Apr 8, 2020 | Blog Hops, Other |
Hi friends,
Welcome to my blog, Stamping Flair. My name’s Rochelle Laird-Smith and I what a thrill it is for me to be participating in our inaugural, Around the World on Wednesday Blog Hop. Thank you to the lovely Angie McKenzie for inviting me to join in.
We are a group of 25 Stampin’ Up! demonstrators from various parts of the globe, representative of all the Stampin’ Up! markets around the world. I am so honoured to be among all these beautiful, super talented ladies. We will be here to inspire you every 2nd Wednesday of each month. You are in for a treat.
A little about me
I live in the coastal town of Blind Bight in Victoria, Australia with my partner, Adrian and my 16 (nearly 17) year old daughter, Cassidy. It’s a small town with a population of about 1300. I’ve just celebrated my 5th anniversary with Stampin’ Up! and just love everything I get to experience through crafting – creating, making friends, teaching – it’s amazing. In my day job, I work in administration in a school. Currently on school holidays, I get to craft even more. It’s the best.
Our theme for this month is All Things Crafty with a focus on ‘Must Haves’ for our creativity. Must haves can be tools, colours, paper. They could also be other things like whatever you need to get you in a creative frame of mind – mood, scenery, seasons, styles My card today shows you my ‘Must Have’ tools and styles which I love.
I love the country side, country decor, cows and chooks and I loved the French Countryside stamp set when I saw it in the Mini Catalogue. It hadn’t been inked up yet, so a brand new hop was the time to use it. Soft shades of pink are my favourite and I love it so much my home is decorated with accents of it as well. My card began to take shape around these themes.
My main ‘must have’ tool in my crafting essentials is a Paper Trimmer. Without it, there would be no card base – not a straight one anyway! Also, an essential for all the layers which I love to add on all my cards.
Adding layers can bring out colours more, add more interest, sometimes adding a contrasting layer can really make an image stand out. I also love to layer my ribbons as I have done on this card. I started off by add the soft, Polka Dotted Tulle Ribbon followed by the Braided Linen Trim.
My flower cart was stamped on Shimmery White cardstock. I inked up the ‘splodgy’ stamp from the Label me Bold stamp set and then went over it with an aqua painter. Then I stamped the image. Aqua Painters and Shimmery White cardstock are some of my faves too. I used this same technique with the line style stamp to stamp Sahara Sand on the base. Once this was dry, then I stamped the flower cart in Early Espresso ink. Don’t you love the quaint look of this image. It reminds me a little bit of My Fair Lady.
The oval frame was die cut 4 times and adhered together to create a 3D frame for the stamped image.
How to create 3D Paper Flowers (easy)
- Punch out 4 scalloped circles
- Lay them on top of each other
- Spritz them with water
- Scrunch them up
- Leave to dry
- Separate them
- Glue on top of each other with liquid glue
- Shape into flower shape
I added some Rococo Rose with a sponge dauber to take the starkness off the edges.
Leaves
For the leaves, I watercoloured some Shimmery White cardstock with Crumb Cake ink refill. Then I stamped it with the Very Versailles script stamp while it was still a bit damp. I stamped off the leaves in Early Espresso before stamping over the script image. Crumb Cake cardstock leaves were embossed with the Corrugated embossing folder to add more texture. To create a two-tone effect, the Mint Macaron leaves were edged with Old Olive ink.
Thank you so much for stopping by. All measurements and products used on my project are listed at the bottom of this post. Next on our hop is the lovely Cheryll Miller. I can’t wait to see what inspires everyone. Make sure you visit all of the participant blogs and leave us your comments as we love hearing from you. Enjoy your trip Around the World.
Angela Meiritz-Reid – NZ
Tatiana Tobin – AU
Rochelle Laird-Smith – AU – you are here
Cheryll Miller – AU
Satomi Wellard – JA
Melissa Gifford – AU
Danielle Kassing – NL
Manuela Geiswinkler – AT
Ximena Morales – DE
Aurélie Fabre – FR
Mikaela Titheridge – UK
Tina Zinck – CA
Annette Ball – CA
Angie McKenzie – US
Mary Deatherage – US
Shel Anderson – CA
Chris Smith – US
Anne Marie Hile – US
Brenda Nelson – CA
Tricia Butts – US
Elaine de Montmorency – CA
Sharon Burkert – US
Teri West – US
Cheryl Hamilton – US
If you live in Australia and don’t have a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, I would value the opportunity to assist you. Please contact me at rochelle@stampingflair.com or Ph: 0404 255 001.
FREE PRODUCTS
Currently, I have a special offer for anyone who places an order of $90 or more during April. This offer is not by Stampin’ Up! – it’s my personal offer and is only available while stocks last. Once you place your order, I will send you a Sale-A-Bration product from my available products. This is a great opportunity for you to get some extra goodies.
LOYALTY POINTS
Every $50 spent on products receives a Stamping Flair Loyalty Point. Once you get 10 Loyalty Points, you can choose $40 worth of products from my Online Store. The more you shop, the more you will be rewarded.
