More CASEs

I'm nearly there! This card is a CASE of one I saw on my SBS sister Vanja's blog. Her card is here. I used one of my daughter's favourite stamps for this one. - the Princess from Pretty Princess. She was stamped in Basci Black on Blush Blossom cardstock (my friend Tammy insists that Blush Blossom is a neutral - she loves to stamp and colour on it - so I thought it was time I gave it a try too). The image was then sponged with Regal Rose. The rest is self explanatory - colours are Pale Plum cardbase, Old Olive, DSP from Loves Me (ret) and Rose Red. The ribbon is silver organdy (also retired :(). I think this has made a really girly card - perfect for any little princess on her birthday.

This was a much more challenging CASE. It is from an index card made by Pia. I decided to turn it into a card. I also flipped the layout horizontally as it seemed right to have the owl on the right-hand side.

With this card I wanted to use the new set from the Summer Mini - Love Owl-ways. It is so cute and great for colouring. I stamped this cute owl on Blush Blossom cardstock and coloured him using my Aquapainter and Watercolour Wonder crayons. I cut the circle using my CM Custom Cutting System circle templates. The scallop circle was a bit trickier. It is larger than the scallop circle punch the SU sells so I had to come up with another idea. I ended up cutting a larger circle using the CM system and then used the 3/16" corner rounder from SU with the guard removed. What you see on the card is the second attempt - the first one was too big and the scallops didn't meet up properly. The cardstock colours are Not Quite Navy for the base, then Bashful Blue and Close to Cocoa DSP. The tab is from Always Artichoke, the same colour as the grosgrain ribbon. I think this would be a great Valentine's Day card for the man in any woman's life - what do you think?

By my count I have one more SBS sister to CASE - but I can't remember which one it is! I guess I'll have to go back through all my recent posts and work it out. A good job for today.

CASEing again

I'm still CASEing my SBS sisters.


This one CASEs Viv. Her card was a Christmas card with a fabulous Father Christmas face silver-embossed on the front. I don't have any stamps that would look anywhere near as good so I decided to keep the layout and the colours but change everything else. I used one of my Cuttlebug folders to emboss the vellum overlay on the background. I have about 6 of these folders and really don't use them very often at all. Must do something about that. The stamp is from Baroque Motifs and is emblossed in silver on Glossy White cardstock. The base card is also the Glossy White. I wrapped SU Silver and Gold cord (both retired) around the top of the card, or I guesw it could be the side, depending on your perspective. My mum was quite impressed with this card and suggested it would be a great Sympathy card, due to its simplicity and lack of colour. I think she is right.


I had a really hard time choosing just one of Deby's cards to CASE but finally decided on this one. I have to get me the SU set Sassy Stems. I say that to myself everytime I see another great card made using it but I really mean it this time. I only changed 2 things on this card - the stamp (from Oh So Lovely, Hostess Set) and the colour of the bling (Turquoise rhinestone brad). This also turned out really simple and elegant, at least that is what I think.

Well, I haven't finished with this series yet as I think these were CASEs numbered 15 and 16 so that makes 3 more to go. I shall make that my mission today. I don't plan on doing much else today. Yesterday I had the worst case of Hayfever I have every had. That may not sound like much to those of you who are not Hayfever sufferers but constant sneezing and blocked sinuses totally saps your energy. I went to bed at 8pm last night - and still didn't sleep very well. I have sent the rest of the household off to church this morning so I can have some quiet time to myself. Hopefully whatever caused the Hayfever has passed and I can recover today.

Wishing you a relaxing Sunday.

CASEs 11-14

As I hoped, I had plenty of time to stamp yesterday. That is, after Alan and I took Charis to see a movie - High School Musical 3. Charis saw it with her class in the last week of school but Alan and I are fans too so we just had to go. I know, it is not exactly an adult movie but the music and dancing are great, there is no violence or raging sex scenes - it is good family fun.

When we arrived home I decided it was time to stamp! I had already chosen some more cards from my SBS#25 sisters to CASE so here are the next 4.

This one CASEs Kristen. I chose this card - I did change almost everything except the layout and the layers. This is a new stamp set from SU - available until 31st March 2009 in our Summer Mini - A Happy Heart. I took my colour combination from the Berry Bliss DSP - Purely Pomegranate, Close to Cocoa and Pretty in Pink.

