A quick and simple card today using the Perfect Pennants stamp set and some circle punches. 

I do love embossing folders.  This card features the new one - Ampersand.  Find it here.

The greeting is from Perfect Pennants stamp set.   Some handy greetings in that one for both card making and scrapbooking I think.   Find it here. 

I had some leftover bits of cardstock stamped with the Woodgrain background stamp so added those to the card to finish it off.  Always handy to make use of those scraps isn't it. 

Happy stamping!

Cheers, Sue

Popping into blogland quickly tonight to share a couple of MDS project I've been working on while watching the footy on TV tonight.  My nephews are having a joint birthday party tomorrow and I've been using MDS to make their cards.  I'm going to print these card fronts and attach them to cardstock cards. 

James' card:  I've used On The Go Designer Series Paper, Timeless Type Alphabet Punches (filled with DSP) and some digital stitching and transparent tape plus a few other bits and bobs.  (Find all these in the MDS program.)

William's card:  I've used MDS: Delight In The Day DSP, Epic Overlays for the letters - coloured with the colouring tool, and some embellishments from the On The Go kit.

I hope your weekend is going well.  We've been enjoying some nice relax time today, as well as running a few errands (nephew birthday present shopping!) 

2013 Stampin' Up Convention: Brisbane

I'm off to Brisbane on Wednesday for the 2013 Stampin' Up Convention.  Can't wait - it should be heaps of fun.  John's having a much needed few days off work and manning the fort at home.  If my hotel wi fi cooperates I'll be posting convention updates for all those who love a bit of Stampin' Up news.  I'll have updates on my facebook page too.  Head over and like the page if you'd like some convention snippets.  Facebook Page: Sue Madex

Happy stamping!

Cheers, Sue

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

I never seem to have enough guy cards in my little box of cards, so this week I decided to grab out a pack of Well Worn DSP and some Crumb Cake (Kraft) cardstock and get creating.

I trimmed all my cardstock strips to the same width and spaced them randomly so I didn't have to do any maths - ha ha.

Simply Scored for the score lines, some linen thread and an antique brad, and a greeting.  (From one of the big birthday sets.)  Even dug up my stampamajig this time rather than winging it on the greeting.

One more pic since I rather like this one.  My sort of style - simple.

Have a fabulous weekend.  I had a creative burst last week so a few more things to share with you in the coming week. 

Happy stamping!    Cheers, Sue

Need more card inspiration for making cards for the guys in your life?

I've got lots more ideas for making masculine cards featuring patterned paper over on my youtube channel. 

Here are just a few.  

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

I've got a nice stash of cards in my card crate, but am very much lacking in cards for the guys!  My brother in law had a birthday recently so I got out some masculine looking products ......

.... and set to work creating!  In holiday mode so kept it nice and simple.  

You can find a great range of products for the men in your life on pages 18 and 19 of the Summer Mini.  

 Stamp Set: The Open Sea.  Bakers Twine in a few colour combos.  And the Nautical Expedition patterned paper.   I've grabbed out my 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches for a quick and easy card.

Shhhh, really should have sponged the edges of those circles but hey - it is January!

Colours:  I used the colours from the DSP - Cherry Cobbler, Not Quite Navy, Early Espresso and Basic Gray

While I had the supplies out I whipped up two more.  Now if I can get into the habit of that I'll be restocked for guy cards in no time.   Takes not much longer to make 3 as to make 1, especially with simple designs. 

Have a great weekend!   Cheers, Sue 

Here's the second card we made at last week's Autumn Mini Catalogue Launch.  A nice simple one.  The French Foliage stamp set is so easy to work with.

The greeting is done with Early Espresso ink on Cajun Craze cardstock, and punched with the new Decorative Label punch.

The base was stamped with images from French Foliage using More Mustard, Soft Suede and Cajun Craze ink.   Some sponging around the edge to add a bit of depth.  The base card is Crumb Cake, a colour I use all the time and constantly have to restock. 

Here's a matching bag made with the little brown paper bags from the Autumn Mini.

Wall News!

Our long long awaited replacement of our back boundary retaining wall/fence has finally begun!  Bit of a tricky job - 30 metres long, 1 - 2 metres high, and running between the stormwater pipe on our side and the sewer line on the neighbours side, with tight hilly access thrown in for good measure.  Quite a few crews took one look and said 'nah.' 

