Love Sparkles

Last week I did a workshop for some lovely ladies from my Church and as part of the Workshop I demonstrated the Simply Scrappin kits using the gorgeous Love Sparkles Simply Scrappin Kit.

I love this kit and all the elements it has and the colours and the papers – its just gorgeous! Especially for anyone doing scrapbook pages for little girls and one of my favourite little girls is my gorgeous Emily!

Emily has a huge love for anything little and particularly little furry things!

You should see her Littlest Pet Shop collection – I’m sure we have more here than you’d find in the local Toys R Us!  or Uncle Pete’s store!

Everything you see here has come from the kit – well except for the photo. The paper, cardstock, adhesive die-cuts and decorative strip were all in the kit

This is a very simple and easy 6×6 layout to do using the Simply Scrappin kit -  and it probably took 5 minutes to create.

The hardest part was working out what photo to use!

I hope you like this little layout … it was fun to make and you could get these kits to show your kids how to scrapbook too!  Its a great way to get them started!

Have a wonderful long weekend!

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Soul Scrappers Technique Challenge 9

I do hope you are having a good week and you’re all busy buying lots of lovely goodies for mum for Mother’s Day this Sunday – you haven’t forgotten have you??

Dont stress if you have just give me a call to arrange a gift voucher and receive a bonus $5 on top of what you pay for mum! She’ll love you forever … and so will I!!

Now onto the Technique Challenge for the Soul Scrappers forum ….

I thought this week I’d look at frames – well not because I need to get my eyes checked but I have this really lovely stamp set called Frames with a Flourish and it gets so neglected. <awwww>  So I pulled it out this morning and thought well lets see what different ways we can use it. I am sure you have those ‘frame’ sets or dies in your stash that you just ‘had‘ to have yet rarely use.

So first off I thought that I could use that dotty fancy frame as a pattern on my background so came up with this ….

I’ve just used the stamp to create the pattern on the background Pretty in Pink piece and stamped in Regal Rose. It works quite well with the staggering of the images I think.

I then took the square floral frame from Frames with a flourish and stamped it in Regal Rose onto Whisper White. I think cut around the frame and then sliced it in half diagonally.

Then using the two corners I attached them to my photo and used them as photo corners.

I then layered the photo and the photo corners onto a Pink Pirouette mat so that you wouldnt loose the photo corners into the background.

I’ve then stamped the dotty frame onto Whisper White and created my page title with that piece and here is my finished layout …

Its a little cute dont you think?? so is that kid!

I even attempted a ‘boy’ layout ….

What do you think? does it pass??

I’ve used the circle frame from Frames with a flourish and the party hats come from Party Hearty stamp set.

Now stamps arent the only things we have frames in. There is also now our lovely Big Shot and all the awesome dies. Here is a layout I’ve created using the Top Note die …

I’ve used the die to create the Journalling box and also the photo descriptions and just switched the colours around on each of them.

Well I hope you’ve liked what I’ve done for the challenge and feel free to have a play yourself and either post your creation over on the Soul Scrappers Forum or comment on this post and insert a link to your blog post or online gallery. I do have a little surprise for the Challenge Winner soit could be worth your while to have a play and enter.

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Sisters

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 :)

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It’s Here!!

It’s what we’ve all been waiting for now for a month and now we can share it with you and I am sure you will understand our excitement!

Its the new Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue!

just click on the catalogue above to view online

How beautiful is it??

In addition to the many exciting new stamp sets and accessories found in the Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue, I am very excited to introduce three new innovative products:

You are just going to love it all and the new product lines also open up a whole new world to add to your scrapbooking and cardmaking!

Now is a wonderful time to join STampin’ Up! because not only do you get such great value in your kit but you can now select stamp sets from the new Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue as part of your kit! How cool is that?? So if you would like to get more information on becoming a Stampin’ Up! Independent Demonstrator and joining my “Stamp A Latte” team then please feel free to email or ring me.  There is no obligation to join – I am just happy to answer any questions you might have.

Do you want to see and touch all the new products but dont want to join? That’s not a problem – I can bring the goodies to you so you and your friends can see them up close and personal. You can have a play and we will even make some projects for you and your friends to take home – just ring or email me to arrange your demonstration.

If you would like your very own copy of the Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue please contact me and I will deliver or post one to you.

You may remember last week and the Technique Challenge I did for the Soul Scrappers forum well here is the second layout I created.

