Inkspirations Challenge #67

Stamps: Fabulous Florets, Something to Celebrate
Paper: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Pink Pirouette, Vellum Card Stock
Ink: Whisper White Craft, Stazon™, Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Elegant Lines Embossing Folder, Basic Pearls, Dimensionals®. Owl Punch, White Embossing Powder

Good morning! We took last week off for the Easter weekend a quite a few of us are dealing with a variety of different problems, including myself. So, it was soooooooooooooo nice to have last weekend off. The challenge this go around is a sketch challenge and it was SO fun to play with! Of course, I'm a layer nut :)

I'd gotten a new set from the Summer Mini catalogue which starts just around the corner. This set is called "Fabulous Florets" and it's another beautiful floral set. You know me, I love flowers! I did get one other set too and it's not flowers ... you'll just have to wait and see which set it is, hee hee!

I hope you can see it in the pic, but just in case you cannot, there's a layer that is vellum. I stamped the flower all over it with whisper white ink and then embossed it with white embossing powder (very carefully).

Anywho, hope you like this card and are inspired to create something new and beautiful!

Don't forget, there are only a couple of days left in the Occasions mini catalogue! You can either contact me to order or you can order through my online store :) Have a fabulous day!

Cindy Kirsty Makeesha Renée Brandi

Carrie Helen Ilina Lee-Anne Marisa

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April Creative Crew Challenges - Seasonal Focus

Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Something to Celebrate
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Melon Mambo, Rose Red, Watercolour Paper, Very Vanilla
Ink: Whisper White, Stazon™, Chocolate Chip, various pinks for colouring
Accessories: Basic Pearls, Little Leaves Sizzlit, Dimensionals®, White Embossing Powder, AquaPainter™

Holiday/Seasonal Focus Challenge (keywords: CCREW0411CF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM)
The rain fills our Oceans with the lovely water that balances life here on earth. So in honor of Mother Ocean let's do some watercoloring! Break out your aquapainter and your inks, crayons, pencils, and blender pens! Show us watercoloring at it's best.

One of April's Creative Crew challenges is to watercolour! Of course, you all know that I LOVE watercolouring although I profess no great skill or technique :) I chose to play with Fifth Avenue Floral and watercoloured it with Pink Pirouette and Regal Rose. The bottom layers of cardstock are two different pinks (Melon Mambo and Rose Red) that I stamped the flower on with white ink and embossed it. Then, I cut the edge as the floral border and sponged it with Chocolate Chip ink.

I thought I'd get a head start on my Mother's Day cards so that I have no excuse to be late ... and I generally am for some reason :( So, now that they are made, I will be popping them in the mail at the beginning of May so I don't miss it this year!

Anywho, hope you like it and are inspired to pull out your watercolouring tools and play along with the Creative Crew challenges! Please upload your creations to SCS and let me know if you've played :)

Have a great day!

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A rose is a rose is a rose ...

Stamps: Elements of Style, Four Frames
Paper: Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Whisper White
Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Early Espresso
Accessories: Decorative Label Punch, Basic Pearls, Little Leaves Sizzlit. White Satin Ribbon, Olive Seam Binding, Dimensionals®

I'm slowly getting a new groove in stamping! LOL :) I was working on some deign team projects and realised once I finished this card that it had nothing to do with the challenge I thought I was working on ... ! Love the monochromatic feel of this card -- all those lovely greens reminds me of spring that might actually come one of these days ... we just had 6" of snow last week and it's finally melting.

I am really into making flowers, as you know! I've just done a bunch of punched flowers and thought it'd be neat to try making my own satin ribbon flower. I found a video tutorial on You Tube and watched it over and over while trying to make one until I was happy with the results. I must say, hot glue on fingertips is not a fun thing ...!

The sentiment frame is a new set in the current "Spring is Blossoming" promotion from Stampin' Up! and I just LOVE this set! The frames perfectly match the Decorative Label punch. It's something I've been asking SU for for a looooooooooong time. I could use these kinds of frame stamps for every punch!

Anywho, hope you like my card and are inspired to create something new and beautiful :) Thanks for visiting!

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Colour Q Challenge #81

Stamps: Pun Fun, A Word for You, Four Frames
Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Love Patterns Designer Series Paper (retired), Watercolour Paper
Ink: Stazon™, Early Espresso, So Saffron, Pink Pirouette, Marina Mist, Old Olive
Accessories: Designer Label Punch, Old Olive Satin Ribbon, Designer Buttons, Dimensionals®, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Punch, AquaPainter™, Linen Thread

Good morning! It's been a tough week for me ... some family concerns going on right now that I'm sure we'll weather with God's help. But, in the meantime, stamping is not what I feel like doing but it certainly makes me feel better :)

These soft baby colours made me think "baby" and although this isn't an image I would normally pull out for a baby, I thought it worked pretty well!

