Stamping Sunday Blog Hop - Favourite Retiring

Good Day Crafty Friends,

Welcome to the Stamping Sunday Blog Hop for May. This talented group of Designers hop once a month on the second Sunday. This month we are celebrating our FAVOURITE RETIRING items with a farewell Hop.

Its always a sad of time of year in the Stampin' Up! world, as we wave goodbye to favourite in colours, stamp sets and DSP. This year saw a lot of my favourites get the chop which made it hard to chose just one. I decided the bundle I would miss the most is Floral Frames. I adore the fonts, the framed die cut but most of all, I just love the foliage framelits.

I love to create my own backgrounds using fun techniques like Polished Stone. I will miss the Glossy Paper immensely so decided to incorporate it in today's creations.

This post is dedicated to the coolest bundle of 2019 - R.I.P. Floral Frames - may you rest well on my bookshelf.

I made two sets of cards using two different sheets of Glossy Paper. The first sheet had Stampin' Blends literally scribbled all over the paper in pink tones. The second sheet was a little more dramatic, using the wood grain technique by swiping the ink pads across the Glossy Paper with blue and purple tones. To blend the colours I spritzed with rubbing alcohol which had a few drops of Blushing Bride reinker added.

For these two pinky toned creations, I have started with an embossed card front using a Brick wall stencil (item #144103) and embossing paste (item #141979). The Stitched Shapes (item #145372)  framelits were used to die cut the sentiments from the Floral Frames Stamp Set. The floral images were stamped on the same sheet of Glossy Paper the die cuts are made from, die cut and added to the card with mini dimenionals (item #144108).

The next set of projects have utilised the second sheet of Glossy Cardstock with the blue and purple tones. I have kept the stamping simple with black ink directly on top of the Glossy card.

A few black elements have been such a ribbon, die cuts, ink splatters and sequins as it really pops against the purpley-blue tones and ties in nicely with the plain black stamped images and sentiments.

The panel on the left hand side of this card shows what the glossy sheet looked like before I stamped and die cut it. As you can see, it doesn't have to be perfect, especially when using for die cuts.

I just adore this little decorative die cut and had to use one for this simply decorated box. Again, using the purple-blue tones for the die cuts and flirty flamingo ribbon. The stamped frame was coloured with Stampin' Blends.

That's it from me today. I hope I have inspired you to get into your crafty space and show some of your favourite retiring or retired stamp sets some love by inking them up and making someone you love a handmade creation from the heart.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Be sure to follow the Hop all the way through for loads of creative and inspirational projects that the Stamping Sunday Blog Hop Design Team have to share with you.

Blog Hop Participant List








You can find the items I used to create today's creations in my Online Store by clicking on the images in the Product List below. Happy Shopping x

Product List

Floral Frames Clear-Mount Bundle [148406] $75.50	Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies [145372] $50.00
A4 Glossy White Cardstock [144241] $13.50	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $10.00
Light Flirty Flamingo Stampin' Blends Marker [147031] $7.75	Petal Pink Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [147272] $15.50
Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad [147097] $13.00	Highland Heather Classic Stampin' Pad [147103] $13.00
Blushing Bride Classic Stampin' Ink Refill [131157] $6.50	Mini Stampin' Dimensionals [144108] $6.00
Pattern Party Decorative Masks [144103] $10.00	Embossing Paste [141979] $11.50
Black/Silver 1/4" (6.4 Mm) Striped Metallic Ribbon [148486] $12.25	Metallics Sequin Assortment [144214] $8.75
Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker [100082] $6.00

Stitched & Dotty Tropical Chic

Good Day Crafty Friends,

I am back again with my favourite stamp set - Tropical Chic. I know I am bombarding you with posts at the minute, but its the first chance I have had to make it back into my crafty space after a week hiatus. Apologies, I am jamming them in while the visiting Mother In Law is busy and out of the house for the day.

I have used the cross stitch die from the Stitched All Around bundle to create the stitched background onto whisper white card. Before adhering to the card base I slipped in a panel of Lemon Lime Twist so this would show through the stitching lines. The images have been stamped in bright summery colours and adhered with Tombow and mini dimensionals.

The second card is another one of my "doodling stamping techniques". This time instead of adding drawn lines to my stamped images (like the leaves), I have added lots of dots to the Frangipani flowers.

It does alter the appearance quite dramatically but I really like it. It looks great teamed with the lines drawn on the leaves. I have also added stamped and fussy cut images from Jar of Love and Cake Soiree as I really like these two leafy images together.

