Logans Birthday

A few weeks ago I made these invitations for my daughters birthday party. She is having a magician coming so we decided to make it a "magic" theme. I used almost a whole tub of heat & stick powder to coat the sticks in glitter but it was worth it, the glitter really set. With glue it would have all rubbed off inside the envelope. I also punched out stars in foil which was a bit tricky to work with but quite pretty, anyway, the kids seemed to like them, us too!

Inkspirations Sketch Challenge #15 - Polished Stone

I have a technique workshop coming up this Friday and we are doing a polished stone background, so I thought I had better give it a trial run before hand! I decided to play along with Makeesha's sketch challenge at the same time!I think the silver cardstock, or maybe the crimping is doing some funky things to my camera because every photo has a real convex look to it, add to that a grey Melbourne day and we have some very dull photography!

Recipe: Pirouette pink, riding hood red textured, silver metallic & glossy white cardstock. Riding hood red, metallic silver & pretty in pink re-inkers, black stayzon ink. Upsy daisy & sincere salutations stamp sets, oval cutters, eyelet border punch, crimper, acrylic sealer.

I have a couple more on the go, but they are not quite dry yet, so maybe tomorrow. (Warning-this technique is addictive)

And they're off...

Before I had kids, the Melbourne Spring Carnival used to mean so much to me, lots of sun, drinking with my girlfriends, blisters on my feet and of course, the horse racing! Now it means 4 days in a row off work for my husband, 4 days in a row off school for Logan and a plenty of craft time! I have had a busy weekend, mostly chopping for some upcoming workshops and cleaning up my craft room. Whilst cleaning up I found a bag full of prepared cookie monster heads and with a couple of fetes coming up I thought this would be the perfect time to "card them up". This is what I came up with:I have been also making these cute little art display boards for one of my friends kids, I think these ones turned out better than the ones I did for my own kids.
Anyway, no matter how you spend the Melbourne Cup, I hope that you had a good time, and that if you placed a bet or two, you backed a winner :)

A Year in the Making!

About a year or so ago, Kristina Werner did a colour challenge and whilst looking through the entries I came across this fabulous submission from my good friend Sylvia. So, way back then I decided to make two for my Christmas table. I completed one, but ran out of pins for my 2nd one. Would you believe it has taken me until now to remember to buy pins at the supermarket? Well, it has, and on Friday night I sat down and finished my second tree! yay! The other one is packed up with my Christmas decorations, and when it comes down from the roof, I will have to change the star on top, because of course, last year, we did not have the Christmas Classics stamp set! Anyway, I think it was worth the wait! lol!Certainly celery, old olive & always artichoke cardstock, real red for the star, silver embossing powder, Christmas classics stamp set, small start punch, styrene cone, pins & red beads.

P.S. Philippa, you can have your beads back now!

Snowflake Challenge

What a fabulous start to the weekend! I have spent this whole Saturday morning in my PJ's stamping! Gotta love that. I have used the colours in this weeks challenge over on Makeesha's Blog to make this card:
Recipe: Bashful blue, night of navy, old olive card stock & ink, night of navy ribbon and blue rhinestone brad. Snow swirled stamp set, tearing tool.

3D Fun

I am having so much fun stamping at the moment, it must be this fabulous Spring weather we are having. It's getting me in the mood. Today I have been playing around with the Christmas Classics set, which I loved as soon as I saw it when the catty was released. These cards are so simple, but the 3d twist adds a little something to them, I think so anyway! lol!Bit tricky to see the 3d element, but I think you get the picture. Having the star punch makes it even easier too! Unfortunately, there is no tree punch, had to resort to the old scissors for this one!
And if there is ever a time when too much embossing is still not enough, it must be Christmas time! I love heat embossing, and have to admit, that is what got me totally hooked on stamping. I think it is such a simple way to 'step up' a card. It's a bit tricky to see because of the silver and all this sunlight, but you get the idea.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing this little set as much as I have enjoyed making it!
P.S. Do you like the new look of my blog?

