Mix It Up Monday: Birthday Fiesta

This colour combination from my In Color charts is not a million miles away from the one I used in last week’s Mix It Up Monday project. I really feel like I’m on the home stretch now, as I have seen the new catalogue and the lovely new colours heading our way.

And what’s particularly unusual this year, is that I actually LIKE them. As in, straight away, it hasn’t taken me two years to start enjoying them fully. 

Because that’s exactly what’s happening right now with the outgoing In Colors; I was very slow to warm to them but I’m beginning to miss Mint Macaron, Tip Top Taupe and Delightful Dijon already. 

But enough looking forward and backwards, how about now? This week’s combo uses Dapper Denim in a patriotic red, white and blue scheme. Yes, there’s grey – and you probably know I’m not a fan – but I’ve kept it in the background out of harm’s way. 

It’s nearly time to say farewell to the llovely llama, too. I normally sell ALL of my retired products but I may have to make an exception for this fellow. 

Carried Away Sale-a-Bration DSP with a llama!

I love this paper so much that I really struggled to cut it up but I just knew these mountains needed a llama to go with them! The paper is called Carried Away (143608) and is FREE with any order of £45 during Sale-a-Bration.

Hot air balloons are a recurring theme of this year’s Spring/Summer catalogue and Sale-a-Bration. There’s a fabulous stamp/die bundle that goes with this paper (that’s where the greeting came from) but I thought I’d craft outside of the box and leave the balloons for another day...

Festive llama banner

You know when you have a million and one things to do and should be crossing something off your list not adding to it? Isn’t this always the moment you have an “amazing” idea that you simply must carry out? That’s what happened this week.

Inspired by a beautiful pop-up llama/alpaca Christmas card, I just had to make a festive llama banner to send back in return.

And this is the result. A string of behatted llamas with some festive bling in between. I wanted to make pompoms but didn’ t have the time or resources, so compromised with some punched shapes instead.

The llamas are backed with a plain die-cut to sandwich the Baker’s Twine, and the stamped circles are backed with another one the same, just in case they flip around. The pompoms on the hats are carefully trimmed from the Whisper White pompom trim. Some of them are a bit ropey but needs must!

Ok, I’m off to hand it over, reluctantly... (wish I’d made two!)

Around the World Blog Hop - Autumn/Winter catalogue

Welcome to another Around the World Blog Hop, in which we’ll take you on a global tour of talented Stampin’ Up!® demonstrators (and me!) to showcase some of the fabulous products from the Autumn/Winter catalogue. Whether you’ve come to me via Julie Davison’s blog, or landed here by accident, thank you so much for visiting, and I hope you enjoy the journey!

My project uses the Mountain Adventure stamp set, which I absolutely love. I love the clean lines and the way you get lots of different sized tree stamps so you can create a scene to scale. I confess I haven’t used the snowboard/skis/whatever as they ’re not really my cup of tea but I think this set is totally worth it for the mountains and trees! As you may have gathered if you’re a regular blog visitor, I particularly like this set when used with Birthday Fiesta, because llamas make everything better. And as Christmas is on its way, why not a Christmas llama? I’ve given him a festive hat, stamped with Jolly Friends and trimmed down to size. I had to make my own hat trim, so hand drew that and fussy cut it, then added a single pompom from the Whisper White Mini Pompom trim. It was worth it though, to see the llama’s smiling face.  Now you’ve rolled your eyes at my crazy llama card, it’s time to head to New Zealand to see what Kristine McNickle has in store. Safe travels!
Julie Davison (United States)  http://juliedavison.com

Helen Read (UK)
http://allthingsstampy.blogspot.com  
Kristine McNickle (New Zealand)
http://www.creativestamping.co.nz
Barbara Meyer (Austria)   http://barbaras-kreativ-studio.blogspot.com

Marie-Josee Trudel (Canada francais)

http://alapause.blogspot.ca

 

Miriam van Eyden (The Netherlands) 

 http://miriam-cardsandscrapping.blogspot.com

Mountain Adventure Photopolymer Stamp Set [142194] £19.00	Birthday Fiesta Photopolymer Bundle [142268] £38.50	Jolly Friends Photopolymer Stamp Set [142112] £15.00	Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock [121681] £7.25	Always Artichoke A4 Card Stock [108610] £7.25
Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549] £8.25	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock [106550] £8.25	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] £5.50	Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad [126966] £6.00	Always Artichoke Classic Stampin' Pad [126972] £6.00
Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [126975] £6.00	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad [126973] £6.00	Project Life Journaling Pens [135304] £4.50	Whisper White Mini Pompom Trim [141486] £6.50	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush [141897] £7.25

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Mix It Up Monday: Mountain Adventure with a llama

It’s Mix It Up Monday again and time for another project made with a colour combination from my latest set of In Color charts. 

