Do you like a production line?

It's great when you've worked out a design you love, and can then quickly cut up the card stock and stamp out all the images in a very short amount of time.

However, it's no so much fun when you work so quickly that all of a sudden you have 48 card fronts stamped and cut, and then you have to do some colouring in, and add ribbon and embellishments, and adhere them all together! That can sure take a while!

And here's proof!

This was me two weeks ago, sitting on my Qantas Flight to Brisbane for Stampin' Up!s Onstage Live event, with my fast fuse in one hand and my swaps spread out on the tray table so I could start sticking the layers together!

See, not even coloured in yet, and ribbon needing to be attached - oh, but you can't CUT ribbon on a plane because you can't take scissors!!

Later on, in the hotel room, sitting cross legged on the floor at the coffee table with two of my team-mates helping me . . . cut, colour, attach . . . cut, colour, attach . . .

And bagging them up in cello bags, and sticking labels on the backs . . . 

I loved the finished item with it's super quick collage stamping, and high-lighting the stunning stamp from Fabulous Flora stamp set. There were eight variations - a portrait and a landscape version in four different colour versions - featuring Tip Top Taupe, Pear Pizzazz, Peekaboo Peach and Watermelon Wonder.

I loved working with these colours - and you know what? I loved the design idea so much, I have now made another half a dozen variations, but I'll show you those another day!

And you know another really cool thing?  I got the idea for these cards straight out of the catalogue. That's right, the flower image is from one of our hostess rewards stamp sets called Fabulous Flora and the sample shown on page 199 of our annual catalogue was all I needed to see to inspire my 48 card front swaps for On Stage.

Thanks Stampin' Up! for making it so easy!

Finding images to go onto cards for males can be a challenge - and then even when you find a great image, putting it with the masculine colours and textures can take us outside our comfort zone.  It's SO easy to make cards to suit women when there are so many more choices of products!

When I was asked to create a 21st Birthday Card for a friends much loved grandson, I was pleased to hear he likes "old things", old leather bags, box Brownies, vintagey, antiquey things!

Out comes the trusty Stampin' Up! stamp set Traveler along with From Land to Sea (he likes lighthouses too!) and I decided on a collage style card in a slightly larger size than our standard A6.

First I stamped each of the images and added a swathe of colour using the paint brush swipe images from Work Of Art stamp set.

Then I added a bit of extra colour using Blender Pens and Ink pads and layered each piece onto Basic Black.

I then just played around with how they best fit onto the card front, rearranging them a couple of times until I was happy with it, added the number 21 in gold glimmer paper and some scraps of various Designer Series papers behind, and stuck them all down.

Something this special also needs to have the inside decorated, but I also had to aware of leaving enough room for Grandma to write a special birthday message.

By all accounts, she was very, very happy that she asked me to create this special card and the young man loved it. How nice is that to have been a part of his 21st birthday celebrations and helping to create special memories for them both.

And now for something a little arty . . . 

Over the weekend I decided to run an (impromptu) "Virtual Party" for my team on our Secret Facebook Group. It was my birthday on Friday and my hubby had to go away for the weekend, so what better thing to do in the evening than spend a couple of hours (okay, okay, about 8 hours) in my stamping room with my team chatting online, and whipping up some creativity!

I posted an inspiration photo and a Crafty Bingo board image on the group and invited them if they didn't have any projects already on the go, to use the suggestions on the Bingo Board and/or the cute image for their inspiration to make something. The image of a very cute cake with bird and bow, came from a Facebook post with no reference or link to who the original cake decorator was.

Now, I do love a cute bird, and I think the colours in this image so match the Stampin' Up! colours and some of our current stamps and Designer Series Paper patterns.

I grabbed out a stack of supplies in these colours and patterns and whilst chatting to my team, asking them "Get to know you" type questions on the group and setting some challenges for them, I started thinking about how I could make an effective card with these products :

As it happens, because I was very much multi-tasking, I decided to pop over to my Pinterest boards and have a look through the projects there. Did you know I even have a Bird Projects board on Pinterest for just such a moment?

I love this cute bird by Martha Lever, so rather than trying to find a Stampin' Up! tool that I could use to cut out a bird, I decided to draw one by hand similar to this one. I love the sketchy black outline and the collage of images in different layers.

I pulled out several stamp sets including "By The Tide" for the seashell text stamp, "Tap Tap Tap" for the typewriter letters, "You are Remarkable" for the branches, "Butterfly Basics" for a bit of fernery. I also used sponge daubers, aqua wash pen, white gel pen, white embossing powder and Black Journalling pen.

I drew the bird onto the Blushing Bride floral print paper from the Subtles Paper Stack, hand cut it, then sponged it with Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo and Cherry Cobbler Inks.

I collage stamped the background images all over the 8" x 6" piece of Soft Sky floral print paper.

I watercoloured the leaves using Old Olive ink and the Aqua-wash pen, and sponged Lost Lagoon, Old Olive and Not Quite Navy over all of the images, leaving some lighter areas.

I stamped and heat embossed with white embossing powder, the sea shell text stamp from "By The Tide" onto the birds body twice. Love that effect!!

Then handwrote with black journalling pen the words around the edge from Victor Hugo :

"Be like the bird,

that pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight,

feels them give way beneath her, and sings . . .

knowing she hath wings."

My last step was to add a tiny touch of white gel pen to some of the leaves and the birds tail to bring back a little more light into the overall image, then looked around my room and by some sort of miracle saw this A4 document frame sitting on a shelf. Perfect!

I am so excited to have a new piece of art for the walls of my room. Funnily enough I have been carrying it from room to room throughout my house since Saturday night, so I can keep pausing and admiring it!

Do you ever do any collage stamping? I would love to hear from you so please leave a comment below if you'd like to know more about the techniques used or perhaps attend a class on sponging and collage stamping.

See you soon with Ink on your Fingers (and there's plenty of that with sponging!).

Kathryn

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And just a reminder that the below Weekly Deals end on Tuesday night:

Clothespins [133764] $7.00 $5.25

Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [133520] $13.00 $9.75

Eclectic Paper-Piercing Pack [133778] $14.00 $10.50

Floral Frames Framelits Die [127012] $45.00 $33.75

Hello Honey Classic Stampin' Pad [133643] $11.50 $8.63