Accordion Album

Recently one of my friends from work (who is also in my Stamp Club) celebrated her 40th Birthday. I wanted to make her something special and I remembered that she mentioned earlier in the year that she wanted to learn how to make an Accordion Album like in the Current Stampin' Up! Catalogue and Idea Book on p.115. I thought I would try one out and make one for her instead. So I asked her what her favourite DSP was and away I went to work. I had lots of fun creating this and found Kylie O'Brien's tutorial on her blog very helpful. Colours used include Concord Crush, Pretty in Pink, Very Vanilla and of course the Lap of Luxury DSP (her favourite). I also used some Big Shot products, cant really make much these days with using my Big Shot, I love it so much. I used the emblosslit buttons, the scallop envelope die, the beautiful wings bigz die, various embossing folders, top note bigz die, blossom party bigz die, scallop square punch, photo corner punch, itty bitty punches, and my letters sizzlits. Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Stamp Club Projects (Early May)

This month's project was a HUGE HIT! My stamp club ladies are still talking about this session. At the start of the year I took a wish list of what they would like to do during the year and a OSW (one sheet wonder) was one of the topics so I went to work and created this collection. I must direct you to Clare Daly's page as she has a great FREE tutorial for this project. I didnt have the stamp set that she used so I improvised and used Fifth Avenue Floral and used Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive and Rose Red for the colour combo. I must admit I was really happy with how these turned out. The sheet actually would make approx. 8 cards but we made only 4 on the day. The technique was crayon resist. This technique is lots of fun. All you need is a A4 sheet of glossy white card and a cheap white crayon (crayola) a Stazon ink pad, some ink pads and some sponges. The first thing you do is stamp your images at random all over your glossy white card in Stazon ink trying not to leave too many blank spaces, then outline parts of your image with your white crayon. Next you sponge various colours over your stamped images then buff the whole cardstock with some paper towel to take off any ink from the crayon, this will make your outlines really 'POP'. Then simply cut up accordingly and assemble on your cards.

Stamp Club Projects (April)

I know you are looking at the title and thinking 'April'? - it's nearly June! I have been slack in posting these (I have two for May to post too) mainly because there has just been so much going on the last couple of months but here they are....
In April we had a 'Punch Art' theme and although these cards were time consuming my stamp club ladies loved them. I sought ideas online for all of these cards on various sites, sorry can't remember where they all came from. I made these to show the versatility of not only the Build-a-Cupcake Punch but the matching Create a Cupcake stamp set too. Both of these are available in the current Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue. They each made these three cards but then I made two more as further ideas to show as samples. Thanks for looking.

Extra Extra....Hostess Promotion

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Convention Swaps

Last week I attended the annual Stampin' Up! Convention in Melbourne. I had an absolute ball and even though I have been a demonstrator for four years now I still find so much new to learn each year. It's a great opportunity to catch up with friends that I only see once a year or so plus 'swap' our creations and buy special company merchandise. We received some awesome stamp sets (sorry cant reveal until next month), made some cute projects with them and got some sneak peeks as to what is on its way later in the year - you will LOVE it all! I prepared two swaps this year. I made some special swaps for the ESAD dinner I went to and made another 50 or so of another style using the cupcake punch and stamp set from the Autum/Winter Mini Catalogue. My ESAD swaps had a baby theme cos I am kinda baby crazy at the moment. I made a collection of Baby Card Candy in four subltes colours - Bashful Blue, Pink Pirouette, So Saffron and Certainly Celery. Please dont ask me how long it took to make them - I lost count of the hours and hours way before I finished. I hope the recipients will use them to make cute cards though - all the pieces are stuck to a sheet of acetate so they can be pulled off easily. I got the idea from this project. My card swap was inspired by this one but since I am blue crazy at the moment I made them all in Baja Breeze. I will post some more pics tomorrow of all the swaps I received back plus some of the goodies I bought.

Inkspirations4U Project

This week my creation was featured on Inkspirations4U. It is the first time I have designed for this group and I have enjoyed getting to know the girls on this site. It's a great site that you can subscribe to that runs for a period of a few weeks where you can get lots of inspiration with talented designers sharing their projects centered around many themes. Madeline Morcelo runs the site and shares lots of projects and videos to inspire you daily. One of the themes for this round was Father's Day and I decided to go with this choice mainly to challenge myself as I always find male cards and themes very difficult. This is what I came up with - it is a desk set for a dad which includes a 'toolbox' holding a business card holder with calendar and a notebook & pen. I got the inspiration for this set from my dad as he is a 'chippy' otherwise known as a builder. I used my Big Shot for the letters. I enjoyed getting this Totally Tool set out as I havent used it much and the Woodland Walk DSP worked perfectly for this project. Thanks for visiting my blog.

On the theme of Secret Sisters....

