Birthday Wishes

This is a card I made for my sister for her birthday. She loves her speciality coffees so I couldn't go past a retired stamp set "Like it a Latte" for a feature on her card.

I have used my Cuttlebug to emboss the chocolate chip cardstock. I have stamped the images in chocolate chip, close to cocoa and rose red. The steam has been stamped directly on to the cardstock, whereas the other images have been stamped on excess cardstock, cut out and adhered to the image using Stampin' dimensionals. For added effect I have used dazzling diamonds to add some glitz to the heart and the steam (if you want to know how I did this, drop me a line).

Other embellishments I have used include a silver brad and some purely pomegranate double stitched ribbon (retired product). Hope you like!!!

Materials used:

Stamp sets: Like it a latte

Cardstock: Chocolate chip, rose red, soft sky, confetti cream & whisper white

Stamp pads: Chocolate chip, closeto cocoa, soft sky & rose red

Accessories: Cuttlebug, purely pomegranate double stitched ribbon, brad, scallop punch, versamark, dazzling diamonds & heat & stick powder

Hello again!!

Well it has been awhile!!!! Life has been full of changes for me, including a new job which requires more hours in addition to running after my two young ones - therefore my craft/scrapbooking has taken a back seat. There may be fewer uploads......sorry. I have only just placed my order from the new Stampin'Up catalogue that came out in April (how sad is that)!!!

This is a card I made for my Mum for Mother's Day (even that seems like ages ago). The DS paper I have used was from the Stampin' Up Spring Mini Catalogue last year, 'Apple Cider'. I really liked the earthy tones of the paper, and that led to the inspiration for the rest of the card. The cardstock is Kraft. I have used the sentiment from Occasional Greetings (pg 112) and stamped in Chocolate Chip. I have sponged the edges of the card in the same ink to give a bit of an aged and weathered look. The ribbon is wild wasabi double stitched ribbon (retired). Hope you are all well and being more crafty then myself....see ya round.

My Daughter's Thankyous

Bit bummed at how this photo turned out, but hopefully you get the idea. These are the thankyous I made for my daughters' birthday party which we had last weekend. She had such a wonderful time and I wanted to thank everyone personally. It was a fairly simple design. The cardstock is pretty in pink. I have then used the scallop punch, which is available through the Summer Mini catalogue (but only till the end of March) around the outside of the cardstock for added effect. I have taken some coordinating paper from the Spring Fling DS (pg 135) to decorate the front of the card. Lastly, I have cut a strip of certainly celery to go across the centre and have used the stamp set Short & Sweet (pg 118) for the sentiment. I think it came together nicely and very quickly which is the most important thing.

My Little Fish

I had a scrapbooking day with a girlfriend yesterday. Always good when I need some inspiration. I had some photos from my son's swimming lessons last year that I wanted to scrap. Blue was an obvious colour choice as my theme, but which blue??? I decided on Blue Bayou from the current In Colour range and built my page from there. The DS paper is from fall flowers (pg 134). I have then used my Big Pieces (pg 88) and Little Pieces (pg 88) to create my embellishments. I have stamped in blue bayou, soft sky & old olive and then used my 1 3/8"& 3/4" punches, which saves alot of time cutting out and ensures perfect circles everytime. I have mounted the circles using double sided tape & stampin' dimensionals to give add depth to the page. The title I have used Headline Alphabet(retired) and stamped in versamark ink onto River Rock cardstock. I did have to cut these letters out by hand, which was the most time consuming part of the whole project. I then outlined the letters using my white gel pen. Lastly I have used my microsoft word program to write some phrases regarding the photos and printed straight onto my whisper white cardstock. Let me know what you think.

Materials used:

Stamp sets: Headline alphabet, big pieces & little pieces

Cardstock: Blue bayou, river rock, whisper white & DS fall flowers

Stamp pads: Blue bayou, old olive, sky blue & versamark

Accessories: Stampin' dimensionals, white gel pen, microsoft word, 1 3/8"punch & 3/4"punch

Friendship

This is a card I have made using mostly products from our current Summer mini catalogue and Sale-A-Bration catalogue. Our Sale-A-Bration promotion finishes at the end of February and the Summer mini items are only available until the end of March. As usual, there are some great items in both that I could not resist. To view these catalogues you can check out the Stampin' Up website or contact me and I would be happy to send one to you.

To make this card I used 2 different papers from the Ginger Blossom DS paper to make the background. I have used the scallop edge punch on the bottom of one of the papers. The DS paper has been mounted onto river rock cardstock. I have then used some groovy guava as a border to my sentiment, which has been stamped in chocolate chip onto very vanilla cardstock. The scallop circle has been punched out of pretty in pink, and the polka dot flower has been stamped in pretty in pink onto very vanilla carstock. It has then been punched using 1 1/4" circle punch and mounted using stampin' dimensionals.

Material used:

Stamp sets: Wonderful words, All scallops & polka dot punches

Stamp pads: Chocolate chip & pretty in pink

Cardstock: River rock, very vanilla, groovy guava, pretty in pink & ginger blossom DS paper

Accessories: Scallop edge punch, scallop circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch & stampin' dimensionals

Dorothy the Dinosaur

I went shopping with my girlfriend today and our two girls(who are 5 weeks apart in age), to get their birthday presents for each other. My girl is obsessed with Dora and My Little Pony, while her daughter loves Dorothy. When I got home I decided I wanted to make my own special Dorothy the Dinosaur card for Jess. I was surprised at how well she turned out. I think I will try my hand at Dora for my daughter's birthday next.

