Just Because

Sometimes there are people who come into your life through the most unexpected channels, yet provide you with so much joy and excitement! Well I have to such blogging buddies, who often email me and leave lovely comments.

I thought it would be nice to make them something special to say thanks! After all isn't that what cardmaking is about? Letting people know that we are thinking of them and that they are special!

Now this is probably not the best photo angle, but the two big boxes in the centre hold family sized Kleenex tissue boxes inside! I got this wonderful tutorial from the very clever Nikki Stalker. Click on this link to go to the tutorial!


I also decided to make co-ordinating notebook as well. I actually removed the original cover and made my own. I used the spiral punch, although I had to double this up as the punch holes were a bit too far apart. I then got a very narrow strip of co-ordinating cardstock and threaded it through the spiral and attached the front cover! Let me tell you, these covers are a vast improvement on the originals, which I think were bright yellow and hot pink!

Now the butterfly and flourish in the pink tissue box are from the new Sale-A-Bration set, Bliss! And the name certainly is so well suited to this set! Remember you can only obtain this set by spending AU$100 or hosting a qualifying party, before 31st March 2010. Contact me to work out the best way to get your FREE rubber!

I'll list the ingredients together... I am sure you can work out which is which!

Card: Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze, Basic Gray, Pretty In Pink, Concord Crush
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Basic Gray, Rose Red, Concord Crush, Pretty In Pink
DSP: Urban Garden (retired), Lap of Luxury
Punches: 1 3/8" Circle, Scallop Circle, Scallop Edge
Tools: Big Shot, Scallop Circle Die, Circle Scissors Plus
Ribbon: Basic Gray 3/8" Taffeta (retired), Baja Breeze Double Stitched Grosgrain (retired), Pretty In Pink 1/2" Striped Grosgrain (retired)
Embellishments: Rhinestones (non-SU), Pearls (non-SU)
Stamp Sets: Fifth Avenue Floral, Just Beleive, Occasional Greetings, Bliss

Till next time, happy stamping...

Inkspirations colour challenge!

Well in case you haven't noticed I am linked into the INKspirations Early Fall Edition. Gotta love those in the Northern Hemisphere who are on different seasons to us! LOL! Anyway not only do they have great tutorials, they also have challenges.

The colours to be used were Tempting Turquoise, Tangerine Tango and Real Red.

Now these aren't colours I would normally put together. Actually Tangerine Tango is a colour I rarely use. And Tangerine Tango's contribution here is minimal too! LOL!

I stamped the rose in Real Red and then using a blender pen and Classic Ink pad, I coloured in starting from the outside and working my way in. It was very therapeutic! And a good way to be quiet while I waited for the kids to fall asleep.

Card: Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Tangerine Tango
Punches: Small Oval, Large Oval, Scallop Oval
Stamp sets: Fifth Avenue Floral, Short and Sweet

Till next time, happy stamping...

Gift for Natalie!

Hello again! If you have been following my blog you will know that I joined the last Ustamp. I decided to join in the swap sister program and was allocated Natalie. Hiya Natalie! Natalie and I emailed each other as soon as we got our details. We shared a little bit about ourselves. Natalie said that her favourite colours were Real Red and Certainly Celery.

Now aren't these flowery things just soooo cute???? I love the effect but wasn't 100% happy making them. I followed a video tutorial by Barb Mullikin - Barb certainly made it look easy. I just didn't find it easy to do. I also made Natalie a desktop calendar which I utilised Nikki Stalker's video tutorial.


And then I also made Natalie this cute little box, which I cased off Andrea Lowcocks blog.



It looks like a perfect little present and then kaboom, you open it up and there is still a box inside, to hold your goodies.

And of course, you can't send an empty box. The best thing is to send some choccies and I decorated these Dove choccies, just to make them a little bit more special.

Card and Desktop Calendar ingredients:

Card: Whisper White, Real Red
Ink: Real Red, Certainly Celery
Punches: Scallop Edge Border, Eyelet Border
Embellishments: Ice Circle Rhinestone, Playground Buttons
Stamp Set: Fifth Avenue Floral

Origami box and choccies:

Card: Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red
DSP: Bella Rose
Punches: Scallop Circle, 1 3/8" Circle, 1" Circle
Ribbon: Real Red 3/4" Polka Dot Grosgrain
Stamp Set: Warm words

Till next time, happy stamping...

My gift to Andrea for October

Okay, here is part one of my gifts to Andrea.

Andrea indicated that her favourite SU colour was Pink Pirrouette and her favourite stamps sets were Fifth Avenue Floral and Pocket Sillhouettes.

I wanted to make something for Andrea using the things that she liked. I decided to make her this awesome little set of drawers. Unfortunately I didn't have enough Pink Pirouette cardstock and had to settle for Pretty In Pink. I then went through my DSP and found that Raspberry Tart would be a perfect match for my available equipment. I used the Build-A-Brads to make matching little drawer knobs.


In the drawers I included a pack of Clear Rhinestones Brads and the six cards pictured. Now these cards may look very similar to the cards on my previous posts and that is because I was using the same layout, stamp set or DSP and wanted to show the variety of options available.

I will list all the ingredients used together as this would become a very long post if I was to do each card and the drawers seperately.

Card: Pretty In Pink, Glossy White, Whisper White, Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss
Ink: Versamark, Regal Rose, Stazon White (retired), Kiwi Kiss, Basic Black
DSP: Raspberry Tart
Punches: Eyelet Border, Scallop Edge Border, Scallop Oval, Scallop Square, Large Oval, Heart to Heart, Photo Corners
Embellishments: Pretties Kit, Build-A-Brad, White Signo Gel Pen, Sponge Daubers
Stamp Sets: Fifth Avenue Floral, Organic Grace (hostess set), Oval All (retired), Say it with Scallops, Best Yet(hostess set), Simply Said

Now keep an eye out as there is more to go with the drawers and that will come up soon in future posts.

