Need Inspiration? Try CASE-ing The Catty…

It’s been a crafting dry spell here over at Vintage Graffiti… About 10 months to be exact. But, with a few days off between Christmas and New Years, I knew that I wanted to get inky but had no idea where to start. Feeling overwhelmed, I went to one of my favourite inspiration blogs ‘CASE-ing The Catty’ to see what was going on. This week, low and behold, the challenge was to CASE anything we wanted from either current Stampin’ Up! catalogue… OK, I can do that!

Reaching for my Annual Catty, the simple elegance of the cute card on page 156 with the love heart reached out to me and needed CASE-ing.

Looking at my stamps, I had some ones that had been sitting on the shelf and never been inked. ‘Blooms & Wishes’ caught my eye, and the rest, they say, is history!

Happy stamping,
From your favourite Vintage Graffiti artist,
Emma xo

CTC#66 | What I Love | Sale-A-Bration

Hellloooooo and welcome to another week with CASE-ing The Catty.

Page 7 from the Sale-A-Bration catalogue is what inspired me using the fabulously floral ‘What I Love’ photopolymer set.

 

The card displayed in the catalogue is a little note card and for something a little different, I chose to ‘step-up’ this cute little card and make it my own.

I couldn’t resist adding one of my new favourite products to my card… Gold Wink Of Stella. But I didn’t add it in the usual, colour in over the top of my stamping way. I squeezed my Stella very gently until I saw a drop of it’s glittery gold goodness spill out onto the nib and I then gave the pen a slight flick over the top of my card. This allowed the Stella to create a fun flicky pattern of delicious drips and drops over a section of my card. I love the randomness of the flicks and of course, how it adds a little bit of sparkle as well. It is a great little technique and another way to use our Stella and I hope I have inspired you to give it a try on one of your own creations.

I created my card as a standard C5 size as to fit into a regular Stampin’ Up! Australian envelope but kept the main element ‘note card’ size. I wanted to highlight this element so I used a matte of Gold Fancy Foil Designer Vellum behind. I also added a big, bright bow next to it with Cucumber Crush Dotted Lace Trim. I love how this brings another fun and bright aspect to my card and ties (see the pun there?) it all together.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today and don’t forget that you can also play along with CASE-ing The Catty Challenges just by entering your project. Just click the badge and it will take you to where you need to be 🙂 .

The next blogger on the CASE-ing The Catty Crew is My super talented and always awesome friend, fellow blogger and Euteka Stamper, Miss Jessica Williams fromthe Paper Caper.

Don’t forget that there is still time to earn yourself some FREE Sale-A-Bration products just like the set I used in today’s project. Just ask me how!

Happy stamping,
From your favourite Vintage Graffiti artist,
Emma xo

Product List

What I Love Photopolymer Stamp Set

[141276]

Crumb Cake A4 Card Stock

[121685]

Pacific Point Classic Stampin’ Pad

[126951]

Tempting Turquoise Classic Stampin’ Pad

[126952]

Cucumber Crush Classic Stampin’ Pad

[138324]

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

[106549]

Cucumber Crush 1″ Dotted Lace Trim

[138423]

Gold Fancy Designer Vellum Foil

[133363]

Gold Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

[141898]

Metallic Foil Doilies

[138392]

Everyday Chic Designer Washi Tape

[138385]

CTC#63 | Giggle Greetings Meets It’s My Party

This week with CASE-ing The Catty, we are to be inspired by the ‘It’s My Party’ section of the Handmade From The Heart catalogue. This suite spans from pages 3-7 and is filled with the brightest and most fun creations. There is definitely a lot to be inspired by.

  
I was inspired by the design and colours of the card on page 6 and although I don’t have any stamp sets from this suite, I do have the fun washi tape { I love the balloons } and the matching bold Baker’s Twine { Isn’t the combination of the pink and black fabulous? } .

Scouring my shelf of stamp sets, I knew immediately which one I was going to pick. One that suited the fun theme and the bright colours and suited the design perfectly… Giggle Greetings. A really great but underutilised set from my collection. And I love how the card turned out!

