My turn for an award

Thanks for the award Maddie and also for checking out my blog.

Thomas Kinkade stamp

I've been busy today. I'm still mounting my Stampin' Up stamps from my starter kit. So I continued with that while I was at craft in Sarina this morning. This afternoon, I made a birthday card using my new Thomas Kinkade stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms.


I did a bit of research about inking these stamps up, well all photo stamps really, and discovered that using a brayer is much the best way. I had already discovered a drier inkpad was much better than a moist one. So I tried my brayer on one of my juicer Archival inkpads. The first brayering and stamping was not really good, so tried again without reinking the brayer.

Result is the stamped image is fantastic with very little ink on the brayer.

One hurdle down. (Lots of you people reading this would have known this)


Next hurdle, colouring. Mmmmmmm well after a couple of attempts with Prismacolour coloured pencils and chalks, I decided that I needed a heap more practice.



So instead of a coloured image I did a sepia one and made the card from there.

I used Sepia Archival ink with brayer on Very Vanilla cardstock, layered with Real Red and a Bazzill 4z's brown.

The background card I used was Very Vanilla. I had tried to stamp a script onto the background without success even with stamping off first. It was still too dark and detracted from the gorgeous TK stamp.

Punches for the label are Stampin' Up and the corners are by Sizzix. Brad is from the Hodgepodge Hardware set by Stampin' Up. I'm happy with the way the card has turned out, even though it took me quite some time.

Thanks for looking.

Hello, hello

Lots of apologies for absence. It's been very humid here, my mojo seems to go when the weather is like it has been. Also had a few other outside things to attend to, which are now nearly sorted thankfully. I've been in trouble with Jean and Karen for not updating my blog especially when I've got NEWS!!!!!!

I've joined Stampin' Up as a hobby demo under Jean, which means that I'm Karen's first Level 2 downline. I think that's right.

There were several reasons why I joined, one being that I felt I needed to be challenged a bit more with my cardmaking and doing some of the challenges on Splitcoast Stampers is much easier if you have the Stampin' Up cardstock (colour challenge is one). Another reason being to be able to afford this addiction I have with cardmaking and stamping stash, I needed to be able to buy some supplies at least, at a cost advantageous to me.

My sales at the Tourist centre help immensely, joining Stampin' Up is adding a bit of icing to the cake. I'll still be doing my lessons with Karen and Michelle because you can always learn something, besides interaction with other peeps is very important, and I love the classes. lol

So that's the big news from me, now for what I have managed to do in the last 10 days or so.

First of all, here's a pic of the card I made for a

forum challenge. We were sent a white flower,

3 bling stones, a cuttlebug embossed white card

and a piece of organza ribbon.

This is my creation from those bits. The card

sketch is from SCS and is number 161 I think.

I versamarked the flower and coloured with Pearlex. The embossed card was swiped over with Galaxy Gold Brilliance ink.

Great sketch.

Next card I made was Jean's birthday card.

I really enjoyed making this one. Inspiration came from a cardmaking mag from the UK with a card that Dawn Bibby had made.

This is my take on that card which turned out really well and I'm so happy with it.

Jean loves it too.

I used a Versamagic chalk ink with a flourish stamp by Hero Arts, and a leaf stamp from the Artful Stamper. The warm wished stamp is from a set that Hero Arts makes.

Last Saturday was Karen's Stampin' Up special

class where the four of us, Eunice, Grace, Georgina and I made a card organiser and a card to go in it.

We had a ball. Well actually we usually do when we get together. lol

Here is the card organiser that I made. Fabulous

gift idea and easily adapted to a different size too.

Bodacious Bouquet is the stamp set used and that

I now have to have. Thankfully it's not being retired out of the Australian Stampin' Up catalogue.

The first photo is the organiser closed.

This badly taken photo is the organiser open.

I'm sorry I don't know the colours we used, but do know that the Tab punch was used.

This is the card we made to go in the organiser.

We used one of stamp sets available for

Sale-a-bration which ends on the 29th February,

2008. For every $100 you spend on a Stampin'

Up order until the 29th February you may

choose a free set of stamps from the four sets

available for Sale-a-bration.

I had to make another sympathy card. I had seen this

idea on a card in the SCS gallery but I'm so terribly sorry,

I don't know who posted it. My memory.

Thanks so much for the inspiration.

I used Stampendous Agapanthus stamp and Paper

Inspirations Sympathy stamp.

