CASE-ing the Catty #224 – Favourite Occasions Big Shot Project

4 Comments April 14, 2019 hightreeshousesite

This week’s Case-ing the Catty blog hop is very well timed with the theme of Big Shot projects. This week we received the news that the Big Shot die cutting machine is going to be replaced in Stampin’ Up!’s range with something new and improved for die cutting. I’m excited to find out what this will be as I absolutely love die cutting. I have absolutely no patience for fussy cutting and much prefer the speed and accuracy of die cutting. Embossing is also very much my jam.

Truth be told I really struggled to come up with a project this week. Not because of a lack of ideas, on the contrary there are so many possibilities and so many great Big Shot examples in the Occasions Catalogue that I couldn’t pick just one thing!

So I’ve decided to show a couple of cards using my two favourite individual dies in the whole catalogue.

The first card I shared a sneak peek of a few weeks ago in our Needlepoint Nook hop. But that embossed stitched die from the Needlepoint Elements Framelit Dies is so darn gorgeous I thought y’all deserved a closer look at it.

This card is a CASE of the yellow layout on p 38, but using my favourite designs from the Needlepoint Nook DSP instead. As gorgeous as this paper is I think the real star is that stitching. I just love the effect this die gives so very much – it has a lovely tactile quality that makes you want to touch the card as well.

This card also used my all time favourite colour combination, Night of Navy and Whisper White, with beautiful Balmy Blue as well. For this reason I’ve paired the card with one of the NoN striped envelopes.

My second card uses what is easily my other favourite die from this catalogue – the large gears from the Garage Gears Thinlit Dies. These look fabulous in foil, or can cut the multi-coloured cogs straight from the co-ordinating DSP (like I used on my card last week), or look super special as I’ve used them here as an embossed background.

I’ve CASEd this idea from the green card in the centre of the picture on p 42 of the Occasions Catalogue and used the Big Shot embossing mats to achieve this look. These mats let you turn any cutting die into an embossing die instead – how cool is that? It basically doubles the number of dies you have in your collection.

The car is cut straight from the DSP using the matching die from this suite. Of course the stitched rectangles make an appearance on this card as well. Maybe if I really had to pick a favourite set of dies this would be it… So many fabulous dies!!

I’m off next to see what Tina has to share with us, make sure you keep hopping along, too.

And don’t forget to pull out that Big Shot and make something then share it with us on our Facebook page between now and next Monday (April 22). We love seeing everyone’s CASEd creations every week.

Thanks for stopping by,

Siobhan.

Paper Adventures Team Blog Hop – Inspired by Fashion

10 Comments April 12, 2019 hightreeshousesite

Welcome to your next stop on this month’s blog hop with a few of our fabulous Paper Adventures team. I am stoked about this month’s theme – ‘inspired by fashion’. I can’t wait to see what everyone has come up with.

I had so many ideas for this post (and lots of them I will still make) but ended up going in quite a different direction to planned at the last minute (like, this morning, last minute).

Many moons ago I used to pay a lot more attention to fashion, I read Vogue, I spent a lot of money on beautiful clothes for me. And then I had kids – hahahahaha. So the fashion I pay attention to these days is for the little people. And I do love children’s clothes. I particularly love bright and bold patterns and am often inspired by the colours in their clothes.

At the moment I am really loving the fabulous designs from Bonds. They are knocking it out of the park when it comes to my requirements for ‘bright and bold’. In fact when Miss Genevieve was born Kelly sent her a fabulous suit with matching card. This is the suit that has inspired my card today (a bit faded from lots of wearing and washing!)

The spunky rhino on the suit reminded me of Mr Rhino in the Animal Expedition DSP. I’ll be stockpiling this paper ahead of its upcoming retirement because it’s so good for kids’ cards and I love when I can cut something straight from DSP with the matching die.

Some of my very most favourite colours are here, too – I see Night of Navy, Basic Grey, Whisper White, Tranquil Tide, Crushed Curry, Blueberry Bushel, and maybe a little Shaded Spruce as well. There’s even some tiny bright red/pink birds hanging out, just like in the Animal Expedition DSP.

