Archive for Stampin’ Up!®
Hopping into Easter
Posted by: | CommentsOOOO 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.
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Utah Divas Sketch Challenge #71
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It seems we’ve arrived at another Saturday and yes that means another sketch challenge from the lovely Carol.
Simple enough hey? and look …. a circle!! I just had to use my Circle Scissor Plus for this challenge and I know I’ve done a few circles lately but I love that Circle Scissor Plus so much and it makes circles so so easy!
Yes you read that right … I did say ‘first’ card.
I love the Inspired by Nature Set and wanted to do a ‘grass’ card for a while and hopefully it has a bit of a manly feel to it.
I originally just had the En Francias stamp on the background layer but thought it looked a bit plain. Well my trusty Baroque Motifs helped fix that!
I do hope you like this card – I’m not totally sure about it.
Now while doing it I thought how nice it would be with the flowers from Inspired by Nature so I had to give it a go.
I’ve missed using my purples of late so grabbed them in the markers to colour the flower direct to the rubber of the stamp.
Its the same as the grass card but just in different colours and using the flower stamp.
I like this second card a lot more than the first however I do feel that some of that can be attributed to the use of eggplant and plum cardstocks and markers.
Now from this week we are doing something a little different with the sketch challenges. Usually I direct you to the Utah Divas blog for the other ladies on the design team however from this week there will be a link at the end of our posts directing you to the next design team member.
So without further a do I am happy to guide you over to Lorie’s blog. I met Lorie through Utah Divas group and since then we’ve become good friends – maybe its the passion we both have for stamping and chocolate – who knows!! Enjoy doing the rounds of the Utah Divas Sketch Challenge Team!
Thanks for stoppin by ….
Thinking of You ….
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One of the men involved with our Church has recently hurt his back and as he does so much for the Church and the community centre I wanted to send him a card to let him know he is in our thoughts and prayers.
I loved making this card!
Making cards for men is not always easy for me and I really love how this one turned out. I do love the soft muted edges that daubering gives.
Recipe:
Stamps: Sanded Background, Trendy Trees
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Brocade Blue, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla
Inks: Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel.
Accessories: Photo Corner Punch, Silver Brads, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Stamp-a-ma-jig
I do hope you like this card as much as I do and maybe you’d like to hold a demonstration and see how this card is made as well as many others and have the opportunity to earn free stamps while SaleABration is still happening – if so contact me today to book in your demonstration.
Thanks for stoppin by ….
Egg-ceptional
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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
Seeing Spots …. or is that Circles?
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Good morning everyone – I do hope you are well and not getting washed away with all this rain we are having in Sydney. We do need it and it is falling in the catchment areas so that’s a good thing as it means its going into our dams where we need it.
Thursday I shared with you two scrapbook layouts I made using the Circle Scissor Plus and at our SaleABration Spectacular I demonstrated using the Circle Scissor Plus and the different ways you can use it.
Today I want to share with you two cards I used as samples on the day.
This first card was done using the Sweet Always Designer Series Papers, coordinating cardstock and the A Kind Word and Always Stamp sets.
I showed the ladies just how easy it is to do frames with the Circle Scissor Plus without moving it. I’ve also thrown in a couple of our circle punches to show how well Stampin’ Up! products go together.
Not to let the boys out I even made a card for them!
This card uses the Windsor Knot Designer Series Papers, coordinating cardstock, and the All in the Family, On Your Birthday and the Calendar Alphabet & Numbers stamp sets.
I have layered the circles again for the main image and with the All in the Family stamp set its imperative you use the Stamp-a-ma-jig so all your images line up well.
I did try to not use it and my little girl (which is not shown here) ended up with fangs from the top of her dress! Not a good look for a little girls card – unless of course you’re doing a Twilight theme!!!
I am running classes this first term called “Tool Time” where I will highlight a tool and show you different ways of using your Stampin’ Up! tools. So many times we see them demonstrated and just ‘have’ to have it and then it get put on the shelf or in the cupboard to gather dust.
The first class will be on the Circle Scissor Plus and you will get to know this tool and make three projects using the Circle Scissor Plus.
