Shelli's Card

Shelli Gardner showed us a card similar to this at the Stampin' Up! Convention. Hers was in different colours - Old Olive and Groovy Guava (which looked divine by the way), but I wanted to change the colours and make it my own. I've used Soft Sky, River Rock, Blue Bayou and Naturals Ivory. This card is great because it looks more complicated than it actually is (gotta love that!)
The stamp set is Brocade Basics, and it has that gorgeous big swirly stem and leaf that takes up almost the whole card-front, leaving you with very little work to do! It has 2 places on the stem perfect for adding one of the floral elements that come in the set.
Shelli showed us how to lightly spritz the paper with water before you stamp, giving it a soft, watercolour look. I stamped my flowers again on top after it had dried, to add some depth.
The top corner has been torn, and a piece of the gorgeous Brocade Background paper slipped in behind. There's another strip of the same paper at the bottom of the card. The cute little {thankyou} is from Occasional Greetings, and has been punched out with the small and large Oval Punches. I sponged the edges with a dauber to soften them. To finish it off, some more swirls from the same set in Versamark down the side, a strip of Soft Sky Double-Stitched ribbon, and some half-pearls from the Pretties Kit.

Pretties!

I'm loving all the girly, swirly stuff in the new Catalogue! This card took shape from the flower outwards. I started off by dyeing one of the largest flowers in the Pretties kit. I think it's so great that these come plain and you can dye them to match whatever project you are working on...it sure saves having to buy flowers in a million different colours, but still never having the right shade!
I dyed mine with a sponge dauber and a Purely Pomegranate re-inker, but you can also colour them with crayons, pastels, or any colouring medium at all really. And here's a tip that I bet you never thought of...wait for it to dry before trying to attach it to your card (patience is not one of my strong points LOL). Those ink specks around the flower are meant to be there, OK?!
After my flower was coloured and set aside to dry, I stamped the swirls from 'Priceless' in Old Olive ink, and stamped the teeny flower from 'Priceless' in Pale Plum. "So Kind" is also from 'Priceless' , which I inked in Pale Plum, and then carefully inked the row of dots in Purely Pomegranate. There's no marker, so I used my ink pad. I was almost careful enough, and only slipped a little bit on the "o" (I won't try and convince you that it was meant to be there, but I was too lazy to re-do it)
I stamped and cut out 2 more flowers from "Priceless' for the centre, and adhered them with a gorgeous Olive Rhinestone.
I love, love, love the Wide Olive Grosgrain ribbon, and it was just what this card needed at the bottom. I cut a small slit in the spine of the card with my horizontal slot punch and fed the ribbon through the card and tied it in a knot.

A New Look!

Yes, you have come to the right place. I just decided it was time to make a few changes. I'm still fiddling around and fine-tuning a bit. I'll be back later to show you a card, but in the meantime, tell me what you think! :o)

Baroque Anniversary

I made this card to celebrate our 12th Wedding Anniversary. We don't really do Anniversary presents, but we do make a special effort to write some nice words to each other in a card and spend some "just us" time. It was an extra special effort this year, since our anniversary was smack-bang in the middle of a very busy school holidays!
We went to a lovely Vietnamese restaurant...it even felt like a real date, because we've hardly seen each other or even been in the same state for the past month, so there was lots to catch up on!
I stuck with a monochromatic theme for this card. Soft Sky is such a pretty colour, that it really needs no accompaniment. The background stamping is the gorgeous Baroque Motifs swirl stamped in Soft Sky. The main floral motif is from the same set, as is the word 'cherish'. I used the Spring Silhouettes DS paper for the patterned panel, and added a few special details...it's all about the details when your card is otherwise quite plain.

Here's what I did to give this card lots of added texture and interest:

• I've added a strip of the lovely vanilla taffeta ribbon
• There's a row of dry-embossed dots (done using the Crop-o-dile)
• I've stamped the Floral motif 3 times, and layered it with Dimensionals
• I added a half-pearl from the Pretties Kit to the centre
• Above the patterned paper panel, there's an extra layer of Soft Sky, and I've stamped a row of the smallest Baroque Motif flower so that just half a flower shows along the top
• Finally I've highlighted the word 'cherish' with my white gel pen so it stands out a little more.
  

My hubby has been the biggest support to me. He regularly makes tea and coffee for the ladies at my classes, he served nibblies at my Launch Party (and even took an order or two!), and he often delivers orders for me. Not to mention the wonderful father and husband he is in so many ways...I don't often get soppy on here, but Dave, I'd be lost without you!

Second Make-and-Take

This was the second make-and-take for my Launch party, using the lovely "Garden Whimsy" set, and 3 brand-new In Colours. I love how well the new colours work with eachother! And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new In Colour Double-Stitched ribbon! The colours I've used here are Soft Sky, Blue Bayou and Wild Wasabi.
Here are the instructions I had out on the night:

1. Fold and Score Soft Sky card
2. Stamp large butterfly in Soft Sky ink on Whisper White cardstock.
3. Stamp small butterfly in Blue Bayou ink, then Wild Wasabi ink on Whisper White cardstock (clean stamp before changing colours!)
4. Attach to Wild Wasabi cardstock with SNAIL adhesive
5. Tie Blue Bayou stitched ribbon in a knot around Wild Wasabi piece.
6. Attach to base card using SNAIL adhesive
7. Punch a Scalloped Circle from Blue Bayou cardstock
8. Punch a 1 3/8” circle from Wild Wasabi cardstock
9. Stamp a circle sentiment (from "Think Happy thoughts") in Blue Bayou ink on a scrap of Whisper White cardstock. Stamp ladybird in the centre in Soft Sky ink. Punch out using 1 ¼” Circle Punch. Attach all circles to eachother using SNAIL adhesive, and attach to card using Dimensionals.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Baroque Motifs

When our new catalogues arrived, this set went straight to the top of my 'must-have' list: "Baroque Motifs". I'd admired it from afar for so long, and now we have it! YAY! I'm such a sucker for swirls and flourishes, so you'll be seeing lots more swirly stuff coming up!

This was the make-and-take for my New Catalogue Launch Party last Wednesday night. I had nearly 60 people come along, so it had to be simple! I think I saw the original design on a US blog a long time ago, but I can't find it now for the life of me. Let me know if it was you!!

These are the instructions I printed out for everyone to follow on the night, and they all managed beautifully (even if I did make them do some cutting out!)

1. Fold and Score Whisper White card
2. Stamp Baroque Motif flourish in River Rock ink twice
3. Stamp small Floral Motif in Blush Blossom ink randomly over flourish. Use a Blender Pen to dot the centres in Groovy Guava ink.
4. Stamp Floral Motif in Groovy Guava ink on a scrap of Whisper White. Cut out.
5. Stamp small Floral Motif in Blush Blossom ink on scrap Whisper White. Punch out using ¾” Circle Punch
6. Apply a Mini Glue Dot to the end of a silver brad and dip in glitter
7. Punch a hole in the centre of both floral motifs with the Paper Piercer. Push brad through the 2 layers. Adhere to card using Dimensionals.
8. Stamp “Warm Wishes” (from 'Cheer &Wishes') in Groovy Guava ink.

I'm loving Groovy Guava, and I was a bit unsure about it when I first saw it.

Edited to add: Thanks Michele for jogging my memory! I CASEd this card from Debbie Olson. You can see her gorgeous original here

Convention Swap

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments to my last post! I've had a really busy day madly preparing for my New Catalogue Launch party tomorrow night, and it made my day to come and read all of your kind words!

As promised, I'm back to show you the swap card I made for Convention. I made 100 of these, and got 100 inspiring cards back!

To make this card, first I stamped the Paisley background in Versamark ink on Lovely Lilac cardstock. I find Versamark works best when using bold background stamps on coloured cardstock...it gives the most even image. My wrists started to hurt stamping such a large stamp 100 times, so by the end I was sitting on them instead! It worked a treat!!

The focal image has been stamped on Glossy cardstock. The stamps are from one of my all-time favourite sets, Bodacious Bouquet. I inked up the flower in Almost Amethyst ink, and then inked a sponge dauber in Lovely lilac ink, and sponged straight onto the stamp, before stamping it on the Glossy cardstock. This technique can also be done on Whisper white cardstock, but I really like how vibrant the colours look on the gloss. Next I stamped the leaves and stem in Certainly Celery ink. I made the centre of the flower by stamping the flower again in Elegant eggplant ink onto Glossy cardstock, and then punching out the centre with a 1/4" circle punch, and adhering with a mini glue dot. The whole Flower panel has been popped up on Dimensionals.

The "friendship" panel has been made by stamping linen background in Almost Amethyst ink on Almost Amethyst cardstock. I then stamped "friendship" from 'Wonderful Words' in Versamark ink, and heat embossed with White powder. It gives it a nice raised glossy finish, which complements the gloss cardstock well.

I attached the Celery ribbon by adhering a strip to the back of the Eggplant panel, and then tying the knot separately on top. This gives the flexibility to move the knot along the strip of ribbon, to sit where you would like it. To finish it off, I did some faux stitching with my white gel pen and Paper piercing mat pack.

I hope all my swap-ees liked it!

My New Favourite Number!

14

I was very excited to find a "Demonstrator of the Year" pin in my Convention bag, which meant that I was one of the top 25 Demonstrators in Australia. At the Awards Dinner on Saturday night, I found out I was ranked at number 14, which I was absolutely thrilled with! I also received a pin for Level 2 Recruiting (10-14 Recruits in the last year) another one for the 50K Sales Award and also for earning the Incentive Trip (an all-expenses paid holiday for 2 to Palm Cove). I also came home with 8 free stamp sets for my efforts!
It was such an awesome weekend. I met and re-met so many lovely Demonstrators (a special Hi to my Pin Twin Sarah!), received lots of amazing swaps, listened to some inspiring speakers and generally had an absolute ball! What could be better than spending a weekend with 300 like-minded people?? Next year's Convention is in Canberra (dates yet to be announced) and I would thoroughly recommend it!
I'll be back later with a pic of my swap!

Off to Convention!

It will be a bit quiet around here over the next few days. I'm flying up to Brisbane today for Stampin' Up!'s annual Convention.
I'm sooo excited! I can't wait to get together with old friends and new, exchange swaps, and totally immerse myself in all things stamping for a few days.
I'll be back on Sunday, with my batteries re-charged and full of inspiration!

Stamp Sets for Sale!

I sold LOTS of my stamp sets at my Retirement Party at ridiculous bargain-basement prices.
I do have 3 sets left (all are used and mounted):
All in a Row set of 4 (no ink staining) $20
Classic Alphabet set of 56 (very slight ink staining) $39
Paint prints (Level 2 Hostess 06) set of 6 (slight ink staining) $20
Email me if you are interested in any of these!

One of my lovely downlines, Kirrily is having a major clear-out of some stamp sets. I know she's sad about parting with some of them, so I want them to sell before she changes her mind ;o)
You can see them here, and there are some real bargains!

Oh Dear

I really shouldn't make promises that I can't keep. Life has been busy and it's taken me days to get back here...sorry! Even having an extra hour in my day today, thanks to the end of Daylight Savings, didn't help me get through all of my to-do list!!
This is the other card for this month's Stamp-a-Stack:

I've used All in the Family, Big and Little Pieces, and Cheery Chat.... Very quick and easy to whip up a batch of!
I have a few vacancies left for Stamp-a-Stack on the 15th and the 29th April at 7pm. If you'd like to come along and make these cards, and the ones in THIS post (I've edited the post to add instructions) just email me!

It's Here!

And it has been for 2 days now, but I'm just swamped at the moment, so hopefully you've managed to find it on your own....
What am I talking about??? THIS gorgeous book, of course!
And I have plenty here. You can pick one up for $10 (rrp $12.95) or I can mail it to you for $15. With every purchase of a new catalogue, you will get a voucher for a free inkpad with your first order over $100 (redeemable only through me!). Contact me now if you'd like one!

Now I don't have my new goodies from the catalogue yet, but here are some of this month's Stamp-a-Stack cards. We're doing emboss resist with the new Level 3 Hostess set Time Well Spent:

I don't normally do such an involved technique for Stamp-a-Stack, but I came up with a way to make it quicker. I'll be back tomorrow to tell you how, and I'll also show you the other design for this month (it's past my bedtime ;o)

Edited to Add:
To make these quicker we stamped up a gloss piece of card 10.5 x 14.8cm (that's the same size as a card-front, or 1/4 of an A4 sheet) in Versamark ink, embossed with clear powder, and then sponged inks on to the whole sheet. Then we cut the sheet into quarters, to use for all 4 cards. The background stamping on the Celery pieces has been done in Versamark ink, and areas highlighted with the white gel pen.
Colours: Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac, Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise