60th Birthday

I was asked recently to make a 60th birthday card, and of course this is where Memorable Moments stamp set comes into its own, as you can add whatever numbers you like.  I chose Apothecary Art because of the beautiful soft flowers that look so great when coloured.  Embossed in gold, layered with brushed gold cardstock, and embellished with fabric roses it worked perfectly for the occasion.

Happy Stamping

Easter Gifts - Part 1

This Easter has been a special one for me as my parents were able to visit, not only for Easter, but for my birthday as well.  I wanted to make them something a little special and so came up with these cute little card boxes.  

This one is the one I made for my father, I wanted to use some masculine colours and textures so chose the lovely Natural Trim Ribbon, it matches perfectly with Crumb Cake and is inspired by Hessian so has a lovely rough texture.  Just the thing when you want to add a ribbon but keep the masculine feel to the project.  Some masking with the Everybunny stamp set created the cute little scene.

This is the inside of the 'card', and as you can see the base of the card is actually a box that holds a block of Cadburry's chocolate.  My father had Old Gold Rum and Raisin in his.

 This is the front of the box I made for my mum.  I wanted it to be far more feminine and so used some retired DSP and carried the colours through to the flowers from Bordering on Romance.  I just adore the sentiment, an a la carte stamp called Easter Blessings (well named lol).  In the box for mum I put a big block of Peppermint chocolate which she also loved.  

I love being able to create special gifts for people, and I know my parents appreciate the extra care that goes into a gift like this.  I will post again tomorrow to show off the cute little Easter baskets I made for everyone too.

Happy Stamping

Festive Friday #40

Oops, there was an issue with the uploading of this post for this week's Festive Friday Challenge, so I have made a couple of tweaks including this great graphic which might give you a clue to the theme for this week's Product Challenge ...

Yes, it is to Use Buttons.  Big buttons, small buttons, plastic, glass or wood buttons the choice is yours - use one or use many. The great thing about the challenge this week is that you can use them any way you want, check out the design team for some extra inspiration if you need it.

I have used buttons in two ways today, one for the body of this cute little snowman from Button Buddies (the title of that set certainly called to me for this challenge).  I also used a couple of Old Olive flower buttons on the sentiment label.  Do you recognise the label?  It is one from the Apothecary Accents Framelits but I have trimmed it down to remove some of the detail on the top and bottom to simplify it just a little.

Now it's your turn, get Festive with buttons and add your card to the linkie at Festive Friday.

Happy Stamping

Festive Friday #38

This week at Festive Friday Challenge we have a nice simple sketch which leaves you with lots of possibilities some pop on over and see what the rest of the design team have made to inspire you and join in with us - every Christmas card made is one less to rush at the end of the year!

I decided that with such a lovely big open space on the card I would do the Emboss Resist technique. Can you believe that I have never tried this one before? It is really so easy and so fun to watch it come together.  The ink used was Baja Breeze, and I built the colour up from the centre of each 'snowflake' not refreshing the dauber as I moved out so the colour became lighter. The lovely sentiment is from Greetings of the Season and I have cut it with my Apothecary Accents Framelits. 

   

Because I went with Not Quite Navy for the base of the card I wanted to put an inside layer in for writing on and decorated the corners with the same image as on the front of the card but stamped in matching Not Quite Navy.

Happy Stamping

ESAD Blog Hop - Holiday Catalogue

Welcome to the Holiday Catalogue Blog Hop, whether you have come from Kristine at Inkspot Creations or are starting with my blog, just hop around following the links at the bottom of each post. 

I just love this Holiday Catalogue, the first in the new 'non-mini' format, it is so full of amazing products, not just stamps but heaps of accessories too.  I have chosen a combination of items from the Holiday Catalogue and some from the new Annual Catalogue to show you how well they all coordinate together.  I have chosen the stamp set Joyous Celebrations as the focus of all of my projects today, so grab a cuppa if you don't have one, and enjoy my projects and those the other ESAD ladies have created for you.

