Hello - time for our monthly blog hop and you'll love the theme this month.  It is masculine projects.  I always seem to have a ton of feminine cards on hand and hardly any blokey ones.  Grab a cuppa and head on round the 7 stops in the hop if you'd like a bit of inspiration for crafts for the guys in our lives.  Waving a hello if you've arrived from Ros Davidson's blog.  She always has such stunning projects to share.

I set myself a challenge yesterday when I was creating my cards and that was to use the scraps left over from my Christmas In July classes, and a couple of the techniques as well.  Here's what I came up with ....

Some leftover strips of the Christmas themed paper - Letters To Santa.  Old Olive and Early Espresso cardstock.  A touch of tearing and crimping and some ribbons.  Blokey ribbons - hmmm not sure there.  What do you think?  I've been tying little bundles of ribbons on everything since I got back from Convention.  Who was it who showed that little tip?  I'll update to link - my memory is fuzzy tonight. 

I had some more leftover strips so thought I'd make another card.  For this one I scrunched and grunged up my strips with a sanding block, and sanded the scored lines on the base card too.  I had some leftover punched circles of silver glimmer paper.   They looked a bit bright for my card so I painted them with Soft Suede reinker. 

The greeting is from Happiest Birthday Wishes - I punched out the ring with a couple of circle punches.  (Tip: Small one first then the bigger one.) 

Hmm - what is that smudge on the left of the card?  I'm sure it is not ink because I was too impatient to wait for the reinker to dry.  Nope - must be a smudge on your screen.  :-)

Time to head on now to the next stop on the hop and you can find that here:  my lovely, caring friend Christine Blain.  I know she'll have something just gorgeous to show you so I'll wave a bye for now. 

UPDATED:  Here's a list of all the hop stops if you're visiting a little later.  Christine, Kathryn, Nikki, Di, Tina, and Ros.  Watch out - you'll be rather tempted to order Extreme Element after a lap of this hop.  I was!

Happy hopping and I hope you get some ideas (and some time) to add to your 'cards for the boys' stash in the coming weeks.

Cheers,  Sue

Here's another of the 3D flowers we did last month at our flowers class.  They're quite quick and easy to make - even for 3D challenged people like me!

We made good use of the lace ribbon border punch.  That punch along with the triple layer punches retired recently in the US so I am quietly expecting them to be on our Last Chance List of retiring products.  This list will be released on August 1st and products on the list will be available in August while stocks last. 

Colours: Riding Hood Red, Island Indigo, Baja Breeze and the card base is Confetti White. 

The flower above was my first go - I got a little better with my second try with the addition of some sponging and a little more time arranging the petals. 

Colours: Sahara Sand, Blushing Bride, Rich Razzleberry. Card base is Shimmery White.

Thanks to Miriam Spiess - one of my fellow demonstrators - who showed us how to make these flowers from scallop circles at last year's Melbourne stamping day at the Convention Centre. 

If you'd like to come along this year to be inspired by some talented papercrafters and get a sneak peek at lots of yummy holiday themed goodies coming soon in our Holiday Catalogue, registration closes tomorrow for the Heartfelt Stampin' Up event on Saturday August 4th.  More details at the end of this post or phone/email if you've got questions or would like to book in.  I've got 5 guests coming along so far - would love to add a few more. 

We're almost at the end of Christmas in July week at my place so I'll have some sparkly Christmas projects to share with you soon, plus for those of you always on the lookout for projects for the guys in your lives - we've got a masculine themed project blog hop coming Saturday morning so be sure to grab a weekend cuppa and have fun browsing through those posts. 

Cheers, Sue

Back again from a little blogging break while we enjoyed some school holidays family time. 

Here's a little peek at a new Big Shot box die coming up in our new catalogue which will be released in September.  Actually there's a couple of sneak peeks there if you look carefully.

I love the little tag detail. 

I loved what was inside too!  I got this at convention with an award - very yummy!  It is a great size little box for special little gifts.

If you love sneak peeks at lots of yummy new products coming in our new catalogues, then come and join us at the Heartfelt Stamping Day on Saturday August 4th at the Melbourne Convention Centre, South Wharf. 

Running from 10am til 5pm, you'll find heaps of activities.  There are 4 main stage presentations - Decorations, Heartfelt Cards, Packaging and Wrapping Ideas and Handmade Gifts. 

Plus you'll get time to complete some make and take projects (all materials and tools provided), browse through the Product Playground with fabulous displays plus you'll have the chance to try out a few tools at your leisure and ask questions about tools and techniques. 

Check out the Inspiration Boards.  Bring along a project to add to the board if you'd like to share your creativity.  Make and decorate your own name tag to bring along as well, another chance to be creative.

The cost of the day is $120 which includes all the activities, the stamp set Clockworks, make and take materials, lunch and loads of fun. 

Registration closes on July 27th (or sooner if places are filled.)

Note: If you cancel your registration on or before 27 July we will refund your paid fee minus a $35 processing fee. If you cancel after 27 July, the regional registration fee is nonrefundable.

Get in touch with me by phone or email if you'd like more information or if you'd like to come along to this event and I'll organise your registration.  (Payment can be made to me by direct deposit, cheque or cash.)  Edited to add:  You can also pay by credit card I just realised. 

Cheers, Sue

A new addition to introduce you to today.  The diagonal plate for the Simply Scored. 

This is available to order from today.  It is $20.95

It sits on top of the Simply Scored and has etched grooves every 1/8".

It includes instructions for how to use it to make envelopes.  I'll show you some other things you can do with it in the coming weeks. 

If I'm awake!    

We're usually a little bleary eyed in our house during July.  Staying up til the wee hours watching the Tour De France!    Lycra month - we're usually quite happy when they get to Paris and we can catch up on some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzs. 

Happy stamping.   Cheers, Sue