Going, Going, Gone!

It's the very last day for Sale-a-Bration orders... You can place your order with me until 9pm tonight.And I have one very last card to show you!
Friendship Blooms was the most popular set with my customers, and with most people I think, since it went into back-order for a little while!
Here I've stamped the big flower in Chocolate Chip ink on Bordering Blue cardstock, and sponged it in Brocade Blue, and then filled in the middle of the petals with my white gel pen (I love that pen!)
I made the circle with the Round Tab punch. You punch out 2 Round tabs and join them together to form a circle. The sentiment is from Lots of Thoughts (another Sale-a-Bration set that I will miss), and I stamped it in Whisper White. To ink up just the tiny greeting, I stuck masking tape over the parts I didn't want, inked up my stamp, and then peeled off the tape.
I stamped the swirl on the top half of the card in Versamark ink, for a subtle watermark effect.
The colours I've used here are Mellow Moss, Bordering Blue, Chocolate Chip and Always Artichoke. I embellished with some Ribbon Originals and a Hodgepodge Hardware photo anchor.
Goodbye Sale-a-Bration...we'll miss you!

Happy Birthday to me!

Not telling how old I am, but it's only a medium-sized milestone birthday, not one of the big ones! I've had a lovely day with family and friends, and I even got a rubbery present :o) ...Watch this space!
A really quick and simple one for you today, since it's my birthday, and my hubby's due home from, OS any minute now...
I know, I know! I promise I really will take a break from blue and green soon!!
This is a tried-and-true layout that never fails. This Birthday Whimsy set makes really quick cards...no colouring in required! I've used the sentiment from the set, but inked up the word 'happy' first with markers and then cleaned my stamp, and then inked up 'birthday' and used the stamp-a-ma-jig to position it. Then it fits perfectly inside the small oval. The stamp-a-ma-jig really extends the versatility of your stamps!
The colours Ive used here (as if you couldn't guess) are Brocade Blue, Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery.

Only 4 days to go!

There's only 4 days of Sale-a-Bration left!
Items are flying off the Retirement List too. If there's tons of stuff on the list that you just can't live without, how about this for a great way to get it all: Place an order for $300 by the end of February, and you will get 10% off all Retiring stamp sets and Accessories (so your $300 order will cost you substantially less than $300), plus 3 Sale-a-Bration sets, plus a Level 1 Hostess Set of your choice, plus $30 in free merchandise. Now that's got to be the best way to buy your stamps! Just email me to place your order, and I can even have it shipped straight to you.
Now, I'd better show you my last few Sale-a-Bration samples, before it's all over!

How's this for a fresh and pretty colour combination: Ballet Blue, Certainly Celery and Whisper white. I've used markers to ink up the swirl, so I could do the flowers blue and the swirly bit Celery. I stamped the large flower on a metal-edged tag in Ballet Blue, and then stamped one of the smaller flowers in the set in Celery and adhered it to the centre with a silver brad. The gorgeous Wide Celery ribbon has made an appearance again, and I adhered the metal-edged tag with Dimensionals to pop it up. Easy Peasy. I love letting a pretty colour combination and finely detailed stamped images do all the hard work for me!

Faux Tearing

This is the little card I was demonstrating at the Show (yes, blues and greens again!!). I was showing a technique called Faux Tearing, and also Watercolouring with Markers.

Here's how to do it:
1. Tear a scrap of paper that is at least as long as your card. This will be your mask.
2. Lay the torn edge along your card where you would like your faux tear to be
3. Use sponge daubers and your inkpad to sponge along the torn edge
4. Move the mask up over the sponged edge a few mm and stamp or sponge the cardstock above the tear

Here I stamped with the Paisley Background above my faux tear. The colours I've used here are Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue and certainly Celery. The "Merci" Sale-a-Bration set is so lovely to watercolour!

Not much time left to Sale-a-Brate!

It's been such a fun 2 months, and I'll be so sad when it's over. Sale-a-Bration ends on the 29th February (aren't we lucky to have a Leap Year, so we can Sale-a-Brate for an extra day?!). That means there's only 10 more days to get one of the gorgeous FREE stamp sets! You can see them all here and then it's simply a matter of emailing me your $100 order from here or here, and you can choose a free set for every $100 you spend!
These sets will never be available again, so don't miss out!

