If you would like an extra challenge to go with the sketch, try a Christmas in July card.
I chose not to do Christmas, but instead I have used some very special Designer Series Paper that only some Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators around the world got as a gift for achieving a sales challenge, and will never be available to purchase. It’s called Countryside Rose Designer Series Paper. Isn’t it gorgeous?
I’ve made a Winter themed card for this challenge, and since I am in Australia, we are in the middle of winter now. Winter is not aligned with Christmas for us here, so I wanted to make a winter card that is not also a Christmas card.
I have used some of the retired One Horse Open Sleigh Designer Series Papers along with a piece of Die Cut fence from something else that retired some time ago – sorry, I can’t remember what the name of that one was. Sometimes it’s good to use up those random bits and pieces that are around.
We love to see your creations, so come and share your projects with us. Craftin’ Round the World is a Facebook group that is closed, so is a safe place for you to share your projects. Come and join in the fun. The link to the group is here.
Happy stamping! Chris
Don’t forget the Earn and Redeem promotion that is happening for the rest of July – simply spend $90 and receive a $9 coupon to spend in August,. Scan the QR Code below or click here to go to my online store.
Here it is! Everyone’s favourite Stampin’ Up! promotion. Well, maybe equal favourite with Sale-a-Bration. The Bonus Days Earn and Redeem means that you get a delayed 10% off everything! All you need to do is spend $90 and you get a coupon for $9 to spend in August.
Spending $90 on gorgeous products that make crafting a breeze is, well, it’s a breeze. Especially with the release today of a ton of new Online Exclusive products which include some Christmas goodies, so that you can get a head start on your Christmas projects. AND some new kits as well.
Here’s a little sneak peek of some of the new Online Exclusives, but make sure you head on over to my online store to check out all of what’s on offer.
So, if you are in Australia and would like to make the most of this great promotion, either scan the QR Code on the photo below, or click here to go directly to my online store. Make sure that you keep a copy of the email you will receive that gives you your coupon code to redeem in August.
I have some exciting news to share with you today, I am honoured to have been accepted as a member of the Design Team for the Sketch Saturday Challenges, and today is my first post as a member of the Design Team. This week’s challenge is to choose a previously used sketch, and I have chosen the one below, Sketch 555 from 2019.
The butterfly has been coloured with Stampin’ Blends, in various pinks and purples.
I hope you will come and visit us at Sketch Saturday Challenges, and share your own version of the sketch, we love to see what you have come up with. Happy stamping! Chris
Welcome back. I have just a quick post for you today, to share some gift cards I have made to send out as thank you cards, both featuring the Country Flowers Stamp Set.
This first card also uses the Dies that go with this stamp set. Both cards have been coloured using Stampin’ Blends.
Don’t forget that for the rest of June, you can buy this gorgeous Bundle, and all Bundles, at an extra 10% off the already discounted price. Head on over to my online store to make the most of it while they are still reduced. Happy stamping! Chris
Hi and welcome back. For those who have been following along with my blog posts for a while, you will know just how much I enjoy taking part in challenges, and I do particularly enjoy a Sketch challenge. So I decided to use the current Just Add Ink challenge to inspire my card today. Here is the sketch:
My card features the mushroom image from the Inspirational Sketches stamp set. I was a little sad when the new Catalogue first came out, I thought that this gorgeous stamp set had retired, but you will find it sneaks in with some images on pages 110 and 111. I am very glad it’s a current stamp set, it’s a lot of fun to use.
I have used some Grey Granite cardstock as my base, and the background layer has been embossed with the Timber Embossing Folder, and then I have run the Grey Granite ink pad over it to highlight the embossed parts. I have taken one of the large die cut circles from the Spotlight on Nature Dies, cut it in half, and then stamped the image in Grey Granite. The red mushrooms were stamped in Black Memento ink, which I stamped off on scrap paper before stamping onto the cardstock, just to make the outline a little lighter. The image as been coloured with Stampin’ Blends in Crumb Cake for the stems, Ivory for the underneath of the mushroom caps, and Dark and Light Real Red. And yes, the image was fussy cut (I love fussy cutting!). The white dots….. there are several ways to achieve the white dots on the mushroom caps, which do make them look more realistic. If you have White Craft Ink, you can use a stylus, dip that into the ink on the ink pad, and dab it onto the image. You may have to do this several times to give a good coverage. Alternatively, you can use a white gel pen or similar and that is much easier to do. Did you know that Stampin’ Up! used to sell these? I’m talking way, way, way long ago in the deep dark past, not long after I first joined as a demonstrator. And believe it or not, I still had one that I bought from Stampin’ Up!. It doesn’t work any more, not surprising, since they do dry out after a while. Perhaps it’s time to do a very big clean out.
Welcome back to all of my crafty friends. We had our first frost of the winter this morning, and even though the sun is out, the next door neighbour’s roof is still glistening in the sunlight. I am so grateful for the lovely fire that is keeping me warm and cosy.
When I first joined as a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator in 2008, I had done very little stamping or cardmaking, and my wonderful mentor, Larissa, told me to find cards I liked online, and copy them as best I could, with the items I had available. At that stage, I didn’t have much in the way of a papercrafting stash (oh my, how things have changed!), so I had to be inventive and creative, look at the card I was copying, and change it to suit what I had available. That process is what we now term CASE-ing, (CASE = Copy and Selectively Edit) and I will be forever grateful for Larissa’s advice to do this, it started me out on this journey, and to me, this is still a fun way to get really creative but also a great way to find inspiration, especially when your Mojo has gone out the window! It is important though to make sure we credit whoever made the original card. And so, onto my card today, and yes, it does once again feature the Stippled Roses stamp set and matching Dies. I may be a little obsessed with this stamp set.
