Boho blossoms and a passion for pink...

I really did have another productive weekend.

Just love the "one of a kind" stamp kit and it suits the Spring weather we have been having don't you think?

Firstly the cardstock is pink passion - got to love this colour!

Then I used the coloured markers from the Bold brights kit to directly ink up the rubber stamp - pink passion and only orange - stamped the confetti white cardstock.

The ribbon is regal rose wide grosgrain with a ribbon glide from the silver hodgepodge kit. Goes nicely with the flower centre brad. I've used the mat pack to line up the row of holes above and below the ribbon and corners of the cardstock, which I wiped with pink passion ink.

The Only Orange flowers were punched out with the Boho blossoms punch (so easy to use) and the "for you" stamp edged with two more blossoms and silver brads.

The second version didn't take much creativity I have to admit .... Circles and layers of bright cardstock underneath the one of a kind blossom in pink passion with a new silver hodgepodge brad in the centre. With Only orange and pink passion inked blossoms around the outside. I looked for a contrast on this one - green galore and a pomegranate scallop punched to continue the floral shaped theme.

The one of a kind stamp at the bottom was to be enhanced with further silver or ribbon, but the program finished on TV and my daughter needed calling inside from exploring the long grass in the backyard ... embarrassed to say the program? ahh, motor cycle grand prix, and then we switched back to my fair lady ... we are a very democratic lot at our place one show for daugher one show for daddy and I took the clothes off the line before the storm hit this afternoon.

I have to show you the Boho blossom punch I have been using ... you will recognise the card in the background from a post late last week... It is definitely Spring ...

October SALE: 20% Off selected stampsets and kits.

Next month, this Wednesday, starting 1st October
Stampin' Up!® is celebrating it's 20th birthday!
This is a birthday party not to be missed - We get the presents...

During October - Five stamp sets are on sale for 20% off the catalogue price:
Big Bold Birthday (pg37) - very appropriate ... cupcakes!
Pretty Princess (pg38), - for those precious little party girls in your life!
Birthday Best (pg 51), more cup cakes ...
Crab and Company (pg 55) and,
Short & Sweet (pg 118). . . very good value - these words are for all year round - includes: very merry!
When you spend $20 on any stampin' up product, you can select as many of these sets as you want for 20% off.... how good is that!

October is also the time to celebrate World Card Making Day on the 4th October -
card makers will be celebrating world wide in honour of making and sending hand made cards.

As a further celebration Stampin' Up! are offering their Simply Sent kits at 20% off .
But only from the 4th -11th of October.
These are great kits for a christmas gift, for the person who has everything, make it easy for a beginner card maker to get into cardmaking for a birthday gift, or thank you present.

These great kits have everything needed to make at least 10 cards including the adhesive, stamps, inks, card stock and accessories, plus instructions, with envelopes.
Who do you know needs a card making kit this Christmas to kick start them into a new hobby ?
The kits are shown on pages 12, 13 and 14 of the current catalogue ....

Picnic in the park

One of the reasons I got into papercrafting, stamping and scrapbooking was because I have so many photos of my daughter ... I have always owned a camera and having a baby gave me something new to photograph - kind of fortunate that she was so photogenic and cute.

I think I was destined to scrapbook with pictures, colour and patterns ... it has taken over a large part of my life, actually a very large part.

I particularly like this scrap book page because it uses almost amethyst papers, textured cardstock and the baroque motif swirls and flower stamp, which while detailed doesnt take away from the black and white photo.

I used the white gel pen to add the journaling bottom left

so that it didnt compete with the photo.

The think happy thoughts stampset

provided the words with a small cut out flower

in the centre and backed with the scallop punch in black cardstock.

I haven't given this a large title because the stamps and patterned amethyst paper fill the space sufficiently.

The season of Joy continues ...

These papers are just too lovely, why are they double sided?

I just cant make up my mind which side I like best of each sheet - I guess that's why they give you 2 of each of the 6 designs in each packet.

So a simple one this - stamp the season of joy tree on white cardstock, add some dazzling diamonds to the swirls on the tree, cut it out ....

Stamp the Be Merry words (from the warm words stampset) in always artichoke ink and punch it out with the large oval punch.

I wrapped the purely pomegranate silk ribbon around the DS paper and tied a bow to go on top.

I have cut and added the bow later attaching it with double sided tape, because i can never get the bow to sit right ... I just need a bit more practice. This ribbon is so soft and silky I think I will be getting lots of practice with it featuring on many more cards this year.

How do you like it?

Season of Joy in September

The spring mini catalogue finishes at the end of November, the beautiful season of Joy stampset has been very popular and I am really enjoying experimenting with different colour combinations:

These two are made with Always Artichoke and Purely Pomegranate cardstock and ribbon. The white is confetti white.

