(Not so) Delicate Doilies!

Good Afternoon!

Well its been a nice sunny day and I think that after today’s Doctor’s visit I need to arrange the family and tidy up out the back a bit so its nicer to sit outside and soak up some Vitamin D … Doctor did suggest a bikini but I think he needs his eyes checked!!

Yesterday I mentioned about my Fibromyalgia flaring up so I went to see my old Doctor today and he went through my blood test results thoroughly and I now have some new meds to help with my pain and insomnia and thankfully they didnt cost anywhere near as much as the one the other day!

Today I thought I’d share with you another of the cards from Nin’s Stamp A Stack last week.

Remember … bright colours and boy/girl birthdays … I pulled out my Delicate Doilies and came up with this pair ….

One for the Girls & One for the Boys!

These two cards are exactly the same except for the colours and embellishments.

The Pink/Orange card has Rhinestone Jewels and the Blue/Green has mini silver brads.

After showing them to my Teen she replied that yes you could give the blue one to a boy but a girl would like it too!  So then I thought ok lets go a little more ‘dude-like’ and came up with this one ….

Manly Doilies

You cant get much more manly than Brown & Green right??

Just goes to show that the Doillies aint just for the girls!

Stamp sets used in these cards were Delicate Doilies and Happiest Birthday Wishes (Hostess)

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You Rock!

Wow its been over a week since I last posted – my apologies for that. The ugly ‘Fibromyalgia’ has raised its rather ugly head again so have been having to deal with some extra pain, headaches, insomnia and fatigue. Life is such a joy but I rest in the fact that I have friends who love me, a Saviour who died for me and I’m grateful as things could be a lot worse!

I did a Stamp A Stack for Nin last Sunday and she asked for some birthday cards for girls & guys – now Nin has little kids so I had the mindset of Kindy to High School – glad I clarified as she meant 20-50 year olds!! So then I started shuddering … dude cards!! Seriously??

I did a lot of ‘online research’for ideas and inspiration (Google is my friend!) I had also popped in on the SUDSOL Chat n Challenge last week which they had a sketch for – which now I cant find for the life of me and made this card ….

You Rock!

Recipe
Stamps: Grunge Rock , French Foliage, Perfect Words (Hostess)
Paper: Bashful Blue, Glossy White
Inks: Bashful blue, Pumpkin Pie, Peach Parfait, Cajun Craze, Marina Mist, Lucky Limeade, Pear Pizzazz
Accessories: Lots of Tags Sizzlits, Square Punch, Daubers, Sponges, Dimensionals

A big thank you to the lovely Lisa Ryder for allowing me to borrow the Grunge Rock set – hopefully I’ll have time to make a couple of more cards with it before she needs it back!

Now as the Fibromyalgia is making its presence known I’ve decided to run more classes from home. This means I wont have to lug stuff everywhere and I’m sure hubby will be happy with this decision as it means a clean & tidy house!!

So the first class will be …

What: Technique Class – Collage Stamping
When:  Thursday – 29th March
Time:  10.30am
Cost:   $15
Where:  My place!!

please RSVP as soon as possible if you are coming to reserve your spot and so I can make kits

for a full list of all my classes please visit my Events Page

Don’t forget Sale-a-bration and the Summer Mini Catalogue both finish on 31st March – that’s just in 9 days!  So be sure to get your orders to me by that date so you can grab all your free Stamps & products!

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Cant resist a good sail ….

I am feeling a wee bit jealous as my sister is out on a cruise this week – I’d love to be out on the ocean soaking in the sun – while it lasts!! Can you believe – three sunny days in a row!

Here’s a little card using the Emboss Resist technique that we used as a make n take at our last Team Meeting ….

Sunny Sailing

Its a great ‘manly’ card and is a great one to show at a demonstration – fairly quick and easy.

Its a case of a card shared on the ESAD group shortly – I cant find the original post so if its your card let me know and I’ll pop a link to your blog and give you all the credit.

