Urban Oasis in black and sahara sand

I have made these little gift and Thank you cards to go in this cute little bag. The bag is made from a single sheet of 12x12 Double sided paper. The folded bag has a pocket on both sides and is made with the bella bleu DS Paper - the colours are vanilla and kraft....

I have edged all the sides of the paper with the eyelet border punch and added a black circle scallop with a circle of paper stamped with the flowers from pocket silhouettes in neutral colours.

The three cards to go in it are very simple:

Starting with a Sahara sand card stock base. A mount of basic black cardstock and a square of DSP.

This time I have used the Urban oasis DS paper. I love the black, grey and kraft colours together in silhouettes.

Then I simply stamped the greeting: Thank you (from the fresh cuts stampset) onto some sahara sand cardstock, cut it out with the large oval punch and wrapped the black grosgrain ribbon around it before adhereing it all to the card.
These "Thank you" and "for you" cards are kind of All occasion cards - you could have a little card wallet with these in it and just give them to people who do kind things for you - child carers, teachers, volunteers ... with a chocolate for a friend.
You can make three of these cards from a single page of sahara sand cardstock and half a sheet of black and less than half a sheet of the DSP.

Enjoy!

Stampin' up Catalogues: Did you know?

It's True - the current Idea Book & Catalogue will be live until 1 September 2010.
This means we have an extra five months to enjoy this catalogues in-colours: Baja breeze, Pacific point, Kiwi kiss, Riding hood red, Tangerine tango and Pink pirouette.

There will be three mini catalogues this year!
1. The first will be the Spring mini - From 1 August -30 November 2009
2. Summer 2009 Mini Catalogue - From 1 December, 2009-31 March 2010
3. Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue - From 1 April-31 July 2010
And then...
The 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalogue - 1 September, 2010-31 August, 2011

Have you planned your next stampin' Up party yet?

Sweet always paper... and glossy white

When it first came out in the mini, I loved this stampset ... and now I have the paper to match! Yesterday, I didnt have time to explain the techniques I used on the little bird and heart. It is difficult to see in the picture. But the bird, flower, sentiment and heart are all stamped on gloss white paper. It gives the card a lovely glossy dimension (just like a bought one!) ...

This little bird is stamped in regal rose, only.

And this one is in regal rose and rose red.

The Always flower is stamped in regal rose and punched out with the 1 1/4" circle punch and attached with the gorgous flower brads. (Rumour is we are expecting coloured flower brads in the Spring Mini - launched in August).

Any way I digress, the cardstock I used for the card base is Perfect plum and the papers used are from the Sweet always packet of Double sided DS paper. Here is a sample of all the patterns and colours you get (12 sheets - 2 of each design):

And finally, the always heart was coloured using stampin' up markers. You can buy them individually now. The markers I used were pretty in pink, regal rose, rose red, always artichoke and perfect plum. And the greeting is from the hostess set: Best yet.

Can you see this in other colours and stampsets? so many ideas so little time. Enjoy!

Always zig zag card.

I was browsing through an old craft magezine while watching TV and saw a dog eared page, that I had meant to come back to one day. It is a four fold card (as opposed to a tri-fold or bi-fold).
Not sure what you call this kind of card but my version is a quatro-fold or zig zag card.
You get 4 faces to decorate and embellish.
On this one I have used the Sweet Always double sided DS paper. That goes perfectly with the Always stampset.
Mondays are busy at our place. I will show you more tomorrow perhaps.
We are off to afternoon swimming lessons.
Enjoy!

June-July Hostess special continues...

Click on this link to see the current special offer - ends 31 July.
http://stampinup.com/au/documents/Hostess_Promotion_AUNZ_0609FINAL.pdf

Have some fun during June and July by hosting a workshop—and Stampin’ Up!® will give you even more hostess awards!

When your workshop totals $600 AU, you’ll receive an additional $40 AU in hostess awards. That means $110 worth of FREE product and a free Level 1 or 2 hostess gift with your order.
Contact information:

Email me at nerida_carter@hotmail.com

IF YOU’RE READY TO HAVE FUN, CONTACT ME TODAY TO SCHEDULE A WORKSHOP.
© 2009 STAMPIN’ UP!

