Sunday, February 28, 2010

A dozen things to put in your Sweet treat Cups...

The sweet treat cups from Stampin up are really special - they come in a box of 12 for $6.50 and when you place them on your card with the circle of adhesive that comes with them you get a really great place to put all different things.
1. A punched butterly complete with clear rhinestone body.
2. Buttons and Brads for a friend who likes to craft, quilt or sew.
3. A gold embossed dragon fly with gold punched hearts.
4. Mint lollies: such as Tic Tacs, Mentos, Lifesavers... for a sweet little baby (from the Sweet Somethings stampset) They mints are for mum when she needs a sugar hit, not for the baby... it rattles well though. 
5. All manner of sweet things: Jelly beans, M&Ms, Smarties, chocolate wrapped hearts... no photo of these ones, they mysteriously disappeared.
6. Dice and game board counters (for a child's birthday)...
7. Poker chips (the plastic ones) for a man who likes to play cards.
8. Sunflower seeds (for a yellow sunflower card)
9. Bird seed for a gardener (with instructions for planting)
10. Punched butterflies (a favourite of mine) and rolled DS paper.
11. A stamped image with glitter and sprinkles.
My happy moments bird ... again.
12. Punched hearts for anyone you love.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Stamping Collage card version 2.

This  bird in a cage image just keeps appearing on my cards (it is from the Sale-a-bration Sale set "Happy Moments").  So I guess it is living up to its name as it has afforded me many happy stamping moments ...
On this card I decided I would continue with the bird theme with a gold embossed and dazzling diamond encrusted feather. I know over the top, but when you are sending a handmade card who writes the rules?
The sender!
The background stamping is from Rustic rooster (another free set for you when you host a workshop or, place orders to the value of $300).
Card Recipe:
Stampsets: Happy Moments (free), Nature's nest, Life Definitions, Rustic Rooster (free).
Cardstock: Old Olive, Basic black, whisper white.
Ink: Old olive, VersaMark, Stazon black, creamy caramel (for sponging).
Other: gold embossing powder, heat tool, two way glue pen, dazzling diamonds glitter, kraft taffetta ribbon, antique brad, sponge.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Ruffled Flower baby card


Tutorial in short:
1. Punch five scallop circles
2. Pin them together with a brad through the centre of the flower.
3. Distress and crumple the layers
4. Put a button in the centre with a glue dot.
Try it !!!
or ask me to demo some at your place, I am only an email away......click here.
Here it is on a card front, the pink pirouette goes beautifully with
Riding Hood red cardstock and pretty in pink patterned papers.
 The Eyelet border punch gives a lovely frilly girly lacy effect to the card.
And, have you seen these great jumbo grommets?
Very neat and tidy little bow - hey?
Enjoy!!!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Punched out and ruffled flowers

Have you seen these elsewhere? Everywhere I look at the moment I keep seeing punch art flowers and crumpled ruffled ones at that. So, this is my attempt.
At first it bothered me entirely to crumple up and distress the beautiful Designer Series papers to make my first flower, but once I got into it ... the better the distressing the better it looked.
How did I make them?
Step 1. Is to punch out atleast 5 scallop circles from double sided patterned paper.
You can use a normal circle punch too!
Step 2. is to Make a hole and put a brad through the 5 layers of circle papers.
Step 3. starting from the top circle layer, crumple it up with your fingers, crumple each layer separatly, really get the layers ruffled and squished. Stop when you get to the fifth layer and leave it flat.
Step 4. Uncrumple the layers gradually until you get the look of a partly opened flower.
Step 5. Put a Designer button on top of the brad with a Mini glue dot.
Attach it to your card front.
Quick and easy 3D flowers - I will be back with another card I made.
The variations of colour and pattern are endless.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Nature's nest collage with gold embossing.

Do you remember doing Collage as a child. You cut out and stuck a whole lot of different images onto a sheet of art paper in different patterns overlapping and mixing them in a totally random pattern?
It was fun and very satisfying if I remember.
The background card is stamped on an angle with the script stamp from Rustic Rooster as a watermark effect on the Old Olive cardstock. I have stamped it again on the whisper white cardstock panel then in chocolate chip ink I have randomly stamped some of the words from the Life Definitions stampset. Delight and Create.

