Modern Heart meets Strong & Beautiful

Happy Sunday!

It IS Sunday, isn't it??  I have lost ALL concept of what day it is! ... and it's wonderful!

I truly haven't been this relaxed in I don't know HOW long!  The kids have been off school since last Friday afternoon ... and so has Craig!  The kids have another week off and Craig is off until Thursday!  As much as the man drives me CRAZY with his constant moving (her seriously only ever sits still for about 5 minutes at a time) I am VERY grateful for his neurotic tendencies *lol*.  My house is never as clean as when he has lots of days off in a row!  I also gain at least an hour a day by him always taking care of dinner!  It seriously feels like I have SO much more time in the day just by not having to deal with that one task every day!

So what have I been doing?  Well ... Christmas prep had me busy right up until Wednesday, of course ... but since then I have been just "putzing".  Yes, it's generally work related but I'm doing what I WANT to do, not what I feel I HAVE to do .. and I'm loving it!  Catching up on paperwork, planning classes, organizing my craft cave ... just getting caught up and trying to breath!  I don't have much time to keep that up, though, as I have my New Catalogue Class this Friday night and my New Catalogue Open House Saturday morning! ... and there is always a lot I want to do for those.  I'm going to TRY not to get all crazy prepping, though.  I'm MUCH more fun when I'm relaxed!

Today I'm going to share a project I made for a Canadian card swap I took part in.  It uses a new stamp set called "Forever Blossoms".  Trust me when I say this bundle is a MUST for you to own.  It makes quick and easy cards ... well ... quick and easy! ... but also stunning!  You CAN make it more complicated but you don't have to.  That's MY kind of set!  Check out what I made:

I just LOVE it!  I got a real muted, vintage look by stamping the image in Versamark then heat setting Gold embossing powder over it.  Heat embossing was my very first technique I ever tried and it's still my favourite, watching that powder melt!

To colour the images I used a fairly dry Aqua Painter.  I squeezed the closed Pear Pizazz and Blushing Bride ink pads really hard, to transfer a bit of ink into the closed lid.  I then used the aquapainter to paint the leaves and centres of the flowers.  An OLD aquapainter works well for this technique as the brush bristles give a feathers, realiztic look to the colouring, if that makes sense.

 I stamped the sentiment with Soft Sued ink and punched it out with my "Timeless Label" punch - and popped it up on dimensionals.

I added some Metallic Pearls for that finishing touch.  Love love love! 

I can't wait for the 2020 Occasions (Mini) Catalogue to go live January 3rd. This beautiful bundle (stamp set and dies) is $72.00 Canadian .... so when you purchase it you will also get a FREE Sale-a-bration item of your choice.  BONUS!

That's it for now - I'm off to finish off some projects I started MONTHS ago!  Whatever you get up to today, I hope it's a stampy one ... and I wish you all a very Happy New Year!



Tam

Stampin' Creative Blog Hop - Sale-a-Brations 2020 Sneak Peek!

Happy Boxing Day!

What is one to do on Christmas morning whilst waiting for the family to wake up and start the fun?  Why write your blog post, of course!  lol.

Welcome to the final Stampin' Creative Blog Hop for 2019!  I'm Tamara Bertram, coming to you from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  I'm THRILLED to be hopping with so many AMAZING demonstrators from around the globe.  Truly an honour!

This month we are bringing you Sneak Peak projects from the upcoming 2020 Sale-a-brations promotion.  You don't have to wait much longer - January 3rd you can get SAB products FREE with EVERY $60 (Cdn) you spend.  Yes, you will want them all, especially after you see all the great projects we have to share with you.  So grab a pencil and paper, hop along and start that wish list for your next order!

I decided to showcase the AWESOME "Happy Birthday To You" set. 

This set is PERFECT for birthdays AND for weddings.  I came up with a layout I just LOVE and, as you can see, couldn't stop creating in a variety of colours ...

Fun, right??  Yes, I used SCISSORS to cut out the cake but it really wasn't bad at all, as the image is large and easy to maneuver around.

The coloured mats are 4 3/4" plus two ticks x 3 1/2" plus two ticks

The white top layer is 4 3/4" x 3 1/2"

On all Cards I used my 2 1/4" Circle Punch, run through the Scripty Embossing folder.  I popped the layers and the cakes up on dimensionals.

This card is in Soft Sea Foam and I used my Soft Sea Foam and Petal Pink Blends to colour the cake ... and adhesive backed sequins for bling.  The sentiment and cake are embossed in Silver Embossing Powder (EP).  This would be a great wedding card ... and you could change the colours to be whatever the wedding colours are.  Fun!

This card is in Gold.  I used my Gold Shimmer Paint and a QTip to colour the cake ... and Gold Faceted Gems for bling.  The sentiment and cake are embossed in Gold Embossing Powder.  Wouldn't this be a great card for a Golden Wedding Anniversary??

This card is in Purple Posy.  I used my Purple Posy and Soft Sea Foam Blends to colour the cake ... and Silver Metallic Pearls for bling.  The sentiment was stamped in Highland Heather ink, covered  with Clear Embossing Powder and then heat set.  This is a technique you can use to get an embossed image in ANY colour!  Just make sure you have a juicy ink pad so the EP stick to it ... then heat set!  The cake is embossed in Silver Embossing Powder.  On this card I had TRIED stamping the sentiment with my Purple Posy Ink and covering it with Clear EP but when I heated the powder the colour changed to blue!  Funky but not the look I was going for! lol

This card is in Seaside Spray.  I used my Seaside Spray and Soft Seafoam Blends to colour the cake.  The sentiment was stamped in Seaside Spray ink, covered in Clear EP and heat set.  The cake is embossed in Silver Embossing Powder and I used Silver Faceted Gems for bling.

