I have some creative elements. . .

Rain has lessened today and the skies are clearing so it must be a sign that the big wet is retreating.  I have been trying to come up with some ideas for swaps for Convention because I go insane making a huge number of the same one. . .

I decided to use Creative Elements and to combine a heap of the stamps from the set in a random fashion.  To add a further challenge to the project I also selected a "creative combination" of colours - these are colours that you wouldn't necessarily put together but when you do they work!  So the combo is Soft Suede, Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery.

Pretty in Pink is the base card, mounted with Soft Suede (10cm x 14.3cm) and the stamped background is on Very Vanilla. 

Of course I felt like it needed something more so I included the En Francais stamp in the background
added some pink flowers with the mid sized flower from Language of Friendship (inked up using a Stampin' write Marker) and using a frame from the Stampin' Up! Four Frames Sizzlet pack I mounted the sentiment which came from the Sale-a-Bration Elementary Elegance set.

Distressing, tearing and daubing softened the whole effect and the little bit of ribbon is to balance the design - nice and easy and quite pleasing to the eye.

72 sleeps until Convention. . .
Shanni

Beau Chateau Trinket Box

Loving the rain as it means that I have no reason to not be crafting. . .

I decided to recycle a King Island cheese box today by covering it with some Beau Chateau designer series paper and then building some roses for the top of it.  This is such an easy but effective project.

Basically I trace the box and lid that I am covering being sure to add an additional 1 cm around the circumference to draw over the lip and give the project a "finished" look.  This is easy to do if you use a Stampin' Up!Circle Scissors tool.  Next I stuck the paper to the actual project using Tom Bow multipurpose glue. Then I snipped the overlap around the box and glued the lip down using Tom Bow.

To cover the pleated appearance of the paper cover I chose to stick a card stock collar around the perimeter of the lid and base.  I stuck this down using Stampin' Up! sticky strip (I think it is stronger than a welding joint!).  I then covered this with a piece of Pink Pirouette satin ribbon and tied a standard reef knot so that it sits nice and flush to the lid.

Next I cut some Sizzlet Little Leaves using the Shottie in Soft Suede card stock and 10 of the smaller flowers from the Blossom Party die in Pink Pirouette card stock and folded them into roses.  I stuck the leaves down once I had creased the centres with snail adhesive and attached the flowers using dimensionals.

For the final touch I sprayed the whole project with some Frost White Shimmer Mist and Pretty in Pink re-inker that I had thinned down with Isocol alcohol for a beautiful pink shimmer effect. . . I added a few drops of Crystal Effects to appear like moisture on the petals and added a few pearls for the same effect on the paper background.

Not bad. . .
Shanni

Guest Feature on Creating Your Way to Success

This week I am being featured on Creating Success a really exciting blog created by a friend of mine who lives life everyday with the same zest and energy most of us reserve for special events (or marathons).  Anyway the talented Jill has asked me to answer some questions:

What do you create?
I have always done some form of art and craft, I paint in a modern bold colour style, love folk art (especially when someone actually needs a piece), watercolour landscapes but the thing that I keep coming back to time and time again is paper crafting, especially stamping and off the page projects. I make cards for all occasions and invitations and other paper projects that are practical.

Why do you create?

I create because I feel like a part of me is missing if I don't.  I find that when I am creating, I truly relax which is not something that I do even when I am sleeping. . .I actually feel more rested after making a set of cards or a journal like the one above than I do after four hours sleep a night.  I suppose I should take this to the next level and answer why I create with rubber, ink and card stock. . .  As a kid I loved shopping for stationery at the beginning of the school year.  I still have a stash of writing paper and pens that I can't live without (asides from my crafting stash).  I simply love the texture, smell, colour and impact of papers and colour.

Do you sell your creations?

I don't sell my creations per se, I generally give them away to friends and family but I hold classes and sell card and project kits.  I also sell all of the products that I use for the creations through my Stampin' Up! demonstratorship. It's hard to say if I make any money from selling - how do you cost out time, creativity and imagination? The value to me is seeing other people learn skills they didn't think they could master and seeing them reproduce the designs and layouts that I come up with time and time again.

What mistakes have I made or what lessons have I learned?

I have learned to trust my instincts more when it comes to creative trends, colours and projects.  The only mistake I think that I made was not signing up for my own Stampin' Up! account soon enough.  Being able to buy direct from the company at a substantial discount is a great saving and would have kept my accountant husband happier earlier lol. But the true beauty of working with stamps, ink and cardstock is that you can always turn the card over and start again - it's not a major crisis!

What to you is success?

Success means many things to me.  Success is looking at a completed project knowing that it is the best I can do at that point in time.  Success is watching people emboss an image, tie a perfect bow, make a stunning flower, stamp confidently or progress to their own designs with determination.  Success is having team members get promoted, repeat something that I have said to them and truly understand and believe what I meant.  Success is having time with my kids, watching them grow and achieve everyday.  Success is that piece of string that we all hear about and my being confident that I know how long it is and where it ends. . .

So whats next?

South Pacific Convention in Canberra in May. . . Another ten people joining my team of passionate stampers and scrappers (contact me today if you are interested).  Making myself use more fabric in projects - Stampin' Up! have some beautiful materials which match their designer series papers and stamp sets perfectly. But in reality, what's next is the next project, the next card, the next inspiring image or colour combination that just won't leave my creative muse alone.

