Paper Smooches January Challenge - Card 1

I had so much fun playing along with the Paper Smooches challenge last month, that I couldn't wait to do it again!  Click on the Paper Smooches graphic to visit their site.

The challenge for January 2016 is any four colour combination (neutrals are "free"!).   Click on the cute retro telephone graphic above to visit the challenge page!  It runs all month long so join in the fun!  You only need to use at least one PS die or stamp.

I had the idea of using some of the paper pads and sets of DSP from the new Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalogue which was released on 5 Jan.

Paper Smooches products I used were the bow, dollar sign and "a gift for you" sentiment from the stamp set Retail Therapy and the starts in the background were from the PS Stars Dies set.

So this begs the question: "what do tea sets, nail polishes and gift cards have in common?  A perfectly logical connection in my mind.

I was commissioned to make another gift voucher.  It's for a nail supply store where we buy reasonably priced (by Australian standards anyway) nail polish in some of our favourite brands.  This store has an actual name but my sisters and I refer to it simply as "the nail shop" so that's what I put on the voucher.

I wanted lovely bright colours and out of the two paper pads I had pre-ordered, the Have a Cuppa was the better option.  My 4 colours were going to be pink (Melon Mambo), Turquoise (Bermuda Bay), Yellow (Crushed Curry) and Purple (Wisteria Wonder) and black and white for neutrals.  OK so the glitter paper on the nail polish bottle is a different shade of pink but it's still pink!

I layered a diagonal stripe from the paper pad on curry cardstock and splattered various spray inks over it.

I used the rotary stamp for the wording and hand cut it for a slightly messy look and the whole card had an 80s, retro vibe which kind of tied in with the retro telephones.  I love a happy co-incidence!

After inking the edges on the word strips and gluing them down, I decided I wanted the stars in the background.  After choosing a tone-on-tone, small scale print from the DSP pad in each of my four colours, I die cut the stars and adding them meant my word strips had to come up.  This is pretty much how I always work.

The nail polish bottle was pieced using a stamp from The Alley Way who sadly are closing their doors.  I covered the whole thing with Crystal Effects to give the impression of a glass bottle!  A bow and bling are essential for any worthy cosmetic.

Lastly a custom envelope (OK it was a bit of an afterthought since the voucher was a bit too long for the standard one) and leftover stars.  You can never have too many stars, right?  RIGHT?

Thanks for visiting and I hope to make a few more entries with different papers from the Occasions Catalogue,

Please check out my second challenge entry HERE

When you have to make a choice...

...between cleaning your craft area after the Great Thank You Card Marathon of 2015 OR putting together a quick little craft project using only what you find in the craftermath.

What would you pick?

Naturally I chose not to clean up and pick through the mess.  Not Pink Crafty Hubster loves shows like American Pickers and Small Crafty Dude loved Scrapheap Challenge way back in the day so I decided to see what I could come up with.

The back story is that it's become a kind of tradition to give my sisters a Lush voucher to spend on a Boxing Day when everything is half price.

No way way I going anywhere near the shops in the chaos, so I made my own "voucher" along with some cash.

My "rule"was that everything had to be found on my two desks or within arms reach. My Pink Crafty Butt was not to leave my Pink Chair.

Fortunately I had loads of DSP, watercoloured flowers and die cut bits and pieces left over from the card marathon...along with pearls, scraps of rejected ribbon and all sorts of other surprises.

I went with a flower and leaves stamped on vellum and coloured with Inktense pencils.

As it turned out, I didn't even cut any paper or cardstock.  I found bits in just the right size - even the vellum strip only needed a notch cut to make it a banner.

There was a box under the desk with alpha stickers not yet out away so on they went.

Miraculously I still had gold metallic thread in my machine...which reminds me to tell you that it DOES work in a sewing machine, BUT it is temperamental.  It's stiff and breaks and if you fill a bobbin, it looks as though there isn't a lot left on the spool, but it's worth trying.

That's all for this impromptu post and I'll be sharing the cards I made for my card ordeal...I mean order! ;-p