Bethinking

More Cupcakes

I'm finding this "Crazy for Cupcakes" set really easy to use to make quick, effective birthday cards. I've been using it a lot with the "Sweet Always" papers, and the colour combination works really nicely.

Nothing fancy about this card, but I hope that it inspires you to go and create something yourself!

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Crazy for Cupcakes, Short and Sweet, Polka Dot background.

Cardstock: Sweet Always DSP, Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White

Inks: StazOn, Regal Rose.

Accessories: Markers, blender pens, glitter, small oval punch, pink rhinestone brad, Regal Rose ribbon, scallop edge punch.

Gum Blossom Baby

One of the new stamp sets in the Stampin' Up! 2009/10 Idea Book and Catalogue is the gorgeous set "Bloom Away", which has beautiful images of some Australian native flowers. As I was colouring a Gum Blossom image last night, it reminded me of the May Gibbs "Gum Blossom Babies" illustrations, so I thought I'd try to create my own stamped version!

It involved some masking, and using markers direct to the stamps just to ink up the part of the image that I wanted. I used Close to Cocoa, Rose Red and Sage Shadow, with some Chocolate Chip thrown in there as well. Next post I'll show you a card that just uses the standard Gum Blossom image from the set so that you can compare the two!

I was pretty pleased with it - not sure what May Gibbs would think, though!

Birthday Girl

 Just this week I received something exciting in the mail (I love getting happy mail!). It was a new stamp set, and although you might think that's too regular an occurrence for me to be excited about it, the extra great thing about this one was that it was free!

I got to choose any stamp set that I wanted from the Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalogue because I won the So Shelli Creative Challenge with this scrapbook page. So, because I love scrapbooking so much, I chose an alphabet set, Jumbo Outline Alpha, to use on my pages. It's something different from me because it's an Outline set, so for the Birthday Girl title I stamped it once straight onto my page and then coloured it in with Watercolour Crayons, then I stamped it once on patterned paper and cut out the letters. I love it!

For the rest of the page, I used my Short and Sweet stamp set for the accents, Seeing Spots and Polka Dot to make the background, and some Berry Bliss Designer Paper (retiring soon!)

Just a few days left...

...Of October! Hard to believe, I know. So, what does this mean for you? Well, in Stampin' Up! terms, it means you've only got until Friday to:

1. 1. Take advantage of the great 20% off special on selected stamp sets. (Including Short & Sweet, which is used in the cards pictured.)

2. 2. Enter my competition to win a Simply Sent kit - just by placing an order over $50 by Friday.

3. Sign up to my monthly newsletter and receive some yummy Stampin' Up! ribbon in the post.

So, don't delay! Please contact me on mail@elisabethstewart.com or 0412 008 027.

Short & Sweet

Short and Sweet is definitely the set from the Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalogue that I reach for the most. So many of the cards I make use the greetings from this set, because I love the font. It's a script type of font, which means that it doesn't need to be perfectly straight - great when you're in a hurry to finish off a card! (not that I ever leave things to the last minute...)

The images in the set are also great. They're very... sweet, as the name suggests. This card is made using only the Short and Sweet stamp set. Do yourself a favour and grab it in October while it's 20% off. It's a great set for yourself, or as a gift for someone as it has a greeting and image to cover any occasion. It's only $23.96, and contains 12 stamps. Great value!

Project Recipe

Stamps: Short & Sweet

Inks: Basic Black, Bashful Blue

Cardstock: Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue.

Accessories: Corner rounder, 1/2" and 3/4" circle punches, paper piercer, dimensionals, Soft Subtles markers, blue taffeta ribbon.

Tart and Tangy

Tart and Tangy is one of the sets in the Stampin' Up! Spring Mini Catalogue. It's a sweet set with images of four different kinds of fruits. At first it didn't really appeal to me, but now I find myself borrowing it a lot from friends!

To create the strawberry image from this card, I've inked the stamp using Stampin' Write markers, which was surprisingly quick and easy to do. The images fit perfectly into the 1 1/4" circle punch, then are layered using the 1 3/8" circle punch.

I've also used the Short and Sweet for the greeting, and a small flower from Always on the background. The colours are Real Red, Old Olive, Basic Black and Whisper White. Why not use this layout to make a card yourself today?

More Festive Cheer

I thought I'd share with you the other projects that are involved in my Christmas in July night tonight. The second card that everyone makes uses some of the "Dashing" designer series paper, and the "Time for a Tree" wheel, with a greeting and snowflake from the Short and Sweet set. It's so easy to choose colours with this great patterned paper - the paper uses Real Red, River Rock and Old Olive, so that's what the card uses. Simple!

I also found instructions for these great little treat boxes on Shelley Hopp's  blog, so I've made some of those as a thank you to the people who are coming tonight - it's a Christmas event, after all, so there needs to be a little gift! Now I just need to work out what yummy things I can put inside...

Family Favourites

I'm sure lots of you will remember the All in the Family special promotion that we had last November. Just released in the 2008/9 Idea Book and Catalogue is a new stamp set that coordinates with All in the Family, called Family Favourites. This card was made for Jaron, who was turning 1. He was having a Teddy Bear's Picnic birthday party, so it was great that the family favourites set included a teddy bear, a picnic basket, a balloon and a party hat. Perfect!

The image was stamped with StazOn on watercolour paper, then coloured with ink. The card colours are Tempting Turquoise, Wild Wasabi, Pumpkin Pie and Soft Sky. My next project with this set is to make something for my 3 year old using the ballet tutu - so sweet!