I have a bit of a thing for dragonflies.  Well, not so much for the real things but for dragonfly stamps!

My newsletter ladies will have seen in my mid March newsletter the dragonfly I watercoloured recently.  It hadn't made it onto a card at that stage, but on the weekend I decided it was time to find it a home.

The base card is Chocolate Chip.  I've sponged the border with some Close To Cocoa ink for a bit of subtle depth.   

I've stamped the dragonfly from Nature's Nest (Summer Mini pg 17) using Sahara Sand ink on Very Vanilla Cardstock.  I stamped it 3 times without reinking for a graduated look.  Then used my 1 1/4" Circle Punch to select the parts I wanted. I mounted these on a Kraft circle punched with my 1 3/8" punch.

I reversed the circles for the feature dragonfly to sit on.  He was stamped onto some of our gorgeous watercolour paper (main catalogue, pg 130) then coloured with an aquapainter.  I scribbled some colur onto my stamp case using Stampin' Write markers, and used that as my pallette for colouring.  I'd tell you exactly what colours but I have completely forgotten!  They were from my Earth Elements markers. 

Once I was done blending, I cut him out with some nice sharp paper snips (pg 155) and popped him up with a Stampin' Dimensional foam tab.

I love the beautiful detail on the stamps in this set.  I've been thinking the dragonfly would look nice embossed in silver on dark cardstock.  Hoping to be back soon if that idea transfers well from my head to cardstock!!

Have a great day,

Cheers, Sue 

I spent a lovely relaxing couple of hours yesterday making some cards so there should be lots to look at here in my patch of blogland this week.  First up is a card made using the gorgeous felt flowers from Flower Fusion Too.

I made this card recently using Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red and Old Olive flowers from the Flower Fusion tin, and ever since I've wanted to try it in the other colour scheme.   (Inspired by this one at Stampin' Pretty.) 

The Flower Fusion Too tin has Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip.  You can find it on page 144 if you're looking for it.   I've used the black and silver brads from the Vintage Brad Pack (pg 149) and the pink ones from the Soft Subtles pack. 

Some black embossing treatment for the Whimsical Words greeting.  I like the mix of fonts in this SaleABration stamp set.  Happiness Always is my favourite of the 6 greetings I think.

I took some pics of the kids last night while we were having an impromptu bbq dinner on our balcony.  Happiness Always is what I wish for them when I look at this photo too.

Hope you and yours are having a happy weekend. 

Back each day for the next few days.  I've got lots to share - a dragonfly card I love, some 10cm cards CASEd from a blogland friend and my first attempt at a Teneale bow!

Happy stamping!

Cheers, Sue

That is a bit of a mouthful isn't it, but that is all I needed for this quick and simple card.

I've used the sketch from a gorgeous site I discovered when blog hopping a little while back.   

This one is Fall To Layout #81 at the Clean and Simple Stamping site.   I think they call them 'Fall To' sketches as they are designs you can fall back on over and over.   Grab a cuppa before you go visit - I spent AGES browsing when I first discovered it.

Loved these cards for this sketch over at Robyn's blog (which is where I came across the C & S site.  Thanks Robyn!)   Check Robyn's cards here.  Just gorgeous.  Isn't it a great way to use Circle Circus. 

This card uses one of my circle punches.  (Hmmm 1 1/4" or 1 3/8" - I'll have to go check.)  Plus the matching Almost Amethyst cardstock.  (Did you know the matching colours are listed under the titles of the Patterned Paper packs on pages 132 - 135?  Handy if you're wondering which colours coordinate.) 

I've used one of the greetings from Whimsical Words.  This is one of the sets you get free with a $100 order placed before the end of March.  Details here.

Well, this was such a quick card to make - I grabbed out some leftover bits from other paper packs and kept going.

Here it is in Old Olive and Bella Rose DSP.  (DSP stands for Designer Series Patterned Paper.) 

Definitely the 1 1/4" Circle Punch for this one.   I popped a couple up on dimensionals.  I just used scissors to trim the circles that were hanging over the edge.

This greeting is from Best Yet - one of our Level 1 hostess sets.  You can find them on pages 17  - 19.  You can't purchase them but if you'd like one - here's how!  Host a workshop, collect orders from friends for $300, have a $300 splurge or join one of my marker clubs if you'd like to add a hostess set to your collection.  Workshop details here.  Marker Club details here. 

Now for this last one I thought I'd get a whole bunch of my circle punches out.  I just kept adding - not quite sure it came together in the end but it was fun!  (Ever have cards like that!?)  One of my workshop guests last weekend did a lovely version of this with heaps of overlapping circles of different sizes - loved how that looked too.  (Didn't have my camera for a pic so you'll just have to close your eyes and imagine for that one - oops!)

I did like it in Kraft and Bella Bleu DSP.  Here's a simpler version from my Mid March Newsletter.   (Did you get your copy last week??  Sign up box at the top right there if you'd like to receive it in your inbox.)

Well that might be enough circles for one day.   Hope you are having a super weekend.

If you are in the mood for some stamping and card making blog surfing, the super super talented Teneale Williams has a special treat for us for the remaining days of March.  She's seeing the SaleABration and Summer Mini sets out in style with a card a day.  And if you've visited her site before you will know that this is SUCH a special treat.  Her cards are just STUNNING.  You can find her site here.  My class girls will know I'm a tad bow challenged, and I loved the little video clip she showed on a recent post with a fabulous bow making method.   It is at the bottom of this post.

Aaaaahhhh, I FINALLY got my hair cut and degreyed this morning.  At 8am (ugh) - lucky they had coffee.   Back to looking slightly more like my blog profile pic.  Hee hee.

Happy stamping and get in touch if I can help with any Stampin' Up questions!

Cheers, Sue

I love the colours Perfect Plum, Pale Plum and Certainly Celery together - one of those combinations I like to come back to quite regularly.  I adapted my glitter windows card from last month's classes to make this one using Butterfly Prints and Sweet Treat Cups.

Stamp Sets: Butterfly Prints, Razzle Dazzle (can you spot it hiding in there?) Sprinkles and Short and Sweet.

Colours: Perfect Plum, Pale Plum and Certainly Celery

Punches: Eyelet Border Punch, Butterfly Punch and 1 3/4" Circle Punch (this is the one you need for the Sweet Treat Cups.)

Finishing Touches: Certainly Celery ribbon, Sweet Treat Cup and a half pearl from the Pretties Kit

Well, better leave it at that for today - Jack is patiently (well sort of!) waiting for his turn on the computer so he can do Reading Eggs.  If you've got littlies it is a fabulous site for introducing letters and reading skills in a fun way.   After each 'lesson' you get a new critter in your critter book.  Jack just LOVES to collect those critters so it is time for me to hand over the mouse!!

Hope you're having a lovely day.

Cheers, Sue

PS  Space left for tonight's class if you're in the mood for some card making.  Details here.  

Hello hello.  I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  We celebrated our 11th anniversary with a nice dinner out on Saturday evening.  I must confess I do so enjoy a meal with no little children at the table from time to time!!

Not long to go now for the Summer Mini so I thought I'd share a card today that uses a few of my favourite Summer Mini products.  Got any Summer Mini products on your wish list??  You can order from this catalogue up until March 31st.

This card was inspired by this beautiful Nikki Sadler card. 

Cardstock:  The base card is Confetti White.  I love the little fleck of colour through this cardstock.  I've also used some Whisper White, Perfect Plum and Pale Plum. 

Stamp Sets:  One of my favourites from the main catalogue 'Pocket Silhouettes' plus Butterfly Prints.  I've used the butterfly punch as well.

Feature: The Sweet Treat Cup and 1 3/4" Circle Punch are a great combination.   You can do so many things with them.  The butterfly wedges nicely inside.

Finishing Touches:  Some Certainly Celery Ribbon, a Pretties Kit half pearl to jazz up our butterfly, and a rhinestone brad (either from the Pretties Kit or they are available separately in a rhinestone pack with 3 sizes. Pg 149)  

Doesn't the ribbon look lovely cinched with the rhinestone brad.   I learnt that nice little finishing touch from Nikki Sadler as well.  (Thanks!)   I'm a tad challenged in the knot and bow tying department so am always on the look out for alternatives!!  

Keep an eye out soon for a mid March newsletter from me with a couple more cards using Butterfly Prints and Sweet Treat Cups.   You could make them at a March workshop if you can gather 3 or more friends together this weekend - Saturday 20th March, Sunday 21st March or the following weekend Saturday 28th March.  Some bonus hostess goodies on offer for my March hostesses.   Check here for more info.

Happy Stamping!  

Cheers, Sue

I have spent some happy moments doing some watercolouring this week, and the Happy Moments SaleABration stamp set has some lovely images suited to this technique.  I've been colouring the stack of presents using different combinations of colours.  This was my favourite!

I did some others with more layers and what not but I like the simplicity and bright colours of this one.   The base card is Lovely Lilac - a gorgeous lilac colour from the Bold Brights colour family.  I've used my Bold Brights Stampin' Write markers and an aquapainter to do the watercolouring.  (Pink Passion, Yo Yo Yellow, and Lovely Lilac.) 

I embossed my presents image onto watercolour paper for today's projects.  I then coloured directly onto my watercolour paper with my marker - colouring approximately the left third of the image (one bit at a time) then used my aquapainter (pg 156) to drag the colour across. 

Patience is not my greatest virtue but you do need some with this to let your image dry before doing a section that adjoins.  This helps prevent the colours from bleeding through to the next bit.  If you're a bit patience challenged like me you can speed things up with your heat gun.   

A thin black matting helps pick up the black embossing.  I love matting!

The simple greeting is also from the Happy Moments SaleABration set.  I saw this Claire Daly card and liked how she'd done the greeting with the Curly Label Punch so thought I'd use that for this project.

To add a little interest to the border and balance out the card I used this stamp.

This is one of those quiet little stamps sitting in the stamp container unobtrusively that is very easy to overlook.   It is from the Razzle Dazzle stamp set (Summer Mini, page 18/19.) 

Now I must say I bought this set for this gorgeous stamp ....

.... and hadn't taken much notice of the rest of the set to be honest!  But I grabbed out this flower one day and am finding it a really cute little thing.  Great for quick and easy backgrounds.  Perhaps I'll have to try featuring it more prominently next craft session - stay tuned for that one.

This is getting rather long isn't it.  Shall we leave it at that for today? 

No lets kick on!  You might need a grab a cuppa to make it to the bottom of this post today.  (I might need one to get it typed up!)

I embossed a bunch of Happy Moments presents and tried out a few other colour combos and watercolouring mediums.

This one is on a Not Quite Navy base card. The main panel is Kraft and I've used another of the images from Razzle Dazzle for the background - stamped in Sahara Sand.  We don't have Kraft ink but Sahara Sand works beautifully I find.  Ruby Red and Black for matting.  The greeting is stamped on Naturals Ivory - with its lovely subtle speckle.  Brads from the Vintage Brads pack and my Curly Label Punch again.

I've used my Earth Elements Watercolour Crayons with my aquapainter this time, and of course watercolour paper.   Have you tried it yet?  It is gorgeous to work with.  So lovely and thick, enabling you to blend beautifully.  Page 130 if you're looking for them.  You get 20 sheets for $13.50.  I like to make sure people realise the size: they're 9.5cm x 12.7cm.  I could fit 4 presents onto one sheet. 

Colours here are Summer Sun, Not Quite Navy, Ruby Red and Pumpkin Pie.  (My patience wasn't charged up for this one you might notice if you look closely at the stripes.  Hee hee.)  Creamy Caramel for a background wash. 

Last one!

Tempting Turquoise base card for this one.  Kraft, Only Orange, Naturals Ivory and Black cardstock too.  Real Red grosgrain ribbon (pg 151.)  Curly Label punch(pg 153)  and those Vintage Brads (pg 149) - the silver this time.  

Back to my Stampin' Write markers again for this one.  (If you're after a set of markers there is room in my marker club. Check here for details.  If you'd just like a couple of packs, check your March Madex Creations newsletter.  You can sign up for my newsletter at the top right there.)

If you'd like to try some watercolouring, I have space in my Wednesday class - Wed 17th March, 7.30pm, Avondale Heights in Melbourne's west.  Its lots of fun, much easier than it looks and a great technique to experiment with.  Details here.

Phew - did you make it to the bottom!  I do like to waffle on don't I.  Aaaah, keeps me out of the kitchen and off the streets.

BTW:  The insurance assessor decided our car was a write off so we're off car shopping this weekend!   Whatever your weekend plans may be, I hope you have a good one.  And fingers crossed we can all squeeze in a bit of craft time too.  (And fingers crossed we find a car or John is going to get VERY FIT cycling to work every day!)

Cheers, Sue

One of my Marker Clubs is up to the month where they receive my Stained Glass Technique tutorial so I've had my vellum cardstock and embossing gear out to send them some embossed vellum to try the technique out on. 

I thought the SaleABration set Happy Moments might be a good one to try with this technique, so did some experimenting with it today.  Here's my first card using the bunch of flowers from this set.

The Recipe:

Cardstock:   Elegant Eggplant, Kraft, Whisper White, Pale Plum and Vellum Cardstock

Stamp Set:   Happy Moments - a really versatile set.  One of the sets you can have for free this month with any $100 order.

Embossing gear:  Embossing Buddy (makes SUCH a difference), heat tool, Versamark pad and gold embossing powder, Powder Pal trays to catch and funnel all the powder.