By the way, I have seen the current mini catalogue on-line and it is filled with gorgous new stampsets, accessories, a new punch, ribbon, rub ons and papers - the wishlist has just blown out again ... demonstrators can order from 1 July, and customers from 1 August, so look out for a mini catalogue launch party in early August!!!
I did make a card on Friday afternoon, and I have photographed it, you will just have to wait for the post sometime this week.

Daisies in dew - Inspired by nature.

Inspired by Nature? definitely... This was a quickly made at night time card. Only two layers of cardstock.
(I was going to put in another layer of perhaps rose red, but decided: this time I like the simplicity of white on green).

I first stamped the grass stamp in kiwi kiss classic ink onto the white cardstock.
Then using my stampin' up markers inked the rubber on the daisy stamp with the Rose Red, close to Cocoa and Old Olive markers. And, Stamped that over the top.

Wrapped the riding hood red ribbon around the white layer and adhered it to the kiwi kiss card.

Now comes the fun part!

I applied little droplets of crystal effects onto the blades of grass to look like dew. ( I saw this done at Convention this year).

Then spread crystal effects over the red of the daisy petals with the nozzle of the crystal effects bottle. It takes about an hour or more to dry, so leave it overnight before anyone touches it.

Can you see how I have placed some droplets onto the close to cocoa flower centres?

Hint: Beware of air bubbles - they can splash and burst onto your paper unexpectedly, if you're lucky they will look like more dew, if not your petal might be a bit less defined ... it's ART! It's unpredictable - thats why we like it... isn't it?
The tag is attached with embroidery thread. The tag Cardstock is Riding hood red and the sentiment: Thanks so much is from Trendy trees stamps set. Enjoy!

The 3D scene Pop up card.

Don't you just love pop up books? How about a card with a pop up scene inside ?
This is how it looks on the outside ...

Pretty isn't it? When you open it up - out pops a scene of stamped images. You can have words and birds, flowers and hearts or anything attached to the walls of your scene. This one reminds me of a little girls pink wall papered bedroom.I have used the Always Designer series paper to line the card and the matching Always stampset and Enjoy stampset too.
I enjoyed adding accessories such as brads, dazzling diamonds glitter and crystal effects to the items in the scene. I've used the colours: tangerine tango, rose red and perfect plum with lots of rocking and rolling of the stamps in the different ink colours. The Always flower is topped with a punched out circle which has been covered in crystal effects and sprinkled heavily with dazzling diamonds for the added bling. I am thinking of making one of these for a special christmas card with Christmas trees and snow ...

This card closes with the Rose red stitched wide grosgrain ribbon. I have added two wide oval circles to strenghthen the edges as a little clasp. The hole where the ribbon threads through is punched with the Horizontal slot punch. Enjoy!

3D card - Always bird scenery.

When you become a stampin' up demonstrator you get access to a whole lot of inspirational resources: such as the demonstrator website, monthly newsletters with ideas to use in workshops and also electronic versions of the US stamping magezines.

This month's Stamping Success had an article on 3D projects.

That's where this little 3 dimensional card came from. It is made with two pieces of cardstock the same size. It is as simple as stamping a "scene" on the base piece of cardstock then punching some holes out of the top piece of cardstock. You score both pieces of cardstock at 1.5 and 3cm from both ends then stick the ends together. When you push the two sides together the card becomes a 3D "view box".

Add some accessories like the kiwi kiss silk ribbon and a sentiment punched out of gloss white cardstock. I have used a stamp from the hostess gift "Best Yet".

Stampsets: Always, friends 24/7, Best yet. Cardstock: Kiwi kiss, whisper white and gloss white. Ink: kiwi kiss, baja breeze, pacific point. Accessories and Tools: Silk ribbon, 1 3/4" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle, 1" circle punch, scallop circle punch, dimensional adhesives.

Fifth avenue floral - watercolouring.

This is the fifth avenue rose that I watercoloured at an Inksomniacs meeting held by my upline Linda Higgins. At our get togethers there is always a new technique to learn which I really love to do.

This one combines embossing, watercolouring with reinkers and the aquapainter brush on gloss white paper. This was my first attempt so it is fairly uneven colouring but I think it is supposed to be like that. The colours are barely banana and rose red.