Using the washi tape on the background instead of Designer Series Paper { DSP } is a great way to get a DSP effect and getting the most from your products. Washi tape isn’t just for sticking things down or adding an accent pop of colour.

To finish off the card, instead of using the Whisper White Baker’s Twine as they have done in the original, I used the Melon Mambo and Basic Black combo twine from the Combo Pack. The colours sure do pack a punch!

Thanks for visiting the CASE-ing The Catty blog hop this week. Be sure to play along with our challenges. You can get all the details and add your craft creation here.

To pop back over to Miss Jessica’s blog, just click on the ‘previous blog’ button or to continue on to the next CASE-ing The Catty blog, which is the very talented Miss Rachel, just click onto the ‘next blog’ button.

Happy stamping,
From your favourite Vintage Graffiti artist,
Emma xo

Product List

Giggle Greetings Wood Stamp Set

[131062]

Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock

[138344]

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

[132708]

Smoky Slate Classic Stampin’ Pad

[131179]

Aqua Painters

[103954]

Brights Stampin’ Write Markers

[131259]

Subtles Stampin’ Write Markers

[131263]

Baker’s Twine Combo Pack

[140555]

It’s My Party Designer Washi Tape

[140556]

Shimmery White A4 Card Stock

[121717]

Lots Of Labels Framelits Dies

[138281]

Crushed Curry Classic Stampin’ Ink Refill

[131158]

Rhinestone Basic Jewels Embellishments

[119246]

Paper Snips Scissors

[103579]

#GDP018 | Out Of My Comfort Zone

This with over at the Global Design Project, it’s a sketch. Yippee! I love sketches. It makes creating a project just that little bit easier as the design is already done for you.

  
 This week, I was sitting at my craft desk contemplating which stamp set and colours that I was going to use for my creation. I was stuck in a rut. I was grabbing my favourite colours and it wasn’t making me happy. I didn’t want to use them. I enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone for last week’s GDP Colour Challenge and I thought, hey, why not challenge myself again this week…? With my palette of 50 beautiful Stampin’ Up! Colours to choose from, I had a great collection to pick from. 

 Edit   
 
Elegant Eggplant. Now that is a colour that I barely, if ever use. I’ll grab that as my starting point and see where we end up. 

Combined with the ever stunning ‘Timeless Love’ stamp set and some silver, I think I done a cracking job of featuring my barely used Elegant Eggplant on my card don’t you think?

  
Now, after completing and photographing my card, I realised that one of my all time favourite things, our silver cord trim had recently retired. Eek, I am such a differ but it’s just because I loved it so much. So I am sorry for displaying it now that it’s not available but it was too late to do anything about it. I’m sure the recipient that receives my card won’t mind. It is heading off today to a friend of mine who has recently had a stay in hospital. Hopefully my card brightens her day a little while she is recovering.

Thanks for visiting!
From your favourite Vintage Graffiti artist,

Emma xo

#CTC62 | Honeycomb Happiness

 

Welcome back to the CASE-ing The Catty Blog Hop and challenge for this week, our second week of hopping for the year and I must say that I am happy to get back into it all with a routine. My crafting has almost been non-existent lately so I am truly happy to have CASE-ing The Catty to inspire me every week. And this week, it’s all Sale-A-Bration.

I chose to feature the most adorable little stamp set with the cutest little chick you’ve ever laid eyes on rom the ‘Honeycomb Happiness’ stamp set I the Sale-A-Bration catalogue! Best thing about this set though… It was free!!!

The next CASE-ing The Catty Crew member on your blog hop journey is the very talented Kathryn Mangelsdorf with her Sale-A-bration creation.

Now, I may be your starting place or you may have just come from the lovely Miss. Bronwyn‘s blog,  and if you wish to pop back there, just click on the ‘previous blog’ button. If you totally get lost along the way you can head back to the Case-ing The Catty main page just by clicking here.

Happy stamping,
From your favourite Vintage Graffiti artist,
Emma xo

 

 

 

 

 

CTC#61 | Welcome Back – Handmade From The Heart

Helllooooo and welcome back to the CASE-ing The Catty challenges for 2016! What a inspiring start that we have for you for the very first CTC project of the new year.

