Spring Mini Catalogue Launch

Hi there! Well it's that time of year again - time for the launch of Stampin' Up!'s Spring Mini Catalogue!! Here's picture of the cover...

And it gets even better on the inside!! You can browse it online here or if you'd like me to send you a copy please email me your mailing address.

So to celebrate the excitement of all new rubber! I held a mini caty launch party compete with gifts and chocolate cake!! It was a small party but we had fun (Thanks for coming Jackie, Kylie, Lyn & Mum!). These are the cards we made...

I love how this card turned out, its simple but so effective. Its a "Joy Fold" card - they are so cute - I'm going to be making a lot more of those! Here's the recipe for this one:

Stamps: True Friend
Inks: Really Rust, Wild Wasabi
Papers: River Rock (textured), Really Rust, Wild Wasabi, Very Vanilla, Apple Cider DSP
Assessories: Stampin Write Markers (Really Rust & Chocolate Chip), Circle Punches 1 1/4 & 1 3/8, Stampin Dimensionals

At the risk of sounding a bit happy with myself (lol!!!!) I love this card too! I was going for a bit of a shabby chic look with all that distressing and unevenness! The photo doesn't really do it justice, but we added some silver metallic ink refill to the almost amethyst before water colouring to give the flower a bit of shimmer. I made HEAPS of these cards (the same but different) practicing before the class - I'll put these up on my blog too - next time!

Stamps: Bloomin with Beauty

Inks: Almost Amethyst, Always Artichoke
Papers: Elegant Eggplant, Always Artichoke, Prints DSP (Almost Amethyst- retired), Watercolour paper
Accessories: Almost Amethyst Ribbon (Fairy Tale Ribbon Originals)

The other card we made was an Orange "Scratch n Sniff". None of the cards pictured are actually it - but close enough! Here's the recipe... If you want to know how to do the scratch n sniff technique Mel as a great tutorial on her blog here

Stamps: Tart & Tangy
Inks: Pumpin Pie, Versamark
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Summer Picnic DSP
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Striped Ribbon, Clear Embossing Powder, 'Tang' orange drink powder, circle punches and scallop circle punch.

The mini caty was a great excuse for me to make some of these "Sunnyboy" containers. These are so much fun - and so easy! The one in the back with the Thank U is the one I made for all the guests, inside was a sample of the new satin ribbons and a little chocky.

I unashamedly CASED this next idea from my team member Nerine. As soon as I saw her cute strawberry punnet I had to make one! Isn't it gorgeous! It was the lucky door prize and Kylie (who loves strawberries was stoked to win it!). Inside was 4 cute little love notes featuring the four different fruits in the Tart & Tangy set. The papers are from the Summer Picnic DSP.

I hope you liked some of my mini caty projects - I've lots more to show so stay tuned!

And just quick reminder - if you'd like to be in the draw my blog candy - get your comments in quick - I'll be drawing the winner tomorrow night at 8pm AEST. For more details see the blog candy post below.

More Watercolouring...

Here are another couple of cards I whipped up really quickly using some images I was practising my watercolouring technique on...

Stamps: Natural Beauty & Bloomin with Beauty ( to be released in Spring Mini caty - 1 Aug)

Ink: Mellow Moss, Perfect Plum

Card stock: Mellow Moss, Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Watercolour paper

Accessories: Stampin Write Markers, Aqua Painter, Gingham ribbon (mellow moss), and taffeta ribbon (very vanilla)

My watercolouring swap cards are all finished and will be in the post tomorrow! Once everyone in the swap has received them I'll post what I did - I'm very happy with what I ended up with!
Cheers,
Kaz

While I'm On a Roll...

Since I am on a roll catching up with things, I remembered that my lovely downline Nerine had nominated me for this award...

How sweet!! Thanks so much Nerine I really appreciate it, and sorry it took me so long to get it on here! I'm not sure if I'm supposed to award it on - I think so, so I'm sending it on to two wonderful bloggers who always inspire me - Amanda and Leah - Great work girls!

Blog Candy Time!!!

Well I had intended to do this when my little blog counter turned over 5000 hits, but that milestone has snuck up and been and gone! So now I am celebrating almost reaching 5500!!! YAY!!! I'm so proud that so many of you like to check out what I've been making! So I am giving away a stamp set to a lucky reader. The set is Lots of Thoughts and was one of the sets from sale-a-bration this year. Its brand new and unmounted! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post. Just a couple of rules, sorry only Australian residents can enter, and Demo's are not eligible to win the stamp set but feel free to leave comment (please note that you are a demo) and I will have a little handmade surprise candy for a lucky demo. I will use Random.org to generate the winning numbers. Here's a pic of the set...Good Luck!!

eScape Class

Speaking of old news!! Way back in June I held a class with some lovely ladies (waving!) as part of the escape promotion. Here are some pic's of some of the projects we made... The first pic is of the lucky door prize, although the ladies did make 2 similar love notes themselves...