Next to be CASEd was Anne. Her card was lovely and sparkly - I tried to copy that by Spritzing on my card using the SU Spritzer and SU Stampin' Write markers. I don't think the spritzing came out very well in the photo but I do love the effect. I might have finally mastered the Spritzer! I also kept the colours fairly monochromatic like Anne - although I used Not Quite Navy instead of Black. My image (from Lovely as a Tree) was larger than Anne's so I didn't use the ribbon and chose a much smaller sentiment (from A Little Birthday Cheer). Overall, I quite like the subtle effect.

I am very happy with this one. I sutck really closely to the layout on Stephanie's card here. I didn't need any more Christmas cards so I chose to use a stamp that hadn't seen ink yet - the large flower from Embrace Life. It was so much fun to colour (although I'm not sure that the colours are exactly right - oh well). Once again, the DSP (Ginger Blossom) directed what colours to use. The base is River Rock, then we have Ruby Red, Cameo Coral and Groovy Guava. I don't normally use so many layers! I used my CM Custom Cutting System circle template to trim around the flower and to cut the Ruby Red layer behind it. I coloured the flower using Ruby Red, Groovy Guava and Cameo Coral SU Classic Ink Pads and an Aquapainter. I replaced Stephanie's brads with 1/4" circles. The ribbon is Groovy Guava double-stitched grosgrain.

Lastly, this one CASEs Karen. When you compare my card to her's you can see that I changed the size of the main image and the placement of the cutouts but that is all. Not only has Karen used my favourite colour of all time (Taken with Teal) but also one of my favourite stamp sets of all time (Bud Basics - in this case the Basics wheel). I love it!

That's all for this morning. Hopefully I'll have time to stamp later today.

Merry Christmas to All

Merry Christmas to my wonderful blogging friends! We have had a great day here - my parents have come to visit so we are just 5 around the table. Lunch was huge - isn't everyone's on Christmas? Currently we are relaxing in that post-Christmas lunch stupor.

Santa came to everyone here (we must have all been nice I guess). The cyclone that was threatening to develop has turned out to be just a tropical low (we still received 122mm (about 5 inches) of rain in the 36 hours to 8am today!). To my readers from drought-stricken areas of this fantastic country - I wish I could send some to you! However, today's weather has been beautiful, even if a bit warm! Can't please all the people all the time!

I have a few cards to show you that I worked on last night.

This is my next entry in the sBS25 Challenge 10 - I CASEd Leslie's card. I don't use the gate-fold often but I really like it when I do - have to use it more often I guess. The stamp set is "Time Well Spent" which is a Level 3 Hostess Set. I waited a long time to get this one but this is the first time I have used it. Shame on me! This set is fantastic for colouring. I used the Rich Regal Watercolour Wonder crayons (Taken with Teal, Rose Red, Regal Rose and So Saffron) with my Aquapainter for my colouring this time. The base card is Metallic Copper (which I absolutely love!). The two sides of the gate have a layer of Taken with Teal DSP from the Bali Breeze pack. I used my CM Custom Cutting System blades with the circle templates to cut the 3 layers behind the large flower. I sponged the Regal Rose layer with Rose Red ink. The sentiment has only 2 layers.

With this card I CASE'd Joan's card. I loved the turquoise and copper colour combo but I don't have any copper embossing powder (SU discontinued it here at end of March 08) so I changed it to turquoise and silver. I used the So Swirly wheel across the top in Turquoise ink. The 2 sentiments are from the Cheery Chat stamp set. I used the vellum overlay on the right hand side to soften the Tempting Turquoise panel.

