Hi all. I’ll get straight into it today as I’m still away and this post has actually been done ahead of time. The wonders of technology hey?

This week Keesh at Inkspirations has set a sketch challenge which I guess is probably my favourite kind because once you have a basis for your design, the rest seems to follow.

Here is Keesh’s sketch:

and here is my card:

Stamp set:  Lots of Bots (new in Autumn/Winter Mini)
Cardstock:  Pacific Point, Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White
Inks:  Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip
Accessories:  Big Shot Perfect Polka Dot embossing die, Circle Scissors Plus, Aquapainter, wide Choc Chip ribbon, jumbo brads, Curly Label punch, daubers for sponging

I hope you like this.  I was quite happy with it when it was finished although I changed my base colours a few times before I settled on these.  I restamped and cut his ‘belly’ section to make him come to life a little more. 

Be sure to pop in and check out the other Design Team members to see their creations and then get to it and make your own and go to Mr Linky on Keesh’s blog to upload your card.

Makeesha
Kirsty
Chantelle
Teneale
Sarah-Jane
Renee
Cindy

Cheers

As you read this (if my scheduling has worked) I am actually down south resting up with the family and friends in the caravan.  We aren’t going too far afield this time, just down to Mandurah but a break away from the rat race all the same.  I hope you are getting a chance to have some quality time with your family during the school holidays.

I wanted to thank you all for your warm welcome and thoughtful comments regarding my Guest Designer spot with Keesh and the Inkspirations Design Team.  Your encouragement and ‘blog love’ is much appreciated!

This week it’s an Inspiration Challenge:

I had a bit of an idea when I first saw this that I wanted to pick out the sprigs or blossom and make that my main feature so the stamp sets I reached for were Inspired by Nature and Upsy Daisy and this is what I came up with.  Upsy Daisy won!

Stamp sets:  Upsy Daisy, Inspired by Nature
Cardstock:  Whisper White, Kraft, Basic Black
Inks:  Sahara Sand, Basic Black
Accessories:  Scallop Cirle Big Shot die, Circle Scissors Plus, Vintage brads, Kraft taffeta ribbon, Urban Oasis DSP, Stamp-a-ma-jig, matt pack and paper piercer

This is my first card using the Big Shot Scallop Circle die but I’m sure it won’t be my last.  I absolutely love playing with my Big Shot and am having so much fun with little projects which I hope to show you soon. 

Now don’t forget to go and check out the other Design Team members’ blogs and see what they come up with from this pic.  Once you’ve done that, we’d love you to have a go and head over to Mr Linky on Keesh’s blog and upload your card.   

Makeesha
Kirsty
Chantelle
Teneale
Sarah-Jane
Renee
Cindy

Cheers

Yep that’s me.  I know!!  I still can’t believe it myself but it’s true.  Keesh has asked me to be the Inkspirations Guest Designer for the month of April for which I am truly honoured and grateful (ok and slightly excited!)

Most of you know that Keesh and I have been friends since our very first meeting at our upline Ngaire’s home when Stampin’ Up! first launched in Australia.  We clicked from the minute we met and she has been an enormous support and strength to me since then, not to mention we just LOVE to have a laugh together!   I am missing my dear friend since she left for Cairns but the miles are few and far between when it comes to a good friend so thank goodness for cheap phone rates and the internet hey?!

Ok, so to get the ball rolling, we have a colour challenge this week.

I have to be honest and say I haven’t used Brocade Blue for such a long time but that’s what is so great about these challenges – they stretch your way of thinking and make you step outside of your comfort zone.  I chose to showcase one of our new stamp sets from the Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue which is called Medallion.  It’s so elegant and stylish and really doesn’t need a lot of work to make it look pretty showy.

Stamp set:  Medallion, Vintage Labels (Sale-A-Bration)
Cardstock:  Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Very Vanilla
Inks:  Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip
Accessories:  Scallop circle punch, daubers, Chocolate Chip wide ribbon 3/4″ circle punch, Pretties Kit

Pop on over to the Design Team members and check out their take on the challenge.  These girls are amazing and are indeed an Inkspiration!

Makeesha

Kirsty

Chantelle

Sarah-Jane

Teneale

Cindy

Renee

You can join in too!  Just pop on over to Keesh’s blog and submit your entry with Mr Linky.  It’s super easy to do. I look forward to seeing your creations soon!

Happy Easter!  Have a safe and enjoyable long weekend. God bless.

Here is a little taste of the things to come from the Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue.  Read on below to find out all about the new and amazing products.  I thought I’d start off by sharing with you a card I made using the fantastic new Top Note die and new In-Colour, Rich Razzleberry.  I made this card for my good friend Keesh just coz I’m missing her and so I could try out some of my new products!