I wanted to use the new little Kraft boxes, they are great and really cost effective (4 boxes for only $4.95 on p161) which makes them great for gifts.  The new Holiday Catalogue items on this box are the Fabric Ribbon wrapped around the box, and two of the small stamps from Joyous Celebrations stamped onto the Fabric Ribbon.  I love how this new ribbon makes it so easy to stamp on, and you can coordinate your ribbon perfectly with your project!  The sentiment is also from a lovely set in the Holiday Catalogue called Greetings of the Season which has four lovely Christmas sentiments.

I thought I would show you the steps I took to stamp on the ribbon:

Secure the ribbon using tape at each end, and place over some scrap
paper and mark out the distance you want between each image.

Stamp the first image using the markers as a guide.  I used the
mistletoe image as the stem helped me line up with my marks.

Finally I went back with the little bow stamp and positioned it
between  each of the mistletoe  images.

Inside the box is a selection of gift tags and cards, this would make a lovely pre-Christmas gift for someone special or just a lovely way to store your own Christmas tags!

I made these with the Two Tags Die, backing the Joyous Celebrations stamps with the Decorative Label Punch.  I made three of each in a variety of colour and DSP combinations. These are so easy to whip up and are so very cute.  A touch of Dazzling Diamonds onto the reindeer nose (red would have been perfect) and also to add some faux-brads to the other tag, this is great for adding some bling without dimension, so great for cards to go through the post.

Next I made a series of 3"x3" gift cards, making two of each of the following designs.  The tree in the Joyous Celebrations set is a tiny bit larger than some of the other stamps in the set, so I used the oval Designer Frame to layer it onto the card, backing this with some of the Be of Good Cheer DSP from the Annual Catalogue. A little bit of Dazzling Diamonds on the star helps to make it pop, I used the new Paper Piercing Tool to gently drag the glitter into the points of the star.

The next two cards are both made using what I think of as the 'dotted oval' stamp from the Joyous Celebrations set, and I backed them with Be of Good Cheer DSP cut with one of the Apothecary Accents Framelits.  I added a sentiment to the reindeer one, from Petite Pairs.  

The last of the tags are probably my favourite as I decided to try layering them with the Champaign Glimmer paper instead of DSP.  Let me just say if you have been a fan of the silver and red glimmer paper from the Annual Catalogue you will LOVE this new champaign one, it is so rich and yummy. You might recognise the bows and the mistletoe as the images I stamped onto the ribbon that wrapped around the box.  To make the bow out of glimmer paper I just stamped on the back and used that as a guide to cut out.  I used a small amount of Dazzling Details on the star in the centre of each ornament.

I wanted to finish up my post today with the card I made to go with this little tag box, this one is a 10.5cm x 10.5cm one.  I used the new Paper Doily Sizzlits and Apothecary Accents Die to compliment the cute little reindeer stamp.  I think he is my favourite from this set, and I can see me using him quite a bit on my Christmas projects this year.  This whole set of stamps is so versatile, great for gift cards as well as full sized cards, it also fits perfectly within the new Holiday Frame Textured Embossing Folder also found in the Holiday Catalogue.

I hope you have enjoyed my somewhat long post today.  Now it is time to hop on over to StampingT! to see what Tanya has created.

What is ESAD?

ESAD stands for "Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators" and it is an on-line group just for Australian and New Zealand Stampin" Up! demonstrators. 

We so love what we do and not only do we love to share it with our customers, friends, and wonderful blog visitors, but we share our love for what we do with each other as demonstrators. We run swaps, challenges, tutorials, product know-how, and cyberstamps, and we are always there to help and support each other when it is needed.

 So if you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand, then please feel free to click here to join our wonderful group

Happy Stamping

Festive Friday

I am happy to be joining the Festive Friday Design Team, this week is my first project as a team member although I have joined in from time to time in the past.  This week we have an inspirational photo for you, isn't it great?  The best part about an inspirational photo challenge is that you can take any element from the photo as inspiration for your card, it could be the colour, shapes, theme, whatever catches your eye.

