The Tropical Escape DSP comes in a handy 6" x 6" size and makes a great leafy background.  There are various designs including leaves, stripes and more all in our lovely greens with some Blushing Bride and Basic Black for contrast. 

I've stamped the cute rhino from Animal Outing stamp set and coloured him with the lighter of the Smoky Slate Stampin' Blends, adding some extra touches with the darker alcohol marker.

Here's another variation using one of the other Tropical Escapes DSP (last day for our DSP special today.) 

I've stamped the kangaroo in black and coloured him with the watercolour pencils.  In August we have a new batch of pencils in alternative colours to the set in the main catalogue if you'd like to add to your pencil collection.  We've also got the Stitched Season framelits you can see featured in this card.  August only for the framelits and stamp set and while stocks last so grab them quick if you're keen on that lovely stitched edge shape.

A great tip from the talented Tina Gillespie (find her here) is to blend the pencils using the Wink Of Stella clear glitter pen.  Love the touch of sparkle this gives.  (Hard to photograph!) 

Happy stamping!

Cheers, Sue

Shopping from home?  Here's the links.  The current host code is QHC24T6B

Product List

Tropical Escape 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper [146916] $19.25

Animal Outing Clear-Mount Bundle [148324] $78.25

Watercolor Pencils Assortment 2 [149014] $21.75

Stitched Seasons Framelits Dies [149013] $57.00

Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush [141897] $11.50

Balloons and sparkle - can't go too wrong with that combo.  Here's a sparkly option for your next balloon card. 

Tips and Techniques:  This one is a great option for if you're in a hurry.  So quick to just punch out a bunch of balloons in your favourite colours of glimmer paper.  (Thanks Ann - I loved the one you made at class that inspired this card.)  Stamp the strings and stick on your balloons - voila.  All done.  I found it easiest to arrange my balloons first then started from the top and adhere them one by one.  I used the bow from Balloon Framelits to cut a sparkly bow.  There is a bow stamp in the Balloon Celebration set you could use instead if you don't have that set of framelits.  Or if you're very clever with ribbon you could add a lovely ribbon bow for a nice finishing touch.  I'm all thumbs with ribbon so I love the 'zip it through the Big Shot' option.

I've used our lovely thick white for the card base, and our regular white for the section I've stamped on.  The smoothness of the regular white is great for stamping.  I've been going through LOTS of the thick white for the card bases.  A little sturdier so your card will stand up well. 

Have a sparkly day!  See you soon for another dose of balloon inspiration. 

Happy Stamping!

Cheers, Sue

Would you like a tour of my craft room?    Find me here:   Sue on YouTube

For some handy tips for card measurements:

Find more videos from me here:   Sue on YouTube

Shop Stampin' Up in Australia here:  SU Australia With Sue

Product List

Balloon Celebration Photopolymer Bundle

[140810]

$64.50

You're So Lovely Photopolymer Stamp Set

[140762]

$30.00

Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper

[140550]

$8.75

Red Glimmer Paper

[121790]

$8.75

Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper

[135315]

$8.75

Balloon Framelits Dies

[137362]

$29.00

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

[106549]

$15.00

Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock

[140490]

$12.25

Basic Black A4 Card Stock

[121688]

$12.25

One of the stamp sets I loved when our annual catalogue came out last year was No Bones About It.  Such a cute dinosaur set for all the dinosaur lovers among your friends and family. 

Inspired by this card by Alison from Gothdove designs.

Tips and Techniques:  I've used 3 strips of washi tape for a quick and easy border.  Don't look too closely as it appears I didn't stick it down too well at the top!  The little footprint stamp makes a great border feature too. 

While I had my dinosaurs out making a card for my young nephew I also had to make a card for my not so young brother.  (10 years younger than me.)  I thought I'd use the same set (because I was a little too lazy to go walk over and grab another one!) 

Tips and Techniques:  I used the now retired brushed gold metallic cardstock for the base and a swag of assorted small greetings.  I'm pretty sure I used Staz On ink.  Inside I used a Stampin' Write marker to ink up the greeting and omitted a word so I could adapt it to my own sense of humour.

Dinosaurs - handy for little (and not so little) peoples.  ;-)

Here's some more creative ideas from Stampin' Up.

Happy Stamping!

Cheers, Sue

(Card CASED from this one by the super talented Alison Barclay from GothDove Designs.  I love all her cards. )

If you have a dinosaur fan, you'll love No Bones About It stamp set. 

18 photopolymer stamps in the set with lots of great solid dinosaurs and matching bones, plus some dinosaur-ish greetings.  $45.00. 

Here's some other projects from Stampin' Up featuring this set.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Cheers, Sue

Jack turned 8 recently so I broke out my Little Letters thinlits to make him a birthday card. 

A quick and simple one in bright happy colours for my bright happy boy. 

