I know this is coming a little late but I’m sure its still Saturday somewhere in USA … well maybe just

This past couple of weeks have been crazy with school holidays, rearranging my craft area and suffering sinus infections and a very unsettled stomach – felt like Yasi has made its way inside my tummy yesterday …. so not good!

Here is this week’s sketch …

Yup … circles again!! I’m sure Carol laughs at me everytime she draws a sketch that has circles in it!  Well thats ok cos I’ll just change and flip it to suite me

Here is my card for this sketch ….

I had a customer who wanted to make an Easter card so when I saw this sketch a couple of ideas popped into my head – scary I know!

I’ve used the new build a cupcake punch but would like to let you know these are chocolates/truffles on the card and not cupcakes as my teen daughter will tell you.  Its her birthday on wednesday so maybe I should buy her some chocolates that come in the little paper cases.

This card was so easy to do using the cupcake punch, circle punch and the new decorative label punch for the greeting.

I hope you like this card as much I did making it – its such a fun card

Now its time to hop along to the next designing diva being the lovely Ruthie Burkey and dont forget you can find the others plus many more challenges at the Utah Divas Blog.

With the new year (yeah I know we are now in March) I have decided to run more classes from my home – you can find all my upcoming events by clicking on my Demonstrator Website picture over on the right or by clicking on “Events” in the menu above.

Each month I’ll be holding two ‘gift’ classes – one will be themed (this month its Easter) and the other will be just a general Gift class where you will make a gift item.

The idea of these classes is that you will have a themed gift for a special day or holiday and the general gift class is so that by the time Christmas comes around you should have 9 or 10 gifts ready to go and therefore saving you a little stress at the peak of the ‘silly season’ or you can choose to use it for someone’s birthday or a ‘just because’ gift.

Should you not be able to attend  I will make available the instructions and kits for you to purchase.  However if you are local and just cant make it on the day let me know and I’ll schedule a 2nd class if I get the numbers.

Easter Gift Class

This class will be held at my house on 25th March at 10.30am and here is what we’ll be making ….

How cool would it be to not have to go and buy all those little gift bags and such that add so much money to what we spend at Easter.

In this class you’ll make

• Treat Basket (two are shown here in the picture one using Sweet and Sour Specialty DSP and the other smaller one in Blueberry Crisp DSP)
• Bronwen’s gorgeous little Egg basket
• My little Lop Bunny Box

Here’s a closer view ….

These are the two Treat Baskets I’ve made – you will be making the smaller one. Looks can be decieving as they hold so many eggs!  You will get instructions for both sizes to recreate at home

This is a gorgeous little egg basket designed by my lovely friend Bronwen Cornish who so graciously shared the project with me.  Yes I’ll teach you how to make those roses – they are divine and easy to do!

Last but not least  …..

This is my little Lop Bunny Box – isnt she just cute and she’s made using our punches! I thought the Lop was a nice alternative to the regular Easter Bunnies that are made this time of year.

Class Details

Date:  25th March, 2011
Time:  10.30am
Cost:  $20 (deposit of $10 payable on booking)

Places are limited so please book your spot today so you dont miss out!

Be sure to pop back tomorrow to see this month’s ‘Gift Class’ details.

Happy Easter Saturday to you!

Its Saturday so that means another Utah Divas Sketch Challenge and boy was this weeks one a challenge!

Well the sketch in itself wasn’t hard to do but the challenge this time was to do Iris Folding. Now I love most things with paper crafting and card making but Iris Folding is not one of them – but I did persevere.

I wanted to stay with the Easter theme so thought a Iris Folded Cross would be good – well until I couldn’t find a template but the lovely Ruthie came to my rescue. I ended up drawing my own cross and used the pattern Ruthie sent me.

So here’s my card …

what do you think??

I’ve used the lovely Bella Bleu Designer Series Papers with Not Quite Navy card stock. I couldn’t help myself but use the Eyelet Border Punch as it is one of my favourites and just adds a touch of elegance.

I’ve used a build-a-brad for the centre focus on the cross and used the small flower from the Bella Blooms stamp set.

I have purposely left off a greeting. This way you could use this card as an Easter card or a Sympathy card.

I do hope you like what I have done – I suppose the Iris Folding looks OK but not sure I’d make too many using this technique.

Now its time for you to skip along to Lori’s lovely blog to see how she interpreted the sketch.

Happy Easter to you!!

Today I am sharing with you the second March card I received from my ESAD Secret Sister. Every three months on ESAD we run a Secret Stampin Sister program which you send cards and little handmade gifts to each month and then a larger gift in the last month. Its a lovely way to spoil others and you dont know who you are receiving from – only who you send to. Then there is a big reveal at the end of the three months.

How nice is this card??

I love the delicacy and elegance of it!

The set used is Eastern Influences from the Idea Book & Catalogue. They have also done the ‘Faux Silk’ technique. The combination of this technique and the images and colours used makes it so feminine and elegant.

Such a pretty card and I thank my Secret Sister for this – I love love love it.

