Using Stampin Up ink for Mixed Media Christmas Cards for the Achievers Blog Hop

Welcome to the November Stampin' Up! Incentive Trip Achievers Blog Hop.  Our theme is anything goes and I'm sharing two cards made from one piece of background that I created with  re inkers and embossing on watercolour paper.  

 I've used the fabulous Stampin' Up! Card Front Builder thinly dies to create two scenes along with the Layering Circles dies.  Also featured the Softly Falling embossing folder, stamp set Teeny tiny Sentiments and also Snowflake Sentiments for the large Season's Greetings above which is heat embossed with silver powder onto vellum. 

I absolutely love the silver trimmed ribbon which is just gorgeous for cards but also gift wrapping all your Christmas presents to give an extra touch of luxury.  

The deers are adhered with Stampin' Mini Dimensionals and you need to make sure that the dimensionals don't land on the glimmer paper as the two are very friendly and don't stick well together.  Add rhinestones for extra bling.  The top design is layered onto stampin up tranquil tide card stock with the lower design matted onto a thick whisper white card base.  I've made several of these cards and you can see that you can create different effects just by adjusting the depth of colour used to colour the embossed background.  This is great fun for Christmas cards for is you want to add different media to your projects.

Remember that you can visit all the other stampin up demonstrators across the globe by using the list below to visit and find out their choices of 'anything goes'.

Thanks for visiting me, I look forward to your next visit.

Happy crafting Zoe x

Christmas Card Club - Mixed Media

It's time for Christmas Card Club challenge again and our challenger, Mary, asked for mixed media cards.  I've used the striking Stampin Up dies Bethlehem edgelits which coordinate with the stamp set Night in Bethlehem.  If you like nativity cards then this is a set of dies and stamps for you.  

To create my sky I used colour washes and spattering along with some clear wink of stella all on water colour paper.  I've die cut the buildings from night of navy card stock and the star from silver foil card.  The sentiment is from a retired set Good Greetings also Stampin Up and then from the Night in Bethlehem set I've heat embossed the shepherd with black embossing powder.  

A night of navy matting layer sits on top of a thick white card base. The layers of buildings are given some depth with baby stampin dimensionals. 

You can visit the other ladies in our challenge club via the button at the top of my blog.  

Thanks for visiting me today. 

Zoe x

If you like any Stampin Up products you can benefit from 

From 11pm tonight until 10.59pm on Monday 27th November.  

Please visit Zoe's stampin up shop to set up an account and add the host reward code in the bottom left of the shopping bag page for a thank you card and treat from me.  4FNFZ67Z

Totally Techniques - Stampin' Blends

Welcome to our November 2017 Totally Techniques blog hop.  We're sharing ideas for using the Stampin' Blends.  They are so much fun to use and give fabulous colours and allow shading which in turns adds depth to your images. I've used mine to colour this fun card that I made to say thank you to the fabulous Chef Rachel Green who is based in Lincolnshire.  She offers 'secret suppers' in the Lincolnshire Wolds and we went for the first time last week. It was awesome and great to catch up with old friends we hadn't seen in quite a while.  Her beautiful house is full of an eclectic mix of decor that works so well and that's why I"ve added such a mix of lanterns, shrubs and flowers outside this front door.  Look inside and you'll spy one of her cute dogs although he wasn't wearing a coat!

Using the Stampin' Blends has allowed me to mix colours by blending lighter and darker shades.  I've used the coordinating dies to cut out individual elements and of course allow an opening in the door to reveal the remainder of my thank you message.  You can add whatever you want behind the door from a creeping Santa to your Christmas tree or a picture on a wall in the back of the room.  There's always the chance it could be a step into another world like Narnia.  

You can see the others on the hop from the links below.  Have fun touring and check out the Stampin' Up! video I have shared to give you a beginner's guide to the fabulous Stampin' Blends. 

You can buy any of the blends individually, in pairs or the whole bundle from my online shop. Click here Zoe Tant Stampin Up Online Shop

1. Patrice Halliday-Larsen (New Zealand)  

2. Nadine Weiner (Germany) 
3. Marine Wiplier (France)
4. Shannean Moncrieff (Australia)  
5. Zoe Tant UK -   Lincolnshire (Lincoln)
6. Barbara Meyer (Austria) 
7. Annette Elias (Netherlands)  

Thanks for visiting 

Happy crafting 
Zoe x

Ends soon shop now in Zoe's Stampin Up Online Shop

Advent Boxes for Thinking Outside the Box Blog Hop

Welcome to Thinking Outside the Box's second blog hop. If you've just arrived from Yoshiko's blog a special hi to you. Her project is just gorgeous.  This month we are all sharing a tutorial on Advent Candle or treat boxes.  So we've gone up to 4, but you could make 24 to make an advent calendar or just four to mark the weeks of Advent. 

