Paper Meets Ink: January 2018

Sunday, 28 January 2018

CTC163 - Saleabration - Beautiful You Reflection

Hello everyone! I hope you have had a fabulous week! It' time for our weekly hop with the CASEing the Catty Crew, taking inspiration from the stunning Stampin' Up catalogues and creating our own projects. If you have started with me, welcome or maybe you have just hopped on over from the lovely Mel Pagano. How adorable was her card? Those colours too, yummy!

This week we are CASEing from the Sale-a-bration catalouge, that's the little one with everything in it free and if you spend a minimum of $90 you can choose an item and there is no limit to how many you can earn. I love that this year they put some bigger items in there with a new level of $180 spent to earn, or you may choose two $90 items, it's up to you.

This week I am showcasing a card done with the Beautiful You stamp set (from the annual catalogue), I can't believe this is one that I didn't purchase (as yet) but one of my lovely clients had and asked if I could use it in our card classes. I couldn't go past doing the reflection technique.

The technique is super easy, you just stamp the image onto a piece of window sheet, flip it over, put it into place and transfer the image onto your project. I chose to use a brayer to make sure it all smooshed over. (For those of you unfamiliar with the stamped image, her reflection in the puddle is not part of the stamp, that is the part I transferred on.) I've used the gorgeous Delightful Daisy Designer Series Paper, the Layered Leaves 3D Embossing Folder and some Glitter & Clear Epoxy Shapes that I have coloured with my Night of Navy Stampin' Blend Pen. On that note, if you don't have the Stampin' Blends yet and need some validation, they are worth there weight in gold just so you can colour all your embellishments with them, you can colour rhinestones, doilies, enamel shapes, pearls and ribbons!!

This is the card I CASEd (the one in the middle), as you can see I've taken the layout as the creative jumping point.

Well that's it for me this week, time for you to hop along to see the gorgeous layout that Jackie Noble has created this week.

How about joining in on our challenge? It really helps to ensure you do some crafty time each week if you participate in challenges! Just click the image below for more details....

Cheers Megan xx

Sunday, 21 January 2018

CTC162 - Bird Banter for a Sweet Soiree

Hello again! It's that time again for the CASEing the Catty Sunday blog hop and this week we are taking our inspiration from the Sweet Soiree section of the new Occasions Catalogue. You may have just hopped over from the uber talented Kelly or if you are starting with me, strap in, we've got an amazing blog hop for you this week!

For my card this week I have used the Bird Banter Stamp Set from the new Occasions Catalogue. It has some cute sentiments and images and can be used birthdays and thank you's.

I used the cute budgie and popped a party hat on him to make a bright and cheerful birthday card.

I've used the Polka Dot Basic Embossing Folder and coloured the dots with my Stampin' Write markers using the Aquabrush. Behind my budgie is one of the new Scallop Circle Punches, I can already see that they will be getting used a lot!

Here is the card I CASEd my design from......

As you can see I have taken inspiration from the layout.

Some inside love!

We'd love it if you played along with our challenge, it is super easy to do, for more details click the graphic below....

Time for you to now hop along to Mel's blog, her creation is truly magical! Just click the graphic below....

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers Megan xx

CI25 - Magical Day Gift Card

Hello lovelies!

One of my favourite challenge groups is up and running for 2018, Colour INKspiration. As the title suggests it is a colour challenge, which I love as I often end up using colour combinations I would have never thought to do.

The palette for this fortnight.

My card uses the new Magical Day Stamp Set & Magical Mates Framelits Dies, it's a super cute set and was on top of my crafty daughter's wishlist (she has her own catalogue, that she flicks through over and over!). This suite is fantastic if you have children to make cards for but is also super cute for adults. I can see the knight being used for a Valentine's Day card, something about knight in shining armour and there are plenty of big girls that don't mind a mermaid or unicorn or two!

Someone requested I make a card that would hold a gift card in it and lucky for me my very talented friend Lou Kitzelman had just posted one on her blog site. Her instructions are super easy to follow, so CLICK HERE to see her fabulous creations.

As you can see I have adhered to the Colour INKspiration colours and added silver embossing and kraft (you can add neutral colours to the palette). The kraft is from the Foil Frenzy Specialty Designer Series Paper and the Night of Navy mat is embossed with Sparkle Embossing Folder.

The inside of the card has a little pop up part for the gift card to slip into. It is punched with the Everyday Label Punch (that has been carried over from the Holiday Catalogue). Now, let me be the crash test dummy for you....... For my card base, I used Thick Whisper White cardstock, take it from me, the punch cannot punch through two layers of Thick Whisper White (cue hubbie to fix punch that I have man-handled and gotten out of whack!). It will punch through normal cardstock doubled, so stick to that! For the inside I have use sentiments from the Picture Perfect Birthday Stamp Set.

With gift card inserted!

Once I had created this cute little square card, I needed a custom envelope, out came the Envelope Punch Board!

I love to recycle, and I have made this cute envelope out of the packing paper we get with our orders, waste not, want not!

