Posts Tagged ‘elegant’

Its the last day of the first week of School Holidays and we are all still alive so thats reason to celebrate is it not? I might treat them to lunch today … might … well I could use it as an incentive reward couldnt I?

How good is this month’s promotion?  A whoppin 20% OFF  selected 2 Step Stamp sets – thats the demonstrator discount so how lucky are you?

Here’s the list of Stamp Sets and the discounted price

*From 2010 Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue

**Retiring stamp sets!

I love Stampin’ Up!’s promotions and I try to show you various projects in relation to the promotion and yesterday I had a play with the Playful Petals Stamp Set.

Now this set is actually retiring at the end of August so if you want it you better get it now – especially since its over $10 off the regular price!

I love this flower stamp – actually I love all the flowers in this set!  Maybe because I get to colour them in all purty colours.

I havent actually used the Tea Party DSP (it is designed from this stamp set) but I have used the colours from that pack to colour my flowers and for the cardstock and inks I used.

I have also specifically used the colours that are staying after the Colour Renovation happens.  I’ve even reorganised my inks, markers, reinkers and cardstock to the new colour families and I must say I do like the colours that have been grouped together even if I do now have a few holes here and there!

I also wanted to show you a close up of the flower on the bottom left as its all ‘dimensionalised’.

Is that even a word? well it is now!  I’m sorry its not so ‘clear’ as my camera isnt as flash as some and close ups arent one of its strong points!  I think you can still see the dimension it has though.

Have a wonderful Friday – I’m off for a Coffee and some toast – late breakfasts here during School Holidays!

Its currently school holidays here at the moment so things are not going according to my routine as they usually do. I had a lazy day today so thought I’d give my blog a little makeover – what do you think?

You might remember in my last post the card I cased from the lovely Lynda Shrimpton – well Lynda is such a lovely friend she let me case a couple more cards – aint she sweet.  Most of my cards are my own creations and as I do many Stamp A Stacks I like to give my customers a few different choices when choosing what cards they wish to make so sometimes its nice to not have to think too hard – especially during school holidays!

Here are a couple of very easy cards using the Vintage Vogue stamp set.

How pretty and delicate is this card?

The flowers just trail down the card a bit like Jasmine on a fence or anything that stood still too long and too close!

This has to be one of the easiest cards I’ve made and the ladies on Sunday enjoyed making it too.  It is one of those cards that could be used for any occasion.

Recipe

Stamps: On Your birthday, Vintage Vogue
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Mellow Moss, Whisper White
Inks: Pretty in Pink
Accessories: Mellow Moss Stampin Write Marker, Pretty in Pink Stampin Write Marker, Large Oval Punch, Scalloped Oval Punch, Stampin Dimensionals.

Now for the second card – another lovely soft card but in blue ….

This card is the same layout and design as the other just in the landscape orientation. I’ve also added a row of the lovely leafy edge image at the top and bottom of the panel in versamark.  The top and bottom of the white piece is daubered in Bashful Blue and a simple little sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Sentiments set.

Dont you just love the Soft Subtle range?  well if you answered yes and your a regular Stampin’ Up! customer you will know that many of the the Soft Subtle colours are retiring at the end of August.  However we have had a few colours start to run out already so if you’d like to grab some soft subtles before they are all gone I’d suggest you get your order in sooner rather than later.

If the single colours sell out dont forget you can still buy them in the mixed family packs!

Would you like to make these cards?

I still have a couple of places available for my Stamp A Stack here on Saturday 10th July so if you’d like to come contact me today to reserve your spot. Its just $20 for 9 cards – oh and some very yummy coffee … and I’ll even make you a cup in my new coffee cups!

Thanks for stoppin by

Its a chilly Saturday here in Sydney and I’ve had a nice morning of shopping with the hubby and even managed to get me more things than the rest of the family – which doesnt happen very often. 

I even got some new coffee cups I’ve been after for a while so a good morning in all.

As its Saturday its time for another Utah Divas Sketch Challenge from the lovely Carol.

Now when I first saw this one I thought ‘hmmm ok’  but then it dawned on me what I could do and what sort of a challenge would it be if I didnt change it any?

