Oval Regalia

Check out this gorgeous die from Spellbinders.....the latest to arrive in our craft room - the very delicate Oval Regalia die, pictured on the card below. This card is intended for my friend Helen's birthday next week.

The roses are handmade...such fun....and the background paper is from Heartfelt Creations Delicate Asters paper collection....so pretty. The sentiment is from JustRite Grateful Heart Vintage Labels Two.

Roses and Frames

Guess what? I like buying and trying new products! One new discovery has been the JustRite delightful background stamp, Lace Oval Frame, pictured below. Isn't it simply gorgeous? The sentiment is from another JustRite set, Large Elegant Sentiments....an absolute favourite, as it has sentiments for every occasion.

The red rose is quickly made, using punches. Look in my January archive, for the tutorial. They are easy, and great fun.

Happy Accident!

We were stamping backgrounds recently in card class, and Fran made what she thought was a mistake...only part of the stamp made contact with the paper. She tried another stamp, to fill in the backgrounds, and I seized the result, to copy it.

Here is my take on 'Fran's Mistake' background, using the Stampin' Up! Off The Grid background stamp, the I Love Lace background stamp, and the Heartfelt Creations Sun Kissed Swirls stamp.

The flowers are Heartfelt Creations Botanical Rose stamps, die-cut with the matching Botanical Wings die, then sponged with Stampin' Up! Blackberry Bliss ink.

 

The sentiment is from JustRite Large Elegant Sentiments, and die cut with a JustRite Vintage Labels Four die from that wonderful set of dies. Cardstock is Perfect Plum, from Stampin' Up!

A New Direction

This week, life took a new direction! I have been a Stampin' Up! demonstrator since 2011, and it has been an amazing journey - but the time to move on seemed right to me, and with mixed emotions, I resigned this week -giving thanks to Stampin' Up! and the special people I have met along the way. The support from the sisterhood of fellow demonstrators has been truly wonderful.

What next, you might ask? All in God's hands!

Recently I discovered the wonderful stamps and dies created by Heartfelt Creations, and below is a card made with their gorgeous Botanical Rose flowers, cut out with the matching Botanical Wings die, and sponged with Stampin' Up! Hello Honey and Cherry Cobbler ink. Heartfelt Creations have paper stacks to match their individual collections, and these include a couple of pages of card fronts. The card front used here is from Antiquity paper belonging to the Sweet Juliet Collection.

Filigree Delight and Justrite Stamps

My Spellbinders experience just keeps getting more and more fun! Not only are the dies gorgeous, but recently I discovered the JustRite range of stamps, which complement the Spellbinders dies.

Woo Hoo!!!!

Here, the Filigree Delight die from Spellbinders is decorated with the rose stamp from  JustRite Grateful Heart Vintage Labels Two. The roses and leaves have been highlighted with the Stampin' Up! Calypso Coral and Wild Wasabi Blendabilities.

The lacy panel behind the roses comes from the Spellbinders Tranquil Moments die set. The card and card front are pearlised cardstock, which is a dream to use for die cutting.

Heartfelt Sympathy

Sympathy cards are never easy to make, when someone has lost a loved one - but I believe a handmade card, and the thoughtfulness and love that goes into making it, becomes a part of the healing process for the person who receives it.

Here is a card made this week, for the family of a special person....and with it, went my prayer for God to comfort them in their grief. 

 

This is another card using the Spellbinders Radiant Rectangles dies. The card base is Stampin' Up! Wisteria Wonder and the sentiment is a retired set from SU, called Close as a Memory. The rose was made using SU Perfect Plum and Wisteria wonder cardstock. There is a tutorial on my blog in the January archives, for creating these roses. The leaves are in SU Pistachio Pudding and were die cut with the Spellbinders Foliage dies.

A Touch of Gold

Loving my new Spellbinders dies! Another one to showcase here, this time Tranquil Moments: love that filigree piece on the top layer - and plenty of space for a sentiment - this one is the retired Happy Birthday single stamp from Stampin' Up! I embossed the sentiment in gold, to tone in with the cardstock.

The gold-toned pearlised cardstock is from the local discount store, cuts like a dream, and the flower is made using one of the matching envelopes which came with the ready-made card pack. The flower is made using Spellbinders Rose Creations die, and the gold bling was originally a bead from the local op shop. 

Card making need not be expensive!!!!

Radiant Rectangles to the Rescue!

