Sunday, March 30, 2008

More projects

Lots here. First of all, I made a card using the Mixed Bouquet set. Inspiration for this came from a SCS sketch challenge, colour challenge and a card I saw in the gallery on SCS. Thank you.
Using Pumpkin Pie, Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, Mellow Moss and Whisper White.
The 3d rose is smaller than the one I saw on the gallery, I felt it was too big for my card. This card also has more layers than the gallery card and I used the Print Pattern background with markers to do one of the sections. Cheers to you is from Lots of Thoughts out of the last
Saleabration catalogue.
I had an order for a card with the theme of fishing so again the Trifold card came into play.
The papers I used were some I have had for years by K & Co. Cardstock is Bravo Burgundy, So Saffron and Always Artichoke. The Barramundi stamp is by Stamp It and I stamped it in Night of Navy and enhanced it with Sakura stardust pens, clear and silver. The lady who ordered it
loves it which is wonderful.
At our first Team meeting for SU, we made a really quick effective Make and Take calendar. I love it. Karen had also made each of us a little basket with goodies in it using Loves Me papers.
Thank you Karen.
Last but not least, my new SU stash. Loves Me papers, with Flirty ribbon originals. Au Chocolat and Enchante papers, new stamp sets, 3 packs of Pocket notes in Choc Chip, Pretty in Pink and Very Vanilla. Too too gorgeous. A pack of Cranberry Crisp cardstock (this is now retired) to go with some papers I already had, the Recollections set and last but certainly not least, my new Ink Pad Caddy.
In case you are wondering about the colour names on the end of the ink pads, that is something I decided to do so I could grab the colour I wanted without having to read the top of the ink pad.
There is a chart on Splitcoast Stampers that I downloaded and then ran through my Xyron 250 sticker maker. The SU word window punch is a perfect fit for the ends of the ink pads, so just punched each colour name out of the sheet and Bob's your uncle, easily readable ink pads.
Thanks to the fantastic idea from someone on SCS and their work to do the chart up. It's excellent. So people with ink pads in caddies, there you go, a little job for you. rofl
The last lot of pics are really for the benefit of the UK girls who love SU products and especially Kerrie who is just starting to collect her ink pads. lol Here you go girls. Enjoy.
Thanks for looking.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Update for the last two weeks.

Well I'm terribly sorry that I've been absent for so long. It's all the excitement of getting my SU kit, playing and ordering some more stash. Also have been working as well so not a lot of time to play. The housework, cooking, washing and ironing all still have to be done too.

The last lot of cards I made were the Birthday Whimsy ones. Since them I have made some more trifold cards using Kaiser papers. Too yummy.
This one was sold before I could even get it finished. lol
The stamps I used on the front were from the recent SU Saleabration, Friendship Blooms. I was a bit skeptical about this set when I first saw it, but now absolutely love it.
Colours were Pink Passion and Green Galore. The centres of the flowers have Crystal Effects with Diamond Dust glitter over them. The verse is a PSX one which I use a lot. Papers as I've said are Kaiser and the cardstock used is SU Pink Passion, Green Galore and Whisper White.

I did the same sort of card but with different colours for Karen's birthday. Not bright me, wrote on the inside of the card before taking the photo. I used Kaiser Papers again but the ribbon is SU and the colours are Green Galore and Yo Yo Yellow. The centres of the flowers have yellow kindy glitz in them. I was really pleased with this card. The colours matched well.

I had an order for two teddy notebooks, so I did these in the last week or so too.
Just 3d pics on top after I'd covered them with cardstock. I think Chris will love them as she loves bears.

The next thing that came around was the long awaited Mailbox class with Karen. These little mailboxes are so cute and of course, not available in Australia. So Karen sent for some from the US and did up kits with papers and matching cardstock and ribbons to cover these little cuties.
I loved the colours but the papers hadn't really taken my eye. This was until I used them and the ribbons from the Flirty set of ribbons. All by Stampin' Up. What you see here now is not how I had my mailbox originally decorated. I'm not good at thinking up ways to do things off the cuff, so I altered it again on the weekend and now I'm 100% happy with it.
To go with our mailboxes Karen also added little notelets in Very Vanilla, Pretty in Pink and Choc Chip, 3 of each, in the kit so we could decorate them with the matching papers, cardstock and ribbons. Yum Yum. Again, sometimes I lose my mojo and can't think of anything different.

I ended up loving the papers, ribbons and notelets that I've ordered some out of the Summer Mini Catalogue before it finishes.

There was quite a bit of ribbons, cardstock and papers left, so I used them make another trifold card with matching SU cardstock.
I would like to thank Michelle for her class on these cards. I just love them so much. They are so very easy but very very effective. Here is the result of using my leftovers. This card turned out so much better than I thought it was going to. Really had a hard time giving it away. lol
The stamps are again from the Friendship Blooms set, and the verse inside is from Curvy Verses and the Happy Birthday is from the 2007 - 2008 Level one Hostess set called Warmest Regards.
I so hope the recipient of this card loves it as much as I do. I especially love the ribbon. I did wonder how I'd go using it 'cause it's stretchy. Found out that if I stretched it out and tied the bow then let the ribbon relax it looked great.

