What inspired me...

I'm back !! :D. I'd resigned from Stampin' Up! about 1 year ago, hung up my apron, and slowly went into recess, read that as mulling around, feeling I lost something or like some part of me had vanished.

I didn't realise how much I missed teaching techniques in classes, and crafting with friends until I was inspired to create some things for the Cairns Ballroom Dancers Club; because I'm on the committee....and have a lot of craft products and tools, I went into overdrive and with help from others on the Committee, we had  fun, creating & crafting. The time between the Theme dance and the Annual Ball was about 6 weeks, which meant we were creating for at least two weeks before the Theme dance and up to the ball....no wonder my inspiration to have classes returned.

This "Movie" Embossing Folder was sourced from elsewhere as with the "Film Strip" die, they worked a treat for this folder we used as the dance program holder. Sorry that the quality of photo isn't up to scratch, it's from my phone and usually not too bad, but having to crop and save it got a bit distorted in the process, can you tell I'm not really IT savy :(

This was for the Movie Theme Dance we organised. 

My husband and I went as Bert and Mary Poppins. We sourced some of our costumes from op shops and created the rest; He made his chimney sweep, and I made my brolly attachment...., put together my hat, and made his 'tie'. Duncan's cap was from Lowes. It was really a fun night. 

The carpet bag is mine, [a prize from my Tupperware days]

Check out the parrot on the brolly!!!

I had a picture of what the parrot looked like and tried to copy that, if you don't compare my effort to the picture, it looks ok, .... I guess?

You can look it up for yourself if you have a mind to do so :D

search 'Mary Poppins brolly' ... have fun.

I made this Parrot using Stampin' Up! product "Simply Pressed Clay",  I think is retired now??? the fun part was painting it, don't look too closely at the painting though, hahahaha.

I put the brolly hook over a chair on the patio & while we were waiting to leave,for the dance however,  we had an unexpected visit from a friend;  he accidentally pushed the chair where the brolly was .... so the reason the parrot has a squished beak is, that's where it fell, and it hadn't properly dried, poor birdy, broken beak....well, at least it didn't break off completely...I was grateful for that...






I used a teaspoon to create the "feathers" on the back of the head, tho you really can't tell in these photos.

I secured the parrot to the brolly handle with black Duct Tape.

My disappointment was that no one commented on THAT bird, and I'd spent a lot of time creating it, [I had fun doing it though,  and maybe they didn't know it was hand crafted; AND, I suppose, not all people are children at heart and watch Disney Movies, then know all there is to know about the characters !!!]

Ballroom dancing is for fun and fitness, keeps the ole grey matter working, as well as the muscles, and we get to meet some really lovely people in the process. 

next time I'll share what we created for the Annual Ball - "Dancing under the Stars"

 take care

and remember
when life gets too busy
STOP
 and
make something!

cheers
Colleen

Engagement Card for Emma & Glen

Hi All, we were invited to an Engagement party, for this afternoon; this is the card I made this morning.

I used Stampin' Up! products unless other wise stated. I was inspired from images on Pinterest...thank you to everyone who have their cards on there, I hope I can pass on your inspiration....

The Card stock colours I've used are Night of Navy, Always Artichoke & Pink Pirouette. The colours didn't show up true...sorry. :/

For the Owls, I used a Neutural colour which is retired and I think it's "Going Grey" from way back...I found it in my scrap bag of bits n pieces.

The ribbon is Silver 3.2mm, page 178 of New SU Catty, [1st June 2016-31st May 2017].

I used the sentiment "Cherish" from the "Warm Words" set, [retired]; was stamped with Versamark then Embossed with Silver Embossing powder.

I used the "Modern Label" punch [retired], for the Sentiment, punching out a second one in Pink Pirouette then cutting in half length wise to secure under the Night of Navy piece with snail. 

The silver heart was punched with "Confetti Hearts Border", the paper was silver wrapping paper, I've run out of the Stampin' Up! foil sheets [on page 175 of Catty], I'm grateful that this piece was handy. 

For the flowers on the female Owl, I punched from the same piece of wrapping paper, and cut with a die [not SU]. There are four flowers at the bottom of the 'dress' tho the photo doesn't really show it clearly. In the center of the flower on the Owls head there is a Rhinestone.

The love hearts were punched with the Confetti Hearts Border as well, and out of Pink Pirouette card.

I used one of the stamps out of the "Timeless Textures" set to stamp the background of the top piece 'Night of Navy' with stamped off and full colour random stamping. 

Since I don't have the new Heart dies, I had to improvise and cut the first one on the pink card, then place the blue card over and run through the bigshot again, this left an indent that I could follow as I fussy cut, leaving a rough but nice edge. I'm going to invest in the New hearts die, which will omit the fussy cutting and leave a better border !!

I almost forgot to mention, that I used the Owl Builder Punch on page 188 of catty  :D

take care

and remember....

if everything is hurried...

take time out

and

make a card !

cheers

Colleen

White, Black and Yellow

 Here is the card I made after I was inspired by my daughters top that is crisp white with black stripes and a large sunflower in the center.

I used 'Off the Grid' stamp set with black ink and two stamps from 'Gorgeous Grunge' stamp set with Smokey Slate ink and Sarah Sand ink.


The flowers are from the two step stamp set 'Stippled Blossom', they were stamped twice, once with the solid colour [using Daffodil Delight ink] and then again with the details stamp [using Tangerine Tango ink]. the leaves were stamped using Pool Party ink for the solid stamp and Wild Wasabi ink for the detail stamp.








