I recently had a wonderfully relaxing weekend away in Daylesford – - *sigh* – - and took along my stamping bits so that I could have a play if the mood struck.  The mood did strike and this was one of the cards that I made -

It’s such a simple card, and think that the colours are the champions here. Night of Navy and Kiwi Kiss. I’ve used a stamp from the Seeing Spots set for the background and the large stamp from Circle Circus for the embellishment (plus the sparkly centre from a Rhinestone Brad). The ticket corners were done with my small circle punch – do you wanna know how?  First you need your cardstock and your circle punch – - so far so good

Then all you do is slide the corner of your card stock into the punch, like so, lining up the corner of the card stock  with the marks on your punch ~ ~ see?

Then punch! And then repeat on all the other corners.

Pretty easy huh? I’m sure you already knew how to do it, but thanks for sticking with me till the end

Till next time,

Michelle

This was the card we made at last weekend at my Sunday class at the Chelsea Heights Community Centre -  it’s a tri-fold card. 

 We got to play with the Circle Circus stamp set – I’ve stamped it in four colours and then punched the different layers with various punches (mmmm circle scallop, second favourite after Oval scallop punch!) then popped them up with dimensionals.  The background piece was embossed with white EP and the patterned paper is from the Tea Party designer series of 12″x12″ papers (pge 133 in the current catalogue).

Here’s another tri-fold card that I made using Raspberry Tart DS papers – Look Ma! No stamping! If you’d like to make one of these cards, check out the tutorial here at Splitcoast Stampers.

Till next time,

Michelle

Baby girl growsuit card

. . . . I thought that I would try to modify it (other than just the colour) so that it was more ‘boyish’ and suitable for a card for a ‘little man’. It was one of the cards that we did at the Chelsea Heights Community Centre workshop last Saturday and everyone really enjoyed it. And I think it’s pretty cute too!  The scraps from there the neck and legs were punched out were used for the pocket and buttons (or the bear’s face, according the Raych…..)

Dungarees in "Good Morning Sunshine'

So there was this little man in my lime tree…..  hold on, there’s another one!

I used the Urban Garden Designer Series Paper for this little fellas outfit.  I think that I will be making a whole lot more of these, they are really quick and fun to do.

Now here’s a quick hint….

Remember my convention swaps production line? Well, one of the cards had a wee greeting popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals . . .

There's actually about 65 of these little labels that have been 'dimensioned'

. .  . so that was about 130 backing sheets I needed to get off.  Have you heard about the easiest way to get those wascally bits off? Use your thumbnail and give it a crease . . . .

Like this......

and it should pop up the paper on the points, making it easier to get it off. Isay should as the only times it doesn’t work is when you’re showing someone  how good this little tip is!  You can kinda see what I was doing with the labels in the top left hand corner (you can also see where I was trying to work out how many pieces of paper I was going to get out if I cut it 4 times. As it was, I seemed to be forever cutting ‘just a few more bits of this..’ and ‘a couple more of that’ ).  There was also some crimping happening there too.  I was trying to do ribbon-look-alikes and I’d shredded the cardstock, (production line approach to cutting  a lot of long thin bits of paper) but it looked flat.  So I decided to crimp it. And here’s how you crimp a whole lot of skinny strips at once…..

They go in this way.....

..... and come out looking like this!

I love my crimper… It’s just sooooo crimpy! Okay, I think that just plain og’ making up words signals that it’s time to go to bed!  But before I go, I’ve got a few of these swaps leftover from convention ~ if you would like one, please email me with your details and I shall pop it in the post

Have a great weekend and, pending photographs, I promise another post really soon (I’ve been water-colouring this weekend!)

Take care,

Michelle

I meant to mention my new header – did you notice it changed a few days ago (again)?  I’ve been trying to find the right image to have ‘up there’ so have been playing musical images. This still isn’t quite what I was after, but I was really happy with the card that this came from, so thought that it was worth giving it a run. I made  this for a friend for her birthday – I thought that the colours were very ‘her’.  

I’ve used Designer Series Paper on the background and Blue Bayou double stitched ribbon.  I had heard and read a  lot about dying flowers from the Stampin Up ‘Pretties’ Kit and thought to myself that it was too much like hard work.  But I NEEEEEEDED a Blue Bayou flower for this card to match the ribbon. Sooooo, before I knew it I was dying the flowers. SO easy, why haven’t I done this before? I actually placed the flower onto the ink pad and ‘painted’ it with an Aquabrush.  I held the centre down with, oh, I don’t know, I think it was a paint brush or pencil, or some such thing, while I  got the colour ‘up’ and onto the flower.  I was going for a darker-on-the-inside-&-lighter-on-the-outside kind of look.  I had so much fun I did it on the iddy-bitty flower too. I used dimensionals between the each of the flowers to give some lift and  attached the half pearl (from the Pretties kit too) with Mini Glue Dots.

Did you see the Bushfire Appeal total over there > > > > 

How amazing is that? Stampin’ Up! will be donating 50% of the sales of those stamp set sales until the end of March. What a great, caring company.

Till next time,

Michelle

Have you had a chance to play with the new In Colours yet?  I think that Purely Pomegranate and River Rock are my latest favourites (farewell Cranberry Crisp, I’ll never forget you!).  Here’s a little box that I made using these two colours, with some of the matching double stitched ribbon (thanks for the measurements Fleur!)

It was stamped with the gorgeous stamps from the Boho Backgrounds set with the scallop punch used to punch out the River Rock highlight on the lid. Here’s a close up ~ aren’t these colours just great together?