I've made mine in order that you could add treats or battery operated tea lights enabling you to turn on each candle for each week of Advent.  

Here is a pictorial tutorial to also help with measurements. 

So first of all you need a piece of card stock cut at 13.5cm by 29.8cm (A4) and you can then score on the landscape side as shown.

Stage One

Follow the images to work through the tutorial

Stage 2

Stage 3

It should now look like this

Stage 4

Stage 5

Stage 6
Now to put the box together

To decorate the boxes I've used the bow builder punch from Stampin' Up! and also added some stamped holly and berries from the stamp set Carols of Christmas which I coloured with marker pens and then die cut with the Card Front Builder dies. 

Now you you're off to see Annette's fab design. Remember to visit everyone on the hop as we all have different ideas on a similar theme to inspire you.  Any products that you see you can contact the demonstrator on the hop from your country to buy.

 

Here are the others on the hop

1. Shannean Moncrieff - Australia 

2. Tanja Kolar - Germany

3. Yoshiko Endo - Japan

4. Zoe Tant  You are here

5. Annette Elias - The Netherlands

6. Dena Plummer - USA

7. Sharlene Meyer - New Zealand

8. Beate Wacker - Austria

9. Aude Barbara - France

10. Barb Stewart Canada

Thanks for popping by Zoe x

WOW - What a weekend

Stampin' Up! ONSTAGE

Stampin' Up! runs biannual demonstrator events where we get to see and play with new products.  It's  lots of fun as it a great time to meet up with old friends and make new ones and for me I love meeting up with my team which is usually spread across the UK and The Netherlands.  At these events we share ideas in the form of 'swaps' and the card above was my general swap that I shared with others there.  I also run a friendly Facebook group for demos from various teams and those of us going to the UK event took part in a swap also. I'll share that one with you later this week. 

The night before the main event team leaders who have reached a certain level are invited to attend an additional event known as Centre Stage and there we get some great advice on moving forward with our team as well as a lovely dinner and this time we received a fab t shirt which you can see me modelling below.  We also received a very nice stamp set from the 2018 Spring catalogue which you will see in due course.  I'm a tease I know. 

 The weekend continued when Martin and I drove from Solihull where Onstage took place down to London as we were invited to attend the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall.  We had the most amazing grand tier seats and were then also invited to the reception after the show.  If you saw the event on TV you'll know that Mel C, Alfie Boe, Emilie Sande and Lesley Garrett all sang and a personal highlight for me was to see the Royal Marines Band play and the drum routine was brilliant.  It was an awesome evening, but very moving too and we both felt very honoured to have been invited.  I was so pleased to be there as Women in the Forces were celebrated in this 100th anniversary year of the WRNS.  I loved my career in the Royal Navy and it was wonderful to revisit the memories this past weekend.

I'll be back soon with more swaps and pictures from the weekend.

Thanks for stopping by Zoe x

Christmas Card Club - Shimmer and Sparkle

Stampin' Up! Cheers to the Years

Lorraine is our challenger for the Christmas Card Club this fortnight and she asked for shimmer and sparkle.  I've done a water colour wash on shimmery white card stock and then added stamped images from the Cheers to the Years stamp set and also some silver heat embossed images.  There are also some sparkly embellishments in the form of mini sequins, larger sequins and some silver thread looped to add extra dimension.  There's also some white enamel dots that have hidden a smudge and helped to adhere the silver trim. There's always a way to salvage those little mistakes we make.

I love the hand written stamp that is used for the sentiment. Someone at Stampin' Up! has the perfect hand writing for stamps to be made.  Simple, but says it all.

Do visit the others in our friendly challenge group for more inspiration from all makes of crafty product and if you ever fancy joining us let us know. It's all very relaxed and helps us to get ready for Christmas.  You can find the others via the link at the top Christmas CC.

Enjoy your Sunday
Zoe x

Moving Along with the Times - Trees

Stampin' Up! Lovely as a Tree

Today is the start of a new challenge at Moving Along With The Times. Our challenge theme is Trees.  Come and join in as I know many of you will have some kind of tree stamp, punch or other way of creating a tree for your project.