This card has been made with the Birthday Whimsy Set. This set is so versatile for making cards for men, children, women, anyone!
And to make it really easy, I've put together this kit which gives you all the supplies to make this card:

SALE-A-BRATION CARD KIT
Large Oval Punch $30.95
Small Oval Punch $30.95
Wide Grosgrain Ribbon $14.95 (choice of colour)
Mixed Pack of A4 cardstock $14.50 (36 sheets, choice of colours)
1 Inkpad $9.95 (choice of colour)
Free Sale-a-Bration Set of your choice
Total including Shipping = $105

PLUS, I will give you an extra FREE inkpad ($9.95 value) or Whisper White Cardstock ($13.50 value) whichever you prefer, AND I will send you this card, with instructions and tips on how to make it.
Just email me by February 28 to take advantage of this offer!

Edited to Add: The colours I've used here are Brocade Blue, Certainly Celery and Bashful Blue

What a Show!

I've had such a fun weekend! Hello to everyone I chatted to at the show. We were so busy, and the response we had to our stand was fantastic. Our make-and-take (this card) was extremely popular, and so was the Maze Book Class, and all our demonstrations. We were demonstrating Faux Tearing, Brayering, Dazzling Diamonds, 5-in-1 template Creations, Ways to use Chipboard and Quick Scrapbooking. If you were there and would like more information on any of these, please just email me. Here's a quick card I made a couple of weeks ago with the Friendship Blooms Sale-a-Bration set. This has been the most popular Sale-a-Bration set for me. Here I've stamped the big flower in Cameo Coral, and Watercoloured using my Blender Pens and inkpad lids. I've stamped the swirl in Bashful Blue down the left hand side (I love this swirl stamp!). Then I punched out an oval , and stamped the 3 flowers peeping through from the inside of the card...when you open it up, there's a white panel with the 3 flowers down the bottom and "Your Friendship makes my heart Happy" inside. I stamped the flowers in Cameo Coral and cut out one of the centres because I felt that it needed some Cameo Coral down the bottom to balance the card. A Bashful Blue button and a teeny piece of Celery ribbon finish it off.
I'll be sending out my E-newsletter later this week, so add your email address in the box over there --------------------->
if you'd like to receive it!

Rose Merci

Thankyou for all the lovely Blog Birthday wishes! And now I know how to get you all coming out of the woodwork...Blog Candy! ;-)I never get tired of watercolouring the "Merci" set, and it looks good in so many different colour combinations. Here I've used Bashful Blue, Sage Shadow and Rose Red. I've watercoloured using my Watercolour Crayons and an Aquapianter. I 'nipped' the corners using the Slit Punch, and attached a piece of Aged Copper Hodgepodge Hardware to the corner. It's a great way to use up tiny scraps of ribbon! I stamped the 'Happy Hello' stamp from "Lots of Thoughts", plus some hearts, bees and butterflies from "Merci" on the Sage Shadow piece in Sage Shadow ink, and then highlighted some parts with my White Gel Pen. I circled "Have a Great Day" with my Basic Black Marker.

Blog Birthday!

Yesterday it was my blog's first birthday! It was only that I was looking for an old post that I ended up all the way back at the beginning. I can't believe I've only been doing this for a year... now I can't imagine life without blogging! It really is true...your friendhip does make my heart happy!

To celebrate, how about some Blog Candy?? I've never done this before, so we'll see how we go! Leave a comment on this post, and in a week (so, Sunday 10th February), I'll get one of the kids to draw a random number out of a hat. Post #1 will be 1, and so on. The winner will get a Sale-a-Bration Set (see them here ) You can choose your favourite one...hopefully you don't have them all already! Anyone in Australia can enter, but you can only enter once.... Good luck!

Sorry those outside Australia and SU! Demos are not eligible to enter...but feel free to leave a comment anyway ;-)

Oh, almost forgot...here's a quick and simple card made using the Friendship Blooms set. The stems have been made using "All in a Row". I stamped the trio of flowers in Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise and Marigold Morning, and applied Dazzling Diamonds glitter using the 2-way glue pen. The flowers have been cut out and popped up on Dimensionals.

