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Mother's Day will be here before we know it, so I thought this month I'd focus on feminine -themed projects. Some of my classes did a couple of beautiful cards for mother and some did this set of four cards to give to their mothers. Either gift would be enjoyed!
The case for the four cards and envelopes has little pockets inside to hold the cards. So cute! The front cover uses the Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP 126922- a happy set of prints.
Two of the cards inside were inspired by a project we had at the last Auckland Extravaganza, designed by Rachael Knight and Sara Falconer and the other two I just made up once the ball got rolling.
These are made using the notecard and envelope sets 107311 - such a bargain at 20 notecards and 20 envelopes for only $11.95!
I loved using the Cloudy Day 127022 embossing folder with these ones! I dabbed just a bit of the Whisper White ink over the top to make the clouds stand out just a little bit more.
And if you didn't yet notice, I took these pics in my NEW craft room, which is still a work in progress, but I think another week or so and it will be all done. I need to get some chairs for one thing.
And here is the mess still in one corner of the room:
I've put a few pics of the rest of the room up on my Facebook Business Page - come on over and check it out if you haven't already! I'd love to see what you think. And any great ideas on chairs are welcome, too!
I had fun making this project for my swap yesterday at our Stampin' Up! Creative Inkers team training. Okay, maybe i was still making them as the ladies arrived. . . . but it did go together quickly and was fun! I just love those new Vanilla Flower Trim flowers in the Seasonal Mini - so fun to spray and colour!
I did this up with a few different patterns from the Tea for Two DSP:
The really fun bit was, as I said above, the flowers! I love these babies and will be ordering more tomorrow. I spritzed them with my own potion made up of water, rubbing alcohol, and some drops of Calypso Coral ink refill. Fun! I love the spritzers, too, and for only $3, they are sure worth having.
Enjoy! To order any products, please contact me here!
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Oh, Hello!
Colours: Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Crumb Cake, So Saffron
It's been a great weekend! I got to see many of you at our Christmas events, and that was fun for me and for our entire team!
The above picture is yesterday at the Hamilton Extravaganza. Shona and I had a great time chatting away and teaching the ladies!
At both events, this is what I taught:
These were fun and quick to put together - perfect for a Merry Christmas gift for co-workers, teachers and the like.
We used the Petite Pockets die (love this!) for the coffee and the Top Note Die for the gingerbread man. We jazzed both up using the new Scentsational Season stamps and dies - cute!!
You still have lots of time to order these now to make this project or similar up for Christmas!
Colours: Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso
Other: Petite Pockets Die, Festival of Prints DSP, Dazzling Details, Holiday Framelits, Top Note Die, Sugar and Spice Embossing Powder
Upcoming Events:
Saturday Nov 10th Auckland Scrapbooking Day! $55 for 4 layouts! If we have extra time, you can work on your own projects 9:30 am to about 5 pm. Birkenhead
Monday November 12th Christmas Stamp Class in Birkenhead! 7:30pm 2 projects $15
I designed up this project when I was teaching a group of lovely ladies who had not ever stamped before. This one features an easy, but effective and fun, technique, and is quick to put together.
I've used the Blissful Bird stamp here, one of our stamps that comes single AND it matches up with the ever popular Bird Punch:
I also did this cutie up in the new Primrose Petals colour (Pool Party above), just to see what it looked like:
Someone had the idea in one of my classes (I think it was in Nelson) to do this one up in Cherry Cobbler and make it Christmas. I thought that was brilliant, especially since the words on birdie's tummy are perfect for general, wedding or Christmas. So after a few times playing around with different variations, this one was my favorite:
I'll be using this one as my swap in Broome next week - can't wait! I should have made my travel companion help me with these . . . . :-), but I guess the diamond ring will suffice to earn his way this time. It's my honor to have him there with me.
I will be taking my computer with me and will check once a day for orders and customer service and things. Be thinking of you!
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Blissful Bird $18.95
Colours: various, but mostly Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Primrose Petals, Certainly Celery
My 12 year old daughter, Kjristi, had a great time making these sugar cookies! She used the recipe included in the Cookie Presses, rolled it into balls, and then pressed with the snowflake press. Fun!
I kept the topper rather simple as it's likely to get tossed. (Sorry that's just reality). Cute, but nothing hugely time consuming!
I've used the new Frosty Friends here, a single stamp in the Holiday Catalogue. Easy to colour in, too.
I used the new Window Framelits shapes for the topper for something a bit different. And don't forget you get a FREE roll of the stitched satin ribbon with any order of $70 - no limit! See the Specials and Promotions page for all the details.
A cute little gift for co workers, neighbors, or other school mums, for example!
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Frosty Friends
Colours: midnight Muse, Raspberry Ripple, various markers
My second favorite thing to do with my crafting is altered art! That used to conjure up images of quite busy art that wasn't my style so much. But altered art (to me) means repurposing an item.
In this case, an empty coffee tin! I should have taken the "before & after" shots. And no, I did not drink 20 tins of coffee. My good friend and downline Barbara Bicknell of the Chocolate Boutique in Parnell gave these to me.
We did these in the Takanini class on Wednesday, and it was amazing to see how different they all turned out! Super fun. What a great group they are.
We used the Sweets for the Sweet set, which was perfect for a Lolly Tin. Some ladies used the Up, Up, & Away, which was equally cute.
And I found my missing lollipops in my desk drawer. Isn't this soooo cute?!
I love how we can take something that would otherwise be thrown out and make something somebody is going to LOVE!
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Sweets for the Sweet, Up, Up & Away
Colours: Lucky Limeade, Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Pretty in Pink
Other: Sweet Shoppe DSP, Black brads, 1 inch circle punch, dazzling diamonds glitter, Old Olive Grosgrain ribbon
This was my swap for the Stampin' Up! convention in Canberra this year - these were a tiny bit more work that my standard swap, but still quite easy to whip together. And it certainly helped that after team training one day, several of my team sat down for half hour and helped finish them off.
It's so much more fun to craft when you have conversation and many hands!! Amazing how we got done in a short time what might have taken me hours . . .
I've enjoyed these Twitterpated papers - that they can go both feminine and masculine was quite useful when using it for scrapbooking.
I used the 1" square punch and used up all the bits and pieces from leftovers and made up this easy little quilted pattern. You can add some bits and bobs you have extra, like those extra butterflies, the scraps of ribbon, and the last brad in the container.
I like this one, and I think I will be making it up for personal use in different colours!
All orders over $150 in June receive the Reason to Smile set FREE! Email me to place your order!
This is one of the projects I showed at Convention last week - my topic being ways to use your scraps. Which is quite a broad and varied topic. I loved how this card turned out, and who doens't have strips of patterned paper left over in their packs?
Here is a cute way to use them!
I just scissor cut the strips at the bottom to make the ever-popular banner shape and used my mat pack to create some faux stitching across the top.
I used the framelits die to cut just one side of the sentiment panel, and then inked up one of the stamps from Word Play with a marker, omitting some of the words. Add those great vintage tags and a glittery heart and done!
Here is a slightly different version I gave to my friend just as I was on the way to the airport to Canberra. Luckily she was still doing well when I returned, but it's so important to show love every day . . .
Love you Fern!
Join us! Auckland Winter Extravaganza!
June 23rd Saturday 1-5pm. Make five beautiful projects and enjoy an afternoon out! Door prizes, displays, afternoon tea and more!! $45 includes all materials and a $10 voucher to spend on the day. Book in today!
A CASE off the net - Many thanks to the original artist Amy Risary. I loved the simplicity of the butterflies and the cool use of DSP. I've used the Paisley Petals DSP here:
AND I like how we've used a few of the butterflies from the Bigz Butterfly Die that I don't normally use. It comes with four, and I have tended to just use the one, so this was great.
A little white embossing on them gives them just that bit more interest and it's quick and easy to do.
This makes a nice Mother's Day card or a sympathy card or a birthday card - an easy design that's quick to adjust for the occasion.
Now, I'm off to do some work for convention! Just two weeks and a bit away before we leave!