Speaking of a good ‘Sale’ … 

Sale•a•bration is still happening but we are in the final weeks of this wonderful Sale with just 17 days left to get shopping and grab your free Sale•a•bration goodies!

There are three ways to get free stuff ….

  1. For every $100 in your purchase you will receive one Sale•a•bration item and this year you can choose from Stamps, Designer Series Paper or a Ribbon & Brad pack!
  2. Host a workshop and receive a bonus free Sale•a•bration gift for every $600 in your workshop total
  3. Join my Stampin’ Up! Team and not only get the kit at a discounted price but also receive a free stamp set from any of our current catalogues!! how sweet is that?? Thats like $700 worth of products for just $249! wow that’s like a saving of over 60%!!

Ordering your Stampin Starter Kit is easy and you can do it all online so there’s no pesky forms to fill in and you dont need a number of pre-arranged parties in your diary either – you dont even have to do parties or workshops if you dont want to!

To join up now simply click the button below and if you have any questions feel free to ring or email me :)

Join my Latte Stampin Team
Click to Join Today!

But wait!  There’s more …

 the next two who join my team will receive a bonus free stamp set from me!

Also ….

if you join now and register for the annual Stampin’ Up! Convention within 2 weeks from joining you’ll get a $50 discount off your Registration fee!

So what are you waiting for??  join today!!

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Shimmery Roses

Well what a busy few days!!  Well I suppose when you’re not well all the things you should be doing do have a tendency to catch up! I am on some new medication now so hopefully things will start to sort  themselves out and soon!

Friday I was really struggling to make a card for the last card for yesterday’s Stamp A Stack and then I remembered one of my ladies asking about the Manhatten Rose Embossing Folder and since I hadnt used it in such a long time I decided to play with that.

This is what I came up with ….

I really wanted to use our white shimmer paper but I didn’t have had enough for all the ladies to make two cards each so I then remembered the free Vanilla Smooch Spritz we got at Stampin’ Up! Regionals back in November.  So I used the very dependable Whisper White, ran it through the Big Shot with the Manhattan Rose folder then daubered some Pretty In Pink over the raised areas and then popped it into my Colour Catcher and spritzed it with my Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz™ and wowza :)  It’s so so purty :)  I simply cut it out and stuck it on the base card and popped a ribbon around the top and added the Birthday sentiment from the Saleabration Elementary Elegance and done!!

Now this card is super easy and super quick and I thought such a pretty card you could really made a few of these in different colours and give as a gift set!  It would also work as an ‘any occasion’ card too by just changing the sentiment :)

Hope you’re having a wonderful Sunday!

 

 

 

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Gettin Crafty Winner!!

I am very pleased to advise that the winner of the free pass to the

Gettin Crafty “Bunny Tails Spring Edition” classes

 

is the very lovely

Monique Fielder!!

 

Congrats Monique!!

 

Please contact me with the email address you wish to use for the Gettin Crafty Classes and I’ll arrange the invite from Cristena for you! 

 

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Free Pass to Spring ….

How good would it be if you could just skip all this cold ikky weather and just fast forward to Spring??

Well if youre anything like me youre a little over the rain! Here in Sydney I think it has rained since last Autumn!  When you’ve been in a drought for so long its great to have enough rain to fill up your dams from 8% to 101% isnt it … well until they have to let the gates down and what isnt already flooded becomes flooded!

I suppose that saying ‘be careful what you wish for’ does have some truth in it!  So if you live on the Eastern side of Australia please stay safe and dont take any risks :)

Now I did mention a free pass didnt I??  a bit on that later!

Here’s a card I actually made a few weeks ago and is actually a case from one made by Jo Dumbleton

This card feels like it is Spring bursting out and saying hello!!

Remember the other day when I said that my lovely friend Cristena had invited me to be a Guest Designer for her ‘Bunny Tails Spring Edition’ for her online ‘Gettin Crafty’ classes well today I’m excited to be able to give one lucky reader a free pass to this round of classes. All you need to do is reply to this post and share your favourite Spring Memory – it could be something from your childhood or when hubby proposed or just recent too!

