Bron’s Birthday Blog Hop #6

 Theme #6: Tropical Holiday

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the sixth and final blog hop celebrating Bronwyn Eastly. We're a group of stamping friends that are recognising Bron's 60th Birthday in 2022 with six blog hops, over six months, with six fun themes! And today is Bron’s special day - HAPPY BIRTHDAY Bron. Hope you are having a fabulous day and wonderful tropical holiday.

Photo from australiantraveller.com

I had a concept in my mind, but as I started my project the card morphed into something different. I have used the Sunkissed stamp set that can be found on page 69 of the July - December Stampin’ Up! Mini Catalogue. These stamps spoke to me of a relaxed tropical holiday. I have used a number of colouring techniques, including Marker Direct to Stamp, Watercolour and Stampin’ Alcohol Blends.

The card size and fold were a couple of things that changed during the development process. Working around the size of the images I had stamped and coloured, there was a lot of cutting of card-stock and Designer Series Paper, discarding pieces and recutting, then trimming to fit. As I was finishing the card I mused that I actually had no concrete idea of the dimension of pieces of card-stock and DSP used. Not my usual practice.

The card is slimline has images on the 3 front panels so the place to write the personal message is on the back of the card. 

I started by stamping the images from the Sunkissed stamp set onto Shimmery White cardstock using the Marker Direct to Stamp method. I used my Stamparatus and coloured the images in sections using a range of Stampin’ Markers, including Calypso Coral, Petal Pink, Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand, Smoky Slate, Evening Evergreen, Parakeet Party, Soft Succulent, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Tahitian Tide, Coastal Cabana, Soft Suede & Gray Granite.

The images were further coloured with a number of Stampin’ Blends, including Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Balmy Blue, Smoky Slate, Old Olive, Petal Pink, Calypso Coral combos plus my trusty Colour Lifter. Extra panels of Shimmery White card-stock were water-coloured to represent sky and sand. 

In thinking about what I would use to mat the focal pieces and the back of a couple of the panels, I thought of the now retired Waves of the Ocean Designer Series Paper. This gorgeous DSP was only available for a short time as a special promotion when the Waves of Inspiration bundle was released early. It seemed to be perfect for this tropical theme.

I am planning to give this card to a male family friend so I didn’t want to use my usual bow and sparkles. Instead I added a brilliant finish that I have seen Susan Wong, Artisan and member of #thecraftycarrotco use, ie securing a brad and tying twine to it; then wrapping the twine around the card multiple times to hold it closed. A sentiment from the Waves of Inspiration stamp set was stamped in Crumb Cake directly to the third panel so it could also be seen when the card is closed. A number of Classic Matte Dots added that final touch.  This slimline card fits into one of Stampin’ Up!s Slimline Envelopes.

Thank you so much for calling by.

Hop on over to the next blog by the very special Bronwyn Eastley (and birthday girl) and check out her delightful creation. Just click on Bronwyn’s name or the Next graphic below to be taken to her Blog, Addinktivedesigns.

If you come across a broken link or want to head to Bron's blog for a list of everyone in this blog hop, just click on this link. 

Apart from this Blog Hop there is also an Instagram Hop starting with Bron at @addinktivedesigns. Check it out too - there is more creativity to find.

#bronsbdaybloghops #stampinup #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #makeacardsendacard #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #sunkissed #wavesofinspiration

Bron’s Birthday Blog Hop #5

Theme #5: Fancy Fold

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the fifth blog hop celebrating Bronwyn Eastly. We're a group of stamping friends that are recognising Bron's 60th Birthday in 2022 with six blog hops, over six months, with six fun themes! 

Knowing Bronwyn's brilliance in creating 3D fancy fold projects (as demonstrated above) I was somewhat intimidated with this theme. Having said that, I do enjoy creating fancy folds. As I knew I could not complete with Bron, I decided to create one of the fancy folds on my "To Do" List, that is a Free-standing Slimline Miura Card. Here it is:

I want to acknowledge Susan Wong, a New Zealand Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, a member of the Artisan team and part of the Crafty Carrot Collective. In a recent session Susan demonstrated a Miura Slimline card. While I used a completely different suite I so appreciated the numerous tips and tricks Susan shared. She and all the Crafty Carrot ladies are so amazing.

A friend of mine is enjoying an important "0" birthday and she is not one for flowers so i created this with her in mind. I hopes she likes it. I chose the Splendid Day Suite that includes gorgeous stamps, dies and amazing Speciality Designer Series Paper.

The Miura fancy fold is an Origami fold that required careful scoring of Basic white card base. The stamped outline leaves were coloured with a Blender Pen dabbed into either Soft Sea Foam or Pool Party Classic Stampin' ink pads. Some of the detailed dies from the Splendid Stems dies were used to cut out leaf shapes from either Basic White & Pool Party card-stocks or now retired Champagne Foil. The little bowl shapes were die cut from the same papers.

The photos above and below focus specifically on the 2 inner panels. The front panel uses what could be called a "B" side of the luscious Splendid Day SDSP, whereas the 2 inner panels used the foil designs, one with a Sahara Sand tinge, the other with a Soft Sea Foam tinge. Part of the difficulty is cutting the angles to match the folds.

The Miura fold does not usually have the extra panel showing underneath the diagonal fold (see the close up below) but I added this to enable the card to be more stable when standing.

The die cut panels were cut using the Deckled Edge dies. I so love the effect of the deckled edge. Pool Party Sheer ribbon was used to tie the card closed. A couple of Brushed Brass Butterflies were added to the front panel and a few Iridescent Rhinestone Jewels provided a subtle shimmer.

One of Stampin' Up!s Soft Succulent Slimline Envelopes is perfect for this card. I added a spare stamped and coloured leaf to the envelope.

Thank you so much for calling by.

Hop on over to the next blog by the very special Kathryn Mangelsdorf and check out her delightful creation. Just click on Kathryn's name or the Next graphic below to be taken to her Blog, Kathryn's Stampin' World.

If you come across a broken link or want to head back to Bron's blog for a list of everyone in this blog hop, just click on this link. 

Apart from this Blog Hop there is also an Instagram Hop starting with Bron at @addinktivedesigns. Check it out too - there is more creativity to find.

#bronsbdaybloghops #stampinup #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #makeacardsendacard #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #splendidthoughts  #thecraftycarrotco

Bron’s Birthday Blog Hop #4

Theme #4: CASE the Catty from a page numbered in the 60s

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the fourth blog hop celebrating Bronwyn Eastly. We're a group of stamping friends that are recognising Bron's 60th Birthday in 2022 with six blog hops, over six months, with six fun themes! 

The theme for this blog hop is to CASE a page numbered in the 60's from Stampin' Up!s  2022-2023 Annual Catalogue. The picture above shows the cards illustrated on page 66 featuring the Awash in Beauty Suite. The card I am CASEing is the card at the top centre with the So Saffron card-base. Here is my version:

I CASEd the CATTY's card layout and that there was a die cut as background to the design. I so love the background die from the Organic Beauty dies, but it hasn't made its way to my homes as yet, so I needed to find another background die. Prior to making this card I had just created my first Christmas card for 2022, so as I was starting to get into the Christmas groove my eyes fell on the Christmas Pinecone dies. That decision completely changed the mood of this CASE. I had something different in mind.

I started by die cutting the finer pine/pinecone background from some Pearlescent Speciality Paper. After being partially adhered down onto a piece of Basic White card-stock that had some splatters randomly stamped in Fresh Freesia ink; some Soft Sea Foam Classic ink was very lightly blended over the background with a brilliant Stampin' Up! Blending Brush.

Next - some stamping on Basic White card-stock using the Merriest Moments stamp set. The poinsettias were stamped in Polished Pink, holly in Soft Sea Foam, Pine fronds in Mint Macaron and the rounder leaves in Soft Succulent. They were all fussy cut and I couldn't resist adding some Shimmery White Embossing Paste. It's such a pity the camera doesn't show the shimmer. The flowers and leaves were arranged with a sense of the layout of the card I was CASEing.

The card was finished with a white heat embossed sentiment from the Christmas to Remember stamp set on Mint Macaron card-stock. The sentiment was die cut with a coordinating label die from the Seasonal Labels dies. The label was trimmed a little narrower with my Trimmer. Some Iridescent Pearl Basic Jewels added that final touch to the centres of the poinsettias and were scattered on the label and background. I don't know what came over me - using so much shimmer - ah well it's for Christmas.

An extra poinsettia and leaves were adhered to a Basic White card inner. Some extra poinsettias were adhered to the back flap of a Basic White C6 Envelope. I do love, in some simple way, to link the card inner and envelope to the card front design.

Thank you so much for dropping in and helping to celebrate Bron's coming birthday. While it would have been so disappointing for Bron to give up the dream of celebrating with an overseas holiday, it is so much fun to celebrate with monthly blog hops and there are still more to come over the next 2 months. We will be here again on the 3rd of August, launching the blog hop at 7.00pm EST.

Hop on over to the next blog by the lovely Elizabeth Gross and check out her delightful creation. Just click on Elizabeth's name or the Next graphic below to be taken to her Blog, Lillybet's Papers.