So me being me gave it a good old rotation and this is what I came up with ….

I really do love this Rose is a Rose set and will be sorry to see it retire in 2 months however if you dont have this set and would like to get it before it goes then you can and if you buy it before 31st July then you can get it at 20% off!  Pretty good deal huh?

Now I did hear from the lovely Max today and she said she cant participate in this week’s sketch – something to do with her mother visiting from England and leaving on Monday and wanting to spend every waking minute with her.  Max I hope you have a wonderful few days and Mum has a lovely trip back home. So this week the next stop on the Utah Diva Sketch Hop is the lovely Ruthie Burkey.

So skip on over toRuthie‘s blog and see what she’s created for this sketch.

Thanks for stoppin by

By now I’m sure you are aware of how much I love my job and how much I love Stampin’ Up!® and their products.

I had a Workshop on Saturday night and I wanted to show these ladies how you can make lovely cards quickly and easily. These ladies are all young mums so I know how precious their time is and how the budget doesnt always extend to paying $7 or $8 for one greeting card when purchasing them from a shop.

Last year at Sydney Regional Training for Stampin’ Up! we had a lovely lady visit from the home office in Utah, USA and she was telling us how good the Stampin’ Up! notecards are and you’ve seen me share projects using the Notecards since then.  Well here are three very quick and easy cards using the notecards, Thoughts and Prayers stamp set and 2 punches.

How sweet are these cards?

They are so easy – it was just a matter of stamping the tree from Thoughts and Prayers onto the notecard and then using the trio flower punch to punch out the flowers. I then inserted the brads and attached them to the card using glue dots.  The sentiment is stamped onto a scrap piece of whisper white and then punched out using the large over punch.  I’ve then popped that onto a scalloped oval punch out and stuck it on my card with Stampin Dimensionals. Add the ribbon and its done!  How easy?  Now with these lovely cards you could pop on any sentiment you wanted to as they’d suit birthdays or anything.

The beauty of these Notecards is that you get 20 cards and envelopes in a pack for just $9.50 – thats less than 50 cents a card!

Now dont forget that today is the last day for the Punch Deal of the Week where you can purchase any of the following punches at 30% off!

So ring or email me now so you don’t miss out on this great bargain – this deal finishes at 11pm tonight and I’ll have a brand new deal for you tomorrow!

Welcome to another Diva Sketchy Saturday!

I know its later in the day but it IS still Saturday!  Here is this week’s sketch from the lovely Carol for the Utah Divas International Sketch Challenge.  Easy enough right??

Well I was half way through my card when I thought that if I rotated the sketch it would make a great landscape card – and then I looked at the sketch again and yes its meant to be a landscape card!

Here is the card I made …

The cocoa on the blue was actually inspired by one of the coffee cups I have and think it turned out well.

I love this litte floral design stamp from Vintage Vogue – its so versatile and makes awesome background paper.

The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Messages and fits perfectly in the small oval punch or even the word window. I’ve added a small flower from the Trio Flower Punch for that extra little bit.

Now when I was making this one I thought that a flower in the place of the ‘friend’ layer would look nice so I made another.

Now with the second card I changed the ink to Creamy Caramel to stamp onto the blue and sponging around the edges.

The Happy Mothers Day Sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Messages.

I have been busy this past week making swaps for Convention and doing all those behind the scenes things for convention – making sure I have decent clothes and shoes to wear and all the other bits and pieces.  As a Convention Special I am offering free postage on all mail or telephone orders between now and 31st May. So if there is something you wish to order now is the time and the more you purchase the more you save!

Now its time to send you skipping off to the next Sketchy Diva being the lovely Ruthie!

Hello and I do hope youre having a great week!

Its a busy one here so I wanted to get this post in before I get stuck into the kits and demonstration preparations for the two demonstrations I have this weekend.

A few weeks back in my Technique Challenge over at Soul Scrappers I ran a challenge for the ladies to create their own Designer Papers using their stamps and inks. Sometimes we spend hours or even days looking for that perfect patterned paper for our layouts when we have all the tools we need to make our own original papers. This layout – yes I did do some scrapping – was inspired by the sample in our current Autumn-Winter mini catalogue and as my sister and I both love purple well I just had to change the colours!

