TGIF #122 Watercolour Technique Challenge - Fabulous Flamingo

Thank goodness it's Friday and to be extra thankful we have a fabulous challenge with the TGIF design team and today we are watercolouring.

I love to watercolour and even though I wouldn't say I'm a natural I do think over the years I've gotten a little better. It really is practice that makes perfect in this case.

The main think that I have learnt is watercolouring needs more then one layer. And what I mean is that once you've added your first "coat" you need to allow it to dry a little before adding more colour. This way you get that sort of tide mark effect, with swirls of lighter and darker colour.

I decided to use the Fabulous Flamingo stamp set again for this card as I really do love how it looks, plus I hadn't actually made a pink flamingo creation yet... which is obviously their normal colour.

I really do love to add a die cut sentiments, the Congrats is cut from our beautiful copper foil and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll see a few more thinlit sentiments in the next few catalogues. I still miss the ones that were retired recently.

So what are you plans for this weekend?? I hope you find time for a little bit of crafting in your day and remember, you can head on over to my store, which is open 24hrs 7 days a week and have your goodies delivered to you anywhere in Australia.

Happy Crafting,
Chlo

Product List 
 

Fabulous Flamingo Photopolymer Stamp Set [143758]	Berry Burst Classic Stampin' Pad [144083]	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad [140931]	Shimmery White A4 Card Stock [121717]	Crumb Cake A4 Card Stock [121685]
Basic Black A4 Card Stock [121688]	Sunshine Wishes Thinlits Dies [141489]	Black Mini Sequin Trim [144259]	Copper Foil Sheets [142020]	Metallics Sequin Assortment [144214]

Just Add Ink Challenge Theme #333 - Sunshine Wishes

I'm so excited to announce that I am one of the new Guest Designers over at Just Add Ink!! This is really a dream come true, as I have loved this blog since they started a few years ago. The team are amazing and totally awe inspiring designers and I feel very honored to be among them for the next few months.

 And my first challenge is so much fun. We have to create something with the Letter G and I instantly thought of Gold and lots of it.

Did I mention that I was using a lot of gold! This  card is actually going to a very dear friend who just received the most amazing news about something she has been working towards for the past two years. I wanted to send her a super special card to let her know how over the moon I was for her and excited about this new adventure.

To make the Congrats die cut, I coloured in some shimmery white cardstock with the gold Wink of Stella and then splattered some of it over the top. Once it had dried, I run it through the big shot. I then ran the die through again but on a piece of Early Espresso and then mounted the two together, leaving a little bit of an outline.

Please make sure you head on over to the JAI blog and take a look at what the other designers have been up to. You won't be disappointed!!

Happy Crafting,
Chlo

Product List 
 

Sunshine Wishes Thinlits Dies [141489] $45.00	Thoughtful Banners Photopolymer Stamp Set [141614] $37.00	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad [126974] $11.50	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock [106550] $15.75	Early Espresso A4 Card Stock [121686] $14.00
Gold Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush [141898] $11.50	Fabulous Foil Designer Acetate [141653] $21.00	Gold Glimmer Paper [133719] $8.75	Gold Metallic Thread [138401] $5.25	Gold Sequin Trim [132983] $8.75
5/8" (1.6 Cm) Burlap Ribbon [141487] $12.25	Stars Framelits Dies [133723] $45.00	Pearl Basic Jewels Embellishments [119247] $8.75

Congratulations - Floral Phrases and Detailed Floral Thinlits

While I currently wait for my main catalogue order to arrive, which seems to take f o r e v e r...  my lovely friend Kim offered to share her gorgeous new goodies with me (this is just one of the many reasons why I love that girl!)

So after looking through her HUGE box of new stamps, I decided that I really wanted to try out the new Detailed Floral Thinlits. This set was one of the first items that I saw in the catalogue and knew it was a must have. The matching stamps are beautiful and the coordinating Paper, Washi and Bakers Twine are stunning too. So after a very quick run through the Bigshot and a bit of sticking, I literately had this fantastic card all in about 15 minutes!!

The photo really doesn't do the die justice. It cut out beautifully with the precision plate and I used our nifty little Sizzix brush and mat to roll over the die and poke out all the little bits. It really was so quick and easy and the card has a huge wow factor to it.

I finished it off with a little stamping, using the matching stamp set Floral Phrases and there it was, done!

Oh and just a little note, the framelits have three pieces, two are the floral dies and the other one is an outline die that actually matches both of the floral pieces.... Now THAT'S clever!!

Enjoy the rest of your short week (Yippee!!) and Happy Crafting,
Chlo


Product List 
 

Floral Phrases Clear-Mount Stamp Set [141767] $31.00

Floral Phrases Clear-Mount Bundle [142355] $72.00

Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad [126970] $11.50

Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549] $15.75

Night Of Navy A4 Card Stock [106577] $14.00

Big Shot Die Brush [140603] $19.00

Congratulations - Sheltering Tree

I've been meaning to make a Z fold card for a while and decided that it would be fun to whip one up for class this week. These kind of fancy folds are so much fun and really turn your normal card into a wow card with just one simple, extra fold.

This week in class I was designing cards using the gorgeous Sheltering Tree stamp set and showing how it can me used for more then just a tree.

In today's card I just used the "leaves" stamp to make a very stunning, yet simple background for my wooden embellishment to sit against. Doesn't it look great!! I wanted to keep the whole card very neutral, as I wanted the gorgeous Designer Series Paper to be the stand out on the card.

The paper used is called Timeless Elegance and it really is beautiful. The photo of the collection in the catalog really doesn't do this paper justice. I love absolutely every design and find it very hard to use. I'm such a paper hoarder!!

But with all my cards, I couldn't help but add a little bit of sparkly or glam to my cards and so I sneaked in a little piece of gold thread, just to give it that finished feeling!! Ahhhh, my inner Crafter is happy now.

Happy Crafting,
Chlo

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Layered Letters - Congratulations

So a few week ago one of my Downline recently promoted to Supervisor, which is a HUGE achievement in the Stampin' Up! world and I didn't want to let the occasion pass by without making her a card of course... well it's kinda what we do around here!!

I decided to use the gorgeous "Layered Letters" stamps to stamp out the word Congrats and as her favorite colours are blue, I of course needed to use as many Stampin' Up! Blues as I could find!!

Now, I expect you are thinking "Surely, she isn't that crazy, that she sat and threaded all those sequins?" Well you would be wrong, as that's exactly what I did!! It took me about 2 hours to pick out the colours I wanted and then thread them on to a piece of silver thread. When I showed the Hubby, he thought I was crazy too, but I explained that I knew Kim will immediately notice and appreciate the dedication.

And do you know what??!! Within 10 minutes of her receiving it, I got a text to say "Thank you for the beautiful card. I love and appreciate the amount of time it would have taken to thread all the sequins!!" See, a true Crafter notices everything!!

Happy Crafting,
Chlo

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog