Bright and Beautiful inspiration

I Christmas is coming so I have started planning my cards and what better stamp set is there for the Australian non snow Christmas than Bright and Beautiful. A few of my customers had bought the Bigshot and bundle set so that also helped my decision with where to start. 

Teamed with the star framelits this set makes for such lovely Christmas cards but as usual I like things to be versatile so birthday cards with the bundle were also a must.

This card uses - 

Cardstock Real Red, Whisper White card

Ink Real Red

Stamp Set Bright and Beautiful

Trim 5/8" organza ribbon

Tools trimmer

This card uses - 

Cardstock Old Olive, Real Red, Whisper White card

Ink Real Red, Old Olive

Stamp Set Bright and Beautiful

Trim Burlap ribbon, frosted sequins

Tools trimmer, star framelits, small star punch

This card uses - 

Cardstock Night of Navy, Whisper White card, Silver Glimmer paper

Ink Night of Navy pad and pen

Stamp Set Bright and Beautiful

Tools trimmer, star Framelits, little star punch, star mask

Project Life scrap night

A team meeting, nibbles and Project Life! What fun I had - with thousands (sadly not exaggerating this time) of photos from our trip to Finland Christmas 2012 the hardest bit was culling them, down to 5 double sided pages.

I got 1 finished last night or 2 if you count both sides 😉 

Using the new card fillers from the Stampin Up supplement brochure this page shows a few of the activities on Christmas Day. The Lost Lagoon colour went perfectly with the ice.

I also like to make my own card fillers using our Cardstock, embellishments and stamps. The new letter  die is the perfect size.

What a Star!

A little while back Stampin Up ran a promotion with the Big Shot and bundles.

I know some of my customers took advantage of this great opportunity and I also know some of those Big Shots are still in the box! 

Well pull them out and get started. 

The Star Framelits were bundled with Bright & Beautiful knowing that all my ladies got this set bar 1 I thought that would be a great place to start.

Just using the framelits, the 2 smallest and the small star punch here is 2 very easy Birthday or Celebration cards.

New month new promotions

2 great new promotions start today in Australia, one for those that join Stampin Up and one for everyone.

Let's start with everyone. 

6 days only it's time to stock up and save on your basics Cardstock, ink and some stamps.

For those joining over the whole month of October  it's free paper - 6 months of free paper!

Where do you find your inspiration?

We all get inspired by different things and our creative pursuits are no different. 

I love to look around me and am often found thinking wow that would look great as / on a card or scrap page. I have even recreated contact (kids book coverings) as a digital scrap page background.

This month I have turned to our Annual Catalogue for my inspiration - what started as one card for a team challenge has blossomed and I am now on a roll. I am also looking at the catty in a whole new light. 

Let's look at page 116 and 117!

I just got the Starburst sayings wood bundle (I love the wood) and hubbies birthday was fast approaching so combined 2 things - the challenge and his birthday card. Male cards have always been a challenge as I so love making pretty cards but to say I am happy with this one is an understatement. 

Here is the artwork for the stamp set.

Here is the bundle I got.

And last but not least here is the card I came up with using the catalogue as inspiration.

Party Invites

I wanted to have a bit of fun with this one - a Mad Hatters Tea Party it's already going to be fun so the invite needed to be fun as well. 

This was made using MDS with a couple of clip art pictures thrown in. 

One of the hurdles I had to overcome was the square backgrounds of the clip art. You can see in the bottom corner a little nick out of the black frame I did fix it but left it here to show you in this one. To fix it I just used the brush function and had the picture at 800% so I could see the pixels and spot dabbed it with black. Note you must then 'group' the 2 otherwise the black spot will move. 

Flower Patch pretty

Playing today with my new Sampin Up Flower Patch set - love the bundle and save 15% option.

The framelits proved a bit of a challenge but when I worked out the placement I had one of those ahhh moments. 

The Framelit has a code etched on it - that's the top and the floweres are the correct way up in the pack so if you watch how you put the top of the flower when stamping then matching the frame is not to difficult. Once you work it out a dot of permanent marker is your friend for life.

So have a BLOOMING BE YOU {TIFUL} day

Check out Pinterest for more great ideas for this set - be warned it will climb higher to the top of your wish list once you do.

Just a quick share

The new Catalogue and all it's loveliness is LIVE.

I'm away for the weekend scrapping so I will do the kinky thing when I'm home on wifi.

Project life is a big focus for me this weekend it has solved one of my greatest dilemmas - scrapping multiple photos of the one event! 

I have 'kits' of stuff made up that are  years old and I wonder what I was thinking when I put them together but hay I hate waste so it has been interesting. I have incorporated my love for Stampin Up into these pages and challenged my thinking (a lot) 

Want to see some? 