Here’s a little bit of ‘What Is CASE-ing The Catty’ info for those of you who are joining us for the first time this year.

Every Sunday night at 7pm (AEST), the CTC Crew will being doing a blog hop to share with you lots of amazing ideas and inspiration from the latest Stampin’ Up! Catalogue/s. We will either directly CASE (Copy and Share Everything) or use anything we see, whether it be card with a great design, colour combo etc. as inspiration for our own designs

Also, starting this year, the CTC Crew have decided that we are going to be doing a monthly challenge. WooHoo!!! Who doesn’t love a good challenge? If you have been inspired by our projects and want to share your own, please use the linky tool over at the CASE-ing The Catty main page.  A winner will be chosen by our Crew and announced on the first post of the following month.

This week and for the next following weeks, we are CASE-ing our favourite project from the brand spanking new ‘Handmade from the Heart’ Stampin’ Up! Occasions catalogue! This catalogue runs from 05 January – 31 May 2016, in conjunction with our Annual catalogue, which is fabulous. So very excited. So many delicious products and projects to choose from! Check them all out by clicking the picture to the right of the page.

It was my niece’s birthday back in December and I wanted to create a super special card for her that she can keep as a reminder of that special day and I decided I would base my card for her on the card at the bottom of page 1o of the new catalogue. Simply stunning and totally my style. Vintagey, whimsy and fun!.

I started with some Shimmery White paper as my main base of the card as I new I wanted to do some water colouring with my Aqua Painters, and the Shimmery White paper is perfect for this as well as adding a bit of bling to your card as well. I picked two colours for my background to co-ordinate with the rest of my card. Pool Party and Blushing Bride although where I needed a darker depth of colour, I snuck in a little Bermuda Bay and Watermelon Wonder.

I wanted to glam my version of the card I was CASE-ing up a bit as turning 18 is a bit glam and a very special occasion. I cut my numbers out of gold foil paper using the Large Numbers Framelits Dies and added the most magical new product to the top of the Gold Foil, our Wink Of Stella. It had a hard time drying on the Gold Foil paper, so I added some Crystal Effects over the top and this did the trick. I stayed with the gold theme to suit that adorable Bow Paper Clip on the top right hand corner of the card. I couldn’t resist adding these to my order. Just so darn adorable!

We have all the CTC Team joining us for this, our very first blog hop for the year, so please, make sure you head on over to the lovely Judy who has a beautiful project in store for you!

And if you wish to head on back to where you came from, just click the ‘previous blog’ link and that will get you there or if you get lost along the way, go on back to the CASE-ing The Catty blog where there is a list of all the blog hop participants. Enjoy ❤

Happy stamping,
From your favourite Vintage Graffiti artist,
Emma xo

Product List

Pool Party A4 Card Stock

[124391]

Watermelon Wonder A4 Cardstock

[138341]

Shimmery White A4 Card Stock

[121717]

Number Of Years Photopolymer Bundle

[140811]

Aqua Painters

[103954]

Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

[141897]

Gold Foil Sheets

[132622]

Bow Paper Clips Embellishments

[140559]

Pool Party 3/8″ (1 Cm) Glitter Ribbon

[140561]

Watermelon Wonder 1″ Stitched Satin Ribbon

[140580]

Tea Lace Paper Doilies

[129399]

Vintage Faceted Buttons

[127555]

Pool Party Classic Stampin’ Pad

[126982]

Watermelon Wonder Classic Stampin’ Pad

[138323]

Crumb Cake Classic Stampin’ Pad

[126975]

Crushed Curry Classic Stampin’ Pad

[131173]

Blushing Bride Classic Stampin’ Pad

[131172]

Gold Metallic Thread

[138401]

Metal Rimmed Pearls

[138394]

#GDP017 | Flowering Fields

It’s great to be back blogging after Christmas and New Years! I hope that you all made the most of the holiday season and spent some time with your family and friends, celebrating and making memories!

Now, let’s get back into crafting. My first blog for the year is inspired by the latest Global Design Project. Challenge #17, a colour challenge. I love me a good colour challenge.