Be sure to pop your comment on as soon as possible as I’ll draw the winner tomorrow at 12 noon – so that gives you 23 hours to do some thinking and share your favourite Spring Memory.

Now if you’d like to join us over at Gettin Crafty Online Classes for the  ’Bunny Tails Spring Edition’  then just click here – you will get over 20 projects and ideas for just US$24.95 (so for us Aussies its even cheaper as our dollar is so good at the moment!)  Now if you join today and win the free pass tomorrow your joining fee will be refunded or you can keep it with Cristena for the next round!

If you’d like to be part of the Gettin Crafty community but not wanting to buy in for the classes then joining is free – just click here to join the forum today!

I am rather excited about being part of this round of classes with Cristena as she does the loveliest creations and she’s just about as crazy as me – I did say  ’just about’ ;)  It is an honour to be involved in this and I do hope you will join us over at Gettin Crafty Classes.

 

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Sunny Spring Flowers

I am really loving getting into Spring colours and stamps at the moment even if it is now Autumn here!

I noticed this morning that over at Sunny Challenges my lovely friend and downline Libby Dyson is a Guest Designer for the current challenge so I had to play along!  Well truth be told I was going to play along with their Colour Challenge I saw the other day however when I went to the Sunny challenge blog this morning I now realise that was 3 challenges ago!!

Here is this week’s sketch by the loverly Libby ….

Sunny Challenge 30/12

I decided I would still go with the stamp set and colours I’d planned on using and just used Libby’s sketch and here is my card …

Spring Blues

I still had my blue back drop and my pearls out from taking photo’s of the Wedding Invitations I’d made recently so decided to use that for this card too.

Now I thought today I’d share a little trick I’ve learnt with the ribbon on the front of the card.  If you have been to any of my classes you’ll know that I love to show my ladies how to save the amount of ribbon they use and therefore make it last a little bit longer … and every little bit helps right?  If you look at the above card you might think that I’ve wrapped the ribbon all the way around and tied the bow at the front?  welllllllllllllll its not!

Here’s what I do …

Doing the bows the way I do them this is how they would look on your card – but we want to look natural – like they have been tied behind the bow. So these next steps show you how to get that “natural” look.

1. Take a piece of ribbon and a small piece of twine.  The ribbon should be long enough to cover the front of your card piece and say 1cm on each side to adhere to the back.

2.  Take your twine and tie it around the centre of your piece of ribbon – tie in a knot and snip off the ends of the twine. At this stage you can pop your long piece of ribbon around the piece of card and then stick the bow on.

Adhere your bow over the tied/gathered section and wallah – it looks like you’ve tied the whole thing around the card and its all pretty.

I always use Mini Glue Dots to pop my bows on and just pop one, sometimes two, behind the knot and you’re done!  When I use the glue dots those bows never come off!

Dont forget to pop over to the Sunny Challenges Blog and play along :)

Don’t forget its still Sale•a•bration and for this week only anyone who places a $100 order with me will not only receive gorgeous Stampin’ Up! products but they’ll also receive a bonus Sale•a•bration set of their choice plus I’m giving away 2 bonus Sponge Daubers with every order!  So be sure to get that order to me by Friday 9th March to get your extra extra bonus :)

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Exciting News and a pretty spring vintage card

Well I’ve been sitting on this news for a few days and shared it on my Facebook page yesterday and I am very honoured to let you know that I’ve been invited to be a Guest Designer on the Gettin Crafty “Bunny Tails” Spring Edition Online Classes run by the very lovely Cristena Bagne.

Cristena has become a very dear friend through our love for Stampin Up! and it was an awesome honour to receive the invitation to be a part of these classes.

Free Passes

Now if you check out the Gettin Craft Forum and participate in the Spring Inspiration Challenge then you could be in the running to win a FREE PASS to the Bunny Tails Spring Edition Classes – but you must participate in the challenge!

