#simplestamping with Poinsettia Petals

Happy Sunday to one and all.  It's been a busy weekend here particularly for me with the Stampin' Up! Leaders Summit which closed its doors about 1.30am this morning, but I have to say tiredness beat me around 1am.  The great thing is I can watch bits I missed on replay and have learned so much from fellow demonstrators and the Company team.  Martin and I also popped to Sheffield to collect my Mum from her holiday and bring her back to my patient Dad who had missed her.  He stayed with us as he is elderly now and benefits from environments he knows and has been a super house guest. 

I have managed to make some cards for Christmas Card Club today too! Lovely Lorraine asked us to make cards with mainly red on them and I think I've just about managed it making these #simplestamping cards. Yes I know you might be thinking that these are not simple stamping, but they are mainly just stamps, ink and paper.  Fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrator Ruth Trice shared a fab tutorial with the UK demos to create fabulous one sheet wonders and then chop them up to make stunning cards with simple additions of card base and sentiments.  You should visit her youtube channel where she shares lots of different ways to stamp these. 

For mine I used the gorgeous Poinsettia Petals stamps from the winter mini catalogue.  I started believe it or now to create a very subtle background with pale neutral colours stamping with my HRT packet!!! Yes I know who would have thought that an HRT blister pack could work for stamping.  I pushed the pack onto to my ink pad and then used it like a stamp until the ink ran out.  You may not be able to see it on the cards but it is there and effectively adds depth to the project without you realising.  The card below is probably the easiest to spot it on.  I like using items that aren't obviously stamps to create patterns and find others that work well are net bags from fruit/onions, scrunched up paper or a plastic bag, a pencil with a small eraser on the end and other household bits and pieces.  Your own imagination is all you need. Just be mindful of your ink pad as you place such items on it and also be sure that it doesn't affect what you use if it is required for another purpose. 

You build up the images bring stronger colours and first generation ink in last.  This poinsettia has two parts one is the outline of the flower with five petals, but you can twist it slightly for the second set of flowers ie stamp it twice with a small rotation of the stamp in between and then it has a second stamp that adds some colour and gives depth to the image.  The set includes holly, berries and other greenery along with some lovely sentiments although the one above is from the Tags, Tags, Tags set.  You can fill in gaps with splatter stamps from sets like Waterfront, Christmas Gleaming and use pinecone stamps and fir to add more detail.  I also put in the odd Pool Party snowflake too!

Adding matting layers of card and a base card are all you need then to construct your cards and add sentiments and small details like gold twine or odd sequins and gems.  

I'm off now for Sunday roast before chilling for the rest of the bank holiday weekend.  It's dry today so far here in Lincolnshire and I hope it is with you.  You can see the other ladies in our club by visiting the button at the top of my blog Christmas CC. 

If you are here in the UK enjoy your long weekend . Keep safe all. 

Hugs Zoe xx

 Poinsettia Petals Stamp set

Regals Ink Pads 

Gilded Gems 

Christmas Card Club - Children at Christmas

Our lovely Kate, has chosen the theme of Christmas with children for us this fortnight. At first I was stumped but then remembered I had a stamp from a very long, long time ago that was this small boy excited about his Christmas gifts.  It is from my stash and not even sure where it came from. However it goes well with the Ready for Christmas Stampin' Up! set.  The sentiment is part of the set and is stamped in Poppy Parade with the flourish in Garden Green.  I used the tree and staircase to create a scene and having created a paper mask of the boy was able to stamp the tree and stairs before stamping the boy.  I did however stamp the boy again onto thick white card stock so that I could use my Stampin' Blends to colour him in.  I then fussy cut him out and I'm afraid I took off his arms and legs which he regained when I added the cut image over the top of the stamped one. It also helps to add a little depth doing this.  I found that my stamparatus helped enormously for stamping the stairs and tree and getting them in the right position.  I used 3 shades of green for the tree and added some silver pen, a gold foil star and red rhinestones for the Christmas treatment.  Turned out fine in the end for Kate's theme and after all you often hear folk say "Christmas is for the children". 

The Ready for Christmas stamp set is retiring at the end of this month along with many other Stampin' Up! sets from the annual and Spring/Summer catalogues. If you haven't bought your favourite stamp set yet be sure to check out the retiring products in my Stampin' Up! Shop. 

Thanks for popping by.

Zoe x

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Christmas Card Club - Humourous

Stampin' Up! Sneak Peeks - This Little Piggy

I can't quite believe a fortnight has passed since our last Christmas Card Club challenge and more importantly since my last blog post, but time has not been wasted as I've been busy with the end of Sale-a-bration and attending the Stampin' Up! European Onstage Live Event in Amsterdam last week.  It was a fun few days with my family, who joined me, and we all did lots of great things.  Me I stamped and swapped and learned lots and got my hands on my copy of the new annual Stampin' Up! catalogue.  Martin and the children walked and cycled most of Amsterdam I think and I joined them as much as I could around my schedule.  I even got to cycle a little!

I also won a stamp set whilst there called This Little Piggy and I've given it, its first inking today for my humourous Christmas Card Club challenge set by Valery.  This little piggy is so so adorable and wait until you see his friends.  I've made an aperture in my card and framed it with real red card and then stamped inside the card, adding a Santa hat using last season's punch and a bow on the outside from the  returning holly punch.  I've used sentiments from the Piggy set and also from the soon to retire Designer Tin of Cards set.  The classic label punch is a great replacement for the popular word window punch and simple Christmas card is born.

Remember all the ladies in our challenge group make fab cards with styles and techniques various, so please do go visit them for more ideas.

I'll be back soon with photos from Amsterdam with Onstage highlights, swaps and a Totally Techniques blog hop too!

Easter Blessings to you all.

Zx

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Challenges

Sweet Stampin' - Anything Christmas
Winter Wonderland - Cute Christmas
CHNC Monthly Challenge - Anything goes Christmas
Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes

Stampin' Up! Male Birthday Card

Sometimes the simplest addition of some patterned paper can just add a spot of detail to a card. Here I've used a piece from surprisingly the Floral Boutique DSP pack, but it is on this occasion for a male birthday card with no girly flowers in sight. I love the bubbles from the Playful Backgrounds stamp set especially as it was a free set that I won at the last Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Onstage event at Telford. We're there again in November and I can't wait. We'll get to see the new spring catalogue and to play with new products.  It's so exciting to get this early sight and use of new things. You can too if you'd like to be a demonstrator in my team. Click  for more details on how to join Stampin' Up!

I'm also busy this week preparing my display for the Sincerely Yours Craft Show at Newark Showground this Sunday.  Do come and say hello if you come to the show and see some of our fabulous Christmas craft products.  You won't be disappointed.

See you soon Zx