I’ve created this layout using Washington Apple Designer Series Paper and the cute little Fox and Friends stamp set which is now available in the Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue.

This set is so much fun to create with as those little critters are just so darned cute! I can see it being used for baby cards and gifts, birthdays, baby announcements and of course layouts remembering trips to Wildlife Parks and Zoo’s as I’ve done here.

Now that you can purchase this set in the regular wood mount (as we’ve always had) or you can now purchase it in Clear Mount which comes in a gorgeous DVD style cover for easy storage and now you’ll be able to fit so many more stamp sets in a small space so hubby will think you’re not spending as much – well I wont tell him if you don’t ;)

Now in celebration of the new Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue we’ve arranged a couple of blog hops again with the Extra Special Australian Demonstrators group and you can start by visiting Andrea Buckland’s blog. Now when you’ve done the blog hop and visited and commented on each blog you then need to email Sharlene to advise her your contact details just in case you happen to be the lucky winner of the blog candy!  Now dont fret that I’m not involved in the hop this time as we will have another on 7th April which I will have something very purty to share with you!

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Soul Scrappers Technique Challenge 6B

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.

my matching flower embellishmentFrom 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
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Soul Scrappers Thursday Technique Challenge – TC3

You may remember that I told you that I had been asked by the lovely Erika Martin to be on her ‘Soul Team’ for the Soul Scrappers forum – well today is my first challenge! So I do hope you will go to the forum and join in on the challenges and fun!

This is my very first Technique Challenge and I hope you like what I’ve done. This is all a bit daunting for me to be on a ‘Soul Team’ with such talented ladies!

I thought at first using circles was a bit basic but I do know that some are new to scrapbooking. It also doesn’t hurt to go back to the basics and revisit some of the techniques we did when we started scrapbooking and maybe use them in different ways.

TC3-Everything2Me-layoutHere is my first ‘circles’ layout ….

I’ve used the Stampin’ Up! Love Sparkles Simply Scrappin’ kit for this layout and my lovely new Circle Scissor Plus. I have fallen in love with this tool as it makes making circles so so easy!

I’ve incorporated the circle adhesive die-cuts from the Simply Scrappin’ kit and then cut some more with the Circle Scissor in coordinating colours for this layout.

The large scalloped circle I’ve done by cutting out the largest circle with the Circle Scissor then I’ve taken the guard off my corner rounder and gone all around the edge for the ‘scalloped’ look.

Here is a close up of the “I love You” on the bottom left and the “you mean everything” embellishment

clip_image004clip_image006

To make the “You mean Everything to me” I’ve used sentiments from the Always stamp set and the frame is from the Frames with a Flourish set.

Now the circle scissor just doesn’t cut circles – you can also draw circles with it!

clip_image008It comes with two attachments – one for cutting and a holder for drawing – now you can draw circles onto plain coloured cardstock to make your own circle patterned paper!

With this layout I took my piece of Specialty Designer Series paper from the Sweet Slumber pack and drew some circles in pencil.

I then used those pencilled circles as a guide for journaling,

Once I had finished and the ink was dry I just used an eraser to remove the pencilled circles.

Here is a close-up of the end of the quote and my “flower” embellishment.

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I do hope you like what I’ve done and if you want to do this challenge please and join over at Soul Scrappers to participate in the challenge. Go to the Thursday Technique Challenge 3 post for all the instructions for this challenge.

I can’t wait to see what you make!

LeonieSig1

Busy Busy Busy

 

Just a quick note to apologise for not having anything to share for a couple of days – I’ve been busy, busy, busy making samples and make n take kits for the Sale A Bration Spectacular this Saturday.  Its going to be an awesome day full of make n takes, demonstrations and lots of fun – we’ll be showing you stamping, scrapbooking and boxes – we will also be demonstrating techniques and Stampin’ Up! tools and products.

 

SABspectacularFINAL2

How cool is that flyer??

This is what we delivered to approximately 200 letterboxes last month.

We have more people coming than I anticipated so if you still want to come you’d better contact me today or tomorrow. The first 50 to put their name down will receive a wonderful show bag (or loot bag as I call them)! They are full of all sorts of goodies.

So if you’re not doing anything this Saturday why don’t you come along?

We are raising funds for the Macarthur Dementia Care & Support group oh and I still have raffle tickets for purchase if you want to be in the running for some awesome prizes! We have 7 raffle prizes all up so a good chance to win a prize!

LeonieSig1

 

I heart …

Look at me – back again and four days in a row!