This card is not for the challenge and is a CASE of noone! My mum is a part-time stamper and asked to be shown some colouring techniques. I had this stamp set (Ocean Commotion from the Summer Mini) sitting unused and I knew that Mum had the Eart Elements Watercolour Wonder crayons. So we practiced a watercolouring technique where you colour on the stamp with the crayons and then spritz the image with water before stamping it. We both needed a couple of practices before we got the amount of water just right. I hadn't planned this card before we began stamping so we just stamped onto Whisper White. Then I had to come up with a layout! I usually just use other people's layouts! Anyway, I decided that the card could be an underwater scene so we used So Saffron cardstock for the sand base and tore a piece of Brocade Blue for the water. Then we spent absolutely ages deciding on where our seaweed, fish, seahourses and shells would go! Before sticking down we had decided that it needed a sentiment to fill in the gap so that was done. However, we weren't happy with it - until my Mum had the idea to use glitter! That was definitely a lightbulb moment! The glitter ripples in the sand made all the difference.

Mum and my daughter are happily working together in the kitchen - Mum peeling some huge prawns and Charis peeling carrots - but I think I had better at least offer to help. Mind you, I can't possibly think about eating anything just at the moment. Thankfully dinner is planned to be a light meal of BBQ prawns, ham (leftover from lunch, of course) and salad. I can't imagine what we would eat in places where Christmas means snow!

I hope that your Christmas day is as happy as mine has been!

CASEs 6, 7 and 8

Bear with me please. These photos loaded in the opposite order to what I wanted but I'm too tired to try to move them.
This is the 8th CASE of my SBS#25 sisters - Clara is the lucky one this time. I just love this cute bee card but I didn't have any bee stamps. Also, I was on a roll with using the Afternoon Tea DSP so the above is the result. I love the look of placing the brads through a punched out circle. I'll definitely be doing that one again. The other thing that attracted me to this card was that Clara used the SU scallop border punch - loooove that punch. I even managed to punch the rectangle - just don't look too closely at the bottom.

No 7 CASE was Debby. This Halloween card was not really my style but I wanted to try 2 elements of it - the layout and the use of DSP. This is probably the most layers I have ever used on a card - there are 8! The colour combination comes from SU - they provide demonstrators with colour combinations utilising the current In Colours. This one is Groovy Guava (from the Afternoon Tea DSP - just love this DSP pack!), Blue Bayou, Old Olive and So Saffron. The stamp is from the Oh So Lovely Hostess set.

This is the 6th CASE of one of my SBS#25 sisters - this time Michelle. She made this card for Breast Cancer Awareness. I loved the colours and the layout but didn't have the stamps so I just changed the stamps and this was the result. I used another of my favourite sets - Garden Whimsy. I used the Rock'n'Roll technique for the butterfly.

I hope you like this selection of cards. I won't have any to post tomorrow probably as I have been really tired tonight - it has taken all my energy just to load these photos up - so I haven't stamped tonight. However, after tomorrow, I'm on 1 1/2 weeks holiday so I plan to "Stamp up a Storm".

Bye for now.

SBS25 Challenge 10 - CASE 5

I'm up to CASEing Janet in the SBS Challenge no 10. There were so many great cards on her blog it was really hard to choose but eventually I came up with this one.

YOu can see that I changed just about everything except the layout, which I love. This was a bit out of my normal style with all those layers - at least 7 - but I really like the end result, and so does my Mum.

The colours were taken from the DSP (Afternoon Tea) - Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky and Groovy Guava. This is such an elegant colour combo.

The image is from the Hostess set, Oh So Lovely. I stamped the image 3 times in Chocolate Chip and just coloured the the flowers with a white gel pen.

The brads are pewter.

Well, that's it for now. Have to eat my breakfast and get to work. I made 3 more cards yesterday and will hopefully have time to load them this evening.

Have a great day.

CASE 4

My mum and dad arrived yesterday for a 2 week stay! I so miss my parents having moved a very long distance from them 3 years ago. We have caught up a few times but I always look forward to the next trip. And not just because my house is always cleaner and tidier when they leave!

The card is a CASE of Cheri. I did change the colours around a little but what inspired me the most were the snowflakes. I remembered that I have some chipboard snowflakes that I hadn't used yet. Let me tell you, covering this one large snowflake with DSP nearly drove me crazy. Firstly, I drew around it onto the back of the DSP (retired from SU). Then I cut it out - insanity inducing in itself. I applied Tombow Multi-adhesvie our the chipboard and then adhered the DSP - guess what? This snowflake is not symmetrical! Or else my cutting was very bad. I had to trim nearly every straight line in this snowflake - sometimes the DSP and other times the chipboard. It took me ages.