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Just Believe, Loving Thoughts
Colours: Calypso Coral, Soft Suede
Other: Paisley Petals DSP, Basic Pearls, White Embossing Powder, Taffeta and lace ribbon, Bigz Butterfly die
Well the day I took these must have been very dark in my house! LOL
These little cuties were my swap for team training on saturday. My eldest daughter commented that they were more simple than I usually do. Actually not.
Although there is a lot of white and white space, that doesn't necessarily mean the techniques were simple. Just that the design is easy for the eye to interpret.
I've used the new set Mouthwatering here, which are some fun, bold images - perfect for the new Scented Embossing Powder! I've done these up with the cherry scent, which had all three of my daughters' attention when I was heating it.
The background paper is the fun new DSP, Sweet Shop, a specialty pack that features raised embossing on some of the prints. I'd like to do a scrapbook page using these papers. I'm sure I have a messy, ice cream or ice block photo in the stash.
And LOVE the baker's twine - all the colours from last catalogue (white, espresso, and cherry cobbler) are still available too!
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a wedding, and look forward to another one next month. That was my first NZ wedding, so it was a real treat! Being wedding season, and given the new, beautiful wedding stamp set in the Summer Mini, I thought designing wedding project would be perfect for my first class of 2012.
I struggled with the colours of this one for a while, then just went back to the classic Black & White with a touch of silver. LOVE the new glimmer paper!! Just a little bit adds a real wow - so one pack of this product will go a very long long way.
Girls, I added that embossing after the class as I felt it just needed one more thing. LIke it? It's a bit better, I think.
During the school holidays, the girls and I are inspired to do something extra special for the significant other in our lives. In July we made the Moroccan Restaurant for him downstairs, and this time we spent a good part of a day making 40 Love Notes.
We just used bits and pieces - stickers and die cuts and stamps to make up some simple ideas. My younger two daughters LOVED the coloring in bit.
I then wrote in all of them, some sentimental, some silly, some naughty, and some appreciative. Kjristi and Sofie wrote a couple and also wrote on all the envelopes and sealed them up.
Our super secret plan was to go over to his house and hide them all over, some in easy places to he'd find them right away and some really really hard so he'd find them continually for a long time.
The four of us were sooo excited. Melinda, Kjristi, Sofie and myself all jumped into the car with 39 cards (the 40th I saved back and stole his car keys and hid it on his car seat while he was over for dinner thanking him for being cool about melinda going to Fiji with me).
We decided to call him along the way to make sure he wasn't home or on his way home. I decided it might be a good idea to have a reason we were in his house . .just in case . . . so I offered to move his laundry along.
Boy did we race around!! We only had 15 minutes before I had to go pick up daughter #3 AND now I had to do the laundry!! We hid them in some good spots. The girls were fantastic.
So, he found the one on his seat right away of course when he left my house late that night. (this was the night before Melinda and I left for Fiji). He thought that was nice and drove off. Then he got home and found one in his washing machine, then another in the bathroom, and then caught onto our game . . . .
He texted me about 40 minutes later and told me he'd found them all - he'd found 11. He still doesn't know how many there are, but I think to date he's found about 20 or so.
We also disovered that the Stampin Up journaler - the permanent black marker pen - that its ink goes through the dishwasher remarkably well.
It was a small thing really, but it was a fun, bonding activity for my girls and myself. And I hope Robert feels special and thought of and cherished. And I also hope that he finds one just right when he needs one.
xxxx Love you Rob
** Love Notes Envelopes set of 40 $14.50 pg 126 (mini squares)
This is one of the projects I presented at one of the senz classes this past weekend, and a class I thoroughly enjoyed. The ladies (actually in ALL the classes) were so friendly, so relaxed, so receptive, and so willing to share and learn.
The neat thing about a set of cards is that each individual card doesn't have to be complex - it's the nature of having a coordinating set that makes it a wow all by itself!
The card boxes are clear acrylic boxes that one of my downline sourced for us. They are fantastic - clear so they coordinate with anything and just the right size to fit a standard sized card!!
The feature on this card was done using the Circles Die. I do use this one quite a fair bit - sure beats cutting circles out by hand!! And I have lost my Circle Scissors Plus somewhere in the depths of my craft room, so cutting by hand really was my only other option!
I do like the Sunny Garden papers - so happy and fun!
And the Butterfly Embosslits - wow, can't get much more verstile that these. I just kept them on my table through all the classes at SENZ because we used them so much.
Cottage Garden Stamp set + the Sunny Garden papers + Butterfly Embosslets = Winning Combination!!
This is a very cute little invitation Stampin' Up! sent to me before Convention for the Manager's Reception. Really, it's basically just one layer of cardstock and some small pieces of Designer Series Papers on top.
I like the mix of the EAstern Blooms stamp set and the Five Petal Flower Punch here. That's a darn easy flower "center" they've done up - I wouldn't have thought to use the stamp directly on the DSP.
Hmmm, I think I might copy this idea for an upcoming Senz class using different colours and different stamps . .. .
Can you tell what punch is used to make that cute border?
Have a fantastic weekend and don't forget to check out this week's Deals of the Week! (see below)
This really is a Quick and Easy project . . . . however, when you make 60, it starts to seem like a lot of pieces . . . . .
I ended up changing it a little bit for the actual swaps, using Crumb cake borders instead of Bashful blue and the Square Lattice folder instead of the Polka Dots. But this version is cute too - and preferred by most of the ladies in class last night actually.
I like the idea of creating this little window to feature a small image. That cupcake just squeezed in there!
I feel sorry for the people who have to do their swaps all by themselves . . . My three kids, Chrissie Patterson, and Rob and my hairdresser all pitched in on these. How would it be if I had to actually do all the work myself??
Here's hoping the ladies in Aussie like this one!
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Tiny Tags $37.95, Create a Cupcake $44.95
Colours: Pink Pirouette, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Rose Red, Crumb Cake, Night of Navy
Chrissie has an adorable take on the Nursery Suite Quick Accents and the Flower Brads! This one has been sitting on my benchtop for a few weeks, and there's been lots of oohs and aahs over it.
Now that is one nappie I'd be happy to receive! LOL
A cute little pattern and some simple embellishments is all you need. I like how Chrissie popped those circle stickers up on Dimensionals.
Also clever to use that brad as a closure - effective and adds a decorative accent.
Inside the card is the sentiment and a few more bits from the Quick Accents pack. Makes for a cute and fast project!
Thanks so much Chrissie! Last night we missed you in class - we made a lovely Easter Basket amongst other items. I'll post up the Easter Basket Janine taught us on Friday ~
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Well Scripted
Colours: so Saffron, Chocolate Chip,Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery
Easy Peasy One Layer Card for you today! I used this as my swap last month at Regional Trainings and made quite a few in a couple of hours.
Only two colours plus black used here to create a striking background and effect. Use post it notes to make the "ground". It was bothering Rob, my friend who was watching me, that htey were all turning out differently, but hey, that's part of the charm. Each one is a bit different.
I used sponges here instead of a brayer because I was using a mask and wanted more of a "cloudy" look instead of a smooth graduated look.
Love that tree from the Thoughts & Prayers set!
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Thoughts and Prayers set of six 54.95, Baroque Motifs set of six $47.95
This one has been displayed on my desk for a while! True to Bron Heslop's style, this is simple and effective stamped card. Bron gave this to my daughter Sofie for her baptism .. . wow that was a while back!
Clearly I swiped the card off Sofie.
This is one of my favourite stamp sets in the new Catalogue, Just Believe. It's a huge set with lots of flexibility.
One of the great things about having inks and cardstock and printed papers that all match AND stamp images that coordinate with the printed paper is that it doesn't take much to create a beautiful project that looks "just right".
This is a simple design - one stamp in one colour on a single sheet of Designer Series Paper:
I put the so yummy Chocolate Chip Supernova Glitter on the flowers to make them pop a bit more. There is also just a dash of Dazzling Diamonds on the stamped image.
This was then put on an inexpensive notebook - easily found at a $2 shop or similar. I have three daughters, as many of you know, and a notebook is always a hit. And I am a listmaker, so I use lots of these myself. And somehow, it's just so much more fun to write in something beautiful!
