Vintage Vogue and Flower Shaping

Good Morning everyone :)

We had a long weekend here in Australia and it sure was a good one.  We were blessed with perfect blue skies which were certainly glorious in this part of the world!

Yesterday I took the kids for a surf to the beach and managed a lovely long walk along the ocean shore. We also went and saw Alice in Wonderland and really enjoyed the 3D Movie experience although I'm not too sure about the glasses lol..

Speaking of 3D I am sharing a very 3D card today and once again I used my Top Note Die  and Perfect Poka Dots Embossing Folder, they just go hand in hand don't they?

My featured card was made using the Vintage Vogue stamps (once again lol). I stamped the flowers in Close to Cocoa and Pirouette Pink onto Very Vanilla card, sponged the edges with Stampin' Up!'s Regal Rose, Close to Cocoa and Soft Suede ink pads. The card base is Kraft Card, Whisper White, Pirouette Pink and Very Vanilla.

I stamped my own background in Pirouette Pink using the little floral stamp from the Vintage Vogue Set and then sponged over it with Soft Suede.  The Sentiment (Occasional Greetings) is a 2nd generation stamped image using Soft Suede Ink.

  

A while ago my girlfriend Sandra Kadzow introduced me to a shaping tool for adding shape to my flowers.. well shall I say there's no turning back now!  I love it ~ thank you Sandra :)  so my flowers were shaped with a shaping tool for extra dimension, then glued together with Tombow Mono Adhesive and attached to the card base with Stampin' Dimensionals.

For the little stamped scroll,  I inked part of the image from Elegant Thank You

I hope that you enjoyed my card, leave a comment if you did :) ~ it really does make my day! Back again soon

Read full post...

Mother's Day Stampin Up Blog Hop

Good Morning everyone!

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

I guess you are wondering what is  ESAD? It 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 its 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.  I hope you enjoyed Nicki Turner's Blog.

My contribution to the Mother's Day and Big Shot Blog Hop is a Top Note Mini Scrapbook Album and also a mother's  day card. I hope you'll enjoy having a look as much as I enjoyed making them :)

I love working with the Top Note Die, look at the thickness of the chipboard I cut through!! It's just like the chipboard books you purchase ready made, only I have the option to cut out all my cardstock and photos to have the same size. I do use Nestabilities a lot however there is nothing that can do what the topnote can do, it even cuts magnet, fabric, felt, tin, thin wood, rubber.. lol and the list goes on.  But seriously for the Papercrafter this is a fantastic investment, if you don't have a Bigshot, are saving up for one or perhaps own a Cuttlebug or another die cutting machine this die will still work in it and do a fantastic job.

Not sure why but the front cover is looking a little dark here, The little bird has a cute black eye and it really makes his face look cute!

Picture of my Mum here, she is 75 years young and this is her album.  I took all of these photos during the Easter Holidays so they're nice and current.  

I adore the stitching effect of the Topnote

I stamped onto some twill ribbon, "Love beyond Measure" I thought it suited really well, the kids absolutely adore their Nanna.

Look over here doesn't our Nick look silly, he's so good at making faces, there is nothing I could have added to this page to further improve or decorate, just the sponging on the edges,  lol.. his vibrant face is the feature here! he he


It's actually his birthday today, Nicholas is turning 8, Happy Birthday little man!

This is the back page of the album, It came together in 3 or 4 minutes and was really an afterthought, I was just going to sponge the edges and run a wheel or background stamp over it, but I had so many scraps lying around after making everything that I just used scraps.  You can see the bird's little black shiny eye on this photo.  so cute.

Back to Blog Hop Talk :)…..

We are offering Blog Candy for our Blog Hop… and we all love free goodies don't we!… you need to leave a comment on all the blogs which connect up within the next 7 days (Phew you don't have to do it all at once so the ironing doesn't get done).

There are 15 Blog addresses to visit.  Everyone is extremely talented and you'll have fun visiting their websites.  Once you have visited and commented on every blog then you will need to emaill Sharlene at stampwithsharlene@hotmail.com who will then put your name into the draw for the blog candy.  There will be one winner from New Zealand and one winner from Australia.

The next stop is at Andrea Buckland's site 

Please note, Stampin' Up! Demonstrators are not eligible to win Blog Candy. ) I do know that lots and lots of goodies have been donated by everyone.