Friendship Blooms Again!

Those of who who subscribe to my Newsletter would have seen this card already, but here it is for the rest of you! I've stamped the gorgeous swirl from "Friendship Blooms" in Basic Black ink on Cool Caribbean cardstock. The large flower has been stamped in Cool Caribbean ink and cut out. I've stamped the leaves in Certainly Celery and cut them out too. The centre of the flower is one of the flowers in the Flower trio stamped in black and cut out. If you're doing lots of cutting out, I can highly recommend the Paper Snips. Until I had these, I had no idea how much difference a good pair of scissors makes!
The bottom strip of Whisper White cardstock has been paper-pierced (using the Mat Pack) at the top, and scalloped (using the Corner Rounder - guard removed) at the bottom. The trio of flowers under the sentiment has been stamped in Cool Caribbean, stamped off once to make it lighter. And, much as I love the wide grosgrain ribbon, this time the narrow ribbon seemed to work better, in Certainly Celery of course ;-)

More Friendship Blooms

When in doubt, turn to a tried and true colour combination.
If you have a Stampin’ Up! Colour wheel, you’ll notice Pale Plum & Perfect Plum are among the Dynamic Duos listed, so these 2 colours are always going to work well together. I've added some Elegant Eggplant for a bit more depth, and some Sage Shadow as a highlight. I masked the large flowers, so that the swirls would appear to be behind them, and I've inked the small flowers with my Markers so I could stamp them individually (on the stamp they are in a row of 3).
I'm really enjoying nesting the large and small oval punch at the moment, especially because the sentiments from "Lots of thoughts" fit so well in there! I've inked the smaller words in Pale Plum and stamped them in the bottom right-hand corner. The scallops are done with the Corner rounder punch (guard removed).

Another Make-and-Take

The Computer Gods have been conspiring against me! I came away, all prepared with some updates stored on Blogger, but we've been unable to get our computer hooked up to the Internet. Apparently the laptop's modem has died. So here I am on the Resort's Reception computer! ($2.50 per 15 minutes, so I'm typing fast!!) Hopefully this will keep you going until I get back on Wednesday!

This was the second make-and-take at my Open House on the 1st January. I've used "Friendship Blooms" and "Lots of Thoughts". The colours are Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery and Ruby Red. I've stamped the flower on the top 2/3 of the card in Bashful Blue ink, and stamped the swirl on bottom 2/3 also in Bashful Blue ink. Then I've stamped a row of flowers in Certainly Celery ink on the Certainly Celery piece. I tore along the top edge of the Ruby Red cardstock, and attached it over the top of the Celery piece with SNAIL adhesive. I ran a piece of Wide Celery Grosgrain Ribbon over the top, and attached it behind with Sticky Strip. I tied a separate knot over the top. This gives you a knot that is easy to tie and can easily be positioned where you want it. It also uses less ribbon! The sentiment from “Lots of Thoughts” was inked in Bashful Blue ink, and then I inked the bottom sentiment only with my Ruby Red marker (the bashful blue is a light enough colour that you don't need to wipe any ink off). I stamped on Whisper White cardstock, and punched it out with the Tag Punch. I inked the row of 3 flowers in Celery ink, stamped off once onto scrap cardstock and then onto the tag. The tag has been attached with 2 Dimensionals.

It's Time to Sale-a-Brate!

