Seas the Day

Well after a bumpy start to the 2022 new stampin' year, with delays with shipping etc the NZ SU! demos decided it was time to do a demo swap highlighting something new we'd bought from the new mini catalogue for January-June.

I had an idea what I wanted to do but took me quite a few different colour combos to settle on something that I liked . In the end I ended up using Coastal Cabana as my base and for the die cut piece and stamped the Gentle Waves background stamp on Pool Party with Soft Sea Foam to make my background. I had to do a bit of ink blending with Sahara Sand to make a "sandy bottom" as the Gentle Waves is a horizontal stamp and the die is a portrait aperture. I found when I stamped on white card stock with various inks the wave pattern appeared too dominating rather than being a background. 

I chose to buy Seas the Day as I don't actually have any stamps similar to it and I thought the matching dies would make good embellishments for scrapbooking pages as well.

Cutting Dimensions:
Coastal Cabana: A5 card (21 x 14.8 cm) and 10.5 x 14.8 cm for die cutting
Pool Party: 10 x 14.3 cm

I share a really cool tip in my March Newsletter how to get the perfect die cut even when you're making 14 cards for the swap. So make sure you have signed up so you can see the tip. The signup form is on the top RHS of my blog.

Supply List (all SU!):
Stamps: Seas the Day, Gentle Waves (background stamp)
Ink: Soft Sea Foam, Just Jade, Sahara Sand
Paper: Coastal Cabana, Pool Party, Mango Melody, Basic White
Dies: Sea

Other: Dimensionals, Irridescent rhinestone jewels, Stamp-a-ratus, blending brush, Tombow

I'm looking forward to seeing what the  group of ladies in my swap team created and will share with you when I receive them
✿ Karen ✿

No need to hop.....

... from blog to blog, here is a whole pile of fabulous cards sent to me from fellow SU! demonstrators.

It's hard to believe its been 3 weeks since the new annual catalogue went live but I thought for my Friday post I'd share the beautiful & fabulous cards I received as part of 2 demonstrator swaps one with my big stampin' family The Creative Inkers & the other swap was an even bigger swap with fellow demonstrators from New Zealand, some of them I've managed to swap with twice. Swap rules are normally pretty simple we have to use only SU! current products & this time use "something new". We all had problems because of the postal delays receiving our pre-orders & then even sending them to the person co-ordinating the swap, each group consisted of 10 demos.

I shared my swaps about a month ago & I used the new in-colour Just Jade & the Forever Greenery suite & you can see my swaps HERE and HERE.

So I have received back 18 swaps to share I'm going to link the demo's name to their blog or e-mail if they have provided it with their swap recipe plus highlight something on the card that took my fancy. I'm going to just post the cards in the order they came out of the bags & got photographed.

The first swap is from "Paula" no other info I'm guessing its Paula Reid as she likes yellow but there is more than 1 Paula that is a demo, so not a good start to linking back. I have to say that we both had the same idea for our swaps as one of my swaps was a little bit like this but I love how bright & cheery her card is using the Celebrate Sunflowers stamp & Flowers for Every Season DSP.

The next swap is from Jackie Noble and she's used the Forever Fern stamp set & spoilt us with a wee bit of gold from the Forever Gold laser cut DSP. 

Now the next card from Sarah Roche makes me smile & I'm now thinking I might actually like the new in-colour Magenta Madness, everything just pops what a fabulous colour combo of Magenta Madness, Poppy Parade, Granny Apple Green & Bermuda Bay. Sarah's also used the Field of Flowers stamp set & the new Lovely Labels pick a punch .

With the following card Gail Ruddle shows Forever Fern doesn't have to be just greens, loving it in Highland Heather!!

The next card is from Donna Headand she's used the Lovely You stamp set & she's actually sewn around the edge of my card beautifully. I am wildly grateful to have received this card, thank you Gail what a work of art.

Now a fabulous card from Karen Hadler which I just adore as she's done a watercolour wash for the background. I love how vibrant her Forever Fern stamped images are they really do pop, she's used Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green & Pretty Peacock inks.

The next card by Tash Martin is using the scrappy strip technique with World of Good DSP which is so opulent in real life with some of the papers being suede like & gorgeous gold foiling. What a fab masculine card.

Next Laurie Wilson is also using Flowers for every Season DSP strips but has weaved them to make a card that also pops off the base, loving the wee pop of Magenta Madness in the wee flower as well.

The next card is by Karin Gallagher and she has used Silhouette Scenes stamp set, the new Old World Paper embossing folder & World of Good DSP. The Magenta Madness mat highlights all the neutral papers & what a fab sentiment.