Tool Time – Circle Scissor Plus
Date ~ 26th February, 2010 Time ~ 10.30am Cost ~ $20.00 bookings essential
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Soul Scrappers Thursday Technique Challenge – TC3
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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.
Here 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
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!
It 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.
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!
Sale A Bration Spectacular Update
Posted by: | CommentsWell what an awesome day Saturday was at our SaleABration Spectacular!
We had 46 people come for the day and we all had lots of fun and all the ladies worked hard making all those projects we’d set up for them – they made 8 projects in all and with quite a few going home with door prizes or raffle prizes!
Here is a slideshow of how things looked before everyone arrived ….
Here are the make n takes that I made for the day ….
There were 8 make n takes in all and the other six were created by my lovely fellow demonstrators – Lisa, Jossleen and Clare. We had some make n take kits leftover so I managed to grab a couple of kits so I can make up the make n takes too. Now I have some of my kits left over so if you’d like a kit for the above make n takes then please email me with your address and I’ll post them to you.
I do hope those who were there on the day had as good a time as I did!
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Busy Busy Busy
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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.
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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!
I {heart} Hearts
Posted by: | CommentsHello and I do hope you’re having a wonderful Tuesday!
You might remember the card I made for the ESAD Colour Challenge the other day – well I did like the card but I thought that it would look better in Pink & Brown tones … so here it is …
Here’s my recipe …..
Recipe:
Stamps: I {heart} hearts, Vintage Labels (Sale A Bration set)
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Pink Pirouette, Very Vanilla
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette
Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Soft Subtle brads, Trio flower punch, word window punch, Mini Glue Dots.
I think its a nice pretty feminine card don’t you?
Now I’ve had many people ask me how I work out the size of my layers for my cards and usually I just add 5mm to the size of the layer above however here is a great habit to get into the practice of doing and its using the grid paper from Stampin’ Up!®
When I first started as a demonstrator in 2006 I couldn’t see the use of the Grid Paper and thought it a waste of money – these days I wouldn’t be without it! It is such an invaluable tool.
I stamped my hearts onto the vanilla cardstock then to work out the next size layer I need I just place it in the bottom corner of the Grid Paper and move it to how much of a border I want around it.
This way I have the exact size I need as the Grid paper has the centimetres and millimetres on it! ![]()
So now I know the exact size that my Pink Pirouette layer needs to be.
Then I do the same thing with that layer to determine the size I need for the Close to Cocoa layer.
Now I have my layered piece ready to attach to the rest of my card.
With this layer I raised it using the Stampin’ Dimensionals. This gives the card depth and dimension. I’ve then added the embellishments to finish off my card.
I always use mini glue dots to attach buttons and have never had a problem with them falling off – those mini glue dots will hold anything together!
Now don’t forget the I {heart} Hearts stamp set is the set that for each set sold Stampin’ Up! will donate funds to the Red Cross Haiti Disaster Relief so contact me today to place your order and help these poor people.
Thanks for stopping by
Winners are Grinners!!
Posted by: | CommentsJust a quick note today to announce the winners of a couple of recent challenges I’ve had here.
Firstly …. for the ESAD Sale A Bration Blog Hop
Thank you to each and everyone of the girls who were in the Blog Hop – we all managed to get our posts and links working with just a couple of minor hitches. So thank you so much and your projects were just awesome (insert applause)
Now another huge thank you to all who visited each blog and left a comment! It was a huge blog hop with 41 blogs involved so I thank you for your patience and making it all the way through! I had 43 ladies email me to confirm they completed the rounds so its my pleasure to announce the following as winners of our blog candy ….
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Donna Zammitt
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Keegan Rigby
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Charmaine Black
So ladies I’ve sent you an email tonite so please send me your mailing address so we can get your candy in the mail!
Also, last week I announced a colour challenge I put to the girls at my ESAD-SU Yahoogroup and shared the card I made. The cards made were all awesome! and I thank you all for playing and am happy to announce the winner of the card challenge is the lovely Cathy Clarke from Queensland.
So congrats Cathy youre card is now on the home page for the ESAD-SU Yahoogroup and I’ll have a little something in the mail for you this week. This is Cathy’s gorgeous card
I will be back tomorrow with a card and a mini tutorial so make sure you pop back for that!
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