I thought I’d also take this opportunity to tell you about a new page I’ve added to my blog. If you look at the page menu across the bottom of my banner you will see a new tab – “Kits for Sale“.  This is where I will list any kits I’ve made up and havent used so this gives you the opportunity to get one or two of my kits if you arent local to me to attend my classes.

The kits will come with all the cardstock, papers, ribbons and embellishments you will need to complete the project – you will also receive my instruction sheet. So make sure you check there from time to time to make sure you dont miss out on anything!

I do hope you have a Happy and Safe Easter Holiday and manage to take some quiet time where you can remember and be thankful for the sacrifice Jesus made for us by dying on the cross. Sometimes we get so caught up in the commercialisation of our celebrations we forget what we are really celebrating.

God Bless you this Easter and always!

Today’s share is the last from Monday’s Stamp A Stack in which I was asked for ‘Easter cards for kids’.

This is a very easy and simple card and one that you can give to anyone just by changing the colours and designer series papers.

Recipe:
Stamps: Greetings Eight, Occasional Greetings.
Paper: Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Whisper White, Regal Rose, Brocade Blue, Morning Sun, Tea Party DSP, Washington Apple DSP
Inks: Jet Black Stazon, Brocade Blue, Regal Rose, Morning Sun
Accessories: Circle Scissor Plus, Ribbons, Stampin Dimensionals, Watercolour Crayons, Aqua Painter, Scallop Circle Punch.

I also showed my ladies how to use your Scalloped Circle punch to create scallops on larger circles. This way you only need the one punch and the ‘know-how’ to use it for larger circles.

I got this idea from the lovely Marelle Taylor and this is how you do it ….

I have punched a 1 3/4″ circle and I want to put a scalloped edge around it and as you can see from this picture that our scalloped circle punch isn’t big enough to do so.

So what we need to do is to punch two Scalloped Circles and punch another circle in the centre – I’ve used the 3/4″ punch here

using your Paper Snips cut right through between a scallop and then from the centre and on every second scallop snip to within a couple of millimetres of the scallop and do this all the way around your scalloped circle. I am hoping you can see the pictures OK to see what I’m talking about! Then on the second scalloped circle cut to how many you need to fill up the scallops.

Using your fingers spread the sections out being careful not to spread too much as they can brake off.

Then take the circle you want to scallop behind and place small sections of Snail Adhesive behind and then spread your scallops around ensuring they are even and have the same amount showing on each one. Once your finished you can then attach to your project or to ensure the scallops dont fall off punch out another 1 3/4″ circle to attach behind to keep it all secure.

So how easy is that??

Now you dont need to buy umpteen scalloped circle punches for each size circle you want to scallop – you just need the one!

As a special bonus from me to you I am offering a bonus just for my customers …. when you spend $60 with me from now until end of March I will give you a free Sale A Bration stamp set.   I have a few spares here so happy to reward my customers in little ways like this so email or ring me today with your order and payment details.

Thanks for stoppin by

If your house is anything like mine then it tends to look like a Cadbury shop at Easter time!! We always say we buy too much and we wont buy so much next Easter but we always do!

I am going to try and buy just a couple of eggs and maybe throw in an iTunes or giftcard from Target or Big W or similar. So I might still ‘spend’ the same amount but make the gift a little more useful.  All I have to do is think chocolate and I put on a kilo! so doing the giftcards will be much better for everyone involved! Or maybe I’ll buy everyone a Gloria Jean’s giftcard and they can take me out for coffee!

Anyway … onto the card ….

I have borrowed this set from my lovely downline Jossleen for today’s Stamp A Stack. You’ll probably notice that the colours in this card are not one’s I’d normally choose but wanted to make a ‘boy’ Easter card for today’s Stamp A Stack and think its turned out quite well.

Recipe

Stamps: Loads of Love, Loads of Love Accessories
Papers: Pacific Point, Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss, Good Morning Sunshine DSP
Inks: Jet Black Stazon, Pacific Point, Basic Gray, Going Gray
Accessories: Stampin Write Markers (to colour eggs & sentiment), stapler, staples, Bashful Blue Grosgrain, Stampin Dimensionals, Small Tag Punch, Tag Punch

Hope the ladies like this one today!

OOOO did you know that Easter is just 3 weeks away?? yup so you better get your lists to the Easter Bunny so he (or she) can spoil you this Easter. Actually thinking about it the Easter Bunny must be a ‘she’ cos could a he really be organised so well and get so many eggs to so many people at the same time? no I dont think so either!!

Firstly let me thank everyone for their messages and prayers for my husbands cataract surgery last week. He’s had some discomfort yet is amazed at how he can now see many things he just couldn’t see before. He still has to be careful with his eye and there is still lots of healing to be done. So please keep those prayers going.

Its Saturday again so that means another Sketch Challenge from the Utah Divas International group.

This one has many possibilities however as I have a Stamp A Stack on Monday and they’ve asked for ‘kids’ Easter cards I figured I may as well use the sketch for one of the cards.