The next card by Clare Ellison shows you don't even need stamps to create a quick & easy card using the Flowers for every Season Memories & More cards & envelopes but the copper foil mat really makes it all pop & look so much more luxurious.

Emma Shewan has also used the Celebrate Sunflowers stamp set, matching die and Flowers for Every Season DSP. Loving the embossed sentiment cutting it all out has really highlighted the sentiment.

Bernice Collins has used the Flowers for Every Seasons Memories & More cardpack & a lot of Wink of Stella so its very sparkly in real life.

Kristine McNickle has also used strips of Forever Greenery DSP with the Forever Greenery DSP & has created a gold foil embellishment with the matching dies to provide some bling..

Rosie Dunn has highlighted the new in-colour Misty Moonlight & the Tasteful Touches stamp set plus In Good Taste DSP. Loving the depth to the card which is in reality an optical illusion as the DSP appears to have texture!

Alicia Yap has also used the feather from Tasteful Touches stamp set. I'm liking the little wooden "X's" from the In Good Taste elements on the card as well.

I have to say the next card is one of my fav's received. I personally really like the new in-colour Just Jade & the colours Megan Teare has used with it really highlight how opulent Just Jade is. The colours are Bermuda Bay, Rich Razzleberry, Crushed Curry & some champagne foil.

Dana Russell has used vellum & the new in-colour Bumblebee with one of the fabulous border dies to make a really effective thank you card.

Last but not least another card from Tash Martin, I'm liking how effective the Jar of Flowers stamp is without the jar! She's also used Flowers for Every Season DSP & the Lovely Labels pick a punch which is definitely on my wishlist as it has so much versatility.

This is what I think I can say were the recurring favourites from what I received.

Fav stamp set : Forever Ferns

Fav DSP : Flowers for every Season

Fav new in-colour : Just Jade

What are your thoughts, what are your favourites from the new annual Catalogue??

A huge thanks to all the demos that have swapped with me ; so much fabulousness & great ideas.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend I'm off to a family christening and catching up with my upline & the Star Stampers team tomorrow for some playing which hopefully I can share next week.

Inky hugs to all; stay safe & stay warm.

Karen

I'm in love with Forever Greenery

The new designer series paper Forever Greenery ticks so many boxes, I just love greens & blues and this DSP is full of them; Garden Green, Just Jade, Pear Pizzazz, Pretty Peacock, Shaded Spruce and Soft Sea Foam. Just like nature which has so many shades & hues so does the images in these papers, some of the images can also be die cut out with matching dies as well.

I designed this card as my second swap card and again was trying to highlight the new in-colour Just Jade with less than 2 sheets of card stock plus also have a play with the other embossing folder in the Greenery set. I have rubbed a wee bit of Whisper White craft ink using a sponge dauber over the embossed piece of Just Jade card stock. The gold trim ribbon ties fabulously. My squares are 1-1/2".

I absolutely have to say that this is my favourite of the 2 cards I'm swapping.

Supply List (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Forever Fern
Ink: Garden Green, Pear Pizzazz, Pretty Peacock, Whisper White Craft
Paper: Whisper White (thick), Just Jade, Forever Greenery DSP
Dies: Nested Labels
Other: Forever Greenery Trim, Greenery embossing folder, mini glue dots, dimensionals

This is a real easy card to whip up and the concept works well with any co-ordinating DSP. With approximately a week to go to the new catalogue launching I'm loving the stamps in the Forever Fern stamp set which are DistINKtive & these papers.

✿ Karen ✿

Introducing Just Jade

Hi everyone & have I been a busy beaver since I last reported in, my pre-order arrived with some goodies for the new Annual catalogue (which launches in 10 days time) as well as that real life is happening & finally NZ came out of level 3 so that meant I got to spend some time out of the house with Pete's mum, get my hair cut, take cats to the vet etc plus work.

I signed up for 2 demonstrator swaps with other Stampin' Up! demos which is where the fun & the angst comes in, shipping and mail to NZ is not really back to normal so by the time we got our goodies it seemed like everyone had already blogged what they were doing with my favourite set that we were allowed to pre-order.

I also wanted to highlight one of the new in-colours but I stuffed up my pre-order & only ordered mixed packs of the new in-colours and one of those packs was earmarked to go out with the new catalogues to my customers so I had 4 sheets of Just Jade to play with so I have been super creative with it and I actually still have 1 sheet left after making 22 swaps.

