Thursday, October 23, 2008

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.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

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!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

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!!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

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!

Monday, October 6, 2008

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!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

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...

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

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.