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Tropical Chic with a brayered background

I thought it was high time I tried the sponge brayers so gave them a whirl for this card. I’ve always loved playing with background techniques and enjoyed creating this graduated look with Pool Party, Bermuda Bay and Pacific Point.

It’s a six-colour combo, but I think it works... and sometimes you need two or three shades to really make the most of a brayered background. 

I topped it off with some Tropical Chic flowers and some beautiful leaves from the Delightfully Detailed Laser-cut Designer Series Paper, which is a total must-have as it will add a real “wow” to your projects. This special paper is Very Vanilla on one side and Whisper White on the other, which is perfect for sponging as I’ve done here with Soft Sea Foam and a hint of Old Olive. 

Caturday: The “I refuse even to look at you” cat

Well, remember what I said last week about cats in fields? This one takes it to the next level by refusing even to acknowledge your existence. It wouldn’t even look at us. No reaction to our calls, nothing. We parted ways and have made no plans to stay in touch.

Peaceful Place... viewed through the round window

I absolutely love this image from Peaceful Place and I’m determined to make time to use this stamp set more, if only to prove to one of my doubting customers that it IS versatile!

For this card I began by watercolouring the image on watercolour paper. I stamped with Stazon and – top tip – if you do this using the Stamparatus, you can ensure you get a totally crisp image, which doesn’t always happen when stamping on watercolour paper. How? You stamp once and then if you’ve missed a bit, or it’s simply not crisp enough, you ink up the stamp again and stamp again... in exactly the same place. 

I needed an accent to go on the card and suddenly remembered I have these lovely wooden elements which I’d almost forgotten about. They're called Frames Elements and I received them way back in February when I received my box of goodies for my OnStage display projects. I used loads of them at the time, so was surprised to see that I still have loads left. 

Botanical Tags silhouette card

I do love a silhouette image, and although I completely overlooked the Botanical Bliss stamp set initally, I was instantly drawn to the co-ordinating Botanical Tags dies.

When I realised I could earn both for free thanks to my sales during Sale-a-Bration (ask me about this – it’s fab!), I decided to go for it and challenge myself. The blue background is stamped in Balmy Blue using the big “splodgy” image from Love What You Do - quick, easy and effective.

I may not have challenged myself with the stamps just yet – there are still too many stamps to get through! – I have had a play with the dies and this is my first project. I hope you like it!

I’ve used the Subtle Embossing Folder on the white layer. After running it through the Big Shot the first time, I turned the cardstock 90º and did it again, to get this lovely linen look. Hope you can see it; the folder is called Subtle for a reason!

Accented Blooms meets Pinewood Planks

Accented Blooms is one of those sets that illustrates what Stampin’ Up!® does so well - co-ordination. It goes with the Tailored Tag punch, which was launched in the spring along with a masculine set. Now the Tailored Tag punch is back for the new catalogue with a floral stamp set. I love the panel for the greeting and the big blowsy flowers.

I must admit I did think at first that this set might be a bit of a one-trick pony, but I intend to prove that theory incorrect.

For this project, I painted the image using ink pad lids and an old-fashioned paintbrush - you do have to work quickly when using Whisper White. Then I fussy-cut around the whole image - that was a decision I regretted before I was even a quarter of the way around - and mounted it onto some Whisper White cardstock embossed with one of my favourite folders; Pinewood Planks. Some of those fab new self-adhesives sequins finish it off nicely.

Caturday: Young Steven

Same walk as last week’s cat sighting, this time an old friend, who I call Young Steven. YS didn’t want to chat on this occasion; I suspect that was because he was in a field. I’ve noticed that ordinarily friendly cats will generally snub you when they’re in a field; I think it’s because they are labouring under the illusion that they are “wild” and possibly playing out some Big Cat fantasy.

A totally tropical colour combo

I’m ending my Tropical Chic week with another celebration... this time of my faboulous team. Each month I send out reward vouchers and random gifts to my team members for various reasons.

Five of them received a voucher in one of these cheery cards. Can I tell you something about these cards? They are not 100% identical... but they’re pretty close! And it’s all thanks to the Stamparatus, which made quick work of stamping such a complicated design five times.

And three will receive a little notebook surprise on the same theme. Yes, I know there are only two in the photo, but one of my team who was on the list to receive one of these just happened to pop by before I’d had chance to photograph them, so she received her gift there and then.

Finally, the totally tropical colour combo to round things off...

Tropical Chic celebration card

I’m quite chuffed with how this card turned out, which is a relief as it’s for a very special occasion. It’s not every day that one of your team reaches such a major milestone as their 10th anniversary! Congratulations go to Kellie for sticking around – here’s to many more years!

To create the background I stamped repeatedly using Granny Apple Green, stamping over and over again without reinking to get various shades of green. I added some Petal Pink speckles to give a lift and to link to the die-cut Petal Pink flowers. These Basic Adhesive-Backed Sequins give it the perfect finishing touch. 

Tropical leaves, cool colours

Here’s an example of just using the dies without the stamps. You can create a lovely layered effect with the squre die in different shades; I’ve used cool colours to show you don’t have to keep it tropical all the time. And can you spot the Subtle Embossing Folder again? I do love this folder; you’ll be seeing a lot of it!