Mix It Up Monday: Celebrate You dies

It’s a watercolour theme for today’s Mix It Up Monday project, so I needed juicy ink pads or ink refills. Fortunately I found a colour combination from my In Color charts that fitted the bill.

These cards are for the latest group of ladies who have joined my team. I’m proud to say that we’ve had a record number of people joining the team this year… all taking advantage of the two extra stamp sets you can choose for your Starter Kit during Sale-a-Bration (which ends on Saturday!).

If you’d like to join, you can do so by clicking this link. All you have to do is choose up to £130 of catalogue products, and two stamp sets on top of that. Just make sure they are paid-for items - ie you can’t choose SAB items or stamp sets from the Stampin’ Rewards section of the catalogues. The cost is £99, and you won’t need to meet your first quarterly minimum until the end of June. 

Back to the cards… I began by stamping and white embossing some flowers and circles, then I spritzed the watercolour paper with water before adding splashes of ink, allowing them to run into each other. 

It was a similar process for the word “celebrate” – I painted the watercolour paper first, then die-cut it. You probably can’t see from the photo, but I’ve gone over the whole word with Wink of Stella to give it a satisfying shimmer. 

The Celebrate die is part of a Sale-a-Bration product but rest assured it is carrying over to the new Annual Catalogue which comes out in June, so there will be another opportunity to get your hands on it. 

Petal Palette candle and pocket card

This week I will be showing you the projects from my All-Day Craftathon at the weekend. There were three classes throughout the day, in no particular order. This one was ideal for Mother’s Day, or could be used for other occasions, to. There’s a candle in a box, and a pocket card. Guests could choose their colours as they each had all of the 2017-19 In Colors at their disposal...

Mix It Up Monday: Springtime Foils get the In Color treatment

What’s this? Flowers? You don’t see pretty floral cards here very often, do you? But I absolutely love this new Designer Series Paper which is part of the second wave of Sale-a-Bration freebies and fits in nicely with today’s Mix It Up Monday colour combination from my In Color charts. 

There’s copper in the paper, which I’ve brayered in Basic Black (you should see my brayer now!) and also coloured with Blender Pens using Berry Burst and Tranquil Tide ink. The flower from Happiest of Days goes perfectly with these flowers, too. The paper is called Springtime Foils and is free with a £45 order. Take a look here:

Mix It Up Monday: Waterfront (yes, again!)

Yep, it’s Waterfront again! Sorry! Not really sorry, as it’s a fabulous stamp set and I wanted to show you one of our projects from last Friday’s Hygge Night. 

Inspired by Lydia Fiedler’s Waterfront projects using Brusho, I wanted to see if I could make something similar using just inks (as I haven’t caved in and bought the Brushos yet).

Last Monday’s Mix It Up Monday project used an all-purple combination from my In Color charts. This week it’s almost an all-green combo. It’s fun to play with these “close harmony” combinations, I think. 

To get the effect, we inked our stamps with at least two colours each, then spritzed them with water before stamping onto dry watercolour paper. It really is as simple as that. It’s messy but a lot of fun. 

Come back later in the week to see the framed images we made using the same stamp set. 

Lots of Lavender... but no lavender

Continuing the purple theme, these are some cute thank you cards I made for last month’s club ladies. Do you recognise the stamp sets?

I’ve used Lots of Lavender (but where's the lavender - this is clearly a rose!) and some words from Painted Harvest, which is still available for the two people who don’t already have it.

I stamped a big batch of these cards using the Stamparatus, which I am privileged to own already as I was part of a consultation team to develop the product. For those who have pre-ordered, you should be hearing from Stampin’ Up!® soon. For those who didn’t manage to pre-order, you don’t have too long to wait... the Stamparatus will be officially launched in the new Annual Catalogue in June.

If you want sneak peeks and chances to order early, you can’t do wrong by signing up as a demonstrator. It’s as low-key or high-octane as you wish it to be. You can build a business and earn an income... or not. It’s up to you!

And now is, of course, the BEST time to join, as it’s Sale-a-Bration! TWO extra stamp sets in your kit are not to be sniffed at. Please ask me for more details or click the image below to get started...

Mix It Up Monday: Beautiful Peacock

I’m tapping into the purple trend for today’s Mix It Up Monday project, with an all-purple combination from my In Color charts. 

