Caravan Christmas cards with Tree Lot Dies

 

There are only two days left of Sale-a-Bration so only two days left to earn these beautiful Tree Lot Dies.

I know they will be gone by Friday but I couldn’t resist using them for one last class this week. This is a Zoom class so I have done LOTS of die-cutting for the ladies attending so they can make these two camping-themed Christmas cards. 

Tree Lot Dies summery cards – and how to pack your craft supplies like a pro

 

Do you take your craft supplies on holiday? Summer holiday season is upon us and I know many of you take your Stampin’ Up!® supplies away with you so you can take the opportunity of some downtime to enjoy your crafting.

Several of my Stampin’ Up!® customers are campers, enjoying breaks in their caravan or motor homes. They often tell me they like to craft while away, so I had these ladies in mind when I created these projects. I wanted to thank them for providing me with some invaluable tips for packing to craft on holiday – and you can read their tips below.

But first the projects... 

Watercolouring blog hop: Three cards using Stylish Sketches Sale-a-Bration stamp set

Did you know it’s World Watercolouring Month? Or #WorldWatercolorMonth to be more precise? So I am delighted to be taking part in a blog hop celebrating this fabulous technique. 

 

 

Please read on for some tips and tricks for watercolouring using Stampin’ Up!® supplies and some inspiration using the new Stylish Sketches stamp set from the Sale-a-Bration Brochure.

Woodland-themed projects with FREE Rings of Love paper, and Ringed With Nature stamp set

Do you love free products? Even after nearly 15 years as a Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator, I still get excited to earn free cardmaking products.

The free product I want to show you today is Rings of Love Designer Series Paper, which is FREE with a £45 purchase during Sale-a-Bration in July and August 2022.

Zero Waste Friends of the Forest project – and tips for reducing waste

Reducing waste and minimising our impact on the planet is a big passion of mine and my Stampin’ Up! UK customers – so I thought I’d make a theme of it for my social media posts this week with projects and tips all week long. Please visit my Facebook page or Instagram to get the full experience!

The starting point for this themed week is my very first Instagram Hop, on the theme of Zero Waste. Please visit my Instagram page to find the others in the hop. 

There’s a bit of a back story to my hop project. I went away last weekend and took the Light the Candles Kit with me for some relaxing crafting. I love these kits as you don’t have to think! And everything gets used, with very little waste. 

 

However, there was a small amount of paper waste left over once I’d completed the kit and just as I was about to put it into the recycling bag, I had an idea for this Zero Waste project. 

I searched through my stamp collection to find Friends of the Forest; the little creatures are just the right size to peep through the circles. 

 

I didn’t want to stamp them onto white as I knew the white wouldn’t match the paper from the kit but I thought Pool Party (one of my favourite colours) was a nice compromise here and goes well with Sunshine & Rainbows Designer Series Paper, a Sale-a-Bration product which is free with a £45 order until the end of February.

Originally I had planned to stamp the images directly onto the back panel but that was never going to work as they would overlap. To save making more waste by trying this several times, I stamped each animal onto a small piece of Pool Party card so it could be positioned accurately with no overlapping ink. However, these were all taken from my scraps box. 

 

I also used scraps of Sunshine & Rainbows Designer Series Paper for the background. I managed to find pieces which were almost the right size so hardly had to trim these at all. In another attempt to reduce waste, I mounted these onto the backing piece from the DSP pack, then cut it to size before adding to the card. 

Here are some great tips for reducing waste when you craft:

1. Save those scraps! Narrow strips are good for stamping greetings. Smaller scraps can be used to make tiny punched shapes for confetti or embellishments.

2. Measure mindfully. When creating multiples of a project, think how you can cut your cardstock up into equal pieces to avoid waste. With A4 cardstock, this could be 7cm x 9.9cm layers which mean you get nine equal shapes from one sheet.

3. It’s in our nature to die-cut and punch shapes up to the edge of a piece of cardstock to avoid waste... but you can actually avoid waste by cutting from the centre, as this means you can use the leftover piece as a layer.

4. Have Designer Series Paper you don’t love, or which doesn’t go with your project? Stamp on it, sponge it, colour it – you can MAKE it match.

5. Finally, remember: if you can’t see it, it’s not there. Cut out centres of cardstock layers and use on another project. Don’t wrap ribbon all the way around layers or cards; just tape it behind where you can’t see. 

 

If you love any of the products you see here and are in the UK, please consider shopping at my online store as every order helps to support my small business. As a thank you, if you use the February 2022 host code 2FYQAK7T, I’ll send you a thank you gift in the following month.

