Masculine Star Card

Well another of the projects that the ladies at our World Card Making Event Made was one using all new stamp sets - Word Play, Wonderfully Worn and Elements of Style. It was a CASE from Kristy Brown's, but modified slightly to accommodate new and retiring items. It has a LOT of paper piercing around both the Sahara and the Whisper White card stock pieces, but I think the final effect is worth the effort, don't you?

Stamps: Word Play, Wonderfully Worn & Elements of Style

Ink: Early Expresso, Not Quite Navy, More Mustard & Sahara Sand

Card Stock: More Mustard, Not Quite Navy, Sahara Sand & Whisper White

Accessories: Hemp twine, Paper piercer, Dimensionals, Regal Brads, SNAIL, Star Punch, paper snips & Mat pack

December Frenzy Sale - coming soon!!!

Wow just in time for last minute Christmas presents, Stampin' Up! has brought out a fabulous new sale.....from December 1st -29th Stampin’ Up! are offering up to 50% off selected products. How awesome is that!!!

Check out the following list below:

Item	Page	Description	Retail Price	Sale Price
119181	39	A Little Treat Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$21.95	$10.98
120018	39	A Little Treat Clear-Mount Stamp Set	$15.95	$7.98
119189	40	Tote-Ally Tess Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$37.95	$26.57
111255	43	Daisy Dash Jumbo Stampin’ Around Wheel	$15.95	$9.57
121482	56	Baby Bundle Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$49.95	$34.97
119161	72	Autumn Days Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$38.95	$19.48
120012	77	Pendant Park Clear-Mount Stamp Set	$27.95	$13.98
113031	88	Tart & Tangy Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$21.95	$15.37
115806	91	Fresh Cuts Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$38.95	$27.27
115946	102	Wonderful Favorites Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$39.95	$23.97
119167	104	Heard from the Heart Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$38.95	$23.37
119185	105	Teeny Tiny Sentiments Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$62.95	$31.48
105115	118	Pumpkin Pie Stampin’ Write Marker	$5.75	$4.03
105106	119	Certainly Celery Stampin’ Write Marker	$5.75	$3.45
100045	119	Pretty in Pink Stampin’ Write Marker	$5.75	$3.45
105114	119	So Saffron Stampin’ Write Marker	$5.75	$3.45
105111	119	Bashful Blue Stampin’ Write Marker	$5.75	$3.45
105108	119	Regal Rose Stampin’ Write Marker	$5.75	$3.45
105109	120	Bravo Burgundy Stampin’ Write Marker	$5.75	$3.45
100069	120	Night of Navy Stampin’ Write Marker	$5.75	$4.03
100082	121	Basic Black Stampin’ Write Marker	$5.75	$3.45
103104	122	Small Cello Bags	$7.50	$4.50
111325	140	Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware	$57.95	$28.98
112530	140	Circle Scissor Plus	$54.95	$32.97
116681	161	Kind Heart Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$11.95	$5.98

There are no limits on ordering and normal postage and handling charges apply. Don’t forget to place your order with me from Wednesday 1st December onwards.  This promotion ends Wednesday 29th December so be quick.

Christmas Scrapbook Layout

What a busy time ahead, I can't believe it's only 4 weeks until Christmas - honestly it's the same date every year and I never seem to be quite as organised as I'd like to be! We had a lovely double layout for a class last week all ready to pop in the Christmas photos for this year, or you could use last years too (just change the year numbers)! I built the page around the Jolly Holiday designer series paper and my new Delightful Decorations stamp set (it came with the FREE ribbon in the bundle here). What you can't see from the photo is the glitter on the baubles and Dasher or the rhinestones on the snowflakes and top of the tree. If you wanted to modify the page to fit more photographs on it, I would use the ornament punch and put people on the tree! The small circles are also popped up onto Dimensionals and the numbers on the squares are covered in Crystal Effects to make them nice and shiny.

Stamps: Dasher, Contempo Christmas, Delightful Decorations

Ink: Cherry Cobbler & Early Expresso.

Card stock: Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Early Expresso & Jolly Holiday DSP.