Wow! Christmas Cards

The next class that I hold is on WOW Christmas cards, those cards that are a little bit "special". Here is what we will be making:This card was inspired by a tutorial on Michelle Zindorfs site (link on side bar)
I love Old Olive and Night of Navy together, what a yummy combination.
All 3 cards will be using the stamp set Winter Post, which is such a lovely set. Keep your eyes on the side bar for class details.

Winter Post

I have been eyeing off the Winter Post set since the release of the catty back in April and I finally brought it last week! I love, love, love it! I have made a couple of things today, so the first I will share with you is my 'snow globe'.
For the base of the snow globe I just punched an oval out of gray cardstock and chopped it in half. I so love dazzling diamonds glitter so I covered the whole image with versa mark, then used the heat & stick powder and glitter. Here is a close up:
And, on a personal note, last night was my big school girl, Logans concert. She was a cow girl and they did a gorgeous little number to the Steps song 1,2,3,4. They were oh so cute, unfortunately, we were sitting too far away from the stage for a decent photo, this is the best I could get:And it was all too much for Miss Matilda who fell asleep about a half hour before the end.

Regionals, workshops, it's all happening!

On Saturday we had regional training here in Melbourne. It was so fantastic and I cant wait to share what we made and what we got...maybe tomorrow! But for now I just quickly wanted to share a photo of the lovely ladies in our team (Yvonne Campbells Team) who attended! Ahhh, what a good looking bunch of ladies, and so much talent too! I had a fabulous time with the girls on my table, and our other table sounded as if they had a blast too! Unfortunately, Yvonne was feeling under the weather and had to leave after about a half an hour, so I hope you are feeling much better now:)Throughout the day, they give away spot prizes and one of my favourite people who I have met through Stampin Up won a stamp set from the new mini, due for release in December. Here is Susannah celebrating! Lucky girl!
And, I have finally gotten around to making a tri-fold card, just in time for my "special cards" workshop on Wednesday night and I thought I would also enter it into the colour challenge on Makeesh's blog as the colours are just right!
This here is another card that we will be making using the emboss resist technique. I love this card.
And finally I will show the girls who are coming along how to use the brayer. The brayer can be so intimidating, but let me tell ya, once you get it, it is easy peasy!
Happy Monday all, thanks for looking!

Swaps, swaps and more swaps!

OK, so today is our regional field training in Melbourne and since anybody who might get one of these babies will be there with me, I have scheduled this post today!
A bit hard to see, and our gloomy Melbourne weather isn't helping (although it is helping the drought, yay!) but I have used the Holiday line up, seasons of joy & many merry messages stamp sets. The colours are whisper white, rose red & garden green. I was looking longingly at last years in colours, really missing the pomegranate and wasabi. They were such a fabulous combination for Christmas, so I decided to use the closest colours to that are current. It looks ok, but nothing beats those colours!
Anyway, if you are reading this, I am stamping (or chatting...probably chatting! lol!) my heart away at the Crown Casino. I cant wait to share with you all of the fabbo cards that I get in the swap!

Love that ribbon!

I have loved this ribbon since I saw it on all the American work last Christmas and I was beside myself when it was released in our current mini and brought some straight away, but I have hardly used it. I struggle because I think it is soooo gorgeous, I want it to be the focus of the card, so when my Winter Post stamp set arrived this week the thought came to me to make a present out of it. And guess what, it does steal the show! lol! I think it is just fabulous!
I also thought I would enter this card into the Christmas Stampin All Year Long challenge, this week it is a "tag" theme. My card isnt a tag, but it has a tag on it? I am going to try and complete an on line challenge each week, and set myslef a mini challenge, to showcase a particular set that I have brought and never use...lets see how long I can keep it up!

PS - counting down the hours until regionals tomorrow, I am sooooo excited! I wonder what fabulous stamp set we will be getting?

