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Greek Isles Achievers Blog Hop – May 2019 Sneak Peek

May 20, 2019 by Mikaela Titheridge 6 Comments

A warm welcome my crafty friends to the Greek Isles Achievers Blog Hop, where the theme is Sneak Peeks.

I’ve taken part in Blog Hops like this before when I achieved the Mediterranean Cruise and the Alaskan. It’s a fabulous hop full of achievers of the annual Incentive Trip, with this year being the Greek Isles. Everyone taking part has earned themselves a week-long cruise around the Greek Isles with one other. Just like last year, I shall be taking my husband and son to enjoy some quality time together. I have my Customers, my Team and of course my Family to thank for helping me achieve this. I couldn’t thank them all enough and very much look forward to it.

Today, us achievers are sharing Sneak Peeks from the soon to launch, Annual Catalogue. If you’d like to avoid seeing this sneak peek, then this isn’t the hop for you, but stick with us and you’ll see some wonderful new things.

My Sneak Peek

I have chosen a Stamp Set that I’ve already grown to love. Inspired by Million Sales Achiever Mary Ellen Byler, To a Wild Rose is a beautiful DistINKtive Stamp Set. These achievers get to design a Stamp Set that they’d like to see published. This set offers two/three step stamping, so there’s plenty of scope for different effects.

I have recently started up Facebook Lives on my Business Page and created these in the past week. When teamed with a few retiring favourites, these beautiful flowers are allowed to shine.

Here I have teamed up three vibrantly coloured flowers with the retiring Share What you Love Specialty Paper. A simple Crumb Cake colour print helped anchor the vibrancy of the flowers. Golden tones of Mango Melody and Pineapple Punch lead me towards the Gold heat embossed sentiment.

Sparkly gold was needed … so I die cut the word amazing from Gold Glimmer paper for this second card. Sadly this gorgeous Die from the Celebrate You Thinlits is retiring this month. I absolutely love this die. I loved how this pretty font, sat on the delicate die that I used to layer white on white beneath it.

These cards have already hit the post, with one going to someone who was watching my Facebook Live that day. I just can’t seem to get enough of this set right now and I just know that once you get playing with it, you too will fall in love with it.

Now let’s hop on over to one of the other Achievers for some more Sneak Peeks. With an abundance of lovely new things coming, there’s sure to be something to delight you. Do enjoy the rest of the hop and thanks for stopping by my website today … your support means a lot.

Artisan Design Team Blog Hop – Carry Over Event

May 16, 2019 by Mikaela Titheridge 4 Comments

Welcome to the Artisan Design Team Blog Hop where today we are sharing Carry Over Products. Today we will share with you a whole host of products that would be perfect for projects and class events.

I just know that my dear friend Manuela has shared some gorgeous projects using the Piece of Cake set. They are just gorgeous and I know I’ll be recreating those and considering for a class.

For me, I just had to get creative with this Little Elephant. A cute little guy, who makes for the perfect Baby Shower focal point.

The popularity of Baby Showers has increased somewhat over the years in Europe. Sending invitations, decorating the venue, providing gifts and jazzing up cupcakes is all-encompassing. I have therefore designed these projects to either be made at home or with your Demonstrator and your friends. A great way to gather friends together and get crafty, whilst being joyfully productive.

I never had a Baby Shower and have actually only ever been to one so although the thought of a class like this was good, some research was needed. When browsing Pinterest for trends, I was surprised to see how the colour palette of such events had changed. No longer the pastel shades you’d initially think of. One popular new trend appears to be adding Gold to a deep Green for a gender neutral Baby Shower. Unusual, I hear you say, but I felt I needed to give it a go.

Little Elephant is a fabulous little Stamp Set that’s perfect for baby cards. Sold in a Bundle with a 10% discount this month, this Stamp Set and coordinating punch form the basis for these projects. These products are carrying over, but not as a bundle, so now is a great time to purchase them.

What you’ll make in this Carry Over Class:

A party won’t take place without invitations, so a basic card, suitable for your guests to come and welcome baby, is a must. A Gray Granite card base, teamed with crisp white, adds balance to the darker shade of Mossy Meadow. The freshness of Soft Sea Foam and the contemporary twist of Gold Foil, make this set rich and classy.

The beauty of these cards is, it’s all one layer stamping. Three Inks and some die cutting. The Elephant punch was used to create the twine notch at one end, by using the curve of the elephant’s back.

About to Pop?