Despite the trials and tribulations, I really like this card - the colour combination especially. The sentiment (which is in the top righthand corner in case you can't see it) is a rub-on - something I don't use very often and whenever I do I wonder why not.

Hope you like this card as much as I do.

Gift Boxes

I made these little gift boxes tonight for some of my work colleagues. The template is one I made from a gift box I received. All I had to do was open it out flat and trace around it.

You can see on the close up that I have silver embossed one of the snow flakes from Snow Burst. I used my Crop-a-dile Big Bite to punch the holes in the top sections to thread the ribbon through. These would be great as tree ornaments as the hanger is built in.

I will be placing a few handmade chocolate truffles I have also made tonight using the recipe from Bootybella. Mine don't look exactly like the ones you will see here, but they sure do taste good!

3rd CASE

This card is a CASE of Judy . I didn't change much from Judy's original design. She made it using scraps for the SBS Challenge 9. I still had lots of the DSP from last year so I was able to very closely copy that aspect of the card. I did use different ribbon - mine comes from the SU Theatre Ribbon Originals pack. I also used a smaller brad in the centre of the flower and a sentiment from a different set (this one is from Occasional Greetings). Thanks so much Judy!

2nd CASE

This is my second CASE of an SBS25 sister - this card from Bootybella. I changed a few things on this CASE too. We don't have the exact colours here in Australia (yet!) so I used Wild Wasabi for the base, Brilliant Blue, Tempting Turquoise and Whisper White. I used the square scallop punch for the centre image. I placed the ribbon across the )wider) cardstock strip. The images are from Snow Burst and Short & Sweet. As you can see, I'm still making Christmas Cards. I apologise in advance to those who will receive their cards late.

CASEing Susie

The current challenge for the members of SBS#25 is to CASE one of our sisters cards. I've decided that I'm going to try to CASE them all! We have 3 weeks to do it in. Let's see how I go.

This is my first CASE. I went looking at Susie's blog and found this card.


When you CASE someone's work it is customary to change at least one thing. About the only thing I didn't change (much) was the layout. I changed the colours (More Mustard, Old Olive, Bravo Burgundy and Elegant Eggplant). I made it a Christmas Card. My image is different (Merry Merry stamp set). I added the sentiment circle. And the list goes on. The is the first time I have made a card with this sort of opening and I really like it. Thanks for the great idea Susie!

Kreative Award

My gorgeous SBS sister Janet has given me this award. Thanks so much Janet.

I'm supposed to

a. post a link to the person who gave me the award (see above)

b. pass it on to 5 others and post links to their blogs

c. visit and comment on their blogs.

I award the Kreativ Blogger award to:

all my SBS25 sisters! I know that is actually 19 blogs not 5 but I just couldn't narrow it down.

You are all mega-inspiring.

Another Christmas Card

This card is based on the SCS Sketch Challenge SC01. I made the long tags by cutting strips of Whisper White the correct width and feeding them through the tag punch like this:

This way you can make a tag as long as you like.

The card stock is Garden Green with a Bravo Burgundy stip and Certainly Celery wide grosgrain ribbon. The Christmas Tree is from Greetings Galore. I used the Stampin' Write markers directly onto the rubber to make the multicoloured image.

A very simple card and easy to mass-produce.

Stop by again tomorrow for another Christmas Card.

More Christmas Cards

This ismy first try at the Spotlighting Technique. This stamp set is perfect for this technique as every tree is different. I did make 4 of these cards but I "spotlighted" a different set of trees on each one. The cardstock used here is Certainly Celery, Pixie Pink textured and Confetti White. The ink is Certainly Celery.

As I promised yesterday, here is my CASE of the card I received from Nerine. I changed the colours a little - I used River Rock for the base card (instead of Neutrals Ivory, I think). The DSP is still from the Holiday Harmony pack. I inked the tree from Lovely as a Tree in Old Olive classic ink and then went over the trunk using a Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write marker. This was stamped onto Neutrals Ivory. I then sponged around the tree with Old Olive ink. The image was mounted onto Old Olive textured cardstock. The sentiment is from Short and Sweet and stamped in Purely Pomegranate. Thanks for the inspiration Nerine.

