Happy Saturday to you - yay for Saturdays.  And happy blog hop day too for any of you wanting a lap around the inspiration circuit.  Our theme today is the Autumn Mini and there's so many gorgeous things in there that I'm quite looking forward to hopping around myself to see what my stamping buddies have made.   9 stops today - have fun!

Waving a hello if you've arrived from the lovely Kathryn's gorgeous creation  and let's get moving if you're kicking off from here.  I'm using one of my favourites from the new mini - Bordering On Romance.

The flower is embossed in black on to watercolour paper and coloured with an aquapainter and ink pads plus a few extra drops from some ink refills. 

Colours: Soft Suede, Regal Rose and So Saffron.

I used the Colour Coach for my colour combo ....

Tip: Have some paper towel handy - I'm no expert water colourer but it is easier when your brush is just damp rather than really wet, so I like to dab often. 

Watercolouring done then it was time to grab some coordinating cardstock and bits and bobs for the card.  (Scroll down for the full supplies list.)

Isn't it a lovely set for any of the colouring techniques.

And that's it from me today.  Next stop is the super talented Ros Davidson. 

Ros will have a full list of the hoppers too in case you get lost along the way.  

Happy stamping if you get inspired to get those inks and stamps out after hop hop hopping! 

Have a great weekend.    Cheers, Sue

Just in case you're visiting another day - here's the direct links to the hop posts:

Ros, Christine, Amanda, Tina, Nikki, Di, and Alisha (oops can't get that last link to work)

Card Materials:

Stamp Sets: Bordering On Romance and Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Punches: The biggest circle punch (6cm I think?), Modern Label and Designer Label Punches

Framelits - Labels

Watercolour card

Inks and cardstock: Regal Rose, So Saffron, Soft Suede

The dotty embossing folder (can you tell I'm going from memory here and it is a  little rusty! Grin.)

Square Lattice embossing folder

Crumb Cake Seam Binding Ribbon and some pearls to finish things off.

Last week 14 lovely ladies joined my sister and I to launch the Autumn Mini Catalogue.  Here's a peek at the make and take projects from the nights.

First up we had a try of the new Labels Framelits plus the coordinating stamp set Apothecary Art.  We had a choice of two patterned papers from the Twitterpated DSP, and a choice of coordinating colours.

All set up ready for some make and take guests .....

Between make and takes, we could make our way along the stations and fill in a little sample sheet - trying out a few other stamp sets that we weren't using in our projects.

Our second make and take featured the Simply Scored to score the folds for our gate fold card, and the lovely combination of Mixed Bunch stamp set and Blossom Punch.

If you were at the launch don't forget to check out this post  for all the lucky winners from the Hostess Rewards Prize Draw. 

If you'd like to share in the Autumn Mini fun - get in touch to book your home workshop.  Taking bookings for May and June.  Or book in for a May class - all the dates and details are here. 

Happy stamping,

Cheers, Sue

We had a fun few nights here in Avondale Heights launching the new Autumn Winter Mini Catalogue.  I've got some pics to share over the weekend but wanted to duck in quickly tonight to announce the winners of the Hostess Rewards Prize Draw.  Everyone who entered the draw picked out a couple of choices for if they won.  Here's our lucky winners for Autumn Launch 2012. 

Drumroll ........

* Hanna chose the Flower Garden Embossing Folder

* Claire chose Sweet Cake stamp set

* Gail chose Simply Soft hostess stamp set

* Anne-Marie chose the new hostess stamp set Pedal Presents

* Val chose the 3/4" Circle Punch

* Ann chose Posy Punch hostess stamp set

and Lesley chose Elebration.

Plus we had 6 door prize winners who selected a prize on the night from our basket.

Congratulations to all of our prize winners and thanks to everyone who came along to launch nights this week and helped make it so much fun.  I really enjoyed celebrating all our new goodies with you. 

Gotta share a quick few pics of my new bag  - no not a handbag, no not a suitcase, it is my new Big Shot Bag!

I do really quite like the dotty lining!

I was joking with my stamping friends that actually I don't really take my Big Shot out very often but I thought once the bag arrived I'd take it for a little walk round the block - ha ha - so this pic is especially for my stamping friends who bring such rich friendships to my life.   :-)  Me and my big shot off for a stroll!

Have a lovely weekend.  I'll pop back in once I unload my camera to share a few more pics from launch nights including our two make and take cards. 

Cheers, Sue

I've got some spots left tonight if you're in the stamping mood and want to give some of the new Autumn Mini products a test drive.  We're making two gorgeous cards plus there's door prizes, sample bags and lots more fun. 