Treats are a must to keep your guests happy and with a baby about to pop, but better than a bag of popcorn? Our Food Safe Gusseted Cellophane Bags are just perfect to fill with edible treats like this. I’ve simply embellished with a flash of Soft Sea Foam, a flash of Gold Foil and some layered punched circles and an Elephant. The balloons were hand cut with scissors. Don’t you just love the addition of the elephant’s ear? Even the golden colour of the Popcorn blends with this colour theme.

More treats and this time, I’m using the little Acetate Boxes with a belly band of Soft Sea Foam cardstock. A little Thank you gift for your guests to take away. Again, the Gold Foil wrapped chocolate balls, add to the theme and match the bunting.

Cakes all round

Rosette Cupcake Toppers are easy to create and so very striking on mass. Score up a whole piece of cardstock in one go, before cutting down to create your rosettes, its easier than doing one at a time. Mass production is the name of the game when prepping for a party.

The fine Gold Baby die-cut word works so well with the elephant and umbrella. The Well Written Dies are another fabulous Carry Over product that I’m grateful to see in the new Catalogue.

Are the Mossy Meadow, Soft Sea Foam and Gold growing on you yet?

At the end of the day, who can resist giving the baby a gift? The Mum to be will soon have a whole host of Thank you cards to send out, so again, stamping up a batch in advance is helpful.

By now, Mum and Baby are likely to have met, so what better images than teaming up both sizes of the elephant in celebration.

Don’t have a die cutting machine? Well, if you didn’t have one, you could simply use a good sentiment stamp set to stamp and/or heat emboss the words Gold.

With the cardstock, foil and remaining twine, I created a fun string of bunting to decorate the room. Some relatively simple creations that would be fun created with friends. If you’d like a basic tutorial on these projects, then click below and enjoy.

Now I hope you have enjoyed my share with you today and I hope you’ll now head over to see what Narelle has to offer. I love her colour palette and choice of products too.

Blog Hop Links

A Good Morning Magnolia Sneak Peek

May 11, 2019 by Mikaela Titheridge Leave a Comment

Today I am sharing a little sneak peek from the soon to launch, Annual Catalogue. Good Morning Magnolia is a beautiful line drawn image with sentiments and coordinating Dies.

With new product before me, I really didn’t know what to play with first. I inked up this stunning magnolia and set to work colouring it. Our Stampin’ Blends offer the perfect medium for blending this beautiful flower.

I thoroughly enjoyed colouring these flowers in. I stamped several on one sheet of A4 cardstock and cut and coloured a whole bunch of them. Colouring is such a therapeutic thing to do. I was taken off into a little dream world.

This beautiful new Stamp Set, will be available as part of a bundle with coordinating Dies. I love the texture of the Subtles Embossing Folder that I’ve used here. First I stamped the background, then embossed, before adding the flower. I’ve thrown a lot of Dies and tools at this card, but if you’ve got it, why not use it.

It’s a stunning set with one very large flower that says it all.

It’s really hard to see here, but there is a thin strip of Copper Foil Cardstock beneath the ribbon. The light is catching it, but making it hard to see here. The texture that the Embossing Folder creates can be seen really well though.

Who’d have thought that a black card base would work, but with this combination, it works really well.

When can I get my hands on this?

Right now, Demonstrators are able to pre-order this beautiful bundle. If you were to sign up today, you too could add this to your starter kit and start enjoying it before launch day. The new Annual Catalogue otherwise launches on 4th June, when you can order this bundle through my online store. Remember to use my Club Code at checkout on all orders placed online to receive a gift from me through the post the following month.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little sneak peek and that you’ll be crafting this weekend too.

Have a great weekend

When two Artisan’s come together to Bloom & Grow

May 9, 2019 by Mikaela Titheridge Leave a Comment

Last night I shared a fabulous evening with my friend and fellow Artisan Design Team Member, Emma Goddard. Emma and I got together for a fun Facebook Live, where we used two sets, Bloom & Grow and To a Wild Rose. Both of these sets are soon to launch in the up coming Annual Catalogue.

With Emma being about 40 minutes drive away, we decided to have a catch up. At first I suggested dinner out, but Emma thought a Facebook Live together would be fun. Oh how we laughed! We had so much fun together. With two different approaches and two different stamp sets, we came up with these two very different cards.

Emma has been encouraging me to take up Facebook Lives, giving me words of encouragement. To have her join me, was amazing. Emma arrived with her diary that gave fabulous inspiration for this striped card.

Emma’s design was using a new stamp set called Bloom & Grow. Her choice of set made me smile, for her encouragement to embark on Video’s is helping me to Bloom & Grow. I loved the simple three colour card that she came up with. To not colour the flowers, gave a dramatic focal point to this vibrant card and of course, it had to have twine. Emma loves her twine.

Where my Inspiration came from

Feeling as I do about my shared year with Emma in the Artisan Design Team, this sentiment seemed the most fitting. I do feel blessed to be her friend and be getting to know her more as the year is passing. The friendships is what it’s all about and to have a fabulous bond with the other Artisan’s in this sisterhood, I cherish the most.

I used Grey Granite as the card base and randomly stamped the word Friend over one corner, before adding a layer of Vellum. This just softened the look and feel of the card, whilst adding texture and interest. Next came the sentiment panel. It’s stitched, so it just had to be used.

Mock Ombré Sentiment

To create this mock ombré effect, I inked up the sentiment with the new Pretty Peacock In Colour before stamping it off on grid paper. I then immediately took it back to the ink, where I only inked up half of the sentiment, before committing to card. A really simple technique, but I love the interest that it creates.

The Rose itself was stamped in another new In Colour, Rococo Rose with a Blackberry Bliss centre. I loved this muted colour palette and the clustering of elements.

If you didn’t get to see this Facebook Live, you can head over to my Facebook page, where you’ll be able to catch up it. We certainly had a lot of fun and thoroughly enjoyed being creative together.

VIEW FACEBOOK LIVE VIDEO HERE

I hope if you did catch it that you enjoyed it and if you’ll be heading over now to watch it, that you’ll have as much fun watching as we did sharing.

Happy Crafting.

You can see more of Emma’s work over on her Blog, The Coastal Crafter.

Creation Station MonuMENtal Blog Hop

May 5, 2019 by Mikaela Titheridge 10 Comments

We have a MonuMENtal Blog Hop for you this month here at the Creation Station, as we design for Men.

Can you believe it’s May already? Well, last month I had the pleasure of sharing OnStage with the lovely Kathy Kartak who’s blog you may have hopped over from. OnStage is an official convention for Demonstrators that’s hosted every six months. Kathy, being in the UK at the time, joined my team, the Stampin’ STYlettes and I for this fabulous event. She’s a talented lady, so I’m sure she’ll have inspired you already.

I have a few Birthday’s coming up, for young men, so set to work designing for them in mind. What do you create for a 12 year old though? Denim!

I started to think of masculine textures of metal, corrugated cardboard and Denim, something our son loves to wear. Inspired by this, I looked on my shelves at what sets spoke to me and ended up reverting to ink.

Creating a faux Denim look

I used an old Night of Navy Ink pad, that required a little inking and dragged this across a Balmy Blue card base. First in one direction and then in the other. It’s a rough kind of effect, but one that I rather liked. A layer of Corrugated Smoky Slate and a banner in the shape of a jeans pocket and I was ready for the sentiment.

Well Written is a great Die Set that can be used for many an occasion. Knowing that I wanted to add some Star Embellishments, I decided to use Silver Foil to help pull everything together. I thought this card and layout was most suitable for a 12 year old. I hope he’ll like it.

Well I hope you’ve enjoyed my monuMENtal share with you today and I’ve inspired you with cardstock, ink and a sentiment to get creative. Lets hop on over to see what Jennifer Downey has in store for us this month.

Enjoy the rest of this masculine themed hop and the weekend.

Let’s Get Hopping #20 – Colouring Techniques

May 2, 2019 by Mikaela Titheridge 17 Comments

Let’s Get Hopping today and share an abundance of Colouring Techniques. Yes the Let’s Get Hopping team are sharing colouring techniques with you this month.

If you’ve arrived from the lovely Diana Tillery, then you’ll have already seen some Colouring inspiration. I hope to inspire you further.

Today I chose to use the stamp set, Beautiful Day, which has the perfect line drawn images for colouring. Randomly stamping the flower around the edge of my matting layer, I set to colouring it in. I had already decided upon using the Stampi’ Blends and pulled together a variety of colours.

Flirty Flamingo Duo Pack were the main colours, with an added touch of Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive helped to create this look. Using the colour lifter, I first of all, added a gentle layer of this before adding colour and blending. A series of Dots and dashes helps to eliminate any harsh lines there you’re forced to deal with. Once I had coloured in the flowers, I added some additional layers for depth and added a few flyers.

Finally I added a Pool Party coloured background before adding my sentiment panel. The black cardstock seemed right to tie in withe the bold black outlines of the flower.

The sentiment was heat embossed, before adding with Dimensionals. A few final sequins and the card was complete.