Stamp set:  Eastern Blooms, Best Yet
Cardstock:  Pale Plum, Whisper White
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry {NEW}
Accessories:  Top Note Big Shot die {NEW}, Perfect Polka Dot textured impressions die {NEW}, Rich Razzleberry polka dot ribbon {NEW}, Build-a-brad, Cottage Wall DSP {NEW}, 1/2″ circle punch, vintage brads

Usually on 1 April Stampin’ Up! launch a new Ideas Book & Catalogue for the year, however to bring our market more in line with the US, our new main catalogue will not be available until later in the year.  To help us endure the wait, Stampin’ Up! have produced an awesome Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue!

There are three exciting new products available which I’d like to bring to your attention as well as many other exciting goodies.  We now have:

The Big Shot! 

The Big Shot is a die cutting and embossing machine which can cut up to 50 different materials and Stampin’ Up! offer exclusive dies which co-ordinate with our stamp sets too!  It will also allow you to cut a number of designs at one time.

Clear mounted rubber stamps!

Stampin’ Up! now have a range of wonderful clear-mount, repositionable rubber stamps.  As well as giving you the ease of placement, they come in a slim line, clearly labelled container to help with storage solutions.

Newly punch design!

Check out these new slim line rectangle punches which lock shut for easy and flat storage!  Don’t they look great? 

If you’d like to see any of these new products in action, call me today for your free demonstration! 

Of course there are the usual fantastic new stamp sets, papers, punches and accesories so click on the catalogue below to view it online.  We are also lucky enough to have 3 new In-Colours and 2 hostess sets so it is indeed jam packed with goodies!

Alrighty, have a great day.  Oh and pop back Friday afternoon because I have EXCITING news! 

Cheers

Hi all.  Well can you believe it’s almost April!  How did that happen?  The Summer Mini Catalogue AND Sale-A-Bration finish TOMORROW so if you’ve been thinking about ordering any of those goodies from the Summer Mini now is your chance and you’ll get a freebie too if you order over $100! 

I wanted to show you these two cards I made for the Just Add Ink colour challenge this week. I just loved the colours when I saw them and imagined such soft and romantic creations. 

Imagined is the key word…. nothing I tried seemed to work so this is what I was left with after a few attempts.  LOL!

Stamp set:  Trendy Trees
Cardstock:  Close to Cocoa, Cameo Coral, Blush Blossom
Ink:  Close to Cocoa, Cameo Coral
Accessories:  Bella Blue DSP, 1 3/8″ circle punch, 1 3/4″ circle punch, Pretties Kit, Dazzline Diamonds, Whisper White ribbon (dyed with Cameo Coral marker)

Mmmm… what do you think?  I really have an aversion to Cameo Coral I guess so perhaps that’s why I’m not really fussed on it.

I want to say thanks to Sarah Klass for reminding me about colouring my Whisper White ribbon with my markers!

So I had another go…

Stamp set:  I {Heart} Hearts
Cardstock:  Close to Cocoa, Cameo Coral, Blush Blossom, Whisper White
Inks:  Close to Cocoa, Cameo Coral
Accessories:  Perfect Polka Dot textured impressions Big Shot die, Heart to Heart punch, Scallop Edge punch, Kraft Taffeta ribbon
Techniques:  Rock’n'roll

I think I like this better!  This is where we get back to the title of this post.  The I {Heart} Heart stamp set will no longer be available after tomorrow and I have to say it has been a favourite even though I’ve never really dabbled in heart cards much prior to having this set. I will definitely miss it!  So that’s the old bit.  Now for the new bit…. the Big Shot!  Don’t you just love how the simple Polka Dot embossing totally makes this card?  It turns a plain card into a stylish little number don’t you think?

Make sure you pop back here on 1 April to check out some more Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue goodies. and view it online!

Ok, that’s enough blabbing from me.  I’m off for a little lie down after a night of musical beds.  Who woulda thunk that with  10 and 7 year old boys I’d still be playing that game!  Oh well, even if I don’t get a good sleep, I’m a sucker for cuddles!

Cheers

Hello Hello!  Last night Vick (my super friend and downline) and I were having a little play while the kids were at the school disco.  We had such fun but it went way too quickly!  We are voting the next disco be an all nighter not two hours!!

Here is my entry into the Stampin’ Royalty challenge for this week.  This is another first time challenge for me and this week’s inspiration was glitter.  I was going through some old blog posts and came across my Regional presentation last year where I demonstrated this technique using the oval punches. 

Here is a close up of the ‘flower’ and I’m think it fits the criteria! 

It’s great to have a play with new products using old designs and layouts – they always look so different.

Stamp set:  Best Yet
Cardstock: Pale Plum, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive
Inks:  Rich Razzleberry
Accessories:  Large and small oval punches, vellum cardstock, 1″ circle punch, Sherbet buttons, two way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds, wide Old Olive ribbon, Cottage Wall DSP, Top Note die, Big Shot

You can check out my other samples using this technique here.

