New this week

Welcome to another week in review - I've had some wonderful feedback and love about my posts this week over on Instagram and I'm grateful for everyone and their kindness.  

This week was full of In colours and fun folds.  I uploaded a video or two over on Youtube too, please pop over and check them out.   

Wishing you all a fabulously creative week.

Rachael xx

Crafty Challenge for May

 

Welcome to May's Crafty Challenge with the Crafty Collaborations Team.  This month we have a fabulous sketch to inspire us.  Here is my interpretation using some of the newly released stamps from the Annual Catalogue.  

The combination of orange and green in the vibrant tones was a no-brainer for me.  I think I've used the same colours with this image a few times now and I try to gravitate to something else but it just makes sense to pair these up!

Products Used in today's project include:

• Citrus Blooms Stamp Bundle
• Simply Said Stamp Set
• Cardstock: Basic White, Basic Black, Granny Apple Green, Pumpkin Pie, Watercolour Fluid paper

Please join our hop, follow the links below and don't forget to leave some love for everyone who participated!  I've also jumped on the same challenge for an instahop, so be sure to go to my instagram because there are links to even more fabulous versions of the sketch over there.

Happy creating,

Rach xx

Beautiful Berry burst Monochromatic Card

Don't forget to jump over to YouTube to like, comment and Subscribe!

Happy creating, 

Rach xx

Looking back at this week...

This past 2 weeks have flown by and I realise that I haven't updated the blog like I should have.  Hopefully you are all following along on my social media pages to keep up! I realise this is a bit of a photo dump but here is the projects that I have uploaded and featured recently - enjoy. 

A fun fold and a blending ink background technique using Attention Shoppers.  

Some fun cards - one for an upcoming workshop and the other using old Lawn Fawn stamps for boys!

The adventurous sky stamps made for a great fun fold, and the Silly Geese is another workshop card. 

Interactive cards - one for mothers day and another using my favourite Hot Air Balloon bundle!

2 weeks of monochromatic hop cards - Azure Afternoon and Berry Burst.  

A Bridgeton inspired card, with a fun fold pop up surprise inside.  

I've also uploaded some new videos to my YouTube.  Please pop over and subscribe so you get notified when the next one goes live.  

Happy creating, 
Rach xx

New at SU!- creating with our new Incolours! (May)

Welcome to the NEW AT SU! blog hop! We are a group of Stampin’ Up! demonstrators from around the world who are full of creative paper crafting ideas to share with you and get you crafting! Today we are showcasing the new In Colour range that has been released with the newest catalogue. 

I was so excited to see a favourite and very sentimental colour come back amongst this collection, and that was Pretty In Pink! Alongside the other 4, this was actually one of the very first colours I purchased as a customer and new stamper about 17 years ago! So whilst pinks are not my go to choice, I’m most definitely connected to this one!  

My card features:

• Attention Shoppers Stamp Bundle (stamps and dies)
• 2024-2026 Current Catalogue 6x6 DSP 
• Pretty In Pink edged ribbon
• Silver Foil Card stock
• Basic White thick Card stock
• Basic Black Card stock
• Pretty in Pink ink
• Memento Black ink
• 2024-2026 In Colour Shimmer Gems (adorable!!!)
• 2024-2026 In Colour Stampin Blends in Shy Shamrock, Pretty In Pink, Summer Splash, Petunia Pop and Peach Pie

The blog hop list is below, please pop over to see the other projects!

Blog Hop Index

Thanks for popping by!  I couldn't help myself, I even created a bonus project for my first hop... a slider locking box!  Did you see it in the photos?

 And yes, I recreated it for a YouTube tutorial.  I'd feel honoured for you to pop over and have a look.... I think I will be making these, adjusting the size and design over and over because they are such a fun but relatively simple mechanism to put on a project.  And I'm all about simple as much as possible.  

Happy creating,

Rach xx

Scrapbook Sunday Blog Hop

 Hi everyone and welcome back to another blog hop.  Yes, I'm trying to revive my blog  (and keep pushing my creativity) with more hops.  I'm pleased to join the Crafty Collaborations team again for this hop!

In case you are new here, I've chosen to jump back into scrapbooking after a long hiatus.  I was a scrapbooker in a previous life, when my now adult children were young, including a member of online forums, design teams and published pages in magazines.  It was a busy time that fell away as life got busy and work became more demanding.

  We now have 3 beautiful grandsons to scrapbook about as well as new adventures to keep us busy and my camera roll full.  I've chosen to use 8x8 pages for my first album, easily cut from Stampin Up's Basic White Thick.

Today's page features the Adventurous Sky stamp and die bundle as well as the matching DSP.  A great background theme for 3 little boys.   And see those adorable metal embellishments that look like they belong on a plane?  They come in the Suite collection and are easily placed on the page using glue dots!  They add that masculine bling to the page!

The dies in this Suite make cutting out these fabulous detailed hand drawn planes so much easier than by hand.  I loved putting this together with the different sizes, each not only representing one of our boys but also to give the illusion that the planes were coming in to land, some in the distance and some in the foreground. 