Finally I have gold embossed a dragon fly from the Nature's nest stampset.
Card recipe:
Stampsets: Natures nest, Life definitions, Rustic Rooster, Happy Moments.
Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate chip, whisper white.
Ink: Old olive and Chocolate chip. Versamark for embossing.
Tools and accessories: Vintage brads, crimping tool, gold embossing powder, heat tool and dimensional adhesives.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Newcastle Craft Expo Part II

Below you can View my Snapshots of the Demonstrator's sample cards from the display boards and demo table from the Newcastle Craft Expo.
Cards are made by Carol, Kerry, Mel, Linda, Lisa, Rhonda, Georgina and Nerida.


Sunday, February 21, 2010

Newcastle Craft Expo Part I

I know that a few of my blog readers weren't able to make it to the Newcastle Craft show so I took some photos to share with you. Thanks to everyone who did come up to say Hello. If you didn't have your camera with you perhaps you'd like to see some close ups of the cards we had on display.
Here we are completing our set up (Thursday before the show). On the right is the demo table and to the left is where we did the make and takes.
The stand I must say was very bright and colourful we had a few compliments from other Exhibitors even, saying how colourful and inspirational they thought our display was. 
A group shot of the Saturday team of demonstrators: Mel and Kerry (front), Carol, Nerida, Linda and Georgina. I feel really inspired and excited after an extremely busy day, working with and being surrounded by such creative and lovely women. 

Newcastle Craft Expo

Just had to share some photos with you of the cards I am demonstrating at the Newcastle Craft Expo this weekend. My product demo was the sweet treat cups showing several different ways to mount them on a card and also the variety of fun things you can put in them.
I used the Designer Series paper on each card from the Bella Bleu Patterns pack. This one I filled with ginger bears.... they might be fun to give to a pregnant friend if she is experiencing morning sickness all day.
My card is opened using a sliding door to let the jelly-bear-babies fall out from the back. I have decorated the slider with the bird in a cage from Happy Moments stampset.
(A FREE stampset during SALEABRATION when you spend $100).
On my second card I have used the sweet treat cup as a glitter and shaker for gold hearts. The Cardstock is kiwi kiss, the patterned paper is bella bleu once again and the bird from Happy Moments.
I love gold hearts and super fine glitter together. The hole for the sweet treat cup is punched with a 1 3/4" circle punch. The cup is glued down with its own sticky strip tape at the back. After you have put the glitter and hearts in the bowl.
I have added a piece of chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon and an oval punch for the Happy birthday sentiment at the top and some sponged ink for definition.
If you are reading this post on Sunday, its not too late to get to the show at the Entertainment centre, Broadmeadow. Its open from 10am - 4.30pm. Stampin Up are on stand F13. And don't forget to sit your self down for a make and take card and fill out a lucky door prize form to win a free stampset, ink pads,  cardstock and ribbon. I had such a great day on Saturday talking to everyone.
More tomorrow...
Enjoy!!

Friday, February 12, 2010

I Love hearts and a vintage label

I know its Valentines day on Sunday 14th but I love hearts at any time of year especially this filigree patterned heart and the woodgrained heart too. I like them for birthdays, scrapbooking children, and family. They just look gorgous on a card for any one you love and care about.

Here is the whole set of 8 hearts.
AND, I don't think I have mentioned that From now until 28 February, 2010
Stampin’ Up! will set aside $2 from the sale of every I {Heart} Hearts stamp set and donate that money to the American Red Cross’ Haiti Relief and Development Fund. The Red Cross is already well-established in Haiti, and this money will be used to provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need.
Product Name     Item number  Price
I {Heart} Hearts 117715          $42.95 AUD

Contact me today to order your I {Heart} Hearts stamp set. Act today, and start making a difference!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

I Heart and Vintage Labels

This is my Stamp set challenge for Elite Stampers this month. It uses "Vintage Labels" and "I {heart} hearts".
It also uses some white tafetta ribbon that I have sponged with Pink passion ink to match the cardstock.
One of my favourite things about stampin' up is that when they bring out a new stampset it usually has a matching punch, or two to help you make your card stand out from the crowd.
Mixing the Vintage Labels with the scallop circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch and the 1" punch  and some dimensionals makes a great embellishment for the sentiment: For you.
And here I have stamped two I heart stamps in Pink passion on Pumpkin pie cardstock. There are 8 stamps in this set: I love the filigree swirls on this stamp, it is definitely my favourite.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Six Circles to express your style!