The winner will be randomly chosen using www.random.org on March 4th @ 10 PM PST

Winner will be notified via Email on March 4th no later than 11 PM PST

Please note:if you enter the drawing and have already signed up to be a part of the Spring Edition, your class fee will be refunded!

Spring Inspiration Challenge ….

Check out this gorgeous photo for your Inspiration and create to you hearts content ….

Isnt that a gorgeous collage of Spring??

Here is what I made …

Spring Inspiration Challenge Card

I love how this turned out … so fresh, pretty and Springy … oh and a little bit Vintage as well!

Hop on over to Cristena’s Gettin Crafty Blog to see her gorgeous card and view the video tutorial!  Remember to upload your entry with Mr Linky (at the bottom of her post) and be in the running for the free pass.

I’ll also be giving another free pass away during the week so stay tuned for that!

 

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Storage 101 – Daubers

I thought I’d share something a little different today.  People are always asking how I store different products so I thought I’d start a little “Storage 101″ feature on my blog and since I had my Daubers ready to be transferred to their new Storage box I figured that was as good a place to start!

So here is how I used to store my Daubers ….

Before ....

This is them thrown into a Stampin’ Up! plastic stamp box – easy enough however you had to rummage through them to find the colour you were looking for.  I tag each one with a label with the colour name on it – this way customers and friends look for the colour they are using and dont just grab the first one and mix colours as had been done in the past.

I discussed with hubby and said I needed a better way and he found some little plastic compartment boxes he had in the she and you guessed it – they didnt fit! So off we toddled to Big W :) and we found this in the Fishing section …

Plano Stowaway Tackle box

The perfect fit! and just $7!!

So here they are in the box ….

All lined up in colours

OOo look all sorted in colours and easy to read the labels –  look at those pretty white clean ones!! Now storing them this way you could fit about 3o or so in the box – so what do you do if you need to fit 50 or so?

Standin' Up!

Stand them up and you could fit about 50 in this little box!!

All sorted and ready to hang!

Now even with the lid closed it doesnt squash the tops or anything!  So it really is the perfect solution for your Daubers!  It even has tab so you can hang them up and see where they are and keep them clean and no more rummaging through drawers and cupboards to find them!

The Daubers come in a pack of 12 for just A$20.95 and can be used for so many things including ….

  • sponging inks to edges of cardstock and images,
  • applying ink to stamps before stamping them and creating a colourful effect,
  • with your pastels to colour images or shading cardstock, patterns or stencils,
  • emboss resist technique,
  • masking techniques.

If you would like me to show you different ways to use your Daubers please contact me to book in for a technique class or to arrange your own demonstration or you may just wish to place an order.

 

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Fancy Flower Tubes and a bonus or two …

Hello and welcome!

Well I hope the weather is better at your house than it is here … all overcast & raining – such a wonderful day for a Swimming Carnival dont you think??

Well today being the 29th February I decided to do a couple of bonus things for all my lovely friends and customers.  I’ve had an online Workshop happening on my Facebook Page and even did a demo using Skype this morning!  I only had one join me but thats ok – thanks Virginia for being my little test bunny.

Here is what I demonstrated ….

Fancy Flower Tubes

These tubes are so very quick and easy to make and I demonstrated the pink and orange one today!  All you need is some cardstock, some designer series papers, Bone Scorer, ruler or trimmer with a scoring blade/groove, the Fancy Flower punch and some ribbon.

If you would like to see how to make these then I’d be more than happy to show you – just a book a demonstration with me and they can be your make n take – they are that easy!

Now in light of it being the 29th February I’ve also got a couple of special offers for you ….

