Retiring colours – 30 colours in 30 days…

Posted on

Now that it’s five days into August I now get the wonderful idea of highlighting each of the 30 colours that are retiring during the month of August. One colour for each day of August. And YES, I do know there are 31 days in August but I really thought the last day we could simply reminisce about those colours we’d seen and those we’d love. So… let’s bring on the encore” performances.

But before I do, I meant to tell you yesterday that whilst I was having my sneak peek at the new Stampin’ Up! catalogue, I noticed that although most of the prices have stayed the same, there was one exception in particular – CARDSTOCK!

At the moment a packet of 24 sheets of cardstock is $10.50, this will become $13.95 – that’s a price rise of $3.45. Which is still great value given the quality of Stampin’ Up! cardstock and with all the other products in the colour families remaining the same, it’s not so bad. And hey, the stamps sets are the same price – honestly I hadn’t expected that so I’m relieved!

So, if there were any cardstock you were thinking of getting that you can purchase now rather then waiting for the new catalogue it might be worthwhile doing it now. I was having a ponder on my way for school pick-up and realised if you waited until after September 1st to purchase the same colours you can buy now,  you’d could lose by the price of an entire packet.

 How? Well, if you buy four packets of cardstock in September at $13.95 that’s a total of $55.80 whereas today it is $42 – five packets would cost $52.50 – that’s an extra packet of cardstock and if your budget is like mine… EVERY CENT COUNTS! And don’t forget, you can always go halves, thirds or even quarters with friends so ensure you get more for your money… it all helps let me tell you. Hey, I did it just last month with a hostess so it does work!

Now for the encore performance…

 

… from left to right…
Pink Passion / Apricot Appeal / Sage Shadow / Yo Yo Yellow / Almost Amethyst

Oh, and have yourself an... Inkee Fiddling Day!

Joanne x


Lovin’ the Pastels!

Posted on

This weeks Technique classes had me really working outside of my comfort zone by working with pastels. As I’ve mentioned before, if it hadn’t been for my initial starter kit, there would have been no way I would have bought these chalks… but goodness, oh how glad I have them now!

Initially I didn’t know where to start so I did some surfing whereby I came across a tutorial by a very talented lady in San Jose by the name of Elaine Schader. I was wanting to highlight the technique of  making the pastels “pop”. I so like what she did I couldn’t help myself but CASE it. If I do say so myself, I really do like this card, what do you think?

The next technique was to sponge the colours directly onto the card-stock then erase what you want to create your desired effect. In this card I chose to create a lattice effect by putting my work under the arm on my Stampin’ Up cutter, then simply ran the eraser down where the blade would normally go. Made even lines that much easier!  Ithen combined this with the Level 2 Hostess Set from the Autumn-Winter Catty, Asian Artistry, which I think compliments it perfectly!


Which leaves me with the third style within this technique which was to use the blender pens to pick up the pastel then colour the image that I’d stamped in black StazOn. Once again I was able to utilise my current “favourite” stamp set – Dreams du Jour… what can I say, I’m totally besotted with this set just at the moment!

What I did to the background was to stamp in Versamark  a butterfly randamly over the cardstock then daube with same colour as the cardstock. Which I think is Apricot Appeal but when I foolishly take photos of a night it is sometimes difficult to tell!

And  hey, I even had a go at doing a ribbon twist rose but I admit now, one requires more work on that technique!


Oh, and have yourself an... Inkee Fiddling Day!

Joanne x


Another month is almost upon us…

Posted on

so before it’s actually here, here is a glimpse of what we’ll be doing this week in my Technique Tuesday/Technique Thursday Class (Tuesday 1st – 9.30-11.30am and Thursday 3rd – 7-9pm). This month I’m focusing on the Stampin’ Pastels.

These are something I have to admit, if they hadn’t been a compulsory purchase in my SU Kit,I would never have bought them but THANK GOODNESS I DIDI LOVE THEM!!!

This month I’ve highlighted three different styles within this one technique. One is to make the SU! pastels POP with Versamark; a second is to use the dauber to sponge the chalk directly onto the card-stock then  from this create a wonderful lattice effect; and the last one is utilising the pastels to create a water colour effect. All very different yet all as effective as the other!

Please remember, numbers are limited in these classes so should you be interested in learning more about this wonderful technique, please contact me soon to confirm your place. Also, should these dates NOT be convenient for you, should you have at least another two friends interested in attending, a class can be arranged at a time convenient to the both of us!

Oh, and have yourself an... Inkee Fiddling Day!

Joanne x


Upsy Daisy…

Posted on

this has to be one of my favourite sets from the current Stampin’ Up Idea & Catalogue Book. I have seen this set used in just so many ways and it always looks fabulous! On this card for hubby’s mum, I have done battle with my Taken with Teal ink pad, and yes it was a battle trust me!

Ever since I bought it (from a friend hence no returns…) it’s always looked more like Night of Navy so this week I was taking no prisoners and on more then one piece of scrap paper I just squished and squeezed that ink pad until something resembling Taken with Teal revealed itself. I do love the colour but given it has only a few more months before retirement, I’m not losing any sleep over this dilemma with the ink pad. But I digress, here it is… (and yes, I promise in future when scanning this cards on white backgrounds, to put a dark background behind it for easier viewing!)


Before I digressed, I was going to say that I also used some of the Urban Garden DSP which is what influenced my use of Taken with Teal. What I also tried for the first time was pressing the stamp into the embossing powder once heated instead of embossing the image after stamping with Versamark. This stamp set – SU’s Dreams du Jour – has always appealed to me but has always remained on my wish list.

So imagine my delight whilst visiting a friend yesterday, as she went through her stamping supplies looking for a suitable set to use on a teenagers card, she pulled out this one. I have no shame… me please, me please! Needless to say I was a tad excited when I arrived home yesterday with this set under my arm but knew I had to work on my birdhouse and this card so put it aside. But things happen for a reason don’t they…

I’ve had this Upsy Daisy card sitting to the side all week, simply waiting to be assembled but something wasn’t quite right hence my hesitance in assembling. Where I now have the what looks like the Faux Metal “Dreams” embellishment, I had a metal Happy Birthday on a punched out tag. It looked fine but obviously deep down I knew it wasn’t quite right then as I commenced assembling this morning… voila… I knew exactly what had to be done and this was it! Hope you like it

Oh, and have yourself an... Inkee Fiddling Day!

Joanne x

Related Posts with Thumbnails