Hostess sets « Nicole Stalker

Fast & Fabulous with a touch of sadness

It was time for another Color Challenge over at My Create Ink! with their Color Lab Colour Challenge #26.

This is the colours we were given this week.

After looking at the colours provided I sat down and pulled out some cardstock for each colour plus some Very Vanilla and then went about deciding on what stamp set to use.

7 different stamp sets jumped out at me (not literally of course) with ideas but so far I have only created one card using the Fast & Fabulous Level 2 Hostess set.

I’m hoping to play a little more now that all my girls are back at school for full days from today.

I received some sad news yesterday before making this card, that one of my regular Stamp-A-Stack ladies had passed away last Friday. This card didn’t start out as a sympathy card but once I’d made the card and was just deciding on the sentiment to add, the ‘With Sympathy’ from Teeny Tiny Sentiments seemed the appropriate one. The card is now in the mail to her daughter and family.

I started out by stamping the flower outline in Basic Gray onto Very Vanilla Cardstock. Then using a Blender Pen and Bashful Blue inkpad I coloured the flowers. I’ve then gone over them in parts with Perfect Plum to give them a mottled effect.

Here’s a closer look.

I’ve layered the image onto Bashful Blue and then added some ‘retired’ Bashful Blue Taffeta ribbon. This is then mounted to some Perfect Plum.

The base card is Basic Gray which has a layer of Perfect Plum and then a layer of Bashful Blue Patterns DSP.

A couple of Perfect Plum brads and the sentiment completes the card.

Supplies:
Stamp sets: Fast & Fabulous, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Card: Basic Gray, Perfect Plum, Bashful Blue, Very Vanilla, Bashful Blue Patterns DSP (Subtles Pattern Stack)
Ink: Basic Gray, Perfect Plum, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Perfect Plum brads (Subtles Pack), Small & Large Oval Punches, 3/8” Bashful Blue Taffeta ribbon (retired).

Check back later for hopefully another card using this colour scheme or another weekly challenge.

Till then…..

Asian Artistry and can anyone tell me…..

How I can get more hours in the day? Or maybe more days in a week?

I know. If we knew this we’d all only won’t more and more…….lol

Life has just been so hectic this year. Silly me thought as my children got a little older things would slow down. Now granted they range in age from nearly 9 yrs to nearly 15 yrs so maybe I’m just expecting things too soon……hahaha. With all the school things, after school activities and household duties, I’m surprised at times I get any time to stamp let alone post here but I’ve always done some form of craft since I was little and it’s definitely a part of me that won’t change. I think some time management is probably what’s in order and scheduling in time for certain things and sticking with it. The other thing is learning to say ‘NO’ at times …… I’m sure we can all relate to that one.

Anyway enough of my rambling. Tonight is catch up night. I’ll be sitting at my computer for as long as it takes tonight to type and schedule some posts. I have lots to show, share and tell you all over the next week and hopefully more regularly after that.

The card I’m going to share with you in this post is another one I made at Stamp Camp and it’s using the lovely Asian Artistry stamp set. I wish this set wasn’t leaving us at the end of the month however I may just hang onto it.

I’ve stamped the image onto Watercolour Paper using Stazon Jet Black and coloured using an Aqua Painter and inkpads. I love watercolouring but don’t often do it.

The base card is Old Olive which I’ve layered some Pink Pirouette onto. The Pink Pirouette cardstock has been stamped with the main image using Versamark. I’ve run a piece of Regal Rose and a smaller piece of Old Olive through the Big Shot using the Polka Dot Textured Impressions folder and layered the Old Olive on the reverse. The sentiment is also from the Asian Artistry stamp set and has been stamped using Regal rose.

Till next time…..

A CASE

This next card is a CASE of the card Marelle Taylor made for our Shoebox swap last month.

This card was my April GTKY card for fellow demonstrator and Stampin Up in Oz group member Jodene Tripp. I’ll be meeting Jodene at Convention and can’t wait.

