Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Catherine Carroll

Endless Wishes for World Cardmaking Day

I always forget how busy September is in schools. We all joke that if we actually remembered how bad it could get, we'd never come back! Not that we should really complain having just had a whole two months off for the summer holiday... Anyway, I hope I can get back to some more regular crafting soon - in the meantime, I had to create at least one card for World Cardmaking Day, didn't I?

I really liked the diagonal positioning of the snowflakes from the Endless Wishes set while I was playing around with some Whisper White and my current favourite colour combo of Lost Lagoon, Soft Sky and Smoky Slate. I tried the pattern all over the card, but it was just too much, especially when I tried to layer the lovely All is Calm washi tape over the top! I think this might turn into one of my mass makes for Christmas cards this year as it is so quick and easy to do.

I'm off to find some new colour combination inspiration as otherwise all you will see on here from now until December are shades of blue and grey!

I hope you'll also manage to find a bit of time to craft today. Even if it's just for 15 minutes, I love that I get a little time to myself whenever I sit down to make a card and it's great that as a demonstrator I get to share that with other people.

 

 

 

 

Pinkies Blog Hop for the Autumn Winter Catalogue

Thank you for joining us on another Pinkies Blog Hop! We're showcasing lots of gorgeous projects using products from the new Stampin' Up!® Autumn/Winter Seasonal Catalogue. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

You've probably joined me from Michelle's blog - that's another card for my CASE list, as if it wasn't long enough already!

I have found it so difficult to sit down and actually think about Christmas cards. I know that this is the perfect time to start my festive crafting (in fact, many of you will think I'm leaving it a bit late...!) but having only just gone back to school I can't bring myself to think of the END of the busiest, longest teaching term before it's even started. Still, I have my crafting to keep me sane as I struggle through which is amazing.

To ease myself into Christmas crafting, I wanted to make a wow card. One of those that you just make one or maybe two of and send to really, really special people. I've also decided on my main colour scheme for this year - Lost Lagoon goes so well with my old favourites Smoky Slate and Soft Sky that it didn't really need much thought!

The Festival of Trees stamp sets is going to give me so much variety when I finally get down to my 'bulk' Christmas card making. I was so glad to see Endless Wishes in our catalogue - I thought I'd missed out on that when it sold out in North America last year! Scribbled script fonts are so useful and I am very jealous of lucky people who can write like that freehand. AND it matches very well with the Good Greetings stamp set that you can earn free when you host a qualifying party.

I love gatefold cards for something special, especially when you fold back the 'gates' to create what is often called a double gatefold (I think). The extra weight just adds something, don't you think? Apart from postage charges, of course!

There's plenty more inspiration on offer from our team of demonstrators today, so do keep hopping through - next stop is Tracy!

 

 

 

 

 

Blended Bloom with Hope

This was the easiest card of the three that we made in my Blendabilities class - mainly because the flower image is so much smaller than the Blended Bloom! But it still creates a lovely card.

I have a confession to make.... this card was supposed to be landscape! At least, that's how I imagined it in my head. But I stamped the Whisper White layer for the inside of the card first and stuck it in without thinking to check. 

Like the first card in the class, leaving the inside of the card uncoloured gives just enough interest to finish the card off without being too over the top.

My blog has been a bit unreliable this last week, so I do hope you managed to see these cards when they should have been posted. I'm in the progress of moving to a wordpress website, which should get rid of some of the issues that have been annoying recently. The problem is that other people keep asking me to design or move their own blogs, and my own blog work gets pushed to the bottom of my list!

 

 

 

 

More Blendabilities Inspiration

I didn't let my class ladies get away with just one Blended Bloom to colour. In fact, our second card took rather a lot longer as there were nearly 3 blooms to colour. But we had a great time chatting, and we all remembered how relaxing it is to simply colour something in!

The sentiment is from the Flower Fair photopolymer stamp set - it's so easy to stamp these completely clear stamps straight. While you can of course cut the banner end by hand, I reached for my banner punch to make lining it up as easy as it could be.

I think I need a bit more practise with these pens though, as I'm spotting some left over lines in my blending. Or maybe I can blame my photoshop editing skills for making them stand out rather than blend in...!

 

 

 

 

Blending with Blended Bloom

I was so impressed when I tried out the Blendabilities alcohol markers in our team quarterly meeting in July. I was able to create decent shading on colouring for the first time ever! When I showed my skills to my class ladies, they couldn't wait to give it a go.

I chose Coastal Cabana as my first set of Blendabitilies, and then added Old Olive and Daffodil Delight to allow me to do flowers properly. I think my collection is going to grow quite quickly as these pens are so easy to use. A word of warning however - make sure you always put the lids on straight or you can damage the brush nib, and you must make sure the lids are on tightly or else they could dry out!

We also stamped the inside of the card. It was so quick and easy to add this layer and I think it really finishes the card off properly.

When I sent this card, I stamped the envelope in exactly the same way. I always get more excited when I have a decorated envelope through my letterbox, don't you?