To make it easy for you I have listed everybody participating.  Finally if you enjoyed what I made today why not add me to your bookmarks or subscribe to my updates.  If you would like to attend a Bigshot class let me know and we'll make a little album just like this one. Thank you for visiting me :)

Angela Purdie
Lisa Jansen
Nicki Turner
me :)
Andrea Buckland
Ros Davidson
Juliette Chapman
Steph Pike
Debbie William
Nkki Saddler
Melissa Barkwith
Jane Norrish
Susan Joyce
Keryn Campbell
Gardenia Pepworth



Read full post...

Stampin' Up! Vintage Vogue again...

Another shabby chic style card using Vintage Vogue stamps to share today.  I love the simplicity of this card, It looks so soft to touch, almost like it's made of real suede.

Kraft Card was sponged with soft suede, Vintage Vogue images were stamped with Soft Suede onto Very Vanilla Card and Blush Blossom was used for the flowers and accents.  

I hope that you have enjoyed todays card :) Have a happy week! and I'll see everyone at stamp class tomorrow.

Read full post...

I have totally fallen in love with Vintage Vogue

Hello everyone,

I hope that you are all having a nice weekend, it's been all too perfect here on the Gold Coast.  I love it when everyone is up early to seize the day when it is as glorious as was today.  We started the day watching our 10 yr old son Tom play soccer, a school friend of his spent the whole day over and the remainder of the day was spent watching 4 children playing sport, fishing, tiggy and hide and seek.

I have a card to share today which is all pinks and browns and pearls and lace… all pretty and so much fun to make. Such a girly card.  I love feminine :) and pretty…

The background paper was stamped using the 24/7 Friends stamp set using Pretty in Pink on Cream card stock.  It was teamed up with Pirouette Pink Designer Series Paper {see the polka dot paper in pink - it's a perfect match}

The flowers were stamped in Soft Suede onto cream cardstock, the edges were sponged in Soft Suede ink as well and everything was matted onto a Kraft base.  I am really loving Kraft card stock at the moment ~ it really does balance the pink beautifully.  Hope you liked my card, be sure to leave a comment if you do :)


Read full post...

Colour Renovation

Hello everyone!
By now most of you may have seen that there are some changes happening in America at the moment.  Big changes ~ colour changes!

This will affect us here in Australia, from September, with the release of our new Main Catalogue.  There will be 4 colour families {just like before} the biggest change is that we have a whole new group called the Neutrals Collection which are a Neutrals colour family - these are designed to be combined with any of the colours in the other 3 colour families as a base colour, and will all work a treat.  A lot of colours have been discontinued however they did not really work well with the other colour families whereas in my own opinion the new colours all work with each other!! If you look closer at the charts you will see that a lot of the Bold Brights colour family are going to be discontinued.

My colour sense coming out again, I have been blessed with a great sense of colour co-ordination.. those who know me well know that my Mum (who is totally amazing at quilting and holds quilting classes every week) so often pops over to ask my opinion on colours.  I guess it's only because of Mum that I realize that colour combinations do not come easily to everyone, and hey I do understand, everyone has a little niche that they're really good at and I guess it's colours for me (wish it was getting rich fast ~ lol ~ no such luck)

Anyway, sorry to get sidetracked, a lot of colours are going to be missed with these changes, but let's look ahead at the positives…. we are getting new colours!! Super exciting ~ a total revamp to stay up to date with the current colour trends.  Some of the colours you will recognize as they are "in colours" right now, will be permanent colours in the future.  I love that!  I just adore Baja Breeze {I've used this colour on my Blog through and through because I can't get enough of it.. it's like the second pink… everyone loves pink, including me x 3, well the fresh alternative is Baja Breeze, so pretty ~ and it's here to stay!!!

The 3 brand new colours in the Autumn/Winter mini catalogue are set to stay as well!! So they're a great investment to buy now as you know that they will work beautifully with our new colour charts.  {super excited here!}

You can click on the images below to see a closeup. If you have some inkpads in the discontinued colours (from September 2010) that you can't live without I would suggest you buy the reinker and the matching cardstock so that you're not affected by these changes… Although I am sure we shall all fall in love with these yummy colours in no time at all!

Of course we have plenty of notice before anything leaves, so there is time for you to stock up if there are any that you really love and are sorry that they are leaving.  I can't live without blush blossom… it seems such a nothing, bland colour…. but not in my books!  will post some cards tomorrow to show you why :) I know that this little bunny is going to buy 5 packs of blush blossom cardstock because I just love feminine soft cards.  I think that Pink Pirouette is a little on the cool side of colour tone so I really do hope that we shall get a soft peach tone in the new in colours… but that's just my own opinion :) ~ lol

Sorry it's a long post, finally… don't be sad about these changes, they are exciting and will work so well with not just the Stampin' Up! designer papers but also match extremely well with all the new releases in Basic Grey, Little Yellow Bicycle, Karen Foster, K and Company, Doodlebug and all the other beautiful companies out there who make gorgeous scrapbook paper… and it all coordinates with our new colours!!! We're going to be in for a treat! don't you just love it when everything matches

Read full post...

