Genevra's 1st Installment for March

Today I am going to show you what I made for Genevra for her first instalment for March.

Firstly I made this of so cute box from the Milk Carton Big Shot die. It was a tutorial from Spring and Easter Inkspirations session - now closed.....by Martha Lucia Gomez. She is just so talented...

Anyway this cute little box holds a standard wheel just beautifully and since Genevra had said that the Take A Sip roller was on her wish list, I thought I'd made the card around that.... At that time, I didn't have many 'cup' stamp sets and although I really wanted to use the roller, I didn't think that it was acceptable to use and then gift it.... so flourishes came into play..

The flowers on the top of the box are from the Pretties Kit and I used my brayer and Classic Ink Pads to colour them.

Card: Daffodil Delight, Cherry Cobbler
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Cherry Cobbler, Versamark
Ribbon: 5/8" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain (retired)
Punches: Pinking Hearts Border
Embellishments: Pretties Kit Flowers and Pearl
Tools: Big Shot, Milk Carton Die
Stamp Sets: Baroque Motifs, Pun Fun, Baroque Border Wheel

Now although you can't get this tutorial anymore, there is a Summer Session of Inkspirations 4U that you may be interested joining. Click here to find out more!

Till next time, happy stamping...

Bad Blogger

Hi all,

I can't believe it has been a week since I last posted. I apologise for keeping you waiting.

Today I am showing you what we made at a workshop on Wednesday. I used Becky Roberts Milk Carton Tutorial, but changed a few things to make it for Easter. I had heaps of fun making this and it seems the class had a great time too! Hi Julie, Janne, Kylie, Toni, Lee and Helen!


All the ingredients for this are listed on the project page of my SU! website. Click here for more details.

So aside from this, what have I been doing. Well making papercraft items of course, but I am not ready to show them to you just yet! And I have been waiting, rather inpatiently, for my pre-order of the new product that is coming out on the 1st April 2010. I can't tell you much, except the new mini is big! And there is something for everyone. Hopefully I'll give you a few sneak peaks over the next couple of weeks.

Anyway I have an overtired little girl here, begging for attention, so I'll sign off now.

Till next time, happy stamping...

I'm back and taking up a challenge...

Hello my friends,

Well in case you didn't know, I have actually been away for the past fortnight. I couldn't let you down and not post, so I had all of those that appeared during the last fortnight (except the blog candy winner post) scheduled to just pop up every couple of days.

Anyway what better way to get back into my papercrafts than to take up a challenge? And we all know that I love Gretchens Inspiration In Action weekend sketch challenges. So here is this weekends.


Now I just felt the need to go all soft and gooey, so have made this card in pinks and greys. On this card I stamped the same heart as on the centre piece on a piece of Pink Pirouette cardstock and then punched it out with a medium sized heart, from the Heart to Heart punch.


And then I decided to copy some of Juliana Bibas pocket silhouette vase idea, which of course she claims that she has seen a bit of around the traps.

The saying on this card comes from the Sale-A-Bration set, Whimsical Words. I love this set as it has so many different sayings that will suit a variety of occasions.


I will list all the ingredients together, as aside from the stamps and punches, the ingredients are the same.

Card: Pink Pirouette, Basic Grey, Very Vanilla
Ink: Going Grey, Pink Pirouette
Punches: Small Oval, Boho Blossoms, Heart to Heart
Ribbon: Basic Grey Taffeta
Embellishments: Soft Subtles Brads
Stamp Sets: Pocket Silhouettes, I {heart} Hearts, Whimsical Words, Baroque Motifs

Till next time, happy stamping...

Challenge me!

I have come to be constantly visiting the blog of a very talented lady from the US. Her name is Gretchen Barron and she is sooooooo clever. Anyway she likes to challenge us and usually I don't have enough time in my days to get to them on time, but the moment I saw this sketch challenge I had to have a go.