The card above is a simple one using Boho Backgrounds (love it!) and Priceless. Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip & Very Vanilla. The two below are made using the gorgeous Garden Whimsy set. These were inspired by cards the MEGA talented Karen Thomas made a while back (Hi Karen!)
These next two feature the Lovely as a Tree set and use the Spring Flowers DSP.

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

Poppin' Pastels Swap

This is kinda old news now but I really liked this card when I made it, so I thought I'd show you anyway! The lovely Mel Hanlon organised this swap - the rules were you had to use the Poppin' Pastels technique and at least one eyelet. This was my offering...

Stamps: Baroque Motifs

Inks: Versamark

Card stock: Chocolate Chip, Petty in Pink, Whisper White, Berry Bliss DSP

Accessories: Stampin' Pastels, sponge daubers, jumbo eyelet (antique brass), 5/8" grosgrain ribbon (Chocolate Chip), taffeta ribbon (Pretty in Pink), slit punch, handheld small circle punch

Simply Scrappin' Kit- Crew Kids Girl

These Kits are such good value, and make it so quick and easy to put together great looking pages! Here's what I was able to put together with only HALF a kit and I still have enough left overs for a least a few cards...

I started out with a specific project in mind - I wanted to make his little fold out book my friend Lyn from Katherine showed me how to make a while back (Hi Lyn!). I Thought I could probably get two books out of one Simply Srappin' Kit - and the rest! I was so wrong! This is the front cover...

This is what the fold out book looks like opened out...

And just to give you a better idea of how it folds out...
As you can see I didn't hold back on the embellishing and I still had plenty of patterned paper and stickers left so I decided to make some 6x6 pages using the other photos I had taken of Breanna that day. All these pages show different uses of punches... In this first one I've used the 5 petal flower punch, but did you also notice those cute brackets? They're made with the Round Tab punch!

For this next one I used the Round Tab Punch again and punched out 2 tabs in the spotty paper and stuck them together to make a circle - the perfect background for the scallop punch flower and 5 petal flower... Here I showed how to use the round tab punch out folded length ways (it the wild wasabi piece with the love you sticker on it)
And finally this one just shows the round tab used in its usual way (the basic grey tab with darling on it), the 5 petal punch is used here too...
The Simply Scrappin' kits include 6 sheets of gorgeous DS paper (2 designs), 8 sheets textured card stock ( colours) and 6 sheets of die cut adhesive card stock stickers (3 designs). I made all the projects above using less than half the kit!! AND I made them in an afternoon, it is so quick when you know that every piece of card, paper and sticker you pick up is going to coordinate beautifully!

If your interested in any of the projects here or would like to purchase a Kit please contact me.

So what do think? Isn't my girl gorgeous! Not that I'm bias or anything!!!

Watercolouring...

Hi there! Long time no post! Sorry about that, its a very long story with lots of excuses involving the whole family being sick, time in hospital, workshops, classes, family commitments, blah blah blah!!!! Anyway I've finally found some time to post some pictures of what I've been making lately... I've been trying to teach myself the art of water colouring - definitely not something I have a natural talent for! But I really like the look of it and am determined to at least get a little bit better at it! As part of making myself learn how to do it I'm hosting a team swap featuring water colouring. This means I cant show you all of the cards I've made because I haven't decided what the swap card will be yet! But here is one I did for Sandy's (Hi Crafty Sisters!) workshop last week...

Stamps: Natural Beauty

Ink: Stazon Jet Black, So Saffron

Card stock: So Saffron, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Watercolour paper

Access: Markers, Aqua Painter, Celery Grosgrain ribbon

And here's another I made last night for Mel's colour challenge (Brilliant Blue, Gable Green, Yo yo Yellow,and Whisper White - check it out here), and I have to say Mel it sure was a challenge! I looked at the colours and thought OMG no way, what can I possibly do with that? But it just all flowed together when I got out the Seaworthy set. This is what I came up with...

Stamps: Seaworthy

Ink: Brilliant Blue, Gable Green, Stazon Jet Black

Card stock: Gable Green, Brilliant Blue, Whisper White, Watercolour Paper

Access: Markers (Yo yo Yellow, Brilliant Blue, Gable Green), Aqua Painter

I plan to come bak later today after I clean the house and show you some scrapbooking I've done, and stay tuned for Blog candy!