It's Summer Mini Time!!

I love love love this year's Summer Mini Catalogue - its gorgeous!! Not only is it jam packed with gorgeous new stamps there's also new ribbon, chunky glitter, felt flowers, rub-ons and the most beautiful papers ever...check it out - the link is on the right hand side. If you'd like a hard copy to drool over email me and I'll send you one!

I did my first Summer Mini workshop today (thank you Paula!). For our first project we made a scrapbook page embellishment, here's a picture of the page I did as a sample showing its possible use... that's it at the bottom left...

How cute is she? That just goes to show how far behind I am on my scrapping - that's Breanna on her 2nd Birthday (she was a huge wiggles fan at the time and loved her Dorothy tutu!). Here's another picture to give you a better idea of the embellishment...

And here's a similar embellishment used on a card...

To make it we used the Friendly Flowers stamp set, purely pomegranate, pretty in pink, and chocolate chip ink on whisper white cardstock. The bling is the new chunky glitter applied with crystal effects. The chunky glitter comes in a set of 4 colours - we used the pink today and the card sample uses the crystal iris.

The other project we made today was a Birthday card with the new set Eastern Blooms. This is a really cool set, and the Bali Breeze papers that match are divine! This card was inspired by the colours of those papers...

Sorry for the blurry photo. Here's another version...

Hope you like these creations. I have heaps more to show you, so hopefully I'll be back again soon! Damn work for getting in the way of my stamping and blogging!

Dashing Bags in Boxes

How cute are these! We made these with the Dashing DSP and Season of Joy stamp set at a recent workshop (hi girls!). I liked them so much I've made even more!! Just cant decide whether to give them to all the family on Christmas Day or the preschool teachers...

We Have A Winner!

I know I said lunch time - but better late than never!!!
Thank you to the lovely ladies who left a comment on my last post. Yes you were right - all the projects featured products from the Spring Mini Catalogue - which as Tash pointed out, you can only get until the end of this month - only 15 days left. So if you'd love to get your hands on any of the beautiful stamps, papers, rub-ons, ribbons, stickers or die cuts, please email me.

I used random org to generate a winner:

Here are your random numbers:

4 Timestamp: 2008-11-15 09:06:29 UTC

Congratulations to Leah who left comment number four. I'll be sending you some blog candy very soon!

Can You Guess?

I have some Blog candy up for grabs- all you have to do is leave a comment on this post with your answer to this question: What do all the items I've made below have in common? I'll draw the winner at lunchtime on Saturday 15th November. Entry is open to everyone.

OK, here goes...first up we have a 'star box'

Next is a love note gift box set...

A triangle box (recent tutorial at SCS)...

A summer picnic inspired 'bag in a box' and box I made to keep all my Blooms die cuts in...

A very cute 'pizza box' I made and filled with Hershey's for an American friend...

And sadly I needed to make a sympathy card for my Mum last week who lost her much loved uncle...

So can you guess?

PS I meant to enter at least one of the 3D items in KristyJane's 'Anything but a card' challenge - but I missed the deadline - oops - sorry Kristy.

Christmas Windows

Windows, windows, and more windows! Everywhere I look there's window cards - I'll be happy if I don't make anymore for quite some time!!! Enough ranting...way back at regionals Linda Higgins demonstrated some really cool window cards - I mentioned them in this post here. I was very impressed with how easy these are to make and yet how effective. I thought they'd make great Christmas cards with a bit of a twist to teach my customers. My enthusiasm may have gone a little over the top though - here is just SOME of the Christmas window cards I've made or taught recently...

Sorry some of the photos are really crappy.

If you'd like more info on these cards please leave me a comment or email.

Sandy Claws is coming to town...

As promised here's a couple more of the Chrissy cards I've made lately.

These are two of the cards we made at my Christmas card SAS last Saturday. Sorry the photos aren't very good.

Stamps: Crab & Co, By the Sea (wheel - retired)

Ink: Sahara sand, black stazon

Paper: Kraft, Real Red, Old Olive, More Mustard, Whisper White

Other: Stampin Write markers, Real red buttons

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Many Merry Messages
Ink: Always Artichoke, versamark
Paper: Holiday harmony DSP, Naturals Ivory, Purely Pomegranate, Always Artichoke

Other: Heat & Stick powder, Dazzling Diamonds, Purely Pomegranate Satin Ribbon

I made one of these candy cane holders for all the girls who came along to my class. The Santa made with the scallop punch is so cute! Here's a link to Tinkerin-in-ink with Tanya's tutorial if you want to make some yourself.