I knew that it would go hand in hand with the colour challenge that had been set by the ESAD group. I was very concerned about these colours as I generally shy away from oranges, but I thought that I would try. The winner of this challenge gets to have their item displayed on the 'front' page of the ESAD group blog. How exciting would that be?



I decided to use the Baroque Motifs on the background and cut it up and alternate my colours. I did think that the Riding Hood Red and Old Olive would look great together - but I wanted to get away from 'christmas' colours. So I chose the Riding Hood Red and Pumpkin Pie. I stamped the image onto one sheet of both colours in Riding Hood Red ink and then dissected them into quarters. I did consider joining the alternates up to make the normal stamped image but felt that there was too much blank unstamped cardstock on the corners, so instead turned them around so the image was on the outer corner.


I then mounted these on Old Olive for one set, and because I had enough to make a second card, I mounted them on the opposite colour for the second set of images.

Because I was entering a competition to go onto the ESAD website, I thought that I would try to only use product that is from the current Idea Book and Catalogue. I couldn't quite find the right button embellishment, so decided to make my own. Yep, those are handmade buttons made using cardstock, a paper piercer, a punch and some Crystal Effects.

To make my centrepiece I inked up my Pocket Silhouette stamps using my marker pens. I then randomly stamped them onto my on point square. It started to look a bit overdone at the top and there were gaps where the stems were finishing. So rather than keep stamping and end up with something that looked like my 22 month old had stamped, I decided to use my sponge daubers to burnish the edges and bottom of the square. It filled the gap in nicely, and gave a bit more definition to my 'picture'.

So tell me what do you think?

Card: Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Riding Hood Red, Old Olive
Ink: Riding Hood Red
Markers: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive
Punch: 1/2" Circle
Ribbon: Old Olive 1/4" grosgrain
Stamp Sets: Pocket Silhouettes, Baroque Motifs

Till next time, happy stamping...

Sale-A-Bration Blog Hop

Okay this is a bit of a strange post, as it includes two things.

Firstly you have probably come to my site via the ESAD Sale-A-Bration Blog Hop. Welcome! Okay so have you come across ESAD before? We are "Extremely Special Australian Demonstrators" Yahoo Group. If you are an Aussie or New Zealand Demonstrator you can join our group. We share ideas and provide support and friendship to other demonstrators. We have challenges, tech talk, swaps etc. Click here for more information on our group.

If you aren't a demonstrator and are worried about missing out, contact me and I'll can fill you in on many more benefits that you'll receive by being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.

So that gets me onto the second part of this post. For the last three months of last year, we held a Secret Sister swap. Basically those who chose to participate were given details of a participant and each month we had to post them two cards and a 3d gift, using SU product, of course! My Secret Sister was Andrea Buckland and this is the 2nd card I sent her during December.



Yep, that's right as a demostrator I had access to the Sale-A-Bration sets early - just another wonderful benefit of being a demonstrator. And if you join during Sale-A-Bration you can choose a FREE stamp set to the value of $79.95 from the Ideas Book and Catalogue! How cool is that?

Card: Very Vanilla, Pretty In Pink, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Soft Subtle Stampin' Write Markers, Chocolate Chip, Versamark
Punches: Word Window, Curly Label, Slit Punch
Stamp Sets: Baroque Motifs, Happy Moments

Okay the next person on the blog hop is Tanya Kitto. Remember to leave a comment as you may be eligible to win some blog candy. Once you have done the loop and left a comment on each post please email Leonie (The Great Organiser) and let her know that you have satisfied your committments to be entered into the blog candy draw.

Till next time, happy stamping...

Love Rays

Well it's getting to that time again. Valentines Day! Love, Love, Love! Let's hope it has found you already, but if it hasn't I hope it does soon!

Michelle Zindorf had made this card and I just loved it. It is using the new I {heart} Hearts stamp set that's only available in the summer mini. And the circle scissors too! Can you see where my circle's are? In my rays, of course. The tutorial calls for a circle to be cut and used to sponge along to create the rays.


