Hello & welcome.
My name is Alison & I live in beautiful Melbourne, Australia.
For those of you who have previously visited my blog & are now returning, thank you. For those of you who are here for the first time, welcome!
Here's a little bit about me. I love creating cards & gifts for my loved ones & this blog will show you how to create something special for those you love. I blog twice a week, once on a Sunday where I mainly showcase a stamp set or dies, embossing folders, projects & sometimes special DSP and Wednesday evenings when I highlight a technique, fun folds or tools & tips. I would love to hear from you if you have any questions or suggestions & my email address for that is craftedbyalison@gmail.com.
Yesterday was World Card Making Day & I spent the day crafting, chatting & watching Stampin' Up®s free online craftalong with some of my crafting friends. It was a lot of fun. As this post goes to air I am online watching the Online Stamping Retreat (session 3) which is one of my favourite ways of getting inspiration. It's run by Lisa Curcio, Kylie & Bruno Bertucci & Gina Hawley & there are dozens of fun fold cards designed & demonstrated by the group to help inspire you. Some of the designs even end up here when they are easy enough for me to explain in a post, others are just for me to use as they are better shown in a video, which I don't do. Maybe one day??
Anyway, apart from this being a HUGE crafty weekend for me, on to my cards.
This week I have created 2 cards around embossing folders. Stampin' Up® have a double set of folders called Glass & Gardens which are slim folders that emboss a portion of your cardstock. This got me to thinking about how I could highlight the embossing.....
In my first card the embossed pattern reminded me of a trellis so I got out the Painterly Pears DSP & fussy cut some pears & flowers to add. I used some blending brushes with Old Olive & Darling Duckling to give some colour to the background.
This piece was added to a Darling Duckling card base with a dark DSP pattern from the same pack of papers, then the pears were adhered with liquid glue, glue dots & dimensionals so that there were different heights as the pears cascaded down the trellis. Some extra flowers were also added.
The sentiment is stamped in Secret Sea & is from Mixed Labels & is die cut with the matching dies then added with dimensionals.
The final step was to add some 2025-27 In Colour Flat Pearls for a little bling.
The second card has the embossed area as the main feature as I painted the images with an aqua painter.
I chose to make a smaller, square card this time & the measurements are 10.2cm x 10.2cm.
The base is Calypso Coral & the DSP is from Painterly Pears.
I cut a triangle of Basic White, ran it through the embossing machine with the floral folder then got out Old Olive, Darling Duckling, Calypso Coral & Timid Tiger inks.
I inked up acrylic stamping blocks by pressing them into the pads then used my aqua painter to apply colour to the recessed areas of the image.
The sentiment is ephemera from the Birthday Treats Mix & Match pack & all I did was place a piece of Gold Open Weave trim behind it then raise it on dimensionals.
The last addition were some Flower Accents which have a lovely sparkly, bevilled finish to them.
I love the papers that were used for these cards so will be making envelopes to go with them using the DSP for a special finishing touch.
So that's it for this post. I hope you enjoyed my creations. Now for some news & information from Stampin' Up®.
Stampin' Up® have many ways of shopping with a physical catalogue, online shopping & in person events. When items are about to be retired or are running low they are put on the 'Last Chance' list which means that there is limited stock & when it runs out, it's gone.
Stampin' Up® 's Annual Catalogue is sectioned it to have beginners, which is a
step by step collection of materials in kits, then there is
quick & easy where you select base materials & packs of pre-printed or diecut materials plus some stamp sets then there is
create your way where you choose all the materials, stamps etc yourself &
create your way! In the
quick & easy section Stampin' Up® have also provided some inspiration with a colour wheel & information of various ways to use colour combinations. I explored this in a bit more detail in my
1/1/25 mid week blog & also in
30th April blog. The other cool feature is that they provide card sketch & scrapbook layout ideas for you. This is great for any times that you need a little inspiration.
If you'd like to browse the new catalogue online then click
here. If you'd like a copy to hold in your hands, leaf through & put little notes all over it of what's on your wish list then shoot me an email at craftedbyalison@gmail.com or message me on my facebook page at craftedbyalison.