Accessories: 1 1/4" square punch, 3/4" circle punch, 1" circle punch, Ornament punch, Timeless Type Junior Alphabet, Stamp-a-ma-jig, basic rhinestones, Dazzling Diamonds, Dimensionals, Crystal Effects & SNAIL.

More Pink Ribbon Thank You's!

It wasn't only the helpers that made the World Card Making Day a success, it was also mainly due to the participants who attended as well. Their laughter, talents and support really made the day very special and rewarding for us. For those that placed orders through myself on the day, I made a little thank you treat for each of them as it also enabled us to donate more money to the National Breast Cancer Foundation (Charmaine, Samantha and myself all donated 100% of our commissions from orders on the day to the cause). 

The idea for the treat holder came from a handbag designed by Angie Kennedy, but was modified to suit my purpose!

Of course it was the perfect size to pop in a Freddo Frog chocolate treat! I think these would be easily modified for other events e.g. birthday parties, Advent Calendar, place settings or similar - what would you use them for?

Stamps: Ribbon of Hope & Tiny Tags

Ink: Regal Rose

Card stock: Pretty in Pink

Accessories, Window Word punch, Stampin' Sponges, 1 3/4" circle punch, Dimensionals, SNAIL, basic rhinestones.

Non SU: Velcro

Thanks A Million

Well there are an awful lot of people that help behind the scenes and up front at an event like our World Card Making Day last month and without them not a lot would have happened! So for those special people who so generously gave their time and talents to help us we gave them a little token thank you gift and also a card.

How gorgeous is the new Word Play stamp set - so much fun! I also have a confession to make about this card, it did use retired Regal Rose double stitched ribbon and the watermark ribbon image in the background is contraband - i.e. it is not available (yet) in Australia, but an extremely generous friend in America brought it with her when she had an unexpected return trip here (thanks Kate!) Here's a close up of it - doesn't the rhinestone in the 'o' really set it off a treat!

Stamps: Word Play & Ribbon of Hope

Card stock: Regal Rose, Whisper White & Chocolate Chip

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Basic rhinestones, Regal Rose double stitched grosgrain ribbon (retired), Polka dot embossing folder, SNAIL, Dimensionals

Christmas Scrapbook Card

This scrapbook card was another project made at our World Card Making Event by Charmaine which was a gorgeous CASE from Convention this year and features one of my favourite Christmas stamp sets - Contempo Christmas (page 23 of our current catalogue & for $26.95 wood mount or $21.95 clear mount it's a terrific bargain to boot!). It is a 6" wide finished card size and holds two photographs - perfect to send to relatives at Christmas time!

The front featured the new satin ribbon, rhinestones and dazzling diamonds glitter to make everything shine as well as some sponging, dimensionals and watermark background effect.

Inside fits two photographs and space for a little journaling or in this case a very nice Christmas tree from the set coloured with markers and topped with another sparkly rhinestone! The writing on the top right hand page is not a stamp - it is some super lovely calligraphy done by the multi talented Charmaine! The model is in fact our son when he was 6 months old - his first Christmas and as you can see, he was pretty pleased with the red car his Uncle & Aunt bought him!

Stamps: Contempo Christmas

Ink: Old Olive, Real Red, Daffodil Delight

Card stock: Whisper White, Real Red, Old Olive & Daffodil Delight

Accessories: Scallop border punch, basic Rhinestones, Timeless Type Junior Alphabet die, Dimensionals, Wide Oval punch, Old Olive satin ribbon, Stampin' sponges, SNAIL & paper snips.

Owl Treat Bag

Here is another of the projects that everyone had fun making at the World Card Making Day event - it had no stamping on it whatsoever!!! It features the exclusive to Stampin' Up! Big Shot Top Note die and the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder plus it also uses the gorgeous little owl punch which is SO cute! He's got sleepy eyelids here, but you can make him up in so many different ways - too much fun.

There is a little gold paper gift bag inside that you can put some goodies in for someone special. 