The first thing that caught my eye was the colours, the deep rich red that reminded me of Cherry Cobbler.  When I looked closer at the picture I noticed the baby's breath on the table and it made me think of snowflakes and from there just knew the sheet from Be of Good Cheer DSP would be perfect.  I then picked up some of the green from the plates, and while I appreciate the rather healthy looking food prepared for this Christmas feast I wanted to go a bit more naughty and so chose cute little gingerbread men.

I hope this has helped to inspire you to join in the challenge this week, if you need a bit more inspiration pop over to the Festive Friday blog and see what the other talented design team members have come up with this week.  

Remember every Christmas card made now is one less to rush to make later in the year!

Happy Stamping

Father's Day Cards

We have just had Father's Day here in Australia and of course that meant card making time.  Today I have two Father's Day cards to show you, the first is the one I made for my dad, and the other is the one my daughter made for her dad.  I love that she is creative too.

Firstly here is the card I made my dad.  I used the now-retired Well Worn DSP and Junior Type Alphabet die and matched them up with the new Apothecary Accents Framelits and a new a la carte stamp aptly named World's Greatest.  We received this stamp at Convention and to be honest I wasn't sure it was my style, however it was perfect for this card. Even though the Framelit chopped off the bottom part of the stamp I think it still works well.

This is the card my daughter made for her dad, she took inspiration from the butterfly card I made but changed it to be more masculine.  I love what she has done with this, she kicked me out of my craft area and then went to work.  I love how she did the background, she had started off sponging the edges but decided to tap the ink pad directly to the card stock which gives it a great texture.  She added some ribbon, and even though it is satin ribbon she has chosen the grey and added a layer of Baker's Twine.  I love the way she off set the sentiment and embossed the layer.  I am such a proud mum and of course my husband loved the card!

Happy Stamping

One more ...

What a great day today has been, nothing I had to do but create and what do you know the mojo was flowing!  My daughter is at a sleepover and my hubby has mates over so I have had all evening to create as well.  I have paused to do a few around the house jobs, in part to get circulation going to my lower limbs.

For my fina l card of the  day I went  with the  colours from the Pals Paper Arts challenge, Elegant Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie  and Lucky Limeade. 

This is another of my new stamp sets Everything Eleanor, there are a few reasons I chose this one in my first order from the new catalogue.  Firstly there are a nice variety of images and I will be able to use them on a wide range of cards.  Secondly it has this amazing flourish stamp, seen here in the background, I love a good flourish stamp!  Thirdly it has a great image that matches one of the Apothecary Accents Framelits, and I hve used this as the centre of the card, it adds the perfect layer to the Framelit and really helps make the sentiment the focus of the card.

Well that is it for me today, got to save some mojo for tomorrow - although I have a couple more jobs to do before I can create.

Happy Stamping

Beautiful Blue Butterflies

I am happy to say I have made my first card with my new toys, it took me a bit to get going as I kept finding new toys on my desk and wanting to play with them all - I felt a bit like a 3 year old!  I decided the thing to do was clear off the desk, put the new toys away and focus on the one at hand, which worked a treat.

This card is made completely with new products (apart from adhesives lol).  The DSP is from Comfort Cafe, which I think is going to become my new favourite DSP, it is so pretty, if you look closely behind the main pattern the paper is printed in such a way it looks like it is fabric, which gives such a lovely feel to the card. The butterfly images are from Papillon Potpourri and are punched out with a matching punch (my new favourite punch), no more fussy cutting of butterflies!  I stamped the butterflies once onto Very Vanilla card stock after cutting it out with the Apothecary Accents Framelits, then again onto Vellum, when adhering the vellum butterflies onto the card I used used a strip of TomBow glue along the body of the butterfly, that way the wings can sit up off the card.  

I used some of the new Dazzling Details on the bodies of the butterflies and on the Happy Birthday banner.  You will notice a very neat row of paper piercing around the main Framelit image, this isn't from a steady hand (I wish) but rather is with a new set of paper piercing tools called the Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack. The pack has three sheets of templates for use with a variety of dies and punches as well as some straight rows.  The best part is that it measures 15.2cm x 15.2cm so there is now no longer a need to re-position the smaller guide that SU used to stock. 

I am loving the new products, and when I have hung out a load of washing I will be back at my desk creating something else to show you.