After I had made the card above, I realised the 'Off the Grid' set was retired so then I made the second card [below] using only stamps from 'Gorgeous Grunge', for the background. I still like the top one, but the second one has potential, if it had been shown by it self it would look great.

What inspires you to create your projects?

Let me know by leaving your message in the space below. 

There are so many things to gain inspiration from in the world around us.

Have fun exploring your hidden talent, and be creative.

Decorated Kraft Box

This is the Kraft Box that we decorated at my last Card Class. I used  "Tea for Two" DSP [its retired unfortunately], I love this paper, shame it has taken me this long to fall in love with it :(

See the flower on the front of the box, this was made using three different sizes of Scallop Circle Punches.

1.To make the flowers first Punch 1 each of 1¾", 1 ¼, & 7/8".

2.Now, for each scallop circle do this-scrunch the piece until it looks like you have had a rough day and taken out all of your troubles on it!!!

3.As you un scrunch the scallop circle, VERY CAREFULLY, you will notice the layers starting to come apart.

**THIS is GOOD!

4.What we have done is break up the fibers of the paper.

5.Now carefully separate the layers, and you will end up with two pieces from each size.

6.Notice how one side is smooth and the other is soft and fluffy, [the side we separated], this is the side we will use, and want to see, the smooth side will be under.

7.So after all three pieces have been scrunched and separated, layer them from the largest on the bottom to the smallest.

8.With a Piercing tool and mat, pierce a hole in the center of the layered scallop circles, and insert a brad, fix it on the back by spreading the pins apart.

9.NOW, using a fine mist of water slightly spray the flower, and then gently pull each layer up towards the brad. What we are doing this for is to give the appearance of a fuller flower.

10.Play with the layers gently until you have the desired effect.

11.LET it dry, than attach it to your project with a piece of sticky strip, along the brad pins.
I hope you try this, and let me know how you go with it, have fun.

Scrap Page LO # 53

      Inspiration comes in all shapes and forms, when an idea drops into my head, I have to jot it down to capture it, and save it for later, that's why I keep a folder with all of my Lay Out inspirations.
   
However,  THIS page was inspired by a Layout I was directed to on YOU TUBE.  Have a look at Ronnie Simpson's page "The Elf Door" see it here  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2fDlFiPhOY

      I've not done exactly as Ronnie, but I did some layering, inspired by her LO. I love it when a page transforms into a work of art, [I suppose I'm a bit bias, but others may agree how their page elements fall into place]

I've used the Hexagon Thinlets die and the Hexagon Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, and the Six Sided Sampler stamp set  from Stampin' Up! It is easy to create a page with matching tools to use.



For the stamping is at the top of the page, I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the images.

I used the Arrows TIEF as well to give a contrast to the visual effect.

It's all about layering and texture.

Red Glimmer Paper is visible in the shot above and to the right. It is great to use, the sparkle of Glitter is there but it will not rub off as glitter will.

The candy dots are fun to use, without placing them in the Brad holder. They are sticky backed like the Rhinestones and Pearls, so are easy to use.

I used the Co-ordinations paper [now Retired] this paper can be sanded and looks great. The core colour is lighter, and shows through. See the effect above, the hexagon edges stand out and left, the shapes have been sanded.

And here is the finished page.

I hope you have been inspired to go create something for your self. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Scrap Class LO # 5

This was a fun page to do, I used Lay Out # 5 from my Folder. I used a piece of DSP over a Plain piece of Card stock. The DSP has punched out scallop circles and a large circle that was hand cut. 

Below are shot of different areas on the page, there are six different spots that I'd like to share what I did.

This is the cupcake, punched out using the "Cupcake Builder" punch from Stampin' Up!

I coloured it with the Blendabilities Pens, the  New Alcohol based pens, from Stampin' Up! they are great to use for shading. I used the "Candy Dots" for 'sprinkles' and cut out the candle and cherry to place on top.







Here is the 'cake' also coloured using the Blendabilities Pens, then fussy cut and placed onto a blue punched out circle. You can also see one end of the tag where I used Chevron ribbon threaded through and bakers twine to tie it together.

Here you can see the Scallop circle punched out of the DSP and then images stamped in the cutout.


The balloon was stamped onto the DSP and again on a piece of Whisper White card stock, coloured in and fussy cut and placed back onto the stamped image, with a dimensional to raise it.

This image shows the bottom left corner with buttons that have Rhinestones in them that have been coloured with the small end of  a Blendabilities Pen. It's great to have these pens in the catalogue now. 

here you can see that the inside of the large circle has background stamping and the balloons which has one fussy cut out, raised and coloured.

this image shows the crowns with Rhinestones some of which have been coloured.

                                                                           

And here is the finished page.

thanks for visiting, I hope you leave a comment and come back often.

cheers

Colleen

September Scrap Class

From my inspiration folder LO # 33 Vellum Tubes. I haven't got any writing on this page yet, I need quiet time to remember the day and write words that will trigger the memories of my sons, here they are aged 3 years and 1 year. they are so huggable aren't they? OR maybe I'm bias ! anyway what we did was, wipe a squeesed tea bag over the vellum;  Let the Vellum dry and then stamp with Gorgeous Grunge stamps and a variety of colours,  I used Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Calypso Coral and Cajun Craze, because they blended with my photos and the theme of the page. I used a 2" circle to punch out the shapes then rolled them around a biro.