Welcome to A Spot of Stamping

Accented Blooms Birthday

I'm loving this new stamp set called Accented Blooms from Stampin' Up! This birthday card is on its way to one of my customer's who is having a birthday today.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Whisper White
Stamps: Accented Blooms, Detailed with Love (Happy Birthday sentiment)
Ink: Poppy Parade, VersaMark, 
Markers: Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, So Saffron, Crushed Curry, Rich Razzleberry, Fresh Fig, Lemon Lime Twist, Old Olive, Calypso Coral
Other: Tailored Tag Punch, White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Rhinestones

Exciting New Catalogue Out Now

The brand new 2018 Annual Catalogue is now available.  There are lots of exciting new things in this catalogue, including a colour revamp with lots of new colours.  

To view the new catalogue head to the catalogues page on the Stampin' Up! website:

2018 Annual Catalogue PDF

or shop directly at:

https://www3.stampinup.com/ecweb/default.aspx

don't forget to choose me as your demonstrator or ask me for a Hostess Code (which will automatically link your order to me).

Check out this fun video showing you just some of the new product:

Some colours have retired, some popular colours have returned and some are brand new colours.  Here is a quick rundown

The New colours are (including the returning 2017-2019 In Colours):

The colours returning by popular demand:

 
Last but not least, the colours have done some moving around and some are now in new colour families.  As well as this, you might notice that the "Neutrals Family" now has some colour to it.  

Finally, there is also a brand new family called "Basics" with the Basic Black, Whisper White & Very Vanilla.  

Mothers Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day here in New Zealand.  The first card I'm sharing with you was for my Mother-in-law and was inspired by Teri Pocock in the UK.  I have completely changed the colours on mine but I liked the border down the left-hand side.

 

Next was my Mum's card.  For this I used Stampin' Up! Memories & More cards.  These cards aren't just for memory keeping (or scrapbooking as it is also known) but can be used for many other uses as well.  That's why they're called Memories & More.  This set are the Petal Passion Memories & More cards.

On one of the smaller sized cards I found a quote that I thought was great for Mums - my Mum certainly gives me endless support.  I used the Big Shot to cut it into an oval shape and I used a piece of coordinating coloured cardstock (Powder Pink) to cut a scalloped oval to go behind it.  A larger card trimmed down slightly to fit a card base formed the main part of my card.  

I added a few pearls, which it is hard to tell in the photo, are actually a soft pink colour.  They are part of the Share What You Love Suite coming out in the new 2018 Annual Catalogue.  However you can order them now as part of the pre-order of this suite if you choose either the 'A Little More Please' or the 'Gotta Have It All' bundles.

Inside I stamped the flower from the Friendships Sweetest Thoughts, along with a sentiment from new stamp set that is coming called Detailed With Love. Sneak Peek  

Another Memories & More card added to the inside of the card gave me a special place to write a wee note about her gift, which will be some of her favourite shots from our daughters' school photos.  They are on order and not ready for Mothers Day.  Something for her to look forward to.

Here is what you get in the pack of Petal Passion Memories & More cards.  These are on the retiring list but there will be other designs available in the new catalogue.  They are brilliant value when you consider all the ways you can use these cards.

Supplies:

First card:

Cardstock: Powder Pink, Whisper White, Sweet Soiree Specialty Designer Series Paper

Stamps: Friendships Sweetest Thoughts, Thoughtful Banners

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Flirty Flamingo

Big Shot: Stitched Shapes Dies, Ovals Layering Dies

Other: Watercolour Pencils, Aqua Painter, Blender Pen

Second card:

Cardstock: Basic Black, Powder Pink, Whisper White, 

Other: Petal Passion Memories & More cards, Share What You Love Artisan Pearls (new)

Big Shot: Layering Ovals Dies

Stamps: Friendships Sweetest Thoughts, Detailed With Love (coming soon)

Ink: Powder Pink

New Grandparents Congratulations

Recently a customer became a grandparent for the first time.  I made her a card to congratulate her on this special occasion.  

I used the Polka Dot Basics embossing folder for the background, together with the Lots of Labels dies which I stamped my rabbit on.  I love this rabbit.  He is so lifelike with his three step stamping method. I used Sahara Sand, Crumb Cake and Soft Suede inks.

For the sentiment I used the die from the Petals & More Thinlits Dies (currently in the Occasions Catalogue) but I extended it to make it fit my word.  I did use some retired letter stamps to spell out the word Grandparents but everything else is current.

Whilst I admit I'm tickled pink for the new grandparents the baby was a boy.  So, I got out my Stampin' Write Marker and changed the 'pink' to 'blue'.  

Supplies:

Cardstock: Night of Navy, Soft Sky, Whisper White

Stamps: Sweet Little Something, Best Birds (congratulations) Fabulous Flamingo (inside), Back to Basics Alphabet (retired)

Inks: Sahara Sand, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Night of Navy

Big Shot: Lots of Labels Dies, Petals & More Dies, Polka Dot Basics Embossing Folder

Other: Night of Navy Gingham Ribbon

How the supplies you have can dicatate the direction of your project

The Principal of our Daughters' school is leaving at the end of the term. He has been a wonderful Principal and we are very sad to see him leave. His new school in the South Island are very lucky to be getting such a great Principal and we wish him all the best.

The card I made him was inspired by Connie Richter.  On her blog it says her frame is silver but in the light of the photo it looked copper to me and I liked that idea better, so mine is copper.  

I wanted Good Luck on one of the bottles and the only stamp I had in my entire collection was one that said "I'm so lucky to have a good friend like you".  So, out came my Stamp-a-ma-jig and my markers.  Then I discovered I don't have a Night of Navy marker and I'd already stamped the Thank You in Navy. I have a Chocolate Chip marker and that was the other colour of my card so the other label became Chocolate Chip.  

I coloured directly onto my stamp, inking only the 'luck' part of the word lucky and using my Stamp-a-ma-jig I stamped that randomly over the label (before it was stuck to the bottle of course).  Then I cleaned off the stamp and coloured the 'good' with the marker and used the same process to line up the 'good' in front of the luck.  If you look closely you'll see I stamped them off the edge of the label as well which makes it look like it is wrapped around the bottle. 

It was a reasonably slow process, having to re-colour the stamp for each word but I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  I actually think its turned out better this way.  Isn't it funny how sometimes the supplies you have available dictate how the project turns out?  If I'd have had a Navy marker both labels would have been Navy and both labels would have had a single sentiment.  I like it better this way.

On the inside of the card I simply stamped a bottle in Crumb Cake ink and created a label for it with the dies in the co-ordinating framelits set.  I cut a bottle cap out of the copper foil to match the ones on the front of the card.

Supplies
Cardstock: Night of Navy, Whisper White, Copper Foil & Wood Textures Designer Series Paper

Stamps: Bubble Over, Wood Words, Special Reason (retired)

Ink: Night of Navy, Chocolate Chip

Dies: Bottles & Bubbles Framelits, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Big Shot Machine

Other: Dimensionals