Purple and Silver

This week at Our Creative Corner it is my turn to set the challenge, and I have chosen a colour theme, using my favourite colour Purple, along with Silver, you can use other colours as well, just as long as purple and silver are the feature colours for your project.  Our Creative Corner will taking a break over Christmas and it is our last challenge before our break, so lets make it a Christmas project as well.

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I have had fun with the Big Shot and embossing this week on my card.  I have used a stamp from the Ornament Keepsakes stamp set which I have heat embossed with silver powder onto Elegant Eggplant card stock and then cut out with the Holiday Ornaments Dies.  The silver layer is some of the gorgeous Glimmer paper cut using the Apothecary Accents Framelits, and for the white layer I have used the Adorning Accents Edgelits and the Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder.  The greeting comes from the Teeny Tiny Sentiments Stamp Set and I have used a little bit of Pink Pirouette card stock for some interest and some non-Stampin’ Up! ribbon that I found in my stash!

Happy Stamping!
Chris

Our Creative Corner Santa Challenge

So, my second card for the week… yes, I did…. this time though, I had a few more supplies.

This week’s challenge at Our Creative Corner, is to make a vintage style card or project which uses a Santa Claus image, along with some red, such as a red button, brad or ribbon.
For my Santa image, I have used a free image from this site  which I printed onto Very Vanilla card stock.  I have then sponged, and done some red zig zag faux stitching around the edge.  Ah, yes, you guessed it, my sewing machine is still packed!

I have used some Be of Good Cheer Patterned Paper in the background, along with some tulle, seam binding ribbon and of course, a gorgeous Vintage Brad and some half backed pearls.
And up in the top corner you will see a little Merry Christmas, this is from the For The Birds stamp set, I have just used my marker to ink up the greeting without the bird.
Check out the rest of Santa inspired projects from the Design Team this week, and please join in the fun, we love seeing your projects.
Happy stamping!
Chris

Beautiful Butterflies

I love Papillon Potpourri stamp set, such beautiful butterflies!
And I have seen this idea around on the net in a few places so thought I would make a couple of different ones.  What I really wanted to do was to show you just how easy it is to change a couple of elements and come up with a completely different card.

So, as you can see, I have change the colours, the first card uses Midnight Muse, Cajun Craze and Summer Starfruit.

I used a different piece of patterned paper, although both are from the Comfort Cafe Designer Series Paper.  The greetings on both cards are from the Curly Cute set.

 

The colours in the second card are Whisteria Wonder, Pool Party and So Saffron.

I have also used a different butterfly to achieve a different look, but both are from the Papillon Potpourri stamp set.

I like this design, I think I will make a Christmas card using it 🙂

I also want to let all of my lovely followers know that there are going to be some pretty major changes going on over the next couple of months. My son and I have decided that it is time to move back home to Canberra.  We have started packing,  but we don’t have an exact date to move yet, but imagine it will take place before Christmas.  So I will attempt to continue to craft and blog over that time, but I hope you will understand if it’s not as frequent as it has been.

Happy Stamping!
Chris

Freshly Made Sketches #57

I have made a Christmas card for this week’s sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. I am really enjoying getting into the spirit of Christmas this year, I have done a lot of Christmas shopping already, so thought it would be good to get started on some Christmas cards too.

I have made quite a few of these ornaments, to go on some Candy Canes to hang on the Christmas tree, and as I was making them, I thought how nice they would look on a card, and here is the result.  I will show you the Candy Canes in another post.
The card uses the Candlelight Christmas Specialty Papers, and the Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder.  And for the ornament I have used the Snow Flurry die, Real Red Glimmer Paper punched out with the scallop circle punch, and the greeting comes from the Mixed Medley hostess set.
Here is the sketch:    

Happy Stamping!

Chris

Clean and Simple Kitchen

No, I am not asking you to go clean up your kitchen, it is this week’s challenge theme at Our Creative Corner.  Meihsia’s challenge is to create a Clean and Simple card featuring something you would see in the kitchen.

I have used the coffee cup from the fantastic Scentsational Season stamp set (page 16 Holiday Catalogue), and while this is definitely meant to be a Christmas set, I didn’t want to make a Christmas card this time, so I punched out the For You sentiment from the Mixed Medley stamp set, one of the new Hostess Sets in the Holiday Catalogue, and layered that over the snowflake image.  The image is cut using the matching dies, which can be bought in a bundle with the stamp set.
The patterned paper is from the Festival of Prints Designer Series Paper Stack, and also the woodgrain is from the Natural Composition Specialty papers.

So please join in this week, we always love to see what you come up with for our challenges.  The rest of the projects from the Design Team can be seen here.

Happy Stamping!
Chris

Freshly Made Sketches #55

I took some time out this afternoon to do some creating just for the fun of it, and thought I would have a go at this week’s sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  I also thought it was time I got on and made some Christmas cards, since it won’t  be long before Christmas is here.

I have used a few new goodies for this card, the patterned papers come from the Festival of Prints Designer Series Paper Stack, they are gorgeous and great for card making (Page 20 of the Holiday Catalogue). The embossing folder is also new and is called Northern Flurry (Page 189 Annual Catalogue).  The stamp set is For the Birds (Page 34 of the Annual catalogue) – a fabulously versatile set with something for just about every occasion.  And the Cotton Ribbon and Slide are from the Holiday Catalogue.
Here is the sketch that I have used:
If you have any questions about how I have made this card, or if you would like to place an or

Hope you had a crafty weekend.
Happy stamping!
Chris

Let’s Be Royal

Our Creative Corner challenge for this week is a royal theme, and I had a real struggle with this one!

The requirements are:
– Create a card or project with a royal look using a crown, castle or a princess.
– Use the photo to inspire you.
– Your project must have something yellow or gold embossed.