I have also used my punches to create the ‘bunny’ and I followed the instructions by Amy Celona which you can find here.

As you can see there is minimal stamping on the card – just using the Egg Hunt Stampin’ Round and a Teeny Tiny Sentiment from one of the upcoming stamp sets in the Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue which starts 1st April.

I do hope you like this card and I encourage you to ‘hop‘ onto the next Diva with her creation for this sketch which is Lori

Now dont forget to hop around all the blogs for the Utah Divas International Sketch Challenge Team.  You will find links to the next blog at the end of each post like I’ve done here.

With Easter in early April I was asked by one of my Stamp A Stack groups to make an Easter card. I dont have ‘Easter’ sets as such so started looking through my Stamps for a set to use.

Here is my Easter card which I’ve used the Wagon Full of Fun stamp set  from the Summer Mini Catalogue.

It is a great set for a few different occasions and its a great one for water colouring or colouring in.

The eggs I’ve stamped straight onto Designer Series Papers then just coloured the patterned part of the eggs with my Stampin’ Write Markers.

Can you see the clouds in the sky??

I followed the tutorial from my good friend Gretchen Baron’s sponged clouds tutorial on her blog and if you’d like to know how to do the sky then I’m more than happy to come and do a demonstration to show you and your friends just how easy it is! 

I am starting Technique Classes in March with the first one being on 10th March. Places are limited so please make sure you book in early.

The wagon, eggs and duck are all cut out and mounted onto the grass/sky layer. Oh and a trick to cut out the wheels was to use my handy dandy 1/4” circle punch – they fit perfectly!

I do hope the ladies enjoy making this card today!

Thanks for stoppin by

Happy Easter Sunday to you!

I do hope youre having a relaxing Easter Sunday and not gobbling all your chocolate eggs down too quickly like my youngest did – she is a little over the chocolate right now! I’ve only had one piece and already my head is starting to hurt!

I have seen so many gorgeous cards made with Pocket Silhouettes so when I saw it was in our new Idea Book & Catalogue I just had to have it – and its a bargain at just $33.95 for 6 stamps!

Here is a card that I’ve had on my desk in various stages over the past week.

I dont normally do Emboss Resist and I’ve seen a few doing this technique lately so thought I’d have a go too!

I’ve sponged the background in Kiwi Kiss and Baja Breeze after stamping and embossing the silhouettes. The Background on the Pacific Point card is the Friendly Words jumbo wheel which makes an awesome background. The sentiment is from the Level 1 Hostess set Best Yet which is reason enough to hold a demonstration! It has six great sayings in it which I’m sure you will see here throughout the next 12 months!

When I had finished the card it looked a bit bare in the top left corner so I went looking for a butterfly to use and can you believe I dont have one set with a nice little butterfly in it so I’m just going to have to remedy that!

I have Priceless which has a whimsical larger butterfly but that wouldnt have suited this card so I grabbed my retired Live your Dream set and just used that butterfly until I work out which set with a little butterfly I should get!

I stamped the butterfly once on Pink Pirouette and once on Baja Breeze cut them out with my awesome paper snips and mounted them on with the thin edging from the wonderful Stampin Dimensionals so it gives the impression they are in flight.

Here’s a close up of the butterflies so you can see what I mean.

Hope you do have a lovely (and safe) Easter weekend and make some lovely memories with family and friends!

I’ve been busy taking out all my old DSP papers and putting in the new ones as well as taking out the old In Colour Cardstock and putting in the lovely new In Colours.

Now I have a mountain of retired DSP and In Colour cardstock and scraps that needs a new home so if youre after some please contact me as hubby is sick of all the boxes everywhere

I made this card the other week for the make n take at a demonstration. My hostess asked for Fresh Cuts with bling so thats what she got!!

You cant see the bling too well in the photo but the small flower from the Fresh Cuts set is stamped in Mellow Moss then covered with glue from the 2 way glue pen and dazzling diamonds sprinkled all over.

We had to wait for it to dry before we pierced a hole in the centre then put a rhinestone brad through the centre – we also put the brads backs through the white note layer to secure it firmly and as we have a Mellow Moss layer in the middle of the card you cant see the back of the brad.

Inside the card we stamped the ferny leaf stamp down the right hand side of the inside of the note as you can see here.

The mellow moss piece is stamped with the collage image and then adhered to the inside of the card as shown so you still have the right side of the note to write a message on.

The taffeta ribbon is tied around the card so it covers the start of the mellow moss piece and is knotted at the front of the card.

The sides of the mellow moss insert and front of the fresh cuts are both torn on the right hand side so when the card is closed you can see the three layers of the card.

This last picture shows the three layers and you can actually see the centre flower a bit better here.

Now I’d better get back to my sorting so I can then make some more cards and samples to share with you!

Dont forget to check out the retired stamps I have for sale on my Stamp Clearance page and remember I now have all this Designer Series Paper to clear out as well.

Have a great Easter and remember a balanced diet is one with a chocolate in each hand!!