First Challenge Entry for 2016

This weekend I've been busy preparing for my January classes and team training too. This afternoon, I took a couple of hours out to check out some of the challenges and decided to give the current Freshly Made Sketches Challenge a go. I've only just made it though as entry closes tomorrow.

This is their challenge no. 217

Because we are now into the New Year, I decided to have a play with some of my Stampin' Up! sneak peek products and this is what I came up with.

It was made with the new (available from 5 January) Friends & Flowers stamp set and the returning Festive Flower Punch. The cute Crushed Curry centre for the flower is an enamel dot from the It's My Party Enamel Dots ( 96 dots, 16 each in 3 colours (Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo and Mint Macaron)  in 2 sizes).

The sentiment comes from the And Many More stamp set (in the annual catalogue).

For those of you not familiar with the Festive Flower Punch there is a trick to lining up the Clear Stamps for the punch. That's assuming you want to punch them all out at the same time.

I've found the following to work the best for me.

1. Using a scrap piece of cardstock (Thick Whisper White is good for this), punch out the images all at once.
2. Turn the punch over (as per above) and match up the cardstock so that the punched images have the same orientation.
3. Mark the cardstock so that you know which is the top.
4. To stamp, simply place stamps (red rubber down) in the appropriate punched shape and then place an Acrylic Block on top. You will then have the correct placement of the stamps to line up with the punch.
6. Keep the punched cardstock in the stamp case for future use.

Here's a another picture of the card so you can see the inside too.

You Brighten My Day - Day 6

Today's post features the last of the 6 stamp sets that are available as part of Sale-A-Bration 2015.

The You Brighten My Day stamp set (available in wood mount and clear mount) has 9 stamps and 5 of them co-ordinate with various punches.

Here's the cards that I've made so far with the stamp set.

I love this little heart stamp. It co-ordinates with the heart from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack. The card also features the new Happy Heart Textured Impressions Embossing Folder that is available in the Spring/Summer 2015 Catalogue. I think that this card would make a cute Valentines card or a card for a Wedding.

This card features 2 stamps that I mounted together on my acrylic block.  The image on the Whisper White circle was stamped using Momento Ink while the ones on the card base were stamped in Smoky Slate - the same colour as the card base. The whole thing is mounted on a circle of Smoky Slate and a scallop circle of Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper.

The light bulb was coloured using both Smoky Slate and Daffodil Delight Blendablities.

This last card was made using the little house stamp. The stamp co-ordinates with the What's Up Punch. I don't have the punch so had to fussy cut it, but it's pretty easy as it's all straight lines. I have to admit that I broke a rule with this card as I used a second stamp set. The greeting comes from the And Many More stamp set.

I coloured the house using the Coastal Cabana, Daffodil Delight and Calypso Coral Blendabilities.

Tomorrow is the last of the 7 posts featuring Sale-A-Bration items. Don't worry it won't be the last one, but after that I will be featuring more of the items from the Spring/Summer Catalogue.