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.