Hope I have inspired you to get into your crafty space and have a play. Perhaps you will try adding dots to some of the images of stamp in your current collection.

Until next time, stay crafty

Technique - Drawing on Stamped Images

Hello Crafty Friends,

I hope you have had a wonderful day. Mine has been a productive one - ticking items off to do lists is so rewarding, especially when they are things you have been purposely delaying. With the linen cupboard and pantry sorted I can now get into something I love - creating!!

Today's post is a collation of creations I recently shared on Instagram. All these cards use a technique that I totally enjoy as I am a doodler, especially when I am on the telephone. This technique is great for monochrome patterned DSP and also for some stamped images.

Simply take a Black Ink Pen and add details to stamped images. For these cards I have chosen the leaf and flower bud images from Cake Soiree and the small floral image from Petal Palette.

Small strokes of the pen have been added to mimic leaf veins and flower stamens. To compliment the Black Ink strokes, ensure you add other Black elements in small touches - I have used foliage stamps from Jar of Love and Cake Soiree stamp sets.

The images really pop when adding a lot of white space. I added some texture for this one with the Pinewood Planks Embossing Folder.

Something a bit simpler. Changing the colour combinations of the stamped images gives you so many different looks.

Again using texture, this time created using the Basket Weave Embossing Folder

Hope you are inspired to try this technique on stamps you own - and by that I mean the stamped images!!! Please don't draw on your actual stamps lol 

Until next time, stay crafty

Colour INKspiration #34

Good Day Crafty Friends,

Welcome to the Colour INKspiration Challenge #34 Blog Hop. You are currently visiting Jackie Aitken in Perth, Australia. If you are following the hop you may have arrived here having just visited the super talented Rose Packer.

We have a super stunning picture to inspire your creative juices for this challenge, which runs for three weeks. The challenge colours are: Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Daffodil Delight and Basic Grey.

I adore this picture, in particular, the gorgeous architecture and the perfectly preserved 1950's American vehicles on the streets of modern day Cuba.  The buildings are just delightful colours, I especially love all the Pastel tones. Wouldn't this be a fabulous street to live on.  I dibs the Pink building! Lol

I decided to pull out a technique I haven't used in a while to create the "special effects" on this cards stamped images. I personally love the look this technique produces, especially on stamp sets I may have owned for a while that have been somewhat unloved or uninked recently.

I have stamped the small floral image from Petal Palette stamp set in Daffodil Delight, and the other images from Cake Soiree in Calypso Coral and Pool Party.

Then all I have done is simply take a black ink pen and draw in the details. I am by no means an artist and this is easier than it looks. Choose a starting point for contact and taper off your flicks. Think of veins and stamens that naturally exist on flowers and leaves and try to mimic those lines with strokes of the pen.

My top tip when using this technique is do all the drawing/doodling before you die cut/fussy cut the images. 

Here is a close up:

While I had the supplies out I decided to make an additional card with the Callenge colours. The second card is stepped up ever so slightly by adding a few die cut stitched shaped circles and some DSP (or in this case, cut up SAB Tutti Frutti card). Stitched Circle die cuts in Calypso Coral and Pool Party were tucked behind the panel of DSP. The Basic Grey strip was omitted and the decorative embellishments colours changed from So Saffron to Grapefruit Grove.

INKspired to join the challenge? It's so easy. Firstly, get some INKspiration by hopping around to see what all of the Colour INKspiration Crew have to show you. Then you have 12 days from today to make and upload your creation to the Facebook Colour INKspiration Group. You don't have to have a blog to participate but if you do you can link back to your post. Make sure you use all of the challenge colours. You can also use neutrals such as white, black, Sahara Sand, Crumb Cake and Metallics. Not a member of the Facebook group yet? Just click here and ask to join Colour INKspiration, add the group to your favourites and share it with your crafty friends so they can join in the fun too. We can't wait to see what you create with these gorgeous colours.

Next up in the Blog Hop is one of our Guest Designers, Krissy Buck with her amazing creation. Be sure to hop all the way through, the Design Team and Guest Designers have shared some stunning projects, you may even see a few sneak peaks of new products that will be available 1st June.

Thanks for stopping by today. I appreciate you and the time invested to visit my blog. Wishing you a wonderful day. Until next time, stay awesome

Looking for fancy fold card tutorials using all Stampin' Up! products, be sure to check out the Tutorial Shop at AddINKtive Designs - click on the image below to be taken to the Tutorial Shop.