Stampin' Up! Lovely as a Tree is a timeless classic stamp set and I've used it here on a piece of watercolour paper that I had handy when I had excess ink on an aqua painter brush and didn't want to waste it so I did a very simple colour wash on the small square of paper about 3" square.  I let it dry after washing a couple of times and kept it in a safe place.  The 'safe place' is key as if you are anything like me you put things away so safe you can never find them!  

Onto the colour wash I stamped part of the longer border type stamp from the set using a post it note to mask off the part of the stamp I didn't want to use whilst I inked it, discarding it before I actually stamped.  I used a stamp-a-ma-jig to position the second layer of stamping in versa mark so that I could add some sadly retired heat and stick powder and then glitter.  You'll see I offset the glitter layer in order for the shadow layer in black to show.

I'ves layered with basic black, island indigo (the wash colour) and silver foil card off setting the final two layers.  A sentiment from Stampin' Up! Watercolour Christmas and some basic rhinestones and it makes an elegant but striking card.  Oh and I mustn't forget the black bakers twine bow attaching the gorgeous mistletoe sprig from the Stampin' Up! Year of Cheer Suite embellishments.

Join us HERE for our MAWTT challenge and do come visit me again.

You can buy most of the products I've used by visiting Zoe's Stampin Up Online Shop.

Thanks for stopping by 

Zoe x

Merry Little Labels from Stampin' Up! - Not just for tags

Stampin' Up! Merry Little Labels

Cards like this remind me regularly how grateful I am to my lovely loyal customers and team.  This card reminds me of them because the stamp set Merry Little Labels was a gift from Stampin' Up! on our trip to Thailand back in July. It's a gorgeous stamp set and whilst it is perfect for gift tags and labelling gifts and treats it is also just as pretty used on cards.

This card layout was designed by my dear friend Chris Scott who shared what she'd made at a class she taught.  She made it in shades of blue and I have recreated it using the Merry Little Christmas designer series paper and in conjunction with the stampin up set Snowflake Sentiments.

It's amazing what you can do with just a single colour ink pad and this time it is as simple as black memento.  This is great because it's an ink that is also used with the new Stampin' Blends so very useful for your stash.

To make the focal point you need to stamp 3 label images and then fold them in half carefully.  Then stick the left back of one to the right back of the second and continue to add the third.  Then adhere to your card using the left back of the first and right back of the third.  No you haven't moved to the sports field, but if you think it through this way it's easy.  The whole thing folds flat for posting too!  The bow is done in the same way and was cut using the holly berry builder punch.

I've added my usual bling. I love the faceted gems.  DID YOU KNOW...... you can make them different colours carefully using the brush tip of the new Stampin' Blends!

I've also been making cards at a community event that I attend a few times a year.  It's a Welcome Club in Woodhall Spa. It's open to anyone to come along for a cuppa and meet some friendly people. These ladies enjoyed making simply stamped Christmas cards.

There are often other visitors there too as well as me with my stamps.

This time we were joined by the Lincs/Notts Air Ambulance; a fantastic organisation which is funded purely by donations and has on average 3 call outs a day.  It was very interesting and is well worth supporting in this area or your own service where you live.

You can find out more here

www.ambucopter.org.uk 

thanks for popping by Zoe x

Challenges

Creative Inspirations - Sparkle

Crafty Creations - ATG
Christmas at Sweet Stampin - ATG
Christmas Card Challenges - Christmas

Craft Stamper Magazine - Design #2

Stampin' Up! Swirly Scribbles

Last month I shared details about being asked by the Editor of Craft Stamper magazine to produce some cards for an article all about Stampin' Up!.  I shared my first card in THIS post where I explained about using the shaving foam technique to create a back ground for the card.  With off cuts from that back ground I used the Stampin Up Swirly Scribbles dies to create the flower in this card along with the Stampin Up stamp set Swirly Birds.  The background is sponged through a stencil that I made with my Stampin Up trimmer and I've added a die cut vellum layer which I sponged with lemon lime twist ink and also heat embossed with the same stamp set and using copper embossing powder.  To connect the copper embossing I added some copper thread under the centre of the flower using glue dots.

The first matt layer is from shimmery white card stock with an additional one and the base card in thick whisper white card.  The other inks used are fresh fig, berry burst and versa mark.

Don't forget you can get your hands on a copy of any Craft Stamper Magazine by visiting www.craftstamper.com .  The December issue is out in selected shops on Friday.

I hope you like my design and remember there were three so I'll be back soon with the third.

Take care

Zoe x

Challenges
Less is more - stamp layering

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