Farewell Katherine!

Well the removalists have just swarmed all over the house and its time for me to give up the computer, so Farewell Katherine - it's been great! We've made so many good friends, and I have the most wonderful customers up here, its really sad to leave - I'm going to miss you all so much. Here's one last 'Farewell' card for you...

This is a Z fold card - really easy to make in any size - just score at half and 1 quarter., I've used the new Carte Postale stamps again here and the colours are Perfect Plum, Pale Plum & Certainly Celery (again inspired by the mini). I've also used some of the wide Grosgrain ribbon and the Enchante DS Papers - both coming in the mini caty.

Really must go now...be back in about 3 weeks!

It's a Mad House!

Hi there, I haven't posted for a while because its an absolute mad house here at the moment!! As if it wasn't enough to have to pack and clean the house and everything in it ready for an interstate move and 3 weeks living out of a suitcase - I've been sick as well!! I think it was all the stress and not eating or sleeping well that gave me sinus & ear infections. Oh well, thankfully I'm on the mend now. Good thing seeing as the removalists will be here at 7.30am tomorrow!! So before the computer gets packed up I thought I'd share a few more recent creations...

This first card is one I made for 2 of my lovely downlines - Natasha & Nerine, who were promoted to Senior Associate recently. Well done Girls! The card features new stamp sets from the Summer Mini Catalogue - Carte Postale & French Flair. The colours are Pale Plum, Perfect Plum & Certainly Celery - Inspired by the card on the cover of the Summer Mini.

Here's two more quick Christmas cards made with left over Scribble This flowers after I finished making my wine boxes. The cards also feature the Holiday Thyme papers.

Here's two more scrapbook pages for my Broome holiday album. The first one features ]the Scribble alphabet ('Breanna'), and the second page uses some of the really nice wide chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon (coming in the Summer mini). All other products are none SU!

Well I hope you like some of those and they get your creative juices flowing! I'll be back with one last post before signing off for the big move!

Holiday Thyme Gift Bag

This cute little gift bag is made from a single 12x12 sheet of the Holiday Thyme Paper. I've used olive organdy ribbon for the handles and embellished with flowers from Scribble This embossed onto the Holiday Thyme papers with Classy Copper. The word Merry is from Many Merry Messages. Nerine showed us how to make these great bags at our demo's day a couple of weeks ago - Thanks Nerine!

RAK from Kristy

How nice is this! Kristy recently gave me this lovely card and fold-out mini book she'd made. Thanks Kristy for your kind words, it's been a pleasure to spend time with you and I'm glad I was able to help you out! We'll definitely stay in touch and hopefully you can continue to stamp with the other Katherine SU! girls. Cheers!

Happy Birthday Natasha!

We celebrated Natasha's 30th Birthday on Saturday night (a bit early - its not until December - but she's going away and I'm leaving so...). This is the card I made her, I love it & she did too!. It feature's products from the upcoming Summer Mini Caty (released 1 Dec). I used the new b/g stamp French Flair, the absolutely gorgeous set Carte Postale (thank god I've got a replacement for Scribble This!!) and It's your Birthday for the greeting. You may not recognise the papers - they're new too - Au Chocolat and yes that is extra wide 5/8" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon which is another new release in the Summer mini! The cardstock & ink colours are Chocolate Chip, Rose Red & Very Vanilla. The flowers have been layered with Stampin Dimensionals.

Happy Birthday Tash! All the best for the actual day!

And The Winner is...

#7 Kyliema!!! Congratulations Kylie! Enjoy your new set! It will be in your hot little hands very soon! Here's the details from the draw at random.org:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:7
Timestamp: 2007-11-19 08:09:50 UTC

Thank you so much to everyone who left a comment, its such a thrill to know you are all out there reading my blog! I've got lots to post over the next week so please come back again.

WOOHOO - 1000 Hits!!! Candy time...

I'm so excited - the counter has ticked over 1000 hits - YAY!!! Thank you to everyone who has been reading my humble little blog - I hope you're enjoying it!

So to celebrate and say Thank You I have some Blog Candy up for grabs. I have a new unmounted stamp set to give away to a random reader! The set is called "Blooming with Happiness" - its a level 1 Hostess set from the current IB&C (set pictured below). Its a gorgeous set with lots of little flowers which are excellent for water colouring. To see a really nice card made with this set check out Nerine's blog (link below left).