The card hasn't turned out too badly considering I lost my

train of ideas for it half way through.

Last but certainly not least is my gorgeous new

stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms. A Thomas

Kinkade stamp called A Perfect Summer Day.

I've already inked it and stamped it and worked out which ink to use with it to get the best image. I only received it today.

Have already ordered two more Thomas Kinkade stamps.

I couldn't help myself.

I've always loved thatched cottages and used to have a fabulous collection of Thatched Cottage

jigsaws. Unfortunately I don't have that collection any more, so have to collect my cottages in other ways.

If you have reached this point of this blog post you have done well. Thanks for reading.

Sympathy Card

I saw this card on SCS and just loved it. It was just what I needed for a sympathy card.

I hope the ladies in question take it as a compliment that I've cased their cards. The stamps, inks and card used aren't the same but the result sort of looks the same.

Here and here. Many, many thanks for your inspiration, it helped me out immensely. I did use the same colours because that is what appealed to me as well as the layout and techniques used.

The Lovely as a Tree set from Stampin' Up is just beautiful. I loved using the kraft card from Stampin' Up too.

Two cards done and another birthday card

I finally revamped the card that I ripped the 'opalled' flower off. Did another flower but not as heavy. Changed the colours of the card and made the base card lighter. This one looks better I think. It's sketch challenge 161 over on Splitcoast stampers. Used my new circle nestas too. Just love those dies. The cuttlebug background uses pearlex and acetate to give it that effect.

This card was 'cased' from a card that Karen

taught in one of her early Stampin' Up classes last

year.

I used the same set, Stampin' Up Petal Prints and changed the colours and sentiment. The inks are Adirondacks Brights and Lights. Thanks Karen.

Received another birthday pressie yesterday.

Lots of cardmaking goodies from Shell plus this lovely

birthday card. I'm going to be in deep trouble 'cause she told

me not to put it on here. I like it. All the birthday cards I received are wonderful.

Thanks for everyone's birthday wishes.

Bookmark Swap

I can show you the bookmark I made for the bookmark exchange on my UK forum. My exchange partner loves Christmas, all year round. I wanted to use Opals too 'cause I know Louise likes those as well. So I combined the two.

I used Nestabilities to get my inset shapes which I was really chuffed with.

Louise has pm'd me to say that she loves it. Yipppeeeee.

Birthday Presents

Another card class today. We learnt to use Rollagraphs. Won't post the cards 'cause Michelle will probably post them on her blog.

Instead I'll post the card and present Jean sent me and the fabulous mug my girlfriend Robyn gave me. I was in stitches. It describes me exactly. lol

Stampin' Up class

Well I had a wonderful time at Karen's Stampin' Up class today. To make it even better, it's my birthday today as well. Karen had a cake and card for me too. Wonderful. Here's the card Karen made for me.

I also received many cards from the girls from the UK forum. Great to have so many people thinking of me.

Here's what we made today in class. Altered a tin, made a bookmark and a card, all using one of the Saleabration sets. Lovely.

Sketch challenge SCS 161

I made two cards today using the SCS card sketch challenge. Great fun. Used my opals embossing enamels from Pipedreamink and some more of the pearlex and acetate backgrounds I made a few weeks ago. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up Happy Everything.

The opals were a bit of trial and error to get the colour I wanted. Started off with one colour, then changed and used another with a sprinkling of yet another colour. The smaller flower was again originally one colour but has had a top up of another green with a pinch of yellow in the middle. Also I had a bit of an adventure with the completed flower. The little one in the centre was just adhered onto the larger one, but in the course of drying the big flower warped. So I tried to bend it back and the opals cracked. Uh Oh, so back to the heat gun and heated. Had a few cracks to mend so heated it all up and then sprinkled a bit of Sunburst to fix that up. The smaller flower by this time was melting into the bottom layer. I discovered that I didn't mind the look so didn't bother starting all over. Actually I reckon it looks better. lolEdited to say that a friend of mine has given me a few hints and I've since ripped the top horizontal layer and flower (above) off and am going to do something else. Watch this space. lol

This card uses a stamped image coloured with H2O's then cut using my wonderful Nestabilities. Then again another pearlex and acetate background. The stamp is from Stamp It, Rose Bouquet 3424E. The sentiment is from Stampin Up Warmest Regards. The ribbon is from Meg's Garden. I think that's it.


Thanks for looking.



All the comments are wonderful. Thanks everyone.