This card is in Basic Black.  I used my White Frost Shimmer Mist and a QTip to colour the cake.  The sentiment was stamped in Memento Black ink, covered in Clear EP and heat set.  This is my preferred method to embossing a black image.  I find when I use the Black Embossing powder it always leaves little flecks of black on the card, despite using the embossing body.  My way of doing it gets the same great black embossed effect but without the flecks!  

The cake is embossed in Black Powder (flecks really weren't an issue as I cut the image out) and I used Silver Faceted Gems, made black with my dark Black Blend for bling.

So there you have it!  Five samples of one layout, one stamp set but varying colours and em embellishments.  This is my favourite SAB item this year and, as you can see, I have already used it a lot!  Starting January 3rd you can get this set for free with a minimum purchase.  I hope this has inspired you to get it!

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season!  

Check out the rest of the SAB Sneak Peak projects my friends have created!

You've Got This Girl! - Kylie's Maui Achievers Blog Hop

Welcome to the Maui Achievers Blog Hop!  I'm Tamara Bertram, coming to you from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  I'm SO excited to he hopping with so many AMAZING demonstrators from around the glove as we bring you our projects this month!  Hopefully you will find some inspirations as you hop along.  Please leave comments for us as you go - it's always nice to hear what you think of our work.  Happy Hopping!

I have TWO cards to share today!  ... 10 hours LATE in posting, as I got my dates and times zones flipped with another hop I'm doing on Boxing Day but better late than never, I suppose!  It's funny that my card says "You've Got This, Girl" when in fact I do NOT have this *lol*

"Anything Current" is the theme and I was excited to play with non-Christmas sets!  I was pressed for time in creating them (little did I know I had already missed the deadline completely! lol) so I wanted to go with a simple, easy feel.  My eyes fell upon a FEW sets and I'm thrilled that they play nicely off each other.

My first one used two sets - the sentiment is from "Here's To Strong Women" and the splotch is from "Modern Heart".  I kept the colour palette simple, using just Whisper White, Basic Black and Bermuda Bay.  I love how it turned out:

 * Tip:  Whenever I want to keep things simple I turn to TEXTURE for interest.  On this card I heat embossed the sentiment in black, and the background is dry embossed with the Brick & Mortar Embossing folder.  You really don't need anything more!  Simple!

The next card I made . again uses the "Modern Heart" set and this time I paired it with "Strong and Beautiful" for the sentiment:

(Sorry for the lighting!  It's pretty dark at midnight over here in Canada! lol)

This layout is actually CASEd right out of our catalogue - I just changed the sentiment and colours.  I used Pretty Peacock, Blackberry Bliss and Highland Heather.  Again, I added texture by embossing the image and the sentiment and I used my snips to cut out the sentiment before popping it up on dimensionals.  I added a few Champagne Rhinestones for some bling.

There you are!  Two simple cards!  JUST what we need at this time of year - SIMPLE!

I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the very best in the year ahead.  Enjoy hopping along with our other players!



Tam

Post Script:  My apologies - the link I need to join the blog hop is closed (how odd, given I'm only 11 hours late! lol).  If/when the link opens again I'll add the links to the other hoppers so you can hop along to check them out!

Getting Close to the Finish Line!

Happy Sunday!

Wow!  I just popped in to my own blog and spotted I haven't posted since my Blog Hop Nov 28th.  Whaaaattttt??  While part of me is shocked it's been that long part of me is not at all!  The last few months have been an absolute BLUR and I'm still wondering where OCTOBER went, let along November and half of December!  9 days until Christmas??  Huh???  I have to say, until yesterday afternoon I have not had one ounce of Christmas spirit.  I've been listening to Christmas music on the radio and making Christmas projects but my heart just hasn't been "singing" the way it should (and usually does) all of December!  I'm happy to say that all changed yesterday afternoon ... as I mailed off my last "big project", which was 42 cards I made for a card swap.  Yes - that was the last "time sensitive" task on my to-do list, other than The Big Day itself.  Once that box was handed over to the postal lady I felt a HUGE weight lift and NOW I can relax.  NOW I can start figuring what I have ready for Christmas and what still needs to be done.  NOW I can do what I WANT to do, rather than what I HAVE to do.  NOW I can do crafts with the kids (check - worked on our model with Rebecca yesterday).  NOW I can watch movies with the family (check - watched Avengers End Game last night).  NOW I can be silly, wrap, sing, NAP, bake and be at the beck and call of the kids as they need rides here, there and everywhere and just BREATHE.  Oh how I love the next 10-11 days.  They are truly the ONLY days I relax all year long.  Oh sure, I'll do some work here and there, but nothing is a MUST ... and that is golden.

So rest assured I HAVE been crafting ... and made some FAB cards using the new Occasions and Sale-a-brations products I bought, but I can't share those until the end of December.  PLEASE pop over to my Facebook page "Tamara's Paper Trail" and follow me there.  I have been posting FABULOUS cards I have received from friends.  FB is my first stop for all things stamping.  Follow me there and you'll be in the loop!  Here are the cards I have posted there recently.  I have LOTS more to share so I hope to see you there.  In the meantime ... have a stampy day!

(Oh!  .. I see I have a few Blog hops coming up too!  Check back this Thursday for my next one!)

Tam