Back to business........

Back to school/work/routine now everyone?  It has been fun getting the children back to school and starting Kindy.  I think we were all ready for it!   In the past week we've had visits from the Tooth Fairy, swimming lessons started again, and a bite from a (non-venomous) spider so it has been a bit crazy around here.

I've made a few quick cards, hope you like them!  I must say I'm enjoying the bold colour combinations in the Bali Breeze DSP (from the Summer mini, which ends 28th February).  I love Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red and Tempting Turquoise/Taken with Teal.  I hadn't ever used them before this DSP I must admit.    I made the first one, and then decided to use the scraps to make a second card while I was at it.  

  

And notice the co-ordinating brads and Felt Flowers?  

I was feeling inspired to try out my Bundle of Joy stamp set and made this sweet little baby card.  

I used my new spiral punch on the side there  and stamped some cute sprinkles for a bit of interest in the background.  I also coloured the main teddy bear with my blender pen and ink and finished off with some of the wide rose ribbon from the Mini Catalogue. I mounted the main teddy on dimensionals and stamped the sentiment with one of my favourite sets, short and sweet.  (Seriously, it is such good value! )

And, while surfing around Splitcoast Stampers I found a tutorial for a gable box, so I tried it, and it was really easy!  I added a card to the front of mine.  Yes, it is very yellow - I hardly ever use yoyo yellow cardstock and thought I'd give is a go.  Could make a cute party bag for a child's birthday party or hold a small gift?  When you go wandering through the excellent tutorials over at SCS be prepared for hours to pass without you realising.  It is a wonderful resource.

I've a few fun things happening in the next month or so, but you'll have to wait and see as I don't want to spoil the surprise.    Insert Evil Laugh He he he!

 And I missed Australia Day on my blog - hope all the Aussies had a good one.  Have a slice of   (home made by me!) Pavlova :

New Classes, New Projects !

Whoops, long time between posts!  School holidays and four children will do that to you!  

At least I have been creating, and busy planning my classes for this year.  I will be doing a series of technique classes called "Stamping 101" for those who would like to learn how to do more than just straight ink-to-rubber cards.  You will be making a little journal to keep with a description of each technique and an example of it.  Then we'll make a card or two (time permitting) with the new technique.

Here's one I've already prepared with a sneak peek for you:

I'm holding my Stamping 101 Classes monthly, with a day session and an evening session.  Contact me to confirm your place!

This year I'm also running monthly Stamp Nights, where we get together and work on our own projects - a bit of "me time" and a good way to make a dent in the birthday cards, etc for the year ahead! 

And here is a teaser for my fortnightly "before the afternoon- school-pickup" sessions at Gingerbella's coffee shop!  Contact me if you are interested.

I have also made a few cards, here's one for a friend who requested a birthday card, in purple.  Not my usual colours, but I might use them more now, as I liked the effect.

Here's a card I made for Makeesha's Colour Challenge - the colours were very vanilla, ruby red, blue bayou and chocolate chip.  I challenged myself to use a stamp set I haven't used before too, and CASED the layout from the Idea Book & Catalogue:

Our neighbours have two lovely sons who are both having birthdays next week - so here are cards for them:

And here are some cards made with the stamp set I've chosen for my Projects by Mail this month:  Live Your Dreams, to give you a taste.

 

Keesh's Sketch Challenge

Yes, I am doing a lot of challenges lately, instead of things like, oh, laundry for example.  Why do you ask?

Makeesha made a sketch challenge, and I needed to make a card for a new baby girl, so.....here it is!

Mojo Monday Challenge 68

I'm loving getting into these challenges!  Might end up being difficult once school starts and the regular routine of after school activities etc commences, but for the next few weeks, I'll be having fun!

This is a fun Sketch Challenge by Julee Tilman at Mojo Monday Sketch Blog.  My first entry!  I lurk here often as it is a great source of inspiration if you are feeling a little stuck or bored with the way you are doing your cards.  Why not give it a go yourself?

