Signing off for a while...

We're off to Darwin tomorrow to meet my Brother & his girlfriend Linda who are flying up to visit us from Newcastle NSW. A few days to show them around Darwin then we're all off to see Kakadu National Park - camping, 4 wheel driving and some well earned R&R - cant wait!

Happy Fathers Day

After my last effort to make a masculine card I thought I'd better buy a new stamp set - here it is - It's called Lovely as a Tree and I just love it! I had great fun putting together a few Fathers day cards to send out. Here's one...

Colours are Chocolate Chip (card base - sorry the scan cut most of it off), Close to Cocoa and Always Artichoke (very masculine!). The Background stamp is French Script, Watercolour wonder crayons were used on the tree and all cardstock layers have been sponged with Choc Chip. I can post it now because I know the recipients don't read my blog!

More Brayer Techniques

As promised here are the pictures of the other two brayer cards we made at the brayer technique class. This first one uses the Blue Frost spectrum pad applied to gloss card for the background. The stamp set used is All About U - one of the sets available free to qualifying hostesses this month. The blue background is teamed with cardstock colours More Mustard and Garden Green (an unlikely combination i know! - got it from the colour wheel and was surprised how good it actually looks!)...

For this next one we used the brayer to get a reverse image, ie to be able to have the two elephants from Wild About You to be facing each other - cool huh! Another great use for the brayer is to ink large background stamps, it gives really good even coverage - it was used here on the paisley background stamp (though the picture is shocking and you probably cant even tell its been bg stamped!) Colours were inspired by the Sarah designer series paper used on the card...

Joseph's Coat Technique

Last Friday night's technique class was all about the mighty Brayer. We made 3 cards all using the Brayer, the last of which was 'Joseph's Coat'. This is a really cool technique that effectively gives you a multicoloured embossed image emerging from a black (or dark coloured) background. Its hard to describe in words...so here is a picture!

This is the card that everyone made at the class, the scan doesn't do it justice - much nicer IRL! We used the Stampin Around Flitting By Jumbo Wheel to create the Joseph's coat effect. Essentially you take a piece of white gloss cardstock and use the Brayer to colour it with the 'Celebration' spectrum pad. Then ink the wheel with versamark, stamp and emboss with clear detail powder. The Brayer is used again with black ink over the top, the ink on the embossed image can then be wiped off to reveal the multicoloured stamped image - Just like magic!! Other stamp sets used on this project are the dots from Bundle of Joy (Spring mini cat) and the greeting is from Warmest Regards (hostess set). Cardstock colours are Pink Passion and Lovely Lilac, ribbon is pink grosgrain.

Here are some other sample cards I made using the Josephs Coat technique:

This is probably my favorite of all the cards, its so simple but effective. This one uses the 'Blue Frost' Spectrum pad, the stamp set is Renaissance Angels, cardstock is Brilliant Blue & Bashful Blue.

This one really didn't scan true to life. The card colour is Gable Green although it looks nothing like it in this scan. This one is the 'celebration spectrum pad again and the Reason to Smile hostess stamp set.

This one uses the new Scribble This stamp set from the mini caty (loooove it!) and the Celebrate is from All Year Cheer II.

So what do you think of these? I'd love to here your comments. Also, I tried out my scanner for these pic's (only because I keep forgetting to take the photo's whilst there is natural light!!), I don't really think the scanned images are as good - what do you think? I will post again soon with the other cards we made at the class and some other recent creations too.

1st Birthday Wishes For Luana

My friend (and fellow SU Demonstrator!) Natasha's daughter Luana was 1 year old last Thursday. We celebrated her birthday with a lovely afternoon out at Edith Falls on Saturday. Breanna had a great time, she loved swimming with her Dad and even though her lips were blue and she was shivering there was no way she was getting out for anything less than Birthday Cake!

I cheated a bit on Luana's Birthday card and used some non-SU patterned papers, here it is...

The super cute elephant is from the Wild About You stamp set (love it!), I've stamped it in Pale Plum then used the 'rock n roll' technique to ink the edges in Perfect Plum. I stamped a second elephant in Perfect Plum cut out his ear and stuck it on to my first elephant with Stampin Dimensionals. The patterned papers and alpha stickers are from Basic Grey (Oh Baby Girl collection). Cardstock colours are Perfect Plum, Pale Plum and Very Vanilla and I've used some cream grosgrain ribbon to tie the card closed. Here's what it looks like open...

This card was inspired by one I'd seen somewhere on the net which had used the Basic Grey papers and noted how well they suited the Wild About You set -which is so true! I just cant for the life of me find it again to give proper credit.

Happy Birthday Dad

My Dad celebrated his 60th Birthday on Saturday. It wasn't until I went to make his card that I realised I have no masculine stamps whatsoever! I have quite a few traditional birthday stamps, but balloons and cakes weren't going to cut it either...so with limited supplies this is what I came up with...I've used papers from the Recollections Designer Series (have I mentioned their my favorites!) The cardstock colours are inspired by the papers - Chocolate Chip, Mellow Moss & Very Vanilla. Stamps sets used were Headline Alphabet (for Dad) and Eat Cake (for the background and Happy Birthday) stamped with Chocolate Chip ink. I've used some Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware and white grosgrain ribbon which I coloured with Cranberry Crisp ink. I also used some Chrystal Effects on the letters. OK for my first real attempt at a masculine card, but some new (masculine) stamp sets are definately in order!

Hooray for Hostesses!

Be the star of the party when you bring the stamping festivities home with a workshop between 1 August and 15 September. Share stamping at your gathering, and enjoy an extra party favor by adding one of three free pre-selected stamp sets to your already fantastic hostess benefits.
Choose one of these pre-selected stamp sets with a $600 workshop: Petal Prints, Nice & Easy Notes, or All About U.

That's an extra stamp set valued at $53.95 on top of the usual great hostess benefits for a $600 workshop (one level 1 or 2 stamp set and $70 free merchandise of your choice!)

If your not in the Katherine area that's not a problem, simply pass your catalogue around to your friends, or have them visit the catalogue online. Collect your orders and simply email them through to me. Your order will be shipped directly to you from the warehouse.

Another Scribble...

Here's another card made with the Scribble This stamp set and Scribble jumbo wheel. The colours are ruby red, old olive and cameo coral. I've used the Watercolour Wonder Crayons, and the Happy Birthday stamp is from the hostess stamp set Warmest Regards.