Ink: Daffodil Delight & Soft Suede

Card stock: Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Soft Suede & Old Olive

Accessories: Daffodil Delight Striped grosgrain ribbon, Owl punch, Bird Punch, Top Note die, Perfect Polka Dot embossing folder, Large oval punch, Tombow glue, Stampin' sponges, SNAIL

Non SU: gold gift bag

Christmas Classics Trio

I thought it was time to post some more Christmas cards for you to have a look at - only 4 weeks to go now - these were all made using the same stamp set, some of the super yummy FREE ribbons (still available until the 30th of November - see here for details). It was a class I ran last week with a great group of ladies - lots of fun and lots of sparkle - if you are interested in attending any classes check out my website to see the schedule or subscribe to my monthly newsletter which will also have all the upcoming class details - don't forget if the times/dates/location doesn't suit we can always make a different time just email or phone me!

The first card used the gorgeous bauble from the set and I stamped it onto Old Olive and cut it out for the centre one and popped it up on a Dimensional. The other baubles were stamped directly onto the card stock and coloured with the red marker. The texture at the bottom was done using the crimper and the bauble strings were done using a ruler and black Stampin' Write marker, then the tops hidden by the ribbon which I just tied a knot in for decoration.

Stamps: Christmas Classics

Ink: Old Olive, Real Red & Basic Black

Card Stock: Old Olive, Real Red & Whisper White

Accessories: Real Red Polka Dot grosgrain ribbon, Crimper, Dimensionals, ruler, SNAIL

The second card I used the marker pens direct to rubber to get the multi-coloured greeting and holly leaves. The bell I stamped separately onto scrap white card stock and punched out and popped onto a Dimensional, the same with the tree and holly circle. The tree was also sparkly with glitter, but it doesn't show up in the photograph.

Stamps: Christmas Classics

Ink: Old Olive, Real Red & Basic Black

Card Stock: Old Olive, Real Red & Whisper White

Accessories: Real Red Polka Dot grosgrain ribbon, Petals a Plenty Embossing Folder, Dimensionals,  SNAIL, 1/2" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, paper snips, dazzling diamonds, 2-way glue pen.

The final card in this set was made using the Jolly Holly DSP - great paper and it has the lovely traditional Christmas Colours, but the patterns would be suitable all year around! The greeting was done using the markers direct to rubber again and adhered to the card with Domensionals, the lovely wide striped ribbon is another in the FREE selection offer this month! The squares of DSP were punched out using the 1 1/4 square punch and then stuck down onto vanilla card stock before being put through the Big Shot with the Top Note die. I cut the perforated boarder off the DSP patchwork to show a thin boarder of cherry cobbler underneath.

Stamps: Christmas Classics

Ink: Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler & Chocolate Chip (all markers) 

Card Stock: Old Olive, Real Red, Very Vanilla & Jolly Holly DSP

Accessories: Riding Hood Red Striped grosgrain ribbon, Top Note die, Dimensionals,  SNAIL, 1 1/4" square punch, paper snips.

Thanks for getting to the end of such a long post - hope that your Christmas cards are going well.

Just Believe

This card was another project made at our World Card Making Event by Samantha which was a gorgeous CASE from Tenealle Williams using the new Just Believe Stamp set. One terrific thing about having our event in October was that we could us all new papers, stamp sets, ink colours, ribbons etc from the new Ideas Book & Catalogue = YAY! This card focused on the technique of using stampin' write markers to colour direct to the rubber, a simple yet effective technique. The greeting is also raised up with Dimensionals to give it well - more dimension!

Stamp Set: Just Believe
Ink: Marina Mist & Soft Suede
Card Stock: Marina Mist, Soft Suede and Very Vanilla
Accessories: Very Vanilla satin ribbon, Polka Dot textured embossing folder, Top Note die, Scallop Trim border punch, SNAIL, basic pearls, Dimensionals, Modern label punch.

Party This Way!

Well one of the cards that the ladies made at our World Card Making Day was this one featuring the new stamp set Party This Way, designed by me (sorry for all the cutting out with the pennants, but SU! hasn't made a punch for that item yet! I wanted a bright fun card that could be used for children or teenagers, but it would also suit adults - so a general all rounder type of card really. This stamp set really lends itself to any celebration occasion (although it does well as a hat for punch art too!) and at $26.95 for wood mount ($21.95 clear mount) it's a bargain!

