Totally Techniques Blog Hop - die cut masking technique

Hi and welcome to July's Totally Techniques blog hop.  We're sharing our take on the die cut masking technique this month. It's a technique that is easy to do and you can have a lot of fun with it.  There's a great tutorial here that will help to get you started or you can follow the simple instructions below.

1. Using removable note sheets or removable 'sticky' tabs cut out the die cut of your choice.  I used the Stampin' Up! Large Letter dies.

2. Position the die cut pieces on your card layer making sure that they are secure, but still removable.

3. Spritz, stamp, smudge, sponge or whatever ink over the masks to build your design.  I used sponges, stamps Timeless Textures and Touches of Texture.  Colours used were Pink Pirouette, Crumb Cake, Soft Sky and Rose Red.

4. You can add extras like glitter dots with a fine tip glue pen at this stage, but before removing the masks make sure everything is dry so as not to smudge any glue or ink.  

5. Remove the masks to reveal the clean letters in the original card stock colour.  

As the Meerkats would say 'Simples'!!

To finish my card I add flowers which were stamped using the Touches of Texture smallest flower and then punched with the Sprinkles punch, an addition to my sentiment from Lovely Inside and Out and some additional flowers.  The design is matted onto Crumb Cake card which has been smudged around the edges with the same colour ink and then a Soft Sky card base.  

You're here in the UK with Zoe Tant, but please do go on a mini globe tour to see the designs with Die Cut Masking from my lovely demonstrator friends.  

All products can be bought in my online store HERE 

1. Nadine Weiner Germany
2. Shelagh Freemantle  Canada
3. Shannean Moncrieff   Australia
4. Zoe Tant  UK
5. Barbara Meyer Austria


Thanks for checking in...
Zx

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Stampin' Up! Thailand Achievers Blog Hop

Our Stampin' Up! Thailand Achiever's blog hop this month is all about sharing our highlights of recent Onstage events.  I was lucky enough to be in Amsterdam at the live European event and had an absolute blast.

Amsterdam is such a fabulous city with of course tulips, bicycles (EVERYWHERE!!) and it was a super conference centre.  I travelled over with my family a little early so that we could tour the city and was thrilled to share the trip with them. Here's me and my gorgeous girl enjoying the sights. 

As with all Stampin' Up! events we share swaps and I took two. The first was a design by my friend and downline Paula who not only shared her design with me, but also helped me make these lovely sparkly cards with the now retired Lucky Elephant stamp.  I did two colours in shades of pink i.e. melon mambo and blushing bride with dazzling diamond glimmer paper and silver or blushing bride sequin trim.

The second was made using the Stampin' Up! set Happy Celebrations and Celebrations Duo embossing folders which I'm pleased to say are going to be around for the next year.  Fun set which works well with any colour combo and the 'deboss' folders are fun and really pop with the spot stamping over the top. I used pool party, crumb cake, soft suede, early espresso and first and second generation chocolate chip.  The duo banner punch is great with photopolymer stamps as you can 'bend' them on the blocks to fit the punched shape.  

It was fantastic to spend   some time with some of my dutch downline who are quicker to reach in Amsterdam than travelling from sunny Lincolnshire to London by car, but nonetheless a North Sea   hop away and so I don't get to see them too often.   

This is an example of my team gifts.  The Radley pouches had treats inside, of course including chocolate! I decorated tags and bags which travelled flat and were put together once we arrived. For the tags I used Timeless Textures stamps, lace doilies, burlap, natural trim, fabulous foil designer acetate, in colour doilies and gold binder clips.  

I also enjoyed meeting some of the other european members of the Totally Techniques design team in real life.  

Here's from left to right Nadine (Germany), Barbara (Austria), Me and Marine (France).  We missed seeing Matilde (The Netherlands) who was unable to attend.  

Our next blog hop is 28 April and the technique is Watercolour Spritz. Hope you'll pop back to take a look. 

Being a demonstrator is so much fun and offers so many opportunities whether you want to benefit from the discount on your own stamp shopping or build a little business.  If you'd like to know more about the benefits please do contact me for more information or take a look at my join Stampin' Up! page.

Enjoy the hop you can follow it from the list below. Currently you're here with me, Zoe Tant in the UK.  

Thanks for stopping by.

