Wedding Card

I made this card for one of my colleagues at work as his daughter is getting married this weekend. Here's hoping the rain will clear up before then. I was inspired to make this card after seeing this one. I used one of my embossing folders and ran it through the Big Shot (a must have tool for crafters) for the background and white heart. I embossed the baroque motifs image but it's a little hard to tell. I have used some of the pearls from the pretties kit and a tiny little piece of black grosgrain ribbon for the tie. The sentiment is from the Together Forever stamp set (I used this set for my wedding too). Thanks for looking :)

Cup Cake Box

This cute little box is actually a project from a UStamp earlier in the year but I never got around to making it. I have been planning my friends birthday party today which has a cupcake theme (see earlier post here) and I was reminded of this awesome little project that Dawn created for 'UStamp With Love'. Her project actually had hearts instead of circles but I thought this would be perfect. I just cant stop making projects using the gorgeous Cottage Wall DSP - I think I am on to my 5th pack!!! On the top is a scallop circle punch rosette, been wanting to try one of these for ages - super easy, all you need to do is cut one petal out of the scallop for the first layer then cut two petals out for the second layer etc.. The cupcake is made using a template, I really should have got baking and put a real one in there but having too much fun in my craft room this long weekend to get into the kitchen..... I have been very busy making lots of projects for my Secret Sister (will explain and post these in a couple of weeks, cant risk her finding out who her secret sister is before the end of May). How cute is the Polka Dot Embossing folder??? You seriously cannot live without the Big Shot - I use it on nearly every project I make now. Don't forget I have a special Starter Kit for the Big Shot. Email me for a flyer for more details. Thanks for looking.

Blog Candy time..

You may have noticed that over past few months I have showcased many of the projects that I have made from the UStamp group that I have been a member of. Well.....I am totally stoked as I have been asked to design for the next one. That's not the only exciting news....the theme next month is the BIG SHOT, my favourite tool EVER - you really cannot live without this amazing piece of crafting brilliance. Next month's UStamp will centre around the BIG SHOT and there will be so many fabulous projects with full tutorials and pictures ready for you to recreate any way you like. I have seen some of them and they are 'out-of-this-world' believe me! Dont worry if you dont have many dies, you will be able to adapt many of the ideas to suit what you have. If you dont have a Big Shot, you really need one and I have a special Starter Kit available for only $300 (includes supplies totalling over $350 plus some sample projects). Email me for a flyer at felic77@hotmail.com

Anyway as part of my Guest Designer Status with UStamp I have been given two FREE passes (worth $24.96US each) to give away and I have decided that anyone who comments on this blog post will go into the draw to win them. If you are a lucky winner you will also get a chance to display the Big Shot Member Blinkie on your blog (see below). I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of UStamp for the past few months as I have met so many friendly, helpful and creative stampers from all over the world as well as participate in swaps and chats and I have also won some great prizes :) If you would like to find out more information about UStamp or any of the previous themes, please click here. Don't forget to leave a comment with your name and email address so you can go into the draw. You never know, you could be the next 'Guest Designer'............ and then you could display the Designer Blinkie on your blog too like I have in my sidebar :) So get commenting folks and happy stamping :) Entries will close on Friday 30th April.

Masculine cards not my 'forte'

Since masculine cards are not particularly my strong point, I was in desperate need of some inspiration and assistance on what to do for this special occasion at the request of my Mum. So I looked and found this which was so inspiring and I thought 'yes I can recreate this!'' I liked the idea but was looking for a better shape and then found this. I am happy with the end result and Mum is 'over the moon' with this creation. I have used Bravo Burgundy, Creamy Caramel and some Whisper White with some DSP from Urban Oasis. I have used Sincere Salutations for the sentiment tag and Taking Care of Busines for the 'Special' tag tied on with hemp twine both punched with the tag punches and circle punches. Will definitely make more of these...

Stamp Club Projects

Here are the projects we made today for Stamp Club for Mother's Day coming up next month. I taught them the Emerging Colour Technique and used some Melon Mambo, Basic Gray, Always Artichoke and Whisper White. They love using the Big Shot so I incorporated a label from the Lots of Tags set and we made a matching gift box using the Fancy Favor Bigz XL Die. We decorated the box with a stamp from Vintage Vogue and Melon Mambo Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon. The card uses En Francais in the background before sponging the colours ramdomly. We then inked up the Medallion stamp with Versamark and embossed with clear powder. Finally we brayered over the top with Basic Gray and wiped embossed image clean. Finally we attached a brad to the centre, mounted on two layers of cardstock and tied some Melon Mambo Polka Dot Ribbon round the top. The sentiment is from the Occasional Greetings stamp set. Thanks for looking.

