Sale a Bration Water Color

Hello!

For all you Stampin' Up! followers and lovers out there, you'll know that Sale A Bration is one of Stampin' Up!'s biggest and best events that everyone waits for each year. Other than the Annual Catalogue Launch, it may be my favourite time of the SU! calendar year.
As it winds down I get my freebies out and start creating. I got the Photopolymer set "Avant Garden" as it was free and one that I thought was okay- but maybe just sit in my 'maybe I'll get to it someday' stash. I don't know about you, but I have a few of those guilty sets stashed away.
Then while deciding to host a Sale-A-Bration final hurrah party, I wasn't sure what to use and do for make and takes and again, thank you Pinterest for some ah-mazing ideas with said Avant Garden stamp set.
I wasn't big on the 'real life' type flowers. I love more playful, cartoonish or watercolored type images. So when I saw what others were doing in a watercolor type theme I jumped on that bandwagon.
So mixing Avant Garden, So Very Much (also available during Sale-a-Bration) and Petite Petals I came up with these:

 I chose a very pretty color pallet. I love the Sweet Sugarplum color and really do hope then when SU! revamps their color spectrum, they choose to keep this color.
I have Sweet Sugarplum, Blushing Bride, Sahara Sand and Pear Pizzazz.

I also really liked the font of the Avant Garden set. I hope to see more sets with the coordinating fonts to create more sentiments. I also thought the Petite Petal stamp set and punch as well as the Flower Shot stamp set and coordinating punch has some textured flowers that work really well with this set as well. I think even Gorgeous Grunge would work flawlessly with this set.
So beautiful and so much fun.

 There is so much you can do with this set and I'm glad I gave it a go. Being inspired from other stamping artists I loved how some people used the set to create an almost 'floral spray' feel. So I tried to emulate that in my cards, along the card itself, in the corners or peeking behind a matted sentiment. It was even super simple and elegant to creating a background page. It would be no problem to blend colors and do an entire 12x12 sheet with this set to make a set of one sheet wonder cards.

I hope you were all inspired and enjoyed my take on the Avant Garden and So Very Much stamp sets.

~Brandie~

Little Fairy

Happy Tuesday!
Monday's ugly sister, lol.
I never minded Tuesdays- one of my favorite shows, Face Off, is on on Tuesday nights as is Ink Master. I have a soft spot for competition shows, especially ones that involve art and creativity. They usually go on the back ground as I'm creating at my desk then as the contestants are all frantic finishing their pieces I feel pushed to finish my own work, lol.
Very motivating.

So I had an order a few months ago for some children birthday cards. A friend of mine who loves my work, just wanted a variety of boy and girl birthday cards to have on hand for when a kid's party popped up. And if you have kids, you know how out of the blue a birthday party invite can be, especially on a Friday night when  you're pulling everything out of the backpack (or Sunday evening and  you realize you missed the party and you feel horrible!) So makes life a little easier when you have a card ready to go.

I do girly more than I do boyish (which isn't really fair as I have 2 of each), but I myself am a girly girl so I tend to lean towards pinks and flowers and glitter as go-tos in my creations.

So going back to The Greeting Farm and their Magical Bean set, I used this little darling to create a simple layered card.

I have been been trying unique cuts and folds for cards lately, trying to make a card unique and interesting without adding too much bulk and additional embellishments. As beautiful as those kinds of cards are, the cost to create them was outweighing the amount I charged.

Trying to go basic without being boring I tried to just layer various, simple pieces together and I really enjoy how it all came together. Using my Stampin' Up Brick Wall embossing folder, I embossed a sheet of Crumb Cake, then stamped a swirled floral image on it and sponged Crumb Cake ink over it for a wonderfully distressed textured feel that created a great base for the Magical Bean Fairy. Then Flirty Flamingo and Rich Razzleberry mats layered with Stampin' Dimensionals allowed me to have a vanilla ribbon peek underneath.

I dusted off the old Top Note Die and cut the Pink Pirouette die in half, letting a piece of it peek behind the layers.
Then using the same colors and my Itty Bitty SU! punches and Petite Petal punch, I created a fun blast of petals in the corner. Finally I finished the image off with a sentiment from the retired Remembering Your Birthday stamp set.
I loved putting the sentiment on its side as opposed to across in the traditional way. I feel that it gave my card more of an interesting design.

I think what I enjoyed most about creating this card was just going out of my comfort zone. I went with a traditional A2 tent fold, and was able to make something interesting out of it.

I hope it all inspired you to think out of your own creative boxes. Stay tuned for more layering and dimensional cards that are deceptively quick and easy, but will look like it took you ages to complete.