It's important to note this child is about to celebrate her 10th birthday! I used the SU Georgeous Grunge stamp set, Amazing Birthday and our tag topper punch. 

We had about 20 kids not including siblings at this party so you can imagine the photos - that's where the SU  Project Life came into play. 

Everyone made a huge effort to come dressed up and Project Life has let me exhibit that. 

New Occasion Catalogue

2 weeks to go - 2 weeks left of the Big Shot bundle specials how exciting.

I have my hot little hands on the new Occasions Catalogue full of yummy Christmas sweetness. Pre order was a challenge - I didn't know where to start there is way to much to choose from. I was so excited then the box arrived I have touched it all and mounted my stamps onto the wood and that is all I have had time to do. 

The new Project Life kit is beautiful and I can see many a page coming out featuring those cards. I am headed away on a retreat at the end of the month and that's one of the goodies I am taking with me. 

Another thing I have done - well I got to play with the Brother Scan N Cut - it was here for 24hrs and part of that I had to work and sleep (dreadfully inconvenient). It took me a while to figure out what I was doing but found a great tutorial http://aandhcrafts.wordpress.com/category/brother-scan-n-cut/ that made it very easy. I had it playing on my iPad beside me and I did the project at the same time. 

The 'Family' is built into the machine and the Birthday Party I did as per the tute with the built in fonts. 

Happy crafting people - till next time - pop on over to my shop and don't forget to check out the weekly deals when you are there. 

Finishing up on Tuesday night are these great goodies at 25% off.

I love the little purse - it holds a small chocolate perfectly and looks great for any occasion but especially great on wedding tables as a cute package gift for the ladies. 

Project Life and Stampin Up.

There's been lots happening here with big seeing orders and huge kids assignments. I can say I have learnt heaps but it has taken time. 

Project Life has come to Stampin Up and yep I am more than a little excited about it. I love to traditional scrapbook and have even been having fun with digital scrapping on MDS but wow there is some serious satisfaction happening here. 

Page 1 -all great photos of my 3 little treasures but not ones I would scrap individually because, hay, well I just don't have all the time in the world to do it. 

Let me list the things I love about SU Project Life in particular - the PL kits match all our other great stuff like the colours (and yes this is a big deal trust me) the stamps compliment the occasions - did I mention the colours? The colours used in the PL kits are exactly the same as our colour families so mounting photos -which I love to do, is easy. 

Page 2 - I have backed them to keep them together as I am scrapping all over the place, no consecutive dates for me. I have been working on a 2 page spread though as wow I took so many photos at my daughters 5th birthday all those years ago it's now 5 pages long.

Page one a traditional page like I love to do - I used some of the PL cards to embellish and add colour to this otherwise pink (Strawberry Slush) page. We had a Barnyard bash all because Miss M wanted to wear her cow dress!

Page 1 - the others are not finished but will feature soon.

Want to know more about Project Life and Stampin Up? Sign up for my newsletter, click the 'like' button on my Facebook page or visit my Stampin Up Ensuite then hit the contact me button. 

Big Shot and Bundles

 

 

The Great Outdoors Male Birthday

Male birthday cards sometimes make us shudder - well they do me. I'll admit it not really a fan!

With 3 cards needed this week I had to face my fears and create away.

Out came a stamp set I hadn't used before - thought yep it's "blokey" enough for me but what to do with it? So as usual I hit Pinterest (if in doubt about a set purchase I do that first but hadn't this time). Well the inspiration was there but only so much of it and I was still stumped.

I stamped the images cut them out and played like a puzzle to see what would happen and get some ideas. 

Here are the results. 

The new Blendabilities worked a treat for this set and I think they turned out tops.

The "blue" is Night of Navy and the blender pen it worked but the result wasn't anywhere as nice as the Blendabilities.

To get the tent behind the chair - stamp the chair then using a post it note trimmed to the shape of the chair cover the part of it the tent is going behind. Remove the post it note and ta-dah the tent is at the back.

Sassy salutations is my go to set for greetings at the moment and I believe to be great value for money. 

You will need

The Great Outdoors stamp set

Sassy Salutations stamps

Blendabilities in the colours of your choice 

Momento in pad

Very vanilla card stock

Soft Suede card stock and ink for sponging the edge

MDS getting ready for Fathers Day

Decided I might give some Subway Art a got.

Gor some great ideas from Pinterest and Instergram then hit MDS for a play.

I've had this printed so now know where to tweak it - currently it's a 6x8 and it's so hard getting a frame for that! 

I've watermarked it but if you would like a copy for your private use please hit my Facebook page and send me a message. Don't have Facebook? Email me through the shop button to the right of your screen.