OK, so all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. Please include your comment number (if your the first your number is 1, from then on your number is +1 on the comment number before you - hope that makes sense!!) I'll then generate a random number using random.org to select the winner - I'll do this on Monday 19th November - so leave your comment now. Don't forget to include your name or some other way for me to identify or contact you. Good Luck!!

Holiday Thyme Papers - Just Beautiful!

Have you seen the new 12x12 Christmas papers available only this month for the special price of $14.95? They are gorgeous, the colours are divine and of course co-ordinate perfectly with SU! card stock and inks. Here are some cards I've made using the papers (these are so quick and easy - the patterned paper does it all!)...

I also decorated a box with the papers. It holds a bottle of wine and some chocies perfectly so will make great gifts - and yes that's Scribble This yet again!!! Here its embossed with Classy Copper directly onto the Holiday Thyme papers. Don't forget if you love Scribble or the papers as much as me and you don't have them yet, you've only got until the end of this month to get them!

The photos didn't come out very well but here's the wine box...

Keep an eye on my blog over the next few days... i can smell some candy coming!

Get Well Soon Pete

Here's a card I made a couple of weeks ago for my dear friend Peter. The card base is cranberry crisp which i inked direct to paper with cranberry crisp, there's also some mellow moss and the striped paper is from the Recollections pack. The stamp is from Nice & Easy Notes , stamped in basic black on very vanilla cs and coloured with inks and aqua painter, There's also some ribbon and hodgepodge hardware to finish it off.

Journals For My Girls

It feels like ages since I've posted any of my creations - I've been so busy making them I haven't been on the pc much! I have managed to take lots of photos though - so keep an eye out over the coming week or so!

I thought I'd share these with you first...

After making one of these journals for myself as a trial (see earlier post), I went ahead and made 4 more for my lovely downlines (clockwise from top left: Natasha, Helene, Melissa & Nerine). I had the ladies over on Sunday for some team stamping! It was their last chance to make use of my stamps before they get packed and the journals were just a small way of saying thanks for being on my team and for the fabulous effort you all make. I'm going to miss my girls!

We also had our new surrogate team member Kristy from Hodgson Downs join us, she bought her collection of stamps and her cuttlebug so we had great fun sharing them too! Thanks Kristy.

The journals themselves are the gorgeous 5x5" On Board Journals from the Spring mini catalogue. I decorated them all with papers from Petals & Paisleys, On Board Simon Lower chipboard monograms, Accents & Elements die cut cardstock stickers, tabs punched with the round tab punch and some ribbons.

Enjoy your journals girls!

Stamp-a-ma-jig Tutorial

One of the US blogs I like to visit has a great tutorial on how to use the Stamp-a-ma-jig with the All in the Family stamp set (only available this month and all proceeds go to the Dave Abbott fund - see earlier post for more details). This is well worth a look, you may note that she uses it from the top, I prefer to use it from the bottom - but that's the beauty of it - it suits left and right handed people and top or bottom stampers! Click here to see it.

Happy Christmas Mate!

Here's a couple of quick easy Christmas cards I made with the Happy Christmas Mate! set. The colours are the same for both - real red, night of navy and old olive. I've used the Spot On wheel for the first one and the Candy Cane Christmas wheel for the second (you cant really tell in the photo but I wheeled the back group in real red as well as the title).

Mel's Christmas Card Swap

This was my offering for Mel's Christmas Card Swap. The rules were it had to include a Christmas stamp, one in-colour and organdy ribbon. I used Renaissance Angels, All Year Cheer I, Marigold Morning, Rose Red, Old Olive and ivory organdy ribbon. The angel is stamped on Watercolour paper with Stazon and coloured with watercolour wonder crayons and aqua painter. I also added some dazzling diamonds glitter with the two-way glue pen.

Another Fun Friday Night Class...

We had a lovely night stamping on Friday, a little bitter sweet for me because it was my last one in Katherine - for anyone who hasn't heard by now, my family is relocating back to Port Stephens in NSW (which is home for us) at the end of this month. I am looking forward to being back with family and old friends but am very sad to leave the lovely friends and customers I have up here.

Anyway, back to the class - we made 3 Christmas cards, one of which used the 'cracked glass' technique, here's a picture:

This card uses the Renaissance Angels stamp set and All Year Cheer I. The colours are Vintage Violet, Old Olive and Rose Red. The ribbon is Olive Organdy. The angel has been stamped with Jet Black Stazon onto watercolour paper and water coloured with crayons. You then cover the whole piece with Versamark and emboss several times with clear embossing powder (or a couple of times with UTEE - which is what we did at the class!) put it in the freezer, crack the embossing, then rub some ink over the top to define the cracks. A bit of a long process but the end result is well worth it!