There have been a number of cards posted here recently, using the Spellbinders Locking Loops die; and I mentioned I was was just starting out with the Spellbinders dies and there was an order on the way. Woo hoo! It has arrived....so you will get to see something different..and hopefully, inspiring. They really are stunning dies....after four years of intensive card-making, feel like I've finally found my style.

Here is an example, using the Spellbinders Radiant Rectangles die set.These dies are really special, because they not only cut, but also emboss at the same time. Three of the dies were used, for the card below, and they were all cut and embossed at the same time, and nested on the card. This set is going to be a firm favourite, and for the sympathy card below, gives it understated elegance. The cardstock is Wisteria Wonder from Stampin' Up!, the sentiment is stamped using the retired SU hostess set, Simply Sketched, and their Elegant Eggplant ink. The punch is my favourite SU one, Scalloped Oval.

Blendabilities Enhance our Card Creating Experience.

One of my favourite activities as a child, was colouring in - back then we had Lakeland pencils, and not much else. Nowe we have  a whole range of colouring tools, and my new favourites are the Stampin' Up! Blendabilities markers. I have always enjoyed the watercolour markers produced by that company - have them all! - but these alcohol-based Blendabilities markers take my colouring-in experience to a whole new level.

The oval was cut using the oval die from Spellbinders Filigree Delight, stamped with Momento Tuxedo Black ink using the SU stamp set "Sweetbriar Rose" and coloured with Wild Wasabi and Rich Razzleberry Blendabilities. Cardstock is SU Wisteria Wonder. Here is a simple card, very quick to make and using - yet again, the Spellbinders Locking Loops die. Doesn't she have any other dies, you might be asking?  The standard crafter's answer to that is.....lots more ordered!!!! 

Watch this space.

Versatile Locking Loops!

Recently I posted a feminine card using the Spellbinders Locking Loops die cut as a frame for the card. A friend was wondering if the same frame could be used to make a masculine card - so, taking up the challenge, here is my first attempt.

 

The frame is in Chocolate Chip from Stampin' Up!, also used their Moon Lake stamp from the Occasions catalogue, coloured lightly with Blendabilities markers. The greeting is also from the Occasions catalogue and is from the excellent Guy Greetings set. The base card is Baked Brown Sugar, from the SU In Colors collection: these colours will be retiring at the end of June 2015 so I shall be stocking up with Baked Brown Sugar cardstock, ink pad refills, and Baker's Twine, since this is a fabulous colour.

Roses Tutorial

ROSES TUTORIAL

Members of The Gathering, below is the tutorial for making the rose on the card above. I no longer own the punches used for making the white rose on this card, but below is a photo of the punches and how many are required to make one white rose. The punches are all by Stampin' Up! and are available in the current catalogue which retires on 31st May, 2016. I am not a Stampin' Up! representative, merely offering this as general information.

The punches are, from largest to smallest....the Fun Flower punch, the Pansy punch and the Petite Petal punch. Other punches may be substituted, or you could draw your own and fussy-cut them, if necessary. Here is a photo of what they look like, and how many you need, to make one white flower. I used cardstock, 210 gsm.

The method of making the white rose is identical to the original blog post below, which was for the pink, scalloped roses. So, punch out the ones in the photo above, then use the method for the pink scalloped circle roses, below. These flowers are super easy and just a little bit addictive!

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PINK ROSES USING SCALLOP CIRCLE PUNCHES

 The roses above are so very easy to make and every person who has come to card classes has asked how they are made...so here is a brief tutorial. I'm not sure where online this idea came from, but if the original creator reads this, know your work has been admired and duplicated, many times!

All you need is cardstock, around 210 gsm is good, for these it can be a little heavier, up to 250 gsm.. and scallop circle punches, mini brads and a saucer of water. A punch for making the leaves is handy, but you can simply draw them and fussy-cut if you don't have a suitable punch. The one used here is the Fun Flower punch.

The size of your Scallop punch isn't all that important...it will simply determine the eventual size of your flower. I like to do one scallop circle that is smaller than the others, for the centre, but it isn't critical. Work with what you have!

Above, you can see the cardstock punched and ready to go. You need five scallop circles, and a smaller one for the centre, if you wish. Also one punch of green cardstock, for the leaves.

Take each circle and dip into the saucer of water, holding it in there for as long as it takes to say "CARDSTOCK IN WATER".

