Each month the Art With Heart team that I belong to has a creative showcase with a different theme. 

This month it is Patterned Paper and to celebrate this month's patterned paper special we're sharing ideas for how to make use of your collection. 

I just love love love using all our pretty colour coordinating patterns in my cards so enjoyed creating for this showcase. 

I've got the link to the showcase host at the bottom of this post - head on over there to see lots more DSP card ideas from the crew. 

Tips for making this card at home:  I've used the Snowflake Splendor DSP with a Whisper White thick base.  Love the blues and purples in this paper and the gorgeous snowflakes.  I cut an extra panel of the white cardstock that is 14.3cm x 10cm and glued the strips and ribbon to this.  I cut my DSP to 14.3cm then the middle panel is about 7cm wide. I overlaid it with the side panels which are 2.5cm wide.  I trimmed it down a little once I had it all stuck down.  Don't forget to add your ribbon trim before you adhere this part to the card base.  The snowflake splendor ribbon is a lovely addition with the iridescent shine and some metallic thread woven through it.  

Snowflakes are cut with the Snowflake Wishes bundle from Balmy Blue glimmer paper, with of course a blue adhesive backed gem for a finishing touch.  The greeting is from that same bundle, stamped in Night of Navy ink.  The frame is from Painted Labels dies. 

When I find a design I like I love to make it again in different colours.  For this next one I followed the same measurements but I used World Of Good paper.  Great one for masculine cards. 

Greeting is from Happiest of Birthdays stamp set embossed in white on black cardstock. Some twine and copper stars to finish. 

Head on over to our showcase host Rachel and she's got the full list of participant links at the bottom of her post.  Then we'll have lots of inspiration and can get stuck into those patterned papers - chop chop chop.  :-)

Click here: Showcase Host Rachel

Happy creating!

Cheers, Sue

This month I'm joining in with our AWH Heart Of Christmas Showcase where the talented girls in the team I belong to are going to share some Christmas inspiration for those of you making cards this year. 

I've been making quite simple cards lately but was in the mood for taking a bit more time and a few more supplies for this one. 

I was TOTALLY inspired by this gorgeous card my friend Andrea made for our colour showcase last week, and decided to get out the sponge rollers and the Christmas Gleaming bundle. 

Tips to make this one at home: I've used a piece of shimmery white cardstock for the background panel and sponged on the colours Night Of Navy, Pacific Point and Balmy Blue.  I started with the lightest one and worked my way up to the darkest one.  The sponge rollers are handy for this.  Once I was done I embossed it with the Winter Snow embossing folder.  I did another panel of cardstock while I had the rollers out in the two lighter blues then used silver embossing powder for the Christmas Gleaming stamp set ornaments.  Once I'd punched them out with the coordinating punches I added a touch of the navy ink with a sponge dauber.  

I've 'hung' my ornaments with some of the Snowflake Splendour ribbon and added a Blue Adhesive Backed Gem to each one.  

Thanks for the inspiration Andrea - I had SUCH a fun time making this card. 

Sometimes it is just what you need - a nice afternoon getting inky and taking care with all the details to create a gorgeous card.  

Need some more festive inspiration - head on over to the fab Judy's blog - click here - she is hosting our showcase and has all the links you need to see a whole bunch of beautiful Christmas creations. 

Drop a hello along the way and say hi - helps keep us all up with blogging energies. :-)  

Happy creating!  

Cheers, Sue

Head over here to shop for supplies to make this card yourself:  Sponged Christmas Card supplies

Wednesday evening is when the Art With Heart team I belong to has their Colour Creations showcase.  Each week there's a different colour featured and this week it is Flirty Flamingo. 

I'm excited to be joining in the fun.  The lovely Catherine is hosting us and there's links at the bottom if you'd like to do a lap and see all the Flirty Flamingo inspiration.

Tips to make this one at home:  I've used the Birds and Branches bundle - I just love that floral frame die.  This is a cute little square card in whisper white that I cut to fit the feature panel.  There's a vellum layer under the Flirty Flamingo piece.  I embossed another piece of vellum with the Ornate Floral embossing folder.

I stamped the flowers in Flirty Flamingo ink - some at full strength and some stamped off once for a lighter look. 

And for a finishing touch of sparkle some of these blue adhesive backed gems - did you know these were one of the top 3 popular products from our Aug - Dec Mini? 

I hope to join in more regularly so keep an eye out here each Wednesday evening for our featured colour of the week.  