Measurements
- Whisper White Thick – 25cm x 12.5cm (folded in half)
- Blushing Bride – 12.1cm x 12.1cm, 9.5cm x 7cm (4 pieces for frame), 5cm x 3.5cm (label)
- Whisper White – 11.7cm x 6.5cm, 4.5cm x 3cm
- Crrumb Cake – 12.1cm x 6.5cm (emboss and then trim to size – embossing folder shortens it), scrap (leaves)
- Shimmery White – 9.5cm x 7cm
- Mint Macaron – Scrap (leaves)
- In-Colour DSP – 14cm x 2.5cm
- Best Dressed DSP – scrap (flowers)
Product List
May 5, 2019 | Friendship, Step-It-Up Sunday |
Hi Stampers,
Thank you for stopping by to visit me today at my blog Stamping Flair and to see what I have got for you on Step-it-Up Sunday. Hope you are all doing well and have had a really great week.
Have you ordered the new Everything is Rosy Product Medley and received it or are you like me, checking the tracking number every day? I have a feeling mine is going to arrive on Monday and I am so excited to start crafting with it. That is one bumper pack of goodies, touched with Rose Gold. There’s Rose Gold foil sheets, Rose Gold in the Designer Series Paper, Rose Gold through the embellishments and even Rose Gold shimmer paint. If you are mad for the Rose Gold then this is a bundle you don’t want to miss out on. It’s available until the end of May or while supplies last. Click on the image below to view the full size flyer detailing all the products you receive in this medley.
Step-it-Up Sunday today features one of my favourite stamp sets – Country Road. if you know anything about me, you know I’m a bit partial to all things country and this carries over to stamps as well. After choosing the stamp set I wanted to work with, the next decision was a colour palette. Mossy Meadow was my first choice as I hadn’t used it a great deal and I wanted to use a colour that hadn’t been featured much. Once that was decided, I needed a earthy colour as my base so Sahara Sand was my coordinating colour. Working out my colours like this makes it easy to create a coordinating palette for my projects.
Having my ink pads stored in the new
Storage by Stampin’ Up! modular storage is also great when working out colour combinations. I have ink pads sitting right in front of me on my desk and when I pick up a ink pad that I want to coordinate with another colour, I just hold it against the other ink pads and see which suits. Having them handy and right at my fingertips, without having to move anything, makes it very easy.
Beginner
The Beginner card uses the Clear Block stamping technique to add a block of colour to the Very Vanilla panel. To get this look, I took Clear Block D and inked it up with the Sahara Sand ink. Then I spritzed the block with water. Make sure that you shake off any excess water off the block otherwise it will drip on your cardstock (I learned after the second stuff up!). Each time you do this technique, the result will vary. I think the washed look and variations in colour looks effective and creates a fun, yet easy background.
The grass has been stamped, several times in Mossy Meadow and the weather vane in Early Espresso. The sentiment is from the Country Home stamp set and has been stamped in Mossy Meadow. Burlap ribbon adhered with Tear & Tape adds a quick trim to complete this card with some simple stamping.
Casual
I stepped this card up with some stamping over multiple layers of cardstock (Normally Triple Time stamping but in this case Double Time). I temporarily adhered the Sahara Sand square to the Very Vanilla panel. This is done by adding a little bit of Tombow Glue to the Sahara Sand cardstock and leaving it aside for a couple of minutes.
Tombow, once left like that, becomes tacky. Then I placed this on top of the Very Vanilla cardstock and stamped the grass over the 2 panels. You need to press quite firmly and hold the stamp in place a few seconds longer as you are stamping over an uneven surface. Once the stamping is complete then the Sahara Sand panel can be taken off.
At this point, I stamped the wagon wheel in Sahara Sand and the sentiment in Tuxedo Black Memento in, then adhered this to a Basic Black panel which was added to the card with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
The weather vane was fussy cut and I added Dimensionals to the horse part and liquid glue to the bottom section so it sat flat on the card. I stepped up the ribbon by adding linen thread and a bow.
To create this bow, take the linen thread with your right hand and wrap round 4 fingers of the left hand. Then wrap it twice around 3 fingers and then around 2. Carefully take it off your fingers while holding one section of the strands together so the formed circles don’t fall apart. Pinch the centre of the strands together and this will form your loops. Snip off the thread leaving a little extra and use that to wind round the centre of your bow and tie in a knot with the other strand. Tighten firmly.
To further secure this, take another piece of linen thread and tie it around the bow. This will give you 4 tails to your bow. Then fan out all the loops to create a really cute bow.
Avid
This card has several added elements to keep the avid crafter happy. I started off by embossing the weather vane in copper and fussy cutting it. It gives that aged look to it with the embossing and I love it. As a base for all my elements, I chose a Merry Merlot circle which has been embossed with the corrugated embossing folder. This folder and me – love, love, love. The addition of the Merry Merlot makes the card pop.
I stamped the wagon wheel and used my 1 3/4″ circle punch but as that’s not available any more, the Layering Circle dies will work fine as well.
The star was stamped in Merry Merlot and I bent the edges to give it dimension. It’s sitting on top of a few leaves punched with the Sprig punch . The tile is from the Country Home stamp set. I like the colour and detail it adds to the whole picture.
The Country Road stamp set is retiring and won’t be carrying over into the new catalogue. Make sure to add it to your collection before it’s gone. Click on any item below to be taken direct to my store.
Check back during the week for projects featuring the Everything is Rosy Product Medley. Subscribe to my blog to make sure you don’t miss out on any my updates and please contact me with feedback or any queries. I love hearing from you.
Have a wonderful week.
Products Used to Create these Cards