Lay out on a teatowel, and do the same with the other circles. When they have all been dunked, pile them on top of each other, no need to match the scallops, they look more natural if they are offset a little.

Take your paper piercer and make a hole through the piled up, soggy scallops, but only just big enough to poke your brad through securely. It doesn't matter what colour your brad is, as it will be hidden.

Now, take your uppermost circle, and lifting it up from the edges, scrunch it up into the centre, quite firmly,  as in the photo below. Do this with each circle, one at a time, and making sure you lift it right up from the centre. When you have scrunched all the circles firmly, they will then start to relax, and this is the time to poke and prod to manipulate them into the shape that is most pleasing to you. Then let them dry, and when they have done so, they will keep their shape.

Now, add your leaves. If you are using the Fun Flower punch, then it will depend on the size of your scallop circle, how many leaves you need. The largest scallop circle punch flower will take a full punch-out of the Fun Flower, just adhere it to the bottom of your flower, after pinching the ends of the 'leaves' to make them look more natural.

Smaller scallop circle flowers will only require one or two leaves. It is easier to adhere your flower, if you first cut your Fun Flower punch-out in half, then remove the 'middle leaf'. This gives you a firmer platform on which to adhere your flower.

These little roses are tremendous fun, and quite addictive! They make excellent decorations for treat bags, boxes, and also cards that are being given with a gift. You could post one of these cards, by packing it in a little box- or a wood-mount stamp case.  Enjoy!!!!

Black and White - Always Elegant....

My friend Lesley came to craft with me today, and brought a selection of flowers to 'Show and Tell!" She had made them with the new Stampin' Up! Bow Punch, after watching a YouTube video. I immediately snaffled a black and white one for the card below, and then Lesley showed me how to make them.

The card front is cut out using the Spellbinders die, Locking  Loops. The black stamens for the flower come from the new SU Bouquet Bigz die, and the bling in the centre of the flower is one of the gorgeous Something Borrowed Embellishments. The Bouquet die and the embellishments are in the Stampin' Up! Occasions 2015 catalogue. Thank You sentiment is from the versatile Blooming With Kindness stamp set.

There is a link below, to the YouTube video, by Amanda Fowler.

Bow Builder Punch Flower

Cheerful Critter Valentine

Love these cute Cheerful Critter stamps, they lend themselves to colouring easily with the Stampin' Up! Blendabilities and there are a number of stamps which fit nicely into the little boxes or banners they are holding. This card features DSP from the Stacked With Love DSP, also the 2.5 inch circle punch and one of the Starburst framelits which mats the circle. Real Red cardstock for the accents.

The sweet little hearts are die cut from one of the Treat Bag framelits. Such good value, the Treat Bag has a number of very useful framelits. Sentiment is stamped from the Crazy About You stamp set.

Hearts and Valentines!

Valentine stamps and cards are not my usual thing, but having seen some of the wonderful cards created recently, I succumbed and bought You Plus Me, Hello Life and the Stacked With Love DSP stack, all from the 2015 Stampin' Up! Occasions catalogue.

I already had the Sweetheart punch and Groovy Love stamp set from the annual catalogue, so here is my first card:

 

This one uses the Groovy Love heart, and a punched out heart from the Stacked With Love paper stack. The glimmer silver heart, the For You and the small red hearts are made using the thinlits that came with the Mini Treat Bag Dies. That set is an absolute 'must-have', as there are so many extras in it apart from the Treat Bag dies. The gorgeous 'LOVE' across the bottom comes from the retired Expressions Thinlits set, and the black frame is the largest framelit from the On Film set, in the annual catty.

Your Perfect Day.

There are no immediate needs for wedding or engagement stamps in my current world, but this new stamp set, Your Perfect Day, in the Occasions catalogue was difficult to resist! Here's my take on it....

The background is also from the Occasions catalogue 2015 and is called Something Lacy. I embossed the background in Smoky Slate and mounted it on grey cardstock. The sentiment was embossed in silver, and the corners punched with a 3-in-1 corner punch by Fiskars....love it. The silver butterfly is Pippi, a Memory Box die. My preference is for Stampin' Up! products, where they are available, and I'm hoping SU will give consideration to the manufacture of similar products.... I love being a SU demo!

My Latest Love - Blendabilities!

My latest hobby - and sooooo relaxing, too - the Blendabilities markers from Stampin' Up! The colours are gorgeous and complement their range of excellent stamps for colouring.....my stash of both Blendabilities markers and stamps grows with every order.

