Everything's Coming Up Roses....

I'm a big fan of musicals. Love me a show tune. Can anyone name the Musical that line is from?

In the meantime, here are some roses to show off for you! I was on a roll today and made four cards using the same colour palette (Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss) and the same stamp from Fifth Avenue Floral. I love how different the roses look, depending on how you've stamped and coloured them.

I stamped two of the roses with Stayzon black ink on watercolour paper and used my Aquapainter to watercolour them with ink from my ink pads. I'm not very good at watercolouring, but it's something I'd like to get better at. I love the look.

You may not be able to see on the second card, but I used the background stamp En Francais on it, with Versamark. I love how it gives a vintage look.

Recipe: Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, On Your Birthday, En Francais, Sanded

Ink: Versamark, Regal Rose, pretty In Pink, Kiwi Kiss

Paper: Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss, Watercolour Paper, Raspberry Tart DSP, Pretty In Pink

Other: Regal Rose grosgrain, Designer Label Punch, Small Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, Lace Edge Punch, Aquapainter

The next two I stamped in Versamark on glossy white cardstock, then embossed with white embossing powder. I then sponged the flower with Summer Sun and Regal Rose ink, and wiped any excess ink off the white embossing with a tissue. This is called the Emboss Resist technique. Again, unless you click to enlarge it, you might not see that on the top card here I've stamped the Rose in Versamark on the Kiwi Kiss layer. And I did a little faux stitching on the second card.

Recipe: Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, On Your Birthday,

Ink: Versamark, Summer Sun, Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss

Paper: Whisper White,Kiwi Kiss, Regal Rose

Other: Heat Gun, White embossing powder, Lace Edge Punch,, Mat Pack and paper piercer, signo white gel pen.

What do you think? Which technique do you prefer?

Kristina Werner's Colour Challenge #55 & Mojo Monday week 91

Well, I was too late to play along with Mojo Monday's challenge this week, but I still used their sketch for Kristina's Colour Challenge this week. I have discovered that if I draw a blank on a project, if I have a sketch and/or colour challenge to work with, I can surprise myself!

Here's the Mojo Monday Sketch:

And here are the colours for Kristina's challenge this week:

Basic Gray, Really Rust, More Mustard and Very Vanilla. A Challenge indeed!

Here's what I've done:

I used a retired DSP in More Mustard (the only one I had with any of the Challenge colours!), and inked up this pretty stamp form Only Ovals for the first time (I'm ashamed to say!). I stamped it three times (in each colour) then cut out all the relevant bits to make the multicoloured image - I'm pleased with the way it turned out! I popped the main image panel up on Dimensionals and also pierced two lines as a border around it.

Ingredients: Stamps: Trendy Trees (sentiment on the bottom of the card), Only Ovals

Paper: East Coast Prep DSP (retired), textured Really Rust, Very Vanilla, Basic Gray

Ink: Basic Gray, Really Rust, More Mustard,

Other: Very Vanilla ribbon, Build - a - Brad, small and large oval punches, paper snips, dimensionals, Mat Pack, paper Piercer.

Close up to see the pierced frame and the main image.

The cute build-a-brad using the rose image!

And with the scraps:

Happy Birthday Anita!

Just a quick one on a wet weekend between birthday parties for kids, and dancing lessons, and the school Walkathon (even in the rain!). I thought I'd show the card I made for my friend Anita - I used Makeesha's sketch challenge, which I found a bit tricky!

Here's the sketch:

And my card:

I used Party Hearty (such a cute cupcake image! ) which I stamped twice (once in Regal Rose and once in Pretty in Pink) and cut out so I could have a different coloured top on the cake. I mounted both cake parts with Dimensionals and used a little chunky glitter for the sprinkles. I used my markers to colour the candle, which I also cut out and popped up with dimensionals.

I used four punches in this card! First, I put the cake on a large punched circle (Marvy Giga Punch I think) and roughed the edges, then sponged them in Regal Rose. I used the scallop edge punch on the Regal Rose tag layer too. I used the horizontal slot punch up the top of the tags for the ribbon to slide through. Finally, punched out the smallest heart with the new three heart punch (name escapes me just now!).

Just as I finished I realised I'd forgotten the ribbon on the smaller tag layer from the sketch, so I improvised with some Sticky Strip and Supernova glitter. If you look closely you'll see it's a little crooked!

The card base is Pretty In Pink, and I used a bit of DSP (from the level 1 Hostess pack) which I put through the crimper horizontally and vertically to get a worn, soft seersucker look. The big tag is Regal Rose, the smaller tag is Pink Pirouette. My friend loves pink, which is why I kept it monochromatic. The sentiment is from Party Hearty, and the final touch at the top is some wide double stitched Regal Rose ribbon, which I tied off with linen thread and attached a (retired) pretty in pink button to.

Then I made a little bag-in-a-box, in which I gave her a few chocolates! The box is made from retired DSP (Berry Bliss). It is decorated with some choc chip and pink pirouette felt flowers and pretty in pink brads.

I have to fly now!

Dreams Du Jour Class

Today I had 6 lovely ladies come to my house for coffee, Tim Tams and craft - we had a hoot!

We made a box and four cards (originally designed by Andrea Walford). Here's a picture of the project:

Aren't they gorgeous? We all decided they would make an excellent Teacher gift for the end of the year (if we can bear to part with them!). If you are interested in learning how to make this project, contact me and I'll see if I can do a second class.