But Monday morning 7.30am we had trucks, bobcats, diggers and men in yellow vests all on site.  Here's the view from our balcony in the morning.

And here it is a few hours later ... (I blanked out faces for privacy in case you are wondering why our builders have weird orange faces!)

And then it rained all day so now it is a bit of a mudpit!   I'll pop a few more pics up over the coming weeks as the project takes shape.  We're very excited to finally have it happening.  Once this is up we can get some water tanks in place then can start on the rest of the yard.  Hmmm, given our track record on keeping pot plants alive this could be interesting!

Cheers, Sue

In the mood for a blog hop?!  Well, grab a cuppa and head around the 11 stops on this SaleABration themed blog hop that some of my stamping buddies and I are having today. 

Let's Get Hopping!

You might have arrived here from the blog of the always lovely and very talented Christine Blain - Happy Heart Cards, or perhaps you're starting out from here. 

Punch Bunch: Masculine Card

I've used the happy birthday stamp from the SaleABration set Punch Bunch for my masculine card.

This stamp fits the Scallop Square punch.  Punch and stamp combos make card making so easy I think!  I've stamped it in Wild Wasabi ink on Naturals Ivory cardstock. 

Base card: Wild Wasabi spritzed with Early Espresso using a marker and spritzer.  This card is 4 3/4" square and fits inside the Stampin Up medium square envelopes on page 123.

Feature:  Chocolate Chip cardstock cut with the Scallop Square die and embossed with the Square Lattice embossing folder (both from the Summer Mini) plus a piece of the woodgrain patterned paper from the Woodland Walk DSP (pg 125.)  A couple of loops of hemp twine to give a masculine finishing touch.

And a nice super simple inside - just a few extra spritzes of ink plus another punched Happy Birthday scallop square.

Do you ever find you're using the same colours a lot?  The colour scheme for this card was from the Woodland Walk DSP.  Check out the coordinating colours for each pack of Designer Series Paper in the catalogue - a great way to find some new colour schemes to try out if you find yourself in a bit of a colour rut. 

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have lots of fun on the rest of the hop and get all inspired for some crafting happiness this weekend. 

Next Blog Hop Stop:

Now on to your next stop  to check out the lovely creations by the gorgeous Di Dunk from over in Healesville.  Her blog is Stamp Art By Di.

Have fun!  Happy SaleABration.

Cheers,  Sue

PS If you get lost along the way, or if you're visiting after blog hop day, you can see all the lovely SaleABration creations by clicking on these links.   Di Dunk, Tina Gillespie, Kathryn Manglesdorf, Judy May, Amy Buchanan, Kathryn Ruddick, Alisha Watson, Ros Davidson, Nikki Sadler, and Christine Blain.

I wanted to make a nice simple Valentine's card for John - a) because that's the sort of card he'd like best, and b) because being the organised card maker that I am, I only had about 10 minutes or we'd have no Valentine's dinner! 

I've used Crumb Cake cardstock with some scraps of Riding Hood Red, Night of Navy and Sahara Sand and 2 punches to make the little feature.  Some hemp twine and some (retired, sob) Kraft taffeta ribbon were the only other embellishments.

I love the Square Lattice embossing folder - so versatile and perfect for masculine cards.

A couple of leftover hearts for the envelope ....

....  and it made a nice addition to a box of Favourites and a nice candlelit dinner for four.   Seemed just the occasion to remind me to be thankful for all the wonderful things John does.

Cheers,  Sue

Jack (4) had his first birthday party invitation from a kinder friend for this weekend.  He's been to family parties and tagged along to some of Hannah's but this was his first friend's party.  He was soooo excited.  

I managed to leave myself with rather a short time to make a birthday card.   I grabbed out Celebrations Designer Series Patterned Paper (pg 125), some matching cardstock and my Big Shot and Timeless Type Alphabet sizzlits.  Here's what I came up with. 

 
I used my 1 1/4" square punch to punch a bunch of squares of the DSP, glued the letters for Alix's name onto some matching cardstock squares, sponged the edges in Pacific Point so they'd stand out on the Bashful Blue base card and stuck everything down with Snail.  Quick and easy.  I used my crimper for a little extra texture.

Jack looked after the inside of the card for us .....

...and we used one of his gazillion paintings for the present wrapping paper.    Here's one excited boy about to head off to the party.  He told me afterwards, "That was the best day EVER mum." 

Hope you're having the best day ever too.  :-)

Cheers, Sue