Colour Throwdown Challenge #64

At the very first Stampin Up! party I attended we did some candle stamping and that was part of the reason I fell in love with Stampin Up! products, because they are so versatile! I recently saw a similar creation on somebodies blog that I visit regularly and they posted a link to this tutorial, but I cant remember who's blog I saw it on first, but thank you! I think this creation will come in very handy during the downward slide into Christmas! I have not had a chance in absolute ages to play along with the colour throwdown challenge, and since this week colours baja breeze, black/choc chip and sahara sand, I thought I would enter this project!
And the little candles lift out in this cute, and very easy to make, little box.
And today I have had a truck load of ribbon delivered, so I have spent the afternoon measuring & chopping ribbon, and creating these cute little bags to give to the people who participated in the ribbon share. I have personalised each bag with the letter of their first name, it is so sparkly IRL!
A ribbon share is where I purchase a whole spool of ribbon (usually a whole family of spools) and customers then purchase a part in the share. I then divide up the ribbon between the amount of customers who have purchased a spot. So, in this case, each person received 1metre of each of the ribbon colours in the narrow grosgrain ribbon family for $14.35. It is a fantastic and inexpensive way to get a whole heap of ribbon that will co-ordinate with all of your other Stampin Up products. If you would like to be informed of future ribbon shares, please email me your details and I will add you to the mail list, other demo's most welcome :)

Daughters are Priceless

My girlfriend gave me this picture frame with the phrase 'Diamonds are precious...but Daughters are priceless', and I hung it up in my craft room, but it looked a little bare. So I matted some 'priceless' photos of my two darlings onto some matching card stock and hung them from the frame. It has filled a blank spot in my room and really personalised the frame. The best thing is that I can easily change the photos as the girls grow because it is all just card and ribbon!

Mermaid Dreams

I just wanted to share with you the busiest card with the most sparkle I have ever made, for the sparkliest, busiest 6 year old I have ever met. This weekend saw one of my best friends little girl, Lily turn 6 years old. She adores all thing girly, and that certainly includes Mermaids. I had made a Mermaid card using punch art some time back, so I combined that with a side step card & the ocean commotion set to come up with this underwater scene:
And, I just wanted to put a shout out to all the girls from Melbourne, let me know if you are going to regionals on Saturday and I will keep a look out for you!

Sarah's Set

Here are some photos I have taken of a little bag, box, card set I made up for my very good friend, Sarah's birthday.The card

The Bag

The Box

Lid of the Box

Inside the box

So the box is called a fantasy box, and the card is a case from Michelle Zindorf, the bag is a bag-a-lope made from an envelope. You can follow these links for the tutorials:
Fantasy Box
Card
Bag-a-lope

Shimmering Fabulous-ness

Hi all, did ya miss me? I missed you all too :) I thought it was about time I dusted the cobwebs off my blog, and what better way than with a touch of diamonds, dazzling diamonds, that is! lol!Sorry for the poor quality of photos, I will try to take some more in the morning, it is very overcast here in Melbourne today. Now, these cards do look so much more dazzling in real life, but I think you get the general idea, pretty huh? and so easy to do. Just cover your piece of card stock in versamark and coat with heat and stick powder. Heat it up until the powder melts, then pour your glitter over the top. Heat again for a couple of seconds to set and viola'!
And, this card I made just before going away last week. I used a retired set called haute couture and I printed the sentiment off my computer. I know I didn't make this sentiment up, but I have no idea where I heard it, but I thought it was appropriate anyway.
Now, I am going to bore you all with some pictures from our camping trip. This here is little Miss Matilda with her new fishing rod. Unfortunately, it only snagged us a carp, but it was fun anyway, and she was mighty proud of it.
And this is my gorgeous Miss Logan. We were sitting in the back of the Ute on our way home from a very eventful day of rabbiting with nets, an experience let me tell you! She looked so happy sitting there, I couldn't help but dive for the camera.
And this is a picture of me and Matilda stampin in the bush, I surly couldn't leave ALL my stuff at home, I mean, what if we got robbed!

So I managed to get one in...

I didn't think that I would get a chance to post before I went away but what do you know? My brother, the genius, got my computer upgraded and now it is wiz bang fast and fabulous! Anyway, it gave me a chance to share with you these cute cards that I made the other day. I really like them, and they were so simple to make.I love the tone on tone effect, especially with this Upsy Daisy set. Anyway, this time I am really going. Ciao!

Problems

I have quite a few projects to share with you but unfortunately, I am having some technical problems with my computer, which my little brother is helping me sort out...but until then, no pictures to share!

Also I am off camping next week as it will be school holidays here in Victoria, so I might not be back until after that, wow, I am missing you already...

