Blooming with Beauty

One of the new sets I received on Monday from the Spring Mini Catalogue was Blooming with Beauty, and a beauty it certainly is.

I had great fun watercolouring this image on watercolour paper using an aqua painter and Watercolour Crayons.

I then mounted the image on a square of Summer Sun and set an eyelet in each corner.

The background came from a triangle scrap of Always Artichoke that I had which I matched with a specially cut triangle of Elegant Eggplant.

The sentiment was stamped on Watercolour paper and mounted in the oval frame from the Pewter Hodgepogde Hardware set. This was attached with 2 purple rhinestones brads. The base card is Really Rust.

This image was also coloured with an aqua painter but this time I used ink pads on Watercolour paper. I then shaded in the background as well to soften the image.

I used my CM cutting templates to cut the image into an oval and to cut the 2 mats - Chocolate Chip textured and Creamy Caramel.

The base card is Cameo Coral onto which I mounted a rectangle of Cameo Coral textured cardstock which had a Pewter brad in each corner and I also sponged the edges with Cameo Coral ink. I then decided to sponge the edges of the 2 oval layers as well. I attached the ovals together and then to the rectangle background.

The ribbon is Kraft Taffeta with an oval "buckle" from the Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware threaded on it.

I had a lot of fun playing with these images. I hope you like them.

New Stamp Sets!

Well, we arrived home on Saturday - tired but glad to be home. I was very excited to find a card from the post office telling me I had parcels to collect - but disappointed because I had to wait until Monday to collect them! You see, I knew that one of the parcels was my pre-order for the Spring Mini Catalogue which starts on 1st August. I just had to go out at lunchtime today to the post office to pick up the parcels - and then I just had to open them in the carpark! All that new rubber! I'll be spending time tonight mounting all the new sets I received so look out for new cards and pages in the next few days.

Beautiful Borneo

How's this for a hotel corridor!


And this for the "lobby" building!

We have spent 3 days in Brunei staying at the Empire Hotel. It certainly lived up to its 5 star + reputation. Gold everywhere! Our room was huge and the I've stayed in hotel rooms smaller than our bathroom was! We took a couple of tours whilst there - around the city to see the sights including this mosque which was build by the current Sultan
taking 6 years to build. We also took a boat tour on the river to try and spot Proboscis Monkeys. We did see 2 families but my photos didn't really work. Hopefully Alan's are better.

The sunsets were spectacular!

We moved here to Sabah (Kota Kinabalu) in Malaysia a couple of days ago. We have really begun to relax here! Take a look at the view from our balcony -

This is what we could see from our table at breakfast this morning
and this is the sunset last night

I treated myself with a manicure and pedicure at the Resort's Spa this morning. I nearly fell asleep it was so relaxing!

Tomorrow we are joining one of Alan's colleagues who is staying at a neighbouring resort with his wife and son. They have arranged a private tour for the 6 of us to Poring Hot Springs and Kinabalu National Park with a stop at the Australian War Memorial. Should be great! After that, more relaxing - and maybe some shopping!


Bye until I return.

Holiday!

You probably won't be hearing much from me for the next two weeks. I am leaving tomorrow on a holiday to South-East Asia, meeting up with my husband for the first time in 4 months!
I will try to post a couple of times whilst I'm away - if only to show you photos of where we are.
Bye for now!

Demo Make n Take

Two of my sister SU Demos came over tonight for some stampin' fun! They had requested I demo the Waxed Paper Technique. You can see the two original cards I made at this post . I tried a variation for the above card. Inside of scrunching the waxed paper I folded it as many times as I could. This has produced a different look. It is more linear than "swirly". I like both effects. What about you?

Makover Monday Challenge

I have finally had time to particpate in a challenge. Every Monday (Canadian time) Andrea posts a Monday Makeover Challenge on her blog, Sunny Stampin.

Each week Andrea chooses a totally, or mainly, non-SU card and issues a challenge to perform a Stampin' Up Makeover on it. This week she chose this card. Above is the result of my makeover. I was inspired by the Secret Garden Scrappin' Kit. The colours are Groovy Guava, Old Olive, River Rock and Always Artichoke. I used the flower stamp from Baroque Motifs. The sentiment is one of the many in the hostess set So Many Sayings. I mounted the Groovy Guava flowers on River Rock circles which had been sponged on the edge with Always Artichoke ink. The paper is Old Olive DSP. The scallop edge was made with the corner rounder (with the guard removed).

I really like this one. Let me know what you think.

Playing with New Rubber

Before I went to my training course last week I picked up my latest SU order. In it were 5 new stamp sets! I looooove new rubber.

Of course, I took them with me so I could play in the evenings. These first 2 cards are CASEd directly from the 2008-09 IBC (Aust). I really like the colour combination of Bordering Blue and Mellow Moss. The card on right is a small square card in the IBC but I adjusted it to make it a standard size. I also substituted Mellow Moss taffeta ribbon for the grosgrain in the original.
The stamp set is Artfully Asian.

The card on the left uses Close as a Memory. I have wanted this set for a while as I didn't have any sympathy sentiments. This card uses the same colour combination as the one on the left, with the addition of River Rock. Again, I substituted taffeta ribbon for the grosgrain. I also left off the brads and used faux stitching on the left hand side instead of the real thing (I didn't have my sewing machine with me anyway).


This card is an original. I have wanted Wild About You ever since I first used it at a workshop ran by my upline's upline, Karen.

I decided that I wanted to make a bright card so all these colours are from the Bold Brights family - Real Red for the base, Gable Green for the mats, the elephant is stamped in Lovely Lilac, the crocodile in Green Galore and the giraffe with Only Orange. The sentiment is from A Little Birthday Cheer and is stamped in Real Red.

As I was playing with the arrangement of the images on the card base I realised it needed something else. I decided to used my brand new Real Red striped grosgrain ribbon. Let me know what you think - I'm not entirely sure about this one.

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