If you come across a broken link or want to head back to Bron's blog just click on this link 

Apart from this Blog Hop there is also an Instagram Hop starting with Bron at @addinktivedesigns. Check it out too - there is more creativity to find.

#bronsbdaybloghops #stampinup #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #makeacardsendacard #merriestmoments #christmastoremember #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting

Bron’s Birthday Blog Hop #3

#3 Theme - INKY BLUES

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspiration with Andrea and the third blog hop recognizing Bronwyn Eastly. We're a group of stamping friends that are celebrating Bron's 60th Birthday in 2022 with six blog hops, over six months, with six fun themes! 

In preparing for this Blog Hop I decided to do an alcohol wash on Vellum using various blue Stampin' Blends and Isopropyl alcohol. I knew this would create a gorgeous sea background so used the soon to retire Seas the Day bundle from the January-June Mini Catalogue. Here's my card:

Starting with a piece of Vellum and a range of blue Stampin' Blends combos, including Starry Sky, Night of Navy, Balmy Blue, Tahitian Tide, Pool Party & light Bermuda Bay. The colours were applied in patches and the Isopropyl Alcohol spritzed over. The fluid was swirled around and allowed to dry. A second light spritz of alcohol added lighter splotches reminiscent of bubbles.

The largest die from the Seas dies cut a beautiful frame from Basic White card-stock. The jelly fish was stamped in Pool Party Classic ink, the octopus in Coastal Cabana ink and the star fish in So Saffron ink. Some Coastal Cabana, Starry Sky and Pool Party inks were lightly blended over the edges of the die cut frame. A die cut plant and a smaller leafy plant also had a little colour added with Blending Brushes.

The coloured Vellum was adhered to some Basic White card-stock and the frame was overlaid using some Dimensionals to give the scene a little depth. The various sea creatures and plants were arranged and adhered in place. This front panel was adhered to a Starry Sky card base.

The card was finished with a sentiment from the Seas the Day stamp set that was stamped in Starry Sky ink onto Basic White card-stock. The sentiment was cut out using a small stitched circle from the Beautiful Shapes dies. Some White Bakers Twine was swirled to the back of the label. A number of coloured Basic Rhinestone Jewels were sprinkled around. They had been coloured with the Stampin' Blends listed above.

A Basic White card inner was decorated with an off cut of the coloured Vellum and an extra coloured die cut sea plant.

Thank you so much for dropping in and helping to celebrate Bron's coming birthday. It is such a pity that Bron wasn't able to celebrate with an overseas holiday, but it is so much fun to celebrate with monthly blog hops - there are still more to come over the next 3 months. We will be here again on the 3rd of July, launching the hop at 7.00pm EST.

Hop on over to the next blog, by the delightful Catherine Proctor and check out her gorgeous creation. Just click on Cathy's name (above) or the graphic below to be taken to her Blog, What Cathy Made.

Apart from the Blog Hop there is also an Instagram Hop starting with Bron at @addinktivedesigns. Check it out too - there is more creativity to find.

#bronsbdaybloghops #stampinup #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #makeacardsendacard #seastheday #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting

Bron’s Birthday Blog Hop #2

 #2 Theme - 60’s Retro

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspiration with Andrea and the second blog hop celebrating Bronwyn Eastly. We're a group of stamping friends that are celebrating Bron's 60th Birthday in 2022 with six blog hops, over six months, with six fun themes! 

While I lived through the 1960s, I was very young so the '60s and 70s blend together in my memory. As I researched the era, so many memories came tumbling back - but what could I incorporate into a card design? Thinking about the era key things jumped out, ie psychedelic, designs and colours that would make you feel woozy, Hippies, the flower children, "Peace and love man", etc. I saw many designs that combined bright orange and pink with some yellow; stylised flowers and smiley faces in the middle of daisies. 

With all of that in mind, this is what I came up with:

A panel was created with wavy swirls emanating from an off-centre point. Wavy stripes were coloured using a range of Stampin' Alcohol Blends, ie Light and Dark Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie and some Sweet Sorbet (one of the new In Colours). Once the coloured panel was trimmed to size, it was mounted onto a slightly larger piece of Melon Mambo card-stock.

A Basic White card-stock card front was spattered with both Melon Mambo and Pumpkin Pie Stampin' Write Markers. I was a bit carried away with the splatters! Some White Bakers Twine was wrapped around the card front a couple of times. I was intending to add a Twine bow but it didn't really work so just left it with the twine under the lettering.