Punches: Scallop Circle, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" Circle Punches.

Stampin' Write Marker: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and Mellow Moss  (Join my latest marker club to collect them all over the next 8 months along with 8 fabulous tutorials for marker techniques.  Details here.)

Other:  Elegant Eggplant narrow grosgrain ribbon (which looks much straighter in real life, promise!)  Sponge daubers and Pale Plum ink.  

The greeting 'Happy Birthday' is from the Happy Moments set too.  I like the simple look of it.  Thought it'd be nice as more of a background feature so did it with gold embossing on the Kraft cardstock.

You get a lovely soft looking colour using Stained Glass technique. 

My embossing looks a tad bumpy in that shot doesn't it?!  That'd be because my gold embossing powder has some green glitter mixed through it from my Christmas card making sessions.  Adds a nice hint of sparkle to the embossing. 

Stormy Weekend

For those of you who had a stormy weekend, how did you fare?  We were quite fortunate that our power went out when the storm hit Saturday so John headed to the garage to grab a torch.  He was surprised to step in to a little splash!  The drain at the bottom of our driveway was blocked so we got an inch or two of water through our garage.  He headed out in the hail to unblock it which stopped the water making it in the doorway to the house.  Phew!   Made a right old mess in the garage, but it was mainly junk in there so not too much of a drama.  We had a good clean out yesterday and got rid of most of the damp cardboard and accumulated junk.  Looks quite spiffy now!    

My sister, Hannah and I were at Paperific. We'd just finished a lovely browse through the stands, Hannah had spent her craft money (most carefully after lots of laps!) and we'd had a cuppa and snack at the cafe.  We were just heading back in for a last lap when the storm hit.  Goodness - with the tin roof and the brunt of the hail, I've never heard such noise.  The lights went out, the roof sprang leaks all over the place and sirens sounded.  Hannah had a panic attack thinking it was like one of the recent disasters we'd seen on the news and it took a good 10 minutes to get her calmed down.  We all headed into a nearby building with a stronger roof until the second storm front went through.  

My heart goes out to the Paperific organisers and exhibitors.  Sunday's show had to be cancelled due to the building damage and there were some stands that had water damage to stock and displays.  I know the work that goes into preparing for a big craft show so am feeling for them.   You can see some pics on Simone's blog here.

I thought that was the end of our storm story until John had a closer look at my car the next day once it had dried.  Uh oh.  Lots of hail dents so its off to the insurance assessors for us, along with lots of others.   We're feeling very lucky to be at the mild end of the storm affected scale.  Wasn't the footage on the news incredible!   If the storm passed your place, I hope you fared well. 

Take care,  Sue

Back again with that card I mentioned yesterday.  I've seen some lovely things lately using the hostess set Organic Grace so I thought I'd dust mine off and have a play.  Was in a Kraft/Reds/Browns mood.

Here's some details.

Base Card: Choc Chip - sponged with some Choc Chip ink.

Next Layer:  Kraft cardstock - I ran around the edge of it with the distressing tool from the cutter kit (pg 155) to give a bit of rough  texture.

The panel is a piece of Riding Hood Red patterns paper (pg 135) mounted on Kraft then Riding Hood Red with some Riding Hood Red ink sponged on the various layers.

Stamped Features:  I've stamped the Organic Grace stamps (pg 17) onto Naturals Ivory cardstock (pg 130) using Choc Chip, Sahara Sand and Riding Hood Red inks.  Then I've used a combination of 1 1/4", 1 3/8" circle punches and the Circle Scallop punch (pg 152).  I've inked the edges of the circles and scallops too using matching inks.  (Sahara Sand ink works well on Kraft and on Naturals Ivory if you're sponging.) 

Finishing Touches:  Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon (pg 151) and a hat pin threaded with gorgeous beads and pearls to finish off.  I've popped a couple of Glue Dots (pg 154) behind some of the beads to attach the hat pin, plus threaded the end through the ribbon knot.

You can find the beads, pearls and hat pins as well as some beautiful half pearls and white flowers in the aptly named Pretties Kit (pg 149.)

I love the look of the pearls in this 'mood lighting' pic.  You really see the lustre.

The handy thing about the Pretties Kits are they come in a nice tin which you can fill with goodies and decorate once you've used all the contents on your creations.

Speaking of gifts, that is what got my card happening.  I was making this gift voucher wallet last week for the mother of one of my lovely class regulars and liked how it turned out so thought I'd try making a card in the same style.

