Beautiful Peacock

Hi Crafters,

I trust you all had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying the holiday season! I for one am very excited at what is just around the corner - in just 6 days Stampin’ Up! releases their new 2018 Occasions & Sale-a-bration Catalogues, and boy are you in for a treat!! 

Not only is there an awesome range of free stamp sets on offer, but for the first time you can select a free framelits set too! And it coordinates beautifully with a matching stamp set! So keep your eyes peeled on the 3rd January when these fabulous (& very enticing!) catalogues will be available!

One of the free stamp sets on offer for every $90 spend is “Beautiful Peacock”.  

This stamp set is exquisite and offers stampers such a variety of ways to utilise the stamps to create unique images.. combine with ribbon or embellishments and you can create simply stunning cards effortlessly!  This is a card I created today and is a great set to illustrate the masking technique..

The Night of Navy card base was layered with Whisper White, stamped in one corner using a stamp from the “You’re Priceless” stamp set in Night of Navy, Bermuda Bay & Pear Pizzazz stampin’ ink.  I then used the layering ovals framelits to frame the Peacock.

The Masking Technique

When you want to create a single layered image using multiple stamps but don’t want an overlapping effect, the masking technique is your answer!

To start with, pick your main image you want to be at the forefront of your final stamped image - in my design I selected the peacock’s body &I stamped this in Night of Navy.

You then stamp this same stamped image onto a sticky note, ensuring you have the sticky strip at the top underside of where you are stamping. Take scissors & carefully cut your sticky note stamped image out, ideally cutting as close to your stamped edges as possible. A tip for doing this effectively is to guide/ move your paper gently to cut, not manoeuvring your scissors.

Stick this stamped sticky note cutout on top of your identical stamped image as shown below:

Take your next stamp, in my case I used the peacock’s rear feathers & stamp this over your sticky note stamp cutout.  In my design I wanted a multi-coloured effect, so I used daubers to create this using Lemon Lime Twist & Bermuda Bay ink.  Gently remove your sticky note piece of paper & voila! You have created a beautiful stamped image without creating unsightly overlaps with ink!

To finish my card off, I used mini dimensionals to add a 3D effect to the peacock’s tail feathers, ribbon & a few embellishments to add a bit of bling.

I hope you’ve learnt something new today - I encourage you to give it a go! This is just one example you could use the masking technique - try it with other stamp sets and see what you can create!

To purchase the Stampin' Up! products used to create these cards Shop Now and be sure to use the Hostess Code A9EM7V9Q in the checkout process to receive free rewards for shopping with me!

Have you had a squiz at our monthly card kits? These are a great way of building up your stash and purchasing coordinating products at a cheaper rate! Just AU$55 for the following supplies including postage & handling.. but be quick, for a limited time only!

Craft Kit January 2018 - Coffee Break

Till next time..

Lorin xx

Lovely As A Tree

Hi Crafters!

I recently attended a fellow friend & Stampin’ Up! demonstrator’s Christmas card class, where we used the stamp set “Season Like Christmas”.  This was a card I designed & created using this set:

This stamp set features a couple of festive sentiments as well as a layering Christmas tree set.  I loved this set but it literally had me stumped (yes, Dad joke I know! Haha) See, despite the stamp set being a very reasonable price, I already own two other Stampin’ Up! Stamp sets which are similar in nature - Lovely as a Tree, and Ornamental Pines (retired).  The Lovely as a Tree stamp set is one of my favourite stamp sets as it is such a versatile set that can be used for male or female cards, as well as a range of occasions from Father’s Day, Birthdays to expressing sympathy.  And whilst I had actually purchased this set originally to CASE (copy & selectively edit) a Christmas card from Pinterest (err.. will get around to that one day!) it had not really crossed my mind to use this set as a Christmas card making staple set.

So yesterday I challenged myself to use this set for Christmas cards, and I’m not usually one to toot my own horn, but I actually really really like how they turned out!

I started by selecting my base card colour theme of Basic Black, Night of Navy, Whisper White & Gold Foil, giving the cards a sophisticated and stylish appearance.  I opted for a clean, crisp design that was able to be adapted to suit differing tastes or layouts.. here are a couple of different designs I made:

I wanted the Christmas trees to be the main focal point, and the single tree in Lovely as a Tree was perfect!

Stampin' Up! Stamp Sets Used

If you do want to create a multi-toned stamped image similar to that in the Season Like Christmas set, you could stamp the image onto a scrap piece of paper first before stamping on your desired card piece, but I chose to rather ink and stamp directly on my card stock for a bolder, crisp image.  I did stamp and layer the tree 2-3 times to create a forest appearance with differing tree heights.  Another nifty idea that you can do with this tree stamp is rotate the stamp to give a branch appearance.. perhaps dangle ornaments or pop a bird sitting on the branch.. the options are limited to your imagination!

To create a more Christmassy (yes, I’m sure that’s a word ;)) look, I decided to add snowflakes.  Now again you could opt to use embossing paste (adding Dazzling Diamonds Stampin’ Glitter would be perfect!!) or sequins/ enamel dots or even an embossing folder.. I opted to stick with my black & white image and selected two miniature stamps from the upcoming Sale-a-Bration brochure (stay tuned - all will be revealed on the 3rd January 2018!) stamp set Beautiful Peacock.  They were small and perfect for snowflakes! 

One particular aspect of the cards was the layered border of Basic Black and Gold Foil that was punched out using the new Decorative Ribbon Border Punch (Annual Catalogue, page 206) and placed over a strip of Night of Navy.  I think the shiny gold layer adds a pop to the colours I selected, but as you can see on my various cards, this border can be utilised in a couple of ways to create different patterns or edging to your cards making them look stylish & unique.

Lastly, the sentiment used was from the stamp set Star of Light.

I hope you liked my selection of cards - please feel free to leave me a comment if you liked them :)

To purchase the Stampin' Up! products used to create these cards Shop Now and be sure to use the Hostess Code A9EM7V9Q in the checkout process to receive free rewards for shopping with me!

Have a lovely day!

Lorin xx