Happy New Year everyone! I can't wait to see what 2008 has in store! I never even dreamed of half of the fantastic things that happened in 2007, and I'm sure 2008 will be even better. Stampin' Up! has brought so much joy to my life over the past year with new friendships made, and the joy of sharing a little creativity with my corner of the world. I hope your 2008 has many happy moments.
The Sale-a-Bration brochure is now online here. And if you haven't participated in a Stampin' Up! Sale-a-Bration before, you can read about how it all works here. It's THE best promotion Stampin' Up! runs all year, because you can get lots of FREE STAMPS! :-)
I'm getting the Sale-a-Bration ball rolling at my Open House this afternoon. This is one of the make-and-takes that everyone will get to make. It's the lovely 'merci' set again, and the colours are Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant and Sage Shadow. I've used the small Oval Punch to punch out the Elegant Eggplant piece, and stamped the sentiment (from 'Lots of Thoughts') in Perfect Plum ink on a scarp of Very Vanilla cardstock and stuck it behind. The flower has been stamped in Very Vanilla, and the main image stamped in Stazon and then watercoloured with Aquapainters and Watercolour Wonder Crayons. There's also a little paper piercing in 2 of the corners, and the top edge has been distressed using the Cutter Kit distressing tool.
Now, I'd better get ready for the lovely ladies coming to Sale-a-Brate this afternoon!

Merci!

Thankyou all for your lovely comments on my publishing debut. I could never give up blogging...my ego would suffer terribly! LOL
This card has been made using the "Merci" Sale-a-Bration set (I tell ya, the worst thing about this year's sets, is deciding which one to choose!) Did I say "one"?? What am I thinking?! Of course you can't choose just one! ;-)
The colours I've used are Apricot Appeal, Tempting Turquoise and Rose Red, with just a dash of Certainly Celery. It's difficult making a card these days without the wide grosgrain ribbon. I can't wait until we get it in more colours! I've stamped in Very Vanilla Craft ink on the Tempting Turquoise piece. The main image has been stamped on watercolour paper in Black Stazon. I've coloured using markers and Blender pens, and added a turquoise brad to the flower centre. I nipped the edges with my Slit punch, and then sponged with daubers in Apricot Appeal. The little sentiment is from "Lots of Thoughts" (another Sale-a-Bration set). It fits perfectly in the Word Window punch. I've stamped the little heart from "Merci" in Rose red (stamped off once, so it's not too dark), and sponged the edges too.
I'll be placing an order on the 1st January, so let me know if you'd like to order $100 of Stampin' Up! goodies and get a Sale-a-Bration set for free. I can have your order shipped anywhere in Australia, and I take credit card too!

Lots of Thoughts

I thought I'd start showing you some of the cards I've been making with the new Sale-a-Bration sets. This card is made using 'Friendship Blooms' and 'Lots of Thoughts'. It's amazing how many different looks you can create with the Friendship Blooms set (see this card here), and already I can see that 'Lots of Thoughts' is going to come in really handy. The greetings can be used complete, like I have here, and they fit perfectly in the tag punch, as well as the square and circle punches. The larger greeting can be used on its own, and it fits beautifully into the oval punch, and the small greetings can also be inked with a marker and used on their own and they fit perfectly into the Word window punch. So many options!
I've used markers to ink the stamp with 3 flowers on it from 'Friendship Blooms'. I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp a row of greetings, and then stamped one in Tempting Turquoise and punched it out with my Square punches.
This was such a quick card to make. The colours I've used are Marigold Morning, Tempting Turquoise and Rose Red.

It's Time to Sale-a-Brate!

I've been having so much fun with my new Sale-a-Bration stamp sets, and I've been itching to show you. Now that those 12 days of Christmas are over, I can!
This is my favourite set "Friendship Blooms". It's just so pretty!
The best thing about it though, is that it's FREE! All you have to do is place an order for $100 from any current catalogue, and it's yours. Sale-a-Bration starts on the 1st of January, and lasts until the 29th of February – so you don’t have much time to make the most of this great offer.
Once Sale-a-Bration is over, these stamp sets will never be available again.
During the Sale-a-Bration Promotion, you’ll earn FREE stamp sets when you purchase products, when you host a Stampin’ Up! workshop, or when you sign up to become a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator.
All the details are in the Sale-a-Bration brochure. Let me know if you don't have one yet, and I'll pop one in the mail for you. It has lots of gorgeous samples and project ideas.
And for those of you in the Sydney area...
You're Invited!
I'm having an Open House on the 1st of January from 2pm-5pm, so you can come and try the sets for yourself. There will be nibblies and champagne, a Lucky door Prize or two, and make-and-takes. Email me to book your place!
Cardstock: Whisper White, Blush Blossom, Certainly Celery
Ink: Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery