Snowglobe Card

Firstly apologies to my Aussie readers - I know both of these stamp sets aren't currently available here - but they may appear here in a future catalogue and I couldn't resist them when I saw them on US blogs. I admit to being a bit of an ebayer - and I found the Holiday Lineup set on the American ebay site - before our dollar plummeted so no more US shopping for me for now! :(

I first saw the idea for these snowglobe cards on Libby Hickson's blog - www.stampinlibby.blogspot.com - and just fell in love with the idea. Check out her site for the instructions!

I originally thought I'd do a lovely elegant card - thus the use of the Snow Swirled set. I stamped the tree in Old Olive and then stamped and embossed the smaller snowflakes on in gold. I used a sparkling gold embossing powder for the sentiment too, which was stamped on an Elegant Eggplant base. The icicles were made using Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds - this hides the join and sparkles beautifully. I also stamped the small snowflake onto the acetate using white Staz On. I then popped some Certainly Celery ribbon onto the join. However, once I put the card together I felt it was lacking something - a bit of Christmas fun!! I had stamped the elves out previously and had been playing around with colouring them in so they were sitting on my table saying "use us". I popped some onto a scallop and the rest were cut out to peer out from inside the card - a half scallop underneath them tidying everything up.

A little note about the acetate - I have some sheets of overhead projector acetate and was planning on using that, but it was too flimsy for this application. I found this acetate in a box of chocolates but it was a little tough to cut out with the nestabilites and I put it through the cuttlebug several times leaving a bit of a jagged edge. My aim now is to look at the shops and try and find the right weight acetate - if anyone has any suggestions I'd LOVE to hear from you - I have several other stamps that would look great under "glass".

KWerner Color Challenge #32

Hooray - it's time for another Kristina Werner challenge - I was really upset to have missed the last one - the colours were just my style. Although I really can't complain about missing it as I was in Singapore on holiday with my family - not too much of a hardship. I may try the colours later anyway!

Having just gotten back from Asia 2 nights ago I decided these colours would adapt beautifully to an Asian style card - very traditional. I know I should be thinking Christmas card, but I needed a bit of a break from them!!! And there are some real beauties out there in challenge land!! Check out Kristina's blog for links! http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/index.html

Kristina had said we could change the Sahara Sand out for a metallic - so I went with gold embossed flowers on the fan and Brushed Gold cardstock under the Very Vanilla fan. The flowers were stamped from the Eastern Blooms set - only a couple of days to go for the Summer Mini : ) , and the sentiment was from the Artfully Asian set. I also used my Cuttlebug to add texture to the Whisper White card. The Real Red fan blades were made by running a scrap of card through my mini desktop shredder - a much finer shred than a standard traditional shredder - I couldn't think how else to cut such fine strips. I also made a mini tassle from some red DMC embroidery thread - one good thing about being a crafter - there's usually something useful in the craft cupboard if needed!!! The little medallion on the fan was made by embossing a flower onto card and the punching out a 1/2" circle from it - you don't need to use the whole flower to get the effect you need.

I have made the card with Real Red instead of Riding Hood Red - I don't actually have any Riding Hood Red CS so please excuse the change!

I'm back!

Hi Guys,

Apologies for the lack of posts - we took a relatively last minute week off and went to Singapore! I had planned to uplaod some photos before I went so I could pop posts in, but time just got away from me - and my internet access wasn't great. Anyway - we had a great time and I'm itching to get back to my stamps - I was actually quite surprised how much I missed it!

First things first though - I have a heap of washing to wade through - YUK!

Be back with something fun soon!!!!