Christmas Cards Received

When I arrived home from work on Thursday, this card was waiting for me. It is from my SU upline, Nerine. Isn't it beautiful? Thank you Nerine. (By the way, I just had to CASE this card so look out for my version tomorrow.)

I received this beautiful card yesterday from my SBS#25 sister Janet. Isn't it gorgeous? I believe it is all SU product, but mostly stuff we don't have in Australia.

Thanks so much Janet.

Christmas Cards

My evenings this week have been spent making Christmas cards, when I wasn't attending Christmas parties of course! I made 4 of the below designs. This way I can build my stash really quickly.

Whisper White cardstock, Rose Red DSP, Scallop Border punch, Star punches (large and small), Short & Sweet stamp set, Rose Red ink.

Old Olive and Whisper White cardstock, Old Olive and Real Read classic ink pads, Old Olive and Real Red Stampin' Write markers, Always Artichoke grosgrain ribbon, Peaceful Wishes stamp set.

Wild Wasabi, Blue Bayou (textured) and Whisper White cardstock, Chocolate Chip classic ink pad, Summer Sun and Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write markers, Wild Wasabi and Blue Bayou ink refills, blender pen, cotton tip, Pewter Hodpodge Hardware, Mellow Moss gingham ribbon, City of David stamp set.

Whisper White and Handsome Hunter cardstock, Rose Red DSP, Versamark ink pad, silver embossing powder, heat gun, Handsome Hunter classic ink pad, Scribble (Doodle) This and Occasional Greetings stamp sets.

The last card was inspired by a card made by Karen Robinson, my SU upline's upline. I added more leaves than Karen had but the basic idea is the same.

I made small alterations re positioning of the elements on some of the cards just to keep myself interested but I found that making in multiples of 4 meant I could make at least 4 if not 8 cards in one evening. It sure speeds up the process!

I hope that you have found something here to inspire you!

Two in One!

With one card I made this evening, I have completed 2 challenges! And I didn't even realise it until I signed into my blog to post this card.


This card qualifies for Mel's Weekly Challenge #3 and SBS25 Challenge #9. Mel's Challenge was a colour cahllenge (Elegant Eggplant, Real Red, Yoyo Yellow, Gable Green plus one neutral) and we had to use Dazzling Diamonds or the new SU Chunky Glitter. SBS25 Challenge was to use up some scraps on a card. Here's my card that qualifies for both challenges.

The base cardstock is Elegant Eggplant. I stamped the flower from Season of Joy in Real Red ink on Real Red cardstock (scraps). I then adhered some Red Chunky Glitter in each of the petals using Tombow 2-Way Glue. The flowers were fixed to the base card with Stampin' Dimensionals. The torn Whisper White (a scrap - already torn) was stamped repeatedly with the flourish from Season of Joy in Gable Green. The Yoyo Yellow piece (also a scrap) is stamped with the greeting from Season of Joy in Real Red.

I have spent a lot of time over the weekend making Christmas cards (I sent all the ones I had made to the RAAF Chaplain in the Middle East for distribution to our Aussie troops so they can send cards home for Christmas). I therefore have lots to post over the next few days. So stay tuned.

Blog Candy from Vanja!

I don't usually do this however Vanja is one of my blogsisters and such a lovely person. She is giving away some great blog candy, including 20 stamped images and embellishments. Check it out here.

Male Swap

Cards for the men in our lives - is there any card more difficult to make? If there is, I haven't had to make one yet. I even find sympathy cards easier than male-themed cards. That is why I joined a swap with some SU demos - to gain some inspiration for cards for my husband, father, brothers-in-law, etc. This is my contribution to the swap.

The colours are Close to Cocoa (cardstock and DSP), Sage Shadow and Barely Banana. I really like this combination (off the SU Colour Coach of course). I stamped the background with the Sanded background stamp in Chocolate Chip to give some texture and interest. The shirt is made using the Dollar-Bill fold. I found the instructions here . I punched 1/4" circles for the buttons from Barely Banana. The shirt is mounted on Barely Banana using Sticky Strip and then onto Sage Shadow. The sentiment is from the For Father stamp set from the Summer Mini-Catalogue. It is stamped in Chocolate Chip on Sage Shadow.