One of the other cards we made featured reverse masking. Variations of this card are everywhere at the moment, it's such an simple, elegant and easy card to make. Here it is:

Well, not really - this was one I'd made earlier in a different colour. This is Brocade Blue, the one we did at the class used Not Quite Navy which I think is much nicer. Stamps used are Lovely as a Tree and Many Merry Messages. We put an oval mask on the card, sponged it, stamped the row of trees over the top, removed the mask, stamped the greeting and then stamped the big tree and applied glitter to it with Heat & Stick powder! Easy as that!

I don't have a photo of the third card yet- it was a lovely Cranberry Crisp card with Classy Copper embossed scribbles from my favorite set Scribble This!

We were lucky enough to have talented new SU! Demonstrator Kristy from Hodgson Downs Station join us at the class. You can check out Kristy's blog here - she may even have a pic of the third card!

Double Sided Christmas Paper - YAY!!!

"Just in Thyme" for Christmas is our November Promotion - the gorgeous Holiday Thyme Designer Series Paper for the special price of $14.95. The pack includes 12 sheets (2 each of 6 double sided designs). The colours co-ordinate beautifully with our in-colours and are perfect for making Christmas cards, invitations, gift wrap, off the page items or scrapbook pages.

Email me to place an order, you can order as much as you like but only until 30th November!

All In the Family

SU! Australia General Manager David Abbott sadly passed away in October. In his honour SU! is pre-releasing the set "All in the Family" (from the 08/09 IB&C) for sale during November to raise funds for Dave's wife and 3 young children. 100% of funds from the sale of this set worldwide will be donated - how great is that!

The set retails for $73.95, however along with most other SU Demo's I will be reducing the cost by 20% (my commission) to $59.16 (not inc shipping) in the hope that this might help sell more sets for such a great cause. Although I was never fortunate enough to meet Dave, my Upline Sharon was, and can't say enough about how wonderful a man he was.

If you'd like to order this set email me at riknkaz@bigpond.net.au and I can have it shipped directly to you anywhere in Australia. To see all of the stamp set images you can download the flyer here

Last Month to Order From Spring Mini Catalogue

How cute is this? I made myself this little notebook entirely of gorgeous products from the Spring Mini Catalogue - it finishes on the 30th November, so if you want to get your hands on any of the great stamps or accessories featured in it, then you better hurry...email me now and I'll give you free shipping on all mini-cat purchases until 10th November - save 5%!

Here's some pic's of my book...

Here I started with the 5x5 On Board Art Journal, Covered it with the gorgeous Petals and Paisleys designer series double sided papers, added some die cut stickers from the Little Reminders Accents & Elements tin and added my monogram (On Board Simon Lower) which I also covered with the Petals & Paisleys Paper. I used the Tab Punch to make tabs for the inside (they are still blank because I'm not sure what I'm using the book for yet!), made the little paper clip and added lots of ribbons to finish (a great reason to join my ribbon club too!).

Join my Ribbon Club...

How would you like to have Grosgrain, Organdy AND Gingham ribbons in ALL the Stampin’ Up! Colours?

If you’d like to be sure to have the right ribbon for every project then consider joining my Ribbon Club. Here’s how it works:

As a member of the club you will receive 52 metres of ribbon made up of the following:
30 metres of Grosgrain ribbon – 2 metres of each of the 15 colours
6 metres of Gingham ribbon – 1 metre of each of the 6 colours
16 metres of Organdy ribbon – 2 metres of each of the 8 colours
The total cost is $30 per club member – membership is limited to 10 people.
Cost includes shipping, separating, packaging and delivery to anywhere in Australia
This is a one-off purchase with no ongoing commitment

If you’d like to join the club contact me asap. Offer closes and payment must be received by Monday 5th November. Payment to be made by cash, credit card or direct deposit.

You can view the ribbon colours on page 148 of the IB&C (if you don’t own one you can view it on-line (see link to SU website on left)

Christmas Bag-a-lopes

Here's a pic of some of the Christmas gift bags I've made lately. If you haven't been to one of my workshops you may not know these are made from an envelope! They are just so cute! The colours here are real red and handsome hunter. Email me if you'd like instructions on how to make one yourself.

