I punched the top of the DSP framelet with the Scallop Tag Topper and fed a Blackberry Bliss and Very Vanilla banner through it and behind the flower.  I used the new Triple Banner Punch for the banner - oh how it simplifies things!  The sentiment is from Wetlands and is heat-embossed in white.

The final flourish is the Delightful Dijon Blossom Accent which I topped with a Pearl Basic Jewel.

CCREW0615SF, SUO, Scrapbook & More Focus:
Whilst the weather is turning a bit chilly here in Sydney (June being the first month of Winter), elsewhere in the world the focus is turning to weddings! I'll admit this was my favourite of the four challenges because it gave me the perfect opportunity to make a First Anniversary gift for my special friends Rebekah & Luke.  We were so happy to be able to attend their beautiful wedding in England last year and I really enjoyed "revisiting" it for this challenge.

I decorated a fairly plain and simple frame with the Gorgeous Grunge and Everything Eleanor stamp sets.  The leaves were made with the Bird Builder Punch and the flowers with the Petite Petals Stamp set and punch, Itty Bitty Accents punch and two sizes of Scallop Circle punches.  The really tiny little flowers were cut with the new Tree Builder Punch.  Centres for the smaller flowers are pearls or candy dots.  The centres of the three larger flowers are Dazzling Diamonds.  The three larger flowers were inspired by Miriam Spiess's Miriamthiums - but I'm afraid I need more practice!  You'll find Miriam's tutorial and beautiful flowers here.

The sentiments are from the Project Life Remember This stamp set and the ovals at the top of the frame are cut with the Scallop Oval and Large Oval punches. 

Colours used are black, Whisper White, Slate Grey, Basic Grey and Tangerine Tango.

CCREW0615HF, SUO, Holiday Focus:
Fathers' Day is celebrated here in September rather than June, so I shall be very prepared when September comes around - as long as I remember that I've already made the card!

It turns out that this card was easier to make than photograph!  I used my favourite Bohemian DSP with Blackberry Bliss, Rich Razzleberry and Delightful Dijon cardstock.  I stamped images and sentiments from the Guy Greetings stamp set using Blackberry Bliss ink on Very Vanilla card.  I anchored the banners with Bermuda Bay and Island Indigo candy dots on candy dot brad bases.  To fill in a bare corner on the front of the card I made a little feature with the new Bohemian Borders stamp set which I coloured with Bermuda Bay and Delightful Dijon Stampin' Write markers and added a little Crystal Effects to the centre to create a little jewel.

The fold is a Pop Up Book Card and Deb Valder has an excellent tutorial here.

I hope you've enjoyed these cards and I do encourage you to play along with the challenges and also to visit the gallery at Splitcoaststampers. 

Blog Hop - Sneak Peek

 

Thank you for joining us for this month's Crazy Crafters Blog Hop.  If you've been following the hop, you should have arrived here from the very talented Angela Lorenz. 

We are all very excited about all the lovely new products in the brand new Annual Catalogue and this Hop is all about giving you a sneak peek of what's in store for us all from 2nd June when the 2015-2016 Catalogue comes into effect.  We hope that you will love the new products as much as we do and that you enjoy our previews and ideas.  If you've already got your copy of the new catalogue you'll understand just why we're so excited! 

I found it really difficult to settle on an item to showcase because I love so many of them!  In the end I decided to make two cards using the Sprinkles of Life stamp set which is just so versatile.  With same set (and without trying very hard!) it can make cupcakes (with our without candles or sprinkles), clouds, rain, ice cream in a cone, a basket of flowers, a basket of apples, a tree (with or without leaves, flowers, fruit) - you get the picture!  There is also a matching punch, just to make it even easier to create the tops of the cupcakes, tree, rain drops etc.

Cupcakes by The Cakery & Co

This first card is a box full of cupcakes for my friend Emma, the Cupcake Queen, who bakes the most beautiful cakes and cupcakes and for whom I'm happy to taste test anytime!  She's super-busy at the moment making beautiful daffodil cupcakes for a Biggest Morning Tea fundraiser.

Bohemian DSP & Blackberry Bliss Cardstock

Sprinkles of Life & I Think You're Great stamp sets

Sprinkles of Life Magic Card showing the magic!

The second card is a "magic card".  There are lots of tutorials for magic cards and the only thing I've done a little differently is to place the magic bit onto the front of a normal card (made by folding a piece of A5 cardstock in half) because I like cards that open.  I used three of the new 2015-2017 In Colours: Tip Top Taupe, Delightful Dijon and Watermelon Wonder.

Sprinkles of Life & Bohemian Borders stamp sets

Stampin' Up! are donating $3 to Ronald McDonald House with every Sprinkles of Life stamp set sold.

Just want to send a warm "hello" to our fellow Crazy Crafter, Em Robinson, who sadly was unable to join in the hop this month but who is avidly following it.

I hope you've enjoyed your visit!  Please click on the "next" button below to hop on to see the great ideas of the next Crazy Crafter - the amazing Angela Westland. 

Sneak Peek 2015-2016 Catalogue - Cupcakes, Birthdays & Flowers

 A little Sneak Peek of a some new products coming in the new catalogue.

My 2015-16 Catalogue with easy-locate tabs (thanks to a clever friend!)

If you'd like to order your own copy of this catalogue for $7.95 inc postage, click the Paypal link below (Australian residents only).    It will be mailed directly to you from Stampin' Up! around 25th May.  The exciting new products are available for purchase from 2nd June.

Bohemian DSP - lots of bright, bold colours and patterns (and some more subdued patterns as well).

The embellishment comes in the new In-colours (I added a rhinestone because ... why not?!). Delightful Dijon is one of the new colours.

Sprinkles of Life cupcake, Bohemian DSP,

In-colour Blossom Accent

The photo doesn't do the glitter justice!

The cupcake is built using a really versatile stamp set called Sprinkles of Life. It can be rainclouds, ice creams, baskets of fruit ... and also has a lovely tree image.

Stampin' Up! make a donation to Ronald McDonald House with every sale of this stamp set. There is also a matching punch, which I haven't used yet.....

Build a Birthday, Boho Chic Embossing Folder

 OK, I've got a couple more very quick cards for you!

This one uses the Build a Birthday stamp set - another really versatile set with lots of options.  I've added some twisted up Lace Trim and embossed the card with the Boho Chic embossing folder.  These are some of the new In-colours: Tip Top Taupe, Watermelon Wonder and Mint Macaron.

You've Got This stamp set

This last one uses the You've Got This stamp set, which has the gorgeous flower, the useful grungey background and some supportive sentiments.  This time, I chose to use the birthday sentiment from the Build a Birthday set.  I used the same In-colours while I had them open.  And I do love a bit of bling - so I added a rhinestone to the blossom embellishment again.

Stay tuned for some more sneak peeks over the next few weeks and remember to order your copy of the catalogue - you're going to LOVE it!