The recently retired Playful Alphabet dies were used to cut PEACE & LOVE and a touch of Pumpkin Pie ink was added to the top of the letters with a Blending Brush. Also, the recently retired Pierced Blooms dies were used to cut stylised flowers from Basic White card-stock. The flowers were scattered around and Pearl Basic Jewels that had been coloured with the Light Daffodil Delight Blend were added to the flower centres. I was tempted to add yellow smily faces at the centre of the flowers bud decided against it. What do you think???

The card inner is very simple with Basic White card-stock mounted on Melon Mambo card-stock. A couple of extra Pierced Blooms were added. An off-cut strip from the Blends coloured panel was adhered to the side edge of a C6 Basic White Envelope to tie it in with the card it will carry.

Thank you so much for dropping in and helping to celebrate Bron's coming birthday. It is such a pity that Bron wasn't able to celebrate with an overseas holiday, but it is so much fun to celebrate with monthly blog hops over the coming 4 months and past Blog Hops. We will be here again on the 3rd of June, with a theme of "Inky Blues" launching the hop at 7.00pm EST.

Hop over to the next blog, by the delightful Chantelle Randall and check out her gorgeous creation. Just click on Chantelle's name (above) or the coloured words below to be taken to her Blog.

 Check out the Next Blog 

Apart from the Blog Hop there is also an Instagram Hop starting with Bron at @addinktivedesigns. Check it out too - there is more creativity to find.

#bronsbdaybloghops #stampinup #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #makeacardsendacard #piercedblooms #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting

Brons Birthday Blog Hop #1

#1 Theme: An Inspiration Picture

We're a group of stamping friends that are celebrating Bron's 60th Birthday in 2022 with six blog hops, over six months, with six fun themes! We have an inspiration pic for tonight's hop (ie its Bron's Blog Header). 

Isn't it a lovely picture. For me, the picture speaks of tropical and of holiday. I love the colour scheme, the delicate pink flowers and shawl, the off-white wooden boards, the roundness of the coconuts and the curve of the straw bag handles. All these things inspired my card:

As I was writing the blog I realised the card looked rather washed out. It looked fine in real life but the camera didn't seem to pick up some of the subtleties. I couldn't let it rest so added some watercolour pencil colouring and blended it with a Blender Pen. Which do you prefer - the card above or the one below with extra colouring. 

I chose the retiring Timeless Tropical stamp set and white heat embossed flowers and leaves on Shimmery White card-stock. 

Flowers and leaves were water-coloured using Blushing Bride & Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' ink, and a leftover piece of Shimmery White card-stock was water-coloured with Crumb Cake ink. Once dry, leaves were punched out with the gorgeous Bough Punch.

A piece of the B side of Heart and Home Designer Series Paper was used for the background to replicate white planks. As the flowers were so delicate in colour the wood grain did dominate a little so I embossed a piece of Vellum card-stock with the now retired 3D Plank Embossing Folder - it was perfect to maintain the wooden plank theme. This was layered over the DSP.

A die cut circle (cut using the Layering Circles die set) was popped up on Dimensionals. The water-coloured flowers were positioned around the edge of the circle and the water-coloured leaves were tucked underneath. The punched Crumb Cake leaves also were tucked in and around. A sentiment from the Timeless Tropical stamp set was white heat embossed onto Crumb Cake card-stock and fussy cut. A piece of Frayed White Ribbon was further frayed and tucked under the sentiment. Several Pearl Basic Jewels were scattered around. I'm sure the clam shell in the picture would have produced a pearl.

I love to decorate the card inner to coordinate with the front design. A thin left over strip of the same DSP as adhered at the bottom and an extra water-coloured flower and leaf were added. It's also important not to have a naked envelope so a few flowers were stamped in Blushing Bride ink on a C6 Basic White envelope.

As mentioned, I added some extra colour to the flowers with a Melon Mambo Watercolour Pencil and softened the colour with a Blender Pen and re-photographed. Which version do you prefer?

Thank you so much for dropping in and helping to celebrate Bron's coming birthday. It is such a pity that Bron wasn't able to celebrate with an overseas holiday, but it is going to be so much fun to celebrate with monthly blog hops over the coming 5 months. We will be here again on the Tuesday 3rd of May, launching the hop at 7.00pm EST where we will have a Retro theme.

Hop over to the next blog, by the amazing Lou Kitzelman and check out her gorgeous creation. Just click on the graphic below to be taken to her Blog.

  

Apart from the Blog Hop there is also an Instagram Hop starting with Bron at @addinktivedesigns. Check it out too - there is more creativity to find.

#bronsbdaybloghops #stampinup #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #makeacardsendacard #timelesstropical #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting