Father's Day card

Charis made this card for Alan for Fathers' Day. We shall mail this to him tomorrow with a small gift. I'll have to attach a label though - Don't open 'til Fathers' Day.

Alisa's Colour Challenge (ACC#5)

This is the first time I have completed one of Alisa Tilsner's Colour Challenges. You can see her inspiration piece here. I had been planning to make some masculine cards today so this colour combo fit the bill - Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Summer Sun and either Whisper White or Very Vanilla. I went with the vanilla.

I managed to knock out 3 cards with this colour combo - one for my father's birthday at the end of this week, a Father's Day card and a birthday card.

This one will be in the mail tomorrow for my Dad's birthday. I used Very Vanilla textured cardstock for the background strip and roughed up the edges to give it even more texture.

The letters are from On Board Lots of Letters. Of course, there is only one of each letter but you can double up letters by using the negative as well as the positive. I covered the letters with Summer Sun cardstock.

The stripes behind the letters are Ruby Red. I was going to complete this card having used NO stamps but the ruby stripes needed something so I used Itty Bitty Backgrounds stipple stamp. I'm very pleased with the result. I hope my Dad likes it.

This card uses the argyle stamp from Classic backgrounds. I inked using markers (Summer Sun and Ruby Red) and then stamped it repeatedly over Very Vanilla to get a full argyle background. I filled in the dots through the Summer Sun diamonds with the fine tip of the Ruby Red marker.

I stamped the greeting from Occasional Greetings on Very Vanilla using Versamark and Ruby Red and then embossed it with clear embossing powder. I sponged the edges of this piece with Summer Sun and mounted it on Ruby Red. This was then mounted on the argyle background.

I used the Designer Label punch with Ruby Red cardstock, the 1 1/4" circle and 1" circle punches with Summer Sun. The larger circle was mounted behind the label and the smaller one on top with "for you" from Occasional Greetings in Ruby Red.

I'm very happy with the way this one looks too.

This 3rd one uses the argule background left over from the previous card, and a scrap of scalloped Chocolate Chip textured cardstock - I do love using up my scraps.

The image and sentiment are from Celebrate Everyday from the Spring Mini that was released last Friday. I coloured the image using a blender pen and ink pads (Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red and Summer Sun). This was punched using the Tag Punch. I then mounted it on Summer Sun and used my trimmer to cut the tag shape. The edges of theSummer Sun piece were then sponged with Ruby Red so it stood our from the argyle background.

I really like this card too. It must be the colour combination - thanks Alisa!

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One of a Kind!

I can't believe it is nearly a week since I last posted! It has been a very busy week at work and I've been quite tired in the evenings so I haven't stamped until tonight.

I made 2 cards tonight with the set One of a Kind (from the Spring Mini Catalogue available from Friday) - they are very different to each other and really show how versatile this is set is.


The first card was CASEd from the August edition of Impressions (the Australia/NZ SU demo monthly newsletter. The base is Old Olive textured cardstock. Although it doesn't show up very well in the photo (I'm not a good photographer) the blue strip at the bottom is from the new DSP Summer Picnic (also in the Spring Mini). The ribbon is Old Olive wide grosgrain. The strip with the dot flowers is Pumpkin Pie. The flowers were coloured with SU markers - Bashful Blue, Real Red and Pumpkin Pie, and punched using the Boho Blossoms punch (Spring Mini again). They are mounted on dimensionals. I think this card has very fresh, spring look to it.

The second card is my own design using CC164 on Splitcoast Stampers - Basi Black, Purely Pomegranate and Soft Sky. I stamped the large flower from One of a Kind in Versamark and embossed it with white embossing powder. I then used my sponge daubers to apply Purely Pomegranate over the flower and Soft Sky around it. The image was mounted on Basic Black cardstock and then onto a card made from Soft Sky textured cardstock. The ribbon is Purely Pomegranate wide satin (Spring Mini). The sentiment was stamped with Versamark and Basic Black ink and clear embossed. I punched it using the new Designer Label punch and mounted it behind the label tag from the new Silver Hodgepodge Hardware (Spring Mini). The brads come from the same Hodgepodge set. I really like this colour combination and the card has turned out better than I expected.

If you would like to see more of the new products from the Spring Mini catalogue you can visit the SU website (see links on the side) or contact me for a copy. If you would like to see them "in the flesh" you can come to my Spring Mini Catalogue class on:

Sunday 24th August at 1.30pm

If you would like to register for this class to make the 2 cards using the Spring Mini sets, just leave a comment on this post or email me.

I look forward to seeing you then.

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!