Happy Mail

Posted in Cards, Fifth Avenue Floral by Chris

As many of you know, I belong to a group of stampers who are all Stampin’ Up! demonstrators from around Australia and New Zealand, called the ESAD group. The group often runs swaps, which I am generally keen to take part in, as I am able to use many of the ideas in my own classes etc.
At the moment I am taking part in a kind of swap, that we call “Secret Sisters”. As a very brief explanation, I am a sister to another person who I send things to, I know her name, but she doesn’t know mine. I also have a “Secret Sister” who sends things to me. She knows my name, but I don’t know hers. Ok? Clear as mud?
Well, anyway, my Secret Sister (who ever she may be), sent me this gorgeous card last week, using lots of my favourite things, and I just wanted to share it with you. And….. you will also get to see a bit of a peek of one stamp from one of the great greeting sets from the Autumn / Winter mini Catalogue (and yes, there a few in there).
Now, I hear some of you other demonstrators and customers saying “oh, but you can’t do that!”, so I just want to clear that one up. Not all that long ago, there were some changes to the demonstrator agreement, which means we are now allowed to show items that have been made with things out of the upcoming catalogue. I can’t let you see the catalogue, I can’t show the stamp sets etc and I can’t sell you anything before the 1st April, but I can show you the cards, scrapbook pages etc that I make using those things. So guess what? I am going to show you lots! 🙂
Anyway, lets get on with it! I absolutely adore the colours of Sage Shadow and Elegant Eggplant, and don’t they just look great in this beautiful card. So, thank you Secret Sister, for my “happy mail” 🙂

Stamp Sets: Fifth Avenue Floral, Heard from the Heart (available from me on the 1st April, and not before!! 🙂 )

I have to admit that the Heard from the Heart Stamp Set was not on my wish list, that is, until I received this card, but now it is, along with lots of other stuff 🙂

Happy Stampin everyone,
Chris

29Sep2009

Which occassion?

Posted in Big Shot, Cards, Fifth Avenue Floral by Chris

Yes Lynda, I am having an absolute ball with my Big Shot! 🙂

And here is the next card which uses an embossing folder through the big shot to create a beautiful background. I haven’t added a greeting to this card because I wanted you to see how it could easily be used for many occasions, weddings, anniversary, birthday, mother’s day, sympathy, a get well or thinking of you card.

The rose on this card is a piece of Whisper White textured cardstock, which I have stamped onto with the rose from Fifth Avenue Floral in black Stazon ink. I have then used blender pens with a touch of Regal Rose ink to give the shading within the rose, but not too much ink otherwise it will destroy the cardstock. I have then popped the rose up using some dimensionals.

I was also lucky enough to receive some of the gorgeous coloured rhinestone brads in the mail yesterday, from a special lady, Amanda Perryman, who has been my “Secret Sister” over the past three months. So I have used one of the brads in the centre of the filigree flower, just to give it that finishing touch.

Stamp Set: Fifth Avenue Floral

Cardstock: Whisper White, Regal Rose.

Inks: Black Stazon, Regal Rose.

Accessories: Big Shot with Embossing Folder, Blender Pen, Paper snips, dimensionals, 2.5cm Double stitched Grosgrain ribbon in Rose Red, Filigree Designer brads, Circle Fire Rhinestone Brads.

I hope you like this one. Using the embossing folders makes it just so easy to create quick but beautiful cards. So let me know if you would like to come to a class using the big shot to make the embossed backgrounds.

Til next time,

Chris

15Jul2009

Double Layout Scrapbook Page

Posted in Designer Series Paper, Fifth Avenue Floral, Scrap Pages by Chris

Another scrapbook “challenge” from one of the stamping yahoo groups I belong to, this challenge was a double page layout sketch. And again, I really enjoyed completing this challenge, it fell into place really easily, and I have spent a very relaxing couple of hours today completing it.

The photos are again from our trip to Fiji in 2004. I like to leave out the journalling when I put my scrapbook pages up here, as I like to keep some things private 🙂 but I do generally go back and add the journalling in at some stage. However, I often don’t use a lot of journalling on my pages, sometimes just the date and place of the photos, and other times I feel there is a need for more information. But like all things in scrapbooking, there are no rules, so do what you want to do with your scrapbook pages!

I have been doing quite a lot of stamping in the past few days, so I will post again tomorrow with some cards. Until then, happy stamping!

Chris

Stamp Set: Fifth Avenue Floral

Cardstock: Bordering Blue Textured, Basic Grey Textured, Whisper White, Urban Oasis Designer Series Paper.

Inks: Kiwi Kiss, So Saffron, Basic Grey marker

Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Paper Piercing Tool and Mat Pack, Paper Snips, Blender Pen, Marker.

Artwork copyright Chris Parker-Barnes

31May2009

The Rose

Posted in Baroque Motifs, Cards, Designer Series Paper, Fifth Avenue Floral by Chris

I was lucky enough to win the Fifth Avenue Floral Stamp Set at the recent Stampin’ Up! Convention at the start of May, and have to admit that I have hardly used any of my other sets since I got it. I have used it for bleach stamping, embossing and also in this card, watercolouring. I used a fairly tradition approach to watercolouring for this particular card, but if you are interested in seeing some done in a different way using the same stamp set, why not have a look at Larisa’s blog, she has made an absolutely stunning card and I am sure it will inspire you to try out something different.

The colours for my card today, were from a colour challenge set by Alisa Tilsner, a fellow Stampin’ Up! demonstrator. Once again, these colours are not ones I would think to put together myself, and took me a little while to get used to, but they look stunning together. The colours are Rose Red, Perfect Plum, Old Olive and Whisper White. So why don’t you have a go and make a card with these colours, it is a great way of seeing things in a different way and creating something you might not have done otherwise. I’m not entirely sure that I have ever seen a rose in these colours, but I think it worked out ok. And yes, the rose has been coloured using Rose Red ink with an aqua brush, and because I have used quite a lot of water in places, it has made quite a pale pink. And then I have used Perfect Plum (again, washed down quite a lot to blend it in) in the centre.

Stamp Sets: Fifth Avenue Floral, Baroque Motifs.

Cardstock: Whisper White, Rose Red, Perfect Plum textured, Watercolour paper, Holiday Treasures Designer Series Paper.

Inks: Rose Red, Perfect Plum, Versamark, Black Stazon.

Accessories: Clear Rhinestone Brads, White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Embossing buddy, Powder Pal, White Taffeta Ribbon, Paper snips, Dimensionals.