I have altered one of the colours from those that Marelle had used. I substituted Rich Razzleberry for Rose Red. As we don’t have a Rich Razzleberry marker (yet??) I used a blender pen and the lid of the inkpad to pick up the colour and add to the flowers on the stamp.

I also decorated the inside which looked like this:

Till next time…..

Asian Artistry

After using this gorgeous new Level 2 Hostess set from the Autumn/Winter Mini to make Marelle’s Shoebox swap card I knew I just had to ink up my own and make something. I decided to check out some of the past Elite Challenges and picked out the Sketch Challenge from January this year and the Colour Challenge from November last year.

Here’s what I ended up with…..

Supplies:
Stamp sets: Asian Artistry (Level 2 Hostess set Autumn/Winter Mini)
Card: Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss, Very Vanilla, Riding Hood Red Patterns DSP
Ink: Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Riding Hood Red & Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Chocolate Chip 5/8” Grosgrain ribbon, Paper Piercing template & tool, Sponge Dauber.

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing the Birthday Invitations I made for one of my girls upcoming 10th Birthday Party.

Till next time…..

Echoes of Kindness

It’s been quite a while since I used the Level 2 Hostess set ‘Echoes of Kindness’ so I thought it was time to ink it up again.

Friday night was the start of my fortnightly stamp night with friends for the year so figured I’d play with it then. Unfortunately I did more talking and catching up than stamping. Two of the ladies sat making my Desktop Calendars from my video tutorial which was great.

I did get a little bit done though. I managed to colour 2 images and turn one into a card on the night….

This card was inspired by a lovely card made by Wendy Janson. I’ve gone with totally different colours and less layers too and this is the end result.

Supplies:

Stamp sets: Echoes of Kindness, Best Yet (both Hostess sets)

Card: Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Regal Rose, Watercolour Paper, Patterns Pack II DSP (Hostess)

Ink: Stazon Black, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose

Accessories: Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon, Scallop Circle, 1 3/8” & 1 1/4” circle punches, Aqua Painter, Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Quite simple but I’m happy with it. I’m finally using some of the Patterns Pack II DSP too which is great.

I was planning on making the second image into a card on Saturday but boy was it hot and sticky early. I was putting washing on the line in my pj’s and could feel the perspiration dripping down my back and this was at about 9am. I decided then I’d have a swim in the pool first to cool off before making a start on my day. My youngest daughter decided she’d join me while hubby and our second youngest ducked out to purchase a fold up shade shelter for the decking. The pool was absolutely lovely and just what I needed. When hubby got back though about 1 hour later we were still in there and the rest of the family decided to join us. That’s a very rare thing around here. Hubby only gets in if it’s really, really hot….. so I guess it was. We ended up having a muck around game of volleyball and were all having a ball which of course meant we lost track of time and how long we’d been in there. Needless to say someone ended up sunburnt and that would be me. Not that it’s pleasant but I’m so glad the children didn’t get badly burnt. A couple of us sat down to watch a movie later in the day and both hubby and I feel asleep. I ended up with a rotten headache and was in bed by 9pm that night. So not like me. I even had a snooze for a few hours through the day on Sunday too and another early night. Drinking lots of water too and finally this morning I feel normal again. Well still sore but my head feels good.

After my daytime snooze on Sunday, followed by Chicken & Chips for lunch which my lovely hubby ducked out to get while I was snoozing, I managed to turn the second image into a card.

Supplies:

Stamp sets: Echoes of Kindness (Hostess set), Fresh Cuts

Card: Regal Rose, Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Watercolour Paper, Patterns Pack II DSP (Hostess)

Ink: Stazon Black, Certainly Celery, Pretty In Pink, Regal Rose

Accessories: Certainly Celery 5/8” Grosgrain ribbon, Certainly Celery brads (soft subtles pack), Small & Large Oval punches, Paper Piercing tool & template, Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I like both cards. One’s softer looking than the other but I’m not sure if I have a preference either way. Just glad I used a stamp set that was being neglected. Many more of those in my stash so I’d better get to using them.