JAI #76 - Inspiration

This week at Just Add Ink the challenge is to create something inspired by this gorgeous photo

Aren't the colours and the view just beautiful?  Anyway,  for this week, I decided to take some additional inspiration from the new US catalog that was released just last week and which is choc full of absolutely gorgeous samples, and this is what I came up with

This card is basically a CASE of the gorgeous card on the front of cover of the catalog, minus a few of the new items that are yet to come our way.  I have used the Creative Elements set, which will be available here on September 1.  The cardstock is from PTI and an almost exact match to the new Pool Party In Colour, which will also be available on September 1.  I have clear embossed with swirl and I tried very hard to dry emboss the oval, however my tearing got a bit out of control and ended up being a bit too close to the dry embossed line so you can't really see it.

The new US catty is absolutely gorgeous, so full of beautiful new products and samples.  I can hardly wait for the release of ours in just a few weeks as a LOT of those products are coming our way - we saw sneak peeks during Convention a few weeks ago.

Well, that all from me.  Be sure to check out what the rest of the DT have done - the photo has provided lots inspiration and therefore, lots of beautiful creations.

Supplies Used:  (All Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted)
Stamps:  Creative Elements (available September 1, 2011)
Ink:  Versamark, Melon Mambo, Crumb Cake, Old Olive
Cardstock:  Whisper White Textured, Old Olive, Pretty In Pink, Crumb Cake DSP, Aqua Mist (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories:  Heat Gun, Clear Embossing Powder, Decorative Label punch, Extra Large Oval punch, Boho Blossoms punch, Bitty Shapes punchpack, Photo Corner punch, White organza ribbon, Pearls

Fancy Folds Blog Hop - JAI 74

JUST ADD INK FANCY FOLDS BLOG HOP

Z Fold

Welcome to the next stop on the JAI Blog Hop, I hope you enjoyed viewing Delys' fabulous star card and you're ready to check out another Fancy Fold.  Too bad, I have made a fairly straight forward Z fold card, lol!

Here's a few more photos from differnt angles

Close up of the inside panel

Close up of the front

This card is fairly simple to  make.  All I did was take a 12x12 piece of Whisper White textured cardstock and cut that at 14.85 cm, which is the same side as a piece of A5 cardstock folded in half.  Then I scored it at 4" and 8" on the 12" side.  Here's a quick picture of it on my score board

When I folded it, I made a mountain fold at 4" and a valley fold at 8".  Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy!

The card was inspired by a teeny tiny picture of a wedding invitation I saw in a magazine.  I have also noticed that I'm quite liking the sentiment stamped on a vellum strip at the moment.

Well, that's all from me today.  Thanks for stopping by, now it's time to move onto the fabulous, Kathy Tanner's blog where she has another awesome Fancy Fold for you to try.  Just click on the blinkie below to take you there.

Supplies Used:  (All Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted)

Stamps:  Trendy Trees, Life (Papertrey Ink)
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Memento Tuxedo Black, Staz On
Cardstock:  Whisper White textured, Basic Black, Vellum
Accessories:  Dimensionals, SNAIL

JAI #72 - Just Add Colouring

This week's challenge at Just Add Ink is to Just Add Colouring - either using markers, inks, blender pens, aqua painters etc, etc, etc.  I've been dreading this one cause I'm not all that good at colouring, a fact that is evident by the amount of solid stamps I have in my collection :)

Anyway, after much deliberation and at least one other attempt that met the round file, this is what I managed to come up with.

I really wasn't sure where to start so I just stamped a few of the daisies onto the watercolour paper and started colouring.  The placement of the daisies is very similar to the M&T that we did at our  Regional Seminar last November - I have used different colours though!  Once I was finished, I had to decide how I was going to finish it off, so I turned to my trusty layout folder and picked this one from CAS.  The sentiment is from the retired A Little Birthday Cheer which has been embossed with Black Sparkle embossing powder.  In the end, I'm quite happy how this has turned out (just don't look at how many times I've gone out of the lines *ooops*)

Make sure you check out what the rest of the Design Team has come up with - some gorgeous creations for your inspiration :)

Thanks for visiting

Supplies Used:  (All Stampin' Up! unless noted otherwise)
Stamps:  Every Moment, A Little Birthday Cheer (I think - retired)
Cardstock:  Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Watercolour Paper, Vellum
Ink:  Black Staz On, Versamark, Old Olive, So Saffron, Peach Parfait, Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, Soft Suede
Accessories:  Heat Gun, Black Brads, 1/16" punch, Black Sparkle Embossing Powder (American Crafts), Dimensionals

JAI #70 - Sketch Challenge

This week at JAI it's a sketch challenge. 