Lastly, I participated in a one-off swap over Easter and Kerri Donsky was my Secret Sister. I made her a monogram letter set with my fav DSP plus a little box of her fav chocies and matching card. I sent her some items on her wish list which included some embellishments such as ribbon and jewels. The card uses the Strength & Hope stamp set which is a fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Foundation. $2 from the sale of every set goes to the foundation. The 'K' comes from the Lovely Letters stamp set, one of my favourites. I hope Kerri has been able to make use of her stationery set.

Secret Sister - Final Month

Last month was the reveal for my secret sister but I think she had worked it out by then. I tried once again to incorporate some of her favourites again but also to use some of the new products. The first card I sent was made using her favourite stamp set Elements of Style and in her favourite colour but I had been dying to try out the new beveled window panes - what do you think? I used the dry embossing technique on this card. As the final month incorporated Easter, I decided to include some goodies for her daugheters too. Apparently they were destroyed fairly quickly - LOL. For this months creation I decided to make a desk set as I love these and used my favourite DSP - Elegant Soiree. The base is a pull out drawer which held some goodies for Sonia and then the top holder was made using two fancy favor boxes together also holding some more goodies. Her card was made using the top note die and the lattice embossing folder. Sonia mentioned that one of her interests was patchwork so I created this card with this in mind. Hope you have enjoyed seeing this collection of 3 months work as I know Sonia loved receiving them.

Secret Sister - Month 2

This month's task was to create something a little extra as it was Sonia's daughter's birthday so I got to work on creating two little packages, one for Sonia and one for little Ava. Ava's was lots of fun as I love creating anything PINK and 'girly' and Sonia's gift focused on another of her fav colours - Not Quite Navy, so the gorgeous Blueberry Crisp DSP was perfect for this collection. For Ava's gift I used the new Swet Stitches DSP from the Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue and made a top note holder for some cute little pens and used an old build-a-brad container and decorated it to hold some lollies. Her card is an easel card using the Scallop Circle die and the letters for the Big Shot. I finished it off with some of the new Pompom Trim. Sonia's gift included a little gift bag holding one of her wish list items, the Manhattan Embossing Folder, and I decorated an old brad container and filled it with a huge sample of all the brads and buttons in our range. I made another punch art card using the owl punch again and a cute little mini album made from the mini square envelopes much like the carousel purse I made some years ago. One month to go, stay tuned....

Secret Sister now revealed - Month 1

I have been participating in another round of Secret Sister this year and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Each month you send some cards and a gift to your secret sister (she does not know who you are) and someone else does the same for you. This round my Secret Sister was Sonia Garbutt and I had lots of fun creating projects to suit her interests, stamp sets and colour favourites. Here is what I created for the first month. Sonia said she liked Rich Razzleberry and the stamp set Elements of Style so off to work I went. With the gift for the first month I wanted to give her a clue of who I was and said I loved stationery. I made a little slider box using the top note die and decorated it with a flower made using the owl punch. I filled it with various stationery items and I was very grateful that Officeworks had 'Rich Razzleberry' items to fill it with. These included a pen, ruler, staples and stapler and a cute little post-it pad. The gift also included a pack of card candy and a little Lindt (these are her fav chocies) gift box using the large fancy flower punch. I had wanted to try one of these boxes for a while, you can too here. The cards were to satisfy Sonia's like for colour and stamp set. I love punch art too so that was another clue for her with the tulip card. As the first month was in February, this little package included a Valentine gift (a project I got from an earlier UStamp) It contains a heart chocolate inside. I will post the next couple of months worth soon.

Fundraiser Fun

On Friday night we had our Fundraiser Event for the Flood victims of Charlton in North Victoria. The night was a huge success and all that attended (over 20 people) had a really great night making projects, winning raffles, door prizes and eating yummy food. Here are two of the four projects that we did on the night. I will try and get pics of the others for you... I designed a fancy favour box and decorated it using one of the owl punch flowers (some of the guests had requested this technique earlier and wanted to learn how to make this cute little flower) and also a Mother's Day card using the Strength and Hope stamp set. I am very happy to report that we raised over $1400 on the night thanks to all that supported our cause and a big thank you to Denise, Gail, Chris and Nicky for their assistance on the night - we were a great team! The fancy favor box was made using Marina Mist and Night of Navy. The Mother's Day card was made using Pink Pirouette and Concord Crush with the new Tulips emobssing folder.

Baby Shower Invites

Yes here we go again.....but this time it's my turn! Thanks to my Mum, SIL and BFF, all 40 of my baby shower invites are done. We spent most of the day today in 'production mode'. I guess you can figure out what I am having.....LOL! I CASED the idea from this card. I have used Baja Breeze (I soooooo love this colour) and Very Vanilla combined with the Elegant Soiree Designer Series Paper. Lots and lots of Big Shot on this card, the Clear Scallop Square, Top Note, Ovals, Button Embosslit and lots of punches, the 1/2", 1" & 1-3/8 Circle punches, Scallop Trim border, Large Oval, Scallop Oval, Decorative Label, and of course some embellishments using the pearls and the chantilly lace. Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Something different...