Happy Stamping

Less is More #83

Just a quick little post this morning before I get stuck into creating with my new stamps - my big brown Stampin' Up! box full of new catalogue products arrived yesterday!  But before I get on with that I wanted to share a card I made for the Less is More Challenge, this week the challenge was to use pink and brown.

I quite like pink and brown together, and for this card chose Pink Pirouette and Soft Suede.  I think I am improving with CAS cards although I had to add some texture to the suede layer!  I did think about making this a baby card but went with Thank You, using the sentiment from Curly Cute instead.  I think for a baby card I would use more pink and less suede.

Speaking of baby cards I did get the cute little Two by Two in my order yesterday and I can see it making a very cute baby card.  Well I am off to play with my new toys, I will hopefully have a few to post up over the next few days - mojo permitting!

Happy Stamping

Nacho Challenge

Nacho Average Challenge is a fairly new challenge and I loved the colour combination this week.

I have again used my Apothecary Accents Framelits dies, using one to back the main image.   I stamped the flowers from Bordering on Romance onto water colour paper and then coloured using blender pens to get the various shades of the Raspberry Ripple.  The sentiment is from Language of Friendship, and I realise that I don't use this sentiment enough!  I have used the new stitched wassabi ribbon on cross corners and added a bow.

Happy Stamping

Bright Mojo Monday

I sat down tonight and flicked through some of the challenges on my Google Reader and saw this one from Mojo Monday Challenge, I immediately knew what I wanted to do and sat down to make a quick mid-week creation.  I love it when the creativity just flows, even if it is just a simple card.

Now there is a small change from my original idea, I was going to use the square-ish die from the Apothecary Accents Framelits, but it was a bit big for what I was after.  Instead I decided on the Tag Punch.  The DSP is from Summer Smooches and the Stamp from the matching set Bright Blossoms, I chose the sentiment from Teeny Tiny Sentiments. I added a single rhinestone to the flower for just a touch of bling.

Happy Stamping

Floral Thanks

I am on fire today, all that mojo that has been hiding seems to have come back! Maybe it is the playing with new toys that has me creating so much at the moment, whatever it is, I like it!  I liked the simplicity of this sketch from Pals Paper Arts.

I used the new Floral District DSP that I got with my pre-order from the new Annual Catalogue, I love the colours and would never had put them together until I saw this paper!  I have again used two of the new dies from the Apothecary Accents Framelits for the front of the card, don't they look great layered together like this? I cut a small slit in the bottom frame and threaded the seam binding through.  The sentiment from Perfect Punches is from the current catalogue but will be carrying over to the new one too - I can see me pairing these two up a fair bit in the future.  I tried the sentiment in Baja Breeze with Tangerine Tango sponging but I think this way around looks much better.  

Happy Stamping

Almost Binned!

I have been a bit busy last night and today.  I have joined a card front swap with some other Stampin' Up! demonstrators with items coming out in the new catalogue, so I made a great card front ... I just can't show you yet or it will spoil the surprise!

What I can show you is a card I worked on this afternoon.  It started out with the three little butterflies that I coloured in using three of the new In-Colours - Summer Starfruit, Raspberry Ripple and Primrose Petals.  I wasn't really sure I liked how they turned out and they were headed for the bin, until my lovely daughter said she thought they looked amazing.  I have to say I am really happy with how it turned out, just goes to show that even scraps can become art.

Happy Stamping

Ginger Jar

Time for another play with Apothecary Accents Framelits dies,  I CASEd this card from one Sharon at Created By You.  Sharon called this a "bell jar" but I know them as ginger jars, a friend of mine had a couple of them that she had turned into bedside light bases.  For my card I chose a base of Midnight Muse with an embossed layer of Bashful Blue.

Because these jars are made of ceramics I chose to use Glossy White card stock, and because of the more juicy nature of the new style ink pads I was able to use some clear embossing powder to give it a glossy look too.  The lid of the jar I stamped and embossed as well, the touch of pearls seemed to fit right for me, although the traditional ginger jars I know didn't have them.  

Happy Stamping