This is another birthday present for another of my lovely Hostess Club ladies. She loves bright colours and also is growing in her crafting confidence so I hope she’ll find some inspiration in the contents. 

I’ve used Beautiful Peacock, a lovely and versatile Sale-a-Bration stamp set. Do you have it yet?

Mix It Up Monday: Waterfront (new favourite stamp set!)

I had very little enthusiasm for this colour combination from my In Color charts

but when I finally knuckled down to make this Mix It Up Monday project, I fell in love with it. 

I love the purple mountains and the blue-green trees. I think it's the greeting from the Lots of Happy Card Kit that makes it though... it reminds me of one of those vintage railway posters that I love so much. Hmmm... perhaps I could attempt to recreate one?

Mix It Up Monday: Best Birds and Tree Rings

I was in Ikea last weekend – twice, for my sins – and I saw some of their Christmas ginger biscuits on sale for 50p. I just knew they had potential so grabbed a couple of packs. 

My hunch that they would fit in the mini pizza boxes was correct, although they do need twisting a little, so I decorated a box and made a matching card for Mix It Up Monday, using a Fresh Fig combination from my In Color charts. 

I promise you there is Blushing Bride on there; I used it with my blender pens to colour in the flowers. Admittedly it is a little obscured by the Rose Red on top, but you know how I feel about pink!

For a tip on using background stamps, please head over to my Facebook page for a short video. It’s a fab tip, although I say so myself, and will save you both time AND money. Can’t say fairer than that!

Mix It Up Monday: Where's the peacock?

It’s Mix It Up Monday again and I’ve used the Sale-a-Bration stamp set Beautiful Peacock… although you won’t find a peacock on this card! I used the curved stamp that can be used as the tail or leaves to create a lovely two-tone green wreath, dotted with tiny flowers in Elegant Eggplant and Fresh Fig. 

The colour combination is, as always, taken from my In Color charts and is quite timely as purples are making a big comeback this year, according to my analysis. I’ve written an article on this topic for my Facebook page, taking a look at some of the big trends we can expect to see in papercrafting this year.  Please take a look – you don’t have to be a Facebook member to view but, if you are, why not give my page a Like while you’re there?

Mix It Up Monday with Lots of Lavender

Today sees the return of Mix It Up Monday, although the technical difficulties I had trying to create the colour combo image make me wonder if it was worth the effort! 

I used the gorgeous new Sale-a-Bration stamp set, Lots of Lavender, which seemed the obvious choice for this colour combination. It’s a beautiful two-step stamp set, which also lends itself well to colouring. 

Here’s a top tip for stamping the leaves and stems. You can position them individually if you like but, if you’re making a few cards using this stamp set, my tip is to stamp the outline image first, then lay down the leaf and stalk stamps (uninked) on top, then apply the block to them to pick them up. You’ll have all three stamps on a block ready to use over and over again. 

Mix It Up Monday: Year of Cheer DSP gets the Fresh Fig treatment

How are your Christmas preparations coming along? At the time of writing I have written SIX cards... and they aren’t even the ones heading across the Pond, so I really must get my act together. 

I’m still making Christmas projects though, and this one uses a surprising colour combination from my In Color charts for today’s Mix It Up Monday post. 

I began by sponging Fresh Fig ink onto some Year of Cheer Designer Series Paper. I have fallen in love with this paper all over again since discovering the possibilities by adding some colour. The gold and silver snowflakes really pop out of the rich background. 

I die-cut a huge pile of Very Vanilla trees but then the card went off in a different direction so they will have to wait for another day, as only these two made the final cut. I didn’t really want to add the so Saffron but rules are rules and the colour combination demanded it, so I added a greeting flag and topped it with a silver rhinestone, coloured “gold” with a Daffodil Delight Stampin’ Blends marker. 

Mix It Up Monday: embossed snowflake on vellum

 

Happy Monday – and Happy December! I feel like I’ve been making Christmas cards for months… probably because I have! But there are still more to make and more designs to show you, including this one for Mix It Up Monday and a rather groovy colour combination from my In Color charts. “Groovy” isn’t quite the right word but I was going to say “funky” until I stopped myself - doesn’t that mean something bad in American? Anyway, you get the idea - and you know I love a retro colour combination. 