Here is the sketch:

Here's my attempt:

I was also hunting around for ideas using the Carousel Notes from the new Summer Mini, and I came across Cambria Turnbow's tutorial at Stamp A Little Love Baby (is that a great blog name or what?).    I CASE'd Cambria's little Carousel Note Handbag (made by using the Carousel Note envelope as a Bagalope - genius!), and here is my version:

Not sure I'd do it exactly this way again - I found cutting around all the scallops on the DSP tedious.  I know some people find cutting out really enjoyable; me? Not so much.   However, even with the whining I must say the results look great!

Kristina Werner Colour Challenge #37

Long time lurker, first time poster for Kristina's Colour Challenge.   The colours this week were Old Olive, Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie and Whisper White.  Not sure of my results; it may need "something."  Hmm.

As we don't have Baja Breeze here in Australia yet, I substituted a Soft Sky Carousel Note.  I will try to take a better photo tomorrow in daylight, but I was determined to post in plenty of time!   Edited to add:  Here's the daylight photo - as it is overcast this morning, I'm not sure it is much of an improvement!

Here's a close up of the flower - it is a big white flower from the pretties kit,  stamped  in choc chip with En Francais.    The big white brad I've had leftover in my stash and the felt flowers are SU!

Thanks for looking!

Eureka!

I'm on a roll!   I've made a pretty bag to hold some cards - check out the styled silver hodgepodge big brads there.  Cute, huh?

       

Note also the Say it with Scallops stamp punched with the co-ordinating Scalloped Square punch, and Ginger Blossoms DSP from the Summer Mini.  

I also made a matching card (Hodgepodge, again!  This frame perfectly matched the small oval punch).  

So satisfying when it all goes together easily.

I  will be back to edit with the credits for the design of the box, as I don't have them handy just now and I'm squeezing in a post between bathing the kids and cooking dinner.  I will have to have another play with the box as the measurements are for US standard sized card & envelopes, which is slightly smaller than ours.  Edited to say it looks like the fabulous Sandi Dailey adapted this box from a design by Melissa Roberts.  I will do another dig around to find the blog address.

I realised I'd never made a card with this gorgeous Level 1 Hostess set before - Oh So Lovely.  I used my markers to colour the stamp.  The Pale plum base card was stamped in pale plum ink with the En Francais background stamp, and the yummy wide vanilla ribbon was part of the December special.   These flower images are so delicate, and they are really fine and crisp when stamped - beautiful!

This is a card I made a while ago but hadn't finished - all it needed was a largish sentiment to balance it out.   The card sat on my desk, mocking me with its large empty space until I happened to be cleaning up my craft room and re-discovered this stamp, from "All Occasions" (I think).  Eureka!

I again used my markers to ink up the sentiment.  It has some of the Bali Breeze DSP, and the Eastern Blooms flower - with Chunky glitter from the Summer Mini.  I think the background flower is from the Three For You Punch Box set. 

I have to take the kids shopping for school stuff tomorrow and may need intensive therapy afterwards.  

Sweethearts from the Summer Mini

  

Aren't they sweet?  These are all made from the "Happy Heart" set in the summer mini.  I used some Styled Silver Hodgepodge on some of them to jazz them up.   I realised I'd been hoarding my lovely hodgepodge, but no one else can see how pretty it is then!  Also - pretty in pink and Real red as a colour combo - hadn't tried it before, but I LOVE it now!    I think the pink card is my favourite so far.  And it co-ordinates with my blog!  Hahaha!

I've won a Gold Logie!

Well, kind of!  Thank you Chrissie, for your kindness in awarding me with this honour.  I'm very touched and awed to be put in the same company as your extremely talented self.   Maybe 2009 and pink are going to be lucky for me!

I believe I now have the honour of bestowing this lovely award on 5 other inspirational bloggers.  I would have to say these talented people have definitely provided me with inspiration:

1.  Linda

2. Stephanie

3. Makeesha

4. Lyanna

5. Karen

There are of course more blogs I look at regularly for inspiration, but I had to stop at five!

Enjoy checking out these talented ladies, if you haven't already.

New Year, New Blog colours....

doing a little spring clean at home and thought I'd procrastinate here by playing with a different Blogger template,  What do you think?  I'm not sure.

