Hey Everybody! Hope your weekend's off to a good start?

I had my first techniques class for the year yesterday and we kicked it off with a fun collage technique. Whilst I adore simple, elegant, uncluttered cards, I did come into Stampin' Up! several years ago having worked on lots of altered books and collagey, "arty" projects, and I love getting a little messy and trying different things.

On top of that, I had recently visited the blog of an amazing mixed media artist, Donna Downey who's work just gives me goosebumps! It's so fresh and bright and free spirited. I wanted to try to recreate some of that into fun cards.

Our first card was simple shapes that easily became houses, and really all it consisted off was very simple rectangles and triangles cut from patterned Designer Series Paper, stamped on, daubered around the edges, attached to a background, and some texture added with faux stitching.

I've used the Tea For Two Designer Series Paper, Everything Eleanor and Elements of Style stamp sets for the floral images, Loving Thoughts stamp set for the couple of words, Stampin' Write Markers & White Gel Pen for a bit of doodling and Island Indigo card stock for the base card and punched window.

I this would make a fun housewarming card with a small tweak to include the words NEW HOME, or CONGRATULATIONS.

I felt this kind of technique would lend itself very well to a punch of flowers, also stamped on patterened paper, torn around and arranged on a card front.  The card for this one didn't come out in what I would describe as an actual "collaged" project, however it is still fun and cheerful and has given me lots of ideas for the next one!

I do love simple and elegant, but I have to confess to being a sucker for lots of texture too! This card really provides that!

Well, I can't wait to get back into my craft space and make more mess, so I better sign off here, finish some chores, and hopefully I can find some creative time later!

See you again soon!

Kathryn

Hi folks,

Just realised I haven't posted for a couple of days, nor have I made any new cards! That's what happens when you have another job elsewhere . . .

Then I remembered I still had items that went into last year's Mystery Box challenge that I hadn't shared with you yet. I SO loved that Mocha Morning Designer Series Paper!

One of the months our challenge was to make five gift cards - all along the same theme of papers and colours, but all different.

Well, you know me! If I'm going to make five co-ordinating gift cards, they have to have a gift tag holder!  The stamp set is Everything Eleanor and the matching card stock is Early Espresso.

I added just the slightest touches of Pretty In Pink and some half pearls to some of these cards, and DON'T forget the matching envelopes!

Have you seen the Stampin' Up! envelopes in real life?  Think Very Vanilla or Whisper White cardstock in a paper weight - same beautiful semi-gloss smooth surface which is soo beautiful for stamping on!!!!

Card 1. Stamping direct on the DSP. Love the different effects you get when you try this!

Card 2. More stamping direct on DSP, and some spotlighting - LOVE this!! Notice the tiny touches of Pretty In Pink marker on the petals of the flowers?

Card 3. Bit of layered punching. Sometimes it's good to punch on an angle instead of straight!

Card 4. More stamping on DSP, more Pretty In Pink on the petals, and more layered punches.  See how the cards use all the same sorts of items and yet they are each so different?

Card 5. More stamping direct on DSP, more layered punches - but this time a Vintage Brad is the focal point on what could almost move into the elusive "masculine" card category!

Well, as you can see from these, I absolutely adore the Everything Eleanor stamp set, the Mocha Morning Specialty Designer Series Paper as well as the First Edition Specialty DSP, and the lovely colour combinations with Early Espresso card and ink!

I do have a few more creations from last years Mystery Box Challenge, so I will come back and share some more soon.

I have a techniques class tomorrow (Friday 8th) 12noon - 2pm in Croydon North. First one for the year and there is room for a couple more ladies, so if you're interested, $20.00 and please rsvp on 0418 361 931.

My team also has some events coming up - so be sure to check my calendar of events on my blog, or on my Stampin' Up Web Page.

See you soon,

Kathryn

Hi All,

Hope you enjoyed checking out all the ladies' journeys in the One Little Word Blog Hop over the weekend?

Today I have a real treat for you! Over the past week or so I have been playing with some items I got in the pre-order for the new Seasonal Mini Catalogue which started yesterday. I have discovered a delightful stamp set and co-ordinating Designer Series Paper and had such fun playing with the gorgeous fresh colours and images.

The stamp set is called Rain or Shine and is a set of ten which includes three umbrellas, two handles, three greeting stamps and two different rain drop stamps (you can see one of the rain drop stamps in the third card in this post).

The co-ordinating Designer Series Paper comes from a pack called Sunshine & Sprinkles. It's so fun and fresh with Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Lucky Limeade, Marina Mist, Pacific Point, Whisper White and Basic Grey in the mix!

The Paper Doily is another new item from the Seasonal Mini Catalogue and comes in a pack of 20 (which I have now used up completely and will have to order another pack!).  I love how the size of the doilies fit perfectly onto a card front, but not only that, they fit beautifully with the size of the umbrella stamps in Rain or Shine.

So while I was designing the previous cheerful card, I started getting an idea in my head about a white-on-white, super pretty card using similar items.  I have often wanted to make a white-on-white card - it lends itself to texture and with so many Textured Impressions Embossing Folders at our finger tips, I just couldn't resist!