What is your individual style?
People say they can pick my style of card ... but I dont know quite what it is myself.
A style can be clean, bold vintage, elegant, shabby chic but one style is all of these things and more: eclectic style.
It is classic and innovative all at the same time. An elegant script paired with bold colours and different design with Silhouettes and flowing lines integrated into one eye-catching  project. (I hope)
The colours are bright: Pumpkin pie, Kiwi kiss and Riding hood Red.
Black and white script from the Life Definitions set.
I really enjoyed making this card. It uses so many of my favourite sets: the silhouette from Upsy daisy, flowers and medallian from Friends 24/7
And the build a brad on the lower right circle for a bit of gloss and shine. Finished with a bit of dazzling diamonds on the kiwi kiss outlined flowers.

Monday, February 08, 2010

Animal stories and a Chocolate elephant

Today's Card offering holds a chocolate elephant on a metal edge tag tied to a so saffron ribbon.
Elephants, Owls and Giraffes grace the papers in this matching Tall Tales and Animal stories stampset.
You're asking: How did he get all that glitter stuck to him?
Here's how:
1. Stamp the elephant in Versamark ink first, then into chocolate chip ink and then on to whisper white cardstock
2. Cover the image with Heat and Stick powder. Then pour off the excess back into the container.
3. Using your heat tool, lightly heat the powder just until it changes from dry to wet.
4. Dust with the glitter of your choice (either dazzling diamonds or Superfine glitter)
5. Heat it very quickly the second time with your heat tool (Just until the glitter moves slightly) to set.
6. Punch out your elephant with a circle punch and glue it onto the metal edged tag.
7. Making a hole in the top, tie it onto a piece of ribbon that is tied around your card front.
I have used the Tall Stories DS Paper with elephants on it and also stamped with VersaMark directly onto the chocolate chip cardstock. Versamark is excellent for stamping a watermark image for nice subtle backgrounds.
Finally, the Happy Birthday greeting is from the Chit Chat rub ons pack.

Friday, February 05, 2010

Scrapbook an original Super star

Do you have a gorgous photo that you want to display or a milestone moment to be celebrated?
This year (in December) Daughter finally achieved her first super star Assistant Principals award certificate.
We celebrated with a photo and she was up on stage to recieve it at the school assembly.

At first I used a 6x6" scrapbook page to present her photo with a ribbon and I thought I might put it in a small shadow box frame to place on our display shelf.
The layout is one that we made at a recent Team training day ... then as I always have more than one photo I decided to make it up into a 12x12" scrapbook page to either fit my album or frame for the wall.
The quote is "Unique" out of the Life Definitions stampset - an excellent set for scrapbooking.
If you want to place the stamp perfectly inside the stamped frame as I did here you can use a stamp positioner, affectionately known as the stamp-a-ma-jig.
And here is a button-grommet combination to add interest to my ribbon. The gromot has little metal prongs that you can simply press into the cardstock and bend the tines over to hold it securely in place. Really easy!
And I placed the button into the centre with a mini glue dot.
What you need to make this page:
Stampset: life definitions, outline alphabet, Friends 24/7, Frames with a flourish.
Cardstock: Baja breeze textured, riding hood red, whisper white, Pacific Point.
Ink: Riding hood red, baja breeze, Pacific Point, white craft (for the large title).
Tools and accessories: Riding hood red ribbon, large white grommet, button bouquet, stampamajig, jumbo eyelet, cropadile, 1 3/4" circle punch, crimper tool, large star punch, mini glue dots.