Country Home Stamp Set in Pastels

I have been so inspired by a set of cards made by Laurin Alarid from the Artisan Design Team for Stampin' Up! using the Country Home stamp set and pastel colours with lots of texture and layering. Laurin's inspirational blog is Crafty Little Peach. I'm used to seeing this set with more intense colours like Blackberry Bliss and Crushed Curry, so when I saw her designs in shades of Balmy Blue and Frost White Shimmer Paint, I wanted to get on the pastel bandwagon right away.

I used Petal Pink for my pastel along with Sahara Sand as my neutral and Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint (and a little Frost White as well). Here's how it turned out:

• I embossed my Petal Pink card base with the Tin Tile Dynamic Embossing Folder to add texture to the project and just because I love it so much!
• My front panel is Shimmery White cardstock because I wanted to do some watercolour smooshing and Whisper White won't stand up to the water you need to use to do that. To smoosh,  I used a Stampin' Write Marker and scribbled on an acetate sheet, then spritzed with a little water and pressed it to my paper, rubbing the ink around by rubbing the back of the acetate with my fingers, making the ink go roughly where I wanted it to go. I lifted off the acetate and blotted the extra puddles with some paper towel, then dried the paper on both sides with the Heat Tool. Once dry, I repeated the steps with another layer of the same colour or added another colour, in this case Sahara Sand.
• I love the combo of the Petal Pink and the touch of Sahara Sand. I ended up with a very marble-like design.
• You can use the Chicken Wire Element as a mask. I taped some down and painted over it with the Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint. I think I needed to add more paint to really get the feel of the chicken wire, but I was still left with a really neat shimmery, textury looking area that I really liked.
• I stamped my images from the Country Home stamp set on Shimmery White cardstock as well so I could watercolour them using an Aqua Painter. I stuck to Petal Pink, Sahara Sand and I threw in some Frost White Shimmer Paint for the cotton balls. It gives them a little dimension as well as shine. The images were fussy cut and added to the stamped front panel, bumping up the milk tin with Dimensionals.

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Country Home Photopolymer Stamp Set [147678] $27.00	Shimmery White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101910] $12.25	Petal Pink 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [146985] $11.50	Sahara Sand 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121043] $11.50	Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint [147044] $11.00
Frost White Shimmer Paint [147046] $11.00	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad [140931] $9.25	Petal Pink Classic Stampin' Pad [147108] $10.25	Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' Pad [147117] $10.25	Subtles Stampin' Write Markers [147156] $40.00
Neutrals Stampin' Write Markers [147158] $40.00	Nature's Twine [146342] $12.25	Chicken Wire Elements [147807] $6.00	Aqua Painters [103954] $23.00	Paper Snips Scissors [103579] $13.50
Tin Tile Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [147906] $14.00	Big Shot [143263] $150.00	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.50	Glue Dots [103683] $7.25	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.50

Stylish Christmas in July for Freshly Made Sketches

I know. I'm sorry. But around this time of year, the mind of a paper crafter starts drifting ever so gently towards Christmas and Christmas card designs, and when I saw the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches' latest design, my mind leapt to a new stamp set that had not yet seen any ink, Stylish Christmas! Here's the sketch I'm talking about:

Stylish Christmas stamp set is also one of the DistINKtive design stamp sets I've been so obsessed with, where the red rubber has been engineered to give different opacities of ink in different areas of the image, creating light and shadow and an interesting design. For this stamp set, it is not used to created a photo realistic image, more a translucent looking one. Take a look:

• It's the poinsettia and the holly leaf that have that DistINKtive engineering so you can see what I mean. I looks like some of the petals or leaves are partially see-through. The petals are stamped in Poppy Parade and the Holly Leaves in Mossy Meadow.
• The background has been smooshed in several layers with Crushed Curry ink, with the ink getting progressively more intense, and drying it between layers to prevent it from blending together. The black flourish is stamped using retired Basic Black Archival ink, which I just love and can't believe has been retired! I'll keep using mine until it all runs out.
• The strip of Designer Series Paper on the side is from the Broadway Bound Specialty Designer Series. It's a great set with gold foil designs on one side and plain and birthday theme designs on the other. The gold patterns are great for any celebrations.
• The sentiment is also from the Stylish Christmas set, embossed with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder on Basic Black cardstock. 

Contact me to find out how!

I really like this stamp set for the elegant looks you can get from it and I think I will be making a lot more holiday designs in the coming months using these images.