As for those star-burst photo albums, I just can’t stop making them! Here’s one I made on the weekend using some leftovers from my ‘Brocade Background’ papers and the really wide cream grosgrain ribbon.  These albums are great little gifts ~ in fact one went in the post as a ‘Hope you’re feeling better – cheer up’ present earlier this week.  Hopefully looking for photos to put in it will give the recipient something to do while she is recuperating.

….. and here’s the inside using Chocolate Chip and River Rock as the background papers

I will have some more show and tell later that uses more of your scrappin’ scraps!

On a personal note, I am participating in the Run Melbourne on Sunday and have chosen The Humane Society as my charity of choice.  If you would like to sponsor me so that I can raise some funds for this wonderful cause please click on the link (http://runmelbourne.everydayhero.com.au/Frosty).  On my Everyday Hero Page you can also read more about the run and the charity.  Thank you!

Actually, I don’t have a little girl per se, just one of the fluffy-trousered kind.  It was her birthday yesterday ~ she was 21 (in dog years).  She’s our Little Miss Manic and we love her.  She has become (our old boy) Brutus’ best mate and pesonal exerciser. Where she goes, he goes ~ where he goes, she goes.

This is the little poppet that came into our lives in 2005.

(I didn’t even realise she was wetting the rug till I took the photo!~ I thought she was posing for the camera that had been pointed at her constantly since the day she arrived!)

And here, as she is today and always, glued to her favourite boy.  Hasn’t she grown up? These two are great mates and wonderful company for us and each other. I can’t imagine life without a dog in the house. As Charles M Shultz says “Happiness is a warm puppy”.

Now, off puppy talk (I could go on, but I won’t) to tell you about the book that I made the other day.  I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s a sort of ’starburst’ accordian book.  I’m sure it has a proper name, and if you know it, please tell me (but I do like Starbust for a name, it kind of suits it!). I’ve used all Stampin’ Up products, with papers from Stampin’ Up! Designer Series Range that coordinate perfectly with their cardstock, and white grosgrain ribbon to literally tie it all together. So, without further ado, here’s the Starburst Accordian book, Michelle style! 

 ~ HERE IT IS OPEN ~

~ AND ALL CLOSED UP NICE AND NEAT ~

All I need to do to finish it off is put some pictures in the Old Olive squares – perhaps I need to make it a brag book with pictures of my pooches!  I think that these are my new favourite, and I will be making quite a few more. I think that they would make great gifts, especially for new nannas.  Why not organise a workshop with some friends and I can come and show you how to make one! Contact me today to book a date! 

Just a quick note ~ I have started a new page that has tips and links to pages that have great ideas and techniques using Stampin’ Up! tools and products.  I will be updating this regularly, so keep checking the “Great Tips” out!

I finally got my stamps out yesterday for a little stamping session.  It was great to get inky fingers again! And get inky I certainly did!  I was playing with a new technique that I have been wanting to try for awhile now.  It’s called “Polished Stone”.  It’s created on glossy paper with Stampin’ Up Classic Ink re-inkers and a metallic re-inker plus rubbing alcohol. It doesn’t take too long, but it can keep you busy for ages! I made up a few sheets to use as backgrounds.  Here’s one of the cards I made using one of the sets from the Sale-a-bration catalogue ~ “Merci”.  When I get the others made up I will post pictures of them too! 

It’s mum’s birthday so I’m sending her loads of love (from too far away) and along with her presents, I am sending a handmade card (of course!).  It’s using a new technique (new to me) called ‘crayon resist’ & I just love it.  For mum’s card I used the stamp set that we were given at our recent Regional event (Simply Said) and the colours are Lavender Lace and Real Red.

I love the wording around the heart shape “kind – generous – caring – sweet – wonderful – thoughtful”. Why wouldn’t you use it on a card for your mother?  Here’s a close up of the heart ~

I’ve also used the Simply Said stamps in a recent “Thank You” card with a little self portrait of me using the “All in the Family” set ~

Can you see the resemblance? (I had my hair straightened that day!) I have had fun playing with this set and hope to have a few more bits up here for you to look at soon. In the meantime, if you would like to get hold of one of these sets for $59.16 (20% off the RRP) contact me ASAP as this set is only available until the end of November. Remember, 100% of profits of the sale of this set for this month only go towards the Dave Abbot Family Fund.

Well, that’s it for today ~ Tomorrow I’ll post some pictures of the cards from the Stamp-A-Stack that was held on the weekend.

Thanks for looking!

I spent all day Saturday over at Fleur’s place and we were Stampin’ Up! all day. For our first project we decided to each bring a challenge, something that neither of us had done before. Fleur had a doozy! It was a Waterfall card~ it was great once we got all the bits sorted out and attached them the right way! But we still have two lonely pieces leftover, I wonder what we missed? Clues anyone?
Here’s my version of the waterfall card. When you pull the ribbon at the bottom, the little cards flip up and then down again. It’s very pretty and a lot of fun to make and, now that I know how to, I’ll be making some more
The second challenge (mine) was a swing card. I’m not too happy with the one that I made, so I will make another to show you later. We also made a few items with stamps from the new Spring Mini Catalogue. They are just great and I can’t wait to do some more cards and scrapbook pages with them. I can’t show you them just yet. But as soon as I am allowed to, there will be pictures posted here ~ so keep watching!
We also had fun making and decorating our bagalopes. You don’t know what a bagalope is? If you have a Stampin’ Up! workshop, I’ll show you how to make one. All in all it was a great day, with good company, lots of stamping, lovely soup & fresh, homemade bread for lunch and entertainment provided by Lauchie. He’s such a lovely chatty fellow, it was lovely listening to him debating the merits of various superheroes, would a cushion house keep out a monster dog and the different colour of the noses of Chip and Dale. All very important stuff!
If you want to see what Fleur made on our stamping day, head over to Fleur’s blog - she’s very clever!