To make it easy for you, please shop using this link

Does your wish list come to more than £99? Please get in touch and I will help you get more for your money and unlock discounts all year round.  

 

Please message me via my website 

 

Four easy cards using Driving By Sale-a-Bration stamp set

 

Driving By is not just the most popular Sale-a-Bration stamp set among Stampin' Up!® UK customers but the most popular stamp set of all right now so I thought it was time I used it to create some fun and easy cardmaking projects.

The rubber stamp set features a sports car, a Volkswagen Beetle and a classic VW camper van, plus some fun sayings to go with them. It's perfect if you love colouring so I’ve used it here with Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers. 

My first card is a trendy slimline design to fit our new Slimline Envelopes. Other than that, the design is really simple and can be made with just white cardstock, black ink and the Sunshine & Rainbows Designer Series Paper from the Sale-a-Bration brochure. I picked three colours from this brightly coloured pack of fun patterned paper to colour my camper vans, choosing from the centre of the Venn diagram of “colours in the paper pack” and “Stampin’ Blends I own”. This gave me Granny Apple Green, Pool Party and Mango Melody.

I positioned the three vans using the Stamparatus and a variation of the hinge step technique. Instead of removing the Stamparatus plate across, I moved my cardstock. This is ideal if your image doesn’t fit the exact distances provided by the hinge slots. I might have to make a video to demonstrate that as I don’t think I’ve explained it very well.

I mounted this panel onto another piece of Basic White cardstock purely because I couldn’t decide which colour to use but I wanted to give it a little more depth. It just shows that you don’t need lots of supplies to make a striking card – you can do a lot with just white and a pack of patterned paper.

Behind this panel I used three patterns of Designer Series Paper from the Sunshine & Rainbows pack, choosing one in each of the three colours I’d used. I cut these into blocks of just under a third of the width of the card with the intention of positioning them straight... but they slipped before I could glue them and I liked the angled look better.

Finally, I stamped “You’ve got style’ onto a scrap of white and popped this up on Stampin’ Dimensionals.

For the next three cards I stamped one of each of the Driving By images and cut them out using Layering Circles Dies. Each card uses the reverse pattern of the designs I used on the slimline card.

This card uses a fun rainbow striped design with the addition of some white Baker's Twine. I love the clean Basic White card base and the contrast with that and the bright colours of the Sunshine & Rainbows Designer Series Paper.

The sports car card uses a very similar card design, just turned on its side. I chose this paper because its main colours are Granny Apple Green and Pool Party, which pick up the colours of the Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers I used to colour my image. There’s just a hint of Denim Ribbon there, picking up the Misty Moonlight used on the rainbows. 

The camper van card just had to have rainbows and sunshine images, to evoke the beach vibes of the van. I’ve used Bermuda Bay cardstock with two patterned papers, and a tiny strip of Magenta Madness cardstock for the greeting. The ribbon is Polished Pink, but it’s close enough to coordinate with Magenta Madness.

 

I hope you like my Driving By cards and will consider this stamp set if you place a qualifying Sale-a-Bration order which, in the UK, is £45. The stamp set is free with a £45 order, or you could choose the Sunshine & Rainbows Designer Series Paper instead if you wish, as that is also free with a £45 order.

Plus, if you place an order at my online store using the host code 2FYQAK7T, I will send you a thank you gift next month. This month I sent out rolls of Scalloped Lace Trim to those who use the host code, so be sure to remember... unless you are ordering over £150, as then you can choose your own free gifts at the checkout.

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the current host code DQPJEQF9, I’ll send you a thank you gift in the following month.

To make it easy for you, please shop using this link

Does your wish list come to more than £99? Please get in touch and I will help you get more for your money and unlock discounts all year round.  

 

Please message me via my website 

 

How to add colour to Awesome Otters using Watercolour Pencils, Blender Pens and Blending Brushes

Stampin’ Up!® is really good at creating cute stamp sets that everyone wants to own – and Awesome Otters, the new Sale-a-Bration stamp set, is a prime example. It’s been really popular with my customers here in the UK, as many of them love wildlife as much as I do. We do have otters here in Derbyshire but they are very elusive – maybe 2022 will be the year that I see one?

 

This stamp set, which is free with a £45 order, is perfect for new crafters or those who are new to Stampin’ Up!® and want to start building up their collection as it features both greetings and images; three fun otters which can be used separately or together.

 

 

I’ve made a card with each of the otter images to add to my very depleted birthday card stash. I think these cards could be sent to anyone – men, women and children – and I would be more than happy to receive an otter birthday card myself. 

