Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Catherine Carroll

Hello, Hello Single Stamps!

I never thought we would get these stamps and have been very jealous of the US demonstrators... but there are now some special single stamps available for purchase! I think my favourite of the lot is Hello, Hello, but I am sure I will find reasons to buy and use the whole collection. You can download the single stamps information here.

The challenge over at "Less is More" this week is a colour challenge, and we have to take inspiration from the colour of our front door. Now, I would never use less is more to describe my style, and seeing as I don't particularly like the colour my door is painted this was really a challenge for me! It's painted dark blue, and Night of Navy seemed to be the closest colour. The inside is definitely Very Vanilla, so that gave me my colour combination. Here's what I came up with:

What do you think? The paper piercing around the window frame cut-out is not very clear, but my poor photography skills are to blame for that. I think I have still got a lot to learn about that, and about clean and simple stamping! I really had to hold back from reaching for my ribbon...

Stamp Sets:	Hello, Hello (132675)
Cardstock:	Night of Navy, Very Vanilla
Ink:	Night of Navy
Tools:	Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine, Window Frames Collection Framelits, Paper-Piercing Tool
Finishing Touch:	Pearl Basic Jewels, Stampin' Dimensionals

 

 

 

 

Paper Pleating with Tea for Two

I can't believe it's Tuesday again already. I honestly don't know where the days go.

The Simply Scored scoring board makes paper pleating easy. So much so, that I am sure to share more variations on this technique in the future! I wanted to make a sweet mini card for a friend, and the sentiment from Friendly Phrases was perfect. 

I'm not a fan of Calypso Coral, but maybe I'm starting to change my mind. I'll really know if I've been converted if I catch myself making it the main colour on a card though, and that's probably a way off yet.

The paper pleats in this panel of Tea for Two DSP are created by carefully scoring paper at set intervals. I say carefully as many a strip of DSP ended up in the scraps pile while I was perfecting this technique and this card! As a general guideline, you reduce the width of your paper just under half. This example is 3" wide, and my original DSP strip was 7" to give me a bit extra. Start by scoring at ¼", then you score at intervals of ¼", ½", ¼", ¾" and repeat that pattern all along the paper. Once you get to the end, you need to have another ¼" of paper left to help stick it down. I recommend using Tombow as it gives a bit of flexibility, but as mine ran out this morning (how can I not have a spare, I hear you cry!), I can say that Sticky Strip works very well but is a bit trickier to handle.

The Lucky Limeade piece was cut with the Adorning Accents edgelits, and embossed with the matching folder to create a bit more interest and texture. The top of the pleating isn't particularly messy, but I think it benefits from being 'finished off'. It reminds me of the way you put a waist band over the pleats in a skirt!

Even though I missed the exciting Stampin' Up! regional training last weekend, I have been reliably informed of the amazing things we have to look forward to over the next few weeks. All I can say is watch this space...

 

 

 

 

Shadow Stamping with Just Believe

I'm not sure if this is going to work, but I would really like to share a series of technqiues with you all. Yes, I admit it, I am a technique girl! I love seeing new ideas and adapting them to work with my (extensive) Stampin' Up! stash. Let's see if I can make this a regular series of posts. I have a 'technqiue keyring' which I originally started during trainings with my lovely upline, Michelle Last. We had a team training weekend in Birmingham recently, and I ran a class to make a new version of our now rather old keyrings. Hopefully these regular posts will share these ideas with you! I must admit that very few of the techniques (if indeed any at this stage) are unique and I am sure you have seen them before. Hopefully I can remind you of them and inspire you to give them a go.

The first technique I have chosen to share is shadow stamping. The beautiful Just Believe stamp set is perfect to showcase this. You need two shades of the same colour ink.  All you do is stamp the image first in the darker shade, and then stamp in the lighter shade using your trusty Stamp-a-ma-jig to offset the image slightly.

Yes, it's more Crumb Cake! But I have branched out to use Soft Suede as well. Both colours are part of the Comfort Cafe DSP, so that was a very easy choice. The seam binding ribbon seemed to be a bit too much for this card, so I tried rolling it up to create a narrower ribbon. What do you think of the effect? Paper piercing also adds some texture to the DSP layers.