Handy tip:  I laid a piece of washi tape over my letters once I'd spelt the words out.  Made it easy to pick them up and place them on my cardstock before running it through the Big Shot. 

See the writing down the bottom left and top right.  I did that with my new Alphabet Rotary Stamp.  Love it.  There's 13 rotating 'bits' for you to create your own word or phrase.  It has the alphabet plus some other characters and spaces.  I'm thinking "WHATEVER" might be a handy phrase for Hannah's upcoming 12th birthday card - ha ha.  Seems to be a frequently uttered response lately.  ;-)

Hannah made him a card using MDS - our digital creating software.  She's getting to be a real whiz with it and did this one all by herself.  I just helped with printing. 

This year we made Jack a Minecraft birthday cake.  John and Hannah made their delicious brownie recipe. 

I was in charge of cutting, assembly and decorating.   (With some help from Jack's minecraft figurines.)

It was a hit with the birthday boy.   

Have a fabulous weekend everyone! 

Cheers, Sue

In a creating mood?  Here's some of the things I used for today's card:

Little Letters Thinlits Die

$48.95

Alphabet Rotary Stamp

$25.95

Sweet Taffy Designer Series Paper

$18.95

Pumpkin Pie A4 Card Stock

$11.95

Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Big Shot

$149.95

 

Table by StampinBuddy.

 

We've had a few kids' birthdays around the traps here lately so thought I'd share my super quick and easy kids' card ideas.   When I'm in a hurry I love to make use of my punch collection. 

Jack is a massive Minecraft enthusiast so I printed off some pics of the characters from the game and used my hexagon punch to whip up a card.  It is a bit hmmm - rustic!   But he LOVED it and reminded me a few days later, "Make sure you don't throw that card out mum, I want to keep it." 

The greeting is from Timeless Talk.  (See it here.)   I've also used Washi Tape and some silver glimmer paper to add a touch of sparkle.  The arrow is from Hung Up Cute Clips.  Really loving my new hexagon punch. Punches make cardmaking easier I think!

Browse or buy here:  Hexagon Punch

While we were in Minecraft mode I printed off an extra page of pics to punch and use for cupcake toppers - stuck onto toothpicks.   Jack loved his Minecraft cake. 

Here's another kids' card - this time featuring the rather cute stamp set Zoo Babies and the postage stamp punch. If you've ever had Stampin' Up boxes delivered you might recognise the wrapping paper!  We never run out in our house.  

The patterned paper is the super versatile Polka Dot Parade.  Nice and bright and happy. 

Here's the link for a closer look:  Zoo Babies stamp set

Speaking of nature - (ha ha, is that a good segue?) - I'm so excited about having a garden. Things are starting to bud and it is so relaxing being out there pottering about.  Want to hear a funny story? 

We have two huge big water tanks which filled up nicely over winter and are attached to a drip irrigation system.  A week or so back we got home from school and I turned on the dripper then headed inside to put the oven timer on to remind me to turn it off.  Perhaps you can guess where this story is going. 

Yes, I got sidetracked on my way in the door and COMPLETELY forgot all about it.  Remembered 5 hours later when we were driving home from a school concert and was relieved to get home and at least find there wasn't a huge mudslide or anything.  But our tanks are looking a tad emptier so have been watering by hand for a little while.  And might have to save up for a timer I think!  

Well time for me to go keep working on attempt number 756 at cleaning up my craft space.  I dragged the 2 foot high pile of things from my desk to the dining table and started sorting over the weekend.  Have a semi tidy desk and a very messy dining room now.  :-)

Have a fabulous week everyone.

Cheers, Sue

My nephews had a birthday party on the weekend so it was off to the card making table for me.  (Should I add that we left for the party at 11.30am and I started the cards at 11am = no, probably not!) 

Really liked how they turned out, even with a short timeline.

Pennant punch combined with the rather cute Sweet Shop DSP ( pg 23 of the Autumn Mini).

Lucky Limeade and Island Indigo bases and letters.  With a touch of crimping for texture.

Bakers' Twine (pg 24 for some new colours) and the Timeless Type alphabet set.

Happy birthday boys! 

Cheers, Sue

There's a 'back to school' buzz in the air so thought it'd be a good time to share my 'jazzing up the reader cover' effort for this year.   Jack is about to start Prep and is completely obsessed with anything Mario Kart related so I thought we'd go with that.  

I've used the gorgeous, bright and happy papers from the Big Top Birthday pack (pg 130.)  Love the reds and blues.

We hit Google Images and found some Mario and Sonic pics and printed them on Whisper White.  I added some Night of Navy matting and a divider strip. 

Here's the back cover with another of the designs from the Big Top Birthday pack.

And some scraps for the inside.