Have I mentioned that I love llamas? Just a few times perhaps? One of the reasons I ordered Mountain Adventure was because of the llama possibilities - I honestly think these sets must have been made for each other. There will be more llamas and mountains to come, I promise! 

And I’m still enjoying the use of a (so on-trend!) photorealistic background in the form of Serene Scenery DSP. I’ll be running out of sky sheets soon though so will have to come up with another idea.

This project uses a Flirty Flamingo colour combo which, I confess, I had to force myself to use so that I don’t spend all of next spring making cards in Flamingo because I’ve neglected that chart. I’m not a pink fan and Flirty Flamingo definitely isn’t my favourite new In Color. So I’ve toned it down with some Island Indigo stamping.

You know how there are no mistakes in rubber stamping? This card was meant to have just two mountains but, in the time-honoured way, I messed up the stamping of the greeting on the otherwise finished project. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I settled on adding a third mountain in the foreground... and this time I stamped my greeting before sticking it down!

Birthday Fiesta Photopolymer Stamp Set [141500] £19.00	Mountain Adventure Photopolymer Stamp Set [142194] £19.00	Best Birds Photopolymer Stamp Set [141525] £19.00	Serene Scenery Designer Series Paper Stack [141642] £9.00	Pool Party A4 Card Stock [124391] £7.25
Flirty Flamingo A4 Cardstock [141421] £7.25	Island Indigo A4 Card Stock [124390] £7.25	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549] £8.25	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] £5.50	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad [126982] £6.00
Island Indigo Classic Stampin' Pad [126986] £6.00	Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad [131179] £6.00

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Birthday Fiesta - the first of many llama projects

Is Birthday Fiesta the most fun you can have with stamps and ink? Very possibly. Not since the ugly Santas of 2014 (Visions of Santa) have I chuckled to myself while stamping. I LOVE this set. I know it’s not to everybody’s taste but come on, some of you must get fed up of flowers sometimes, surely?And anyway, there ARE flowers on this card, albeit scattered at the feet of the mighty llama. 

The llama is stamped in Chocolate Chip and coloured by painting using a brush and water on the ink pad lid. Same for the rug. It isn’t easy on Kraft as it’s hard to tell if it’s just darker because it’s wet, but I took it slowly so that I didn’t end up going too dark too soon. 

The last time Stampin’ Up!® released a llama stamp (From the Herd) it was great… but a bit limiting as the llama was part of a crowd of other animals, which dominated any project. This llama is much more versatile as it stands alone, you can cut it out with the co-ordinating dies, add accessories and generally have llots of llama llaughs. 

Inside the card

In case you haven’t guessed, I love llamas (and alpacas). For my son’s 13th birthday we went on a mini llama experience, where we groomed them, fed them and walked them. Last year for my birthday I asked for a llama trek… and only a llama trek. Working on the theory that, because it was quite pricey, if I asked for absolutely nothing else, I’d stand more chance of getting one. And I did – and we all went as a family, walking around the Chatsworth Estate for a couple of hours with two gorgeous beasts, Django and Jelly-Roll. It was their owners who introduced us to the phrase “calmer with a llama” and it really was a very calming walk. Although we did have to stop and talk to absolutely everyone we saw. Bizarrely, one of those was one of my Stampin’ Up! customers, which startled us both and, being so completely out of context, we nearly didn’t recognise each other.

Anyway, enough about llamas. Although I can’t promise because as I may have mentioned, I do really love llamas. So expect to see a lot more of this little fellow. 

Birthday Fiesta Photopolymer Bundle [142268] £38.50	Labeler Alphabet Photopolymer Stamp Set [141936] £15.00	Dapper Denim A4 Cardstock [141419] £7.25	Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock [121681] £7.25	Kraft 12" X 12" Card Stock [133674] £6.50
Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock [106550] £8.25	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] £5.50	Dapper Denim Classic Stampin' Pad [141394] £6.00	Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pad [126979] £6.00	Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad [126966] £6.00

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com