A Box and Card Class

Recently I received an email from a local church group asking if I could come along to their ladies Christmas craft night and help them make a box and a card - they had found my name through the SU website! I'm lucky in that the night they need me for is next week - just before the close of the Spring mini so I can use the wonderfully versatile Season of Joy stamp set - this has GOT to be a Christmas favourite! Also luckily for me I received a group email from Jenni Oliver showing us how to make this cute box using only 1/3 of an A4 sheet - although mine does use a tiny bit extra (from my scrap box) for the handle - Jenni's used ribbon. I've crimped the handle for a little bit of extra interest. The band for the box and card came from one strip of Dashing DP - I thought it would be nice for each lady to leave with a co-ordinating set. I also popped on a couple of rhinestones - Christmas needs Bling and I have plenty to play with in my "bling box"!

I was a little concerned that I had used punches on certain elements because there are a few "lovely oldies" in the group who may have trouble using them - but figured I could take along some extra punched pieces if they were needed as they add such a dimension to the finished cards - hope I'm right! I made this set up early so the group could see what they would be doing - I also popped some Christmas mints in some cellophane and popped them in the box - I thought it would be nice to show off how cute they look all finished and ready for the Christmas season.

The colours I used were Real Red, Old Olive and Certainly Celery.

I'm certainly looking forward to the challenge of demonstrating to a big group - the lady I've been organising everything through has been so lovely that I'm sure the night will go well!

Makeesha's Inspiration Challenge #1

Check out Makeesha's fabulous blog at http://www.makeeshabyl.com.au/
The colours in this challenge are River Rock, Taken with Teal, Tempting Turquoise and Whisper White.

Well here I go again - I'm getting into these challenges and really enjoying them. This one's from Makeesha Byl - an amazingly creative lady! I just love the colours in this challenge and had to search through my scrap box to find the last piece of teal there to play with. This card has been more than just a card challenge for me - it's also the very first time I've used my new toys - nestabilites, aqua painters and watercolour crayons - and it certainly won't be the last - I think they are fabulous!! I hope my techniques with these improve over time but I wasn't too unhappy with the result.


I wanted to try and steer away from the Bali Breeze DP as I've seen several cards for this challenge that have used this paper - the problem is it's just too perfect as it has a great mix of the challenge colours! I did make a deliberate effort to choose a different stamp set than I originally wanted - here I've used Artfully Asian with the sentiment from Short and Sweet. The scallop edge is actually the edge of the card where I trimmed the card back - a look I like as it's a little less "normal"! I would have liked to have time to tweak the finished layout a bit but I need to get this in the post for a birthday that I forgot about - oops!!!!
P.S. I just went and had a look at some of the other cards for this challenge - I had seen Jean McKenzie's card earlier in the day and thought it was gorgeous! I'm a little concerned my card has a very similar layout - sorry Jean - your card must have been in the back of my mind when I sat down - it was not meant to be a CASE - though I had planned to do that later! To check out Jean's beautiful card go to http://www.jeanmckenzie.blogspot.com/

A Necklace, A Box and A Card

Next week I'm off to visit a distant friend who has been going through chemo and I decided to make her a little necklace to help cheer her up. Of course then the necklace needed to be put in a box, and a card would be nice to go with it too!!! I decided on the Rose Red cardstock initially as it went well with the deep pinks of the necklace - then I started to go a little crazy with colours inspired by the Bali Breeze DP and Felt Fusion flowers (coming out in the Summer Mini). It wasn't quite what I planned when I started out - but I love the cheeriness of it all - and hopefully it will brighten my friend up a little too and let her know we've been thinking of her!

KWerner Color Challenge #30

I have been wanting to try and do a colour challenge for several weeks now - but never seemed to get the time, or have the right colours -until now!!!! I was amazed at how daunting a task it is to stare at 4 sheets of card and think "make something"! I'm usually one of those people who start of with a vague idea and things just seem to evolve as I go - I'm hardly EVER organised enough to start with a set of specific colours. I really enjoyed the challenge though and hope I have a chance to participate in more along the way.

Here I've used a new stamp set from the Summer Mini - Eastern Blooms - with a sentiment from Short and Sweet. The sentiment was supposed to be embossed in white but I grabbed the clear by mistake - ooops! I've given the white layer the Cuttlebug treatment and well as adding some rhinestones to the flower centres - you should see it sparkle when the sun's out.

Regionals - Swaps and Make'n'Takes

I just wanted to show off some of the gorgeous swaps available at Regionals last weekend - there are some very talented people out there! I've had a look at some of the other photos I took of the individual cards laid out on the back table - but the lighting wasn't the best for photography as it has cast shadows over nearly all of my photos. Never mind - at least I can get ideas from the photos even if they aren't good enough to fill up some blog space -it's such a shame as there really were some beauties! Maybe my next job should be photography lessons, or I should invest in a better camera instead of new stamp sets - NOT LIKELY!!!

It was very exciting to check in at the desk and be handed a Make'n'take Kit and a new stamp set - wooohoooo!!! During the day we were treated to some fabulous technique demonstrations as well as some fantastic business tips - wonderful for the table of SU "virgins" I was sitting at!! We also got to play with some of the new tools, stamps and DP's from the new Summer Mini when we did our make'n'takes. I wasn't to sure about this set but as the day went on it proved to be sooo versatile - it's called Live Your Dream. I have discovered this alarming trend about SU stamps - the first time you see a set it may not grab your attention immediately - but watch out wallet!!!! - it soon becomes a "must have"!!! My long suffering hubby is finding this a very hard concept to grasp - LOL.

Reverse Masking

There are been a lot of beautiful Christmas cards appearing on blogs using the reverse masking technique. A lot of them have looked like the card above - gorgeous Christmas balls that look 3D - I just HAD to try them out! I also had an added incentive of wanting to showcase the technique at my last workshop - maybe I should have given myself more than 24 hours to master the technique but I didn't have a chance earlier and - luckily for me - it turned out to be as simple as it was effective! I started by sponging on a base of Soft Sky onto Whisper White CS. I then added shadows in Brocade Blue. The snowflake was stamped in Brocade Blue using an American release SU set called Snow Swirled - there has to be SOME advantages to a travelling hubby!!!! I then "blinged"up the snowflakes with 2 Way Glue and Dazzling Diamonds. Some Night of Navy grosgrain ribbon bows finished of the top of the balls after I used a silver pen to rule in the "strings". I layered the card onto some Night of Navy CS and finished with a Brocade Blue card.

I was thinking about the Christmas bauble card and decided to give the same reverse masking technique a go and try doing Christmas trees - they didn't turn out too bad - what do you think??? I didn't cut out the triangles I just laid the edges of 3 post-it notes down to form the shapes. A few extra post-it note pieces were needed to cover the sections already inked as I moved on. I used River Rock, Old Olive and Always Artichoke for the trees. The stamp sets I used were Season of Joy, Priceless and Snow Swirled. The trunks are made from Choc Chip CS and the card was layered onto Choc Chip and then an Old Olive card. A few gold star brads finished off the trees.
Also - I promise to show off some of the Regional Swaps I got soon - I have a few photos to work on - the lighting wasn't great for photo taking at the venue!!!!

My Regional Swaps Revealed!

Well here they are - my first ever swaps! I must admit to being quite proud of them and I was rapt with the feedback I got about them at Regionals today - I'll talk more about the Regionals in the next day or so - I need to download and sort some pictures and get over the fete tomorrow first!!!

Recipe Ingredients -
Stamp sets - One of a Kind, Artfully Asian, Boho Backgrounds
Cardstock - Regal Rose, Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla, Whisper White
Inks - Always Artichoke, Regal Rose, Bravo Burgundy, Rose Red
Ribbon - Always Artichoke grosgrain
Punches - Tag, Boho Blossoms
Other Bits - 30 gauge green wire, Dimensionals, Dazzling Diamonds, 2 Way Glue, SNAIL, Crystal Effects, 12mm Double-Sided Tape

Here are the step by step instructions to re-create these for yourselves......

