Thankful Thoughts for the Colouring Challenge

Hi everyone!

My entry for the Pinkies Colouring Challenge is open for voting together with lots of other beautiful colouring techniques. Please visit Michelle's blog to vote for your Top 3 by clicking the heart in the Top right corner.

http://www.michellelast.co.uk/2016/10/pinkies-colouring-challenge.html

I thought I'd share these Thank You cards with you:

I made them for our Pinkies Team Challenge over at Michelle Last's blog. The theme of the challenge was:

COLOURING

One of the ways I like to colour in my stamps is by using sponge daubers:

For these cards I picked three colours that blend nicely: Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie and Melon Mambo. I then applied them (lightest tot darkest colour) to the Thank You So Much stamp from the Thankful Thoughts set:

Then you "breath" on them to moisten them a bit and stamp! Mat onto Gold Foil Sheet and adhere to your card base with some dimensionals. That's it. Fun and simple! I hope you have a go yourself.

All products used for this project can be found in my shop. Just click on the 'Shop Now' Banner at the top.

Alternatively you can also e-mail me your order at sgortzak@yahoo.co.uk

My offer to refund you your P&P for orders placed over € 60/£50 with me is valid until Dec. 31st 2016. After you have placed and paid for your order just send me an e-mail: sgortzak@yahoo.co.uk

I can sell to any European country where Stampin' Up! is active: United Kingdom, The Netherlands, France, Germany and Austria. If you are in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia or New Zealand you can contact a local demonstrator and they will be happy to help you.

Vintage Leaves - Like leaves on a tree the ideas are plentiful

One of the great things about being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is that as soon as you join you become part of a great group of crafty ladies (and some gents even!). And they all love crafting just as much as you. And they are always up for sharing their knowledge with you. So when I moved to Portishead from Amsterdam one of the first things I did was to see what demonstrators there were in the Bristol area and get to know them. One of these lovely ladies, Jan from Plentiful Crafting,  has been so good about letting me join all of her Coffee 'n Card sessions so I got to meet some more crafty peeps in the area and I got to learn some new things.

Last Saturday I went to a full day card making workshop at The Home Crafters in Yate Shopping Center. This wonderful crafty place is full of hand made items from an array of crafts men and women. We were there to make Autumn Cards. And Jan had prepared 6 different cards for us to make and they were all different and all stunning so I thought I would share them with you here so you too could be inspired to make a whole stack of Autumn cards:

This first one is simple elegance and I love the colours we used. We stamped the Vintage Leaves stamps in Delightful Dijon, Bermuda Bay and Tangerine Tango on some Very Vanilla cardstock and matted that onto an Early Espresso card base. Finishing it off with a small sentiment and some enamel shapes.

This colurful beauty used one of the Stampin' Up!'s eldest still available stamp set: Lovely as a Tree. We stamped just oak leave in several different colours on some Very Vanilla cardstock. Matting that on a piece of Garden Green cardstock which is then mounted on a Delightful Dijon base. Finishing it off with a sentiment on an oval die cut from the Layering Ovals Framelits. Colours used here were Garden Green, Delightful Dijon, Sweet Sugarplum and Tangerine Tango.

Thirdly we made a card using the Woodland Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. Doing a bit of sponging in Crumb Cake to bring out the tree trunks. Then stamping some small leaves from Lovely as a Tree and decorating with some wood veneer pieces. I have not added a sentiment yet. Not sure whom I will send this to.

Now this just looks so very chic! And it really only uses two colours: Crumb Cake and Delightful Dijon. We started by stamping the Vintage Leaves in Crumb Cake onto the middle Crumb Cake panel and also stamping one leave in Crumb Cake and one in Delightful Dijon to then run through a die cutting machine using the Leaflets Framelits. Adhered the Crumb Cake panel to a piece of Delightful Dijon and tied some lace and some ribbon across the front of them. We stamped a sentiment on some Very Vanilla and adhered it to the right half of the front panel making sure you could still see a little bit of the Crumb Cake panel peeking out. And then adhered the die cut leaves and added a bow on top. Full diclosure: that piece of ribbon was tied into a knot and then put onto the leaves, we tried tying it around the stems but that just doesn't look so good:-)

And just when I thought it couldn't get any better we were making this card! Don't you just love the vibrant colours set off against the dark background? I do! So to make this yourself you first stamp the Hardwood background stamp onto some Crumb Cake cardstock using Tip Top Taupe ink. You then sponge the edges with Crumb Cake. You then stamp the Vintage Leaves on Rose Red, Daffodil Delight and Old Olive Card stock and cut them out the Leaflets Framelits dies. Stamp a sentiment on top of the Hardwood background in Chocolat Chip ink and attach the leaves down the side.

So Jan totally saved the best for last. This wood panel card is just stunning! It takes a bit of time to make but I reckon it's worth it. You start by embossing a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock with the Brick Wall Embossing Folder. You then take a sponge dauber and sponge some Early Espresso Ink onto some of the vertical seams between the bricks. You then get out your Aquapainter and some Sahara Sand Ink and start covering your entire piece of cardstock with a watery layer of Sahara Ink. This then needs to fully dry. So in the mean time you can stamp and die cut your Vintage Leaves and sentiment. When your background is dry you stamp the Hardwood Background stamp onto it using Early Espresso Ink. Then adhere the leaves and sentiment using some dimensionals. 

So how about that for a great day of crafting? If you'd like to do this some time please go to Jan's Facebook page: Plentiful Crafting and check out all here events. I know there is another full day of Christmas Card making at The Home Crafters scheduled for next month. And there will be a Coffee and Card at the Chief Trading Post in Bristol this coming Wednesday. I love going there as well.

Main products used:

Hardwood Background Stamp

Vintage Leaves Stamp Set

Leaflets Framelits Dies

Lovely as a Tree

My offer to refund you your P&P for orders placed over € 60/£50 with me is valid until Dec. 31st 2016. After you have placed and paid for your order just send me an e-mail: sgortzak@yahoo.co.uk

Alternatively you can also e-mail me your order at sgortzak@yahoo.co.uk

You can find all supplies and more in my Stampin' Up! webshop, just click on the 'Shop Now' Banner at the top.

I can sell to any European country where Stampin' Up! is active: United Kingdom, The Netherlands, France, Germany and Austria. If you are in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia or New Zealand you can contact a local demonstrator and they will be happy to help you.

Getting sidetracked by a scarecrow - Cookie Cutter Halloween Stamp set and Punch

So last week I decided to get cracking on Halloween Treats. I had checked with one of the neighbours and YES they do Halloween here. I then checked how many kids would come by... 50! So let's not leave this till the last minute and break out my new Cookie Cutter Halloween Stamp set and the matching Cookie Cutter Punch:

 This set has 4 cute gingerbread shaped "characters": A skeleton, a mummy, Dracula jr and....a scarecrow. And it is this scarecrown that got me totally side tracked. I just had to colour him in and then I just had to make some cards with him:-)

I used my Stampin' Write Markers to colour him in. These are dual tipped markers in the same colours as the Stampin' Up! dye inks and match the cardstock perfectly. I did a version on Whisper White (below) and one on Crumb Cake cardstock. I like both but I think the Crumb Cake background gives it just that little bit more of "scarecrow" feel if I imagine that they are made from old burlap bags:-)

And now I still have to make those Halloween treats:-) Wish me luck...and focus:-)

Anybody else doing handmade Halloween Treats? Let me know what you're doing. I'd love to hear.

xxx

Sonja

Vintage Leaves and Serene Scenery Paper Stack - Match Made in Heaven?

You may remember that I was determined to use up my Serene Scenery Paper Stack (see this blogpost from August) and I am happy to report I have found another good match! Last week after I had been making my Hardwood Maple Leave card. I had die cut quite a few different leaves and had stamped them as well but didn't use them for that project so they were lying on my craft desk when I said down to make some Project Life cards with the Serene Scenery Paper Stack. Only I never got around to Project Life because I realized I could do something fab if I combined one of the papers from the Serene Scenery Paper Stack with my die cut Vintage Leaves:

Love how this turned out. The multi-coloured leaves were made by sponging different colours of ink onto my Vintage Leaves stamps using sponge daubers. I love how daubers give a light layer of colour and you get a  gradual blend of colours. I made sure to start with the lighter colours first and green last so I wouldn't get any dark Garden Green in my Delightful Dijon:-)

Supplies used:

You can find all supplies and more in my Stampin' Up! webshop: http://tinyurl.com/shopsonjagortzak

My offer to refund you your P&P for orders placed over € 60/£50 with me is valid until Dec. 31st 2016. After you have placed and paid for your order just send me an e-mail: sgortzak@yahoo.co.uk

Alternatively you can also e-mail me your order at sgortzak@yahoo.co.uk

I can sell to any European country where Stampin' Up! is active: United Kingdom, The Netherlands, France, Germany and Austria. If you are in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia or New Zealand you can contact a local demonstrator and they will be happy to help you.

Stampin' Up! Designer Series Paper Sale this entire October

So what a start to the Month! First we have the 5-day World Card Making Day Offers and then we also have this great Designer Series Paper Sale for the entire month of October:

So you can pick four of these eight packs of gorgeous Designer Series Paper for the price of three is a great bargain! And you can order 4 of the same and get enough patterned paper for all your Christmas cards. But maybe you'd rather get different ones. It's up to you. And....you can also double or triple up. There is no limit to how many you order.

And you may want to share your paper packs with a crafty friend so you can get an even better deal. It's all up to you.

And be sure to combine this offer with the World Card Making Day offers so you safe on P&P. Should your order with me reach £ 50/€ 60 then I will refund your shipping costs*. So you get an even better deal. Irrisistable really:-) So head on over to the webshop and get yourself some crafty deals. 

Much love,

Sonja

*I can sell to any European country where Stampin' Up! is active: United Kingdom, The Netherlands, France, Germany and Austria. If you are in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia or New Zealand you can contact a local demonstrator and they will be happy to help you.