Happy Christmas Everyone

Hello Everyone

Wishing all my blog readers a very Merry Christmas.

No video today - but a thank you card, to say thank you for visiting me throughout the year. I will be back on new years eve with another video tutorial.

Have lots of festive fun over the holidays.

Love Elizabeth X

VIDEO Fesitve with Washi Tape

Hello Everyone

Today's video shows a cute project using Washi Tape to make a festive embellishment.

Enjoy!

Love Elizabeth X

Tag a Bag Golf Gifting

Hello Everyone

Today I am sharing my take on the golf ball gift box on page 158 of the new Stampin' Up! catalogue. (Contact me if you haven't seen the catalogue yet).

I thought the Tag a Bag Gift Box was a great way to give golf balls....but I thought I could come up with something with a bit more - well - golfiness! LOL

I made the golf ball images by punching six 1 3/8" circles and then using a hand held punch to punch little holes through three of them. I then used a little Crumb Cake ink to add some signs of wear, and layered the balls up on the unpunched circles.

The tees are made by hand cutting the pointy bit. The top of the tee is created by snipping one end of the Mosaic punch shape - I think it works a treat.

The flags are stamped with the new Sketched Alphabet & Numbers stamp set, and punched using the Petite Pennants Builder Punch. I used a wooden skewer to attach them and made small holes in the top of the box to secure them.

The DSP is Gingham Garden and I made nesting from Old Olive cardstock. Do you like it? I would love to see your designs using the new Tag a Bag boxes!

Love Elizabeth X

Wonderful Washi Tape Weekend Part 1

Hello Everyone

It was only a couple of months ago I discovered the wonders of Washi tape. So if you know what it is - scroll down now - but if not, stay with me and I will explain...

Washi tape, (Japanese word - translation Washi - thank you online translator!)

It is a re-positionable tape made of paper - so that it can be easily torn and moved over and over again. Use it to hold small pieces of card in your embossing folders, use it to decorate, use it to hold notes on the refrigerator, use if for journalling on in your scrap book, stick it on to cardstock and punch out shapes with it - the list goes on. I have bought my weight in Washi tape! LOL

I did a little display at my recent launch party and we also did a Washi tape make and take. Here are two Washi tape projects for you...



An old favourite made even easier. Here I used Washi tape to cover clothes pegs and then embellished them with punches. Great for holding notes and paperwork together - or making your washing line the envy of the street! LOL

Next we have a simple make and take card we did at my event. Naturals White cardstock, Washi Tape, Butterflies punched from Quadrefancy DSP, antennae from Papillion Potpourri stamp set, and finished with a Simply Pressed rose. (Check my videos to see these made). 

I will be continuing my Wonderful Washi Tape Weekend on Sunday - so come back and see some more!

 Love Elizabeth X

Joy in July - Inspired by Nina

Hello Everyone

Today I am continuing my series on shoebox swap projects that inspired me to create. (Scroll down a few posts to see some more).

Today's inspiration was from my lovely friend and downline Nina C. She came up with a beautiful way to use the Mosaic punch to create a Christmas Ornament. I loved it and decided to 'hang' it on a card using a Vintage Faceted button and Large Pearl. I also loved Nina's colour theme of Strawberry Slush - I adore non-traditional Christmas colours.

So that was it - Nina sent me off in a frenzy of festive creation!

I started with using that same Mosaic punch to made pop out baubles. I have taught this techinque using the now-retired Ornament punch - but wanted to see if it would work with the Mosaic - and it did!

I used the fir tree from Lovely as a Tree to create the branch. I hand drew the strings and bows and hung my mini Mosaic ornaments from them.

I did them in the same DSP as Nina used, (Quatrefancy), as well as some Champagne glimmer paper. You just punch three shapes, fold them in half and glue them back to back to create the shape. Finally glue them on to the card front.

The 'merry' greeting comes from Petite Pennants and I layered up a stamped layer from Label Love and another Mosaic shape to build the greeting up.

But I didn't stop there - I was on a roll. What more fabulous festivity can I bring to your July?







This card once again featured that Quadrefancy DSP. This time I did flat Mosaic shapes as baubles and then punched little baubles with the Merry Mini's punch pack.

The NOEL greeting was stamped using the new Sketch Alphabet & Numbers stamp set.

I hand drew a twisted wire to hang them on and attached them with Dimensionals to make them pop.

So thank you Nina for your inspiration and for this little Festive interlude in July!

Love Elizabeth X

Simply Sketched, water-coloured

Hello Everyone

I promised more sample cards featuring the Simply Sketched stamp set. It makes even the worst colourists, (is that a word?), like me feel like an artist.

All I did here was to stamp the bird-on-reeds image in Stazon ink. I used our lovely watercolour paper so I could use plenty of water in on my Aqua Painter brush. I picked up ink from my ink pads by squeezing them and creating a pool of ink in the lid. Because our inks are water based, it means you can create this watercolour effect.

The key is to let the colours dry before applying the next one - although where I didn't do this on the reeds in the water, it actually gives a very soft effect that I like. The ink colours I used were Soft Sky, Pool Party and Coastal Cabana for the water and sky, Old Olive for the reeds and Crumb Cake and Baked Brown Sugar for the bird.

The card base is Baked Brown Sugar and the mat is Early Espresso.

To make the topper for the Naturals Ribbon, I cut down the Mosaic Punch and added a brad from the Vintage Trinkets collection.

Hope you like today's project. Back on Sunday with something completely different...although I will be returning to Simply Sketched again soon... :)

Love Elizabeth X

Inspired at the Shoebox Swap!

Hello Everyone

Before my launch party, some of my lovely team got together and did a shoebox swap. This is a fun evening where we each design a card and them we make everyone else's design. It means you get lots of fabulous cards and a whole lot of inspiration. I will be sharing lots of those cards and also some of the projects they inspired. (And if you fancy being at the next one - why not join my team?)



I am starting with a design by my lovely demo friend Helen. I loved her colour combination of Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe and Strawberry Slush. We stamped with the flower from Creative Elements, and used the Mosaic Madness stamp set and matching Mosaic Punch to create leaves.

I loved this idea and decided to play with it....

Helen had us stamp the greeting straight on to the card - but my greeting was SO not straight - so I used the Artisan Label Punch and Labels Love stamp set to cover up my 'embellishment opportunity!'






So inspired by Helen, here is my card. I used the Mosaic Madness stamps and matching punch to create both the flower and the leaves. I curled the leaves and petals and popped them up on dimensionals to create some depth.

I used a marder to put the veins on the leaves and daubed the edges too.

I followed Helen's colour scheme and added a layer of DSP from the Gingham Garden pack.












I hope you like today's project. Why not look at someone else's work today and see how it inspires you to create something.

Thank you Helen for the inspiration!

Back on Sunday with another inspired-by project.


Love Elizabeth X

New goodies sneak peek 1

Hello Everyone

Are you excited....I am! Just around the corner is out new Stampin' Up! catalogue. I can't wait to show you all that lies inside, but for today I have a sneak peek!

This card features one of our beautiful new stamp sets called Mosaic Madness. The border stamps and the red and grey images come from this stamp set.

Of course the wonderful thing about Stampin' Up! is the way all our products go together to make creating professional looking products a breeze! 

If you look closely you can see the Mosaic Madness stamp set comes with not only a matching punch, but also a co-ordination embossing folder. 

You are also seeing one of our new colours, Smokey Slate, a very soft grey colour that I love.

Back on Sunday with another sneak peek....our catalogue goes live in Europe on 2nd July...and I can't wait!


Love Elizabeth X