I'm also planning a big "Christmas in July" extravaganza, with four cards and four 3D projects to give as gifts, so you can be well on your way to being organised by the time the end of the year rolls around. (Can you believe it's half-way over already?)

More Boy Cards

Forgot to show you this card I made today - for my Dad's birthday (next month). I made another very similar to this one for a little boy in my son's class at school. I used Circle Circus, similar layout to my earlier card, but with Pacific Point and Riding Hood Red as the main colours. What do you think?

A busy week...

....I've been housebound with two out of four kids sick over the past week, so I haven't been able to update my blog (or see much of my craft room) until now.

I have a couple of things to show you - first I must apologise for the terrible photographs - the lighting looked OK when I was taking them, but now I see them on the computer they look terribly dark, and I don't have Photoshop. Yet, anyway!

Here is a card I've made for a little girl's birthday. Sweet and simple, right?

Here it is again, stepped up by adding punched flowers, cutting out the birdie's body and mounting it on dimentionals, with a glittered wing.

Next here is a gift bag I made (a slightly altered version of Jan Tink's paper tote click here to go to her blog Stamps, Paper, Scissors - she has a PDF with the template) to hold some cards I made for a friend.

And a pretty posy from the Die Cut flowers!

I'm quite Pleased With myself....

I have been wanting to make one of these collages for AGES, since I saw one on Ali Edward's blog, but couldn't find a suitable frame. Until now.

I found an 8x8 inch box frame at Spotlight, and using the gorgeous Bella Rose double sided papers from Stampin' Up! and a butterfly die that I got with my Cuttlebug a long time ago (before I discovered Stampin' Up!) I made this:

Recipe: Frame - Spotlight (Franchville 8x8)

Paper: Stampin' Up! Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, Bella Rose DSP

Ink: Close to Cocoa

Stamps: En Francais

Other: Cuttlebug, Provocraft Butterfly Die and embossing folders

If you look closely (click to enlarge) you'll notice I sponged the edges of the butterflies with Close to Cocoa ink, and I also used ink in the embossing folders, a nifty trick! I bent the wings a bit to get some texture and dimension and attached the butterflies with glue dots onto a sheet of whisper white cardstock.

As a dear friend of ours just had a baby girl, I decided it would make a lovely thing to hang in a little girl's room. My daughter got upset about that, so I made one for her room as well!

Then I made a card, linking the butterfly theme, and a bag topper (idea from Linda Craven) for the plain boring white paper bag I used as wrapping. (I also stamped white tissue paper with the butterfly from Dreams Du Jour, but I didn't photograph that.

Recipe: (All Materials Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated)

Paper: Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Bella Rose DSP, White Paper Bag (unknown),

Stamps: Nursery Necessities, Punches Three

Ink: close to cocoa, riding hood red

Other: Chocolate Chip Stain Ribbon (retired from last year's Mini), Riding Hood Red taffeta, Wide Oval punch, Word Window punch, Butterfly Die and Cuttlebug from Provocraft, gold brads

All in all a fun and productive few hours on a rainy day!

I think this collage idea has endless possibilities - you could use chipboard, die cut shapes, punched out stars would look good in a boy's room.........

June Promotion from Stampin' Up!

This promotion is fabulous! When you host a workshop in June and July you'll receive an additional $40 in hostess awards when your workshop totals $600! Usually, if your workshop totals $600, you receive your choice of FREE level one or two hostess stamps, plus $70 free product (which is a pretty great deal, I think you'd agree!). For June and July you would receive $110 free product, plus the level 1 or 2 Hostess stamp set of your choice. This only applies if your workshop totals $600 or more (excluding shipping).

So what are you waiting for? Got a Wish List as long as your arm? Want to have a fun "Girl's Night In"? Contact me to schedule a workshop!

Some Birthday Love

Hello! I'm typing this officially a year older than when I last posted. Happy Birthday to Meeeeee!

I was lucky enough to receive some Stamping Love from some very talented people:

From Rebecca O'Gorman:

Isn't she clever? You can check out her blog HERE and see her gorgeous work.

Here's a card by Tanya Kitto - all the way from WA! Here is her blog.

And finally a card from the wonderful Jesse Claven from Caloundra. Her blog is here.

Wasn't I spoiled? I had a lovely birthday and managed to spread it out for about 4 days, I think!

And speaking of birthdays, here are a few cards I made for a friend (she wanted BOY cards) with my new favourite set (LOL, I say that about every set!) Party Hearty:

So versatile! And perfect for adults and kids alike - not too "babyish" or Cute. I think I'll get a lot of use our of this set. Again, night time photography, sorry about that! Also, the DSP I used here is retired stuff I'm still using up.

While I was at it, my eldest went to a birthday party for a young lad and I wanted to dress up the gift voucher we gave him. This is what I came up with (it uses retired DSP):

It's basically an envelope made of DSP with a gift card attached to a belly band you can slide off.

And finally, here is the card I made a gorgeous friend. I thought it had a "Sex in the City" vibe about it. I used Crystal Effects on a little detail in each image, plus some glitter. Not the best photo, I promise it looked really good in real life!

I'll be back later with details of this month's classes and specials from Stampin' Up!