Kids cards are always a challenge for me, better improve on this since there will be many many kids parties in the years to come.... Anyway, I have wanted to make something like this for ages with the punches. I sought inspiration from this card. I have used Poppy Parade, Pear Pizzazz, Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight, Peach Parfait and combined it with the Birthday Party Rub-ons and the Short and Sweet and the Party Heart stamp sets. Of course many many punches have been used also, including; scallop circle, all the circle punches, small oval, plus a couple of retired ones. I made this for my nephew who is turning 2. I hope he likes it :)

Easter Bunny Swap

I recently participated in a swap organised on a group I belong to for Stampin' Up! Demo's. I sent off my package last week (will post some pics when she receives it) but mine arrived today from Juliette Chapman. She sent some really cute projects around the Easter theme and I received some great gifts including a stamp set, some dimensionals and a snail refill. The best part - a Lindt Gold Bunny - I luurrrrve these :) Juliette also made me a really cute twisted easel card, have been wanting to make one of these for ages, now will definitely make one, they look so easy but really effective. Thanks so much Juliette, I love it all.

Strength & Hope

Here is a project from the latest UStamp with Dawn & Friends called Big Shot Brilliance.....projects to DIE for!. I have not had as much time as I would like this round to make many of the projects but when I saw this I just had to make time. It is such a gorgeous set and the colours are fab! The stamp set is called Strength & Hope (set of 4) and is available in the New Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue (wood - $35.95, clear - $28.95) with $2 from the sale of each set going to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Plus I love butterflies so I love this set even more and I am still a PINK girl afterall.....

This project comes from the very talented Ilina Crouse. It uses the Fancy Favor die for the Big Shot as well as the Elegant Lines embossing folder. I have embellished with the Blushing bride ribbon and pearls. The box contains a collection of love notes with matching envelopes. I hope that you will all support this wonderful cause this season. Strength & Hope will only be available until 31st July 2011. If you would like a free copy of the latest Mini Catalogue and you currently don't have a Demonstrator of your own, please contact me and I will get one in the post to you.

Thanks for visiting my blog today......

More Paperific....

You are probably thinking to yourself - 3 posts in one day!!! Is she drinking too much coffee or something??? LOL No, it's none of that, it's just that now Paperific is here I can actually breathe a little better now that all the prep has been done and I have some more spare time again. Here are the two display posters that I put together for the show. The first one uses the new Sew Suite collection of products - sooooo cute and heaps of really gorgeous ideas for this set. I will have more pics of things made with this collection next week - they are on display at the show and I have not photographed them yet. The second poster uses the Just Believe stamp set and the Elegant Soiree DSP. I think these two go so well together. So make sure you get along to the show this weekend and check out all the other ladies gorgeous work too.

Paperific started today PLUS the new Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue!

Here is what I did for my Free Make & Take today at the show. It uses the cute little Mini Lunch Sacks (pack of 10 for $9.50), the Sweet Stitches DSP and the Sweet Buttons emblosslit ($21.95, if you love the Butterfly embosslit, you will looooove this too) all from the new mini. To learn how to make these cute little floral embellishments click here. Paperific runs tomorrow and Sunday so get along and check out our stand (no.22) and take advantage of some of the great specials we have on offer. I also demonstrated alternative ways to use the 2-step owl punch making the roses and the iris. You can click here to see video tutorials on how to make these.

Baby Shower time again....

One of my girlfriends at work (Hi Jess!) held her baby shower on the weekend and I kindly offered to make her baby shower favors and prizes for the games we played. Jess does not know what she is having so I had to keep it neutral so once again I went with the So Saffron and Certainly Celery colours similar to what I did for an earlier baby shower here for my SIL. Here I have included a picture of the baby shower card I made plus one of the favors and the milk carton prize filled with little lollies. I have used the Baby Bundle stamp set and matching wheel. The card is made similar to a set of invites I made a couple of years ago here and the favor uses the pillow box die and the prize uses the milk carton die both using the Big Shot.

More Sneak Peeks....

Today I have for you a project that was inspired by one on Inkspirations 4U Spring/Easter. This is the first time I have joined this group and there are some amazing projects on there. I have some more to come soon. You would never have guessed that these boxes were both made from the Big Shot Milk Carton Die - YEP!!! I had a ball making these and am really happy with how they turned out. I have used the stamp set Clearly for You which is in the soon-to-be-released Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue. There are some really gorgeous new products in the new mini and I can't wait to show you more in the coming weeks. I have always felt that the milk carton die was a little small but these boxes really innovate the die and create loads more space for various treats. Colours on the bigger box include Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso and Whisper White. I have used a techinque on the panels called 'emboss resist'. On the smaller box I have used Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla and some Elegant Soiree DSP. The punches used include; scallop oval, large scallop and the scallop trim border (love this punch). I have decorated the top with a subtles button and some cut butterflies. All stamped images on both boxes come from the same stamp set Clearly for You.