Now head on over to our lovely Colour Creations host where you'll find the rest of the links for some more Flirty Flamingo creations from my talented team mates.    Catherine - Colour Creations host

Happy creating.  

Take care, Sue

Head on over here to shop for all the products you need for this card:   Flirty Flamingo Bird Card Products

Each month the Art With Heart team that I belong to has a creative showcase with a different theme. 

This month it is masculine cards and the team have gotten together to share lots of ideas for cards for the guys in our lives. 

I always seem to run out of those so some extra inspiration will be handy.  Are you looking for some masculine card ideas?  You've come to the right spot.  

I've got the link to the showcase host at the bottom of this post - head on over there to see lots more masculine card ideas from the crew. 

Mine is a quick and simple card and it is easy to whip up a batch of these while you have your supplies out.  Just grab a pack of patterned paper that has designs that work well for masculine cards.  I've chosen In Good Taste - such great textural looking designs.  Select a few coordinating cardstock colours and the Rectangular Postage Stamp Punch plus your favourite adhesives and that's about all you need to make these at home. 

Tips for this card: I've cut a layer 13.8cm x 9.5cm.  To add a little extra oomph to this you can pop it through with an embossing folder (see card below.)  Or if you don't have an embossing machine - use the scoring blade on your trimmer and add some scored lines such as I've done in the card above.  You can trim this layer with another colour just a smidge bigger if you like.  I like to punch a stack of the postage stamp rectangles then choose 4 to mix and match.  This bit always seems to take the longest - so many great patterns to choose from.  I start with the outside two and leave about half hanging off the edge.  Then add the inner two and you can even up the spacing.  Trim off the overhanging parts then add to your base card.  A quick greeting with the Classic Label punch to finish off and you're all set. 

The links to the rest of the team's cards can be found over here on Rachel's blog - Rachel is our lovely showcase host each month. Click on that link to have a browse through some other fab projects if you need some ideas for masculine cards.  Our showcase team would love it if you could say hello in the comments.  

Happy creating and stay well.

Cheers, Sue

Tonight the Art with Heart team are sharing creative projects with an Easter theme. 

Don’t forget, sale-a-bration ends on March 31st! There is still time to earn free product with purchase or even join our Stampin’ Up! team. Ask any of the girls on the hop for more details.

I had to have a BIG hunt through my stamp collection but I did manage to find one Easter related stamp - a greeting from Itty Bitty Greetings.  

I've combined it with one of the frame stamps from Label Me Pretty then popped it on top of a little square note card. 

Make a set of three that look extra cute in one of our boxes made using the Wood Crate Framelits.  I've used the Wood Textures DSP for the crate and for a coordinating trim on the cards.  Some twine is featured on the join.  

Some Easter Eggs would just finish it off don't you think.  And bonus - I get to eat the props while I type up this blog post.  ;-)

Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the very talented and always lovely Kate Morgan.

I'm looking forward to hopping around all the stops for some Easter inspiration.  

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the participants below:

Catherine Proctor

Caroline Manwaring 

Sue Madex  - You Are Here

Kate Morgan

Ros Davidson

Kathryn Mangelsdorf

Rachel Palmieri

Rebecca Jacovou

Judy May

Rachel Woollard 

Christina Barnes

Tina Gillespie 

Vicki Boucher 

The Art With Heart team are sharing creative projects using products available for FREE when you make a minimum purchase during Sale-A-Bration. For every $90 you spend before postage, you can choose FREE products from the little brochure.

• If you spend $90, you get one free level 1 product.
• If you spend $180, you get one free level 2 product, OR, you can choose two level 1 items.• If you spend $270, you have the option to choose three level 1 items or one level 1 item and one level 2 items.  

The Sale-A-Bration promotion is current through until March 31st. Be sure to request your copy of the brochure today if you don’t already have one. Sale-A-Bration is also a great time to join our fabulous team - just ask any of the girls on the blog hop for more details! 

I've used the Lovely Lattice stamp set for my cards.  It is one of the Level 1 freebies so spend $90 and you can choose this free.  For this card I've embossed it in white onto shimmery white cardstock then coloured it with some of our Stampin' Blends.  The foil edge cards have coordinating foil edge envelopes.  You can get packs in either silver or gold.  I love them.

We did this at class in Feb and I always like to have an option there for my class regulars who like to keep it simple and are not so into colouring.   This one was also embossed in white onto Crumb Cake cardstock.  I coloured the flowers with my wink of stella pen which is the touches of sparkle you can see there.  

