Take a walk on the bright side ... Rose red and pumpkin polka dot punch

I made this card last night ... I started with one idea and combined another and I think it would go well with a pair of sunglasses. That pumpkin pie is very bright with Rose red and the bali breeze designer paper. The little edge is in Taken with teal made with the scallop-edged punch. Materials used:

Stampset: Polka Dot Punches

Cardstock: Pumpkin pie, rose red, Taken with Teal.

Ink: Rose Red and White craft.

Paper: Bali breeze Double sided.

Ribbon: Pumpkin pie

Embrace a Bali breeze Life ...

My stampin' up upline: Linda Higgins posed a challenge last week on her forum.

The challenge was to make a card inspired by a photo of a teenage bedroom with a close to cocoa wall, teal coloured bedspread with pink phone and throw cushion and a white bed head with lots of round circle patterns. I made this several days ago ... but with one thing and another didn't have a chance to photograph and upload it so, I am sharing with you now.

Materials:

Cardstock: Whisper white, Close to cocoa, Turquoise and Regal Rose. DS paper: Bali breeze, Scallop circle punch, scallop edge punch, circle punches, large oval. Ribbon: Regal rose wide grosgrain. Stampsets: Embrace life and Short and sweet. Ink: regal rose, Turquoise and close to cocoa. Other: Mat pack and scissors.

Thank you flower.

I have tried something different experimenting with punches on this card to make a folded flower.

It is a folding technique that is featured in the demonstrator's Impression magezine this month.

If you have the Tag punch you have to have a go at this, or if you are interested how it is done just ask me to show you how.

The Thank you card is made using:

Stampset: Circle of friendship (Used for the centre of the flower).

Ink: Old Olive. Cardstock: Taken with Teal, Pomegranate, whisper white.

Designer Series double sided paper: Bali Breeze.

Ribbon: Old Olive wide grosgrain.
Accessories: Tag Punch, 1 1/4 " Circle Punch, scallop-edge punch.

Bookmarks and page keepers...

Here is another version of the bookmark cards I have been playing with.

It uses Taken with Teal cardstock and Bali Breeze DS paper (from the current Summer mini) and the Botanical Blooms flower stamped in Old Olive mounted on a scalloped square.

Don't you love the words that come with this set?

To thine own self be kind: Makes you want to get a book and read all day, and just be "kind" to yourself.

Ice skating Birthday Scrapbook page

Since I showed you the cake, I thought I may aswell share the scrap book pages I made to celebrate Jessica's 6th birthday. Above is page one of a two page spread.Materials:

Stampsets: garden whimsy, Be happy, Lovely letters, Happy everything.

Cardstock: Textured Rose red, Whisper white.

Paper: Bali Breeze DS patterned.

Ink: whisper white craft ink, stazon black

Accessories: Clear buttons, Circle scallop punch, scallop edge, white signo gel pen.

Here's some detail of the buttons:

(I love how you can stamp on them with stazon ink, or embossing powder too - here I've just adhered them with doublesided tape so you can see the stamp underneath.

My daughter loves butterflies and lady beetles, so the garden whimsy stampsets with their spots seemed to match the

paper and the spotted top my girl is wearing.

Her smile tells it all - for how many years will fairy bread get a girl so excited!

Designer series paper: And the Colours are...

At first, I found it very difficult, to distinguish between the gingers, greens and the reds, not now ... with the list below:

These are the colours from the Designer Series papers in the Summer Mini :

Bali Breeze
· Pumpkin Pie

· Rose Red

· Taken with Teal

· Old Olive

Afternoon Tea
· Chocolate Chip

· Groovy Guava

· Soft Sky

· Wild Wasabi

Ginger Blossom
· Cameo Coral

· Groovy Guava

· River Rock

· Ruby Red

(If you are looking for a new colour palette give these a try).

And these are a few cards I have been making recently - I am playing with a new blog header photo (note: no purple in current coloured papers).

Rose red and pumpkin pie on a Bali Breeze

I am not alone am I in loving these colours together?

I must be very conservative with my colours but I never think of putting Teal, turquoise, orange and red together with Olive green .... Thank you for a beautifully refreshing new paper pack in the Designer series for opening up my colour palette!!!

Here is another matchbox-fold card in rose red cardstock, this time. Using my favourite scallop edge punch and the large oval punch.

I've mixed my stampsets using the Embrace Life flower and the Live your dream "Thanks".

Mixed my ribbons too: Rose red double stitched ribbon, underneath the regal rose wide grosgrain ribbon.

And the centre of the pumpkin pie flower is a sparkly clear Rhinestone brad from the pretties kit.

Please leave me a comment, don't be shy ... this is a dialogue, e-correspondence, you can remain anonymous ... share your thoughts - tell me what you like so I can give you more of it.

Friday night slide show...

Here are a few more photos that I took of the room full of women and launch night projects on display.

Summer mini Launch Party!

...weeks of preparation, a flurry of activity leading up to the night: cutting cardstock paper and scoring all the projects, measuring lengths of ribbon, pondering colour combinations, experimenting, last minute printing and packing and so much anticipation ...

Last Friday night was my first Mini Catalogue launch party!

I had a very exciting time and the three hours of paper crafting flew by, it seemed everyone had a fun night and I deem it to be a success because all of my gorgous ladies at my table completed the three projects before 10pm and went home happy with what they made...

Here is a photo of the wonderful women on my table ...

And here is a glimpse of the three projects that we made(and name cards you can see on the table above - we used the "in the stars" stampset and "Lovely Letters "alphabet for our initial).

The first one is a matchbox-fold card using Pumpkin pie textured cardstock and bali breeze DS paper, Rose red stitched ribbon, the large oval punch, scallop-edge punch and scallop-square punch.

We used the single markers to colour (direct to rubber) the bird and flower branch of the "Live your Dreams"and the ribbon is folded in a tailored bow style, to sit flat and neat.

The Second project was a Lolly hand-bag made from the Afternoon Tea DS papers in the new summer mini.

And our third project was a matchbox-slide box:

We made them using the Bali breeze papers (from the Summer mini catalogue) for the sliding cover and the Prints DS paper (from the Certainly celery and Rose red paper packs on page 136 IBC) for the little box.

"Embrace Life" - love this stampset, especially for watercolouring which many of you had a go at colouring on Friday night.

Most of us are not frequently called on to watercolour and it takes some practice to get it right so I am planning a little tutorial on my blog in the next week to show you how I am endeavouring to improve my skills.

Here is another version of the box in the Bali breeze DS paper and the Stitched ribbon in Rose red.

We used the styled silver hodgepodge from (you guessed it) the Summer mini catalogue.

It comes with 100 pieces of hardware! Ten 0f each piece (including large chunky brads with flowers, stars and words embossed onto them) and over 100 small silver brads.

So, thank you to everyone who made the night a success for me, I hope that you will encourage me to do the next Catalogue launch in April 2009.

Can't wait that long ... I can do a mini launch at yours or a friends place ... and wait until you see the great little stampsets that are being offered FREE in the Jan-Feb SaleAbration!!!

I am off to practice my watercolouring ...

Bright and Joyful Bali Breeze Dream

I am loving these bright colours from the Bali Breeze DS papers.
This one uses two of the new scallop punches in the Summer Mini: The small white square is made with the Scallop-Square punch and the pumpkin medallion is made with the Scallop-Edge punch.
And, that is the new Rose Red stitched ribbon threaded through the middle, layerd on Rose red cardstock and small strips of Old Olive, on a Taken with Teal base card.

I have used the square scallop to put a hanging hole on the end of the tag which is another little trick to use the scallop square punch for. The words are from "In the Stars". (The only stamp used on the card) coloured with the olive, teal, pumpkin and rose red markers.
And the paper square in the centre of the card is cut from the Bali breeze DS paper.