Tag Archives: challenges

Kintsugi Inspirations

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Kintsugi Inspirations is the name of the patterned paper I have used for my card today.

Kintsugi Inspirations is on Page 59 of the Stampin’ Up! Annual catalogue. I love all the gorgeous blues and pretty florals.
I have adhered the background layer onto a card base of Misty Moonlight cardstock, and the retired Scallop Contours Dies have been used to cut a layer using Cloud Cover cardstock – one of this year’s In Colors. The vase on my card has been fussy cut from the paper.

My card is based on the sketch which is one of the challenges this month with Craftin’ Round the World Challenges.

You can join in with our challenges at our Facebook group here, and we are also on Instagram.

Happy Stamping!
Chris

Sunrise Sailing

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Hi there!
Well, it has certainly been a long time between posts. I am still here and still crafting, and feeling like I am starting again from scratch with cardmaking and blog posts. But sometimes, that’s how life goes.
While I have been doing a fair bit of crafting, I haven’t been doing any cardmaking, there’s been a lot of crochet, journal making and pyrography, and I might start sharing some of those here as well as my papercrafting.

Despite all of the challenges I have been facing over the last few months, I am still a member of the lovely Design Team for Craftin’ Round The World Challenges. And today’s card is using the Sunrise Sailing stamp set and coordinating embossing folder, along with some of the Peaceful Garden Designer Series Paper which will be available in the upcoming mini catalogue, available on the 3rd September, and which also contains a lot of gorgeous Christmas goodies!

That’s it for today, thanks for reading along.
Happy stamping,
Chris

You can shop for your own Stampin’ Up! supplies in Australia by scanning the QR Code below….

Sketch Saturday #765

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Welcome back to another Sketch Saturday challenge.

For this fortnight’s challenge we are choosing a sketch from the Archives, and there are heaps of great sketches there to choose from. The challenge this time is to use a sketch from 2014, which I have.

Here is the sketch I have chosen, only I have turned it on it’s side.

I have chosen to use some of the Winter Meadow Designer Series Paper as a focus for my card today, with distressed edges and heaps of sponging.

This DSP definitely has a winter feel to it, unlike out weather here in Australia, it has been so hot, and only just the start of summer. I think it’s going to be a long, hot summer, but that means lots of time at the beach!

You can find the rest of the Design Team’s ideas for this challenge on the Sketch Saturday blog.
Why not join us and share your projects inspired by our sketch? We love to see what you have been creating.

Hope you have a crafty weekend.
Happy stamping,
Chris

Sketch Saturday #764

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Welcome back to another Sketch Saturday challenge.

Here is the new sketch for your inspiration, and this fortnight we are adding the additional challenge of putting some distressing on to your project.
I generally love adding distressed edges to my projects however I felt that the pretty papers that I featured look better with clean edges.

For my card I have used some of the patterned papers from the Secret Garden Scrapbooking kit, which is available to purchase. The kit contains heaps of gorgeous items including stamps, dies, stickers and of course, these gorgeous papers.

The flowers are all cut from the patterned papers. So pretty!

You can find the rest of the Design Team’s ideas for this challenge on the Sketch Saturday blog.
Why not join us and share your projects inspired by our sketch? We love to see what you have been creating.

Hope you have a crafty weekend.
Happy stamping,
Chris

Sketch Saturday #763

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Welcome back to another Sketch Saturday challenge.

I’ve been missing in action for the last couple of sketch challenges as both my son and I were down with a very nasty flu which has been going around here. It certainly was nasty and laid us both low for a few weeks. But we are both well again and enjoying the beautiful spring weather.

Here is the new sketch for your inspiration, and this fortnight we are adding the additional challenge of making a sympathy card, however I have chosen to make a Christmas card.

I have combined some of the Country Woods Designer Series Paper with the beautiful Sentimental Christmas Designer Series Paper for my card today.

You can find the rest of the Design Team’s ideas for this challenge on the Sketch Saturday blog.
Why not join us and share your projects inspired by our sketch? We love to see what you have been creating.

Hope you have a crafty weekend.
Happy stamping,
Chris

Sketch Saturday #760

Posted in Cards, Masculine by

Welcome back to another Sketch Saturday challenge.
Here is the new sketch for your inspiration, and this fortnight we are adding the additional challenge of making a masculine card.

I have combined some of the Country Woods Designer Series Paper with the Trucking Along stamp set for my card today.

You can find the rest of the Design Team’s ideas for this challenge on the Sketch Saturday blog.
Why not join us and share your projects inspired by our sketch? We love to see what you have been creating.