I was so happy when I saw that one of the colours in the challenge this week was Crumb Cake. A firm favourite of mine and one of my ‘go-to’ colours when nothing else works. Rose Red and Garden Green aren’t  the usual colours that I work with. I can tell, as I am still on the same packet of Rose Red cardstock that I purchased when I first became a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator 5+ years ago. It’s not that I don’t like the colour Rose Red, it’s just that I tend to grab others before it. New year – to use a bigger variety of colours from my stash… Do you have a craft New Years Resolution?

K

Now, the set I have used on my card today was a freebie. Yayyyyyy. I received it at our recent Stampin’ Up! OnStage event as a prize patrol and was thrilled. Everyone loves a floral stamp set right?! Perfect for almost every occasion. And even better, the array of flowers that it features are all Australian!!! Now, would you like to receive this stamp set for free too? You can, as this month is Sale-A-Bration month with Stampin’ Up!

What is Sale-A-Bration I hear? Well, here’s the deal: for every $90 AUD/$110 NZD you spend (before shipping and handling), you get a FREE Sale-A-Bration product Flowering Fields anyone?). That means it’s the perfect time to purchase those products you’ve had your eye on while earning more products for free. You can browse or shop and earn yourself free Sale-A-Bration products here. 

I wanted to try a technique that’s been around for awhile but that I hadn’t used on my cards yet. I had an idea in my head on how to use this technique with this stamp set on my GDP card. The technique, although I am not sure what it is called, involves inking up one of our clear blocks (any size you like). I used block D and my Garden Green and Rose Red Stampin’ pads. I then gave the pad a light spritz with water from my Stampin’ Spritzer and stamped it straight onto my Shimmery White cardstock. I put this aside to dry off (you probably could use our Heat Tool to speed up the process, but I didn’t want to disturb the way the ink had settled on the cardstock. It had left such a nice pattern without any muddiness).

Now that I had created such a pretty and unique background, I wanted to keep that the main focus of my card but still wanted to showcase the Flowering Fields stamp set so I used our brand new, reformulated black Archival ink and stamped my image straight over the top of my handmade background. I really love how it turned out and I can see me using this technique with many more different colours in the future.

I finished off my card with some simple features, a white bow and some basic rhinestones for a bit of bling.

Happy stamping,
From your favourite Vintage Graffiti Artist,
Emma xo

Product List

Crumb Cake A4 Card Stock

[121685]

Crumb Cake Classic Stampin’ Pad

[126975]

Gorgeous Grunge Wood Stamp Set

[130514]

Garden Green A4 Card Stock

[108605]

Garden Green Classic Stampin’ Pad

[126973]

Rose Red A4 Card Stock

[108613]

Rose Red Classic Stampin’ Pad

[126954]

Clear Block D

[118485]

Stampin’ Spritzer

[126185]

Shimmery White A4 Card Stock

[121717]

Rhinestone Basic Jewels Embellishments

[119246]

Whisper White 1/4″ Cotton Ribbon

[134567]

Go Wild Designer Series Paper Stack

[138441]

And don’t forget to check out this week’s Weekly Deals! Some great savings to be had. Just click the picture to order ❤

Fast Fuse Adhesive Refill

[129027]

$13.00

$9.75

Big Shot Magnetic Platform

[130658]

$70.00

$52.50

Metal Rimmed Pearls

[138394]

$8.75

$6.56

Stars Framelits Dies

[133723]

$45.00

$33.75

CASE-ing A CASE with Julia Quinn

Hello everyone and thank you for joining us with CASE-ing The Catty this week. Our last blog hop for the year and we have something super special in store for you!

This week we are CASE-ing each other on the CASE-ing The Catty Crew Members and you may have come here from Rebecca’s blog or I may be your starting point. Either way, enjoy the beautiful projects on your blog hop journey.

I have the privilege of choosing one of the talented Julia Quinn’s CASEd projects from this year to pick from! All of her projects have been so lovely throughout the year and it has made a difficult decision for me to pick. I went through and scrolled her blog and picked Julia’s stunning card from ‘Artistic Expression’ week. It is truly lovely.