I'm only a beginner but thankfully there are numerous YouTube videos where others share their expertise. Love the Perfect Peacock, and it is a very easy one for newbies to colour. Blendabilities can be used to colour pearls, rhinestones and ribbons...I used plain rhinestones here in the peacock's tail, but coloured the pearl in the next photo.

This one was Blendies fun to do, it is called In This Together; there are some really good ones in the set, including one about shopping! Who doesn't enjoy shopping, especially when it comes to craft purchases???

The background is spotted with Gold Encore ink, using Gorgeous Grunge.

Creating in 2015!

Can it be almost a year, since my last blog? Well, life happens!  I've had two bouts of shingles since the last posting - one bout would have been enough....and then something wonderful happened last year, which has kept me busy, and very delighted. 

What was it? Card classes, here in my unit! One person came, then brought a friend....before we knew it, we had regular attendance of a beautiful group of people, who continue to come here three full days each week. We all get along so well together, and I am absolutely blessed by their friendship and their creativity.

Stampin' Up! have released a new Occasions catalogue, and there are so many gorgeous items in it, they have inspired us to create...I especially love the Butterfly Basics stamps and matching framelits, and have some examples here.

The Butterfly Basics framelit butterflies co-ordinate wonderfully with the Swallowtail stamp from the SU annual catalogue, as in this example. The Swallowtail was stamped in Sahara Sand ink, then fussy-cut before adhering to the white card front, which had been stamped overall with Gold Encore ink and Gorgeous Grunge. The cardstock is Sahara Sand. The medium Butterfly thinlit was die-cut in white cardstock, then stamped lightly using Sahara Sand ink and the gauze stamp from Butterfly Basics stamp set. A light and rather random touch of Versamark ink was then added, just enough to adhere a light sprinkling of gold embossing powder. A few pearls completed the card.   

The next butterfly example is the Swallowtail stamp again, this time stamped on Vellum with Versamark ink,  embossed with white embossing powder then sponged with Sahara Sand ink. It took only minutes to fussy-cut the outline and adhere to the new, gorgeous Something Borrowed designer series paper from the 2015 Stampin' Up! Occasions catalogue. I'm not sure what was used here for cardstock, it is from Stampin' Up! but came out of my pre-folded card container...is it Crumb Cake, or Baked Brown Sugar? They are all very suitable, for our butterfly projects - one of my favourite things to appreciate, about SU products - they all tone and match beautifully.  The gold embellishment is a bead from the local op shop, standing in for when my SU order of Something Borrowed embellishments arrive....they are simply stunning!

A Million and One Thanks

This is one Stampin' Up! stamp set that has caught my eye every time the catalogue was browsed...finally bought it!

Here, the card front with Pool Party border and the centre panel from Everything Eleanor, was done in My Digital Studio, then the flowers from the Petite Petals stamp set were stamped in Pool Party and Island Indigo, and punched with the matching punch. A rhinestone in two of the flowers, a white Top Note die cut inside the card, with an Island Indigo Petite Petal flower stamped in one corner. Cardstock is Island Indigo, I also made some of these cards with Pool Party cardstock. So easy!

The Bikie Gang!

This is a scrapbook page about my elderly friend, Irene. We met in 2005 when my husband was admitted to an aged care facility in Parkes, where Irene was a resident. Irene and I became firm friends, and she used to visit my husband every day when he became a resident in the nursing home section.

My husband and I introduced computers for the elderly, in that aged care facility, and Irene admired from afar, but would never agree to participate. One day she saw me relocating computers to another room, and offered to help.

Here was my opportunity! "Irene, can you just hold the mouse, please...now, we have to test it is working....can you just click on this game thingy....and move it to there....and now click on this green fruit..."

...long story short...she was HOOKED!!!!!

The scrapbook layout below marks a special day in her life...and showed me, dreams never die.....

Retro Fresh!

Have you all been enjoying the slower pace of January, after all the busy pre-Christmas rush?

January this year has been a great month for me....a time of rest and refreshing, with lots of craft activity at home. Card making is very relaxing, and I also bought myself a Silhouette Cameo cutting machine so the month has gone quickly, learning how to use my new toy!

My Digital Studio has scarcely had a look-in, but yesterday I downloaded the stunning new Retro Fresh files, and made the card below.