Thanks for looking. Hope you like my latest attempts.

Monday, March 10, 2008

New stamps


These lovely, lovely stamps arrived on Friday. Two more Thomas Kinkade stamps for my collection. I also received my order of Versafine ink pads, so will have to get a chance to try them out.

This St Patrick's day card is my take on the one we did in Karen's class. I don't own the same rollagraph, oops, sorry, wheel so I used a splat one I have. Then had to substitute an ink to use because my Soft Subtles ink pads haven't arrived yet. Used an Adirondack one called Peach Bellini. Struck more trouble 'cause my zig zag stitchy stamp has been made with the handmade look, it's a Hero Arts one, and is crooked. So found in the same set this one. Actually I don't think it looks too bad.

So all in all, a sort of different looking card to the one we made in the class.
Thanks for looking.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Birthday Whimsy SAB set


I saw a card on SCS that really took my fancy. Here by Cathee Anderson. If there's anyone else who I should thank for the inspiration for this card, I do. Thank you. Just clean and simple using the Sale-a-bration set Birthday Whimsy. So using some ribbon I had bought, I matched Stampin' Up cardstock to it and set to making these cards. I started off making just the one but had cardstock enough left to alter the different positions of colour and ended up with 4 cards out of 4 pieces of carstock. Good value I thought. The Stamp-a-ma-jig came into play with the placing of the wording. Brilliant. I've used other stamp positioners but this is the best.

So cardstock used Stampin' Up Green Galore, Yoyo Yellow, Only Orange, Orchid Opulence. Inks were Stampin' Up in the same colours plus Black Stazon. Ribbon I suspect is a Finishing Touches one that a friend of mine stocks.


The first of these cards is a RAK from a member of our Stampin' Up team, Deb. It's gorgeous. Thanks Deb. The second is from my upline Jean. The 'grass' coming out of the vase is slivers of cardstock that Jean stamped in reds and greens to resemble a real dried arrangement. It's fantastic. Love it. Thanks Jean.

Monday, March 3, 2008

This is the congratulations card made for me by my second upline when I joined Stampin' Up. The colours are gorgeous. The set Bodacious Bouquet is great but sadly being retired at the end of March.

Edited to correct my stupid mistake with the set used for this card. It is actually Mixed Bouquet.
Sorry.









I put my first huge order in last week and it
arrived today. Yippppeeee. Here is a picture
of it all.











Went down to Ilbilbie today for Michelle's monthly card class. We learnt Trifold cards today.
Three cards used the gorgeous new Kaiser papers and the other one used a Penny Black paper.

This is the first one we did with the Penny Black paper which is discontinued now. Pity.
It has a slide closure.









Here is the card opened.













This one has a ribbon and tag closure. Colours are lovely, with the blue, green and brown.


















Pic of card opened.











A basic trifold card with ribbon closure. Liked this one, well, actually liked them all.
















Basic trifold card opened.












This one was a trifold card but attached to a card base. The butterfly was coloured with H2O's.



















Here it is opened.







Thanks for looking at my blog and hope you enjoyed looking at the cards and other pics.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Different ways of using Stampin' Up punches


This would have to be my favourite card from today's class at Karen's place.
It uses the Bugs and Kisses set, word window and two round punches.
Mmmmmm perhaps this set will be added to my list of must haves. lol








This card is for St Patrick's day (as if you hadn't guessed). Tag, word window, scallop,square, and two round punches were used.
The little man could easily be altered to a Santa for Christmas or even an elf.
Cool card.

Ignore any stamping mistakes that you see.
This is my sample card.







Of course, this one is for Easter. Oh dear, you can't see his teeth. They are just under his woffley pink nose.
The two ovals, round and horizontal slot(teeth) punches were used.
A cute bunny.

Again, please ignore my not so great stamping.


I had a wonderful day and came home with my new set of 48 Prismacolour pencils which I'm going to use on my Thomas Kinkade stamps.
Using punches is great and something different from just punching an oval or a circle.

I'm now in daily expectation of seeing my Stampin' Up orders arrive at the Post Office. I lurrrrve stash.

Cardstock clean up

I discovered that the Bazzill card that I was storing in 12 x 12 carry cases was fading around some of the edges of the card, so I've had a change around.
Now all my Bazzill cardstock is in the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet out of the light.
Other cardstock, specialty card and card scraps are in the second bottom drawer.
All are easily get attable (great word hey? lol) and now out of the light.
I also have another bookcase in my craft room for my stampin' up stamp sets and these are all stored on their sides.

My sewing cabinet and chair have been relegated to the spare room which I'll make into my sewing room.