To start with, I was a bit stumped as to what to do for this since I don't have the Scallop Circle die yet.  I was going to drag out my Circle Scissor Plus, (I did do that eventually anyway) but then I had another idea.

This is what I came up with

The doily I picked up from the party supply shop across the road from my work.  The rest came together quite quickly, suprisingly enough.  I have embossed the base using an old Cuttlebug embossing folder.  Because the card measures 5" x 5" I had to run it through twice.  There must be a trick to that which I am not aware of because I ended up with a bit of a line in it.  Luckily that doily was big enough to cover it up, lol!  The sentiment is from the L3 Hostess Set, Occassional Quotes and has been stamped in versamark and embossed with Silver Sparkle embossing powder that I have had in my stash forever!

Be sure to check out what the rest of the Design Team have come up with.  There are some absolutely spectacular project for your viewing pleasure :)

Thanks for visiting

Supplies Used: (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted)
Stamps:  Occasional Quotes
Ink:  Versamark
Cardstock:  Whisper White
Accessories:  Big Shot, Embossing Buddy, Circle Scissor Plus, Heat Tool, Embossing Folder (non SU!), Silver Sparkle embossing powder (non SU!), paper doily (non SU!)

In reply

To this anonymous comment I received yesterday,

Jo, I can see you're excited about the opportunity we were given at convention for sneakie peaks. I'm shocked however that you are posting them all on your blog. Do you think it's doing yourself or your business (not to mention other demos) any good?? With three months until our own catalogue release, would you not be better off concentrating on the things you think are going to be retiring?

I just want to state the following:

1.  During check in at Convention we were all give a piece of paper that stated, and I quote, "We're excited to share the 2011 - 2013 In Colors with you!!!  Because these colours have not been released in any market, we ask that you not share names or photos of the 2011 - 2013 In Colours until June 1, 2011"

2.  During Pam Morgan's General Session presentation, she requested that we do not post photos of anything we had seen at Convention until June 1, so as not to ruin the surprise for those on the Alaskan Cruise (sorry cruisers, we did get to see the projects Pam demonstrated before you :))

3.  The kicker, and my personal favourite is a copy of an email I have from Australian Demonstrator Support which states, and I quote, "From the 1 June 2011 you may share photos of projects using the convention stamp sets.  Photos of the actual products cannot be shared until the catalogue is available to the public on the Stampin' Up! website on the 1 September 2011."

My post yesterday showing the Make & Takes we did at Convention and the 2011 - 2013 In Colors was based on WRITTEN CONFIRMATION I had received from Demonstrator Support themselves.

As for your assertion that I'm not doing my business any good, well I hate to disappoint you but I haven't had a thriving business since I returned to work fulltime, nearly 4 years ago.  Not that it's really any business of yours.  I hardly feel that my posting of the M&T will detract from your, or any other demo's businesses either when Stampin' Up! are offering a VERY generous Hostess Promotion at the moment and yesterday announced another promotion that will run for the month of July.

And, no, I do not think I would be better off concentrating my efforts on things that may be retiring.  I couldn't care less about what's retiring and what's not.  I am, however, interested in providing those who read my blog samples of new and exciting products when I have been advised I'm allowed to do so.

So thank you for visiting my blog, maybe next time you will be upfront enough to leave your name rather than hiding behind an anonymous comment.

Convention 2011 - Warning Sneak Peeks Ahead

Our Annual Stampin' Up! Convention was held just a few weeks ago.  I've been meaning to do an update but since there was a lot of stuff I was unable to share until June 1, I decided to wait until now.  This year Convention was 3 days, instead of just two, which meant we got to do some extra activities, such as the Pen, Pad, Marker - more on that a bit later *hint*.  Whilst I loved that it was 3 days, I still felt the time just whizzed by, there were a heap of people that I saw in passing but just never got around to speaking to because we just seemed to be continually moving from one thing to the next.

On Registration day we were very excited to find out what our Make & Take sets were going to be and they did not disappoint :).  We received the Creative Elements and It's Your Day sets and our Make & Takes were absolutely gorgeous.  I've only completed 3 out of the 4 and have only edited 2 of the 3 photos of them, so I will have to add the others in a later post.  Here is one of them - the No. 3 Card.

The floral image, the long frame (behind the floral piece) and the No. 3 are from the Creative Elements set.  This is a set of 8 and all of the samples I have show all of the stamps.  The floral image has been covered in Champagne Shimmer mist - the sample only had it on the flower but I didn't like how I went over the lines using the sponge dauber so I cover the whole lot!  As you can see, the M&T included SEAM BINDING so I am guessing that it will also be included in the new catalogue.  Just a head's up - start saving now ladies - all of the things we saw at Convention are absolutely gorgeous - you are going to want it all.