Back later when children are not clamouring for food, love, attention, etc.

SALE-A-BRATION time

Sorry I'm being a little bit lazy here - I'm cutting and pasting from my customer newsletter (well, email, I haven't worked out how to make a newsletter yet) about the current promotions.  If you want to join my email list so you are aware of promotions and classes, etc, let me know.

January Promotions
The Summer Mini Catalogue is out – if you don’t have one, let me know and I’ll send you one!  Otherwise, check out the catalogue from the link in my blog, or at the Stampin’ Up! Website.  http://www3.stampinup.com/au/ena/default.asp

Also – Stampin’ Up’s biggest promotion of the year is now on.  From 1st January – 28th February 2009 is Sale-a-Bration!   It is Stampin’ Up’s way of thanking it’s customers, hostesses and demonstrators.    
Basically, the promotion is this:    For customers  - for every $100 you spend, you can select one of the four exclusive SAB sets free!  There is no limit – if you spend $200, you can select 2 free sets, etc.  You will want to collect all four!  For hostesses – when you host a workshop totalling at least $600 (which isn’t difficult), you will receive a free SAB set.  That is in addition to the Hostess benefits!  If your workshop totals $1,200 you receive a second SAB set.  You get a third for workshop sales of $1,800 or more!   If you sign up to be a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator during this promotion you can pick any set from the current Ideas Book & Catalogue up to the value of $79.95 FREE!

Want to see these gorgeous exclusive SAB sets?  Click on the link over on the Right side for the PDF file of the brochure, or go to the SU! website.   Otherwise, I’ll mail one to you if you wish.

So, as you can see – now is the best time to splurge on some of the stamps you’ve had your eye on, or to host a workshop, or to sign up as a Demonstrator!  Of course if you sign up as a Demo, you also get ME as your upline, which is also a great bargain!  Contact me if you want more information.

Also, remember – the current Ideas Book & Catalogue will finish at the end of March 2009.  Some of the stamps and accessories WILL be retired, never to be seen again.   So if you have something on your wish list and you don’t know whether or not to wait, be aware that there is a risk it might not make it into the new catalogue. The current “In Colours” (Blue Bayou, River Rock, Purely Pomegranate, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi and Groovy Guava) WILL be retired  – so make sure you order any ink refillers in the In Colours in plenty of time.  Apparently last year Stampin’ Up! Ran out of in colour ink refillers before the end of March!  Once they are gone, that is it.  So make sure you stock up on your favourites before they go.  

Please feel free to give me feedback about class times, project ideas,  products or anything really!    

Happy stamping,

Louise

Happy New Year!

I hope 2009 is a fabulous year for you and yours.  

We are back from a break at the beach - was lovely and relaxing at Caloundra, kids had fun on the beach and swimming in the pool, we ate too much takeaway (!) and met up with some old friends.  So nice to have time together as a family.......but it's good to be home, too.  

Oooh, I notice I've had some new visitors, welcome!  And thank you to Allison over at Stampin' When I Can for listing my blog on her site as one of her "Newly Discovered" sites. Congratulations on the birth of your gorgeous new baby Avery!  I hope her surgery goes well and she is out of hospital and home soon.

Did you want to know what was in those cute little handbags?  It was..............(drumroll)

  

a personalised keyring!

No, I didn't invent these (I wish I did!) but CASE'd them from the always fabulous Makeesha.  Click on her name to go to her tutorial.  

These keyrings were quite simple to make - all you need is some acetate (clear thin plastic, like a transparency sheet from an office supply store), the designer label punch, the co-ordinating Styled silver hodgepodge (from the new Summer Mini), cardstock, stamps,  ribbons, ink and a hinged ring.  I glued mine together with Crystal Effects.  They were fun to make, and I'm pleased with the way they turned out.  I gave them to my sisters, sisters-in-law, Mum and Mother-in-law.  

Sale-a-bration starts today!  I'll be back soon with some projects to show.  I'm also thinking up new classes, maybe a stamp club,  projects by mail for those who don't live in Brisbane (hi Maree!) and other fun things.