Happy Quarantini Birthday

September 16, 2020September 14, 2020 ~ Kelly Kent ~ 2 Comments

A gorgeous friend of mine celebrated her birthday last week. Together, with her family, she has been caught up in the chaos that is COVID. After many false starts, lots of tears and a great amount of hope, they have finally made it home to Australia from their working holiday in Canada. They are currently serving out their mandatory 2 week hotel quarantine period in Perth and I’m super excited that they’ll be back in Bunbury very very soon!!!

It’s not every year you have to spend your birthday in isolation, and although I had hoped not to again need the Sharing Sunshine pdf released by Stampin’ Up! earlier in the year, there seemed no other way to celebrate a quarantine birthday than with a Quarantini.

If you’re unable to breathe natural air and only see the sun through a window (that you can’t open), I thought some OTT rainbow glimmer was in order!

The sparkle on this glimmer (available in the Annual Catalogue) is unreal! The rainbow effect just adds to its awesomeness!

The background for this card was stamped using ink tones to match the rainbow glimmer. I had already cut this stamp from the Happiest of Birthdays stamp set into three pieces (Happy + little-bit-late + Birthday) so I just took the Birthday stamp set and stamped it all over the background. The colours are Granny Apple Green, Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana, Pacific Point, Gorgeous Grape & Rich Razzleberry.

The “happy” for the card is a die set in the 2020-2021 Annual Catalogue called Happy Dies. It comes with a great range of accessory dies including a stitched edge, banner pennant and cloud strip. I can’t wait to have a play with the rest of the dies in the set. It’s always nice to have a set with great potential for creativity.

Welcome home to my wonderful friends – there’ll be lots of post quarantine celebrations after your (hopefully) once in a lifetime COVID birthday experience!

Social Stamping | 24 Aug 2020

August 25, 2020August 24, 2020 ~ Kelly Kent ~ 1 Comment

Social Stamping has been going strong in term 3 with Mandy Depiazzi and Narelle Simm joining me to host this fun & creative card making session every week.

It was my turn to design the cards for yesterday’s class. We’d had requests from some of our regular stampers to make teen and masculine cards, so that was my aim.

The first card started off as a series of black and white pieces, which I shared on my Instagram Stories. Don’t follow me yet? You’ll find all my cards on my page and some bits and pieces of my day to day activities in my Instagram stories. Click here to follow.

All that black & white turned into a colourful birthday with the help of Stampin’ Blends.

The “HAPPY” is from the Happiest of Birthdays stamp set – stamped on the Stamparatus using the hinged stamping technique to get even spacing. In the between spaces we stamped ‘happy birthday’ from the Timeless Tulips stamp set. And then we added more “HAPPY” using the Playful Alphabet Dies with Foam Adhesive Sheet, coloured with Stampin’ Blends. The stripes on the card base are coordinating Stampin’ Blends using the brush end.

For those that preferred a more muted colour combination, there was an ombre option too…

The second card was inspired by a card in the Stampin’ Up! catalogue (pg 29) using the Geared Up Garage stamp set and Garage Gears Dies.

The catalogue is such a great place to check in for inspiration. The sample in the catalogue was an invite, but I changed up the sentiment using the Well Said stamp set for either a Father’s Day or birthday option.

The background is Cajun Craze cardstock with Brick & Mortar 3D Embossing. The layers are a Night of Navy 2″ strip of cardstock punched with the Banner Triple punch, a 2-1/2″ circle (this punch is now retired but there are similar options in the Layering Circles Dies) in Misty Moonlight cardstock that has been scrunched for a grungy look and a car from Geared Up Garage stamped in Real Red ink & die cut with the coordinating Garage Gears Dies. Some Linen Thread finished the look and a sentiment in Misty Moonlight ink on Whisper White cardstock. Stampers had the option to fussy cut around the words or punch with the Classic Label punch.

This card brought about the most creativity of the day. There were a few happy accidents with the embossing which led to sideways layouts and cards with fantastic ways to style the words including a sign post variation.

Although there’s a design to guide you, Social Stamping classes are all about having fun and I was so happy to see the stampers letting their inner creativity shine.

If you live in the Bunbury area and would like to join us for Social Stamping, we’d love to see you there! The next session is Monday 31st August at 9.30am at the Taste of Dalyellup cafe. RSVP welcome but not essential via my Facebook page.

Happiest of Birthdays | little bit late

August 9, 2020August 8, 2020 ~ Kelly Kent ~ Leave a comment

I love sending out birthday cards and try to get as many in the post as I can for my friends that I don’t see so often. I’ll confess now – they are very often late! I hardly ever allow enough time for the postal service to do its thing!

I also have problems planning across the borders of months, which means birthdays in the first week of the month almost always catch me out! The “little-bit-late” stamp from the Happiest of Birthdays stamp set is an absolutely perfect solution for my tardiness!

Happiest of Birthdays | kelly kent

I’ve stamped the sentiment in white on Basic Black cardstock and then added it to a card full of colour!

Happiest of Birthdays | kelly kent

The card front is Whisper White cardstock with Bumblebee, Magenta Madness and Misty Moonlight ink blended with makeup brushes. Once that was dry, I layered 3 sunflowers in Whisper White (Sunflowers Dies) and then trimmed the edges.