To make this first card I pulled out my embossing materials: stamped the "season of Joy" with versamark and coated it in silver emboss powder before heating it to make a very shiny back ground.

I stamped the Merry christmas and tree with the versamark and embossed again.

Then punched them out with the large oval punch and 1 1/4" circle punch, embossed the edges of the circle and adhered them with dimensionals over the purely pomegranate silk ribbon ... oh, and I used a scallop punch in there too. Added some silver cord to the top of the circle to look as if it its tied there with the bow.

On my second card I stamped the "Season of Joy" word stamp on confetti white with pomegranate ink and again on another scrap of confetti with always artichoke ink .

I Cut out the words from the artichoke piece and popped them up with dimensional tape to lift them up over the top of the purely pomegranate stamped piece.

This time I decorated it with artichoke grosgrain ribbon with a little star brad from the silver hodgepodge kit.

To fnish it off I couldn't help but add a bit of 2-way glue pen and sprinkled it with dazzling diamonds .

I really like the layers and textures you can build up with stampin' up products on a card.

Here it is from a slightly different angle showing you the gorgous little star brad on the ribbon.

Dont you just love that purely pomegranate background paper it is lying on?

I actually am in the process of making a card with the paper pack .... Holiday Harmony 12x12 Double sided paper pack.

Friendship

At times, life tends to rush along blissfully, joyfully and you wish you could savour these days before they get away. Our friendships can last a day, a few years or even most of our lives and these are the very precious ones that weave in and out our lives and make up apart of us that we might not have been if we had never met.

Very soon a close and old, old friend of mine is moving to Queensland and I am going to miss her very much. I sent her this little note card to let her know how much I cherish our friendship.

And then I thought that if a person ever marries this man, then perhaps that embossing white on white and silver could be a good look on place cards or invitations ...

The silver embossing is the baroque motif, the words are from Think happy thoughts, and the little flower in the centre from boho backgrounds in black stazon ink.

The black cardstock is punched with the round scallop punch.

Baroque motif background

As I haven't put up a scrapbooking page for a week - I thought I'd show one from earlier this year, featuring a simple clear embossed background using the baroque motif set.

The words are: adorable and wonderful from the "Warm words" stampset.

A Baroque Motif

You can get so many looks from this stampset.


Mostly a very elegant, sophisticated look...

that suits many occasions:


Birthdays,
weddings,
friendship,
thank you,
background stamping
and it looks interesting embossed too.






This picture shows why an embossing buddy is essential when you don't want bits of snow around your swirls. It can look ok on xmas cards but not a good look when you're aiming for clean lines. Still it's a very hand made look.

Boho blossom and birthdays

It seems that May and September are my big birthday months, so fortunately the spring catalogue has showered me with new stampsets to make them with and this is one of my favourites.

"One of a Kind"and The boho blossum punch saves hours of cutting. Just stamp out a row of blossoms, line up the punch and in minutes you have a pile of cut out flowers to arrange in circles or patterns on a card with a bit of snail adhesive or dimensionals or secured with a brad in the centre. This is for my bright and feminine friend ... you know who you are! Actually I enjoyed stamping and punching so much I made a second one, one with tearing and one with the corner punch to make a pretty scalloped edge to match up with the regal rose grosgrain ribbon.

The cardstock is: rose red, regal rose and confetti white.

The inks are: rose red, pixie pink and pumpkin pie

Stampsets: One of a kind, Think Happy thoughts.

Accessories: regal rose ribbon, silver and white brads, corner rounder, snail adhesive and dimensionals.

Season of Joy

My first stampin' up order came this week ... a large brown cardboard box on my doorstep. When I opened it was just like Christmas! So here is the Christmas card I made with all my new products.

I've used a Basic Grey cardstock for the card base, Purely pomegranate and Confetti white.

The stampsets used is: Season of Joy.

Ink: Rose Red

Ribbon: Purely Pomegranate silk (from the Spring mini)

Accessories: 2-way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds, distressing tool (for the rough edges).



This card ( I had a very productive day! My family are barely talking to me but hey? Its not every day you get your Christmas stamps ... ) was my second attempt and I was aiming for simple. Same colour cardstock: Basic grey, Confetti white and Purely pomegranate.
Ink: rose red and Stampsets: Lovely as a tree and Season of Joy!

Accessories and tools: Purely Pomegranate Silk ribbon, Cropodile, jumbo pewter eyelets, 2-way glue pen, dazzling diamonds ... It's Christmas so it had to have some bling!

Embossing resist ... can you?

Did I say how much I love to emboss?


This technique is even more fun because you add the colours after you emboss the flowers and the embossing resists the ink and reveals the beautiful white tulips ... a friend of mine who lives in Canberra will be receiving this next week and tulips are her favourite flower.



