Oops I nearly forgot to post this, but Friday 30th of November is the last chance to purchase from the Spring Mini catalogue! If you don’t have a hardcopy of this catalogue, you can see it here.

And that means our Summer Mini is only two sleeps away…….. yaaaay!

Waaay back on the 10th of November, we had Stampin’ Up! Regional training here in Melbourne - it was a GREAT day, I love catching up with other demonstrators and swapping cards with them. Just being in the same room as 100 other stampers who ‘get it’ is such a buzz! We got loads of information from the presenters, and four plucky demonstrators got up on stage to demonstrate a technique for us - they were all fantastic, but I don’t think I’m biased when I say that Yvonne was pretty darn spectacular! That girl is a natural on stage!!

Part of the fun is making swaps for the day (ok so making the swaps is not so much fun, but the actual swapping is fab ). I had ordered some of the stamps from the soon to be released Summer Mini, so I used those for my swaps… here is your sneak peak!

This first one is in my favourite colour combo of Perfect and Pale Plums, with Mellow Moss. The stamp set is called Bud Basics, and it comes with a coordinating wheel called Basic Outline. I just wheeled an entire sheet of the Basic Outline images, and then two stepped using the Bud Basic’s set to colour the images! It was so easy! I did this while I watched House one night, so it doesn’t take much concentration either (well how am I supposed to pull my eyes away from Hugh Laurie??? I mean it’s just not the done thing, is it?). I chopped the finished A4 sheet up and made 9 of these ones. The Thank You sentiment is from another Mini set, called Stem Silhouettes….

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And this one is made exactly the same way, by stamping up an entire sheet of A4, this time with Cranberry Crisp, Marigold Morning and True Thyme. That wide grosgrain is also in the Summer Mini - I’ve attached it with some Pewter Hodgepodge hardware. The Happiness sentiment is from the Warm Words set in the 2007-2008 Idea Book & Catalogue. You can’t really tell in the photo, but I’ve stamped the Linen background here as well.

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And finally (for now anyway, bed is beckoning) this one uses Stem Silhouettes. I adapted it from a Christmas card I had made recently - the colours are Bravo Burgundy and True Thyme. The Thank You is punched out with the Large Oval Punch, and attached to the card with a Stampin’ Dimensional.

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I had a downline get together on Saturday, and it was so much fun! It was great to catch up with some of my level 1’s and also meet some of THEIR downlines who I hadn’t met in person yet. We’ll definitely be doing it again! The best part is that we all shared stamp sets as well as idea’s, so now I have some new images stamped out, just DYING to be made into cards to share with you all!

Hoopla!

I haven’t got Loads of Love out for ages, but it was perfect for a birthday card recently for one of Kelsey’s little schoolmates.

The colours are Sahara Sand and Brocade Blue (I think, or maybe it’s Buckaroo Blue, I can’t remember now!), and that’s the Twinkle wheel as a background. I also used Eat Cake for the Happy Birthday sentiment, and Classic Alphabet to stamp Logan’s name. The little bit of ribbon is from the Seaside Ribbon Originals. 

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Next I’ll be uploading some cards using stamps from the new Summer Mini catalogue which is due for release in only THREE MORE SLEEPS!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s been a while now, but I thought I’d share the card I made for Kelsey’s birthday back in October. I was preparing for Paperific and had forgotten, as usual, to make one for her, so this was a last minute job very late at night… but I was happy with how it turned out, and she LOVED it.

I used Bold Butterfly, and the Happy Everything sets. The colours are Regal Rose and Rose Red, with Chocolate Chip for the Happy Birthday. I stamped an extra butterfly on scrap, and trimmed it out, adding a bit of glitter to the outline of the butterfly (hard to see in the photo), and then mounted the butterfly with dimensionals to give it some height.

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EVERY single year I promise myself that I’ll do my Christmas cards early so there won’t be a rush at the end of the year to get them all made and posted out. And EVERY single year I don’t seem to get around to it!

Well I’ve started. I’ve made one. Yep only the one, but it’s better than this time last year! I’ve used All in the Family, and made a cute little lineup of my family. I trimmed a poisettia flower out of the Holiday Thyme paper and added some Dazzling Diamonds to the centre for a bit of sparkle. The stripy paper underneath is also from Holiday Thyme (available until 15th December for $14.50 for 12 sheets). My family is dressed by Stampin’ Up! in Old Olive, Cranberry Crisp, and True Thyme , coloured using blender pens and inkpads. The greeting is from the Warm Words set.

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You can see it’s not perfect (aha, it grows more like my family the more you look at it LOL!) but I didn’t use a Stamp-a-ma-jig to position the people, just eyeballed it. I can assure you that Amy’s legs are connected to her body in real life, as is Quinn’s head. (To his body, not Amy’s. Oh dear.)

OK I will confess that I have only gotten motivated to make this Christmas card because I had to design one for a Stamp-a-stack which is coming up towards the end of the month, but I say it still counts!

This one also uses the Recollections papers, and is really simple! I used a stamp from Label Classics with Chocolate Chip ink to create the scalloped oval at the top, and the Thank you is from Much Appreciated. The Chocolate grosgrain finishes it off by hiding the join in the papers.

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I haven’t made cards using patterned papers, for what seems like AGES. I’m in a rut of creating my own backgrounds, while all the time a heap of delicious papers sit and watch, just hoping for the chance to jump onto a card or layout or something.

This is one I made for the display at Paperific last month, using Recollections papers, and the matching Wild Rose stamp set (thanks for the loan Yvonne!). A bit of cranberry stitched ribbon and it’s done! The sentiment is from Happy Everything. The rose colours are Ruby Red, the leaves are Mellow Moss. I got the lighter colours by using the second impression of the image.

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It came together really quickly…. hmmmm might get those patterned papers out again! LOL!

I think this set is going to come in VERY handy for quick cards, for all ages! I’ve used All in the Family again, this time to make a little bloke who looks remarkably similar to one of the doctors I work with! It’s his birthday today, and this was so quick to make!

Colours are Brocade Blue and Very Vanilla, I also used Itty Bitty Backgrounds (as usual). Yes, that’s a matching envelope to go with that cute little card…. more on that later in the month! I coloured with blender pens and inkpads, giving him a groovy purple and green tie.

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And it took about 5 minutes - which is good for a time challenged forgetful procrastinator like myself, who knew about this birthday for a month already. Oops.

I thought I’d gotten my Feedblitz notification twice this morning - two posts with the same name! Weird!

On closer inspection, it seems Marelle and I had the same idea for a post! Go and have a look, I think I like hers better

Well, I was meant to be off to bed after House finished last night (mmmmmmm… Hugh Laurie) - I had an early start at work today. But I made the mistake of going in to see if my craft room was still there. And it was! And then I saw the All in the Family set sitting there just BEGGING me to have a play…. it was so cute, I just couldn’t say no! ‘Oh go on, just one image’ I said to myself, just to keep the darn thing happy. I couldn’t stop at just an image though. Oho no, I had to go on and design the whole card. (I wish I was better at completing other ‘houseworky’ type projects in one sitting )

This is what I came up with, as a quick card - I didn’t even use the Stamp-a-majig with this one! The colours are Rose Red and Certainly Celery - I dyed my own Rose Red ribbon with a reinker. The background is the Petal wheel from the current Mini Catalogue, and the Happy Hello is from All Year Cheer I.

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I really like it, but the colours have given me a hankering for a toffee apple!