Let me know what you think! Please check out the challenge on the Colour Q blog and see what the Royal Court has come up with. Have a fab day!

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April Creative Crew Challenges - Colour Focus

Stamps: Bella Toile, Absolutely Fabulous
Paper: Sahara Sand, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Pacific Point, Certainly Celery, Stazon™
Accessories: Full Heart Punch, Three Heart Punch, Top Note Die, Texturz Plates, Pearls, Dimensionals®, AquaPainter™

Here's another installment of the April Creative Crew Challenges! This one is for the Colour Focus challenge:

Colour/DSP Focus Challenge
(keywords: CCREW0411CF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM)

When you see Bluebirds you know spring is here! So use this very blue color combo: Pacific Point, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand. Which also happens to be the colors of the Blueberry Crisp DSP!

I had made this card also for my stamp club back in March. The flowers were created by using a heart punch -- I had found a tutorial from Valita's Designs. The background toile image was oh so carefully watercoloured with Pacific Point ink! You can watercolour on regular paper, you just have to be careful and quick!

Anywho, hope you like this card and are inspired to create something with these colours!! Upload your projects to SplitCoast using the keywords so we can all see your fab project. Please let me know if you've created something by leaving a comment here!!

Have a great day!

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Colour Q Challenge #80

Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Absolutely Fabulous
Paper: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive
Ink: Kiwi Kiss (retired), Stazon™
Punches: Eyelet Border, Scallop Trim, Scallop, Scallop Circle, Five-Petal, Boho Blossoms
Accessories: Tangerine Tango Striped Grosgrain (retired), Glitter Brads, Little Leaves Sizzlit

Good morning! I love these colours for today's ColourQ challenge, don't you?! This card is fairly simple, just lots of little strips of white stamped cardstock and punched with a bunch of different punches and layered! The flower was fun to create too. I've been into creating these kinds of flowers again which I love becuase I'm using my fav tool -- punches!

Please check out the challenge on the ColourQ blog and see what the Royal Court has come up with this week! (links are in my sidebar!)

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April Creative Crew Challenges - Catalogue Focus

Good morning! Here's one of my projects I shared on SplitCoast for the newest Creative Crew challenges for April. The challenge I used was this one:

Catalogue Focus Challenge
(keywords: CCREW0411CF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM)

We all know that SU! punches rock, so this month punch us up some flowers, butterflies, birds, and bugs! You don't have to make actual punch art, but show us what your punches can do!

I held a punch art class in March and this was one of the cards that class attendees made. The class was all about the owl punch in four different uses other than your typical owl! Fun class and everyone LOVED the different ideas they got to take home with them :)

This one featured a chickie! Perfect for a baby card, eh? The colours are nice and neutral -- great for either boy or girl.

I'm offering this class as a tutorial that you can take home too! All you have to do is visit my "Stamping Classes with Renée" blog to get all the deets on how you can take it home too.

Hope you like this card and are inspired to create something fun using your punches!!! Have a great day :)

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Celebrate

Stamps: Something to Celebrate, Music Notes Wheel
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Jolly Jingles DSP, Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Sahara Sand
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Gray
Accessories: Pretty in Pink Satin, Corner Rounder, Eyelet Border Punch, Scallop Trim Punch. Bird Punch, Dimensionals®, 1 3/4" Circle Punch, Neutrals Brads

Good morning! I actually have a card for you in between the regular programming :) LOL!! I was playing around with that chickadee and had actually made this card before the Inkspirations challenge card. I can't remember why I made this one, it did have a reason, some challenge or something, but I can't remember anymore ... It's a fun layout (actually came up with this one on my own, hee hee!). The little flower was created but cutting the 1 3/4" circle in a spiral and then rolling it. Pretty simple but fun! I won't make more of them though, a bit tedious.

Anywho, hope you like this card?!

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Inkspirations Challenge #65

Good morning (or at least, it's early early morning here :)) Today's Inkspirations challenge is a sketch and you all know how much I LOVE a sketch! Keesh often challenges me with these circles or ovals ... they are definitely getting easier to incorporate :)

I've had a few class attendees ask me to focus on punches and how to use them in different ways. I held a class last month on the owl punch and I thought that perhaps next month I'll play around with the bird punch! So, this is the first card I came up with using that punch.

I found the chickadee idea online and thought it was really cute and fun way to use the punch! Along with the branch wreath too! Anywho, hope you like this card and are inspired to create with the sketch. Please check out the challenge on the Inkspirations blog and see what the rest of the team came up with :) (links are in my sidebar)

Have a great day!

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Colour Q Challenge #79

Stamps: Absolutely Fabulous, Medallion, Elements of Style
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, DSP, Marina Mist
Ink: Basic Black, Stazon™, Old Olive, Melon Mambo
Accessories: Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die, Basic Pearls, Dimensionals®, Marina Mist Grosgrain

These colours from today's Colour Q challenge totally reminded me of the dress my mum made for my grade 7 graduation ... I still have it, believe it or not! It was these exact colours with a background of black. Hard to believe that it's sorta still around after all this time!