Christmas Cards by the truck load!

I feel like I've made so many Christmas cards lately! I've had a few workshops and classes on lately, and of course it is that time of year! Not that I'm complaining!! I haven't had a chance to take photos of all of them yet, but here's a couple from way back at WCMD!...

This one was one of the cards the ladies at my WCMD class made. It uses the Christmas tree from Fun & Fast Notes. The Merry Christmas label is from Party Punch (hostess set). The colours are inspired by the Holiday Harmony DSP's used (River rock, Always Artichoke and Purely Pomegranate) and I used the crimper to add some dimension to this one.

This one was a super quick 'One Sheet Wonder' I was playing around with for a class but didn't end up using. You just stamp an A4 sheet then cut into quarters to make card fronts for 4 cards. Here I used the poinsettia and swirl from Season of Joy in Always artichoke and Bravo Burgundy on Very vanilla card. You then just tear away the front of the Artichoke card, stick the stamped card front behind it, finish with some ribbon and a greeting and you're done!! I also decorated an envelope for this one.

Thinking of WCMD, I know it was ages ago, but I meant to show you the gorgeous treat baskets I made for the girls who came along. They were made from an SCS tutorial and I just love them! As per my WCMD theme I used the Holiday harmony DSP, no two were the same. Here's one of them...

and here's a pic of some of them on the table when the girls arrived for the class...

I'll be back tomorrow with some more Chrissy cards...

Time's running out for Birthday Specials...

I'm sure you've all heard by now that Stampin' Up! is 20 years old this month!! To celebrate there are 5 special Birthday sets available at 20% off!! All the details of the promotion are available here.

One of the sets is Pretty Princess normally $45.95, this month only $36.76! Here's a quick card I made using it to make a 4 year old birthday card back in August...

If you'd like to have this set on hand for quick easy girls cards then be sure to email me before the end of the month.

Vanilla Gold Wedding

A work colleague of mine is getting married this weekend so I volunteered to make a card from everyone in our department. I CASED this idea from Splitcoast stamper "lovestampin!!!", but added a few twists of my own. One thing I definitely picked up from her was the use of the cuttlebug for embossed backgrounds - and now i think I may be hooked! Would you believe this is the first time I have ever used my cuttlebug folders and I've had them for nearly 12 months!!!!!

Everyone at work was pretty impressed - so I'm happy! What do you guys think?

Stamps: Petal prints, All Year Cheer I (retired), Taggers Dozen, Springtime Stems (retired)

Ink: Versamark

Paper: Very vanilla, Gold Metallic

Other: Gold Embossing powder, Dazzling Diamonds, Cuttlebug folder Textile texture

Mick's Birthday Card...

My Brother celebrated yet another Birthday last week, this is the card I made him...

I was really laking inspiration when I made this, so I did my usual and grabbed some patterned paper! (If I'm stumped for where to start I find that looking at papers at least gives you some colours as a starting point) I was going through my stash and realised I hadn't made anything using the outlaw DSP. Soooo I decided to challenge myself with papers I'd never used AND a stamp set that hadn't seen daylight for a while - Loads of Love was the only one I could find that was sufficiently masculine!! This is what eventuated - not too bad for a quick card on a low inspiration day!!!

Now, my Brother also shares his Birthday with my beautiful Friend Helene (waving) , but unfortunately her card didn't turn out so well, I'm so embarrassed I wont even show it! Helene is so sweet she loved it anyway, but it really is one of my worst efforts ever!

It's Looking a lot Like a Scribbly Christmas...

Here's another one of the cards we made at my WCMD class last Saturday. This is a really simple card, but I absolutely love it and so did the ladies at my class! This was inspired by some Christmas cards I made last year by embossing the flower from Scribble This onto patterned Christmas paper. Last year it was copper with cranberry crisp & true thyme (check them out here and here)- I thought that was nice, but silver with purely pomegranate and always artichoke is even nicer - the white just makes it so fresh as well. I can see myself making a few of these babies!

Stamps: Scribble This, All About Christmas (wheel)

Ink: Always Artichoke, Silver encore

Paper: Holiday Harmony DSP, Whisper White

Other: Purely Pomegranate double stitched ribbon, silver brad (hodge podge hardware), silver embossing powder, heat tool

You know in hindsight I might have gotten away with entering this in Mel's no layer challenge - as long as she considered the flower an embellishment and not a layer I'd be right!!

Look Mum, No Layers!!