Due to me creating this layout on a 12×12 piece of whisper white it became very hard to photograph so if you’d like a closer view just click on the photo and it will enlarge in a separate window for you. This photo was taken in December when we had the whole family together – and this only happens every 20 years or so – it takes us all that long to recover!  Just kidding – its hard to get everyone together these days as some of us have grown up children and we are all busy in what we do – it doesnt help that we are spread across three states of Australia.

Here is a close up of the layered flower on the main photo/layer.

I’ve just stamped the two sized flowers in different inks – Rich Razzleberry (love this colour!) and Pale Plum.  I’ve then layered them and popped a half pearl from the pretties kit in the centre.

You may notice the ribbon is also ‘gathered’ which is a neat trick using sticky strip and I’d be happy to show you if you’d like to know how.

I did add a couple of extra flowers to my layout and the sentiment as well which was done using Wonderful favourites.

Its funny how close you become to your sister when you move out of home and get married yet while you were in the same house you hated each other so there is hope for my girls yet!!

I do hope you like this layout. It is very plain but I think too that it is enough

Well yes its yet another Saturday – they seem to be coming around very quickly lately!

Being its Saturday its time for another Utah Divas Sketch Challenge. The lovely Carol (our sketch master who does all the sketches by hand) has had surgery on her hand in the last week so please say a prayer for her – she does so much for the sketch challenge team.

I looked at this sketch and deliberated for some time on what to do. I realised today that its not until I pick the Designer Series Papers or Stamp Sets that the cards come to me. I had been creating some projects with the Raspberry Tart DSP and here is what I cam up with for today’s sketch ….

I wouldnt normally put the Bloomin with Beauty stamp set with the Raspberry Tart Designer Series Paper but I do like how this has turned out.  Now are you sitting down?? I even used my blender pen to colour the flowers! Yes thats right I used the blender pen!

Recipe

Stamps: Best Yet, Bloomin with Beauty
Paper: Whisper White, Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss, Pretty in Pink, Raspberry Tart DSP
Inks: Jet Black Stazon, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Old Olive.
Accessories: 1″ circle punch, 1 1/4″ circle punch, 1 3/8″ circle punch, 1/4″ Pretty in Pink Grosgrain ribbon, Blender Pen, Stampin Dimensionals.

I do hope you like this card as much as I did making it. I do love these flowers and do love to water colour them.

If you would like to learn how to watercolour your stamps then please dont hesitate to give me a call – I can tailor a workshop to suite what you want to learn and do!

Now its time to skip along to the next blog in the Diva Sketch Team and this week its off to the lovely Max for her wonderful creation!

Hi everyone … I hope you are enjoying this last week of school – well those in NSW anyways.  Dont forget its Easter this weekend so make sure all your Easter Bunny preparations are all done! I’m sure there will be a huge rush on carrots over the next few days!

Here’s a card that I created for my mum as its her birthday on Thursday.

Mum loves roses and I love this rose!

My last two Stamp A Stack groups made this card and they just loved it!  Its quite easy to put together and the hardest part is just the embossing!

The Pink Pirouette layer is stamped in versamark then clear embossed.  The rose is stamped in Whisper White onto Whisper White cardstock and then clear embossed. Its then coloured using the Aqua Painter and Pretty in Pink Classic Ink Reinker and highlighted with the Regal Rose Classic Ink Reinker.  You will need your Aqua Painter to be very wet for this technique to spread the ink over the whole flower.

I would just love to show you how to make this card and you and your friends could make it for free just by holding a demonstration! So all you need to do is to email or ring me to book your demonstration in.

Now for my special bonus offer ….

The Stampin Up! ‘year’ goes from April to March and during that year you can achieve Sales and Recruiting goals and receive awards at Convention to achieving set goals. The first level Sales goal is $20,000 and I am just $500 short of this amount and am asking for your help so I can walk the stage, receive a special $20k pin and receive a bonus free stamp set at Convention in May.