So there you have a sneak peek of the Big Shot Top Note die and one of the new In Colours – Rich Razzleberry and the Cottage Wall DSP. 

I look forward to sharing some more new products with you very soon. Don’t forget the Summer Mini finishes on Wednesday along with Sale-A-Bration so now is your time to get those final orders in.

Bye for now.

Hi!  Well I just thought I’d follow up my last post to let you know how pleased I am to be in the Top 5 over at Just Add Ink!  My little old card was chosen amongst the top 5 from a bundle of amazing cards so if you’d like to see the other winners or feel like a challenge, pop on over to see what they have planned next.  They even gave me this little badge.  Cute ain’t it?

Thanks girl – I’m wrapped!

Cheers

Hi there!  Tonight I sat down to make some cards for a dear friend who is not well and whilst I set about trying to decide what to do I thought I would try a sketch challenge for some inspiration.  I have recently found a few new challenge blogs thanks to my gorgeous creative and very busy downline Gardenia.  Gardenia never ceases to amaze me with her talent and eagerness to join in any number of challenges.  You can check out her incredible work here.

Anyway I stumbled across Just Add Ink via Gardenia a little while ago and have been a keen follower since but this is my first challenge.  This week’s challenge is a sketch.

 and here is my take on it: I changed it a little as I’d already used my sentiment in the main section.

Stamp set:  Cute & Curly
Cardstock:  Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White
Inks:  Chocolate Chip
Accessories:  Scallop Edge punch, Curly Label punch, Bella Blue DSP, Rhinestone brads, Flower Fusion Too, Choc Chip ribbon

I know this is quite simple but I hope you like it!

Well we survived the Storm of the Century here in Perth yesterday and although it was absolutely amazing I’m sure glad I was safe at home with my kids when it hit!  It was pretty incredible – we just don’t get storms like that and the hail was absolutely freaky.

These first two pics are taken from my bedroom window:

and you can see the size of the hail stones by the holes in our patio!

It would seem we were pretty lucky with only a few torn flyscreens from the hail, a little water damage where the gutters flowed back into eaves and water ran down the walls in a few rooms and only lost power for few minutes.  Some areas will be without power till end of the week apparently!  Our next door neighbours had badly damaged flyscreens, smashed windows and dented caravan!  Luckily ours is fibreglass so it was unscathed. Trees are down all through the area and generally looks pretty messy.  I keep thinking about some of you Queenslanders and wondering how you do this time and time again!  Thank God no one was hurt hey?

That’s it from me tonight.  Till next time….

Cheers

Here is a quick last minute entry into the Keesh’s Inkspirations Challenge which is due tonight.  This week it was a colour challenge with Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, Taken with Teal and Whisper White.  I’ve been having a play with the new Big Shot die cutting machine which will be available from 1 April and wanted to incorporate that into my card.  Here I’ve used the Textured Impressions plate Perfect Polka Dot which just adds wonderful dimension to your projects.  Anyway, here is my card which is hot off the press.

Stamp set:  Hello again
Cardstock:  Taken with Teal, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Accessories:  Sweet Always DSP, Choc Chip, Taken with Teal and Regal Rose Stampin’ Write Markers, Regal Rose wide ribbon, Perfect Polka Dot Textured Impressions die

Back soon with more sneak peak Big Shot projects.

Bye for now.

Hey there!  I spent the majority of today (ok all of it) in my craft room sorting, culling, organising and arranging all my supplies and goodies and I have so much more space in here now!  Paul put up the shelving in our newly created step-in cupboard in the lounge room yesterday and I happily handed over all the camping gear that lived in my craft room so now I have just ‘my stuff’ in here and it feels great!  I think I’ll be off to IKEA again for more storage boxes sometime soon.

Ok the real reason for this post is to show you a scrap page I made with one of the pics from our summer holidays.  I just love this pic of Paul and Matt and am quite happy with how this turned out, especially considering I’m not really a scrapper.

I made this at a recent workshop where my hostess had requested to see some of our tools so here I have used several.  Firstly, the Funky Forest wheel in Old Olive on Old Olive 8 x 8 cardstock, the paper piercer and matt pack on the Choc Chip cardstock and the Crimper on the Sahara Sand cardstock as a background matting for the photo which I think fits in with the rustic nature of the pic.  I also showcased the Stampa-ma-jig to line up the trees with the trunks using the Trendy Trees stamp set which I rock’n'rolled with Choc Chip and Old Olive then punched them out the 1 1/4″  and 1 3/8″ circles punches.  Finally I used the Stampa-ma-jig again for the sentiment (Life Definitions) placement.

 Here’s a close up to see the finer detail:

Even though this appears to be quite a simple page there are a few techniques and tools used to showcase our wonderful Stampin’ Up! products!  I hope you like it!

I’ll be back soon with some goodies from the upcoming Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue.  Have a great week!

Cheers