Slide off the panel and inside is the gift voucher.  Makes a nice gift for those of us who LOVE our Stampin' Up goodies.

Happy birthday Anne-Marie.  (Anne-Marie has a blog if you want to pop by, see her lovely cards and perhaps wish her a happy birthday!  You can find it here.  I love her latest Masculine Birthday Card - we're always on the look out for guy cards aren't we, plus she has some Ikea storage shots and I don't know about you but I LOVE craft storage ideas almost as much as craft doing ideas!! )

I'm been hit by a very rare house cleaning bug so better get back to it before it wears off for another 6 months!!  J

Have a great week,

Cheers, Sue
  

Time for a card I think.  I came across this card a few days ago and just had to head straight for my craft table (which is bearing a remarkable resemblance to our dining table just now!)  You know those cards you come across that just say 'make it now, go directly to the craft table, straight past the dishes, straight past the vacuum cleaner, gotta make it NOW.' 

Here's my version. 

(I must confess it doesn't take a lot to persuade me to go past the vacuum cleaner and dishes!)

I chose the colours from the Flowers Fusion Felt Flowers tin - Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive. You can find the felt flower tins on page 144.  There are two great colour combos to pick from.  I love the tins too - once you've used the flowers you can recycle them as nice gift tins, filled up with something special.

The greeting is from the SaleABration set Whimsical Words and I got my embossing gear out to give it a bit of black shine.  SaleABration details here.

The brads are the Earth Elements pack on page 149.   

Thought I'd take a couple of pics before I completed the card to show you how I put it together.  I didn't want the brads to show through the card so cut across the bottom of the Rose Red cardstock in a way fashion.  Then popped the flowers along just above the bottom edge of the Rose Red, poked my paper piercer through to make a hole, poked a brad through this and opened the brad arms (hmmm arms, legs, what do you call those bits??) Repeated this for each flower.  Here's what the reverse side looks like.

Then I just flipped it over, popped some adhesive on the back and stuck it to my Pumpkin Pie card. 

Have you got a SaleABration stamp set?  I hope to show you lots more ideas for what to do with this year's sets in the coming weeks.

Back tomorrow with a GORGEOUS card using the hostess set Organic Grace.  (Well I think its rather spiffy! I've got it sitting on the bar and have been walking past admiring it all day.  Does anyone else do that?)   The kids have been busy creating too so we've got some new additions to our art wall for some more 'walking past and admiring.'   

Left:  Hannah's creation with her Paperific purchases   Right: Jack spent AGES doing this at Kinderplay last week, painstakingly making sure he'd covered every bit of the paper.   I love our art wall.  (It used to be the front of the fridge but it has expanded around the corner and up the walls.)

MARCH CARD MAKING CLASSES: AVONDALE HEIGHTS

If you're in Melbourne and you're in the mood for some card making and don't want to take over your dining room, come do some crafts on mine!   March classes start this week and there's space left Wednesday and Thursday. We'll be doing some watercolouring, plus a little Markers On Rubber and throwing a bit of embossing into the mix as well.  It should be lots of fun.   Details here.

Happy stamping,

Cheers, Sue

I'm so so SO excited to be a hop, skip and jump away from making it onto the list for the 2010 Stampin' Up Incentive Trip to Hamilton Island.  I still can't quite believe it!  A big big big thanks to my fabulous customers and gorgeous team for helping me get this close.  

I have a few March workshop dates on the calendar that I'm hoping to tempt one of you lovely ladies with in an effort to get over that finish line.

Saturday March 20th

Sunday March 21st

Saturday March 27th

If you'd like to gather a little group of friends or family together on one of those dates, get in touch.  We can spend a couple of hours at your place making a gorgeous card and checking out all the great Summer Mini products.   I aim to make my workshops relaxing, hands on and lots of fun. 

Plus your guests have the chance during March to get a free stamp set with every $100 spent, and you get some extra hostess goodies too. 

Book one of those remaining March dates for your workshop and I'll give you an extra hostess set to say thanks (quite a bunch to choose from.)

Very Very Last Minute Invite!

My Saturday hostess has just had to postpone due to one of those curve balls life throws sometimes.  (Get well soon!)

If you're in Melbourne, are free this Sat arvo and can gather a group of at least 4 people, I'm all packed ready to come to your place for a fun afternoon of cardmaking.  I have a big stack of 6" squares of Designer Series Patterned Paper for the lucky last minute hostess.  

Give me a buzz (0417 377 057 or 9325 4913) if you're interested.

Note: This invite is just for my customers, or people who do not have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator. J

Cheers,

Sue