Well, I don’t have any castle or princess stamps and the only crown stamp I have looks more like a jester’s hat than a crown!
So, I did a google search on princess images and decided to do some paper piecing, not something that I have done much of before.  Actually, truthfully, I have never done anything like this before so it really was a challenge!

Personally, I think she looks a bit evil, or angry, what do you think?
I have used patterned paper from the Floral District paper pack, and the Delicate Designs Embossing Folders to create the lacy underskirts, along with lots of fussy cutting and faux stitching.
I am not all that happy with the final result, but I guess for a first attempt it’s ok.
There is plenty of wonderful inspiration for this challenge from the rest of the Design Team though, so make sure you check it out, and lets see what you come up with – we would love it if you would share your creations.
Well, that’s it for now, but I will be back with some more real soon.
Happy stamping!
Chris

Photo Inspiration Challenge

My turn to set the challenge again this week at Our Creative Corner, and I have chosen a photo to inspire you!

What I would like you to do is, create a project of your choice which:

1. Uses something from the photo that inspires you, it can be colours, shapes, anything at all.
2. Use 2 or more buttons on your project, they can be real buttons, fabric buttons, covered buttons, die cut buttons, any sort of buttons!
3. And, use polka dots somewhere.

And here is my card.

I have taken the colours from the photo and also the cake stand, as inspiration.

I have used the polka dot papers from the Stampin’ Up! Designer Series Paper packs in Soft Subtles, punched them out using the Blossom Punch and Boho Blossoms Punch, and then done some free-hand paper piercing around each one, and then markers to create the stitched look. (For those of you who are regular visitors to my blog or my classes, you will know that I love my faux stitching!!)
The “vase” is from A Cherry on Top stamp set, which is a cute new hostess set (Page 197 of the Annual Catalogue) and the leaves from Betsy’s Blossom have been stamped in Gumball Green and hand cut.  And just to make sure it was really “polka dotty” 🙂 I have used the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder for the white background.
Have a look at what the fabulous Design Team have created for this challenge, and I do hope you will be inspired to create something and share it with us.
For those of you on Facebook, we now have a new Our Creative Corner Facebook page, so why not drop in and give us a “like”.  🙂

Please feel free to email if you have any questions.
Happy Stamping!
Chris

OCC Sketch Challenge

This week it is my turn to set and host the challenge at Our Creative Corner, and I have chosen a sketch challenge for you for this week.  I would like you to make a card for a male using the sketch, and an extra but optional challenge for you, if you choose to accept it, is to use a Monochromatic colour scheme.
The zebras on my card are from the Zoo Review stamp set and have been watercoloured, then one has been cut out and raised and layered over the other.  I have used a masking technique for the sun – I punched out a circle of Post-It Note and then sponged around the circle using a sponge dauber.  The tree has been double stamped with two different colours of ink to give it that shimmery look.
The background paper is from the Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP (patterned papers), and the strips of Cajun Craze card stock have been run through the Big Shot using the Woodgrain Embossing Folder.
The colours I have used are So Saffron, More Mustard, Cajun Craze and Early Espresso.

So, here is the sketch for you to use for your own card.

 Make it as simple or as complicated as you want, we would love to see what you come up with. And make sure you check out the inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.
Happy Stamping!
Chris

Another Blog Hop!!

Hope that you’ve all been enjoying the gorgeousness of the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalogue.  The Holiday Catalogue also went live on the 1st of September, but we thought we’d give you a couple of weeks to get into it before we bombarded you with the beautiful things the Holiday Catalogue brings!!!

So another Artful Stampers Hop ~ this time to celebrate the Holiday Catalogue Launch!

You may have hopped here from Melissa at Bee Devine Designs, but if you are just starting here, keep hopping on through.  I’m stop 4 on the Hop and I’m glad you’re here sharing in the fun!!There are lots of gorgeous Christmas goodies in the Holiday Catalogue, but I thought I would showcase something different.  So, my projects for today all use the Orchard Harvest suite on pages 28-30 of the Holiday

Catalogue.  I am making these for my sister, who has a property with heaps of apple trees.  Eventually they want to open a cidery, so I thought I should keep her inspired with these gifts.  She doesn’t spend much time on her computer, so here’s hoping she won’t check out my blog and see them before she gets them!!I have used the Orchard Harvest patterned papers and the Perfectly Preserved Stamp Set for the card and the cute little box.  The box also uses the Cannery Set Framelits Dies which match the Perfectly Preserved stamp set.  Love how Stampin’ Up! match everything up.  These also come as a bundle to save you even more money!  Love it!
And I have made a Lavender Bag and Coaster, both of which use the Orchard Harvest Designer Fabric. Unfortunately the fabrics didn’t have apples on them, so I had to use pears instead!
I have a few other things to make to add to this collection, but I have been away for the last few days so haven’t had a chance to get it all done.  But I’ll share them all with you before I send them off to my sister.

Now it’s time to visit Anna for the next stop on our Hop. I am sure you will find lots of wonderful ideas to inspire you. And in case you get lost or there are broken links just pop back here for the full list of stampers taking part in this hop.

Don’t forget to leave comment love as you trip along the hop from blog to blog. We like to know what you think about the things we’ve been doing!!  And if you have any questions please feel free to send me an email.

Happy stamping, and I hope you find lots to inspire you!
Chris

Blog Hop links:

Alisa Tilsner
Madonna Dunn
Melissa Davies
Christina Barnes (you’re here!)
Anna from My Little Creative Nook
Alison Barclay
Nicole Derendorf
Kay Koufalakis
Karlie from Stamping with Karlie
Tina Hewett
Michelle Bartholomaeus
Kathryn Carr