Now there are only two days left to achieve this goal so I know I’m asking alot but if you would like to help me I am offering some special bonuses for those who place an outside order and pay on or before Wednesday. These offers are only good through me and only available until 8pm Wednesday 31st March and they are ….

1. The first five orders of  $70 or more will receive either a bonus Designer Brad set or pack of Designer Series Paper of your choice
2. The first four orders of $150 or more will receive a level one hostess set
3. Purchase my ‘must have adhesives set‘ for $60 and receive a bonus adhesive remover! This set consists of Snail Adhesive, Snail Refill, Stampin Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots, Tombow Multi Purpose Adhesive, 2-way glue pen and Sticky Strip. This set is valued at $65.85 and is just $60 plus you get the Adhesive Remover valued at $3.75!

All orders received from now until 8pm Wednesday will go into the draw for a pack of Fine Supernova Stampin Glitter – this consists of 5 jars of superfine glitter and is valued at $26.95

All orders received for $150 or more from now until 8pm Wednesday will go into the draw for a free ‘Wanted’ stamp set.

Payment can be made by bank transfer, cash or credit card and must be receive by 8pm Wednesday 31st March, 2010.

So ring or email me now to place your order and help me ‘walk the stage’ at convention! Remember these offers close at 8pm Wednesday 31st March, 2010.

Good Morning!!

Its been a rather hectic week this week and hoping I do catch up to Friday very soon! I’d hate for Saturday to start and me still being stuck on Wednesday – that just wouldnt be fair!!

Its my turn again to host the Technique Challenge over at the Soul Scrappers forum that was started up by the lovely Erika Martin. We have over 500 members there now in just two months so thats an awesome achievement on its own! There are lots of Challenges, Sketches, ideas and wonderful people to share their talents and help so if you are a scrapper 0r even if you’d like to be a scrapper then pop over to the Soul Scrappers forum and check it all out!

My Technique Challenge this week is to create your own Designer Series Papers using your stamps. Being a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator I love the papers they have and how they all coordinate with the colour families and stamp sets but sometimes you want a paper just a bit different or maybe in different colours.  So today I’m going to share with you how to make your own papers using your stamps and inks.

Supplies needed:

• Cardstock,
• Inks (I used Versamark, Mellow Moss, Pretty in Pink, Almost Amethyst and Apricot Appeal)
• stamps (I used Vintage Vogue and En Francais)
• Stamp a majig
• chalks ( i used versamark and chalk for the script in the centre)

I love using my stamps to create designs and the perfect patterned paper for my layout.  This way I can have colours that match my photo’s and I can make my own embellishments and accents and not only that – you know that no one else will have this designer paper you create yourself!

Technique Instructions:

• Start off with a piece of plain cardstock.  You could use any colour however I found those of the Soft Subtle family and lighter shades would be  better as you need to see the design youre creating!  I tend to use Whisper White or Very Vanilla  as my base and then build these up with colour.
• I first used the swirl from Baroque Motifs to create my border. You can use the stamp a majig to do this too so that you get the right swirl in the right place if you wish but you really cant go wrong with this stamp!
• Then I inked up the larger flower from Vintage Vogue (Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue) and stamped randomly in Pretty in Pink. I then did the same using Apricot Appeal. I then used the smaller flower to ‘fill in the gaps’ using Barely Banana and Almost Amethyst.
• I then tore up scrap paper to cover where I’d stamped and filled the centre in using the En Francais background with Versamark. I then grabbed my pastels and my handy sponge and ‘popped’ the script. Doing the centre this way gives it a softer hue rather than stamping it in the Creamy Caramel ink.
• Now look at your page and see if you are happy with the result. You may feel the need to fill in any ‘white space’ either by sponging or adding some more small flowers or maybe some leaves.

I was rather happy with the result of this page and was a little hesitant to put a photo over it!

I was strong and placed the photo on a Pink Pirouette mat  – I’ve also used some rub-ons on the photo but what I did was put the white part of the same rub on up the top left of my photo and the opposite dark part over the bottom right corner and onto the Pink Pirouette mat.