I am really pleased with how this card turned out. I hope the other ladies in the swap agree.

I'm still here!

Oh boy, we don't call this the "silly season" for nothing! I have been so busy with work and social committments that I haven't had time to post for a couple of weeks. Hopefully I will be back on deck next week.

Sneak Peak 2

This is my second sneak peak at the stamps set to be released in our Summer Mini Catalogue available 1st December.

The colours don't show up very well in the photo - the base card is Sage Shadow with Night of Navy textured layered on top. The image is stamped in Handsome Hunter on Blush Blossom. Before cutting it out I sponged the image with Sage Shadow using the leftover rubber (the stamp set is die-cut) as a mask. The flower was then cut out and Dazzling Diamonds adhered with a CM glue pen. This rosette is attached to the Blush Blossom layer with Stampin' Dimensionals. A clear Rhinestone brad was added in each corner of this layer before it was adhered to the Night of Navy using Mini Glue Dots.

The "friend" was stamped in Handsome Hunter on Blush Blossom, punched out with the Lge Oval punch and the edges sponged with Sage Shadow. I then placed a clear Rhinestone brad as the dot on the "i" and adhered the oval with Stampin' Dimensionals.

This card is my entry in the SBS 25 Challenge no 6 - use some bling!

I love this card. The colours are great and the sparkle looks fabulous. I hope you think so too.

Eastern Autumn

This card is my first sneak peak for you all at the Summer
Mini Catalogue (available 1st December). It uses the set Eastern Blooms and, wait for it, the Hidden Garden Rub-ons. Yes, I have finally begun using Rub-ons. I've decided that they are pretty cool.

The background card is Chocolate Chip stamped with the larger flower from Eastern Blooms in Versamark. The large image is a Rub-on in Chocolate Chip on Creamy Caramel. I layered that on More Mustard textured cardstock. The single flower was stamped in Versamark onto Very Vanilla cardstock and then I used the Poppin' Pastels technique to colour it using our Stampin' Pastels in More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie and Summer Sun. This was then layered on a scallop circle cut from the More Mustard textured cardstock and a larger circle in Pumpkin Pie. The sentiment is from the same Rub-on set, once again in Chocolate Chip on Creamy Caramel. I used the Corner Rounder to soften it a little.

My aim with this card was to make it masculine whilst still using flowers. I hope I have succeeded.

Stay tuned for another sneak peak at the new Summer Mini products tomorrow.

Soulology Week 3

I was very late in completing this page. I blame it on being away for work the week it was due and having a very busy week at work this week.

Anyway, this page is now completed. As you can see, the theme was change. We had to explare ways we had or hadn't changed over time. I have been having a battle with my weight for a number of years now. This photo used to live on my refrigerator as a reminder of how I looked and how I would continue to look if I didn't do something about it. It hasn't worked!

The colour combination I used here was taken from the DSP I used on the chipboard letters for the title - Night of Navy, Rose Red, Old Olive and Taken with Teal. The word "change" on the right and the "swirly-flowery" thing above it are rubons. I have only recently purchased the SU rubons and haven't used them much. However, I think that will change from now on. They are so easy to use and so effective.

Now I need to work on this week's page - Then and Now. This is about how my life may or may not be different to what it used to be. I have some ideas floating around in my head - I just have to put them on paper now!

SBS25 Challenge 5

The SBS25 challenge this week to use 2 different printed papers on your card and to use some sparkle. I hope this card fulfills the challenge.

I made this card for a colleague who is about to go on maternity leave. She does not know the sex of her baby so I steered clear of pink and blue and went for Real Red. The background is rolled with the Nursery Letters wheel in Whisper White.

I then layered a piece of Confetti White on top which has 2 pieces of Summer Picnic DSP in opposite corners and has been wrapped with silver cord (retired - darn!). I adhered the section with Pop Glue Dots. The photo corners were punched from Brushed Silver and the silver stars are from the Nursery Necessities set, stamped in Versamark and embossed with silver EP. The other 2 stars were punched from the opposite DSP.

I quite like this card. It is going to work tomorrow so the other members of our section can sign it. We will be presenting her with this card and a gift (a scrapbook ready to add photos) at a team lunch on Friday. I hope she likes Red!

