Strawberry Swaps - August

My video today is of the cards that the Strawberries made, The Strawberries are demonstrators whose upline is the gorgeously lovely Sarah Berry. I do have to confess that I have had these for a while, but haven’t shared these. Sorry! But I am sharing these now.

You have seen my swap as it was the Under the sea card which I made in August. I still love this card, with seaweed. The other swaps are gorgeous. I love them. The team have definetly inspired me. I love seeing what they come up with and the different ways we all use our supplies. Amazingly there was only 1 repeat stamp set, which was Perennial Birthday. The video is below showing all our ideads and cards (because we post the ideas, to each others and 3d items can be expensive to post.

I have so much inspiration it makes me want to pull out some of my stamp sets and play!

Strawberry Swaps for August

So on Friday I got happy mail, I was so excited. I received a parcel of swaps from the Strawberry Stampers (the Strawberry Stampers are a group of demonstrators led by the lovely Sarah Berry.)  Then I realised that I hadn't shown you all the swaps from August.

The cards are a gorgeous collection of fronts and a card, made by the other members of the team. Surprisingly there was only one repeat stamp set and a combination of different colours, I love guessing what colours are used and the stamp set. I often use swaps for inspiration. Whether it is layouts or colour combinations.

They are all gorgeous, one of my favourite is definetly the card by Martin from martinsmayhem.blogspot.com. Which uses the Share what you love' stamp set, I love the colour combination.

I am off to use these colours on a card, today I am playing with the Frosted Floral suite.

Chase and Follow your dreams

This has to be the most perfect stamp set ever! it is amazing, it is deffnetly one that everyone should have. It is not overly complicated, it is easy to use and would be a fab addition to any stash. This set was definitely the first on my list when I saw the new catalogue at OnStage in April. I have to say Stampin' Up! have created lots of gorgeous sets but this takes the biscuit.

It lends it self to be used with lots of different techniques, from embossing, to colouring on the stamp with Stampin' Markers or cutting the feathers and using blends to add colour. I also used pigment powders and have a plan to use gilding flakes. I have seen so many beautiful cards. The video below shows the gorgeousness of the stamp set and some of the cards I have used making it.

I have a new box of Autumn Winter Catalogue items, I have to test them out, I am so excited to show you what I have selected and what I am planning to make with them.

Its an Animal Expedition

I have to confess I love the animal expedition paper, I have two packs, it is definitely going to be a pack which I will hoard.It is gorgeous, I love all the papers. The stamps are gorgeous too, they look good with different colouring methods, whether it is Blends, Stampin' markers or watercolours. The dies cut the papers and the stamps and their is a fabulous trick to have the animals facing both ways, rather than just one. If you hold the papers up to the light you can see the outline and place the die on and then I suggest keeping it in place with Washy tape. To reverse stamp i used my Stamparutus to line up where | wanted my image and stamped on to a large flat stamp.

You could easily create so many cards just using the stamp set, or papers, the fussy cutting is not so difficult. As a suite it does come in to its own if you add it all together, the ribbon is gorgeous and you can create stunning leaf collages. 

All thats missing is a monkey! But the other animals are super cute. Which is your favourite?