Happiest of Birthdays | kelly kent

I love this stamp set and think you will too!

Stop back in tomorrow when I share another card we made at a recent class using the gorgeous ‘wishing you the happiest of birthdays’ stamp. Big stamps can be intimidating but I’ll share a fun (but easy) way to make it the feature.

kelly kent | mypapercraftjourney.com

Stamp Review Crew | Jar of Flowers

July 20, 2020July 13, 2020 ~ Kelly Kent ~ 1 Comment

Hello there crafters! Thanks for joining me today. I’m hopping with my friends around the world as part of the Stamp Review Crew where we showcase a Stampin’ Up! stamp set. Today it’s the Jar of Flowers stamp set – and the coordinating suite of products, which includes a punch, shaker domes, ribbon, DSP and more!

I love the array of flowers that this stamp set comes with. And of course, I L-O-V-E the Jar Punch. Coordinating bundles are a win in my book!

The first card I’m sharing today features the sunflowers. Sunflowers are just so bright & cheery. Jar of Flowers | kelly kent

This suite has been created with a focus on the 5 new In Colors. They are featured heavily in the Flowers for Every Season DSP and provide an excellent colour palette to base your project colour combinations on.

Jar of Flowers | kelly kent

I love the combination of white, yellow & blue together. The sunflowers have been painted using Bumblebee & Cinnamon Cider ink using a Wink of Stella Pen – so they are extra shimmery when you see them up close!

Jar of Flowers | kelly kent

I added more sunflowers to the inside – because I love a good carry through of a theme!!! This suite is perfect for layering – the colours coordinate, the DSP matches and the accessories bring it all together.

Jar of Flowers | kelly kent

The Jar of Flowers stamp set is one of the few image only sets in the catalogue. This is a purposeful design feature so that you can match it with all your favourite sentiment sets. I’ve used the Happy & Birthday words cut separately from the stamp in the Happiest of Birthday stamp set. This is a great staple for every crafter. Birthday cards are the most common type of card sent (accounting for half of ‘everyday’ cards sent), so it helps to have a fabulous set such as this in your collection.

For the second card I’m sharing, it’s really about the whole suite – featuring the DSP, punch, dome shakers, ribbon and the long stripey stamp from the set as a straw to create an M&M milkshake slider card!

Jar of Flowers | kelly kent

The flap the shaker dome sits on lifts up from the card front revealing the way to the M&Ms.

Jar of Flowers | kelly kent

When you pull out the sliding piece, the mini M&Ms fall out of the back of the jar.

Jar of Flowers | kelly kent

And once the recipient has enjoyed all the yummy chocolates, they can still enjoy their card. Or they can fill it up again and send the card to a new chocolate lover.

Jar of Flowers | kelly kent

The shaker domes that coordinate with the punch and stamp set add so many more options on how to use this set. The domes can be filled with an array of small pieces. I’ve seen a great tool themed card where the jar was filled with nails, bolts & screws – what a fantastic idea!!

Jar of Flowers | kelly kent

For more fabulous ideas, please keep hopping and visit the blogs of the other Stamp Review Crew design team members. They always come up with inspirational projects.

Next stop is my gorgeous and always creative friend Lou Kitzelman.

Have a great week!

kelly kent | mypapercraftjourney.com

Social Stamping | out of the box

June 27, 2020June 26, 2020 ~ Kelly Kent ~ 10 Comments

Hello! Thank you for joining me & my stamping friends as we hop on week 14 of Social Stamping. Each week has a theme that somehow applies to the COVID-19 situation and this week it’s about the ‘out of the box’ thinking brought about by the pandemic.

I know I’ve had to be flexible in how I’ve dealt with home, work and stamping since the pandemic hit in March. There’s been a great deal of ‘out of the box’ thinking that has resulted in trying new things and making new connections. As we ease back into our new normal (either post COVID or between COVID depending on how things go), some of the out of the box thinking will carry on with us – making their mark on how we do things forever more!

My project for today was very literally inspired by the term ‘out of the box’. I’ve made a floating frame card where all the fun happens on the outside of the box.

You’ll note the appearance of a long retired but in no way forgotten bundle called Nailed It. Who still owns this? I love those tools and this seemed like the perfect time to release them from the tool-BOX (pun intended!).

This technique has been around for a while, possibly originally shared by Jennifer McGuire. See her post here with a video tutorial on how to use Press & Seal to achieve this look.

Although the tools are retired, the rest of the card features current products available in the 2020-2021 Annual Catalogue. I’ve coloured the tools using Stampin’ Blends – Dark Real Red, Light Cherry Cobbler and Light Smoky Slate.

The frames have been cut using the Stitched Rectangle Dies. The DSP is In Good Taste, the embossing folder for the Gray Granite card base is Subtle 3D and the Happy B-Day sentiment is from Happiest of Birthdays stamp set.

Thanks for coming along with us today to share in the ‘out of the box’ theme. Next up is the wonderful Michelle Strazds who has made a fabulous project for her daughter’s birthday.

To see a full list of participants in today’s hop, click here to visit the main blog host participant list. Thank you to all my stamping friends who joined!

Have a wonderful weekend!