Oh Dear ..........

I've been MIA for so long, I'm sure all my readlers have moved on. Never the less, I have made a New Years Resolution to blog frequently again. Life has been quite busy since I last posted - we have visited friends in Sydney, went for a camping holiday on the beach & I've generally been busy chasing around kids & working. We were also lucky enough to spend Christmas with my parents on the Gold Coast, which was lovely.

Although I haven't had alot of time to do much stamping, I did make these frames for the kids Grandmother & Great Grandparents using some of the fun Double Sided Papers from the new Summer Mini Catalogue.

Sam's frame uses the new Tall Tales DSP - I kept it very simple & just cut out a couple of trees, added his name using the Jumbo Outline Alpha & the year using a retired numbers set.

For Josie's frame I cut out some flowers from the new Kaleidoscope DSP - the colours matched her pink shirt perfectly. Once again I used the Jumbo Outline Alpha for her name & a retired numbers set for the year, I also added a rhinestone brad on top of the "i"

Thanks for stopping by, I promise it won't be another 3 months before I post again.

Embrace Life

As soon as I saw this card on SCS I knew I had to CASE it. I followed the link to the creators website & found out that she is an Australian demonstrator in WA - so thanks Cathy for a great card! I love that this is a matchbook fold card, which is something a little different to a normal card.

Stampsets: Embrace Life, Short & Sweet

Inks: Ruby Red, Groovy Guava, Basic Black

Cardstock: Groovy Guava, Ruby Red, Watercolour Paper, Ginger Blossom DSP

Accessories: Black Brad, Black Gingham, Scallop Edge Punch

Cards for a Cause

As promised, here are the cards that were peeking out of my Card Organiser yesterday. Each month my upline Jayne designs a card & any INKling who wishes to be involved, uses the design to create some cards that are then donated to Camp Quality. This month Jayne used the Priceless stamp set, which sadly I don't own .....yet, I have just put in my order for it so Stampin' Up! will be donating $24.47 (50% of the retail value) to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal. Anyway, since I didn't have the same stamp set I made afew slight changes & created the following female & male versions. I love how this one turned out - are you sick of Live Your Dream yet??

Stampsets: Live Your Dream, Occasional Greeting

Cardstock: Groovy Guava, Choc Chip, Whisper White, Afternoon Tea DSP

Inks: Groovy Guava, Choc Chip

Punches: 1 1/4" Circle, 1 3/8" Circle & Scallop Circle

I have only just gotten the Large & Small Star Punches & I don't know how I lived without them! They are lots of fun & make a great embellishment for male cards

Stampsets: Wanted, Expressive Flexible Phrases

Cardstock: Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, Whisper White, Afternoon Tea DSP

Inks: Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky

Punches: Large Star & Small Star

It only took about 15 mins to whip up 7 of these cards - such a small amount of time that will hopefully put a smile on the face of some children that are faced with the challenges of living with cancer.

Card Organiser

If you live in my area, you can come along next Friday to one of my Year Of Cards Organiser class & I will show you how to make this great organiser to keep your cards in. I have used one of my favourite stamp sets from the Summer Mini called Live Your Dream, which is one of the sets that Stampin' Up! will be donating money from the sales of to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfires 2009 Appeal - you can read more about how Stampin' Up! are helping here. There is a page for each month with a pocket to keep your cards in along with a handy calendar to remind you when everyone's birthday is

Stampset: Live Your Dream

Cardstock: Groovy Guava, Soft Sky, Choc Chip, Afternoon Tea DSP

Inks: Groovy Guava, Soft Sky, Choc Chip

Accessories: Guava Double Stitched Ribbon, Bind-It-All

I will post a pic & the info on the cards that are inside my pockets tomorrow :-)

2 challenges - 1 card

I had so many things I should have been doing yesterday, but being the master procrastinator that I am, I made some cards instead! I had so much fun doing Makeesha's challenge last week, so thought I'd join in again this week & I incorporated it with the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge.

Stampsets: Eastern Blooms, Circle of Friendship

Inks: Sage Shadow, Regal Rose, Rose Red

Cardstock: Sage Shadow, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Whisper White

Accessories: Pewter Jumbo Eyelets, Rhinestone Brads, Sage Shadow Grosgrain, Pretties Kit, Mat Pack & Paper Piercer

Punches: Scallop Circle, 1", 1 1/4 ", 1 3/8" Circles, Scallop Edge

Not much chit chat today - I have to catch up on all the things I didn't do yesterday :-)

Cute x 3

I had plans to post a mini tutorial on my blog today, but have left my camera in town *roll eyes* Sometimes I'm sure I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached!! Anyway, I searched through the pics on my computer & found these 3 that I made for an Elite Challenges sketch challenge awhile back - as you can see I had fun paper piecing the cute little all-in-one suit.

Stampset: Big On Spring

Cardstock: Spring Fling DSP, Pretty In Pink, Whisper White

Ink: Black Staz On

Accessories: Rhinestone Brad, Wide Celery Grosgrain, Pretty In Pink Stampin' Write Marker, 2-way Glue, Dazzling Diamonds

Stampset: Big On Spring

Cardstock: Rose Red, Regal Rose, Whisper White, Bali Breeze DSP

Ink: Black Staz On

Accessories: 1" Double Stitched Rose Red Ribbon, Rhinestone Brad, Regal Rose Stampin' Write Marker

I wasn't real happy with this last one, so it didn't get a close-up!

Stampset: Big On Spring, Rough Texture Jumbo Wheel
Cardstock: Purely Pomegranite, Textured Close to Cocoa, Pretty In Pink, Whisper White, Afternoon Tea DSP
Ink: Black Staz On, Versamark
Accessories: Double Stitched Pomegranite Ribbon, Pretty In Pink Brads, White Gel Pen

For Grand Father

As mentioned in my previous post I was lucky enough to recieve some stamped images from For Father as a Christmas present - & I was so grateful. For Father is a new set in the current Summer Mini Catalogue & I'm kicking myself that I didn't get it. Of course it is not too late, as it is still available until 31st March - so it could be making an appearance in my bookshelf soon.

Anyway, onto the card - I made this for my Grandfather's 80th birthday last weekend. He loves labradors & currently owns a beautiful yellow dog named Skip, although my dog is a little too orangy for my liking. I used More Mustard & So Saffron Stampin' Write Markers, but maybe should have used a little Creamy Caramel to tone it down abit.

Here is abit of a closeup of my watercolouring, certainly nothing extrodinary, but I was quite pleased with it. I have just coloured in the outline & shaded areas with Stampin' Write Markers & then used an Aquapainter to blend the colour.

Stampset: For Father, It's Your Birthday

Cardstock: Choc Chip, Basic Black, Confetti White, Close to Cocoa Textured & Watercolour Paper

Ink: Black Staz On

Accessories: Double Stitched 1" Wide Choc Grosgrain Ribbon, Twine, Jumbo Antique Brass Eyelets, Aquapainter, So Saffron, More Mustard, Choc Chip & Basic Gray Stampin' Write Markers