OMG that was way harder than I thought!! Oh how I longed for just one layer!

In case you hadn't guessed I'm referring to my efforts for Mel's No Layers Challenge. I've made four cards which have no layers at all...one hell of a feat!

This first one is the one I have chosen to submit for the challenge... The technique i've used is bleaching. I started with a peice of pretty in pink card stock (thanks Vicki!), I then stamped the teddy from Bundle of Joy with versamark and added dazzling diamonds with heat and stick powder (thanks Dannie! - in case you're wondering I went stamping with the girls with very little supplies so had to go on the scab!). I then stamped the backgound (stars & moons whicha are a little hard to see) in pretty in pink and stamped the welcome in rose red shadowed in whisper white. I then bleached out the teddy image with a bleach filled aqua painter. Some pink gingham ribbon added the finishing touch. Here it is...

here's a close up of the teddy...

This next one is a case of the fabulous artist Michelle Zindorf (as per the SCS rules for casing my 2 changes were to use a different bird, and off course no layers - hers had several!). If you haven't already checked out her work do yourself a favour - there's nothing she cant do with a Brayer and sponge!

Believe it or not I actually don't mind this next card - it's probably my favourite of the four, but I didn't enter it because the stamp set is retired and I know Mel prefers to stick to current SU! only. How I did this was to stamp the main image, make an oval mask to go around it, then watercolour it. I then reverse masked the image and used the brayer to colour the background with Blue Bayou ink. I then scored 1/2" around the edges and went over the score with a white gel pen. I then tediously stamped the verse along the bottom in black (the verse stamp is four lines - so I used the marker to ink one line at a time and samj to line it up along the bottom).

This last card I made whist stamping with Dannie & Vicki today (waving girls!). I really don't like it that much but I thought I show it anyway...

Well Mel, I hope you like them, now I'm off to make a card with heaps and heaps of layers!

Holiday Harmony Double Pocket Gift Bag

Here's one of the projects we made at my WCMD class on Saturday... It was a small group of lovely ladies and we all had a great time making these...

We made two love notes and matching lined envelopes to go inside the bag, here's a sample of some of the designs...

All of my WCMD class projects used the Holiday harmony DSP - isn't it gorgeous! Just beautiful colours for Christmas. It's only available until Nov 30 so get your order in before its gone! The stamp set we used for this one was Season of Joy - also in the Spring Mini and only available until the end of November! Email me if you'd like to place an order.

I'm off to do some cleaning now - YAY! not! But I hope to sit down tonight and make a card for Mel's No Layers challenge - be back to show you tomorrow. Have a great night!

SCS WCMD Technique Lovers Challenge

Ok, this is the last one for tonight! Here is my contribution for the SCS WCMD Technique Lovers challenge - the technique was 'Nested Flowers'. I've never done these before, and I have to admit when I read cutting circles out freehand I was freaking out!! My style is (usually) fairly clean cut so to speak, but this was so much fun! I decided to get away from just papers or card stock and I grabbed a few things out of my craft stash - this is what they inspired...

STAMPS: Baroque Motifs

INK: Night of Navy, Stazon Opaque White

PAPER: Night of Navy, Whisper White, River Rock

OTHER: Ribbon, half back pearl (pretties kit), fabric, felt, hessian, tulle, mulberry paper, lace

SCS World Card Making Day Limited Supplies Challenge

Here's another card I made for an SCS WCMD challenge - this challenge was a limited supplies challenge called 'No P's Please' - Patterned Papers and Pastels were not allowed.

This seemed like a good opportunity to me to break out that new Nursery Necessities stamp set and make that card I said I would for last months promotion (that was before the FLU!). This is what I came up with...

My intention was to keep it very simple and stick with a monochromatic colour scheme. It really does look much better IRL, but even so I'm not overly happy with it. What do you think?

STAMPS: Nursery Necessities, Nursery letters Jumbo wheel

INKS: Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue

PAPER: Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue, Whisper White

OTHER: Bashful Blue striped grosgrain ribbon, Punches - Scallop circle, 1 3/8 circle, star, dimensionals

SCS World Card Making Day Sketch Challenge

This was the sketch challenge posted at Splitcoast for WCMD... This is my contribution...

This is the first time I've done a SCS challenge - and I even uploaded my card their gallery!!! I thought it was about time I stopped being a silent stalker and started sharing my work!!