This is the second Make & Take I did - the Treat Yourself 6x6 Scrapbook page.  My friend Bron took a photo of me showing off the No. 3 card during our M&T session and I've cropped it down to finish off this page.  Convention is the ONLY time I ever complete scrapbook pages of myself, which is kind of funny, probably cause it's the only time I'm in the photos instead of taking them.

Again, all of the stamps are from Creative Elements, the big floral swirl, the long frame, the border and the sentiment which reads 'Treat Yourself Like You Own Best Company'.  Again, more SEAM BINDING (yay).  Also that Not Quite Navy scallop border hidden under the Old Olive flag was made using the RIBBON BORDER punch (yay - been waiting for that one).

Here are some more samples of the Creative Elements set from the display boards.

I really love the colour palette of this one.  The Butterfly is from Creative Elements.

The 'Create' is the 8th image in the Creative Elements set.  (And oops, I've cut the ribbon off from the side)

This one is pretty.  The flower has been popped up on dimensionals, but you could cut the flower into many layers to get a multi layer effect.

I really love this one, love the effect of the colouring of the flourish/swirl and the addition of the punched flowers.  Colour palette is very pretty too!

The M&T that I haven't finished yet uses the PETAL CONE DIE, another item I have been hanging out for. 

We were also told that our Demo pre-order will include more Christmas stamps so we can get a head start planning for workshops, making cards etc., so that was super cool. We were shown samples of 2 of the sets, but I'll have to do a separate post for those as I haven't edited the photos yet of the samples Shannon shared with us.  I can tell you that one of the sets will be Tags for Christmas, which was featured in the US Holiday mini which I won, along with the Tulips Embossing folder in the very first Prize Patrol - yay - that's 2 years in a row for me  - how lucky am I???
As I mentioned earlier, one of the activities we got to do was the Pen, Pad, Marker.  This is where you make samplers showing all the SU! colours of cardstock, marker and ink.  Kim & I didn't think we'd have enough time to complete it as we had a lunch date with the rest of the JAI girsl but when Nikki told us that it included the NEW 2011/2013 IN COLOURS we took one look at each other and hightailed it back upstairs.

So here it is, what you've all been waiting for - the 2011/2013 In Colours -

I LOVE them all and can't wait till our Demo pre-order in August.  As I've been typing this up, I've realised that my top in my M&T photo is very similar to Calypso Coral :)  I've also realised that we received a HEAP of information, so I apologise now as the blog posts will probably be all over the shop as I remember things.

I hope you have enjoyed all of these sneak peeks - honestly we saw SO many beautiful, beautiful things, I CANNOT wait for this new catalogue.  I've got a feeling it's going to be the best yet!  Hopefully I'll be able to update with some more convention info over the next few weeks (being honest here, lol)

Cheers

JAI #68 - Colour Challenge

This week it's a colour challenge at Just Add Ink, and very pretty ones at that! (Can you read the names?, they look a bit blurry to me - Pear Pizazz, Baja Breeze, Perfect Plum & Whisper White)

Having just returned from Convention (more on that in a later post), my mind was overflowing with inspiration.  One of  the projects that stood out to me was a book mark demonstrated by Shelli using the Clearly for You set, from the Autumn/Winter mini.  Here is a picture from the big screen, so it's not fantastic quality - sorry about that - the video guy seemed to have a bit of trouble focusing at times.

Another technique that I saw on a few swaps was the use of the clear block as a background stamp, so I decided to combine the two to come up with this

I love to read and purchased this bookmark die a little while ago as I am FOREVER losing my bookmarks.  It's cut from Whisper White textured cardstock.  I then grabbed one of my clear blocks that I've had forever and inked it up with Baja Breeze ink and stamped it directly to the cardstock.  The other images are from Nature Walk, also from the Autumn/Winter mini.  I used my Pear Pizzaz and Perfect Plum markers to ink up the floral image and the ink pad for the No. 147 sentiment.  A bit of linen thread through the top, finished off with a clear bauble from the now retired Pretties Kit added a little bit of extra something.  Oh, and the book I'm reading at the moment is 'The Burning Wire' by Jeffrey Deaver - author of 'The Bone Collector', this is another in the Lincoln Rhyme series.

I will be back over the weekend with my Convention round up post - lots of interesting information to share :)

Supplies Used:  All Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted
Stamps:  Nature Walk
Ink:  Baja Breeze, Perfect Plum, Pear Pizazz and Perfect Plum Markers
Cardstock:  Whisper White textured, Baja Breeze
Accessories:  Big Shot, Clear block, Linen Thread, Bauble from Pretties Kit (retired), Bookmark Die - Papertrey Ink