You will need:

An embossing buddy, (a friend is nice to have around but not essential), Embossing powder (white),
Versamark and white craft ink,
Whisper white cardstock, pixie pink and purely pomegranate cardstock
Inks: almost amethyst, pixie pink and orchid opulence,
Stampset: Garden whimsy and stem sayings
white grosgrain ribbon.


The Emboss resist Method:


Start by using your embossing buddy over the
cardstock to remove any static that will attract
stray grains of embossing powder.


Using versamark ink stamp 3 garden whimsy tulips on your white cardstock.

Cover with white embossing powder and shake off the excess into the container.

I use a large plastic container to catch the excess powder, its easier and cleaner than scrap paper.


Using a heat gun (not the toaster) heat the emossing powder just until it melts and goes glossy.


Now using a sponge or a piece of tissue dab the ink gently on the cardstock to reveal the embossed images underneath.








Add each colour using a different piece of tissue for each colour, so that the colours don't mix and look muddy.
I added the certainly celery green to the base of the card to hi-light the leaves.

The tissue gives a kind of stippled brush effect.

You could also use a bit of sea sponge for texture.
but tissues are both cheap and handy.

Next I mounted the white card on pixie pink cardstock and adhered it to the purely pomegranate card front.
I Stamped the stem sayings with white craft ink
and I added another emboss resist tulip that has been punched out with the 1 1/4 " round punch
and matted it in pixie pink to pop it up off the card using double sided dimensional adhesive behind.










To finish it off a piece of white grosgrain ribbon
does the trick.

I love white tulips ... any time of year and this one is headed for Floriade in the ACT.


Happy Birthday Kate!!!

The technique of kissing ...

Kissing stamps of course.

We had a demonstration of this at the regional training day. I've seen it before but well, like anything you just don't know until you've tried it, in the privacy and comfort of your own home.

You will need:

Cardstock - whisper white

Ink - orchid opulence and some perfect plum.

A patterned stamp (or textured).

and a flat solid rubber stamp with a solid shape to it.

I've used the Bodacious Bouquet set for the shapes of the

flowers and the Always heart for texture.

Here's how it works:

1. Basically you stamp your Bodacious bouquet flower stamp on to your ink pad, and stamp it off once on to scrap paper.

2. Then, ink up your textured/patterned stamp (I used the Always heart stamp) and kiss the two stamps together so that the pattern is imprinted on the flat surface of the rubber.

The photo is of my daughter demonstrating the kissing of the two stamps together.

3. Stamp your bodacious bouquet stamp on whisper white paper and you have a gorgous patterned flower.

4.Cut out your flower and glue it to your previously prepared card front.

(this one is basic grey and wild wasabi cardstock and I randomly stamped the leaf sprig from the Always stampset to make the background using Old olive ink).

There are many different ways to get different effects.

One way is to ink up your flat stamp then use a small patterned stamp to kiss off (remove ink) from the flat stamp surface.

By experimenting a bit you can get different depths of pattern and lighter or darker inked flowers as on the card that I made.

The Centres of the flowers are just rock and rolled in the orchid opulence first then the perfect plum, cut out and attached to the centres with snail adhesive or dimensionals to pop them up off the surface.

Christmas ... less than 3 months away

This weekend I made my first 2008 Christmas cards.
OK, so it was with a borrowed stampset, and from last years catalogue .... It was a favourite of mine that i never did get to try.
But I have used some in colours: Purely pomegranate and wild wasabi on the lovely going grey cardstock with plenty of white and silver embossing. I never seem to tire of embossing it amazes me everytime as the dull white powder warms, you watch it slowly melting, melting, then voila .... a glossy raised and professional image that you can enhance with sponged ink and brads and ribbons.
You had to be there! Its also the moment that my too enthusiastic 5 year old leaps on my back and says Mummy, I love you! Or begins rummaging through my supplies or dipping her fingers in the faerie glitter - as she calls it.
Ahh, the photos ...

Happy thoughts ... Smile

This is a card I made as a response to a challenge put out by Linda Higgins a while ago, and as it is fairly simple and hasn't seen the light of day, I thought i would share it here, because i can!

The smile stamp is from "Be Happy" stampset and the embossed silver panel is the "So Swirly" Wheel, stamped with Versamark ink and embossed in silver embossing powder.

The little flowers are from Think Happy thoughts stampset, cut out and held inplace with silver brads for that added silver bling.

And the ribbon and matching cardstock is Certainly celery.

Inks: Orchid Opulence, elegant eggplant and Versamark.

Cardstock: Orchid Opulence, Cetainly Celery and Whisper white.

I enjoyed myself putting this card together having the Layout given to me by the challenge takes out the heartbreak of deciding where to start and what to put where.