Hope you have a crafty weekend.
Happy stamping,
Chris

Sketch Saturday #758

Posted in Cards, Challenges by

Hi and welcome back to another Sketch Saturday challenge.
Here is the new sketch for our inspiration, a lovely sketch that you could do so much with, or keep very simple.

The only issue I had with this sketch was deciding which of the many ideas I would use for my Design Team card for today.

I have used a piece of the Perennial Lavender Designer Series Paper over some Crumb Cake cardstock for the background, and I have lightly inked the edges of the DSP with some Crumb Cake ink, just to take away the white of the cut edge.
And I have done the same with the layer of Melon Mambo paper which comes from the Countryside Rose Designer Series Paper, a paper which was only available to Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators but I loved the colour of it behind these flowers.
The flowers and leaves come from the Fully Flowering Ephemera Pack, so are already cut and coloured for you.

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you will share your projects with us at Sketch Saturday.
Happy Stamping, and don’t forget the sale on Designer Series Papers which has only a few days left, and you can make the most of by clicking here.

Happy stamping,
Chris

Sketch #17 and Craftin Round The World

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Hi and welcome back to day 17 of my sketch challenge.
My card today uses the 17th Sketch from the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalogue and is my card for this month’s challenge at Craftin Round The World.
Here is sketch number 17 from Page 22 of the catalogue. If you would like to find Day 1 of the sketch challenge for the month of August, just click here.

I have used panels of the Country Woods Designer Series Paper, at 2.5cm in width by 13.5cm and spaced them evenly across my card base which is some Basic Beige cardstock.

For the centre panel I have a piece of Night of Navy cardstock cut to 7.5cm x 10.5cm, a piece of Basic Beige cardstock which is 7.3cm x 10.3cm, and then a piece of Basic White cardstock cut at 6cm x 8.5cm.

The stamped images are from Under The Moon stamp set, the ocean stamped in Misty Moonlight ink, the dolphin and sentiment (from the Poised Peony stamp set) in Night of Navy ink, and the clouds in Basic Beige ink.

I quite like the combination of the blue colours teamed with Basic Beige. What do you think?

That’s it for me today.
Happy stamping!
Chris

PS Don’t forget the sale on Designer Series Papers which you can buy in my Online Store here.

Sketch Saturday # 756

Posted in 3D by

Welcome to another Sketch Saturday challenge.
Here is the sketch for this fortnight.

I chose to turn the sketch on it’s side for my project today, and I have used it as inspiration for a covered notebook.

The notebook front and back have been covered with some Country Woods Designer Series Paper, and I have cut the two blue strips from the same paper before using my Paper Snips to cut flag ends into the strips. I have then run them through the Stampin’ Cut and Emboss machine with the Distressed Tile Embossing Folder and then added some Night of Navy ink along the edges and randomly on the front of the blue panels.

The feature image comes from the Poised Peony stamp set. I have stamped the image in Night of Navy ink, and then coloured it using a Blender Pen and some of the Soft Pastel Assortment. Since the colouring has been done on Basic White Cardstock, I did this very gently in a dabbing motion to ensure the cardstock doesn’t rough up.
I have taken some pieces of Linen Thread, and coloured them using the dark Highland Heather Stampin’ Blend, and then pulled the strands of the thread apart to give it a more whispy look.
Then I’ve added some leaves in Copper Clay, cut using the Online Exclusive Changing Leaves Hybrid Embossing Folder and Dies, along with some leaves from the Stippled Roses Dies in Soft Seafoam and Highland Heather.

Here is the notecard I made to go with the Notebook, using the same elements and techniques.


I hope you will join us and share your take on the sketch, we always love to see what you have been creating.
Happy stamping,
Chris

Spotlight on Spring

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Another seasonal inspired card today, to go along with the current challenge at Craftin Round The World, this time Spring inspired, and I have featured the Spotlight on Nature stamp set and Dies for my card.

In the background is some of the Country Woods Designer Series Paper and I’ve also used the Fun Patterns embossing folders to create some texture.

The flowers and leaves have all been coloured with watercolour pencils and then fussy cut.
Yes, there’s a lot of fussy cutting there.
So what’s the trick to fussy cutting? (fussing cutting is cutting around an image using scissors rather than using a die to cut). The trick is to move the piece you are cutting, rather than moving your hand around the piece, so keep your scissors in one direction as much as possible, and move the piece of cardstock, paper or whatever else it might be. I’ve found that to do this successfully I need to keep the piece of cardstock as small as possible, so I usually do two cuts, one to reduce the size and then one around the image.
The other trick is to make sure your Paper Snips (scissors) are nice and sharp.
And I enjoy fussing cutting, I find it quite relaxing, a little like meditation.

Happy stamping, and happy crafting.
Chris