Step It Up or Scale It Back | Let's Get Hopping #34

Welcome everyone. It's time for another Let's Get Hopping blog hop and I have really been looking forward to this one. This month's challenge encouraged us to think about the type of crafter we were, an avid crafter who loves to add lots of layers, textures and embellishments or someone who prefers to keep it simple. Whatever our style, the challenge was to create a card and then create a second card that was either a "Stepped Up" or "Scaled Back" of the original. I'm sure it's no surprise to you all that I am more of an avid crafter, in fact creating a scaled back version of my card was a challenge, however it was a challenge I enjoyed. So here are my cards.

When creating my original project I was inspired by an incredibly talented friend, Cindy Schuster. Cindy is part of The Crafty Carrot Collective and during this month's program Cindy shared two stunning cards with the Beautiful World Stamp Set, her tutorial project was the inspiration for the layout of my card while the colour scheme was drawn from the sneak peek Cindy shared in the lead up to this month. (You can see both projects here).

Rather than using the Beautiful World stamp set I chose to go with the Tasteful Touches stamp set and In Good Taste DSP and I have used a number of different techniques to create the card. The flowers have been stamped and coloured with blends, the branches of leaves have been heat embossed in copper on vellum and both images have been fussy cut. I've also added some detail in the background by adding strips of the DSP rather than one full panel.

For my "Scaled Back" version I opted for a simple panel of DSP for the background and rather than stamping on and fussy cutting vellum, I stamped and embossed the branches of leaves directly on the DSP. The flowers have still be fussy cut by have been stamped in Petal Pink and Bumble Bee rather than coloured. Lastly I kept the sentiment panel as a simple rectangle of Very Vanilla.

Next up in the hop is my talented friend Shelly Wadge. I can't wait to see how she has tackled this challenge

 

CASE Yourself | Let's Get Hopping #18

Hello everyone and welcome back to another Let's Get Hopping blog hop.

This month the Let's Get Hopping designers have taken on the challenge to CASE a project they have created in the past. For those of you who aren't aware of what CASE means it stands for Copy And Selectively Edit (or Copy And Share Everything). Essentially CASing a project means taking inspiration such as a colour combo, sketch layout, or idea from one piece of work and adapting it to your project. Often crafters will CASE another crafters work when looking for inspiration but I think we tend to forget to look at our own work.

When looking back over my past projects I was drawn to this project I created last year for a TGIF Sketch Challenge (see the original post here).

Here is the project I created when CASing this card

This is the sketch that I worked from for the original card and as you can see at the time I decided to flip the sketch upside down

However with this project I decided to go with the pointed panel pointing towards the bottom of the card. I also chose to go with a woodgrain patterned DSP, this one from the Floral Romance Speciality Designer Series Paper pack. 

This cute little baby card was made especially for my cousins little baby boy who decided to come into the world on Australia Day so I felt it was only fitting that I include this gorgeous kangaroo and koala from the Animal Expedition Designer Series Paper in the design. 

Thank you for joining me today. Next up is Nina from Nina's Southern Accents. I can't wait to see what project she is sharing with us today.

Happy crafting 

- Tan xx

Supplies used

Stamps: Well Said,
Card: Balmy Blue, Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Shimmery White, Floral Romance Speciality Designer Series Paper, Gingham Gala Designer Series Paper, Animal Expedition Designer Series Paper

Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Grapefruit Grove, Versamark,
Accessories & Tools: Well Written Framelits, Lovely Flowers Edgelits, Be Mine Stitched Framelits, Polka Dot Tulle Ribbon, Whisper White Bakers Twine, White Stampin Emboss Powder, Frames Elements

Who inspires your creativity | Let's Get Hopping #14

Hello and welcome back to another Let's Get Hopping blog hop where this month we are sharing who inspires our creativity.

When it comes to creativity I am inspired by so many talented people including past and present members of the Stampin' Up! Artisan Design Team, other Stampin' Up! Demonstrators and the gals The Crafty Carrot Collective to name a few but today's project was inspired by the amazingly talented lady who introduced me to the wonderful world Stampin' Up!, Jennifer Frost. I'm so lucky to be part of Jenn's Frost and Friends demonstrator team and feel extremely blessed to call Jenn a friend.

Earlier this year Jenn shared a perpetual calendar on her blog (you can see her post  here) and from the moment I saw it I just knew I had to have a go at creating one myself.

So here's my version of Jenn's perpetual calendar.

I chose to use the Wood Texture Designer Series Papers for the pages as the wood grain really complimented my chosen colour scheme and the Jar of Love images I wanted to embellish my calendar with.

The printed calendar pages were printed from the digital file I got from Jenn. If you want to have a go at creating your own calendar make sure you check out Jenn's blog to see how you can get your own digital copy.

As you can see I created 4 different embellishments which were replicated and repeated throughout the calendar in various colour combinations.

Next up in the hop is my friend Nina McMillan.

Make sure you keep hopping through the blogs to check out everyone's projects. Who knows, maybe one of my Let's Get Hopping friends will inspire your creativity.

Happy crafting

- Tan

Looking at things differently | TGIF Challenge #159

It's been a while since I've played with the Jar of Love stamp set but when I saw this sketch for this weeks TGIF Challenge I was immediately inspired. 

However once I sat down to start creating I  just couldn't get it to work and eventually "Mum duties" called so my project was set aside until later in the day. It was when I returned to my desk that I knew how to fix it....turn it upside down!!! What do you think? 

I'm absolutely loving the Wood Textures DSP stack from Stampin' Up! at the moment so you can imagine how happy I was when I found out that it is still available in the new 2018-2019 Annual Catalogue. 

These Delicate White Doilies, however, are retiring so if you are going to miss them as much as I am, you'll need make sure you order a packet or three as they are only available WHILE SUPPLIES LAST. That means don’t wait! Once they are gone, they're gone. 

Thanks for poping by today. Make sure you pop over to the TGIF Challenge Blog to see what the TGIF Design team have done with this sketch.

- Tan xx