For the flowers stamp 1 set each of Regal Rose, Rose Red and Bravo Burgundy using the 3 flowers stamp from One of a Kind onto Whisper White CS. You'll also need 1 extra small pink flower. Punch out using the Boho Blossoms Punch and set the largest flower aside for another project. Also punch out some flowers from plain Whisper White CS. Cut the wire into short lengths, turn the top over to help the wire stop sliding out of the flower. Sandwich the wire between 1 stamped flower and 1 plain flower using Crystal Effects as your glue - I originally used SNAIL but the flowers tended to pop apart. I haven't tried the Crystal Effects but a lovely demonstrator at Regionals today suggested it would solve my problem. I had 1 of each size and colour wired up, and one spare small flower - this is put on last using Dimensionals. Use a little 2 Way Glue on the flower centre and dip into Dazzling Diamonds - set aside for later.

Cut some Very Vanilla to 4 1/8" x 2 15/16" - sorry about the measurements, I tend to cut to suit me and measure later - it sometimes ends up with these strange measurements!!! Stamp the flowers from the Boho Backgrounds set onto Certainly Celery using Always Artichoke ink. Cut 1 vase top out of the stamped CS using the Tag Punch. Cut 1 vase base out of plain Celery CS using just the top of the Tag Punch. Sponge Always Artichoke around the edges of both pieces.

Attach the vase base to the Very Vanilla CS as a guide. Cut 1 tag out of a post-it note and trim a few mm's off the top of the vase so your stamping doesn't stop short of the vase top. Stick the post-it note vase top in place
on the Very Vanilla.

Using the fern-like leaf stamp from Artfully Asian stamp 3 times in Always Artichoke using the post-it note as a guide.


Colour in one of each of the leaf sections that cross over each other - this hides the messy cross overs as well as adding another dimension to the backgound.

Add 2 pieces of double-sided tape to where the vase will be. This helps hold the flowers in place as you position them.




Arrange your flowers making sure the wires are laid side by side - you don't want too much bulk under the vase. Once you are happy, attach the vase with SNAIL and pop the unwired flower onto the top of the vase.

Tie a knot in a small piece of Always Artichoke grosgrain ribbon and attach to the vase to hide the join.

Layer your floral arrangement and it's base onto 3 3/16" x 4 7/16" of Certainly Celery, then 3 1/2" x 4 3/4" of Rose Red, and finally onto the top part of a Regal Rose card that has the sentiment from One of a Kind stamped onto the bottom right in Bravo Burgundy.

I hope you enjoyed checking this out - please let me know if you give it a try, I'd love to see what you come up with.

Fete Spiders

Well, here they are - those crazy little critters that have been on many of the blogs for Halloween! In the variety of bright colours I think they'll be perfect for a school fete though - what do you think??? I'm not sure exactly where these little guys started but they are very simple to make using the Scallop Circle Punch, the Photo Corners Punch, the 1/2" Circle Punch and the 1/4" Circle Punch. I found some Ernest Hillier Christmas Mint Patties that worked well with these - but have seen them done without too.

Boxy Bags CASE

A big thank you goes out to Sam at Ryemilan's for this great project - I think I CASE'd practically the whole project from her - the idea, the colours and the designer paper - thanx Sam, you are such a talented lady!! Some of the boxes were given the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug treatment just to add variety.

I made these because we were getting a little concerned at the lack of craft appearing for the fete from parents at my son's school, so I decided to whip up a few of these (with some Christmas mints inside) to help fill up the stall. I had a few extra boxes as I had used the idea at my workshop last weekend and had gone a little crazy cutting them out for whenever they were needed - must have known!! I used the snowflake from the Season of Joy set and added some Dazzling Diamonds to the centre and the ends - they looked very cute. It's such an easy yet elegant project!

Also, a special note to Wendy and Cheryl, I'm off to put a few scallop spiders together too - I found some Christmas Mint Patties by Ernest Hillier that should work wonderfully! Will try and take some pics and post them before I hand my box of goodies in!