~Brandie~

Little Piggies

So a few new things have happened to me lately, and one of those things was finally getting off my butt and opening my own etsy store. I have had my own Facebook store for a few years now, but sadly with work and 4 kids it had been horribly neglected.
All that being said, I have been busy working on various creations (to come soon) and while doing that I had found a few new craft companies (darn you pinterest! Oh who am I kidding?) and one of them is My Favorite Things. They have got the cutest, most colorable images out there! I have loved creating my own designer series paper to get the look I want, and after some inspiration from Pinterest again, I have started creating my own back grounds.
LOVE THEM! The masking and sponging techniques used is so quick, so simple, yet so effective, not to mention FUN!
These Little Piggies went wee wee wee all the way to my craft desk!

 These little guys are a part of the Hog Heaven Stamp Set from My Favorite things. I love how they have the coordinating dies to make fussy cutting almost a thing of the past (which is great cuz I'm not that great at fussy cutting).

I'm still a Stampin' Up! girl at heart so I was able to use my Top Note Die (seriously- why on earth did they retire it? It's PERFECT!) and created an awesome base to layer on patterned paper to create a background scene for the piggies. Using Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight and Tangerine Tango, I cut the cupcake top out of the retired cupcake builder punch from Stampin' Up! and used it as a cloud mask as I build the color up from the Daffodil to the Tangerine to the Melon for a lovely sunset sky. Then I layered Old Olive and Pear  Pizzazz for grass, while using Copic YG04 and YG06 to make little grass bundles.
The stamp sets come with a small variety of punny sentiments and seriously, who doesn't like a good pun? And, as always, using my staple, Stampin' Dimensions to create dimension.

I hope you enjoyed them and are inspired to create your own!

~Brandie~

St. Patty's Day Cuties

Hello all!
March 1st and here in Northern Alberta we got a lovely blanket of snow.
I love winter, but I am so over snow. I am super ready for spring.
Until then, I am fighting the winter blues with lovely spring colors and textures here at the ol' craft desk. I haven't been a big St. Patrick's day celebrator in the past, though I've been known to wear a wee bit o' green to ward off all pinches. I did get an order for a St. Patrick's day card so it was a way for me to break out some Irish Spirit.
Now a while ago I pre-ordered the adorable Hatters Collection of rubber stamps from The Greeting Farm. I adore these little cuties, and have been loving coloring with my copics (not great yet- but getting the hang of them!) I figured the top hatted cherubs would be perfect as little leprechauns in a simple easel card. Then doing some layers and flowers finished off the look.
I used some of my glitter paper from a stack I had purchased, which happened to go great with So Saffron and Pear Pizzazz and Smoky Slate.

I had a lot of fun layering the Spellbinders scalloped Circles, then using the curved ivy stamp from the Foxy Friends Stamp Set for Stampin' Up! was the perfect finishing touch.
I tried a layering technique with the Stampin' Up! punches and I really like how they turned out on the little Leprechaun girl. I do not have any sort of St. Patrick's day sentiment stamps so I went old school and just printed out a fun font from my computer. I figured go-to phrases like "Top O' the Mornin' to Ya" and "Luck O' the Irish" would be fun- then a simply "Happy St. Patrick's Day" layered with fun spring time Irish colors.

So these were a lot of fun :) They come in at 4.25x4.25 size, so I could build the card either up or out and still be a good A2 size.

I hope this has inspired you all! Feel free to check my new store out on Etsy as well. It's under:
ThePaperGiftBoutique

Thanks for stopping by and happy stampin!

~Brandie~

Star of Wonder Trio

My annual Stamp A Stack is coming up, a lot later than I anticipated, unfortunately. But it's still coming up and I was at a loss for what to create for said class. I thought of a one sheet wonder (love them!) but I really wanted to narrow the class down to 1 stamp set as I usually have 3 or more on the go. I tried the Endless Wishes but I lost my mini snow flake in the set and just couldn't get inspired. I adore the Star of Light set but I could not see anything with it. It was pretty, but I couldn't really 'see' anything beyond what was in front of my face. Plus as beautiful as the large star was, I thought it was so big and wasn't' sure what to do with it.
Then after browsing pinterest, I found some really neat ideas from the crafting community. I can't recall who's original idea these were, as I was inspired by so much and mashed them together- added bling and made them my own!
Oh. And I fell in love with the whole monochromatic theme.
Totally in love.
Inspired more ideas- to come soon!

So here is what I came up with! (with the help of fabulous artistic pinners!)

Also, trying new photo editing software, as well as watermarks. Trying to figure out how all these fabulous bloggers get their pics to look so amazing has inspired, and frustrated, me.
I hope to get it someday, and I know I'll figure it out.

Now back to cards! Whisper White cardstock bases are a must, of course. I used White embossing powder to do some emboss resist on each card.

Then I used Dapper Denim (LOVE IT!) with Marina Mist, Rose Red with Sweet Sugarplum and Perfect Plum with Wisteria Wonder. I used some old Silver Tape from last year's Sale-A-Bration and Basic Rhinestones to finish them off. Nice and flat, but bold in color so great for mailing and super easy to whip up.