Zx

Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Totally Techniques Blog Hop

Stampin' Up! Demonstrators Technique Blog Hop

Welcome if you've arrived from Nadine's blog. Her project is fabulous.  Isn't it fun to see so many different variations of the same technique.   If you've joined here with me welcome to our January Totally Techniques blog hop.  This month we're sharing some examples of the baby wipe technique.

So what do you need to do to create this effect.

1. Place a baby wipe on a plastic surface, I found the inside of a Stampin Up stamp case is just perfect.  

2. Stamp your image in black stazon onto the baby wipe.

3. Add drops of ink using your re inkers around the stamped image to effectively 'colour' it with ink.  

4. Your black image should show through depending upon the colours used on the baby wipe. Take your clean image stamp and place in the same position as the stamped image and use the baby wipe as a stamp pad with multicolour inks.

5. Stamp your image.  

So that is how simple this is.  You can then use the same home made ink pad to stamp a back ground on your card. I used Stampin Up Timeless Textures and Gorgeous Grunge.  I added some punched embellishments using Stampin' Up's Sprinkles punch.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the HOP!  Zx

Here's the blog list in case you get lost

You're here with Zoe Tant UK

Barbara Meyer Austria

Patrice Halliday-Larsen NZ

Amy Koenders USA

Marine Wiplier France

Shannean Moncrieff Australia

Nadine Weiner Germany

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Stampin Up Thoughtful Branches for The Grand Vacation Blog Hop

How time is flying by when already I'm inviting you to join in with another Grand Vacation Mediterranean Achiever's Blog Hop.  This month we are all sharing inspiration with you for the incoming stamp and die bundle from Stampin' Up! called Thoughtful Branches.  It will be available to order on 2 August through 31 August only.  It is fabulous and as you will see from the lovely posts and my little selection of cards it is incredibly versatile. 

For every multiple of £45 you spend on Stampin' Up! product from my online Stampin' Up! shop or through me you'll receive a gift voucher worth £4.50 and you can use these vouchers during the same dates that the Thoughtful Branches bundle is available.  There's still time to order this month and spending this much also means there are freebies on offer from me too when you use this month's online host code. 

Now work your way through the list at the bottom of the post for more inspiration.  You're currently here with me, Zoe Tant in the UK.

Christmas, birthday cards, congratulations and sympathy cards are just a few of the cards you can make with Stampin' Up! Thoughtful Branches Stamps and Beautiful Branches dies.  Buy separately or as a bundle to save 10%.

Enjoy the hop!

Zx.

Stampin Up Timeless Texture Birthday

Have you tried out Timeless Textures stamp set yet?  It's a chip of the old block of Stampin' Up! Gorgeous Grunge.  You can turn it to all manner of cards whether fun, funky and modern like this or for more subtle texturing on pretty and feminine cards.

I've teamed it here with bright watermelon wonder and cucumber crush card stock, sequin stars and stamped stars from Something to Say, which is sadly retiring. It's been a great set and one I've used a lot.  You can also see sneaks of Going Global with it's star constellations and that is another one to retire. You can get these and other stamps up to the end of May or while supplies last.

I am also a big washi tape fan and the bottom border of green and spots is washi.  It's so easy to use and add colour and pattern and you can either be OCD and cut it neatly with scissors or tear it and go for rough modern edges.

I'm looking forward to new punches coming in the annual catalogue to replace those seen hear and some awesome sets of layered shape framelits. OOOh you're in for such a treat.

Keep watching for sneak peeks, but don't forget to get your wish list favourites before they are gone for good.

Zx

At Sea on the Stampin' Up! Cruise

Ship's Log  Monday 23 May 2016

Today we are at sea on our way to the port of Naples.  It's time to hand in our swaps and then after a conference style welcome from the Stampin' Up! team, we'll be able to collect a bag of swaps various from demonstrators around the Stampin' Up! world.  We've had to make 26 and will get 25 in return. One is kept by Stampin' Up! for display boards at future events.  I'm so looking forward to seeing the different swaps and getting lots of ideas and inspiration from so many others.  I'm hoping there will be lots of ideas for me to share from the new catalogue. Different countries had different stamp sets given out at a big onstage event a few weeks ago so with luck there will be  a mass of creativity and mojo building for the months ahead.

My swap features a new in colour Sweet Sugarplum ink and card stock. It's always the same when you see the colours printed on a flyer you are never sure, but as soon as you start to 'play' with them they really get under your skin and I think this and Dapper Denim will become favourites.  I used Dapper Denim on my incentive trip blog hop card.

By now you have realised I really like Timeless Textures stamp set and I used it to create the back drop for my pretty flower.  I added some splatters in plum, but also used my gold wink of stella pen to add some shimmery splatters.  I just used the nib of the pen and coloured the stamp, quickly stamped and then made sure to clean it with a wipe between each card to make sure it didn't dry on the stamp.

The sentiment is from Endless Birthday Wishes which as a photopolymer set is easy to stamp each word separately but where you want it creating your own combo of words, not that this combo is very original tee hee!

Tonight we're having dinner in the Le Bistro, the french restaurant on board, it too has a non original name, but I believe from reviews that the food is delicious.

Back internet permitting with details of Naples soon.

Zx

A special thank you card

Just a quick post to share a thank you card to all my lovely team and customers and Stampin' Up! as before the sun rises in the morning Martin and I will be heading to the airport to fly out to Barcelona to join over 300 Stampin' Up! demos and their guests on a Mediterranean cruise.

I love my job and am so grateful to the folk who help and support me to build my business and earn such amazing trips.

I'm a little nervous as it's my first ever cruise and I'm not good traveller so I hope everyone is right when they say 'it's so big you won't feel the motion'.

My card is made with Timeless Textures using new in colours Dapper Denim and Sweet Sugarplum and a wood element that I shall be sorry to see go when the current catalogue retires. I've loved this cute embellishments that you can leave as wood or emboss or colour.  Of course there are my favourite splashes of bling too!

Hope to post during the week internet permitting.

Have a good one.

Hugs Zx

Christmas Card Club - Snowy Trees

It really does seem odd that I'm posting a Christmas card today when the sky is beautifully blue, the birds are singing and the spring flowers are bobbing gently in the breeze.  It's also my 50th birthday and so it's been a slow relaxing start. However it is Christmas card challenge and the theme of Snowy Trees was set by Christine who is also my teamie over at MAWTT.

I've case'd a card today from Tamara Bertram, but added a couple of my own touches including some of the new Stampin' Up! copper embossing powder which is just divine. I absolutely love it and you can see from my previous Stampin' Sneak Peek post that it is going to feature in the new Stampin' Up! catalogue more than once.

I've also used the large pine tree from Lovely as a Tree stamp set, the timeless classic set that so many of you adore, along with splatters from Timeless Textures.  I made a mask using a piece of copier paper and cut a rectangle from the centre using my Stampin' Trimmer.  Sponges work really well to add colour in gentle layers to build up a background in tip top taupe and the spatters and other texturing stamping was added in sahara sand ink.  I love the that the sentiment says 'Happy' and doesn't it look great in copper. It's a stamp from Oh What Fun which has carried over from the last AW catalogue.

You might have also noticed the gorgeous shade of blue card and ink.  It's called Dapper Denim and is one of the new 5 in colours arriving soon.  It's going to be great for masculine cards.

Wishing you a happy Sunday and week ahead and please wear a smile for the week to help me celebrate my half century.

More soon. Zx

Christmas Card Club - Poinsettias or Angels

Oh I don't know about you, but this last week or so we've gone into hibernation.  It's been so cold and what with snow and frost the log fires have been burning in our home.  At last though a few signs of Spring are returning and once again the sun is shining here in Lincolnshire this morning.  However that didn't stop us having a Sunday lie in.  Our plan if the weather holds is to play tennis later and walk the dog, so the slow start was fair don't you think!

Our Christmas card club challenge was set this fortnight by Mary who asked for us to use Poinsettias or Angels. I went for my trusty retired stamp set with these fabulous holly berry sprigs and the gorgeous water colour style Poinsettia.

I started with vanilla card and stamped in tip top taupe using the fabulous texture set from Stampin' Up! Timeless Textures to set up a subtle background with just basic stamping.  There's a neat little stamp with spatters that just added a little 'vintage' style and i also used my gold Wink of Stella pen on this stamp to add just the smallest amount of sparkle.  You might just catch it in the picture.  This ties in with the gold heat embossed outline of the flower and the gold foil matting layer.

The remainder of the flower was stamped with cherry cobbler ink in a two step stamping process and the holly i stamped in archival black ink and then used ink from the ink pad lids of always artichoke and cherry cobbler with a blender pen to add colour.  It allows you to add different depths of colour for a little shading if you wish.

Finally a sentiment from Good Greetings which was a freebie a season or so ago.

I hope Sunday is going well for you and wish you a sunshine week.

More soon.
Zx

Timeless Textures

140514

£25/€34 

wood mount

As this is a set that you will mix and match the textures and many of the stamps use the same size block I'd advise a purchase of wood mount so that you can pick them up easily and use without having to change block every minute.

You can find it along with ink pads, card stock and gold foil card in my online shop by clicking on the stamp set.

Stampin' Up! Mediterranean Cruise Achievers Blog Hop - Male Cards

 Hi there and welcome. This is my first time of joining the blog hop and I'm excited to be involved and to share  my offering for the Stampin' Up! Mediterranean Cruise Blog Hop with it's theme of 'One for the Guys'.  I'm also a little bit shy as there are some extremely talented Stampin' Up! demonstrators in this group and so I hope I'm up to the standard.

Last weekend I spent time with my dutch downline in Amsterdam and they showed me some great tricks with ink so I put a few into action for this card and was also inspired by a tutorial I found some time ago in Craft Stamper magazine.

I've used brights ( daffodil delight, real read and pacific point) ink and stamp sets Gorgeous Grunge and Timeless Textures to develop my back drop and then added the car from Beautiful Ride which I embossed in black and then added colour to with sponges and a couple of marker pens.  Final touch, was to add some candy dots and a sentiment from Guy Greetings.

Enjoy the hop! You can check the list below to see where you go next.  I'm Zoe Tant so carry on down the list for lots of inspiration for those male cards with which we all seem to struggle.

 See you again soon and thanks for stopping by.
Zx

Moving along with the times - Words only

Stampin' Up!'s new set Enjoy the Little Things is perfect for using with the project kit of the same name, but today I've used one of the stamps to make my card for the Moving Along with the Times challenge set by my lovely blogland friend Christine.  In addition to Enjoy the Little Things, you'll see touches of Work of Art and Timeless Textures stamp sets, both Stampin' Up! and embellishments of Everyday Chic washi tape, silver thread and It's my Party enamel dots.  I also used the medium star  and confetti stars punches.  

Inside the card you can continue your stamping using Endless Birthday Wishes stamp set to add more  'words' and a smidge of decoration.  You could use any colour way for a card like this to suit the recipient, but I used Mint Macaron, Pool Party, Smoky Slate and archival basic black.

Do join in our challenge at MAWTT and go check out the other design team cards for more inspiration.

Coincidentally the confetti star border punch that I used for the mini stars is on special until next Tuesday.  You can order it online in my Stampin' Up! Shop.  Please use the link in the sidebar.

Christmas Card Club - Use Texture

Another fortnight, another Christmas Card Club challenge and we have the lovely Rachel to thank for our theme this time.  She has asked us to include some texture.  Instantly I headed for my new Stampin Up set Timeless Textures.

Inspired by a fabulous scrapbook page designed by fellow demo Sue MacDonald I used the set to add lots of texture to card before adding real touchy feely texture in the form of a stamped snowflake on a punched 2.5" circle with pie crust (iced) rhinestone, dazzling diamonds glimmer paper stars cut with star frame lits, sentiment stamped and cut with retired framelits and washi punch as you know I'm a big fan of bling!  I even managed to use a little more of my life time supply of silver metallic thread. At £2.75 for 45.7m you an afford to be frivolous.  

I also used my fine tip glue to add very neat spots of glue which I covered with fine Stampin Up glitter.  This glue is amazing if you need to add delicate spots of glitter like this or a a fine sentiment like the 'merry'.  I'm liking this Holly Jolly Greetings stamp set more and more so you might see it more often.  It's still available to buy on our carryover list in the back of the spring catalogue.  You can also see a few mini snowflakes from the Perpetual Birthday Calendar stamp set.

Ok off to browse the designs of my fellow challenge club members.

More soon and enjoy your day and the week ahead.

Zx