 

These cards show you how to add colour to your images using watercolour pencils with blender pens, and also how to add depth using Blending Brushes. 

All the images on my cards are stamped in Stazon and coloured with watercolour pencils and Stampin’ Up!® Blender Pens. When I say Blender Pens I mean the clear markers that you use with ink or pencils and not Stampin’ Blends, which are coloured alcohol markers. I know there is often some confusion because of the very similar product names.

When using Blender Pens (the clear ones), ideally use a permanent ink such as Stazon, although you can get away with a water-based ink such as Memento Tuxedo Black if you allow it to dry fully and work sparingly. 

 

Colour with your pencils, concentrating on the areas where you want darker colour to appear. Make sure you have enough colour on before you start blending as it’s difficult to add extra colour with the pencils once you have used the Blender Pens. When you are happy with the level of colour, gently blend it with your Blender Pens, working towards the uncoloured areas to create a soft graduated look.

For my first card, I have created a background panel using patterned paper from the Pattern Party Designer Series Paper Pack, which is one of the host products in the Stampin’ Rewards section of the Stampin’ Up!® catalogue. This means you cannot buy it, but you can earn it free when you host a party with a workshop total of £150 or more or place your own order to this amount. The paper has bright colours one one side and black and white designs on the reverse; I’ve used one of these to create a blue spotty panel, adding the colour using my Pacific Point ink pad and a Blender Pen.

For my main element, I stamped the partially submerged otter onto a label die-cut using Seasonal Labels Dies. These dies were in the July-December Mini Catalogue but have carried over into the first part of 2022. I coloured the image using an Early Espresso watercolour pencil, then added extra colour using Stampin’ Up!® Blending Brushes; a hint of Pool Party at the top and some Pacific Point at the bottom. Blending brushes are an excellent way to add colour and depth to an element. 

 

 

I’ve used a Blending Brush on this second card, too, to add a little depth to the Pool Party circle. The Pool Party theme is continued on the background, where I’ve stamped all the different otters at random, as close together as possible. This is a quick and easy way to make your own patterned paper to match your project perfectly.

 

The main otter image is stamped and cut out freehand, with a little party hat cut out and added on top. I’ve popped him up onto the Pool Party circle using Stampin’ Dimensionals, just resting his little foot and tail to overlap onto the greeting banner.

 

 

By positioning the stamped panel and the Bermuda Bay panel behind it at jaunty angles, this emphasises the fun feel of the card. It’s not necessarily something I would do for a more serious occasion, such as a sympathy card. 

 

My third card really makes use of the Blending Brush by creating a dark pool of blue water in the centre of the card with the bright otter standing out from the background. I did this by stamping the otter onto a separate piece of Basic White cardstock and cutting it out closely. 

 

For the background, I applied Pacific Point ink with a Blending Brush in a circular motion, which creates much darker colour in the centre, graduating out to paler blue towards the edge of the cardstock layer. I stamped the otter directly on top of this blue ink, which meant I retained the finer details such as the movement lines. 

 

After I did this, I flicked some clear tap water onto the blue ink and allowed it to dry. This soaks up some of the ink to create pale splashes and is one of my very favourite techniques. Next I stuck the cut-out otter on top of the stamped blue layer, matching up the images perfectly. This is a great tip if you have fine details, such as whiskers or hair, that you really can’t fussy cut successfully.

The banner on this card, too, is cut out with Seasonal Labels Dies, and fits the “It’s birthday time!” greeting perfectly. It’s finished off with some Elegant Trim from the Stampin’ Up!® Annual Catalogue, for quite a clean and simple card. 

 

 

What I love about these projects is that they are largely created with white cardstock, which means you can adapt them to suit the ink pads you have. Any blue will do for this final card, although I love the richness and depth of Pacific Point. 

 

 

The fun birthday card could use any colours which can be picked up in the party hat and the background layer could be swapped to match.

 

And the Pattern Party Designer Series Paper, with its black and white designs, can be coloured in any colour – or none! – depending on what supplies you already own. These designs would also work with other animal images. 

 

It just shows you don’t have to own everything to make great projects; you can often work with what you have.

 

I hope you enjoyed my Awesome Otter projects and will consider adding this fabulous stamp set to your order next time. If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the current host code RNU3JCR9, I’ll send you a thank you gift next month month. 

To make it easy for you, please shop using this link

Does your wish list come to more than £99? Please get in touch and I will help you get more for your money and unlock discounts all year round.  

 

Please message me via my website