I have some very exciting news to share with you today – well to some its no longer news but I’m still over the moon about it! This past week I received an invitation to join a new Scrapbooking Forum and thought to myself ‘well I did say at Christmas I wanted to do more scrapbooking this year’ so off I went and joined.

A day or so later I get a message from the forum owner (Erika Martin) and she asks me if I’d like to be on the Soul Scrappers Design Team!! Well after picking myself off the floor I did check with her first to ensure she had the right person and she said YES!!! Soooo I said Yesssss too! Its a huge honour to be asked to be on a Design Team for someone who does such awesome scrapbooking like Erika!

The forum is such a great place to be a part of and I’m still amazed at being on the Soul Team! They’ve already had some new challenges posted to the forum and they look really good – there will be sketch challenges, technique challenges, theme challenges and also some for Digital Scrapbooking. Now the one posted this past week that I wanted to have a go at was the “About Me Challenge” from Erika.

I originally was going to start with a brown theme and baroque motifs however after pulling out umpteen different Designer Series Papers I opted to go with colours that match my photo’s and couldnt work out a title for me so I figured for a page about me I should share the things I love so I immediately thought of the Love Sparkles Simply Scrappin kit – if you remember I used this for yesterday’s Utah Divas Sketch challenge card.

I couldnt get a patterned paper to work from the kit so I went through my stash (and believe me this took some time!) I opted for the pretty floral paper from Candy Lane Desiger Series Paper pack.

I love these hearts!

The adhesive die cuts that come in the Simply Scrappin kits make any layout look good!  I’ve torn vellum to go behind the “I heart …” letters just to lift and make them stand out better. All the things I love were printed and cut up and I put the small adhesive die cut  hearts on each one.

Its been so long since I’ve done a layout it was good to sit down and play with photo’s and paper again – I even found the little photo printer we have and the photo paper without much searching which is a good thing considering we’ve just moved furniture around in the house and this is a sure way to put something in such a safe place that it can never be found again! I’m sure you know what I mean.

Now if you’d like to do more scrapbooking or even learn how to do it why not come and join Erika’s new forum at Soul Scrappers or just click on the Soul Scrappers banner below or over in the sidebar on the right.

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Inventory Clearance Sale … update

I just thought I’d pop in quickly to remind you about the Inventory Clearance sale that finishes on 24th January. I am busy making items to display at our Sale-a-bration Spectacular so this is why I havent posted any projects today.

It appears that the sales on these clearance items have again surpassed the projected figures and some items are now no longer available at the clearance price. So if there is anything on this list that you ‘need‘ then please contact me today to place your order. Also, from now until the Inventory Clearance sale ends on 24th January I am offering free postage! So contact me today to place your order.

As of now, the following item(s) are no longer available as part of the Inventory Clearance Sale:

Item Number Item Name
116376 Jumbo Outline Alphabet stamp set*
111983 Just Riding stamp set*
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What an honour

I am always amazed at not only how many people visit my blog but those that tell me my blog inspires them!  What an absolute honour it is to know that some I admire also get inspired by my work.

Today I was visiting Bev Mantle’s blog and found that she had awarded me a “Fabulous Blog” award. To say that I was thrilled is an understatement especially with the other blogs she’s listed me with!

FabBlogAward

Now the rules for this award are simple and that I share 5 things I am addicted to and then pass the award onto 5 other lovely blogs.

So for my addictions here goes ….

  1. Stampin Up! (that surprised you didnt it??)
  2. Coffee
  3. Bejewelled Blitz on Facebook
  4. Latte’s
  5. Coffee

Now for the blogs – these are the blogs that inspire me the most. They may not be my closest friends but they do inspire me with their ideas and projects and they are not listed in any particular order.

Thanks so much to Bev for this wonderful award and the blessing of calling her friend!

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Wish for Peace

Did you know its only 213 days until Christmas??

lnschall20

Yes you did need to know that – well so my sister thinks. She hosted a Stamp A Stack yesterday for her friends and decided she wanted 3 Christmas cards! I was like you .. Christmas already??? but I dont have any new (Christmas) sets! So I borrowed one from Lisa and another from Jossleen – and would you believe I didnt use either?? but I will make a couple of samples with their sets before I return them.

I did have a little money saved up in my Stampin’ Up! account so I decided to get me the new “A Wish for Peace” stamp set. I love the tradition images in this set and knew my sister’s friends would like it too. We also had a colour challenge on LNS Convention so incorporated that into the card/s.

peace2These are the two cards I made and as you  can see one is coloured and the other isnt, both use the Holiday Treasure DSP along with a little Ridinghood Red Taffeta ribbon.