The mini catalogue is now available online & in printed form. There are loads of gorgeous new products in there. There's scrapbooking ideas & products, great tag dies & lots of Christmas themed products ranging from cute to elegant & traditional to modern. If you'd like me to send you a copy then send me an email at craftedbyalison@gmail.com.
Stampin' Up® also have loads of additional products available only online. These are called Online exclusives & have no end date, when the stock is sold out, that's the end of it.
Stampin' Up® have a great range of other Kits including crafting, card making & gift giving. There were brand new kits added to the collection every month. Click here to check them all out in my online shop. As Stampin' Up® have so many beautiful kits available I usually feature a different kit in each blog so that you can see the range.
This week the feature kit is a super fun tag kit called Nutcracker Tags kit. It's packed with enough bright & bold materials to create 12 really fun gift tags for Christmas.
Here's how Stampin' Up® describe it...
Don’t crack under the Christmas gift-wrapping pressure. Make your gifts stand out under the tree with the Nutcracker Tags Kit. Featuring festive nutcrackers and glittery sentiments about the magic of Christmas and welcoming the new year, this kit makes it easy to create handmade tags bursting with festive spirit. It’s a fun and merry way to add extra magic to every gift. Now let’s get cracking!
If you feel that you need to add this to your list then click here to purchase one from my online store.
EXCITING NEWS!
As a bonus to encourage kit lovers to purchase, Stampin' Up® are having a flash sale on kits with 30% off for 3 days only from 6th to 8th October! That's a great way to get some kits for holiday crafting, gift giving or stocking up for your stash!!
Click
here to go to my online store then click on kits to browse through them all.
If you
shop with me then there are some new changes to the rewards program that you should know about. In the past we were able to create a host code & group together individual orders & pass on the 'hostess' benefits to customers with qualifying orders. This has now been replaced with a 'Rewards' program that gives
all customers who place an order with a
qualifying amount a credit of 10% of their order to use on future orders. This will be displayed during the checkout process or your order. Stampin' Up® feel that this is a fairer way of rewarding all customers.
There are a lot of new ways to craft on offer at the moment which I will go through one at a time.
Ready?
1. Stampin' Up® have decided to introduce an advent calendar called the12 days of Christmas, just for crafters! YAY!
The calendars work the same as traditional chocolate calendars in that they have windows that you open each day in the lead up to Christmas (if you can wait that long!) & inside are surprises for you that are all craft related. We don't know what's in each window, Stampin' Up® haven't given us any clues except that there are exclusive dies, papers, embellishments just to name a few.
If you would like to order one then go to my online store
here.
2. Stampin' Up® have just released 2 new joining offers for anyone who is interested in joining & saving a lot of money.
These offers are available from the 1st October so if you're interested in joining then I suggest you check out the catalogues & online exclusives to see what you'd like in your starter kit.
3. Virtual Craft Classes will now be available to purchase from my online store starting with the very first class, scheduled for October 24th.
The class will feature the beautiful Traditions of Christmas Suite collection. Don't worry if you can't attend online at that time as you will have access to the recorded class after the event too! There will be an exclusive Facebook group just for Card Classes which you will receive a link to join when you purchase the class. If you would like further information please contact me.
Lastly, there have been lots of great items added to the clearance rack which is now called
Last Chance items so make sure you check them out using
this link to my online store.
If you would like to purchase any of my creations that I feature in my blogs they can be found in my FaceBook shop at craftedbyalison or you can order something unique.
I hope you've enjoyed today's post.
That's all I have for you this week, my next blog is on Wednesday & I will be playing with a new technique I saw online called Double Embossing.
In my next Sunday blog I will share some lovely projects made with the cute Darling Dinos bundle.
I hope you can join me for both of them.
Well, that's it for another week. I hope you enjoyed this post & come back for more.
Til next time, take care & keep creating! XX Alison.
Here are some links to the products that I used today & some craft room essentials.
Stamps, Dies, Embossing folders & punches
Cardstock, DSP & paper goods
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