Well hello! And welcome to the second Colour INKspiration challenge. I’m thrilled and excited to be part of the Colour INKspiration Crew!

Each fortnight the crew will inspire you with a blog hop as we unveil the new challenge colours, and then you can join in.

And guess what… Colour INKspiration is on Facebook! We have a huge group of well over 900 members already, and this is only our second hop. Amazing! Come and join us. It’s an awesome way to try new colour combinations and get your mojo happening. For a little bit of extra fun, each week the crew will pick a winner, and there’ll be a people’s choice winner too.  I hope to see you there!

I missed the first hop due to our camping holiday at the beach, so I was itching to get back and join in all the fun.

And what a fabulous colour feast we have this time.

Ooooh what a delight! I was inspired by both the colours and theme this week, so pulled out my brand new Stylish Stems Framelits and Special Reason stamps. (Yay! They came in a bundle so we save 10%).

The Stylish Stems framelits are amazing. If you haven’t seen the cool things these dies do, then you’ll want to check out this video.

Pretty awesome, aren’t they? You can see the cut out flowers better on this photo:

I simply adhered the patterned paper to the Whisper White layer, and ran the whole lot through the Big Shot with those fabulous dies.

Too easy!

You’ll notice the stamps have a ‘mottled’, vintage-y look to them. This is part of the look of the stamp, and are designed to work that way.

You can see the slightly distressed surface of the rubber here:

Hop on over to see what Monique has created with this fabulous colour combo. And by the time you’ve finished the hop I’m sure you’ll be ready to create your own handmade project with these colours. Don’t forget to add a photo of your project to the Colour INKspiration Facebook group!

Happy stamping,

Welcome back to the first CASEing the Catty of 2017.

How exciting! A new year, new products, plenty of new ideas and inspiration, a brand new challenge Facebook group, and even a new CTC crew member (welcome Mel!).

We’re kicking it off for this year with a fun suite – Party Animal – which you can find on pages 4-7 of the new Occasions Catalogue.

I chose the ‘quick & easy’ card on the bottom of page 4 for mine, but stepped it up by adding a few extra layers and elements. The card features the Balloon Adventures Photopolymer bundle (stamps and coordinating framelit dies).

Here’s the original from the catalogue…

And here is my interpretation:

Colours are Emerald Envy and Crushed Curry, as above, but I’ve also introduced Watermelon Wonder to my version.

Same, but different! 😉

I used some of the thinlits dies from the fabulous Balloon Pop-Up Thinlits to add layers to the balloon, and then topped it with a thick coating of adhesive from the Fine Tip Glue pen.

When it dries it forms a fabulously glossy and hard coating.

How awesome are those little layering bits for the balloon? Wow!

These lovely bright colours really called for the full impact of a good inking from a Classic Stampin’ pad, rather than Stampin’ Write markers. Can you work out how?

Yes, the tape masking method!

Tape Masking Technique

You can use washi tape or sticky tape, and if there’s enough ‘tack’ you can even use post-it notes.

Simply use the tape to mask off an area of the stamp, tap-tap-tap onto the ink pad, remove the tape (leaving the protected area uninked), then stamp! Too easy.

It’s a great alternative to using Stampin’ Write Markers to apply ink onto the stamp – especially if using photopolymer stamps which are a little trickier to ‘marker’.

Note: This technique lends itself best to photopolymer stamps but if you’re using rubber stamps then you’ll probably need to pull out the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig tool for perfect placement.

I’ve used different colours in this ‘pictorial tutorial’, but the result is the same.
Step 1.

Ink the entire stamp in the lighter ink colour, and stamp on to the Whisper White cardstock. Clean stamp.

Step 2.

Place tape over the parts of the stamp that you want to mask.

Step 3.

While the tape is still on the stamp, tap it onto the surface of the ink pad.

Step 4.

Peel off and throw away the tape. Do it carefully, there’ll be lots of ink!. The masked area will have no ink on it.

Step 5.

Now stamp this image over the top of the original impression.

Photopolymer stamps are perfect for this, but if you are working with rubber you might need to pull out your Stamp-A-Ma-Jig.

What an awesome, vivid result, and it really has such an impact. Best of all – quick and easy.

Helpful Hints:

• Don’t worry too much if your images don’t line up exactly. It’s nice to have a bit of shadowing underneath.
• If your colours don’t layer nicely like the example above, you’ll just need to add in an extra step where you mask off some of the stamp so there is no overlap of ink. That’s how I achieved the look below, using Emerald Envy and Watermelon Wonder inks.

Well that’s all from me this week, but I hope you enjoy checking out all the fabulous projects shared by the CASEing the Catty crew.

Click on the button below to visit the next stop on the hop which is our brand new crew member, Mel Pagano. Don’t forget to leave her some comment love! And if you get lost along the way, just click here.

And in case you haven’t heard the news, we now have our very own CASE-ing The Catty Sunday Challenge Facebook group where you can join in and share your own creations. How cool! I hope you’ll join us.  >Join here<

Happy stamping,

Tags: balloon adventures, CASE-ing the Catty, CTC110, stampin' up!

The moment we’ve been waiting for…

The new Occasions Catalogue is here and Sale-a-bration officially begins!

Download: NEW Occasions Catalogue

Download: Sale-a-bration Brochure – 2017 Stampin’ Up! Australia

I’m so excited about many of the adorable projects in here. Seriously. Just have a look through the catalogue and you’ll know why!

