Blog Hop & SAB tomorrow!!

Not much blogging this week, I've been abit busy! The kids have just finished 2 weeks of daily swimming lessons & although it was nice to be in the water during the hot weather, I was glad for a day at home on Friday. Not that it was very relaxing as I was busy making Tomato Relish - 12kg of tomatoes & 41 jars later here is the end product. Now on to the reason for today's post - to let you know that the most exciting promotion on the Stampin' Up! calendar begins tomorrow! During Sale-a-bration customers can choose one FREE SAB stamp set for every $100 spent. Hostesses will also get to choose a FREE SAB stamp set once sales reach $600. SAB is also a great time to join Stampin' Up! as new demonstrators can choose a FREE stamp set up to the value of $79.95

These specials are only available until the 31st March 2010.

I will also be participating in a SAB Blog Hop tomorrow, so make sure you come back to see some projects using the SAB stamp sets & find out how you could be in the running to win some great prizes.

Above are afew peeks at a card I have just uploaded to the Elite Challenges blog to keep you going until tomorrow :-)

Circle Punch Flowers

I've been making afew quick & easy flowers using up some of my left over DSP & a couple of Circle punches. I have used the new 1 3/4" Circle punch in the Summer Mini Catalogue along with the 1 1/4", 1" & 3/4" Circle Punches.

Here is a close up of one of my flowers. To make the leaves I have folded a 2" strip of Old Olive cardstock in half & put it through the crimper on an angle, then cut out some half circles. Once you fold out the cardstock you get a great leaf shape. The buttons I have used are from the new Playground & Sherbet Designer Buttons.

Kraft cardstock is such a great colour & goes with anything, so I just had to change the DSP & ribbon I used for afew different cards. This one is in Tempting Turquoise.

For my Pretty in Pink & Bashful Blue versions I also added a cute little butterfly using the new Butterfly Prints stamp set & matching punch.

Thanks for stopping by :-)

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.

Toolboxes for Dad!

While at Camp Cypress the clever Kerryl taught us how to make these gorgeous toolboxes & matching card using the Totally Tools stampset. Here is everyones toolboxes after the class

Closeup of one of the great toolboxes

& here is my card! If you check out the top picture you can see that everyone made thier cards a little different - depending on what sentiment they wanted to use. I had seen this idea on SCS using the tape measure from Totally Tools to spell out 'dad' & just had to use it (especially since it was the main reason I bought the stamp set!!)

Flowerpot Card

Last Thursday I hosted the INKlings Cyberstamp & one of the challenges I set was to make a flowerpot card. I've seen afew of these around the place & they are lots of fun to make. There were some other great flowerpot cards made by Ryn, Ariane & Karen, thanks for playing along :-)

I used the Petal Pizazz stamp set to make my flowers & buttons from Button Bouquet & Button Latte for the centres

I have also used the gorgeous new Riding Hood Red Striped Grosgrain ribbon & used some Hemp Twine to tie on another button.

I also taught this as a class at Camp Cypress - here are everyones gorgeous flowerpots, don't they look gorgeous!

Camp Cypress Retreat

Last weekend I held the 2nd Stamping & Scrapbooking Retreat at Camp Cypress in Baradine. 11 lovely ladies joined me for a fun weekend of crafting & we had a fabulous time creating until all hours of the night. I thought I'd share a couple of pictures of the great location, in the heart of the Pilliga forest.

Here is our accomodation - each cabin has four rooms, each with there own ensuite. The rooms can sleep up to six on three bunk beds, however we only used the bottom bunks, so there was only three in each room.

The next retreat is set for the first weekend in March 2010, so if you'd enjoy a weekend of fun & crafting, mark it in your diary - I'll have more info available soon & hope to share our creations with you over the coming days.

Choo Choo

I made this card last month for an INKlings card swap. It uses a fun new set from the Spring Mini Catalogue - Choo Choo & the matching Stampin' around wheel - Right On Track.

To create the cloud background I punched out a scallop circle, placed it on the card base & sponged baja ink over the top.

Stampsets: Choo Choo, Loads of Love Accessories, On Your Birthday

Cardstock: Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Bella Rose & Sweet Slumber Specialty DSP

Ink: Baja Breeze, Basic Black, Tangerine Tango

Accessories: Old Olive, Summer Sun, Real Red & Choc Chip Markers

Marelle's Sevens Box

How cute are these boxes! You can find a great tutorial on how to make them on Marelle's blog. I made these for my Mini Catalogue Launch last weekend - everyone who attended got one containing a sample of In Colour Stitched Ribbon.

Stampset: Great Friend

Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Whisper White

Ink: Riding Hood Red

Accessories: Pink Pirouette Stitched Grosgrain, Rhinestone Brad, Scallop Oval Punch

Elite Sketch Challenge

Every month over on the Elite Challenges Blog, Carol sets a sketch, colour & stamp set challenge. This is a little sneak peek of my card for the August sketch - to check out my full card & list of supplies used click here

Ribbon Tags

I first saw these cute little ribbon embellishments here. I have posted a card using them before, but thought I'd give them a rerun & add some of the gorgeous new corduroy buttons A fun thing to do is dye your corduroy buttons. I used a sponge dauber & then touched up the buttons using my markers. You will need to make sure the button you want to dye is lighter than the colour you want to change it to - I have dyed a gray button Choc Chip & a Baja Breeze button Rose Red.

Stampsets: On Your Birthday, Trendy Trees, Fresh Cuts

Cardstock: Whisper White

Inks: Choc Chip, Baja Breeze, Rose Red

Accessories: 1" Stitched Grosgrain, Hemp Twine, Corduroy Buttons