The card that I have CASE-d is the one that goes across the spine on pages 122/123 of the Annual Catalogue. I loved the look of that card but wanted to add the gorgeous roses. The roses have been stamped in Pecan Pie ink, and then coloured (of course! it wouldn’t be me without a little colouring) using Peach Pie ink and a Blender Pen, very gently dabbing the colour onto the shaded areas. In the background, the leaves in Old Olive and Basic Beige are also from the Stippled Roses Dies, the Designer Series Paper is my new favourite, Country Woods DSP, the circle is cut from the Spotlight On Nature Dies, and the sentiment comes from the Stamped With Love set. Then to finish off I’ve added a few of the Peach Pie Shimmer Gems from the 2024-2026 In Color Shimmer Gems.
Make the most of the fantastic 10% discount on stamp set and die bundles through until the end of June. Bundles are already cheaper than buying the stamps and dies separately, so now you get that discount plus another 10% off. Great deal. You can shop online here.
Hoping you have a crafty day. Happy stamping! Chris
The Beatles Song “And Your Bird Can Sing” is the inspiration for my Design Team project for Craftin’ Round The World Challenges today, and I had so much fun creating this card.
I have used the new Basic Beige cardstock for the card base and also the next layer, which has been stamped tone on tone with Basic Beige ink and the Stippled Roses stamp set. I have taken a piece of old sheet music – I’ve been a musician since I was very young, so there’s plenty of it lying around – and I have scrunched it up before sponging some Crumb Cake ink around the edges and on the raised areas.
I’ve used some of the Country Woods Designer Series Paper and the Country Birdhouse Dies to create the bird house. For those cute little birds I have used the reverse image technique, of stamping the image from the Country Birdhouse bundle onto a Silicone Craft Sheet in Memento Black ink, and then pressing a piece of white cardstock over the image, which in effect, reverses the image when it goes onto the cardstock. Perhaps this is a good time for me to get back into doing Facebook Live and YouTube videos to demonstrate that one.
If you are on Facebook (or even if you are not), come and share your projects with us at Craftin’ Round the World Challenges, we love to see what you have been creating.
And don’t forget that the Country Birdhouse Bundle, and all the Bundles are an extra 10% off the already discounted price until the end of June, and you can find them in my online store. Happy stamping! Chris
I do love a card challenge. I’ve been on many Design Teams over the years of papercrafting, and still am now, and I love using different challenges to give me a way to challenge myself and create something different. I guess that’s why they are called a challenge, right? I have three cards to share with you today, all of them made with the same set of colours which are the current Global Design Project Challenge (#GDP449). The colours are Peach Pie, Shy Shamrock and Petunia Pop, all from the new In Color range (2024-2026). They are all gorgeous colours, but not ones I would normally put together. To add to the challenge, I created three different style of cards, and I’ll explain why shortly. Here’s the first card.
I was recently listening to a recorded interview between two of our wonderful Australian Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators, Kylie Bertucci and Maheswari Rajaguru, and part of the discussion was around what style of papercrafter they were. That discussion has given me a lot to think about, and so I used this challenge to play with some different styles. This first card is not one that I like very much, not one that I am at all happy with. However I wanted to use the rather neglected Planted Paradise stamp set in a different way along with using the challenge colours. I don’t think the card showcases my style, however I am sure the person who I send it to in the mail will enjoy receiving it.
The second card is more like my style….
This card features the Magnolia Mood bundle (don’t forget Bundles are currently on sale!). The Magnolia has been stamped onto watercolour paper and then coloured with inks and water painter. I love colouring, whether that’s with Blends (alcohol markers), pencils or ink, or a combination, I love the process of colouring. And so that is a large part of my style. I also love nature, plants, flowers, birds, butterflies, animals, and these are things that I am more drawn to than anything else.
Card number three also features some colouring:
This card is probably the most indicative of my style of papercrafting, colouring plus lots of layers, texture and interest, such as paper tearing, distressing and sponging. The card features the Inspirational Sketches Stamp set, Perennial Lavender Designer Series Paper, and leaves from the Stippled Roses Dies. While I have used the colours from the challenge, I have also used a lot of Crumb Cake to soften the colour combination. So what would you call my style of crafting? Vintage with a touch of modern. ?? What are your thoughts? Which is your favourite card?
In the end, I feel that one of the things I really do enjoy doing, is creating cards in different styles, sometimes it feels good to make a Clean and Simple card, other times I love to put the time into creating a vintage style card that might take me days to put together.
Thanks for hanging around, as you can tell, there has been a lot of thought and introspection in recent times, and not just about crafting. I hope you are having a crafty weekend. Happy stamping! Chris PS Don’t for to make the most of the extra 10% discount of Bundles for the rest of May. Browse through my online store here.
Hi. If this is your first time visiting, welcome to my crafting blog.
I am honoured to have been asked to do a Guest Design spot with the CASE-ing the Catty crew this week, and we are taking our inspiration from the Bundles on Pages 57 – 73 of the Annual Catalogue.
I have chosen the Happy Birthday card in the centre of Page 60 (see below) as my inspiration.
The stamped images have been inked with Memento Black ink, and then coloured with Stampin’ Blends initially to create base colours. The hummingbird was coloured with Bronze, Crumb Cake and Pool Party Stampin’ Blends, with just a touch of Blueberry Bushel. The flowers and leaves with Old Olive, Flirty Flamingo, Poppy Parade and Daffodil Delight.
After the Stampin’ Blends I have coloured over the top with Stampin’ Up! Watercolour Pencils to increase the intensity and vibrancy of colour.
Dot Dot Stamping Designs 