Now I hope you’ve enjoyed my share with you today and that if you’ve not mastered the art of using our Blends that you give them a go. It has taken me a little while to get used to them.

Now don’t forget to hop on over to see what the lovely Shelly Wadge has in store for us today.

Enjoy the rest of the hop

Artisan Design Team Blog Hop – Everything is Rosy Medley

May 1, 2019 by Mikaela Titheridge 14 Comments

Everything is Rosy in the garden with the Artisan Design Team. Today we share more inspiration using this amazing new Medley. This Medley is a totally fabulous suite that you’re going to want to get your hands on.

Welcome to a special Artisan Design Team Blog Hop where today we are sharing this amazing new Medley that launches today. If you’ve hopped on over from Manuela, you’ll have seen her fabulous creation! Make sure you hop around the rest of the girls for yet more. Sit back and enjoy our inspiration with Everything is Rosy.

This Medley gives you everything in a selection box, except for Cardstock and adhesives, that your creativity will go wild with inspiration.

Today I share a little Acetate box of cards to give as a gift. A selection of two different designs to showcase these gorgeous products.

Simple embellishment of pre die cut pieces, complete the front of the acetate box. This Medley offers some fabulous pre die cut pieces that have you getting creative immediately.

Create more embellishments by popping out the little dots you see in this sentiment panel.

I’ve actually layered up two sentiment panels and threaded the beautiful Melon Mambo Ruffle ribbon through the top one. The Flowers are pre printed and die cut from a sheet within the set.

I loved how the embellishment of the Acetate Box sat beautifully over the sentiment of this first card within. The vibrancy of this card shows through and helps to add a backdrop for the the Acetate focal point.

The vibrancy of this Melon Mambo card just sings to me. Stamping on Glossy White Cardstock with the Rose Gold Shimmer Paint, allows you to Sponge over the top. It’s a little like the Emboss resist technique with a shinny surface. Shimmer Paint can be added to the tips of the flowers and leaves, as I’ve shown here.

Frugal tips for added embellishments

This Medley is aimed at the Avid Crafter with no pre designed projects in mind. Frugal crafters like to make use of every aspect of their products. The Rose Gold Foil edge of one of the pre die cut labels was used for this card and the little dots from another, for embellishing. Using a sponge dauber, you can ink up some basic pearls to make them coordinate with your project too.

The edge of this stunning Night of Navy Ribbon, trims the edge of the Melon Mambo panel beautifully.

These ribbons are just gorgeous. I’ve never wanted to use ribbon as much as I do with this Medley.

The second card of this set offers contemporary stripes with the Rose Gold Foil leaf patterned paper. Oh my word is this paper just adorable!

Fussy cutting the flowers from the floral sheet of paper, allows the Navy papers to do the singing. You can see more closely here, where I’ve popped out the tiny little Rose Gold dots from the die cut label, to use on the Pink card.

I can honestly say that you won’t be disappointed with your purchase of this Medley. Make sure you get your purchase for this item made today … it will sell fast.

I have so enjoyed getting creative with this Medley of products. To be able to get creative early with this set for an OnStage Presentation was also an honour. You can see what I created for that, if you click the Everything is Rosy banner at the top of this post. A little drawer filled with cards and tags.

I hope you have enjoyed my share with you today and that you’ll continue around the hop to see what the others have to share with you.

Hop on over to see what the lovely Narelle has in store for us and enjoy the rest of the hop.

Blog Hop Links

Stampers Showcase Spring/Floral Blog Hop

April 29, 2019 by Mikaela Titheridge 20 Comments

Welcome to this month’s Stampers Showcase Blog Hop where the theme is Spring/Floral.

Now if you’ve hopped on over from the lovely Courtney, then welcome, I hope to inspire you further.

I have decided to share a sneak peek with you of a beautiful stamp set that we recently received at Onstage. With Spring florals being the theme, I immediately thought of daisies. The new Daisy Lane Stamp Set will be available to purchase from the new catalogue on 4th June, so be ready.

The background that I’ve stamped on is So Saffron and I’ve heat embossed with White Embossing Powder. Random stamping can sometimes be so difficult, for we tend to want to make things uniformed. Stamping the stem and flower heads onto Shimmer White Cardstock, gave that extra little shimmer to this card.

Stampin’ Up! will be bringing out a smaller Daisy Punch to coordinate with this set, but for now, I simply had to fussy cut. It’s a good job that our paper snips are super sharp and super easy to use.