Anyhow this is my first design; I hope highlighting one of the new in-colours for 2020-2022 Just Jade.

Supply List (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamp: Forever Fern
Ink: Garden Green, Soft Sea Foam
Paper: Very Vanilla, Just Jade, Soft Sea Foam, Garden Green, Forever Greenery DSP
Accessories: Greenery embossing folder, Forever Flourishing dies, Gold Hoops, Gilded Gems, Forever Greenery trim, circle die

Forever Greenery DSP has some papers to die for but I felt this sheet highlighted Just Jade the best, the gold hoops are actually a really nice touch of bling & they are really thin & have been attached with 2 mini glue dots. The embossing folder is a set of 2.

Here are all the swaps laid out & ready to be packed up.

I have to admit I bought the Forever Greenery Suite as I loved it and it came with EVERYTHING! So I got the stamp set, the embossing folders, the DSP, gold hoops, gold laser-cut specialty paper, the ribbons (also a set of 2).  Or you can also just buy the Forever Fern bundle which is the stamp set and matching dies and is 10% off. All the items & the bundles can be seen on pages 108-110 of the new catalogue when it goes live on June 3rd. If you don't have a demonstrator in NZ and would like a copy contact me & I can get one in the post for you ASAP.

I taken a few pictures to show Just Jade compared to our current greens & greeny-blues. I personally don't feel it actually resembles any past colours but others may disagree, I also think its actually got quite a lot of blue in it as the colour I think it is closest to but totally different is Bermuda Bay!

Top row: Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay, Mint Macaroon
Middle row: Garden Green, Old Olive, Shaded Spruce, Granny Apple Green (Just Jade lying on top)
Bottom row: Soft Sea Foam, Pear Pizzazz, Mossy Meadow

I actually think it's in the same intensity of colours as the top row of all the colours (Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay, Mint Macaroon, Just Jade)

And these are the 6 colours in the Forever Greenery DSP with Whisper White (L > R : Soft Sea Foam, Pear Pizzazz, Shaded Spruce. L > R : Garden Green, Just Jade, Pretty Peacock)


✿ Karen ✿

Another Centre Step card

I shared a few days ago the card I made for Neville's 80th & I'm sharing an even more special card given to me by a fellow demonstrator when we swapped cards at the Creative Inkers stamp camp recently in Rotorua. It's an absolute fab, fun card and another masculine one. Little did I know when I received this card that the demo that swapped with me would die unexpectedly a week later. This has been a huge shock for those that knew her personally and even for myself who had just meet her it also makes you realise how precious life is, so I'm actually thrilled in someways to have something that Janice McConnell made and happy to share what a talented card maker she was.

Life is all a bit surreal at the moment with life as we know it changing so rapidly with COVID19 so being able to take some time out for oneself each day is a blessing & hopefully some of my KReations will give the recipients as much pleasure as Janice's card does to me.

Supply List:
Stamps: Mountain Air, Pedal to the Metal, Itty Bitty Birthdays, Peaceful Place
Ink/Markers: Basic Gray, Memento Black, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black
Paper: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Soft Suede, Old Expresso
Dies: Majestic Mountain, Wiggly Bugs
Punches: Classic Label
Other: Dimensionals
✿ Karen ✿

Heidi's Aperture Card

I think I'm a clean and simple stamper so when the Creative Inkers team were off to Holdens Bay in Rotorua for the annual stamp camp/retreat last weekend and the challenge for the swap cards was to create a workshop card. I thought I knew the perfect card for a workshop Heidi's Aperture card.

I love my dies more than anyone else but punches actually remind me of my early workshops with Stampin' Up! Back in those days I don't think we had any die cutting machines or that they'd even be invented so this was a bit of a trip down nostalgia lane for me.

I've used the field of poppies stamp from Painted Poppies twice to cover the width of the card. Then "coloured" in the flowers with the splatter stamp in the set and Poppy Parade ink. From one side of the card insert the 2" circle punch as far as it will go. Punch out the flowers and attach to an already punched out 2-¼" Poppy Parade circle. Now all you have to do is take the 2-¼" circle punch over the same hole to make it big enough to pop in the framed image.

Recipe (all products Stampin' Up!)
Stamp sets: Painted Poppies, Peaceful Moments
Ink: Memento Black, Poppy Parade
Paper: Thick Whisper White, Poppy Parade
Punches: 2" circle, 2-¼" circle

I loved how quick and easy this card was with a wee bit of wow, so I whipped up a few birthday cards too using Daffodil Delight ink and it's matching ¼" ruched ribbon that has just been released with the new mini catalogue. I also liked that when you open the card to write your message it's already decorated on the inside.