Super Fast Post!

Morning all, just wanted to quickly share with you my most recent page. This is 'our big school girl' pahe, gee she makes me proud!

ouch!

I can hardy type right now, just copped a beating at netball, ouch it was a tough game, think one of my ribs just may be cracked! So much for a non contact sport! Anyway, onto a happier note. I made this card using the tutorial over at Michelle Zindorfs Blog. It has been a while since I visited her site, gee she does some lovely work. The colors look a bit washed out here for some reason, not sure why, looked great on camera!
And these two cards were just a couple that I whipped up just for fun. I want to do some samples using the cheaper/hostess sets just for workshops and demo's etc. I used pocket silhouettes and organic grace (hostess). I will be back (hopefully) with a large array of these kinds of cards in the next few days!

nigh nigh!

Scrap & Chat

Next Friday I am holding my first Scrap & Chat night, and whilst the idea is that people mostly work on their own projects, I wanted to have a few projects available. These are a couple that I have prepared:
I think you call this one a window card or something. The center of the flower is actually punched out the the center is punched inside the card. And here is a Christmassy version. (cased from Dawn's Stamping Studio)This one is just a pretty card that was simple enough to whip up, so not too much instruction will be required on the night.
And this is a bag-a-lope, which I found the tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers, super easy, yet very snazzy. I think I may also try to come up with a Christmassy version of this too!
Now, back to the crafting table to come up with a few more projects!

One day last week I had a catch up with my girl Phil, and we were complaining about our lack of mojo. Phil was search the web for some inspiration and I was flipping through a scrapping mag when I came across a card that inspired me. The end result looks nothing at all like what was in the mag, but that's ok.And I saw these gorgeous 'Fantasy Boxes" over on Sams blog and knew that I just had to give one a go! They were a cinch!
I thought that this style would be good for a teachers Christmas gift at the end of the year. You could fill the little boxes with little odds and ends like paper clips ect. Anyway, I think they are fabbo, thanks to Sam for sharing her gift with us!

Ribbon, ribbon & more ribbon!

Spring has sprung! Gotta love this warmer weather, what a cold winter we have had! Anyway, along with the first day of Spring, it is also the first day of the new Stampin Up Ribbon Bundle Campaign! To get yourself these gorgeous 2 reels of ribbon, all you have to do is place a $100 order with me or host your own $600 party! How easy is that? Email me today to place your order.
(Ribbon bundle includes 9.1cm each of certainly celery 5/8" poly twill & so saffron 5/8" grosgrain)

I am also hosting a Taffeta Ribbon Share. For $12.95 you will get 1 metre of each of the taffeta ribbons, but get in fast, the first share is almost full. The share closes on Monday 7th September with payment due by Wednesday 9th. So, to reserve yourself one or more shares, email me your details!

And finally, I am looking for one more member to join my team, so if you have been thinking of joining Stampin Up now is the time! I am offering a free reel of ribbon (your choice) to anyone that joins my team in September! I am happy to discuss any questions or quieries that you may have regarding joining Stampin up. You can join as a hobbiest, part time or even as a new full time career, the choice is yours, and the committment is minimal. Email me today if this is something you may like to do!

A bit more scrapping...

So here are a few more attempts at scrapping. In the first one I have used the simply said stamp set. I think it was the 2nd set I ever brought, and now I hardly ever use it. I will have to try to use it more often, I love it! The title is stamped and cut out from the big deal alphabet set, and because my cutting is not perfect, I used an old pair of scissors to distress the edges.And in the one I have used only the seasons of joy set, which is my favourite Christmas set. If you don't have this set yet, buy it, it is the most versatile Christmas set in the catalogue!! The colours are kiwi kiss, sahara sand and real red (a combo I know I am going to use a lot of come this festive season). I clear embossed the Christmas trees and cut out, and I used heat & stick and fine supernova glitter for the hangy bits for the baubles and I used my big kick for the lettering. I had so much fun with this page and it came together super fast! And the gorgeous picture of little Miss Matilda sure helps to make this page special...I so miss not having a baby around!

BLOG CANDY

She has done it again! Melissa from Creating from the Heart has some great blog candy on her site, head over and check it out!