For my project I have given you a sneak peak of some fabulous new products soon-to-be released next year. Can you spot them? The sneak peak products that I have chosen are a few of my favourites from the up coming catty and as a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, I was lucky enough to be able to enjoy and to be able to order a selection of products before their release date, to enjoy and have a play with. This is definitely one of the benefits I love so much… Who doesn’t love new goodies?

Be sure to join us when we start back up next year on  for more amazing projects but before then, make sure you go on over to Julia’s blog and see her stunning CASE of a Jackie Noble project. Enjoy hopping everyone!

From your favourite Vintage Graffiti artist,
Emma xo

Vintage Graffiti | Balloon Builder

Can I get anymore excited with my gift from Stampin’ Up!? I think not!

I didn’t think much of the Balloon Builder stamp set when I first saw it in our OnStage gift bag. I thought “what am I going to do with this set?” It all just seemed too hard. Then we received an early copy of the up and coming Occasions catalogue where the stamp set is featured.

In the catalogues, as you know, are always fabulous samples and examples of tags, cards, boxes, bag and many marvellous creations using almost all of the stamp sets featured in the catalogue. The samples for the Balloon Builder set were no different. They are so cute! With adorable animals from all walks of life shown on cards and tags, these little peaks of loveliness got my mojo flowing and thus, piqued my interest in the stamp set and tempted me to create my own samples and examples.

Here is my very first creation using the set.  

 
A clean and simple card just using the largest balloon shape as, well, a balloon and a cute little greeting stamped on a Watermelon Wonder banner with some soft clouds stamped behind.

Seeing a few samples being made with this set already, I think it’s going to be a popular one!

Happy stamping,

From you favourite Vintage Graffiti artist,

Emma xo

CTC #57 | Season Of Cheer

Wow, it’s been a few weeks since I’ve played along with CASE-ing that Catty but it didn’t feel like 5 weeks. I am sorry guys but I am very happy to have joined back in this week. I hope you enjoy my card and hopping along!

You may have hopped on over to me from Rebecca’s page, The Paper and Stamp Addict or I may be your starting point. Either way, please make the time to go past everyone’s blogs and take a look at the amazing Christmas projects that they have created for you this week! PS. We love comments!

My CASE was inspired by the card on the left of this picture which is on page 34 of the Stampin’ Up! Handmade For The Holidays Occasions catalogue. Changing the background DSP to a festive holly sheet of DSP and the addition of gold sequins instead of silver, I think my design keeps the original inspiration and layout for the card, but changing it up enough to make it my own. I also added some gold heat embossing to the banner and some gold thread behind the banner. Not sure if you can see it peaking out there in the picture.

I created this card, had typed up my blog and scheduled it to go live but you know when you are lying in bed, trying to go to sleep and all those ideas and things you need to do, pop into your head? Well, after I had created my first card, I started to think that I could adapt the CASE a little bit more to be more ‘me’! Always inspired by my fellow CASE-ing The Catty DT member, amazing friend and now a 2015/16 Stampin’ Up! Artisan (Congratulations Jess! What an amazing achievement. We are all so proud of you!!! x), Jessica over at The Paper Caper, water colouring was on my mind. Jessica does the most incredible wter coloured cards and I thought I’d give this beautiful technique on this CASE. Get rid of the over-powering DSP background and make the simplicity of the greeting (which is what first drew my eye to the original card – I love these Thinlits) the main element.

My first thought for Christmas was the more traditional colours on the card as seen above. The Real Red, Mossy Meadow and Kraft, but again, while I was trying to sleep, my brain was saying to me, Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay with a hint of silver what make a fun Christmas card too, so I had to give that colour combination a try as well. Not resisting a little addition of Blackberry Bliss thrown into the mix.

Now, that is my three takes on the original design. Hopefully now that they are out of my head and down on paper, I can sleep tonight. But with three designs to choose from, I’m finding it hard to pick a favourite. I would love to hear which one you like best and why?!

Next on your CASE-ing The Catty Season Of Cheer blog hop journey is the ever lovely Rachel over on her Stampin’ Pals page. Thanks for visiting and happy hopping everyone!

Happy stamping,
From your favourite Vintage Graffiti Artist,
Emma xo