Colour INKspiration - #10 - Picture Perfect

Hello and Welcome to another Colour INKspiration Blog Hop - the challenge is to use these colours in your project and only add a neutral or two.  Our challenge happens every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month, and we kick start your creative inspiration with a design team blog hop full of great projects featuring the challenge colours.



This time our colours are:  Cajun Craze, Island Indigo, Smokey Slate, and Delightful Dijon - and the inspiration photo is full of richly coloured autumn themes.  Now I know there are LOTS of you who are not too keen on Cajun Craze - but I like it - it's perfect for Foxy Friends (which I didn't use today), falling leaves, and natural images.  It goes really well with my favourite colour family of the neutrals!!

I've used these rich colours with Picture Perfect - for no other reason than that I wanted to use this stamp set again before it retires!!  The roses were stamped with the Delightful Dijon in the first 2 layers of colour, and then the Cajun Craze for the top level of stamping highlights.

The bird is stamped all in Island Indigo - a truly gorgeous colour!!  And I've used the Smokey Slate for the card base and most of the sponging on the Irresistibly Floral DSP in the background.    My additional extra is the silver satin ribbon (which is identical to Smokey Slate) and some silver sequin trim. 

And because this stamp set has the leaves in it, I stamped a few to go around my floral bouquet - but they looked dreadful!!!  What to do with all of them?  After 3 step stamping and fussy cutting, I wasn't to keen on putting them in the bin, so I have falling leaves on the inside of my card!!  teehee

I love the richness and opulence of these colours together, and I really do like my finished card (even those crazy leaves!!!).  I hope you've been inspired too!!

Now it's time for you to hop along to see  Moniques lovely card.

And to join in our challenge, add your project to our Facebook Challenge page here.

Happy Stamping! Julia

 Please use my online store to place your order - and there's only 1 more week of our retiring catalogues!!

  And, if you can see yourself creating cards and sharing your love of papercrafts while inspiring others, perhaps you might be interested in the Stampin' Up! Business opportunity - contact me to find out how.

SUO - Masculine Traveler

Hello and Welcome to another SUO Challenge (using Stampin' Up! Only Products for your project) - this time we are challenging you with a Masculine Theme!!

You can see the complete list of great projects from the design team when you head to our challenge blog.

Creating male cards can be super challenging, but I've found that using neutral tones with one other colour helps!!  Here I've used my Traveler stamp set (now retiring) for the world globe (love that image!!) along with a greeting from the hostess stamp set Time of Year, and the Banners for You stamp set.  Those coordinating Bunch of Banners framelits are so helpful for making a dynamic greeting!  

I've used the great sketch from the Just Add Ink challenge to help my creative juices flow!!

And you can see the awesome projects from that design team if you click on the graphic.

For the large central circle, I've used the largest Swirly Scribbles thinlit, and my horizontal elements are created using some Tip Top Taupe ribbon and Love and Affection Washi Tape.

My background is a combination of Hardwood stamp set with Woodgrain embossing folder.

The colours are:  Tip Top Taupe, Crumb Cake and Mint Macaron.

I hope you've been inspired to jump into our Masculine Challenge too - it's always good to get a few more cards ready for the men in our lives!!

Until next time,

Happy Stamping! Julia 

 And, if you can see yourself creating cards and sharing your love of papercrafts while inspiring others, perhaps you might be interested in the Stampin' Up! Business opportunity - contact me to find out how.  

Please go to my online store to place your order by clicking HERE.  

Favourite Project for CTC#129

Hello and Welcome to our Sunday Night Blog Hop where we share some inspiration with you from our Stampin' Up! Catalogues!

This week, we are (trying) to choose our favourite project from the Annual Catalogue.......

You know it's a hard choice!

Finally, I decided to CASE some of the lovely projects in the Irresistibly Floral Suite on page 126.  This DSP has lots of different white embossed designs, and there are many ways to colour it. 

I've sponged using the sponge rollers, and then used the same colours to stamp my floral bouquet under the greeting.  

I've always loved the projects on this page because I love the gorgeous soft colours chosen - there are combinations of Flirty Flamingo, Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz, and So Saffron - and they are so pretty!  As I don't have the lovely Falling Flowers stamp set, this is the first time I've CASEd this page!!  I've used Flower Patch and the Flower Fair framelits to create my floral cluster.

I hope you like my project - and this will be one of our cards at class this coming weekend!

Next up on our blog hop is the awesome work of Judy.

To see the complete list of the design team, head to our CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop page.

And please, join in the fun of the challenge by adding your project to our facebook group page!!

Happy Stamping! Julia 

 Place your order in my online store - and remember that our current Catalogues end in 10 days - so be sure to get in quick for those retiring goodies!!

 And, if you can see yourself creating cards and sharing your love of papercrafts while inspiring others, perhaps you might be interested in the Stampin' Up! Business opportunity - contact me to find out how. 

You are Invited

Wednesday Card Buffet- are you coming along?

These are some of the cards we are creating at our Wednesday Cardmaking Smorgasboard -

this Wednesday 17th May at my home -

 8 cards or any choice of cards.

Would you like to join in too?

Contact me by email here.

Happy Stamping! Julia

 Please click here to place your order in my online store.