What you can't see form the photo is that the pennants, arrow, sentiment and balloon are all popped up on dimensionals to give the card more character.

Stamps: Party This Way
Ink: Pacific Point, Real Red & Basic Black
Card Stock: Pacific Point, Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White & Celebrations DSP
Accessories: Paper snips, Hemp twine, 1/16" handheld punch, dimensionals, Modern Label punch, Word Window punch, Black Stampin' Write marker pen, 1 3/4" circle punch, SNAIL

Check back later in the week as I'll be posting the other 5 projects that we made at the World Card Making Event - missed out on the fun, subscribe to my newsletter for information and dates on upcoming classes and events like this one, either email me or subscribe via my website.

World Card Making Day Event

Well I'm running a few weeks (months) behind in my blog posts, but I am slowly catching up! On Saturday the 23rd of October Charmaine, Samantha and myself decided to run an event for World Card Making Day, with the money raised going to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  Ironically none of the three of us actually are particularly fond of pink, but we pulled out all the stops and decorated the venue and ourselves in the colour to help raise awareness and funds! (If you are ever looking for NBCF pink things try here). So there were balloons, streamers, name badges, t-shirts, bags and even cupcakes all in pink along with a group of lovely ladies and Charmaine's ever wonderfully supportive husband to have a fun day of papercrafting and fundraising! I also have to thank Elysia (Charmaine's daughter) and Diana (my Mum) for helping out in the kitchen all day keeping us supplied with food & helping with all the cleaning up.

These are the bags which contained the project materials for 6 items on the day - I'll post photographs of each of the projects soon!

Here are some of the ladies hard at work creating (above) and admiring some of the display boards that we put together (below).

It was wonderful how many people volunteered their time and skills to help us on the day. The cupcakes below were made by Cassie, and her lovely dad Fred made some awesome curry puffs for the day as well.

We had some amazing prizes donated for the raffle, games, silent auction, written auction & door prizes donated from  Stampin'Up!, Catherine Baudains, The National Breast Cancer Foundation, Vivi of Buds of May and Charmaine. Of course a special thank you also goes to the wonderful Kelmscott tennis club who donated the use of their venue free of charge for the event - thanks so much everyone, without your support & generosity we would never have been able to do an event like this!

Overall we were able to donate a grand total of $1,900.94 which was a pretty good first effort for us and were were very pleased and grateful to everyone who helped out on the day. I know this amount is very small compared to what is needed to continue the much needed research & education that will help fight this awful disease for our future generations, but every little helps. 

I'll post photographs of the 6 projects the ladies made on the day soon. Our insanity continues though as the feedback was very positive for the day and so consequently we'll be back bigger and better than ever in May next year!

Look Who's Turning!

We made some fun and quick cards for children at a recent class and two of them we made using the new Look Who's Turning stamp set, it's so cute! I teamed it up with the new Celebrations designer paper and used inks and card stock to match the designer paper - don't you just love that about Stampin' Up! stuff - it all matches! Of you want to come along to any of my classes please contact me or sign up to my monthly newsletter which has all the classes I am running listed for the next two months.

The two cards are basically an identical layout, we just changed the orientation of the card. During the class we were trying to figure out if we could get away with calling the bird an Emu rather than an Ostrich - what do you think? He looks pretty cute stamped in Chocolate Chip!

Stamps: Looks Who's Turning
Ink: Real Red, Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip & Old Olive
Card stock: Celebrations DSP, Whisper White, Real Red & Old Olive
Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Stamping sponges, SNAIL,

Pink Stamp-a-thon

In September I helped two friends (Louise & Charmaine) out with their Breast Cancer Fundraising event called Stamp-a-thon. a full day of fun and paper crafting for almost 100 people. It was pretty full on, but a lot of fun and lots of money was raised to go to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for education and research projects. I was happy to help out on the day with whatever needed to be done at the time, but I also made some little thank you cards and matching soaps which were included in each raffle/door/auction prize on the day. 