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Stylish Christmas Clear-Mount Stamp Set [146773] $29.00	Stylish Christmas Wood-Mount Stamp Set [146770] $39.00	Broadway Bound Speciality Designer Series Paper [146277] $19.00	Shimmery White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101910] $12.25	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121045] $11.50
Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730] $13.25	Versamark Pad [102283] $11.25	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder [109129] $6.75	Poppy Parade Classic Stampin' Pad [147050] $10.25	Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad [147111] $10.25
Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad [147087] $10.25	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad [140931] $9.25	Window Sheets [142314] $6.75	Metallic Pearls [146282] $9.50	Embossing Buddy [103083] $8.00
Heat Tool [129053] $40.00	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.25	SNAIL Permanent Adhesive [104332] $9.00	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.25

Follow Your Dreams Through the Annual Catalogue

Do you have a strategy for choosing what you're going to buy from the Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue?

I used to go all out and try to buy all the major suites and tools and paper and embellishments, but I would often get stung as a demonstrator when things were retired within the next year. I've learned since then to be a bit more discerning and now my strategy is to only buy the stuff I really love (which still gives me lots of new products to play with)! The main pay-off from this new strategy is that I not only get a lot more use out of the products that I buy, but often the sets that I love have universal appeal and do not generally retire after just one year in the catalogue which makes things easier on my bottom line as a demonstrator.

One such bundle, that I absolutely adore, is the Follow Your Dreams Bundle consisting of the Follow Your Dreams stamp set and the Chase Your Dreams Framelits. I'm not sure about the concept of dream catchers, but I love the artistic look of them. The feathers, beads, hoops and macrame just warm the heart of this old hippie wannabe from the 60s! There are so many configurations for this set as well, so lots of opportunity for creativity. Here's what I did with it last night:

• First I want to draw your attention to my new colour palette: Mint Macaron, Highland Heather, Gray Granite and Whisper White. So pretty! I'm loving the new colour revamp. The new colour combinations are endless!

Mint Macaron

Highland Heather

Gray Granite

Whisper White

• I used ink smooshing for my background technique. It's so easy and so much fun and it's been such a long time since I last used it. I took an acetate sheet, and scribbled over it with a Stampin' Write Marker in the first colour, Highland Heather, then spritzed it with water (a small amount) then pressed it to the Shimmery White cardstock. I lifted up the acetate and blotted the inked area a bit to remove excess puddles, then dried the cardstock with the Heat Tool before applying a little more colour or a contrasting colour, drying between each application.
• I stamped the inked image of the dream catcher over the background in Gray Granite. I had the option of stamping it on another piece of cardstock and die cutting it with the framelits from the Chase Your Dream Framelits, but I wanted the background to show through and it wouldn't if I used a die cut image. 
• I die cut the smaller images of the dream catcher from Mint Macaron and Highland Heather cardstock along with a couple of large feathers and added them to the card front using Glue Dots. For the large feathers, I tied them together with Silver Metallic Thread and added a glue dot on the back to anchor loops of the Silver Thread, before adding the whole piece to the card front using a Mini Stampin' Dimensional.
• I stamped the small feathers from the Follow Your Dreams stamp set on Whisper White using Gray Granite, Mint Macaron and Highland Heather and die cut them before adding them to the card front using a Glue Dot!
• Part of the sentiment is die-cut in Mint Macaron, and the "Big" is stamped in Highland Heather.

What are your favourites from the new Annual Catalogue? Let me know in the comment section below!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Follow Your Dreams Clear-Mount Stamp Set [146620] $22.00	Follow Your Dreams Wood-Mount Stamp Set [146617] $29.00	Follow Your Dreams Clear-Mount Bundle [148370] $49.50	Follow Your Dreams Wood-Mount Bundle [148369] $55.75	Shimmery White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101910] $12.25
Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730] $13.25	Mint Macaron 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [138337] $11.50	Highland Heather 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [146986] $11.50	Gray Granite Classic Stampin' Pad [147118] $10.25	Mint Macaron Classic Stampin' Pad [147106] $10.25
Highland Heather Classic Stampin' Pad [147103] $10.25	Subtles Stampin' Write Markers [147156] $40.00	Window Sheets [142314] $6.75	Silver Metallic Thread [138402] $4.75	Chase Your Dreams Framelits Dies [146826] $33.00
Big Shot [143263] $150.00	Heat Tool [129053] $40.00	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.25	SNAIL Permanent Adhesive [104332] $9.00	Glue Dots [103683] $7.00
Mini Stampin' Dimensionals [144108] $5.50