Unusually for me I used a few different elements from different sets on this card, because the more I looked at the suit the more I saw to the design. The background strip of DSP (like the cuffs on the suit) is from Share What You Love, the large palm fronds are cut from the Tropical Escape DSP, and I’ve used the Petal Passion dies to cut some leaves and flowers in Whisper White, Blueberry Bushel, and Crushed Curry.

The sentiment is stamped in Lovely Lipstick and is from the Occasions Catalogue set Itty Bitty Birthdays. I don’t know how I didn’t see this the first 157 times I looked through the catalogue but I only just noticed it a couple of weeks ago, promptly ordered it, and have been thrilled with its awesomeness.

That rhino is so cute I had to put him on the inside of the card as well.

I love the way this card turned out and it has me thinking about some of her other cool suits as well and how they could be turned into card designs.

And just for a final dose of cuteness, here is Miss Genevieve modelling the suit, chilling in her car and practicing her very best blue steel.

Now head on over next to Lisa to see what fashionable project she has to share with us, and then keep on hopping through all the team’s blogs. We make it easy for you to do with this funky button here:

Thanks for stopping by,

Siobhan.

Paper Adventures Team Blog Hop April – Participants

Emma Goddard (Guest Designer)

Kelly Kent

Anne Barker (Facebook)

Siobhan Fitzsimmons – you are here!!

Lisa Whitehead

Mandy Depiazzi

Narelle Simm

CASE-ing the Catty #223 – Classic Garage

5 Comments April 7, 2019 hightreeshousesite

This week with CASEing the Catty we are all about the Classic Garage section of the 2019 Occasions Catalogue. This blog hop come at an opportune time as today was my little man’s third birthday party, and I’ve taken lots of inspiration from the Classic Garage Suite for his birthday celebrations this week.

In an earlier post I shared the invitations for his party, made in a slide out pocket style. I love the Tranquil Tide base – I’m really going to miss this colour when it retires soon.

For the big day itself I made the little man’s birthday card using the Classic Garage DSP. I always make the kids a birthday card that ties in with their particular interests at the time of their birthday. With my boy, his obsession is well and truly vehicles. Cars, trucks, trains, planes, and for some reason he has a particular love of yellow school busses (even though we don’t even have those here in Australia!) If it has wheels, he’s all over it, so this DSP with the gears and the tyre marks was just perfect for his card.

I used a base of Tranquil Tide layered with Crushed Curry and Basic Grey. I stamped the splotchy stamp from the Geared Up Garage stamp set in Basic Grey to create a bit of interest to the background panel of Basic Grey. The letters are cut from the tyre DSP and Crushed Curry cardstock (slightly offset underneath to create a shadow effect) using my absolute favourite will never be parted with no matter what Large Letter framelits.

The best thing about Stampin’ Up!’s product suites is the perfect coordination between the products, which makes creating with them so easy. My particular favourite thing is when the dies cut elements straight from the DSP. These gear dies are so cool in any colour, but I love the way they cut the multicoloured gears from the DSP, like I have used here. I would never have the patience to cut the colours out individually and piece them together!

And the cutest element in the suite is the little wrenches and keys from the Classic Garage Metal Elements. These embellishments add such a pop of interest to a card. I knew Sammy would love them (and probably pull them off the card)!

Here is his card in pride of place in front of his pile of presents, waiting for him on his birthday morning.

And here is the birthday boy himself, cruising the skatepark on his beloved pink bike. The grey and yellow in this photo really remind me of the tyre track DSP.

Don’t forget to join in the fun by sharing your CASEd creation on our Facebook wall via this link below. There has been such an amazing range of projects shared lately, there’s always something to inspire your crafty creativity.

Next up sharing her CASEd inspiration is Rose, hop on over to her via this link below, and keep on hopping through all the crew’s projects.

I’ll be sharing some more Geared Up Garage projects and other wheely delights from the party later this week. I’d love for you to subscribe to my blog so I can share my creations with you straight into your email inbox.

Thanks for stopping by,

Siobhan.