Cool it down - MAWTT Challenge

Our summer is hanging on in there! Let's not focus on the rain and thunder, but on the steps closer to freedom and a chance to enjoy summer.  I love lollies do you? 

I've used the Stampin' Up! Sweet Ice cream stamp set for this simple card for the fun challenge of 'Cool it Down' over at Moving Along With The Times.  Yes that is the wide open theme and you can join our DT and share your makes here. 

I stamped the sticks and lollies separately and used a water brush to drag the colour to where I wanted it and in the outside two complete the lolly shape as the stamps make it look nibbled as in the centre one.  I used Mango Melody, Granny Apple Green and Calypso Coral for my very tasty looking ice lollies and added a simple sentiment from the set which is heat embossed in gold onto vellum.  I also added some clear epoxy essentials to give more detail to the stamped drips.  

I"ve matted the water colour paper used for the lollies onto a piece of Granny Apple Green card and then onto a piece of check DSP from the fabulous bundle, Pattern Party, that you can earn for free from our annual catalogue.  The bumper paper pack has 48 sheets, 4 each of 12 double-sided designs. One side of each sheet is a black/white design and then the other sides are bursting with colour and fun designs.   You can place a qualifying order or host a stampin party with qualifying sales to earn this pack free. 

Over on the Moving Along With The Times blog you can see some fabulous designs from my fellow design team members and also add a link to your make for the whole of July.  I look forward to seeing your makes. 

In the meantime you can also get 15% discount on selected Designer Series Paper packs this month also. Just visit my Stampin' Up! shop to see them all. 

Keep safe all and keep stamping. 

Zoe x

DSP Sale 

Sweet Ice Cream stamp set

Water Painters

Ink Pads

Hinged Box Tutorial for Thinking Outside the Box

Welcome everyone to my blog and March 2018's Thinking Outside the Box Blog Hop.  If you've arrived from Tanja's blog in Germany you probably know what a blog hop is, but someone pointed out to me the other day that some folk might not know and so if you're starting here and have never come across a blog hop this is a good place to start.  Just like the Easter Bunny on my hinged box you can hop onto the other ladies blogs to see their version of our monthly challenge which this time is  a hinged box.  You hop from one blog to the next to get lots of inspiration for using Stampin' Up! products and different versions of the same theme.  Enjoy and we'd love you to leave a comment to let us know you visited.  

I normally make a video for this hop, but it's going to be a little late this time as I'm full of cold and also have torn my calve muscle and am not able to walk too well so I've created a template and will add measurements for you for now in cms and inches.  

How to make a simple hinged box

1.  Cut a piece of card 21 cm x 30.5 cm (12" x 83/4")

2. Score on both sides at every 7cm so on landscape 7cm,14cm, 21cm and 28cm (inches 2 3/4, 5 1/2, 8 1/4 and 11.)

3. Now following the template where the dashes are scored lines and the solid lines are cut lines.  

Before putting the template together you'll need to decorate it. I've stamped in Stampin' Up! Archival Grey ink and coloured the daffodils in with watercolour pencils.  I used lemon lime twist from the Stampin Up Lots of Happy Card kit and old olive, but you could just use the latter.  The flower heads are daffodil delight with a touch of early espresso for the sheath from the flower blended with a blender pen with the yellow.   TIP Fold each panel of the box so that you only get stamping where you want it.

The bunny is from We Must Celebrate and he was stamped in black memento ink and coloured with Stampin' Blends. I fussy cut him out.  The daffodils and and sentiment are from You're Inspiring.  My usual bling bits added on this project are Tutti Frutti adhesive-backed sequins with rhinestones.  

To add a simple handle to open the box I pierced a hole in roughly the centre of the lid with the end of my snips and then pushed the larger ball end of my scoring stylus through to the inside.  Pass the loop of lemon lime twist ombre ribbon from the top into the lid and I stuck it with tear and tape but tombow or any wet glue would do it. I also to make it neat and tidy added a square 6.8cm x 6.8cm (2 11/16 x 2 11/16 inches) over the ribbon ends.  

Thanks for hopping with us and if you are in the UK and wish to purchase any Stampin' Up! products please do visit Zoe Tant  Stampin Up online shop

Bye for now Zoe x

1. Shannean Moncrieff (Australia) 2. Tanja Kolar (Germany) 3. Zoë Tant (United Kingdom) 4. Yoshiko Endo (Japan) 5. Sharlene Meyer ( New Zeeland) 6. Dena Rekow (USA) 7. Beate Wacker ( Austria) 8. Aude Barbara ( France) 9. Barb Stewart ( Canada)

Blossoming Basket new stamp set

Each year Saleabration sees Stampin' Up! offer some amazing stamp sets and other gifts as FREEBIES for stampers who spend with them. Also in recent years Stampin' Up! has added to this wonderful gift with purchase offering by adding to the choice half way through the promotion.  This year is no exception and from Friday you can have this beautiful stamp set Blossoming Basket and Basket Weave textured embossing folder when you spend £90 on any current product in the spring and annual Stampin Up catalogues.  We used them both today in one of my card club classes and it proved very popular.  We simply stamped the basket full of all the stunning blooms and coloured it in using Stampin' Blends, the new alcohol markers from Stampin' Up!.  

With two shades of each colour available, a bronze, ivory and colour lifter available the world is yours to colour.  It's easy to blend shades to create light and dark and also you can blend colours to create further colours.  Start with either light or dark, I prefer to start with the darker shade following advice from some of my lovely friends who've used alcohol markers in classes at Sir Stampalot.  Build up some colour and a level of 'wet' colour that you can then come in with the lighter shade moving from the darker coloured section into a lighter section in small circles to avoid lines and create seamless shade.  You've heard me say several times 'I'm not a colourer inner' but I'm closer to believing I can be and it is so relaxing and therapeutic.  Give it a try with a cuppa and fabulous image stamped with Tuxedo Memento black ink.  

Thank you Stampin Up for this awesome addition to Saleabration 2018.  

SHOP STAMPIN BLENDS NOW

More soon Zoe x

Using Stampin Up ink for Mixed Media Christmas Cards for the Achievers Blog Hop

Welcome to the November Stampin' Up! Incentive Trip Achievers Blog Hop.  Our theme is anything goes and I'm sharing two cards made from one piece of background that I created with  re inkers and embossing on watercolour paper.  

 I've used the fabulous Stampin' Up! Card Front Builder thinly dies to create two scenes along with the Layering Circles dies.  Also featured the Softly Falling embossing folder, stamp set Teeny tiny Sentiments and also Snowflake Sentiments for the large Season's Greetings above which is heat embossed with silver powder onto vellum. 

I absolutely love the silver trimmed ribbon which is just gorgeous for cards but also gift wrapping all your Christmas presents to give an extra touch of luxury.  

The deers are adhered with Stampin' Mini Dimensionals and you need to make sure that the dimensionals don't land on the glimmer paper as the two are very friendly and don't stick well together.  Add rhinestones for extra bling.  The top design is layered onto stampin up tranquil tide card stock with the lower design matted onto a thick whisper white card base.  I've made several of these cards and you can see that you can create different effects just by adjusting the depth of colour used to colour the embossed background.  This is great fun for Christmas cards for is you want to add different media to your projects.

Remember that you can visit all the other stampin up demonstrators across the globe by using the list below to visit and find out their choices of 'anything goes'.

Thanks for visiting me, I look forward to your next visit.

Happy crafting Zoe x

Moving Along with the Times Challenge - Fairies

Stampin' Up! Fairy Celebration for MAWTT DT entry

This fortnight team A design team are sharing cards featuring fairies.  They are popular with young and old and always make me think of one of my favourite lines

"All you need is faith, hope and a little bit of fairy dust"

If only life was that simple!  Olivia and I are big fans of Disney's Tinkerbell and these cute fairies from the Stampin' Up! Fairy Celebration set remind me of her.  So my DT card is very simply stamped onto water colour paper with permanent black ink and then I have used an aqua painter, water colour pencils and some ink from ink pad lids to colour the images.  Using inkfrom the lid of  a Pool Party ink pad I created a wash background and let the images do the rest of the talking.

You can also see a couple of sneak peeks from the upcoming annual catalogue as I've used a card base of Fresh Fig and also some new cute embellishments that sparkle and regular readers know I'm a bit of a bling fan!  The matting layer of card stock is embossed using Softly Falling embossing folder although I've used the de-bossed side and some ruched Sweet Sugar Plum ribbon.

Do take a look at the other DT cards over at MAWTT and please do join in our challenge using the link tool on the MAWTT blog.

Thanks for stopping by.

Zx

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Challenges 

Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes
Cards and More - Anything Goes
Crafty Sentiments Designs - Anything Goes

Stampin' Up! Mediterranean Moments for Special Memories

Stampin' Up! is definitely near the top of my 'best jobs I've ever done' list as there's so much opportunity to achieve fabulous incentives not least the annual incentive trip. With the help of my fabulous team and wonderful customers I've been lucky enough to achieve a few now and last year's one was a Mediterranean cruise, which is why I've chosen Mediterranean Moments stamp set from the Spring Catalogue to share with you today.

The images remind me of a fabulous holiday then and also one with my family some years ago when we visited Rome, Florence and Pisa.  I thought it might be too much history and sightseeing for the children who were then just 7 and 11, but they loved it as did Martin and I.  

My card is very simple.  The image is stamped firstly onto thick white card stock with memento black ink. I stamped it again with black Staz On onto watercolour paper and then used my new favourite Stampin' Up! watercolour pencils and an aqua painter to colour the image.  I always tell my customers I'm not a Colourer Inner, but I'm really pleased with how this turn out.

Stampin Up Watercolour Pencils 141709  

Once I finished the colouring I used the Lots of Labels frame lits to die cut my image and then carefully adhered it over the original stamped image just giving a slight impression of it carrying on just like my memories of happy times spent.  

Another image from the set is below and has also been coloured with the water colour  pencils.  

Please note 

 The  fabulous watercolour pencils are available to order from the Spring Catalogue, but are  SO  FABULOUS that we've already almost depleted the entire supply!  Stampin' Up! will turn off the order code to make them unorderable very soon to avoid long and large back orders.    If you want them, you need to order them today.

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Check back soon to see how I make snowy mountains out of Carried Away Designer Series Paper for our Christmas Card Club challenge on Sunday.  

Hugs all Zx