Scribble This - Watercolor Wonder Crayons

I have been playing with my Watercolor Wonder Crayons today and take a look… those colours sure did pop right off the page.  I decided to get out the Scribble This stamp set and matching Scribble wheel, both are on Page 84 of the current Idea Book and Catalogue.

This is a very easy image to colour in with an Aqua Painter, just for a change I used some textured card as a watercolour base instead of watercolour paper.  I plan on using this card as a masculine Birthday card for an elderly gentleman who is a very dear friend of ours, but it's not quite finished yet without it's little sentiment…. maybe my stamps will get the better of me and I'll stamp something into the bottom right hand corner.. what do you think - tag or sentiment?

I'm waiting very impatiently {lol} for the Postman to arrive with my Stampin' Up! order then I will be able to stamp a Happy Birthday sentiment, punch out a quick tag with the new Medium Jewelry Tag punch and attach it with a little brad.

I can honestly say that I have never looked forward to my order arriving THIS much {I have at least 4 cards sitting here waiting for their little tags made with the Jewelry Tag punch} except of course when I received my initital Starter Kit as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.





Read full post...

Butterfly Prints and Butterfly Punch

 Good Morning my friends..

I hope that you have all had a Happy Easter with your families and are enjoying your long weekend.  I have 2 cards to share that have been made using the Butterfly Prints Stamp set from the last Mini. Sadly this stamp set is no longer available, perhaps if we are lucky it will become part of the new Catalogue which will be released in September…. but the good news is that you can still order a few of the items from the past 2 catalogues!  The butterfly punch is one of them.. {look for the list of what is available at the end of my post}

The Butterfly punch is still available for purchase,  so if you missed out you can still order it.  It does match the Flight of the Butterfly stamp set perfectly [page 82] of the Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalogue]

Some small details:  The piercing in the corners of this card was done using an Ornare Piercing Template - used for Parchment Paper Crafts ~ {which involves intricate hole piercing into vellum}

I also scored some lines onto the Whisper White Cardstock on the second card, to create background dimension, a very fast and inexpensive way to easily add interest to what would be a flat background otherwise.

On my second card I rolled the So Swirly wheel on to a paper pieced background using Versamark Ink and then dusted with some dry Powdered Pearls for a gold shimmer effect on the swirls.  In real life it shimmers.. it kind of didn't show up in the photo .. maybe on the last photo it shows a little better.

Powdered pearls [also known as PearlEx] is a pearlescent powdered Mica which is the most incredible medium it can be used dry as a dry powder or combined with Gum Arabic Powder and some water to create a very similar product to Glimmer Mist for a fraction of the price.

If you want a thicker consistency for a more saturated coverage, to use in water-colouring or embossing, just don't add as much water and it becomes a shimmery paint, you can also add watercolours or re-inkers to your spray bottle.  Let me know if you would like more information and I can email you a tip sheet on using Powdered Pearls/Pearl Ex.

I am working on some very pretty chabby chic cards at the moment and I have to honestly say that I am glued to my craft desk because I am enjoying myself so much :)

…stay posted over the next few days and I will upload and share with you.  I have finished 3 so far and am on a roll, just can't get enough stamping hours into the day time. 

Here is a list of the Carry-over products which are available until the end of Oct/beginning of the new Catalogue. (I'm so glad that the 2 punches are here to stay :))

Read full post...

Stampin' Up Autumn-Winter Mini catalogue

After much anticipation from everyone I can finally announce that the new Autumn-Winter Mini catalogue launches today!  … You can download the catalogue HERE  or from the sidebar on my webpage to view it.

I can't wait for you to see the catalogue, customers can now purchase the BIG SHOT along with a selection of Stampin' Up! exclusive dies and embossing folders

….we have cling mounted rubber stamps that adhere to clear blocks!  Imagine stamping and being able to see exactly where it's going while still enjoying the reliable quality of deeply etched rubber stamps.

There are also three new in colours, each with matching polka dot ribbons .  The colours are

Melon Mambo; Rich Razzleberry; Soft Suede

a brand new punch design and as always lots of new stamps

 ... and if this isn't enough we also have 2 new Hostess stamp sets which you can earn by hosting a workshop between 1 April and 31 August.  I'm convinced that you are really going to love this catalogue!  Do let me know if you would like me to send a new Catalogue to you.


Read full post...