Waratah Bloom!

I can't wait any longer, we only have 8 days left of the old catalogue (2008-09 Idea book and Catalogue) and the current summer mini. I am expecting delivery of the new 2009-10 IB&C's this week or atleast my free demonstator's copy.
If you are coming to the catalogue launch on Thursday, 9th of April at 7.30pm you will get your very own free catalogue!
You will get to make three (3) projects with the new stampsets and in-colours!
Win prizes ... and have a fun night out !
Bring along a friend -you will both have the chance of winning a $50 gift voucher of products from the new Stampin' Up catalogue.
If you are not able to attend you can still grab a copy of the new catalogue - they're $10, (pick up from me) or $15 to be mailed out to you.
Or, host a workshop at your home and get a free catalogue, earn free stampsets and free products through sales.
Here is a sneak peak at one of the new stampsets using the in-colours from the new catalogue.
It is a very different stampset to what we have had before... a botanical style drawing of Australian flowers - it is one to try out your watercolouring and aquapainter techniques.

This one uses the in-colours: Riding hood red and tangerine Tango on the flower, with kiwi kiss and tangerine tango for the leaves.I've done the leaves on this one (above) with certainly celery to better match the Pacific point blue mount. And Gum blossoms ... I will have to have a look at a native plant book to see what colours they really should be. I dont think there are any gum trees flowering in my local area ... not mid summer at the moment. I am thinking these will be great for overseas relatives and friends, even those living in the bush or country Australia ? Or Australia day scrapbook pages ... the sentiment is from Fresh cuts (another new stampset available from 1st of April).

Close to Cocoa, lavender and amethyst blooms

You might have guessed by now that I am a fan of Lavender Lace and Almost Amethyst?

When I went to the Newcastle Quilt and Craft Fair, on Sunday, I visited the Stampin' Up stand and saw a card very much like this one:

From memory anyway...

The amethyst looks blue in the photo, but in real life (IRL) it is so different.

Who would have thought to white emboss, then watercolour on to the amethyst cardstock!

Thanks Carol!!!!

***you can see Carol's version here: http://elitechallenges.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/card-by-carol-dunstan-36/

I just loved making this card.... I am going to make a scrapbook page to match!
Mine is in lavender lace and Old olive.

The ribbon is white tafetta ... I know the sample card I CASEd used blue bayoux ribbon and for the watercolouring on the leaves - it looked stunning .... but I didn't have that colour at hand.

So the next best thing (to me) is old olive and white tafetta.

Here is a close up of the embossing and watercolouring: It is so easy to keep within the lines, because the embossing resists the ink and it doesn't flow under it.

Materials:

Cardstock: Close to Cocoa, almost amethyst, Lavender lace. Stampset: Botanical Blooms (SAB). Inks: White craft (for stamping), lavendar lace and Old Olive (for water colouring). Ribbon: white tafetta. Tools: white embossing powder, embossing buddy, large oval punch, horizontal slot punch, Dimensional adhesives and double sided tape.

Just a reminder: there is only three days left of the Sale-a-bration catalogue Free stamps offer ... You can get this stampset for free if you spend $100. Phone or email me if you are still wanting to buy yourself some stamping supplies ... I will be putting a last order in on the 28th Feb.

Botanical Blooms dazzle!

It is a grey old Monday morning here, the sun is trying to shine through the clouds ... so I thought I would share a little sparkle with you all ... and a reminder to be kind to yourself and others who are important to you.

I made this card on the weekend with the Saleabration Botanical Blooms stampset and the "curly-frame" stamp from the Yummy stampset.

I have used dazzling diamonds to highlight the centres of the flowers and the frame. ( I hope you can see it in the photo!)

It is a single layer card just to show how easy it is to create a very quick card using just one piece of cardstock, some ribbon, ink and a little bit of glitter.

Stampsets: Botanical Blooms (free offer until the end of February 2009) and Yummy.

Cardstock: Whisper white

Inks: lavender lace, perfect plum and certainly celery.

Accessories: dazzling diamonds, two way glue pen. Ribbon: Certainly celery wide grosgrain.

My upside down card ... its all about balance.

Not sure if this layout works ... I have used the Botanical Blooms stampset and had a lovely time two-step stamping in orchid opulence and mellow moss ...then, spent just a little too long playing with the layout of the card elements... it was past midnight and my eyes weren't feeling the best. Eventually I just said what the heck it looks OK! stick it together and stop wasting all night on one project ... When I had a look at it in the cool light of day, I think it looks better upside down.
For me the design looks more balanced that way. When the Scallop edge was at the top it was top heavy and I think it works better at the bottom. So that's what I did (see the photo). I turned the whole card around and the sentiment too.

And, here is a close up of the cut out botanical bloom flower it now hangs down like this!

Materials: Cardstock: Eggplant, Orchid opulence, sage shadow, whisper white. Ink: Orchid opulence, sage shadow. Punches: scallop edge and Large oval. Ribbon: Eggplant grosgrain.

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.

Botanical Birthday card

I enjoyed making this card ... fiddly but for one it is back to the purple cardstock and inks I like to play with.
It has embossing (in white) and vellum, and flowers that I have stamped in Orchid Opulence and Elegant eggplant using the two step stamping technique. The flowers at the top I have stamped in eggplant ink, but you could do this in versamark for that watermark look.

Here is a close up of the embossing on the velum, this is very fast, as the velum helps to heat the powder and it melts very quickly. If you hold the heat on it too long it will spread and you lose that crisp raised appearance. Tell me about it ... I learn by experience.The Materials:

Cardstock: Elegant eggplant, orchid opulence and whisper white. Velum.

Inks: white craft ink, Elegant eggplant, orchid opulence.

White signo gel pen for the faux stitching.

White brads, Stamp-a-ma-jig and Mat pack .

Stampsets: Botanical Blooms (SAB2009), Finest flourishes, and Stem sayings.

Stamping joy Saleabration 2009!

Happy New Year to you all. It is the start of the Stampin' Up! Sale-a-Bration. Which means Stampin' Up is giving away free stamps! If you haven't experienced Sale-a-Bration before, you can read how it works HERE .

In short, each time you spend $100 during January and February you get a free stampset from Stampin' Up and you have a choice of four free stamp sets which you can view HERE.

There are Four brand new sets to choose from and you can get one set for free when you place an order for $100. And there are no limits to how many you can earn.

For example, if you were to place a $300 order: You would get $300 worth of products, plus $30 in FREE merchandise, plus your FREE Level 1 Hostess Set, and 3 FREE Sale-a-Bration sets. You receive 4 stamp sets for free!

It's a fantastic time to join Stampin' Up! too.

Today, to celebrate New Year's day, I made a card with one of the free stamp sets from Sale-a-bration : Botanical Blooms. You can see it at the top of this post.

If you have a sale a bration catalogue this layout is on page 3 and the colours are Lovely lilac, Turquoise, confetti white and the centre panel is from the ginger blossom DS papers : featuring groovy guava.