I took the pics before I added the clear contact as I had a sneaking thought I might flunk contacting and end up with wrinkles everywhere.   Happy to say it didn't go too badly so just the odd wrinkle.  All ready for a terrific year of reading.  Jack is counting down the days til he heads off to school.   I'm counting down to starting a mega much needed fitness/decluttering/scrapbooking kick!  I think my family are getting worried I'll declutter all their stuff while they're at school/work!  Hee hee. 

Have a great weekend.  

Before I duck off:  Don't forget to check out the class page  if you'd like to catch a Feb or March class in Avondale Heights.  The lists are changing and rearranging almost daily as people get back into the year and juggle the diaries.  The booked out and spaces available lists are changing regularly so pop by for the latest update, and let me know if you'd like to go on the waiting list for a booked out class.

Cheers, Sue

I'm having the most lovely craft weekend here.  Yesterday my mum, sisters, Hannah and I all gathered for a craft day.  We did a spot of shopping, had lunch then set to work on our projects.  Here's a peek ...

My sister got some lovely bright card, photos of her boys and her laminator and made them a little book they could read about some of their recent adventures.  My other sister gathered up a bunch of card kits she had in her stash and made a stack of cards, Hannah did some scrapbooking of photos off her Ipod then made us all little cards with lots of embellishments and purple glitter glue, I did my first scrapbooking layout of many this year (details below) and mum worked on her gorgeous altered manuscript project.  She's got an old old book and she opens it to a page and uses all different craft techniques to create.  Combined with some lovely quotes and poems it is such a beautiful project.  What a companionable, fun, creative day. 

I'm doing Stacy Julian's 'Twelve' class this year and am all inspired to rev up my scrapbooking again.  I spotted a fun, colourful layout from a lady called Rhonda in the class gallery and decided to give it a try.  Stacy's passion for colour has gotten me in the mood for using some nice bright happy colours.  Grabbed out my Brights Pattern Stack DSP to make this me page.

It did rather challenge me in the maths and measuring department but I was pretty impressed to get it fairly straight and even! 

I used the matching cardstock and my Big Shot Timeless Type (and much loved) Alphabet die to make the letters of my name.  They were getting a bit lost on the coloured background so I punched white squares with my new Postage Stamp punch and that did the trick. 

Then I just added embellishments from my stash that coordinated with the colours.  (You'll spot some of our lovely glimmer brads, flower brads and a few others there if you look closely.)

I'd been jotting ideas for the letters during the week.  Got stuck on a few and had to get the dictionary out for some inspiration.

Once I was done I had some offcuts of the Brights DSP strips so I grabbed out a sheet of my new favourite Shimmery White cardstock to make this quick and simple card.

My Modern Label punch is getting a great workout lately along with Short and Sweet greeting set.  A glimmer brad and some paper piercing finished it off.

This afternoon some of the girls from my team are coming over and we're all looking forward to chatting and creating with some of the SaleABration items.  Should be a lovely afternoon of card making. 

What a fun way to spend some weekend time.  (And we've still managed to squeeze in some golf and cycling time for John so we're all happy here!)

Happy Stamping!  Back soon with some SaleABration cards to share.

Cheers, Sue

My nephew turned two recently and I used the set "Look Who's Turning" to make his card.

My Christmas In July class ladies might recognise the card layout as we did a Christmas version this month based on this Paper Tree Lane card.  I had the supplies out on the table so it was easy to grab a cute set, some nice boy colours and put together a quick card.  

(Had to be quick as I'd gotten off to a late start making it, thanks to a terrific novel:  Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson.  Read for 3 hours which rather ate into my card making time - grin - then finished it off after the party.  Been a long time since I've read a whole novel in a day but I just couldn't put it down!  Hmmm I think I'm getting off the topic aren't I.  Can you tell I have my "sleep deprived, been watching the Tour De France" brain in tonight? ) 

Back to our card. The greeting is from the Look Who's Turning stamp set.  (Page 50.)  I've used my markers to colour the letters.  The cupcake there in the background is from Short and Sweet (pg 111.) 

Colour scheme: Pacific Point, Riding Hood Red and Tangerine Tango plus the Basic Black for the film strip panel.  I've used a scrap of retired ribbon there too.

Love the spiral border punch.  It is punch number 39 on page 148 if you're looking for it.  Nifty for adding a little interest to a border, or doing a film strip like this.  Great option for boy cards I think too.  I've used the 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" square punches too and the Decorative Label.  Punches are my friends when I'm in a hurry!

The birthday boy is two so I highlighted the two for the inside of the card with a different colour marker and a brad.

And a quick stamp to make a coordinating envelope, then it was off to the party.

Before I sign off and get back to watching the men in lycra, thought I'd share the card Hannah (8) made too.  She put a lot of time into it.

She loves my 'Handmade By...' stamp for the back.  (From the Autumn Mini.)

One of my lovely class girls bought this stamp set for her young niece - what a great gift for a budding card maker.   Like that idea.

OK time to sign off and go cheer Cadel (and prop my eyes open with some toothpicks!)

Cheers, Sue