Thank you for stopping by! If you would like to give the Colour INKspiration challenges a go, you can do so by CLICKING HERE. They are a Facebook challenge site, so no need to have a blog!

Cheers Megan xx

Sunday, 14 January 2018

CTC161 - Sale-a-bration

Hello again! Long time, no see! It's a busy Sunday in blog land this week, I'm back with my fellow CASEing the Catty Crew members and this week we just couldn't help but CASE (Copy & Selectively Edit) the Sale-a-bration Catty. I'm sure it gets bigger each year! You have either started with me and are about to set out on your wondrous journey or you have just hopped on over from the lovely Julia Quinn, wasn't her card the sweetest?!

In my last post I told you about the customer freebies up for grabs, it would be remiss of me not to tell you about the other promotions running also. For hosts, (you can have a party, place an order yourself and/or collect orders) with sales of $400 you not only get the normal 10% of sales in rewards but during Sale-a-bration you get an extra $40 to spend, a whopping $80 in rewards total PLUS you can pick up to four freebies (stamp sets, dies, card kits, embellishments, paper etc) from the Sale-a-bration Catty, oh! and free shipping. MASSIVE!!!

To top it all off, if you join during Sale-a-bration you firstly get to choose $235 of products for only $169 and secondly, choose ANY two additional stamp sets for FREE - that's up to $174 worth! No need to be worried about (shriek) JOINING! There is no obligation to have parties, you are in no way locked in, you can leave whenever you want and there is no minimum to spend unless you want to keep your demonstrator status and keep earning 20% off, having access to loads of resources and many other perks. If you think it might be for you, have a chat with your demonstrator and if you don't have one...... I'm here ready to be at your assistance 😉. Enough of the free stuff and promo's onto the card!!

I've used the Cake Soiree Stamp Set (got it for free at conference, another perk!) and the matching Sweet Cake Framelits Dies. It's an awesome set for so many different occasions, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries etc. If you squint (sorry, photo not that great!) you can see I have used some of the new Silver Embossing Paste (Shimmery White is also a new one) with the Sweet Soiree Decorative Mask to create a textured background. Now this blog hop is all about using the amazing Stampin' Up! Catalogues as inspiration to create your own designs, so I had better show you the card I CASEd.

I've CASEd the layout of the card front and centre of the Sale-a-bration Catty (the peacock one), I really love all those yummy layers and textures. Why don't you pick a card that inspires you and join in on our challenge? For more details just click the banner below....

Some inside love....

Time for you now to hop on over to Sandra Collett, a little birdie told me you'll think her card is super cute!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers Megan xx

ESAD 2018 Occasions Catalogue and Sale-a-bration Blog Hop

Hello everyone! Welcome to ESAD's first blog hop for 2018. If you haven't started with me, then you have just hopped on over from the fabulous Fi Cobbin. We have loads of inspiration for you today, so grab yourself a beverage of your choosing and while you are up you had better get a note pad and pen, as you are going to want to start making your wishlist! Of course, the theme for this hop is the brand new Occasions Catalogue and Sale-a-bration Catalogue, so exciting. I don't know how they manage to keep putting so many awesome new things into the catalogues, but lets just say I am never without a wishlist!!

One of my favourite suites in the new catty is the Petal Passion Suite (pages 22-23), I've bought one of everything and know for sure that I will be needing to restock on embellishments and papers, they are to die for! Buying the whole suite makes creating so much easier as you have everything at your fingertips that perfectly co-ordinates together and makes designing a cinch! Also, a brilliant perk is that buying the whole suite is only about twelve dollars short of achieving two new products or one big one from the Sale-a-bration catalogue! Yes, there are two levels this year $90 & $180 and SO many awesome choices. You can see the catalogues online HERE or if you would like a hard copy (essential bedside table or coffee table reading), just contact me direct. Now, I had better show you my card, hadn't I?!

This card all started from a Brusho background I made and really loved. Have you seen the Brusho's on page 26? They are so much fun to use! They are highly pigmented watercolour powders that you can use with many different techniques, they make you feel like an artist without having to have the skill set of one! On my card, I started with a piece of watercolour paper, misted it with water and sprinkled on the powders, misted a bit more in some places & grabbed my Aquabrush to move it around where I wanted. I love that every time you use it can bring about totally different results. On this piece I used the Prussian Blue & Yellow and tried to get it to blend to a green in the middle. I love how if the powder doesn't fully dissolve it leaves flecks of stronger colour.

Once the background was fully dried it was time to pull out the Stampin Up colour collection and see which colours were going to best match with my background. I decided on Tranquil Tide and Crushed Curry with a bit of the Champagne Foil, to boot. All of the elements on my card are from Petal Palette Stamp Set & coordinating Petals & More Thinlits Dies, make sure you buy these guys as a bundle and save 10% while you can.

Some inside love.....

I hope you enjoyed my card today, it is now time for you to hop along to Barbara Williams and see what gorgeousness she has for you, just click the next arrow below and if for any reason you get lost or stuck with your hopping, I have included the list of participants below for you, you need just click on their name and you will be taken straight to their blog.