  And, if you can see yourself creating cards and sharing your love of papercrafts while inspiring others, perhaps you might be interested in the Stampin' Up! Business opportunity - contact me to find out how.

All the KITS are AWESOME!! CTC#128

Hello and Welcome to our Sunday Night Blog Hop.  We are a team of Stampin' Up! enthusiasts who love to be inspired by our Catalogues - and each Sunday night we like to share our creativity with you.  This week we are sharing our Favourite Retiring Kits from the Stampin' Up! Catalogues.

Stampin' Up! creates many fabulous kits - some all inclusive (which include stamps, inks, and EVERYTHING required to make the entire kit) and some are project kits which supply all the papers, embellishments and extras, and you can add your choice of inks and stamps.

I'm a BIG fan of kits - I love their portability (perfect for holidays etc), I love that all the thinking is done for me (and I can happily create all the projects in a kit with no stress about design ideas), I love using them for a great gift idea, and I love that they are always AMAZING!!  

So, I don't really have a favourite  retiring kit - because I love them all, I've created all of my kits, and then given them away as gifts   So this week I'm featuring these cards and tags  from the Birthday Bright Project Kit from the Occasions Catalogue - and they will be stacked and packaged as a gift bundle too.

The kit includes all supplies to make 12 cards and 12 gift tags - 4 each of 3 different designs.

All the elements are fun and bright - great for young people, and full of celebration - perfect for birthdays.  The fronts of the cards include these 2 die cuts featuring the candles (for a shaker card) and the fun double tier cake.  

So, after creating all the cards and tags as per the kit instructions, I was left with a pile of die cut cakes and candles.......  So my creative kit journey was furthered while I upcycled the 'scraps' from my kit and made 12 more little cards!!!!

I used lots of washi tape, and the coordinating stamp set for the kit - Birthday Bright - and added the cakes and candles onto the front as my feature!!

My final touch was some sequin bling!!!

I also added some Fine Tip Glue Pen to the tops of the flames on the candles - they are lovely and shiney!!  The washi tape on these cards is used directly onto the cake and candles.  There are also  some coordinating DSP elements.

I used note cards and envelopes to keep my project more 'kit like' and easy to complete.  

And finally, they are bundled together for gifts!!  

If you've been inspired by our kits in all catalogues (and truly, they are all awesome!!), please join in the fun with our facebook challenge group and add your Kit inspired project to the photo album before next Sunday Night!!  You can use this link to get there.

Now it's time to keep going on our blog hop and see the great project from Elizabeth - I love her work!!

And for the complete list of the design team, head to our blog headquarters!!

Happy Stamping! Julia

 Please contact me to place your order in my online store.

  And, if you can see yourself creating cards and sharing your love of papercrafts while inspiring others, perhaps you might be interested in the Stampin' Up! Business opportunity - contact me to find out how.

How Exciting!!!

Look!! The new catalogues are here!! And some new products to explore and enjoy!!  One of the many EXCITING things about being a demonstrator is that I get to play and create EARLY before the catalogue goes live on 1st June!!  (I bet you would love to do that too!! - Just ask me how!!)

Happy Stamping! Julia 

 Please click here to place an order in my online store - there are still some great specials available on the retiring list!!

  And, if you can see yourself creating cards and sharing your love of papercrafts while inspiring others, perhaps you might be interested in the Stampin' Up! Business opportunity - contact me to find out how.

Colour INKspiration #09 for Nautical

Hello and Welcome to another Colour INKspiration challenge!!  We have an amazing array of wonderful designs from the team in our hop - so keep on hopping!!



This time the colours are:  Cherry Cobbler, Dapper Denim, and Pool Party
- and these colours spoke to me of 'Nautical"!

I've used the soon-to-be-retired From Land to Sea stamp set along with a greeting from the Seaside Shore stamp set.

I stamped using Dapper Denim onto Pool Party cardstock, and then fussy cut out the turtle, jellyfish, and sword fish - and I also stamped the jelly fish and sword fish onto the By the Shore DSP so that those super fine lines shine through under the main image - this is a reverse version of paper piecing - I've pieced the plain cardstock onto the patterned paper!!

This is the DSP panel INSIDE the card - you can see the central part of the image through the 'porthole' on the front of the card.  

The layering circles framelits were super useful for this card!1 I used them to create the front aperture, the 'port hole' opening and also for the life ring.  There is a piece of window sheet behind the central panel for you to 'see' through.

The life ring was created by paper piecing too - I cut 2 rings, and chopped up the Cherry Cobbler ring and adhered sections over the top of the Very Vanilla ring.  I've threaded some black bakers twine around the ring to give it a realistic finish.

I think this would make a great card for a male - and those are always a little challenging aren't they?

Now it's time for you to keep hopping along to see the great work of everyone on the blog hop!! Rebecca is up next!!

And please, join in the fun of the colour challenge and add your wonderful creations using these colours to our facebook group challenge page!!

Until next time, 

Happy Stamping! Julia 

 Please contact me as soon as possible (in Australia) if you wish to order any of these retiring products - soon, they will be GONE 

  And, if you can see yourself creating cards and sharing your love of papercrafts while inspiring others, perhaps you might be interested in the Stampin' Up! Business opportunity - contact me to find out how.