While i am here i have loaded another photo from the pictures i took at the regional training conference at Darling Harbour.

I only know Linda, personally but feel as if i know each of the others as i frequent their blogs and websites so, frequently.


Tomorrow i might even post a card featuring a technique from one of the demonstrations on the day ...



In the meantime, here is my amethyst and black collection.
A very detailed little card experimenting with the scallop punch and DS papers, I think i even coloured the white oganza ribbon with amethyst ink so it blended in.

I put the notebook cover together with scraps from other projects: The Cherish stamp is from the Baroque Motifs stampset. Bonjour from Carte Postale and Happy thoughts being embossed in silver and matted with the scallop punched amethyst and black cardstock.

And then i made a matching little box to keep my "Love notes" cards and envelopes in.

Think happy thoughts is kind of my quote for the day, and for my life at the moment ... no matter what is happening good or not so good I focus on what I am thankful for at the moment and put aside the rest ... well, it works for me.

You mean everything to me ... Always

Scrapbooking with this stamp set is too easy: with a bird, a heart, some words and little flowers ... I added some taffetta ribbon in grey, stamped everything in stazon black and embossed them in versamark ink and clear embossing powder, punched out the scallop and stuck it all together on textured paper.

Matting the centre photo to give it focus and voila! There it is a finished page in one morning.

Aren't you glad it's spring, we can finally get out of the house without jackets and gloves to walk to school.

Oh, and this is my daughter she is the joy of my life and as the stamp says she means everything to me!

Coordinated card, envelope and wrap...

The best bit about stamping your own cards is you can always match your wrapping paper and even have a matching envelope.

I love the wild about you stampset ... elephants, birds, crocodiles, giraffe, lion, penguin and a flower for that added touch ... lots of variety for many different children's cards.

Cardstock: Purely pomegranate, pixie pink and whisper white.

Inks: rose red, lavender lace, almost amethyst, tempting turquoise, elegant eggplant.

Stampsets: wild about you, big deal alphabet, floral background, Birthday best.

I did enjoy cutting out the elephants one by one in all the different colours.

My favourite colours ...

Perhaps it is because i can't wear soft subtle colours in clothing i just love them in paper and ink.

This one is celery and amethyst (again).

I have loved this petal prints stampset since I loaned it from a friend, i didnt want to give it back at the end of the week so had to buy my own. The flower is inked in "so saffron" , then rolled in "regal rose" and "Rose red" .It gives a lovely water coloured effect on the cream cardstock and the choc chip mount just gives it some depth.

I cased this from the lovely Linda whos blogspot i lurk almost daily... and workshops kind of regularly too.

Before i go i am loading a card without any purple on it.

I just love Close to cocoa and choc chip with celery
and white cardstock.
Stampsets are "Carte Postale" , "Finest Flourishes" and "French script" Background stamp.
Its a gate opening card, meaning it opens at the centre and I've used the corner rounder to punch the celery edging which folds under the front panel.
The choc chip ribbon is held in place with tape (purely decorative) and the bonjour tag is hung off it on gold thread.
And the fleur de lys is embossed.
I love all the embellishments in card making and it is just a matter of knowing when to say "when".

Happy and Elegant ...

A bit more rock and rolling happening here with the Be Happy stampset in certainly celery/ old olive and lavender lace rolled in elegant eggplant. I had an obsession with the french script and scrunching there for a while (very good therapy for the stressful stamper). You might see a bit of a trend happening here ... I just dont think there is enough purple, lilac, lavender, orchid or plums in the papercraft world so this is my attempt to even up the balance.

I promise to post another colour before i go to sleep.

Always in Orchid and Amethyst ...

Two posts in one week ... I'm not sure if this counts as a card but these are the swaps I made using the Always stampset from the mini spring catalogue, the floral background stamp is in orchid opulence ink and the bird and heart are stamped using the 'rock and roll' technique with both Almost amethyst and orchid opulence.

The cardstock used is whisper white and lovely lilac. I havent perfected making more than one of the same card yet so they were all slightly different as i made them in very small batches and over a gap of about 3 days.

On Saturday 6th September I went to my first Stampin up event!!!

As a new demonstrator the Regional Training Day at Darling Harbour was very exciting and a whole new experience for me. And it was a great opportunity to meet some really interesting and friendly ladies who have started with SU in the last month or so.

Stampin up certainly know how to put on a professional and well run event: our registration included a brand new stamp set that hasn't been released in Australia yet, (wait for the Summer Mini coming up in December), speakers and demonstrations, four make and takes and a boxed lunch sitting out on the balcony looking over darling Harbour. These are the gorgous women who were sitting at my table.

Enough talk - the photos say it all.

It was a long full day this one was taken just before we left for home, after 6pm.