Just Add Ink Challenges

This card combines a few things. First of all, the current JAI sketch challenge plus an earlier colour challenge and finally a technique I wanted to do for my stamp club next weekend called emerging colour. Let me tell you how I did this card. First of all I took a piece of Whisper White Cardstock and sponged random sections of three colours, More Mustard, Rose Red and Sage Shadow. Next I took the gorgeous new Medallion stamp set from the Mini Catalogue and stamped it in Versamark over the top. I quickly poored over clear embosssing powder and heat set it. Then I inked up my brayer with Sahara Sand and brayered over the top and wiped the excess ink from the embossed image - wha la! So easy but very effective. I enjoyed working with this colour combination too. The tag is from the new Sizzlit 4-pack Dies in the Mini Catalogue. Sentiment comes from the Occasional Greetings stamp set in the main catalogue. Thanks for looking :)

I'm gonna make you hungry.......

Here is a project I put together for the daughter (Hi Emily) of a friend of mine (Hi Fiona). Emily stalks my blog regularly and when I visited them last week for lunch (thanks Fiona for the yummy risotto, you know it's my favourite) as a surprise I took one of my Little Miss Piggy kits for her to make. She totally loved it :) Anyway, when I got there she told me she wanted me to do her birthday party and she had put together a collection of project pictures from my blog that she liked. Well we managed to narrow it down to the stationery box I made quite some time ago that Becky (amazing talent) created. But I wanted to make it a little different, well more fun for a group of teenage girls. Becky did a cupcake version as well but I changed it a little to include lots of yummy decorations for making cupcakes. I was inspired by this theme after I helped Emily make her Cupcake Invites with some of her own materials(picture below). I have used Orchid Opulence for the box and the Cottage Wall DSP with some Rich Razzleberry Ribbon. I made the tag using the Crazy for Cupcakes stamp set and decorated it with some pink supernova glitter. Thanks for looking :)

Baptism and Birthday Invites

My Sister-in-law asked me recently to make some invitations for her sons upcoming baptism and birthay. I showed her a few samples and this is what she chose. When she told me how many she wanted I said 'no worries but you're helping me'. I gave her all the crappy jobs but she actually loved it and found it very relaxing - tell me something I don't know!! Anyway here they are. This was also my first attempt at blotting out details on pics (so rough, but did the job). I used some of my beautiful Parisian Breeze DSP, gees I really miss this cardstock :( and some Urban Garden DSP. All hand cut and stitched, punched and sponged. A pretty nice way to top off my holidays. She loved them! Thanks for looking.

UStamp Colour Challenge

Have loved this colour combination since I first saw it and had a few ideas in my head about what I would do with it when I got the chance. So between doing the blog hop, playing with my new things and completing over 50 1st birthday/baptism invites for my sister-in-law over the weekend (pics coming) I finally got down to business. I have used quite a few new things from the new Mini Catalogue including the new Melon Mambo :) Love this colour but my favourite is definitely Rich Razzleberry. The feature I wanted to highlight on this card is the new little Buttons #5 sizzlit die. They are soooooo cute. I have also embossed the backgrounds with the Polka-dot embossing folder and combined the buttons with some die cuts from the big catalogue (p.144) and used the five petal flower punch for the leaves. For the stems I have used the new Cottage Garden Stamp set, the butterfly also comes from this cute set. I havent done as many projects from UStamp this round as I have been so busy but this week hopefully will be different! Stay tuned......

Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue ESAD Blog Hop - Box of Tags

Good Morning Everyone!

I hope you are ready for the ESAD Blog Hop! Better go grab yourself a cuppa (if you havent already) as you'll be hopping for a while!

What is ESAD you say?

ESAD stands for Extra Special Australian (and New Zealand) Demonstrators and it is an online group just for Australian and New Zealand demonstrators for Stampin' UP!

We so love what we do and not only do we love to share it with our customers, friends and wonderful blog visitors but we share our love for what we do with each other as Demonstrators. We run swaps, challenges, tutorials product know how and cyberstamps and we are always there to help and support each other when it's needed.

So if you are a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand then please feel free to click here to join our wonderful group.

If you have been hopping along the Blog Hop you have probably come from Debbie Williams' blog.

Here is my contribution to the ESAD Blog Hop. The BIG SHOT is the best thing from the New Mini Catalogue in my mind, i just love it soooooooo much. Possibilities are endless!!!! My favourite die from the new mini is by far the Top Note Bigz Die, it is just so versatile and I have demonstrated just a couple of ideas using the die in these projects. I have used it here to make a little box complete with compartments and a matching card. I have also use the new Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper and matching new In Colour Cardstock Rich Razzleberry. The little box is full of various die cuts using the new embosslits, sizzlets etc. including buttons, tags and little leaves. To make the shape on the card I have simply put the Top Note back through after turning it 90 degrees to get the square shape. The pieces it cuts off the Top Note die are also very useful for either cards or scrapbook pages so dont throw them away!

If you want to recreate one of these cute little boxes you can click here for instructions. I am offering the card and box and all its contents as Blog Candy for one lucky reader. All you have to do is comment on all the blogs on the hop and then email Sharlene at stampwithsharlene@hotmail.com to go into the draw then this little box could be all yours.

So get hopping to Fiona Platzer's blog to see her gorgeous Vintage Vogue cards and the cute new Bird Punch.

Stamp sets used - Cottage Garden (new) and One of a Kind