Blends are a great source for colouring in and I used Granny Apple Green for the stem and leaves. This colour is so clean and fresh and screams Spring florals to me. I was tempted to put an embellishment in the middle of the stacked flowers or a cluster of pearls, but decided against it.

I pulled out the little wood embellishments from my embellishment drawer only last week and loved this scalloped edge. Wanting a soft sentiment panel, I decided upon Smoky Slate, embossed white again. I loved how this card came together and the clean fresh spring/floral vibe that it has.

Now from one Daisy to another, we’re now hopping over to my friend and downline, Mo Rootes, who heads the Daisy Stampers. Be sure to click and see what Mo has in store for us all, she always creates beautiful cards.

Enjoy the rest of your day and the rest of the hop.

Products Used:

Note that the Daisy Lane Stamp Set (149325) will be available to purchase from 4th June 2019

Stampin’ Creative Blog Hop – Daisy Lane

April 25, 2019 by Mikaela Titheridge 4 Comments

Today we have a sneak peek from OnStage for you, with a Product Spotlight using Daisy Lane. Welcome to the Stampin’ Creative Blog Hop, were we are showcasing this stamp set that all attendees received at OnStage.

OnStage is a BiAnnual Convention that Stampin’ Up! pull together for us Demonstrators. It’s an amazing event with sneak peeks of new products business tips and FREEBIES.

Daisy Lane was a fabulous All Attendee giveaway that we were all fortunate enough to travel home with. The large Daisy Punch coordinates perfectly with this set, which is fabulous, but I’m holding out for a smaller punch that might just be coming (wink wink).

Now I’m sure that Louise has already inspired you with her offering and I hope to do the same.

Today for me though, I thought I’d get creative with the fern leaves that are in this set.

On a panel of Watercolour paper, I stamped the leaves using Versamark and heat embossed Gold. A wash of watercoloring gave the colour to this card, blending Greens through yellow to red.

I hope you can tell, but the little wood frame I’ve used, has again been heat embossed Gold to tie in with the leaves. The word friend is also heat embossed, but this time in White to tie in with the base card colour. I loved how the iridescent sequin colours were such a perfect match. For a full list of ink colours used, see the product listing further down this page.

This was by far nothing like the card I had set out to create, but I hope you like it. I’m sure as you hop on round the rest of the girls, you’ll be inspired with quite a variety of styles.

Enjoy and don’t forget to let us know what you think. We always love to hear if we’re managing to inspire you.

The Stampin’ Creative Crew

Bring it on for Hedgehugs

April 24, 2019 by Mikaela Titheridge Leave a Comment

Today I am sharing yesterday’s class at Dunelm Mill, Huntingdon. We were making use of the ever so cute retiring stamp set, Hedgehugs and revisiting the mirroring technique.

The expressions on their faces, make this set so cute, it’s suitable for many an occasion. Team up the two face to face and it would be great for an Anniversary card.

This first card was pretty much CASEd from the Catalogue, with a slight twist. We used Shimmer White cardstock and coloured in the Hedgehogs using the Blender Pens. Versamark ink makes for a great watermarking image, as seen at the bottom of this card.

I was going to team this up with Calypso Coral, but decided to use Poppy Parade, for this was what you see in the Toadstalls of the DSP. This Designer Series Paper was a special a few months ago, but the images of this paper, was just so perfect for this project, that I couldn’t not use it.

Look at these two kissing Hedgehogs though, aren’t they cute?! We used the Mirror technique to achieve this, stamping onto a silicone sheet to reverse the image. I thought it nice to have the main focus set back through the aperture of the card and behind the tree stump.

Many kept this card for an Anniversary, which I think is perfectly fitting for it.

I liked the angles of this little gift box. A few complicated measurements, but generally, once you got your head around it, it wasn’t that difficult.

Obtaining these products

We had a few giggles last night and thoroughly enjoyed playing with this set. Such a shame it will be leaving us shortly, so if you’ve been warmed to it, then you’ll went to get ordering quickly. You’ll find a full list of products used below, which will take you directly to my online shop for ordering. Whilst you’re there, you’d be wise to check the Clearance Rack, which has been updated this week.

I hope you like my little share with you today, as much as the ladies enjoyed making these last night.

My Sneak Peek

What you’ll make in this Carry Over Class:

About to Pop?

Cakes all round

Blog Hop Links

When can I get my hands on this?

Mock Ombré Sentiment

Creating a faux Denim look

Frugal tips for added embellishments

Blog Hop Links

Products Used:

The Stampin’ Creative Crew

Obtaining these products

Instagram

Important Links