I didnt add much to this layout as I didnt want to detract from the Designer Paper I’d just created and sometimes less really is more!

I made a couple of flower accents from the Vintage Vogue (Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue). One small one down on the bottom left and then layering both flowers in colours from the layout and a button from the lovely Sherbet Designer buttons.

From this close up you can see that I’ve stamped the larger flower in Pretty in Pink and the small flower in Barely Banana. I’ve then adhered the button to the top. I’ve cut a very thin slither of Apricot Appeal cardstock and threaded it through the button holes and tied it. Now you need to be careful not to pull the knot too tight as the cardstock will break and I know this for a fact!

I do hope you like this challenge and I now challenge you to make a layout using your stamps. You can then leave me a comment and insert the link to your image online or email me a photo of your layout.

Why not pop over to the Soul Scrappers forum and upload your challenge there – there is always a winner each challenge and a small prize. You can find the messages about this challenge here. Its free to join and there really are some wonderfully talented ladies there who share, encourage and inspire!

If you would like to learn how to do this Technique then why not come along to my Scrap A Latte Summer Flower Layout class on 7th April. Class is $15 and I provide all the supplies you will need. Bookings are essential as I only have a small house and seats are limited. There is no need to bring any photo’s as you can add them later.

Dont forget that the Summer Mini Catalogue and Sale A Bration finish on 31st March and you only have till then to …

• order anything you still want from the Summer Mini Catalogue
• earn free Sale A Bration stamp sets
• receive bonus stamp set to the value of $79.95 when you join my Stampin’ Up! team

Good Morning everyone!

I hope you’re ready for the ESAD Sale A Bration Blog Hop! Better go grab yourself a cuppa as you’ll be hopping for a while!

What is ESAD you say?

ESAD stands for Extra Special Australian (and New Zealand) Demonstrators and it is an online group just for Australian and New Zealand demonstrators for Stampin’ Up!

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 cyberstamp and we are always there to help and support each other when its needed.

So if you are a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand then please feel free to click on the button below to join our wonderful group.

Click to join ESAD-SU

Now before I share my project with you I also want you to know that if you do make it around to all 41 Blogs involved in today’s Blog Hop and if you make a comment on each one you are then in the running for some Extra Special Blog Candy.  The demonstrators from all over have donated blog candy for this blog hop and if you are the lucky winner you’ll be getting all sorts of parcels and you will truly think that Christmas has come early this year and that you’ve been a very good girl (or guy)!  Now if you do get to all and comment on all the blogs shoot me an email with your name and email address and then everyone who has also visited and commented on all the blogs will go in the drawer for the ‘extra special’ blog candy. Last time Lynda Shrimpton was the lucky winner and just loved all her little surprises however this time we will have 3 blog candy winners so please enjoy the trip and dont forget to leave comments cos we really do love having people comment on our blogs.

Now onto my project …..

I love all the stamp sets that are available in the Sale A Bration Catalogue and chose to pre-order the Vintage Labels to use and make samples to share with you.  Last November we had Regional Training with Stampin Up! in Sydney and it was there that one of the demonstrators recommended making classes using our Notecards so thats exactly what I’ve done.

Here is the set I created.

I created a box which holds 5 Notecards and envelopes.

The box is a new creation of mine which was inspired by an item in my bathroom – its amazing what we get our inspiration from sometimes hey?

The base is done using Old Olive cardstock and I’ve used Bella Rose Designer Series Papers to complete this whole set. I’ve also used a build a brad to embellish the closure and the closure is secured by a velcro dot.

All the cards are completed using the Notecards available in the 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalogue, Rose is a Rose stamp set, Vintage Labels Sale A Bration Stamp Set and the Bella Rose Designer Series Papers with coordinating cardstock.

Here are the cards

I do hope you like this little set as much as I loved making them. Now remember to leave me a comment and your next stop on the blog hop is the blog of the lovely & talented Linda Craven.

Dont forget to send me an email at leonie@stamp-a-latte.com to advise when you have completed the blog hop … winners will be announced 31st January.