Finally Some Scrapbooking!!

Ok, I'm excited I got some scrapbooking done but really bummed by how bad these photos are! Anyway, I decided to start an album of our recent holiday to Broome. As I've said before the colours of Broome are just soooo beautiful - I couldn't wait to scrap them! (never mind the thousands of older photos waiting for my attention!) So this first page is the title page, its non-SU (except the hodgepodge) and it really does look much nicer IRL.

This next one is a shocking photo - sorry, I didn't realise it was so bad till I uploaded it - I'll try getting a better one tomorrow. The page is about the Japanese Cemetery in Broome. I don't know what it is about these places (I remember feeling the same way when seeing the one on Thursday Is), I think it's the thought that so many lives were lost for the sake of a piece of jewellery, the fact that so many were used and abused and that so many of the deaths were preventable, and that they were so far from home. But anyway I felt I had to scrapbook it. This one is mostly SU with the exception of some ribbon and the white rub-ons for the title. I used the Artfully Asian and Symbols of Solitude stamp sets, cardstock colours are Chocolate Chip, Old Olive and Confetti White.

Happy 4th Wedding Anniversary!

Rick & I have been married Four years today! Wow how time flies! But on the other hand so much has changed since then that sometimes it feels more like 10 years! Notice we both look quite a bit older now than we do in our wedding photo - I'm blaming that on Breanna!!

I wanted to make a card for Rick and didn't really know where to start - flowers just weren't going to cut it and I don't have much in the way of 'love' type sets either. But then I remembered I'd just ordered one of the Simply Sent card Kits (Good Things) and thought that would be ideal (and oh so easy!!) I changed the design just a little and added the word 'Love' from the All About U stamp set. I'm very happy with how it turned out - sweet but not too soft and mushy!

A Spring Thank You

Here's a super quick and easy card using the Looks Like Spring stamp set, Spring Bouquet Punch and Co-ordinating DS Papers (Spring Showers). There's a great promotion this month where you receive a set of the DS 12x12 papers for free (save $16.95) when you purchase the stamps and punch together. This special is available until 31 October, email me and I can have them shipped directly to you.

Criss Cross Card

I'd been dying to make one of these cards since the tutorial on SCS, so Helene's birthday was the perfect excuse! Her favorite colour is green and she loves anything paisley (a girl after my own heart!) so the Petals & Paisleys double sided papers from the Spring mini were definitely in order here! I also used the Polka Dots & Paisley stamp set and I couldn't help myself I managed to get Scribble This in there as well! I also used the Happy Birthday stamp from Its Your Birthday for the greeting. The colours are Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Tempting Turquoise & Whisper White. I also used the Round Tab Punch, paper piercer and Mat Pack and some Celery Grosgrain Ribbon (there's also 2 Prima flowers and a bling brad which are non-SU! ). Here's some pictures:

This last pic shows the matching bag-a-lope.

Cant wait to make my next criss cross card! So what do you think of this one?

Snappy Birthday Michael !!

My brother celebrated his 30th Birthday today. I made him a card using the Crab & Co stamp set from the mini catalogue. I don't own this set but was lucky enough to borrow it off Mel after WCMD. I ended up doing a case of Mel's WCMD design but changing it to a Birthday rather than Christmas theme. I made a little '30' sign for the crab to hold as well. Here it is...

I was worried Michael might not like the card but I talked to him tonight and he thought it was good! Phew! He also liked the one I stamped on the envelope that Breanna had "coloured in" for him!!

My dear friend (and new downline!) Helene also had her Birthday today - cant wait to show you her card but I have to wait till she gets it first - don't want to spoil the surprise!

WCMD Review

I know this is way overdue - I planned to post it last Thursday but illness intervened!!

Anyway...Our WCMD was a huge success, all the ladies had a great time and loved the cards they made. Natasha, Mel & I all have very different styles so there was a great mix of cards in the end. Here's a photo of all 6 cards we made...

The first two from the left are Mel's, middle two are mine, and the two on the right are Natasha's. Here's another photo of mine...

Unfortunately I cant take credit for these designs, they've both been done to death and I've no idea whose they were first! I decided to do the wreath card using the Looks like Spring stamp set and punch at the last minute because of the Spring promotion this month (where you receive the coordinating designer series papers for free when you purchase the stamp set and punch together). The greeting is from Many Merry Messages stamp set. The colours for that card are Cranberry crisp, True Thyme and Naturals Ivory.