Isn't that just too cool?  Of course the bride to be would have to be a girly-girl, not one of these super modern brides who's going to be wearing red or black, but I guess it would still look ultra-schmick if you switched out the Pretty In Pink and Melon Mambo for super bold colours like Real Red & Basic Black. That would be something wouldn't it!

This whole process got the creative juices flowing and because I was on a hearts and lace kind of creative spurt, I looked at the other new Designer Series Papers that are in the new Seasonal Catalogue and I lighted upon More Amore Specialty Designer Series Paper. Love this pretty, romantic pack!

So I switched the Melon Mambo umbrellas for Primrose Petals and I swapped out the Marina Mist backgrounds for Pool Party which really softened the look, changed over from Whisper White to Very Vanilla, mixed and matched the 1-1/4" inch squares, and I have to say I am just as happy with this result as with the other two!

(See the cute little heart shaped rain drops???)

Because I ran out of Paper Doilies before I got to this card, I scouted around our Annual Catalogue and found the Delicate Doilies Sizzlits L to layer this umbrella onto, and you'll also notice peaking out from under the edges of the doily are textured hearts from the Fashionable Hearts Embosslits.

Love how the Embosslits cut and emboss at the same time!

So, I had a busy old time, I actually ended up making 20 cards in total of this lot! Twelve blue ones with the Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP, four white-on-white ones, and four using the More Amore Specialty DSP.

I'm thinking this would make a lovely boxed gift set for someone, wouldn't it?  Might have to work on some packaging!

Well, thanks for looking, please feel welcome to leave a comment below (love feedback!!). Catch you again soon in stamping land!

Kathryn R.

Hi Everyone, and welcome to another great year of monthly blog hops with my One Little Word class!

The One Little Word (OLW) journey is a very personal one, mostly via scrapbooking, photo taking and lots of journalling, and this year, quite a number have chosed to share their progress, not just in the online classroom galleries and message board, but via a monthly blog hop. I am very excited to take part in this too, sharing my own experience, but also being inspired by my classmates.

Our prompt for January was to "invite" our word and let it start becoming an active force in our day to day lives, popping up where it would, inspiring us. Many of us delved into dictionaries and thesaurus's to gain further insight and meaning into our word, and we created 18 footy-card sized artworks, one for each month of 2013 with some intentions regarding our word, one title, one photo and four art cards to help us get into the groove of our word.

To keep thing simple, I selected a Stampin' Up! Simply Scrappin' Kit called Afternoon Daydream, which I will use all year in creating my album and maintaining a colour scheme. (Who would think that I would EVER choose MORE MUSTARD as a standard colour in a "ME" album!!!! ) LOL!

As you can guess from my first 9 cards, my word for 2013 is LIGHT.  We had to include a photo of ourselves too, and I kind of struggle with photos of me, especially the ones I have taken myself - they are all ghastly! So it was kind of nice when I found this photo of me and my lovely friend Alisha, at the airport after last year's Stampin' Up! Convention in Canberra. It fits right in with my other word pairs - in this case HIGHLIGHT!!!!  Convention was a highlight of 2013, Alisha staying with our group of 8 was a highlight and then later, Alisha joining my team was another highlight!

So even though the photo was six months old, it fitted right into my LIGHT year!

I completed these 18 cards quite early in the month and have been hanging out to see what the next month brings by way of prompts! No doubt by the time you read this, I will already have downloaded the February prompts and watched to the video!

So, since I will be busy with that, I better tell you who else is in the blog hop, so you can go check out what they have been doing with their words in January!  The next person on the blog hop is Missus Wookie.

If you get lost, you can always come back here to the main list below to find the next person. The blog hop goes live at 6am Eastern (US) time, which is very different to us here, so if the next link doesn't work immediately, just give it another few minutes then try again! Hopefully we've all worked out the time conversion correctly!

So far the participants in the February Hop include:

Lee: http://thelinarstudio.typepad.com/embracelife/

Cheri: cheriandrews.blogspot.com

Lisa: http://backtoallen.com/category/challenges/one-little-word/

Lynn: www.crafty-creativity.blogspot.com

Nikki: www.inkyart.com.au

You are here : Kathryn: www.katlodesigns.com

Missus Wookie: mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.com

Veronica: www.veronicanorris.typepad.com

Eydie: www.whatwecreate.net

Karen: http://womenontractors.blogspot.com

Kelly: http://www.septemberblue.net

Melanie: http://mellybirddesigns.wordpress.com

Valerie: http://naughtystamper.blogspot.com/

Marya: www.lotustreecrafts.com

Nupur: http://woodpeckertales.com

Angela: angelanoel.com

Janet: http://lifeinsideascrapbookroom.blogspot.com

Dona: http://orangegearle.blogspot.com/

Ruth: http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com/

Naomi: http://www.poeticaperture.com/

Pam: http://pammiek.blogspot.com/

Kara: http://iwannabemewhenigrowup.blogspot.com

Clare: http://claresthomas.blogspot.co.uk/

Margareta: http://www.paperpilekitten.com/

Tricia: http://onecreativemom.wordpress.com/

Jacqueline: http://goodwolve.blogs.com/jacqueline/