Anywho, not totally in love with this card ... but I wanted to play with a new die that I just got - the butterfly one :)

Let me know what you think?!

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April Creative Crew Challenges

Creative Crew Challenges for April!

This month's challenge are inspired by a song by Al Jolson. I'd never heard this song before so I went to YouTube to hear it! It's a little on the old fashioned side for me but the words are really pretty.

Life is not a highway strewn with flowers,
Still it holds a goodly share of bliss,
When the sun gives way to April showers,
Here is the point you should never miss.

Though April showers may come your way,
They bring the flowers that bloom in May.
So if it's raining, have no regrets,
Because it isn't raining rain, you know, It's raining violets,
And where you see clouds upon the hills,
You soon will see crowds of daffodils,
So keep on looking for a blue bird, And list'ning for his song,
Whenever April showers come along.

Catalogue Focus Challenge (keywords: CCREW0411CF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM)

We all know that SU! punches rock, so this month punch us up some flowers, butterflies, birds, and bugs! You don't have to make actual punch art, but show us what your punches can do!

Colour/DSP Focus Challenge (keywords: CCREW0411CF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM)

When you see Bluebirds you know spring is here! So use this very blue color combo: Pacific Point, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand. Which also happens to be the colors of the Blueberry Crisp DSP!

Holiday/Seasonal Focus Challenge (keywords: CCREW0411CF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM)

The rain fills our Oceans with the lovely water that balances life here on earth. So in honor of Mother Ocean let's do some watercoloring! Break out your aquapainter and your inks, crayons, pencils, and blender pens! Show us watercoloring at it's best.

Scrapbook Inspiration Focus Challenge (keywords: CCREW0411CF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM)

* NO DSP! * Yep you have to use stamps and make your own background for your pages this month. Other than that, it's a free for all!

I can't wait to see your projects! Please leave a link to your projects in the comment section on this post so I can see them :) Have FUN!

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New from SU!

A fun new promotion from Stampin' Up is here!!! From April 1-30, you can purchase two brand-new products from the 2011-2012 Idea Book & Catalogue during the Spring Is Blossoming promotion! I have to tell you, the paper is absolutely GORGEOUS! The pics do not do it justice. I'll play with it soon so you can see it on a project :)

You can get these brand-new products in one of two ways:

• Spend $25* on any Stampin' Up! products and become eligible to purchase both the Four Frames Set and Paisley Petals Designer Series Paper
OR

• Host a $460* workshop and get the Four Frames Set and Paisley Petals Designer Series Paper for FREE

*Net sales before tax and shipping

You can purchase through my demonstrator website or contact me to place your order!

ONLINE ONLY SPECIALS:

Beginning today, April 1, and continuing while supplies last, you can purchase special "grab bags" in my Online Store! These grab bags will come in three sizes: the $6, the $12, and the $18 grab bag. Each bag will contain a variety of discontinued products that could include a combination of any of the following: ribbons, Accents & Elements, chipboard, Designer Series Papers, and Simply Sent kit components. Grab bags will not contain stamp sets or tools. Other than that tidbit of info from Stampin' Up, I can't tell you what's in the bags, that's all the info there is!

These grab bags can only be purchased online through my demonstrator store (click HERE). There is no minimum purchase required nor is there a limit to the number of grab bags you may purchase; however, grab bag items are only available while supplies last!

And the Clearance Rack has been loaded up with new items! So check that out too while you're looking at the Grab Bags! Click -- Clearance Rack.

I hope you have a fab day and take some time to check these specials out! Let me know if you need any help or more info :)

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Inkspirations Challenge #64

Stamps: Nature Walk, Bliss, Embrace Life, Four Frames
Paper: Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, More Mustard, Watercolour Paper
Ink: More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Poppy Parade, Chocolate Chip, Stazon™
Accessories: Decorative Label Punch, Dimensionals®, Vanilla Seam Binding, Mat Pack & Piercer, AquaPainter™, Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder

Wow, these were interesting colours ... so very fall which is the season the Australians are in (or getting into) but I'm heading into spring or so I desperately hope... all this never-ending snow is getting irritating! Anyway, it was quite the challenge to get motivated this week for me. I dunno why though. I'm busy catching up on laundry and baking a TON of different things (I'm in the mood to bake!).

So, yes, these colours ... beautiful together, don't you think? I ended up adding a teensy bit of Chocolate to help ground the colours together. I just couldn't not use Chocolate, you know?!

Please check out the challenge on the Inkspirations blog and see what the rest of the Inkspirations team has come up with! I'm sure they'll knock your socks off :) Have a great day and thanks for poppin' by!

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