Thank you Heidi I love your aperture card. And if anyone would love to host a workshop I'd love to share this card with you and your friends.

Happy stampin'
✿ Karen ✿

More fab swaps from convention

L>R Judy, myself, Sally & Donna - definitely looking WOW!

I maybe biased but today's swaps are some of my favorites as they contain the swaps from 3 of my own team - the WOW paperKRafters, that I had the pleasure of attending convention with & did we have a fab time; Sally Williams, Judy Beetson & Donna Blackmore - above is a snap of us in our finery for awards night.

Though we didn't win any awards on the night Donna & myself were very chuffed as we both got to march on stage TOGETHER as we have both have reached our 5 year anniversary with SU! which was a rather special moment.

We were also pretty lucky as a team with 50% of us winning a prize in prize patrol, even though  I didn't win prize patrol this convention celebrating SU!'s 25th anniversary truly was the most awesome with great sessions, demonstrations & I returned home with SIX (yes 6) new stamp sets, silver glimmer paper, rhinestones, silver dazzle, cute clips, a new bags & tags kit, new colour coach & most importantly a new annual catalogue 2 weeks early.

Back to the cards & posting them in alphabetical order.

Donna Blackmore's swap - totally blown away by how much effort went into this swap & so many layers, it really is a piece of art.

Judy Beetson's Blooming with Kindness - really striking in Cherry Cobbler red & black.

and Sally Williams side spring card in of course purple! The flower from Creative Elements has been cut into 3 layers so the flower really pops.

Hope you agree with me that they're all fab & thanks ladies for some inspiring ideas!

Click HERE to order Stampin' Up! Products Online, Anytime.

Best of Flowers & Best of Convention Swaps Part 1

BRRR wish I was back in not so sunny Surfers Paradise, as gosh winter arrived whilst I was away (the good thing about that is, it's a good time to craft).

In no particular order, some of my best of swaps from convention (to be honest they were the first handful I grabbed & they were all awesome & definitely worth sharing).

From Deb McLean, a summery flip flop card.

From Belinda Hennessey I just adore this card as it has 2 of my favourite stamp sets on it (Papaya Collage & Creative Elements).

From Rebecca Scurr; Thinking of You in Raspberry Ripple.

From Nicole Clare; she's also used Thinking of You & the strips of DSP have been embossed with the Woodgrain EF - looks really fab in real life.

It was great to catch up with one of the demos I met at my very first Stampin' Up! convention, Vicki Were & swap cards - love what she has done with Love & Sympathy.

And the same stamp set but so different, Sam Wilson from NSW's take:

Last but not least Anna Mathieson has used the sentiment from Love & Sympathy but stamps from Fabulous Floret - great colour combo for a sympathy card (Sahara Sand & Midnight Muse).

It's one month to our new annual catalogue launches & SU! have announced lots of new things starting now. As you may or may not know Stampin' Up! have just passed their 25th anniversary so lots of exciting things happening this year. Looking back they're releasing stamp sets reflecting the "Best Of" - first off the block is Best of Flowers (133342).

Click HERE to see all the details, but below is a few images I snapped at Convention using the Best of Flowers set - I really like the smaller image of "Upsy Daisy" & if you look carefully the background really is a background stamp, called Dictionary which will be available to purchase when the new AC is released July 2nd.

Click HERE to order Stampin' Up! Products Online, Anytime.

Under the sea - my swap for convention.

It's a late start today after the awards night last night, so limited time to share (sorry).

I snapped my demo swap which my roomie & BFF Donna now is the owner of as it doesn't appear that I snapped one with my camera before giving them all away. I chose the colour combo from the Sale-a-bration DSP we received this year: Pool Party, Summer Starfruit, Sahara Sand, Tangerine Tango. I wanted to give the illusion of an aquarium as I was/am in a semi-tropical city. Though apart from eating crisp melons there hasn't been too much semi-tropical about Brisbane & the weather has been very much like home was.

I KR-eated the recipe with My Digital Studio (MDS) as it looked so much prettier than just a word document.

And talking about MDS one of the fun breakout classes yesterday was MDS, Yes! with the lovely & talented Shannon West & I now can re-KReate one of these cards & I learnt a lot of tips along the way which I can't wait to share,

I'll try & logon again later & share some party piccies as they're a lot of fun but another full on day & night planned so no promises, enjoy your weekend all I know I'm going to enjoy mine.

Click HERE to order Stampin' Up! Products Online, Anytime.