Back to the card...as you can see I decided to turn the sketch on its side. I was inspired by the pile of papers, card stock and ribbon that was left over from my WCMD class i held yesterday (which was Christmas themed and based on the Holiday Harmony DSP - photos soon I promise!). So I looked at the papers and beautiful pomegranate satin ribbon and thought a ha! - and it actually worked out pretty good if I do say so myself! Here's the recipe...

STAMPS: Season of Joy

INK: Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate, River Rock

PAPERS: Holiday Harmony DSP, Always Artichoke, Whisper White

OTHER: Purely Pomegranate Satin ribbon, half back pearl (pretties kit), theatre ribbon originals, dimensionals, circle punches

What do you think?

I'm Back!

Well...its been a while between posts...that's a bit of a long story...but cutting it short I've had Influenza B and then in between that I've been madly preparing for WCMD. I've made soooo many cards lately its got to be some kind of record! I've taken photos of most of them and i'm setting myself a challenge to post a card everyday this week!!!! To start off tonight I'll be posting a couple of cards I've made for the SCS WCMD challenges - so stay tuned...

Happy Birthday to SU!

Stampin’ Up! is 20 years old this month, and to celebrate in true Stampin’ Up! style, they have a fantastic Birthday Promotion for you...

Spend $20 on regular catalogue merchandise during October and get 20% off these selected stamp sets:

Big Bold Birthday pg 37 - reduced to $43.16

Pretty Princess pg 38 - reduced to $36.76

Birthday Best pg 51 - reduced to $20.76

Crab and Company pg 55 - reduced to $42.36

Short & Sweet pg 118 - reduced to $23.96

Click HERE to see the full flyer

WORLD CARD MAKING DAY
Did you also know that Stampin’ Up! have a great promotion for World Card Making Day available from the 4th to 11th of October?

Click HERE to see the full flyer

Celebrated the first Saturday in October, World Card Making Day endeavors to bring together card makers around the world at a time that is traditionally the busiest time of year for card- and gift-making.
Stampin’ Up! is excited to celebrate this holiday with you. During this week, we are offering 20 percent off Simply Sent Card Kits.

I'm also hosting a WCMD class at my house this Saturday. If your interested in attending the class or taking advantage of the great promotions this month, please email me.

Time's Running out for 'Free Wheelin'

Have you heard about Stampin' Up!'s great September promotion? Its called 'Free Wheelin' and when you purchase a selected stamp set you get the coordinating Jumbo wheel for FREE! Save $15.95!! Here's a few projects I've put together to show some of the wonderful sets and wheels available on this promotion...

This first one features the set Bodacious Bouquet an the wheel Bodacious. You may recognise this photo - I put it up on my blog after Mothers Day when it was taken. It was a very simply scrapbook Page to make. I simply wheeled the background wit Bravo Burgundy ink on Bravo Burgundy card stock. then made the accent flower by stamping the flowers and leaves in Bravo Burgundy, Apricot Appeal and Always Artichoke. These were then cut out and layered with dimensionals. The photo was matted on Always Artichoke, I added some Apricot ribbon and a round tab for the vital details...viola! (Oh, in case you're wondering that's the faux shaving cream technique Ive used on the biggest flower - another really cool way to use the free wheel!!!! - if you're not sure what I'm talking about email me or leave a comment and I'll tell you how to do it!)

This next one was inspired by Linda Higgins awesome demonstration at Regionals. Lind demoed how to make these fantastic window cards. This one Ive made here with Artfully Asian and the Watercolour Vine Jumbo wheel. These are really easy to make too, you just cut an A4 piece of card in half, score it 10 and 20cm, punch out the window with a 1 3/8 square punch, stamp your image on vellum and stick it in between the 2 front layers!

Another window card, this one is a Christmas card with a difference, made with the Priceless set and So Swirly wheel (this has proved to be by far the most popular bundle!). This is one of the projects we'll be making at my WCMD class (I'll b posting more details on that soon).

This next one is a Bag-a-lope made with the All about Christmas Wheel which coordinates with the Merry, Merry Stamp set. The colours are Very Vanilla, Bravo Burgundy and Always Artichoke .

Last but not least here's another bag-a-lope featuring Carte Postal and Leaves a la Carte Jumbo wheel. The colours are Very Vanilla, Always artichoke and Bravo Burgundy.

The only set on the promotion I haven't featured is Nursery Necessities and the Nursery letters wheel - which I just ordered for myself this week - so I just might challenge myself to make something and get it on here before Free Wheelin' ends on 30th September! That's right you've only got 10 days left to take advantage of this offer, email me if you'd like more information.

Have a great weekend!