Phone or email if you'd like to join in tonight.  (Avondale Heights)

(There's one or two spots left for tomorrow night.) 

I made this card using a few scraps left from some other projects - not sure it quite comes together but I do like the colours.  

The patterned paper is from the hostess pack - Cheerful Treat - on page 9.  (Pick that pack up for $15 of your hostess dollars if you have a $300+ order and you'll still have $35 hostess dollars to spend.)

I've used the Labels Framelits plus the pleated ribbon. 

The base is that Shimmery White cardstock I keep talking about.  (Pg 125.)  Hard to photograph the sparkle but I gave it a go ......

Speaking of sparkly, Hannah's room is looking rather sparkly at the moment.  We gave it a makeover over the school holidays.  She still had her teddy bear stick ups on the wardrobe from when she was little, and everything was looking a bit cluttered and messy.

Here's the before shots!

Hunted about online and finally found some gorgeous vinyl stick ups on Etsy. 

We put a dandelion type flower (from here) on her wardrobe .....

And I had a workout going up and down the ladder lots of times to put these beautiful butterflies on branches on to her rather dark wall.  We're loving these!  (From here.)

Now I'm a little 'less is more' and Hannah is rather 'more is more' in the 'what to put on the desk, bookcases and dressing table' department.  I did manage to talk her in to getting rid of a box or two of rubbish things and she got to keep quite a few 'treasures' I'd have piffed so probably win win in the end.  Looking much neater in there now.  (For a little while anyway!!)

Hmmmm all those butterflies has gotten me in the butterfly mode - might have to do dig out my Big Shot and butterflies die. 

Happy stamping. 

Cheers, Sue

I've got a few spots left for launch nights this Wednesday 18th April and Thursday 19th April, 7.30pm in Avondale Heights if you'd like to check out the fabulous new goodies in the Autumn Winter Mini Catalogue. 

I've been busy putting some little sample packs together for all the launch guests ......

They've got some samples of the beautiful new Designer Series Patterned Paper .....

And some lengths of the lovely new pleated ribbon and bakers' twine, plus a Jelly Bean brad.

Product demonstrations, lots of samples and products to look at, a make and take project and of course some lucky prize draws. 

Phone 0417 377 057 or email smadex@bigpond.com if you'd like to come along and join the fun.

Cheers,  Sue

I've been having a little play with Bordering On Romance stamp set, the triple layer Blossom Bouquet Punch and a colour combo I love - Old Olive, Poppy Parade and Concord Crush.  Here's the last one from this batch.  This time I've grabbed out my Lace Ribbon Border Punch too, plus a circle punch.

A glue stick is handy for this one - I just dab it rather than sliding it along so that you don't get lots of gluey bits in the holes. 

Concord Crush is a funny colour to photograph - always ends up looking a bit bluer on my screen.  I do love those colours together. 

Space left for my Autumn Mini launches next week if you'd like to have a play with some new products.  Details here. 

Cheers,   Sue

Here's the second card I made while having a little play with Bordering On Romance stamp set, the triple layer Blossom Bouquet Punch and a colour combo I love - Old Olive, Poppy Parade and Concord Crush.  This one used some leftover bits - very simple but I quite like it.

Love this little flower - I used my markers to colour direct to rubber, and punched it using the 1 1/4" circle punch.

Back tomorrow with the third card made using these products.  See you then.

Happy stamping!  

Cheers, Sue

I've been having a little play with Bordering On Romance stamp set, the triple layer Blossom Bouquet Punch and a colour combo I love - Old Olive, Poppy Parade and Concord Crush.  Here's the first of the cards I made ......

Love that little row of flowers.  I've used one of the new Jelly Bean Brads too - aren't they cute.

Be back tomorrow with card number 2, and check in Friday for card number 3.

Cheers,  Sue

Happy Easter.  We're enjoying a few days of rest, relaxation, chocolate eating and bike riding.  Since it is holiday time I thought I'd share this card - any of you spending the holidays at the beach?

We did this card last month at technique class.  The stamp set is Surf's Up (from the main catalogue) and includes the waves, greeting and surf board.  Perfect set to add a little crayon resist to. 

Colours: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler and Basic Black

My crimper got a bit of a run and we added the brads before attaching the strip so that they didn't show through to the inside of the card.

We embossed the greeting and one surf board with Cherry Cobbler embossing powder (yum!) and the other surfboard with white embossing powder - on darker cardstock so that those lovely swirls showed through.

I hope you're having lots of fun, and maybe even a bit of craft time, over Easter.

Cheers, Sue