And here are the boxy bags I did for my workshop, one was the door prize and the other was for the hostess. As you can see, I also used a cuttlebug folder on the blue boxy bag, although this one was the snowflakes folder. They are also stamped with Season of Joy stamps - and I've popped a gold star brad on the top of the tree for extra effect.

Post-It Note Holders

I just thought I'd show you some more things I've made for my son's fete - which is this Sunday. I'll be glad to finish off and pass the box of bits on! These are post-it note holders made from acrylic picture frames and I originally found the tutorial at SCS - check out the link below. I was grateful to have my friend Deb help me out as I was starting to stress a little about all the things I had to do - and some of it was even housework and looking after the kids - LOL!!! My daughter also took time out from studying for her end of year exams to help with the colour selections - so I hope you like our collaborative effort! I was really pleased to find the mini gel pens at K-Mart at a very reasonable price.

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/acrylic_post_ittrade_note_holder/

I also wanted to give you a sneak peek at what my work table has been reduced to this week. Not only am I finishing off bits for the fete, I'm also off to my very first SU Regionals on Saturday and I'm trying to make some swaps to take with me... I'll post the finished swap later - IF I ever get them all done as it's back to work tomorrow!! I've mentioned before that I love the Boho Blossoms Punch from the Spring Mini - but think I might just give it a rest for a while after I'm done with these - LOL.

Blog Counter

Hooray - I finally figured out how to add a visitor's counter to my blog - I won't tell you how many failed attempts I've had since I started my blog!!!! Guess it's all a learning process! Now I'll have to find time to see what else I can add.......

Mini Catalogues

Just a reminder that there's only a few more weeks to purchase from the Spring Mini Catalogue.

Unfortunately there is no guarantee that any of the products will be offered again - so remember it closes on the 30th of November!

The new Summer Mini will be starting on December 1st - so let me know if you would like me to send you one.

Remember to check out which products you would like on your Christmas Wish List too!!

November Specials

Hi Guys,

For anyone who loves their markers here is a great opportunity to pick up some of your favourite colours. For a limited time only you can buy the markers individually.Click here to read the flyer in detail. Stampin Up are also having a special on some of their womderful Rub-Ons. This is also for a limited time only so check out the details below.

Single Stampin' Write Marker Special Offer
Dates: 10-30 November 2008
Promotion Details:
From 10-30 November, purchase Stampin' Write markers individually for $4.95.

Rub-Ons Promotion
Dates: 10-30 November 2008
Promotion Details:
Spend $20 on regular catalogue merchandise and qualify to purchase any Rub-Ons assortment at 20 percent off ($15.96 per package; regularly $19.95):

Item # Page # Description
110285______141_________ Urban West Rub-Ons
110281______141_________Cherished Memories Rub-Ons
110282______141_________Anchored Rub-Ons
110284______6*__________Eastern Elegance Rub-Ons
111277______ 11*_________A Perfect Day Rub-Ons

*From Spring 2008 Mini Catalogue

Please contact me if you need any further information about these wonderful offers - or to place an order.

Tea Light Candles Holders

The idea for these came from a candle holder designed for Halloween. I had a workshop today and wanted to take along something new and seeing that we were making things in a Christmas theme I decided to go with the flow and create Christmas candle holders. These are really simple and yet soo effective - the link to the tutorial is below. I used Real Red Cardstock and cut the scallop using the corner punch. (Watch for the Scallop Punch release in the next mini - it will make this job a breeze!!). I also added some extra detail by punching the small holes along the scallop using the small hole punch in the Cropodile - one of my favorite tools! The Stamp sets I used were Festive Favorites and Lovely as a Tree. The tree is the small lone pine in the middle of the group of trees, I used my black marker to color it and stamp it as a solo tree. I popped on a few rhinestones for Christmas sparkle - this looks great when the candles aren't alight but they don't really show up on the lit candles - you can see the difference in the photos. I'm off now to enjoy my dinner by festive candlelight - hope you give these a go if you like candles as much as I do!

http://www.scor-pal.com/oct2_magazine/index_files/Page425.htm