Pinkies Blog Hop: Showcasing New Annual Catalogue projects!

 

  

Thank you for joining us on another Pinkies Blog Hop! We're showcasing lots of gorgeous projects using products from the new Stampin' Up! ® Annual Catalogue. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

 

Welcome if you have come from Nina's blog!

 

There are so many lovely new things in the new catalogue and I have found it really hard to narrow down my choice for today! I decided to keep it simple  and concentrate on the new In Color collection  for 2014-2016.



I have recently been experimenting with making my own backgrounds and the following projects all utilise one particular technique which I have developed: using scrunched up brown packing paper as a "stamp" which I have then tapped directly onto the ink pad to pick up some ink and then stamped all over a sheet of Whisper White cardstock. You can use a single colour or a mixture of 2 or 3 - just make sure you use a separate ball of scrunched-up paper for each individual colour.

This first project uses the lovely new In Colors Mossy Meadow (the green) and Hello Honey (the yellow) as well as a bit of Crumb Cake on the patterned background strip:

http://paperglassstitch.blogspot.co.uk  Lucy Tustian

 

I have glued the small strip of homemade background onto a Whisper White Notecard and stamped the "thanks" from the Hip Hip Hooray card kit stamps. The Elegant Butterfly punched shape is from the new Hello Honey cardstock and sits on a mini glue dot, with a strip of three pearl gems for the butterfly's body. A very simple, quick and easy card to make, don't you think?!

Here is another card which uses the same backround - this time I have used the background for the butterfly only, with a Mossy Meadow Elegant Butterfly beneath it. I used the brush stroke stamp from the new (and very versatile) stamp set: Work Of Art; with the Hello Honey stamped three times without re-inking it (the "stamping off" technique). The "Thinking of You" is from one of my go-to stamp sets: Sassy Salutations and is stamped using the Mossy Meadow ink for the words and the sponging around the oval punched shape:

http://paperglassstitch.blogspot.co.uk Lucy Tustian

 

 One of my favourite new In Colors is the lovely deep rich purple called Blackberry Bliss - the next couple of projects use this colour on its own for the handmade background for a very striking effect:

 

http://paperglassstitch.blogspot.co.uk Lucy Tustian

 

http://paperglassstitch.blogspot.co.uk Lucy Tustian



 Have you spied the lovely ribbon on the tag? It is the utterly gorgeous new 1cm (3/8") wide Stitched Satin Ribbon in the Blackberry Bliss - it is so nice - one of my all-time favourite Stampin' Up! ribbons I think! I have secured it with a little bit of Whisper White Bakers' Twine plus a tiny bit of the same white bakers' twine that I have hand-dyed using a few drops of Perfect Plum re-inker in a very small amount of water. I have also coloured in the rhinestone jewels with the brand new Stampin' Blendabilities alcohol markers in Rich Razzleberry (using all three shades of the colour).

 

 

The circle on the card is made using another stamping technique I have been experimenting with recently - reverse kissing. I'm hoping to blog a bit more about various kissing techniques (of the ink variety!) sometime soon, so do pop back again to see!

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to look at my part of the Pinkies Blog Hop. I would love to know your thoughts on the techniques and colour-combos that I have used today, so do please leave me a comment if you have time! Hope you enjoy the rest of the blog hopping: the lovely Sarah is next! :O)

 

 

Until next time, happy crafting everyone...

 

Lucy x

 

Making your own gift packaging is Sweet (Sorbet!)

First of all, I must just say how overwhelmed I am by the amazing response from my "So Very Grateful For The Pinkies Blog Hop" post over the weekend! WOW! Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to leave a comment, I was really touched! Also, as so many people have asked me how I made the shadow box card, I will endeavour to get a tutorial up on my blog at some point this week! So, watch this space, as they say!!

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some ideas for gift packaging that I have recently made. These will be given out as free thank you gifts to my class attendees who book a place for themselves and a friend of theirs, who is new to me/my class. Both the attendee AND their new friend get to choose a gift from my special basket as a thank you from me for the introduction. At my next evening class, one lady will be bringing FOUR of her pals with her, so she will be getting to choose FIVE gifts and her four pals will each get one gift too! I am really looking forward to meeting them all and I can't wait to see which gifts they all choose!

Anyway, here is the photograph for you to see:

I made the tags by stamping on Whisper White Cardstock with the gorgeous "Petal Parade" Sale-a-Bration stamp set (available for FREE when you spend £45 until 31st March 2014) using the  following colours: Crisp Cantaloupe, Pool Party, Sahara Sand and Pistachio Pudding. I then used my trusty Envelope Punch Board to shape the tops of the tags and also to round the bottom corners.

 

I punched a pretty flower-shaped hole in each tag using the "Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack" and threaded them with with either Coastal Cabana Ruffle Stretch Trim ribbon or the Crisp Cantaloupe Twine (the latter is from another fabulous Sale-A-Bration freebie set: the Sweet Sorbet Accessory Pack, which has three generous reels of different colour twine and some printed cork stickers! Love it!). The 'thank you' sentiment comes from the "So Very Grateful" stamp set and is stamped in Jet Black Stazon ink. I carefully swiped my Write Marker brush tips around the edges of the sentiment banners to add a bit of definition, before sticking them onto the labels with Stampin' Dimensionals, to give a bit of height.

I took the inspiration for the tag colours from the utterly beautiful "Sweet Sorbet" Designer Series Paper that is also available for FREE in the Sale-A-Bration offer - which I have really fallen in love with! It is my "go to" paper at the moment and I am already sad that it will only be around until the end of March -boo hoo!

 

 The peachy-coloured gift envelope and its co-ordinating belly band are both made using the "Sweet Sorbet" papers and again, I used the fantastic Envelope Punch Board to whizz it up in a jiffy! I adore my Envelope Punch Board - it is just SO versatile and you make make so many other fabulous projects with it too: boxes, gift card holder cards, crackers, mini albums - all sorts! It is an amazing piece of kit!

Think you don't recognise the gift bag on the left of the top photograph? Well, it started life as one of Stampin' Up!'s "Tag a Bag Gift Bags" - three scores, three cuts, a little bit of glue plus a small rectangle of cardstock, to strengthen the base, was all it took to transform the flat paper bag into a pretty, three-dimensional, free-standing gift bag! Da-naaa! Easy! Bit of ribbon and a tag and you're done!

 

If you want to have a go at making your own gift packaging then it is really easy using the Stampin' Up! products I've mentioned above, as they all coordinate beautifully!

 

All of them (and more!) are available to order through me. You can place an order direct with me (via phone or email) or, if you prefer, you can buy them via my online shop 24hours/7days a week. Shipping is only £4.95 direct to your door, regardless of the size of you order! AND don't forget that for every £45 spent (before shipping) during Sale-A-Bration, you earn one FREE special Sale-A-Bration item, too!

The hardest part is deciding which of the 13 gorgeous Sale-A-Bration goodies to choose first!! Good luck! ;O)

Right, I am off to make some more gift packages and plan my shadow-box card tutorial I think...

Until next time, happy crafting everyone!

 

Lucy x