This one has the ribbon around the DSP layer and tied in a small double knot. peace1

It is also has some coloured daubered onto the trees, church and steeple.

This second card has the ribbon tied with a loose single knot in the middle and wrapped around the Vanilla layer. There is no colouring on the trees or church – which makes this one a very quick and easy christmas card and easy to do at a Stamp A Stack.

Dont forget you only have till Friday to take advantage of the two promotions running in May so work out what 4 packs of DSP you want and get your order and money thru to me so you dont miss out on getting the 4th pack for free!

The ladies loved this card yesterday and I rather like it too and hope you do as well.

Time for Latte me thinks!

singlelattesig

Convention Swaps

Can you believe I am ‘still’ trying to get back into the swing of things since returning from the Stampin’ Up! Convention in Canberra! Although, I do believe, some of the problem is dealing with the cooler weather which seems to have just shown up without a warning! I suffer from Fibromyalgia so the colder weather really does affect me to no end – must be time to visit my Dr and get a little extra help for the winter chills. Sometimes I really do think I should have been a bear and then I could just hibernate for the winter.

One of the great things about convention is the swaps. I only had time to make 40 swaps this year so they didnt last very long. These are the cards I made.

tangerinekiwipoppinnature

DSC25

The card made with the Inspired by Nature stamp set I did in a variety of colours and some were done using Poppin Pastels technique and some where done using the Direct to Rubber with the markers.

So although I only did 40 swaps I still returned home with 40 different cards to inspire and case.

Two of the swaps I recieved I did case and use for my Stamp A Stacks last Saturday and Monday and the ladies really loved them too. I cased cards from two special friends – the lovely Kerri Hunter and Nicki Tidbold. These two great demonstrators have become very dear friends through Stampin’ Up! and I am blessed to called them friends.

pottedsilhouettesThis first one is the card I made after casing one of Kerri’s swaps. Its a simple but elegant card and very easy to make and all with just one stamp set – Pocket Silhouettes.

Recipe:

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
Inks: Sahara Sand, Basic Black
Paper: Tangerine Tango, Whisper White
Accessories: Stampin Write Markers, Small Oval Punch, Sponges, Dimensionals

pinksquarebloomThis second card was cased from one of Nicki’s Swaps.

This is another simple but elegant card and I’m a great admirer of Nicki’s work. She also did a presentation at convention on making Male themed cards which was awesome – well done Nic!

Recipe:

Stamps: Eastern Blooms
Inks: Regal Rose, Basic Black
Paper: Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Sweet Always DSP
Accessories: Small Oval Punch, Sponge Daubers, Chocolate Chip 1/4″ Grosgrain, Dimensionals, Dazzling Diamonds, 2 way glue pen, Scallop Border punch.

So as you can see Convention is more than just going and attending the business talks and the make & takes – its also about friendships and the swaps!!

If you’ve been thinking that you’d like to try Stampin’ Up! to earn a little extra cash then now is the perfect time to join. You can choose to purchase the full Starter kit at just $324 or for the month of May you can join for just $150 by purchasing the Scrapbooking Starter Kit.

The Scrapbooking Starter Kit includes ….

Item Code Description Retail Value
112231 Schoolbook Serif Alphabet stamp set* $77.95
113059 Simply Scrappin’ Petal Party $36.95
108697 Earth Elements Assorted textured card stock (12″ x 12″) $21.95
105216 Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin’ Pad $11.95
103179 Craft & Rubber Scissors $37.95

You will also receive all the business tools you need to start with order forms, catalogues, dvd, sample sheets and so much more – you will also then receive a montly newsletter from Stampin Up highlighting techniques, tips and more samples! This along with being part of my lovely team so you’ll also get my team newsletters and access to a great team forum for even more help and inspiration – not to mention the demonstrator discount and all the rewards you can earn along the way.

One of the things that drew me to Stampin’ Up is that there is no pressure to perform or to do demonstrations and such – its all up to you just how much or how little you do. Its up to you if you want to be a hobby demonstrator and purchase products at a discount for you and your friends or if you want to do this as a business – you can also swap between the two at any time – its all up to you!

So if you’d like more information or maybe you have some questions regarding the cards I’ve shared today or about becoming a demonstrator then please email or ring me when its convenient for you.

singlelattesig

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