Oh and a handy trick - I've created a lift up section which the photo is mounted on to hide journalling. So simple to do and by adding the top part of a tag (which is actually from the DSP, just cut out and use!), this flap remains hidden when in the album but contains all the important memory keeping too.

Please hop over to the other pages, leave some love for everyone.  Blog hops are a great way to grab a heap of inspiration in one place, and I'm excited to be joining these each month.  

Happy creating,

Rach xx

Blog Hop Index

Fandom Blog hop

 Welcome to another blog hop with the Crafty Collaboration Design Team! 

I was really keen to be joining this one, after taking a break from the team blog hops for a while. 

The theme for this hop is one of fandom; it was one that really intrigued me and spoke strongly for ideas. I immediately thought of Marvel comics; my brother as a child loved these, so they have been a part of my life for what seems forever. Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Black Widow.... all the big names were ones that I knew growing up and now have become a quiet fan of as an adult.  My own kids have seen all the Marvel movies (and know NOT to leave the theatre until after the trailer credits - if you know, you know!).  This is what inspired the comic strip colour blocked panels on the front of my card. 

But of course there’s other fandom themes that are considered iconic in pop culture, including the timeless hype of Beatlemania!  Whilst I’m a little bit too young to be a traditional Beatles fan, I do remember the cartoon style music clips on TV when I was young. So much fun and so much colour!  A firm favourite of mine was Yellow Submarine. It’s one of those songs that just gets in your head and loops! 

Of course this meant a natural choice of combining the comic strip idea with our yellow Submarine. Naturally, the submarine life stamps is perfect for this theme! 

I've created a series of backgrounds on each colour block with all the fun small background making stamps from a variety of stamp sets.  This gave the card a little more interest.  To keep it more subtle, these were done using watermarking (Versamark ink)

This is a hop, so please be sure to jump over to the other team members and leave them some love for their projects:

The main products featured in this card include the following:

• real red cardstock
• pumpkin pie cardstock
• azure afternoon cardstock
• daffodil delight cardstock and ink
• basic grey ink
• versamark ink
• basic white embossing powder
• black resin dots
• Submarine Life stamp bundle
• basic white and basic black cardstock

Thanks for taking the time to pop by my blog!

Rach xx

Global Monthly Video Hop (May)

Its another month and that means a new project!

Have you been over to my YouTube yet?  The newest Monthly Video hop is live!  

I really loved this 6x6 DSP challenge, and the cutest box came from my video.  

Click on the image above to go and check it out.

Happy stamping,

Rach x

This weeks projects

 This week has flown by! I’ve got a lot of projects to share, it’s been a busy week over on my social.  Here are whats been keeping me busy (in no order!)

Enduring Beauty with the new InColours - Pretty in Pink and Shy Shamrock!

You've probably seen my previous blog post but I was voted a winner for my entry of this Global Design Project challenge colour scheme where I did a watercolour scrapbook page!  So happy with the page and honoured to have been chosen.

A trick card where the Bee My Valentine bee circles around the front of the card using a spinner mechanism.  A fun one to create and give.

A pair of cards using the In the Moment to say goodbye to retiring products.

Another bright and funky cards using all my favourites that are retiring - Biggest Wishes Stamps, Zany Zoo stamps and Rays of Light stamps. 

Out with the old and in with the new - saying goodbye to the in colours and saying hello to the new Leaf Collection background stamp.  

A fun interactive card inspired by a demonstration at OnStage in March, this Submarine Life card will be a fun one to send...

And finally, the monochromatic insta hop this week featured Granny Apple Green. I've just purchase the hooray for surprises stamp bundle - I cant' wait to use it some more!

We had ANZAC day of commemoration here in Australia. I usually bake the lovey pats based cookies but didn’t this year with only 2 of us in the house and no need for extra goodies that will just need to be eaten ;). 

Link for Colour Wheel

You can find the page for the PDF download by clicking the image.

This weeks projects - 21 April, 2024

 Hi everyone, this week has seen me back at work.  I'm lucky that I was organised to have projects completed and scheduled because I'm not sure I would have had enough to share with you all.  Its been a busy week!!

The translucent florals set is so much fun to play with and is super easy to use!  I created this one to showcase the neutral DSP that was included in the Les Shoppes paper pack.  

Probably my favourite from the past week - this interactive plane card was so much fun to create.  I have a quick Youtube video too.  It was inspired by a demonstration from OnStage....

The past weeks monochromatic theme was Misty Moonlight, so I created a masculine card this time around and showcased a retiring embossing folder which I also inked over to look like a freshly painted wall.  Simple but effective. 

And there were a few others posted over on my Instagram and Facebook.  This one was a Sunday Challenge to make a celebration card.  With my wedding anniversary coming up in a few weeks, I feel organised now I have a cute bee themed card made.  Is it too many hearts?  I think not! 

Thanks for popping by, I love that I get to share my craft with others.  Please make sure you leave me a message so I know you've been, I'd love to say hi. 

Happy Stamping,

Rachael