I also love what happens to vellum when you run it through the Big Shot in an embossing folder - the raised areas turn white, which is just perfect for this big snowflake. 

I’ve let the snowflake do the talking, and just embellished it slightly with some strips of sponged Year of Cheer Designer Series Paper and a Year of Cheer silver embellishment tied with some strands of Lemon Lime Twist ribbon. Fiddly, but worth it, I thought.

How did I attached the vellum? I thought you might ask that. It's attached with a small amount of SNAIL underneath the greeting, and a tiny dot of Tombow underneath the rhinestone at the top right. 

Mix it Up Monday: Pretty Pines with Tree Rings

It’s Mix It Up Monday again and time for a Tranquil Tide combination that’s subtle, to say the least. It comes from my In Color charts and I thought it was perfect to use with Tree Rings and the Pretty Pines dies.  I coloured the pine cones with some Wink of Stella to give it a bit of festive glitz. 

Don’t forget the Online Extravaganza runs all week. Please visit helenread.stampinup.net for details and, if you order through me, please use the hostess code: CNVMKKYM

Mix It Up Monday: Color Me Happy with Stampin' Blends

It’s Mix It Up Monday again after a short break. Sorry about last week – I was I’d been away for the weekend and just didn’t get time to make a project. 

For this one, I turned to my In Color charts to find a colour combo that uses shades which match my growing collection of Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers. Daffodil Delight and Pool Party; I have those so stamped myself a load of flowers from the new Color Me Happy stamp set, masking as I went so the flowers wouldn’t overlap.

Something else you can use your Blends for is to colour embellishments, such as the Pearls, which I’ve coloured here with Daffodil Delight, opening up a whole new world of possibility!

Mix It Up Monday: Hearts Come Home

It's Mix It Up Monday again and a fun gold combo to play with. This year I added metallics to my In Color charts as I felt they were lacking, and it's always fun to add a touch of bling. 

But Fresh Fig, gold, Soft Sky and Whisper White? would that work? I wasn't convinced to begin with but now I quite like it... what do you think?

Mix It Up Monday: Pieces & Patterns

Mix It Up Monday is back! My computer is still broken but I'm working round it (it's a bit laborious though - I don't enjoy change), although photo quality is suffering unfortunately.

Anyway, here's a fun way of using those circle dies and showing lots of images from one stamp set - in this case, one of my favourites; Pieces & Patterns. My daughter dared me to do the doodling... which was a bit scary when I already thought I had a completed card! 

This colour combination from my In Color charts left me a little cold; I'm not a fan of pink as you probably know, but in this case I enjoyed teaming the Powder Pink with Cherry Cobbler and in fact it was the Marina Mist which threw me. But it's worked out ok, I think?

Mix It Up Monday: Hearts Come Home

Feeling festive? I hope so, as today’s project uses the Hearts Come Home bundle and some shiny copper embossing. 

I rose to the Mix It Up Monday challenge by die-cutting the image twice - once in Tranquil Tide and once in Cherry Cobbler - then pieced the trees together. There’s also some Copper Foil behind the house windows and some lovely copper embossing. For more colour combos, please see my In Color charts.

Mix It Up Monday: Jar of Love

Another Powder Pink project? Yep, it must be Mix It Up Monday and an attempt to work my way through my In Color charts, this time with a long overdue congratulations card for a pink-loving friend, heavily inspired by AmyK. 

Mix It Up Monday: Winter Wonder Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Bring out the Powder Pink for another colour combination from my In Color charts and another Mix It Up Monday project. 

I had a spot (or two) of bother with this card as the unlucky recipient will notice. I managed to get Tombow EVERYWHERE and, in the case of Silver Foil, nothing will clean it off. I didn’t have time to start again so only managed to produce a card suitable for posting thanks to the power of photo editing.  

This is the Winter Wonder Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. If you’ve seen it in the Autumn/Winter catalogue, then I salute you because it’s almost as if SU don’t want anyone to buy it, it’s so hidden away. (Page 37, if you’ve given up looking). It’s gorgeous, it will make your Christmas cardmaking an absolute breeze but my top tip is this: if you’re using Silver Foil, stick to SNAIL rather than Tombow.