Now it is time to head on over to my lovely talented friend Tina Gillespie to continue along on the hop.

Click here to visit Tina's blog and see her Saleabration creation. 

Oops that was a slightly longer break from our weekly colour creations blog hop than I'd intended.  Back again with the crew this week though for Pineapple Punch.  

I don't think I've actually used this colour before!  It is a bright, happy yellow. 

Today I decided to give it a whirl with some watercolouring and teamed it with Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay and Mango Melody.  

I coloured the flowers with Pineapple Punch ink and used the cardstock for the word and for the narrow trim.  

This card is based on a beautiful Gail Ellis design (here.) 

I've been enjoying playing with this technique.  I've used watercolour paper and taped off a border using low tack adhesive painters tape from Bunnings.   It helps to wet the watercolour paper first.  I usually pop a few drops of my various colours of reinker onto a clear block which I use as a palette.  I couldn't find my Pineapple Punch reinker so instead I pressed a small clear block into the ink pad then used my aquapainter to grab the colour.  So much fun to just play around with the colours.  I'm going on a craft retreat soon (my first!) so I think I'll take a bunch of these and colour away.  Very relaxing.  

Here's a closer look at a few bits.  I have no idea what I'm doing with watercolouring really but it is fun and you really can't go wrong.  They all seem to dry quite nicely.  Great technique to play with to feel a bit artistic.  

My base card is Crumb Cake and I've embossed the flowers and leaves from Wonderful Romance stamp set with white embossing powder for a soft look.  Rather hard to see when you're starting to colour but got there in the end.  

Want to see some more Pineapple Punch creations.  Head on over here to Catherine's blog to see the full list of participants and click the links to check out all their projects. 

Happy stamping! 

I'll be back on Thursday for our February Blog Hop.  

Cheers, Sue

Hello!  Nice to be back creating at my newly tidied and decluttered craft desk this week.  Still some piles to finish sorting in the dining room but the desk is all set up ready to go.  

I think I've missed a week here and there - it is DEFINITELY term 4 at our place, the one where the wheels fall off occasionally! 

I've made it this week in time though and our colour today is Gray Granite.  I'm really loving this new addition to our neutral range.  It is a slightly warmer tone. 

 I took inspiration this week from our Mt Macedon hike today.  (We managed to avoid the heavy rain for a nice walk in the mists.)  I love all the beautiful tree trunk colours and lately have been experimenting with using the Woodland embossing folder and some shimmer paint. 

Here's a few of my forest inspiration pics.  It was a very gray granite sort of sky I must say! 

I used Gray Granite cardstock with some extra matching ink sponged over the trunks.  Then I painted some Frost White shimmer paint over the trunks.  Love the silvery effect it gives.  I trimmed the panel with Shimmery White and also copper foil. The greeting is sponged with some of the copper shimmer paint.  Just a simple card but I really am liking these tree trunks.

I'm putting the feet up this evening after our 8km over a bumpy, muddy trail.  We were all quite happy to get back to the car with no rolled ankles or muddy slips.  I'll be back next week with our next colour. 

Check out the rest of the crew's fabulous gray granite creations over here:  Catherine's blog and the link list

Happy stamping!

Cheers, Sue

Tonight the Art with Heart team are sharing creative projects featuring the colour pink. We hope our blog hop inspires you to get creative with the various shades of pink that Stampin’ Up! offer in our collection of 53 different colours available. 

I selected the In Color Powder Pink to feature in my project today.  Love this pretty soft pink.

I've used the First Frost bundle for the stamping and framelit using Powder Pink and Smoky Slate inks.  I borrowed the leaf from Rooted In Nature too - stamped in Soft Sea Foam.   The leaves there are cut from a scrap of the Frosted Floral DSP - loving that paper.  The base card is shimmery white and I've used the Petal Pair embossing folder on the edge.  How handy are the adhesive backed sequins. I usually run a mile from anything fiddly but with the adhesive backs these are just too easy. The basic pack has some nice soft colours including Petal Pink which I've added to this project.   

When I think of pink I often think of the breast cancer fundraising efforts and of friends and family facing this and other conditions which inspired my choice of greeting for this card.  xx

Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the very talented, Rebeccas Jacovou for some more pink themed projects.

Thanks for hopping along with us this month.

Happy stamping!

Cheers, Sue