So that's it for me! I hope you were inspired to dig out a stamp set that has you stumped as I was and get creating!

~Brandie~

Home Sweet Home

Hello all!

Oh.
My.
Goodness.

Y'all have NO idea how utterly, amazingly adorable the Home Sweet Home bundle is from Stampin' Up! I got mine early this month and have been happily playing and pinning away- not to mention all the inspiration just looking at the set gives me.
Oh I can't hardly wait!
So here's some of what I came up with:
Halloween of course :)

 The cute little ghost makes this set pop- as well as the shattered shingles. There is another adorable Halloween set called "Spooky Fun" item #144437.
It comes with a picket fence (not the one pictured), gravestones and pumpkins. It'd truly make this set pop for Halloween decor- I just don't Halloween much beyond the free candy tax I charge the kiddos ;)



Next I went a little wood cottage inspired with this fun creation:

 

I used the Woodgrain Background stamp in Crumb Cake on Very Vanilla cardstock. Using the retired Itty Bitty set I made tiny flowers in the little flower sills. The sill was just using the 'dog dish' upside down. Dog dish- by the way- with the little bones would make a cute little 'dog house' creation ;)
So flowers, and banners and hearts and all things pretty can create a little Snow White-esque cottage of your very own. Put it in a shadow box with flowers and fairies to give to the princess in your life.

Then OBVIOUSLY we have the lovely Gingerbread House. I am not a fan of how mine turned out, I had seen better, but for a first attempt it was okay.   I really liked the sides of the house over the front.

 

What I love most about Stampin' Up! is the coordinating abilities between different sets. Doing the gingerbread house with the Home Sweet Home set, then adding on from the Cookie Cutter Christmas set (item# 143493) or the Candy Cane Christmas stamp set (item# 142040 in clear 142037 in wood), would just be the perfect finishing touches.

Last but not least is the Sweet Shoppe. I am SO proud of this little ditty. I turned the home on it's side- using the slope of the siding with the word window punch to create a lovely awning that you'd find on any little chic shop.

 

 I used the "Sweets for the Sweet" sentiment on a retired Sweets for the Sweets set. I also used a retired hostess set to stamp some cakes, color them in and then trip then to size. I am sure you have some oldies but goodies in your stashes to create a similar look.

I created the extra long window by cutting out 2 windows from the Home Sweet Home die set, lining them up and carefully trimming 1 end off. I then used a glue pen to glue them over the image, trimmed it and then added Dazzling Details to mask the edge where it was cut. Nothing wrong with glittery window frames- right?

So there are all my little houses all lined in a row. I can just imagine creating a holiday lane or a little downtown street or...or...or... the possibilities are really endless. This has to be my current favourite stamp set. I would highly recommend trying it out.

So feel free to click on the link on my blog to take you to the Stampin' Up! site. Locals can locate me under the demonstrator finder by searching Brandie Nellis

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

~Brandie~

Z Fold Fun

Hello all!

I have no idea how many times I put 'fun' in my titles to be honest. But let's face it, paper crafting IS fun! There is something enjoyable about making something beautiful with your hands. It's therapeutic and calming and just....tops!

So this is an older card I made (digging through my archives while working on some cute items using the new products from the new Stampin' Up! Holiday Catalogue).
I gave this one to a co-worker of mine for his birthday. I will admit, it is a bit more 'kid-friendly' but I had this puppy on hand.

 Using the Celebrate Today Stamp and Die Bundle (item #137138 and 137362). I adore the color pallet of Pool party, Bermuda Bay and Smokey Slate (I was so happy when SU! came out with the light grey shade!)

I cut a full piece of 8.5x11 Smokey Slate in half at an angle to make 2 cards of roughly the same size (you may be a quarter of an inch difference on either card -or at least I was). I angled the paper in my trimmer on the 8.5 side. The top left corner (at an angel) at the 5.5 mark and the bottom left at the 3.25 mark and then cutting from there. You should have 2 angled pieces. I haven't been able to perfect this yet- so 1 piece may be about a quarter of an inch shorter.

Then I scored in thirds, 3.75 and 7.5- leaving the back piece about a quarter of an inch shorter as well- but that's fine :) No one will notice ;)

Then I created a back ground by stamping Bermuda Bay ink on Bermuda Bay cardstock with the 'ball' stamp from the set. I didn't reink between stamping so I got a few different tones will I stamped randomly. I cut the Bermuda Bay a quarter of an inch shorter all the way around, creating back ground panels for each of the card 'fronts'. I stamped "birthday" over and over in a row creating a 'banner' for the card front with a piece of Pool Party slightly larger layered behind it.

I loved using the banner stamp and die across the balloons and the card- giving it such dimension. Pairing that with the balloon stars stamp just created a fun visual.

So I hope you enjoyed! Have an awesome day - until next time!

~Brandie~