And now might be a reeeeeeeeally good time to have a serious think about joining Stampin’ Up!. I’d love to welcome you on board and show you what a fabulous opportunity this is. Imagine… you could get all your Stampin’ Up! goodies at a hefty discount, and even make money if you are keen to kickstart a business.

But did you know that Sale-a-bration is the BEST time to join?

DURING Sale-a-bration the deal is sweetened even more! Join for only $169 (yep, that’s all!) and you’ll get:

• $235 worth of products of your choice
• >>> Sale-a-bration bonus: PLUS an additional 2 free stamp sets from either the Annual or Occasions catalogues (that’s an added value of up to $179)
• FREE SHIPPING on your starter kit
• Me as your upline! And you’ll become one of the EurekaStampers – the friendliest, most awesome bunch of creative demonstrators in the country (yes I’m a little biased). But seriously, we have a wonderful team of friendly crafters from all over Australia and you would be welcomed straight away.
• The freedom to choose what you do with your Stampin’ Up! demonstratorship. Save money, or make money! Or both. You won’t find any pushiness, but you WILL find help and support if/when you need it.
• …and more. Click here to learn more.

Join Stampin’ Up!

Shop online.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions… I’m here to help.

Happy stamping,

Happy new year friends!

What a whirlwind few weeks it has been. I hope you had an awesome Christmas and rang in the new year in a fine way.

I say 2017 is going to be absolutely amazing!

Of course the best thing about a brand new year is setting up my planners for the new year.

Are you a planner girl/guy?

If you haven’t been indoctrinated into the world of planners then the rest of this post may not make much sense. The planner community is huge (check out some of the Facebook groups to see what I mean).

To get 2017 off to a great start I’ve been getting my planner setup ready.

I’ve got my new inserts (trying out the awesome day to a page inserts from Life is Crafted this year), and put my Robin’s Egg Carpe Diem planner aside while I (very carefully) started using my rose gold Kikki-K planner.

Yes, it’s the one with the flakey gold 🙁

But after looking at it fondly for a few months I just had to take it out of the box and use it. I mean, what’s the point otherwise?

So my new set up is ready to go. For now.  If there’s any interest I’d be happy to share how I set up my planners to help me be more productive (hint – leave a comment if you are!).

Anyway, what I want to share TODAY is some awesome news.

Victoria is getting it’s very own planner market!

The Melbourne Planner Market is coming to Kensington for one day only (hopefully more if it’s a big success) so get your … ahem… planners out and lock in this date: February 12th 2017. No need to use the Frixion markers on this one, go for that permanent Very Special Pen to write this baby down.

Tricia (from the Speckled Sparrow) and I will be sharing how we use the awsome Stampin’ Up! products in our planners. Stampin’ Up! is a paper crafting company of course, with plenty to keep us card makers and scrapbookers happy. But did you know just how versatile our products are? Oh my goodness. You are going to be blown away!

So come along and check out what we have to share. There are around 30 stallholders to the event and even better – it’s FREE ENTRY! Yay for that.

Are you coming?

Leave me a comment below, or even better make sure you like & follow my Facebook page. I’ll be sharing some of my favourite planner tips in the coming weeks and you won’t want to miss it.

Happy stamping,

What a lovely surprise!

Stampin’ Up! are cleaning out the shelves to make room for the great new products coming in January.

So out they go… retiring Christmas products, overstocked items and clearance rack bargains.

SHOP THE YEAR END CLOSEOUT SALE

There are some great bargains, like the Stitched with Cheer kit. 50% off! Down from AUD$42 to $21. Includes everything to make the 18 cards, including envelopes, liners and even the needles and needle threader!

Wondering what’s retiring from the Holiday Catalogue?

Click HERE to download the PDF document

Click HERE to download the sortable Excel spreadsheet

A couple of quick notes: 

1. When you look in the online store you’ll notice the Year End Closeout link has 4 categories: Stamps, Bundles, Paper and ‘Everything Else’. Make sure you select ‘view all’ on the Everything Else page, otherwise you’ll only see the first of 5 pages of products.
2. Sale-a-bration is around the corner, and so is the release of the new Occasions Catalogue. It all kicks off on January 3.  I’m now taking bookings for cardmaking workshops into February and I’d love to do one for you! If you are in Victoria just get in touch and we’ll see what we can work out. Everything supplied and you’ll learn tips and techniques while we stamp together.

That’s it for me today, but don’t hesitate to jump over to my Facebook page to keep up with all the daily happenings.

Happy stamping,

Today is a special day.

It’s the final day of the Online Extravaganza – with up to 40% off select product. Check them out here.

And to top it off we have four new products on special for 24 hours only.

Don’t miss this, because it ends on Monday 28th November at 11.50pm

My pick of the lot is the amazing Magnetic Platform (click image below for more info):

If you do a lot of die cutting with the Big Shot using stamped images, then you will find this a fantastic time saver. The magnetic platform holds Framelits and Thinlits dies in place over stamped images when you cut them. You use this in place of the Multipurpose Platform, but in all other respects the sandwich is the same. Fabulous invention.

Here are some of the other specials, on today only. Click on the images for more information…

Don’t forget that we also have 25% off THESE STAMP SETS until the end of November. Add them to your Online Extravaganza order to save on shipping.

Happy stamping,