I'm back!

I'm back home from my week of training and weekend of partying! By the end of the week, I was glad the training was over. I learned a lot but a week is way long enough! My weekend was spent in Melbourne attending a country picnic race meeting (that's horse race meeting) for my sister's 40th birthday. A fantastic time was had by all!

I have returned home to find that my SBS sister Vanja has given me the following award:

The rules are:

1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.
2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to their blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

So, I've done numbers 1 and 2 so I guess I have to nominate 5 other blogs. Well, the nominees are ........

1. Nerine
2. Karen
3. Natasha
4. Melissa
5. Stephanie

I'm off to leave a message for my lovely nominees. Hopefully I'll be back in the next couple of days with some more creations.

Simple Delights

Firstly, I must apologise for the quality of these photos. I had to take them using my mobile phone in low light at night in my hotel room! Really, I think they turned out pretty good, all things considered.

I made these 10 cards using the Simple Delights Simply Sent Kit for Stampin' Up. The first card (pictured on its own) and the group on the right were pretty much as per the instructions. However, I had to do some playing and so the group on the left are variations on the top card. I kept the same basic layout but changed the stamping and the orientation. On one of them I even stamped on the twill tape!

I really like these cards, very subtle and simple. The colours are Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip and River Rock. An elegant combination.

I'm going to a meeting tonight so I probably won't post until Thursday night before I catch my flight to Melbourne.

For those of you reading this in Australia, I actually drew the winner of the Melbourne Cup in the sweep at work - I won $120! There's a first time for everything!

SBS25 Challenge

The SBS25 Challenge for this week was to make a birthday card with only 2 embellishments, extra points to be awarded for using Really Rust, Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant and Basic Black. This is my contribution.

The base card is Really Rust. I then layered a piece of the Really Rust print from the Apple Cider DSP with some Old Olive wide grosgrain ribbon. The sentiment is stamped on Very Vanilla in Basic Black. All the images and sentiment are from the Bold Birthday set.

I stamped the bottom of the cupcake in Really Rust on Very Vanilla and cut it out. The icing was stamped in Versamark on the Very Vanilla and embossed clear. The candle was stamped using Summer Sun and Ruby Red. I then assembled the cake and candle on a piece of Old Olive textured cardstock (love the textured cardstock!). The whole was layered on Elegant Eggplant. I then used some Basic Black brads (my second embellishment) and adhered the image section to the base with Stampin' Dimensionals.

I decided to add some more dimension, so I used Crystal Effects on the candle and flame.

It is my sister's 40th brithday on Friday and I am travelling down to Melbourne to attend her party. This will be her card. I hope she likes it.

I'm not sure how much I will be able to post this coming week as I will be in Darwin attending a training course. I am taking 4 Simply Sent kits with me so I have something to do in the hotel room at night (I couldn't possibly go a whole week without stamping!). Simply Sent kits are fabulous for the truly addicted stamper (me!) when we go away. They are also a great beginners kit as they include everything needed to make 10 or 12 complete cards (except scissors) - stamp set, ink, adhesives, cardstock and envelopes - including instructions! I love them.

Hopefully I'll check in during the week. Have a great week.

Soulology Week 2

Well, I actually completed this week's assignment in time! We had to write a list of 10 Positive Attributes about ourselves and then incorporate them into a layout. I'm not super happy with this page but I'm not sure how to improve it either.

The background is actually Ruby Red (although it has come out considerably brighter than that in the photo). The photograph was taken at lunch at The Empire Hotel in Brunei. Just a gorgeous place looking out over the sea - which is what I am doing in the photo. Think I must have been a little sunburnt!

The photo is mounted on Soft Sky and Blue Bayou. I cut the tree from Close to Cocoa DSP. The leaves are from Bodacious Bouquet and are stamped in Garden Green on Whisper White. After I had adhered them, I wrote my 10 positive attributes using a Chocolate Chip marker. The page title was made using my Sizzix and the Doodle Box alphabet in Blue Bayou and Soft Sky.

Thanks for visiting!