Next I went over to Alisa Tilsner's blog and CASEd this great gift bag.

It is very easy to make with a sheet of 21x30cm Designer series paper. I have used the Bella Rose DSP.

It only takes some scoring, folding and hole punching to make up this great little bag.

I used the Riding hood red taffeta ribbon to tie it at the top.

And made this little tag using my Stampin' Up tag punch.

I punched two tags and overlapped one over the top so that my sentiment would fit. I have stamped the fifth avenue floral "you only live once..." quote in stazon ink on vellum cardstock.

I punched it out with the wide oval punch and attached with a clear rhinestone brad.

The Rose is adhered to the bag with double sided tape.

Here it is from the other side. The top of the bag is turned over before you punch the holes ( I used the crop a dile tool, because it punches through many layers of paper so easily).

Enjoy always!

This card was inspired by a sketch challenge over on the Elite challengers blog site.
And the fact that I haven't been using these two stampsets nearly enough, in my opinion. So the technique I have used is:
Brayering!
The "enjoy" was stamped on gloss paper in versamark ink, then embossed with clear embossing powder.
The brayer was inked up in lavender lace ink and then elegant eggplant ink. Afterwards I polished off the excess ink to reveal the embossed enjoy word.
The always bird was embossed onto a scrap piece of gloss cardstock ( which already had some brayered ink on it ), and brayered again with the elegant eggplant ink. I cut the bird out so that he could perch on the edge of the word.
The background is stamped with the "inspird by nature" stampset. The grass was stamped in versamark and clear embossed, then stamped over with white craft ink.
I added some white cardstock which was edged with the eyelet border punch, as well as the edge of the card. The ribbon is elegant eggplant grosgrain.

A card in the mail...

I wanted to share a beautiful waterfall card that I received from a fellow demonstrator Felicity Hawkins. she makes the most lovely projects and doesn't have a blog of her own so with her permission I am sharing this card she sent me recently.

The flower images are from Pocket silhouettes and the background stamp is polka dots. I love the silver flower brads she has used. The sentiment is from Curvy verses stampset.

Elite challenges Colour challenge ...

The Elite challenges blog has issued this challenge for June. It is a colour challenge that I would not normally think to put together. That's the beauty of a challenge it takes you out of your comfort zone and makes you try new things.

The colours are: Pink pirouette, baja breeze and going grey and Basic grey. I think this one came together really well. Pretty and soft but, the basic grey gives it depth.

I love the sentiment from fifth avenue floral - here I have stamped it on vellum cardstock with Stazon black ink and punched it out with the wide oval.The ribbon is in pink pirouette wide grosgrain. I punched out the little notch for the bow to sit in with the 1 1/4" circle punch. And threaded it under the brayered piece of cardstock anchoring it down with the silver filigree brad. In the centre of the brad is a clear rhinestone.

The stamping is in versamark on gloss white cardstock, then inks applied with the brayer until the colour is saturated and the white under the versamark ink shows through clearly.

Scrapbook - the tooth fairy - page 2.

I like to scrapbook on the weekend ... a girl has to have a pass time when it is cold and wintry outside. This is the second page of a double page spread. You may remember I completed the first page quite a while a go, but still had several photos left. So a second page has been sitting on the table waiting for a few spare hours. The top right photo flips upwards to show the before and after images of the lost tooth. I have simply hinged the first photo on to a piece of DS Paper using the eyelet punch for a decorative edge.
The simple mounting of these photos is due to the number of photos I have placed on the page. Two of the photos have used corner pockets to hold the photo in place. I have made them with the square scallop punch, cut the squares in half length ways and scored and folded them diagonally to show the punched edge at the front.

The next photo is mounted on kiwi kiss cardstock which has been punched with the eyelet border punch and tied with some wide old olive grosgrain ribbon.

For some butterfly detail, to match the other page I added one of the butterflies from flight of the butterfly the sentiment says: If nothing ever changed there would be no butterflies.

The Enjoy stamp is from Lovely labels stamped with chocolate chip on whisper white cardstock. This is the double page spread showing the tooth fairy in all her splender celebrating the loss of her first tooth.