No, not one of those up there. . . . One of these . . . .

I’ve punched this out from some of the DSP from the “I Wish” scrappin’ kit . .*sigh* such lovely papers! Anyway, back to the scallop flower.  So you can see here that I have punched and sponged it . .so far, not a flower. Okay next step, lets snip between every second scallop . .

So just in case you’re not sure how to snip – there’s a picture up there.  Now don’t snip right to the centre, that just wouldn’t make a flower!

Now for the next step, you take a mouse mat, or the squishy mat from your SU ‘Mat Pack’ (or in my case here a handful of folded paper towel – the previous two options were not close to hand when I was taking the pictures . .sorry) and also a tool with a round end . . . in this case it’s my White Gel Pen.  There is a paper tole tool that if you have one would be perfect.  But I didn’t have one here, needless to say the pen worked just fine So you ‘rub’ the petals out from the centre and then ’swirl’ the pen around, till it all starts to ‘raise’ (like a sunflower looking towards the sun).

Next you flip it over and press the middle of it down . .

 (note to self, moisturise hands more often!)

Now all we need to do is pop a small circle in the centre, and voilà, we have a flower . .  Notice the difference between the snipped & smooshed one and the not-snipped-&-smooshed one? It adds a little bit more oomph to your flowers, don’t you think?

I then used this flower on a book mark that was part of a card. . . more about that later . . .

Till next time,

Michelle

PS – Only 18 more sleeps . . !

I can’t believe that it’s suddenly November and I haven’t blogged for over a month. . . Sometimes life just gets a bit busy and some things have to be let loose . . . . . and as it seems the world doesn’t end if I don’t get around to blogging, it was the blog that missed out in October.

This is one of the reasons that I wasn’t blogging – I was in Western Australia – - and if you were enjoying this view from your bedroom, would you be inside on the computer? No, I didn’t think so!

The main reason I went way out west was to go to the wedding of a dear friend that I met half a lifetime ago, when we were girls in our early 20’s backpacking in Europe.  This is the card that I made for the happy couple.  The photo was taken with my phone about 5 minuets before I headed off to the wedding.  That’s my excuse for the poor quality! I used my favourite stamp set ~ “Always” ~ and ‘thumped’ it with my markers and then about 2 layers of clear embossing before cutting it out and mounting on Pumpkin Pie and Elegant Eggplant.  I really love the eyelet border punch to make the edges ‘frilly & pretty’. Not to mention the Hodgepodge Hardware and clear rhinestone. Yummy!

Time for some sleep now, but I shall return with other projects that kept me busy the last few weeks (hints: Christmas, Halloween and chocolate!)

Till next time,

Michelle

Here’s a very quick Christmas card using the Very Merry stamp set 2 sizes of square punch and 2 sizes of star punch – Very simple, very easy ~ really!

Colours used are Real Red, Certainly Celery & Whisper White.  ‘Nuff said!

Michelle

Last weekend was the Maffra Show -  The highlight of the show (in the Pavilion) is the live judging of a particular type of cake.  This year it was sponges & boy, you should have seen them!  They were huge!  I’m sure that the local chooks have been kept busy laying all the egg required for the cakes in this years’ competition!

Live cake judging is certainly an amazing thing, that really opened the eyes of this (non) domestic goddess. All this talk of lining tins (5 layers), fresh butter, types of eggs.. oh dear… I don’t think that I could ever live up to the CWA expectations.  I shall just keep my entries strictly in the ‘packet’ cake section!  Which didn’t happen this year. After some oven troubles the entries weren’t even up to ‘packet cake’ standards - I was too ashamed to even bring my mint slice into the stewards morning tea!

I had a few entries in the scrapping section and got a few second place awards and my entry for the ‘off-the-page’ section, got a first! YAY!  I used some papers that I love (freebies from Crop for Kids last year) from my stash and a photo of a dear friend that I haven’t seen for about 4 years now.  I used the Stampin’ Up! Spring Flower Bouquet punch for the flowers, so easy yet so effective. I love them! (There’s a picture in my blog entry below)

After all the horses, chooks, utes and cakes had been judged, the show finished with a big bang on Saturday night, as all good shows do – with fireworks.  I can’t wait for next year!

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!

I had a lovely time having a bit of a play with the new stamp sets and this is what I have come up with (with many thanks to the in-house photographer who took these lovely pictures for me).

This card with the Brocade Basics ($45.95 on p.101  from the catalogue)  is lovely and simple with the effects produced with a little sponging around the edges of the Old Olive card stock and some “rock’n’roll” on the petals to give them a two-tone effect.   The label is from the ‘Labelicious’ set ($39.95 on p.96 ) and was punched with the new ‘Label’ punch ($30.95 on p.143).    I have a wedding coming up soon and I think that something along these lines may just fit the bill.

Then there is the ‘Wanted’ set (pg. 64 $43.95) – It’s a fantastic mixture of elements so that you can make a masculine ‘cowboy’ style card or even something a little ‘boho’.  This is what I have done.

WANTED – HAPPINESS

(after all, don’t we all want some Happiness?)

BOHO NOTE CARD

COME WITH US AND GALLOP

Did you see the great way the scallop punch fits those stamps from the Wanted set (have a look at the Boho Note card again and the Happiness Card – See..? It punches just perfectly!)

If you would like to know more about the supplies used to create these cards, or would like to hold a workshop in your home to create them – then contact me today!