The second card uses the beautiful fir tree from the Lovely as a Tree stamp set, which I've stamped in versamark and True Thyme ink then added Dazzling Diamonds Glitter with heat & stick powder (the photo doesn't show it but its a beautiful shimmering tree IRL). The greeting is from All Year Cheer I and the background was done with the Speckled wheel. Cardstock colours are Buckaroo Blue, True Thyme, Cranberry Crisp and Whisper White.

One last pic, these are some of the gift bags we made for all the guests. They had some Santa choccies, lollies and a stamp in them. The colours are Glorious Green, Real Red, Gable Green and Whisper White. The Stamp is from Greetings Galore.

Only Ornaments...

Here's a quick and easy Christmas card using the Only Ornaments Stampin Around wheel. I really like this colour combo too - its Old Olive, Cool Caribbean and Real Red. 'Seasons Greetings' is from the Many Merry Messages stamp set. Water colouring done with Watercolour Wonder Crayons and Aqua Painter.

Christmas Is Coming!

Can you believe its only 11 weeks till Christmas? Here's 2 different Triangle Trifold Christmas cards I've made lately...

Stamp sets used for this one are All Year Cheer I (front), Many Merry Messages (inside), Loads of Love (tree inside), and Stampin Around wheel Only Ornaments. Cardstock colours are Real Red, Handsome Hunter and Confetti White, Handsome Hunter and real red ink and red grosgrain ribbon.

This one uses the Scribble This stamp set (yes I cant get enough of it!) and Many Merry Messages (inside). Cardstock and ink colours are the same as the one above just reverse order.

What do you think of these? More Christmas cards to come soon so stay tuned!

One More Masked Card...

Here's another card I made when mucking around with the masking technique. This one uses different colours to what I'd normally pick - get your sunnies ready - its bright!!

Stamp sets are Scribble This and Simple Sayings II. Cardstock colours are YoYo Yellow, Pixie Pink & Confetti White. Ink is Stazon and Basic Black, water coloured with Watercolour Wonder Crayons and Aqua Painter, white gel pen for highlights on the background swirls.

Tomorrow I'll post the first of many Christmas Cards I've made lately and some of the projects from WCMD - which went really well - albeit over time! We had 13 ladies attend who all had a great time and loved the cards they made.

Masking Workshop Make & Take

As promised here is the card we did at my workshop this evening, the ladies all did a wonderful job of it too!
The colours for this one are Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive and Lavender Lace. The tulips are from Both Ways Blossoms, the background is French script and the greeting is from Greetings Galore. Blossoms stamped with Stazon and coloured with Watercolour Wonder Crayons. The ribbon is pink organdy.

Must go - lots of last minute preparations to do for our WCMD event tomorrow!! I will be posting more photos very soon though!

I've been Masking Blossoms...

I know its been a while since I've posted any of my creations for you guys - I've just been so busy making them! We'll that's about to change, I have made at least a dozen cards over the last week or so getting ready for WCMD tomorrow and my workshops. They've all been photographed and I will share them over the coming days.

To start off I thought I'd share some of the masking cards I've made in preparation for a workshop this afternoon...

This is the Level 2 Hostess stamp set Both Ways Blossoms I got this a couple of months ago and this was the first time I've used it! (all those holidays got in the way!) It's now one of my fav's!! The greeting stamp is from Warmest Regards (Level 1 Hostess set). Incidentally this card is to send to a Friend who was affected by the recent Bush Fires in Port Stephens (as were my parents). The cardstock colours here are Certainly Celery, Regal Rose & Confetti White (I use confetti white when I'm water colouring because its thicker than Whisper White and you get a nicer result). Blossoms were stamped in Stazon and water coloured with Watercolour Wonder Crayons and Aquapainter.

I like this one! It's relatively plain but I'm happy with the end result - very striking i think. Here instead of Stazon I coloured the blossoms with my Stampin Write Markers (Real Red & Glorious Green) and then spread the colour with my Aquapainter - this is a great way to achieve a water coloured effect. Cardstock colours are Creamy Caramel, Night of Navy, Real Red and Confetti White. The sentiment is from Riveting (Level 1 Hostess set) and there's also some linen thread on there.

That's all for now, but check back later - when I get home from this afternoons workshop I'll post the one we did as the make & take!