Soulology Title Page

I was trying to find a photo for my 10 Positive Attributes page last night when I remembered this one. Whilst Alan was away for 6 months this year. I arranged for Charis and I to have some "glamour" protraits taken. This is one of the ones I chose to be printed and framed. I managed to prise it out of the frame without damaging either, scanned it and saved it to my computer. Then I printed it so I could use it.

Having worked so hard to get the photo to a point I could use it, I decided that it would work better for a title page so I still need to find one for the Positives page!

Nevermind, I'm really pleased with how this page came out. I'm not new to scrapbooking but I'm very new to using stamps on my scrapbook pages (until May this year I was a Creative Memories Consultant). The cardstock base is Brilliant Blue. The stamp sets are Whimisical Alphabet(retired), Jumbo Outline Alphabet and Scribble (Doodle) This. I just used Whisper White ink to stamp the images on the blue base. The letters S O U L are stamped in Brilliant Blue on Whisper White and cut out roughly. I mounted the photo on Whisper White cardstock before adhering it to the page.

Hope you like it.

Soulology Week 1

This is my layout for Soulology Week 1. Soulology is an online scrapbooking course which helps you to scrapbook about yourself. Every Monday a new task is released. Last Monday we were asked to write a list of 100 things - 50 we liked, 50 we disliked - and then to make a layout with those lists. It was very difficult! I got to about 34 in the list of things I like quite easily and hard a very difficult time coming up with the last 16. Don't ask about the list of things I dislike. It actually took me 8 days to complete the lists and then another 2 to do the layout. I decided on a double page because it just seemed to fit better than incorporating both lists into one page.

Here is a closer look at each page.

The background colour is the first item on list of 50 things I like - Teal (Taken with Teal). I used the Its Beautiful wheel in Whisper White on both sides of the Like page and Night of Navy for the Dislike page. The flowers are from Bodacious Bouquet. I printed my 2 lists on vellum and then tore the edges. The titles are chipboard letters covered with Whisper White and Night of Navy textured cardstock. I attached the letters with mini glue dots and the vellum with brads (Tempting Turquoise and Brilliant Blue).

Quite simple layouts really but they work for me. Do they work for you?

Very Merry!

This week's challenge on SBS#25 was to make a Christmas card without using red or green! How is this possible? Well, I did it.

The base of this card is Bashful Blue which I stamped randomly using the tiny snowflake from Short and Sweet in Versamark ink.

The main images are from Hung Up on the Holidays stamped on Whisper White. I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the hangers and then extended them using a Stampin' Write Marker. The inks colours are Close to Cocoa and Brocade Blue. I had to add some sparkle (it is a Christmas card after all) so I used my 2-way Glue Pen and Dazzling Daimonds on the patterns on the baubles and the gingerbread man's buttons. This panel was mounted on Close to Cocoa and then adhered in the top left-hand corner of the card base.

The sentiment is from Short and Sweet, stamped in Close to Cocoa on Whisper White and punched with the small oval. I was going to mount it on a Close to Cocoa large oval but that didn't look right so I chose to use the oval frame from the Syled Silver Hodgepodge. The ribbon is Bashful Blue striped grosgrain.

I really like this card - the soft colours really appeal to me at the moment.

Christmas Snowflake

I made this gorgeous Christmas decoration following Monica Gale's video on UStamp 08 Holidays. It is really easy and looks great.

If you want to participate in projects like this, just go to http://www.ustamp.blogspot.com/. It is a fabaulous program with heaps of projects. I participated in the first UStamp and then signed up as soon as the Holiday program was released. UStamp uses all Stampin' Up products and the design team consists of a representative from each country/region where SU products are available.

Enjoy your Christmas projects!

Card by Charis

My daughter's friend is having her birthday party on Saturday. Charis wanted to make a birthday card for her. They meet at the busstop every morning so yesterday, Charis asked Julianna what were her favourite colours. Julianna pointed to the purple and blue that were painted on Charis' bike.

The closets I could come to those 2 colours was Bashful Blue and Lovely Lilac. We added some Lavendar Lace to give it some depth.

The stamp set Charis chose to use is one of the birthday sets that SU has for 20% off this month - Pretty Princess. She stamped the images in Basic Grey. The DSP is Lovely Lilac.

I'm sure that Julianna will love this card. What 10 year old girl wouldn't?