Thanks for hosting me

Shanni

Cards for the Lads

Now that I have started stamping with The Open Sea, I can't seem to stop trying it on different projects. . . here are some more that I have pulled together today whilst crafting with some friends.

So the base card is a piece of A5 Crumb Cake cardstock daubed with Early Espresso.  I have mounted the base card with a piece of Not Quite Navy 10cm x 14.3cm.  The Vanilla card stock mounted on that mat was stamped using the ledger stamp from The Open Sea set in Crumb Cake and the anchor in stamped off Early Espresso.  Compass was stamped in stamped off Not Quite Navy.  Mis-treated it a bit with tearing, distressing and daubing. 

On a piece of scrap vanilla I stamped the ship in Early Espresso, tore it to the appropriate size and daubed the edges and the ocean with Not Quite Navy ink.  Distressed and rolled the edges and mounted it with dimensionals.

I used a similar approach for the sentiment but stuck it flat to the base.  The anchor image is dimensionalised as well.  Had some left over build-a-brads so I stamped the compass, coloured it with an aqua pen and some Not Quite Navy ink then punched it out to be the feature on the brad.  

This card was made in an almost identical fashion except of course the base card is Cherry Cobbler and the mounting card is Basic Grey.  I also included the Nautical Expedition designer series paper as I love the globe map images.  Distressing and daubing seems to be the technique of the day.  The "Celebrate Today" comes from the Perfectly Penned set and is great for man-cards!

This card was made with the same colour scheme as the one above.  I have added some Early Espresso Baker's Twine and Crystal Effects to the anchor and sentiment to get them to pop a little.

A productive day all round.

Ahoy!

Shanni



The Open Sea

A wet and rainy day here in Cairns prompted me to make a blue toned card using The Open Sea which is featured in the Summer Mini finishing on 31 March.  Thought I had better post an example before the end of the month if people were looking for ideas. . .

And fortunately for me, I finished it in time to upload to Make It Monday's linky party. 

Always difficult to come up with truly masculine cards.  The colour selection was the easy part - Crumb Cake, Not Quite Navy and the neutral tones of vanilla .  I put crystal effects on the stamped images that I wanted to pop and to add some more texture to the design. 

I like to scrunch, daub and distress for the blokes - a bit of untidiness is always appealing and the odd tear never goes astray either.

This is such a versatile stamp set - great for scrapping and card making.  There are a number of stamps which can be features or background images; stamping them off and having a lighter tone for larger areas is also a great technique.

Will challenge myself to make a few more cards utilising this set over the next two weeks so stay tuned.

Hip love
Shanni

Productive Day with Crafty Mates

Had a lovely day with friends at Scrap Therapy in misty Babinda.  I love spending time with friends, creating and sharing ideas and suggestions.  When you spend time with friends who are like minded it is very simple to get those cretive juices flowing.

Lee-Anne and Danny let us paw through their virtual treasure chest of products and new tools. . . wow! I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning.  Consequently spent more time treasure hunting than creating but still managed to produce a few projects. . .

Gotta love French Foliage - it seems to go with everything! Snuck in Love & Care too - I so like those flowers to brighten up any project.

Yummo!

For some different colour combinations Island Indigo and Elegant Eggplant all tied together with a bit of Early Espresso.

Enjoy!

Shanni



Vintage Cards

Here are two more cards that I have made in recent times.  I lean towards the vintage style for a number of reasons - it is not essential to stamp perfectly every time, it is easier to hide flaws and mistakes and there is also an appeal about the cards that makes them feel more substantial.  It could be because the layering in vintage layouts appeal to me, but I also like the colour schemes that you can incorporate.

This card is a 6 x 6 size and uses Baja Breeze and Soft Suede as it's card base.  I also love the blue vintage background mounted on the Soft Suede which is from Pocketful of Posies DSP.  I stamped the card in Soft Suede behind the main feature using the Parlor Prints background stamp. 

All the flowers are hand made using the scallop circle punch and the Island Floral Big Shot die and the middle-sized flower from  the Boho Blossoms punch.  I stamped the mannequin image on white card stock and ran it through the Big Shot using the oval Designer Frame frame embossing folder and mounted it on Ovals original die.  All the edges were made a little untidy and daubed with Soft Suede and a dauber.  Curled a few pieces of scrap card stock as the leaves, sprayed it with Frost White Shimmer Mist coloured with Baja Breeze ink refill and that's it!

This card is in the vintage style again but with a neutrals colour scheme.  I used Cherry Cobbler to break it up a bit.  Once again a 6 x 6, Cherry Cobbler base, Crumb Cake mount (stamped randomly with the smaller flower from Vintage Vogue Set) and then stamped on Very Vanilla using Crumb Cake ink with En Francais background, stamped random vine images from the Vintage Vogue set with Early Espresso and distressed the edges and daubed with Early Espresso. I stamped the other flowers on vanilla card stock in Cherry Cobbler and cut them out for mounting.

The Friends stamp from Vintage Vogue was stamped on vanilla card stock and cut out using the Big Shot and circle Die.  Also cut a larger circle in Early Espresso once again using the shottie.  Mounted the flowers in a falling fashion using dimensionals.

Turned out quite well - proof that you can use different colours, using the same style and come up with different feels in the same theme.

Sharing the love

Shanni