Of course with any tutorial there are predetermined colours, but since we don't have the same in-colours as the USA, I decided totally change the colours. Michelle's tutorial is in oranges and black.

Card: Rose Red, Whisper White, Pacific Point
Ink: Rose Red, Pacific Point, Night of Navy, Tempting Turquoise, Taken With Teal
Punch: Photo Corners
Embellishments: Earth Elements brads
Stamp Sets: I {heart} Hearts, Baroque Motifs

Till next time, happy stamping...

A card for my real sister!

I know that I have been chatting a lot recently about my Secret Sisters, but I actually have real ones too. And I love them dearly! It happens to be one of their birthdays today and I have whipped up this card for her.


A fabulous lady from ESAD, Cathy Clarke, has recently given us a tutorial on how to make faux paper, so I thought I'd try it out on this card. What do you think? The possibilities are endless and I think you might see a few different combinations over the next few weeks.

Also Leonie Schroder from ESAD gave us some tips and ideas on how to use glossy cardstock, so I have stamped my rose image on glossy card and coloured in using circular motions with a sponge dauber. It was so easy and the result is fantastic.

Card: Whisper White, Pixie Pink, Orchid Opulence, Glossy White
Ink: Orchid Opulence, Pixie Pink, Stazon White, Regal Rose
Punches: Small Oval, Large Oval
Stamp Sets: Fifth Avenue Floral, Short and Sweet Baroque Motifs

Till next time, happy stamping...

Silver and White Challenge

Well finally I am going to post a card that I have made myself. I am kind of cheating though, because I did it a couple of months ago for a challenge at my local craft shop. I love doing their challenges as they give you some horrible papers to work with and it really makes you think. I did like the materials this time, but seemed to have a hard time putting them together. Eventually I came up with this little beauty.



So as you are aware, not all of the ingredients are SU, but I thought I would show you anyway. The photo doesn't do this card any justice and one day I might get a new camera, as mine is about to stop working. I used my cricut to cut the "&" and word "Forever"

Card: White, silver and patterned - all non SU
Ribbon: White with silver edging - no SU
Punches: Circle, Scallop circle
Tools: Heat gun, embossing powder
Stamps sets: Always, Baroque Motifs

Anyway I have to dash, as I have to wake up baby and get to school for pickup in ten minutes.

Till next time, happy stamping...

Tri fold cards

Recently a friend, Leonie Schroder, made a tri fold card and I just had to give it a go. You can find instructions on how to make this card, here.



Marelle Taylor is having a Step it Up challenge for June, so I thought that I would try it with this gorgeous card. I have added some Dazzling Diamonds and dyed Pretties and more.

I had so much fun making this card as there were so many surfaces to work with and you could almost tell a story.


Card: Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Basic Gray
DSP: Urban Garden
Ink: Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Versamark
Markers: Not Quite Navy Ribbon:

Blue Bayou 3/8" double stitched ribbon (retired)

Embellishments: Pretties Kit

Punch: Large Oval

Stamp sets: Always, Baroque Motifs, So Swirly Jumbo wheel, Yummy (retired)

Out of my comfort zone

Well I have been busy over the past couple of days with a cybercamp for Australian Stampin' Up® Demonstrators. It has been full of challenges, discussions, ideas and online chats and quizzes. This really is a company where every demonstrator is out there to help each other.

This card is the result of one of the many challenges put up this weekend, by Leonie Schroder.

Card: Close to Cocoa, Baja Breeze and Pink Pirouhette

Ink: Baja Breeze, Pink Pirouhette and Versamark

Ribbon:Theatre Ribbon Originals (retired)

Embellishments: Clear Embossing Powder, Stampin' Dimensionals

Punches: Square scallop and 1/2" circle

Stamp Sets: Baroque Motifs, Baroque Border wheel, Say it with Scallops and Always