  1. book a demonstration with me to be held by the end of April to receive a bonus packet of brads with your workshop orders.
  2. place an order with me by 5pm Friday 2nd  March and receive the kit and tutorial for the Fancy Flower Tubes
  3. place an order with me by 5pm Friday 2nd March for $100 or more and receive the kit and tutorial for the Fancy flower tube plus a free Sale•a•bration Set and free postage
  4. Join my Stampin’ Up! Team within the next 29 days and receive a bonus gift voucher for $29 from me – and your kit is discounted by $40 to $249!  Thats over $700 worth of products and supplies for just $249!

If you would like more information about any of these offers please do not hesitate to contact me by phone, email or via my Facebook Page.

Are you on Facebook but not on my page?  click here and then ‘like’ my page today to keep updated with all the goss and news!

 

 

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Shimmery Festive Friday

Good Morning!!

Its a busy day here today with preparation for tonight’s Stamp A Latte Team meeting and for tomorrow’s Big Shot Boxed Up! class for Tracey and her friends. Yes I know I could have done some preparation and kit making however hubby bought home a Samsung Galaxy Tab to ‘assess’ and see if I wanted so whats a girl to do??  Oh and there were these cute little boxes I was making too that a friend in the USA shared with me – you’ll see those over the weekend!

Well its time for another Festive Friday and here is my card for this week …

Shimmery Greetings

Recipe
Stamps: Curly Cute, Easy Events
Paper: White Shimmer
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Pear Pizzaz Stampin Write Marker, Poppy Parade Stampin Write Marker, Big Shot, Petals a Plenty Embossing Folder, Vanilla Velvet ribbon, Pearl Jewels

This one turned out to be a very classy Christmas card and one that I think will be very popular this year although I will need to stock up on the velvet ribbon as its only available until the end of March with the Summer mini catalogue.

Be sure you hop over to Nicole’s blog for all the details of the Festive Friday Challenge #7 and play along!

We are also half way through Sale-a-bration and you still have time to get those free stamp sets so be sure to get your orders to me or contact me to host your Stampin’ Up! Workshop by the end of March. These sets are purely for Sale-a-bration and do not come into any future catalogues so once March is over these sets will no longer be available.

I am also hosting a “Leap into it” online Workshop on Wednesday with it being 29th February and we all know that only happens every 4 years!  I’ll be offering free tutorials, an online cyber stamp and when you place an order of $100 or more you’ll be entered into my mystery hostess draw and receive a free make n take kit – but remember orders must be placed with me by Wednesday. Feel free to contact me if you need more details or have any questions!

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Chat n Challenge

One of the best things about being a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator is all the wonderful people you meet throughout the world! Some of my best friends are Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators and some live in USA and Canada!  That is how I met the lovely Cristena Bagne and Christyne Richardson – through SUDSOL which is a Demonstrator only group.

Now each week SUDSOL they have a Chat time – actually I think its a couple of times a week! Sometimes its a Business Chat and sometimes its just a chat time. Today it was “Chat n Challenge” hosted by Cristena – she gave us a sketch to make something for and here is the sketch …

Chat n Challenge #204

Now last night I hadnt slept well at all … I think I managed like 2 hours so creating anything was a major achievement in itself!

Here is what I created …

Recipe:
Stamps: Forever Young, Elements of Style
Cardstock: Island Indigo, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, River Rock, Timeless Portrait DSP
Ink: Basic Black, River Rock, Island Indigo, Soft Suede
Accessories: Crumb Cake Seam Binding, Big Shot, Scallop Cirle Duo, Circle Scissor Plus, Glass mat, Stampin Sponges, Sticky Strip, Stampin Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots

I hope you like my card – I’m still unsure. I went with the colours from the Timeless Portrait Designer Series Paper Pack and these are not my usual colours.

It was a fun card to make and reminds me of the house we grew up in and the big old tree we had in the back yard. Cant remember if it had a swing on it but we did have a very old swing that I think my grandfather may have made for us. Must find some old photo’s of the house and garden in Portland and do some scrapbooking!

Now if you are a demonstrator and would like to try the SUDSOL group for free for 2 weeks then please click on the button below …

SUDSOL - 24/7 Upline

click to get your free trial today!


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