The little thank you cards were simple and cute, but effective as we were all sincerely very grateful to everyone who helped by participating, buying raffle tickets, bidding on auctions, helping out decorating the venue or in the kitchen and of course cleaning up at the end! The soaps were made with Rhubarb al Fresco fragrance & smelt so yummy - I sell them on my Made It store (this Australian version of Etsy) and donate all the proceeds to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Stamps: Trendy Trees (sentiment)

Ink: Pretty in Pink

Card stock: Very Vanilla. Regal Rose

Accessories: Polka Dot Texture plate, Clear Rhinestone brads, 1/16" handheld punch, Pretty in Pink 1/4" grosgrain ribbon

Dog Scrapbook Page

Two scrapbook pages in two days - what's going on! This page was done for a class that will be taught next week (so if you are interested in attending the class - you can see my website for details or email me). Anyway back to my page - it was done using the lovely D is for Dog stamp set and I decided to use photographs from our lovely farm dog Dinny, who sadly after +14 years of being a cattle dog died in July this year. These photographs were taken in January 2010 when we visited the farm, our son loved sitting on the dog bed patting and chatting to him, not realising that Dinny was completely deaf!

I wanted to give the effect of having a dog collar on the page, so used the circle scissors plus to cut a 5" circle an then used a sponge to age it and a chocolate chip marker to draw on faux stitching. The dog tag was made using the stamps from the set and held on using a loop of card stock and hemp twine.

There is journaling room on a pull out sheet behind the main photograph - I used the same dog stamp image on the journaling area as in the centre of the dog collar. I also thought of adding a few bone stamps on the page, but as Dinny has an "i" in it - I used it on the title instead along with letters cut from the Junior Timeless Type alphabet.

I sponged all of the edges of the 12"x12" page with chocolate chip ink as well. The random paw prints going across the page were originally just going to be a tidy border, but as Dinny had a mind and personality all of his own, I figured he wouldn't have just staying walking in one straight line! The punch art puppy dog is not my design, it is from Valita's blog, isn't he cute?

Stamps: D is for Dog, Just Believe

Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Basic Black

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Scallop square punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, 3/4" circle punch, small oval punch, large oval punch, 1/16" handheld punch, hemp twine, Dimensionals, SNAIL, Chocolate Chip marker pen, white gel pen, stamping sponge, paper snips, round tab punch, Junior Timeless Type Alphabet, circle scissors plus

Non SU: single hole punch

Spring Scrapbook Page

Well spring has sprung with a vengence - to be honest it felt like we had skipped spring and gone straight to summer this week with a 37'C day - thank goodness for airconditioning & photo voltaic panels is all I can say! However I digress, I made a scrapbook page (I know so unlike me), actually I was asked to do a "yellow" page for a class and found it a bit challenging so it metamorphasised into a "spring" page with yellow daffodils! What do you think?

 The orange photo matt area opens out to reveal another area for journalling and a second 6"x4" photograph.

The daffodils are very simple punch art using the five petal flower punch and one of the flowers in boho blossoms, the stems and leaves are just hand cut and the dots drawn on in white gel pen. The small daffodils on the foled out page for journalling were made using one of the boho blossom flowers and the centre was a single hole punch circle.

I LOVE the embosslits buttefly die so they get included on lots of my items now, as are the basic pearls! The sun was cut with the circle scissors and sponged with ink.

Stamps: Cute as a Bug

Ink: Pumpkin Pie & Basic Black

Card stock: Daffodil yellow, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Certainly Celery & Bashful Blue

Accessories: Embosslits Beautiful Butterfly, Circle Scissors plus, basic pearls, white gel pen, SNAIL, boho blossoms punch, round tab punch,  Timeless Type Junior Alphabet, 2 way glue pen, stampin sponges, bone folder, mat pack.

Non SU: single hole punch

Overall I liked the finished page and think I might make a matching one for a 2 page layout (I'm not a fan of single pages). I'm thinking of making the Jonquil daffodils on the second page, similar to those on the fold out journalling page - what do you think? Now I just have to sort out some photos to suit the layout theme. If you would like to do this as a class for a double layout let me know - if you want to do it as a single page then you can join us on Friday next week as I am teaching it then!