It was not very difficult, just fiddly with all the paper piecing. I just went onto one of The Wiggle sites and printed out a colouring page of Dorothy. I then cut her out and used her as a template for my design. Next I just matched the colouring of Dorothy to my paper....and....Voila!!! You may have noticed I cheated a little and used punches for the flower and spots on Dorothy, they are a little to perfect for free hand. Hope Jess likes it!!!

Materials used:

Cardstock: Handsome hunter, real red, summer sun & whisper white

Accessories: Black marker, wiggles colouring sheet (downloaded), spring flower bouquet punch & 1/2" circle punch

Another Big Bold Birthday

My son is going to another friend's birthday soon and this time it is a little boy. Male cards are always hard to design, but thankfully when I was looking for inspiration, I came across my friend's and fellow Stampin' Up demonstrator's blog. Her name is Alison, and her cards are amazing. I got the idea of this card and it's colour combinations from one of her designs which you can see here. It uses the stamps set Big Bold Birthday (pg 37). Hope you like!!

Materials used:

Stamp set: Big bold birthday

Cardstock: Blue bayou, old olive, river rock, whisper white, soft sky & fall flowers DS

Stamp pad: Blue bayou

Accessories: Stampin' dimensionals & 5/8" old olive grosgrain ribbon

Another attempt at scrapbooking

Well here is another attempt at scrapbooking, but I think this page turned out better than the last. It helps when you have a beautiful subject. I can't speak for all the other Mums out there, but I always seem to get suckered in to photo competitions with my kids. I have done really well up until now to avoid the stands - but this time I didn't and of course when I saw the photos I wanted them all.

For this page I just took colours from the photos for inspiration. The cardstock colours are barely banana, chocolate chip and apple cider DS paper (from the spring mini). The flowers are from the baroque motif stamp set (pg 98) and have been stamped in so saffron, cut out and adhered with stampin' dimensionals. The barely banana cardstock looked a little plain so I rolled it with the so swirly roller (pg 105) in versamark. I think my roller may have had some remnants of ruby red on it, but I like the effect it has created. I have also taken my white gel pen and gone around the outside of the chocolate chip cardstock for definition - and that's pretty much it. Hope you like!!!

Materials used:

Cardstock: Barely banana, chocolate chip, whisper white & apple cider DS paper

Stamp sets: Baroque motifs & so swirly

Stamp pads: So saffron

Accessories: Stampin' dimensionals & white gel pen

Colour Challenge

My son is attending a birthday party this weekend for one of his friends. I found this cute wrapping paper and decided to use the colours as inspiration for the birthday card. The colour combination is as follows:

Orchid Opulence
Rose Red
Barely Banana
Perfect Plum
Taken with Teal

I decided for the actual design, I would have a go at paper piecing. I used the scallop circle punch (pg 142) & spring flower bouquet punch (pg 142) for the flowers. The leaves I have taken from a retired stamp set called 'Friendship blooms', stamped in certainly celery and cut out. The green ribbon for the stems was just some miscellaneous ribbon (not stampin' up) I had lying around, but it matched beautifully. I have used stampin' dimensionals to lift the flowers up off the card . Silver brads (not stampin' up) have been used in the centre of each flower for added effect. I have used the Linen background stamp (pg 107) on the card itself, I have also used another retired set 'Fresh Fillers' to create some detail on the flowers themselves. The sentiment is from Occasional greetings (pg 121). This is the final result - hope you like :)

Materials used:

Cardstock: Orchid opulence, rose red, certainly celery, barely banana, taken with teal, very vanilla & perfect plum

Stamp sets: Occasional greetings, fresh fillers, linen & friendship blooms

Stamp pads: versamark, perfect plum & certainly celery

Accessories: Scallop circle punch, spring flower bouquet punch, silver brads, stampin' dimensionals & ribbon

My attempt at scrapbooking

Well since getting my new creative space, I thought I should try and get back into my scrapbooking....Oh Boy!!! I am really out of practice. I had some photos I had taken of my daughter at White Water World/Dreamworld from last year and decided to scrap them. I had an idea in my head, but I just couldn't quite get it onto paper, do you know what I mean??? Anyway, here it is - very basic, so I can only get better from here, right?

Material used:

Cardstock: Brocade blue, only orange, whisper white & pixie pink

Stamp sets: Spot on

Stamp pads: Brocade blue

Accessories: Chipboard letters, generic scrapbook stickers & computer fonts

A New Year.....and a New Craft Room

Well I know I haven't been posting many creations lately, but I was in limbo as I really didn't have a creative space in which to work in. Since I moved and downsized, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. My mum came up with the suggestion of getting some furniture built to fit in my existing bedroom which could double as a study/craft room. So here are the photos of what we have done. I am really happy. I have a spot for everything (it's the best space saving area I have ever had).

Not sure how well it will all upload, but hopefully you get the picture......now all I have to do is start getting creative:)