Till next time, happy stamping

I was Andrea Bucklands Secret Sister......

Okay well it is official now. I can tell you that I was Andrea Buckland's Secret Sister.

First things first, when I got given Andrea as my Secret Sister for this round, I looked her up on the internet to see if she had a blog. And she does. I was gobsmacked by all the beautiful work that she had on there and got very nervous about my abilities to make anything half as nice as her work. To check out Andrea's work click here.

This was the first card I sent to Andrea.



To explain the origin of this card, I had just purchased some glossy white paper and hadn't used it before. Leonie Schroder had given us some tips, so I decided to try out the Fifth Avenue Rose and a sponge dauber and ink. My first version I used black ink for the stamp, and made a lovely rose, but I wasn't happy with it. I really didn't know what to do with the work I had done. So I went to bed - the next morning was my wedding anniversary and I hadn't done anything for my husband. I woke the next morning and had the layout for my hubby's card in my head. Within five minutes of waking I had made this card.

Obviously it was a little to lovey dovey for Andrea, but I thought that I could make the same card but in softer pinks. Basically it was the same layout but in different colours and one was portrait and the other landscape. I love both of these cards.

Andreas card ingredients;

Card: Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Pretty In Pink, Glossy White
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Stazon White (retired)
Punches: Eyelet Border, Large Oval, Scallop Oval (retired)
Ribbon: Pretty In Pink 1/4" grosgrain
Stamp Sets: Fifth Avenue, Sweet Little Sentiments

Wedding anniversary card ingredients;

Card: Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White, Glossy White
Ink: Basic Black
Punches: Eyelet Border, Large Oval, Scallop Oval (retired)
Ribbon: Whisper White 3/8" taffeta
Stamp Sets: Fifth Avenue, Short and Sweet

Keep your eye out for more posts over the coming days and weeks as I show you more of what I sent to Andrea.

Till next time, happy stamping...

Cyberstamp Challenge

Hello my friends...

What an exciting week it has been for me! I woke up on Tuesday morning to a lovely email that informed me that my last post was going to 'appear' on the Yahoo Group Late Night Stampers blog finds of the day for 12/11/09. Wow what a compliment! Thank you to Kelly Mayou who 'found' me!

Anyway us funloving gals who belong to the ESAD (Extremely Special Aussie Demonstators) group have been having a cyberstamp this weekend. Yep right now! We have been online and chatted and had a scavenger hunt and had challenges put out. I was asked to put up a sketch challenge which I did today, so I can now show it to you.

So this was my sketch.... my very first - I never really have to put it to paper normally, it's just up in the head..... you wouldn't beleive how many times I scrunch my brain up, like a peice of paper, and try and throw it out...lol! And here is my interpretation! Do you remember me telling you that I can never follow things exactly? Well I couldn't even follow my own sketch! How bad is that? lol.

It has been fascinating to see what others have made using this sketch. They are all very different and beautiful. I have a couple of other things to show you over the next couple of days, so keep your eyes peeled. I didn't want to overwhelm you with it all on one day!

Card: Pale Plum, Lavendar Lace, Sage Shadow, Whisper White, Glossy White
Ink: Stazon Black, Stazon White, Versamark, Perfect Plum, Sage Shadow, Pale Plum, Riding Hood Red (re-inker)
Ribbon: Whisper White 3/8" taffeta
Embellishments: Whisper White 5/16" Jumbo Brads, Pewter Build-A-Brad, Button Bouquet, White Gel Pen
Stamp Sets: Fifth Avenue Floral, Always, Always In Bloom Wheel, Think Happy Thoughts

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...

I turned around and there was more....

I arrived home yesterday to find another card from my Secret Sister. She has certainly been very busy. This card is made using the watercolour technique that I showed you a couple of weeks ago. I really like the colours that my SS has used.


I would love to write more, but my baby is crying with a temp, so I had best go and be a mum. Thought you'd like to see this card.

Till next time, happy stamping....

Fantastic flip flop cards

Using the watercolour technique that I made my "Watering the Rose" card with, I also made some blue irises. I wasn't happy with the way that they dried, so I got my blender pens out and used some of the excess ink to darken them around the edges and to also colour the stamens in. Then I was happy with the result. I just had to find the right way to showcase them.

I found the tutorial to these fantastic flip flop cards by Kim Burmeister on Youtube. Of course hers looks very different to mine.


On Wednesday I went out to visit a friend on a property and thought I'd make her a card for having us out there. What stamp set suits better than Rustic Rooster? I manually coloured him in using just about every marker in the Earth Elements range. I then embossed over the top of him and stamped the words over the top. The embossing resists the ink, so that you don't end up having words stamped over the rooster.

Below is a picture of the card half opened out. I think these cards can be left without sentiments if you like. I wrote a long thank you in the middle of this card (after I took the photo), so I didn't want to have a stamp in the way.

I think these cards are stunning, but so simple to make. You could make them without even stamping, if that's what you wanted. Just use some of our fantastic DSP!

Blue Iris card

Card: Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Whisper White
Ink: Versamark, Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango, Baja Breeze, Pacific Point
DSP: So Saffron, Good Morning Sunshine
Tools: Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Blender Pens
Stamp set: Fifth Avenue Floral

Rustic Rooster card

Card: Chocolate Chip, Tangerine Tango, Sahara Sand, Not Quite Navy
Ink: Versamark, Earth Element Markers, Not Quite Navy
DSP: Haiku
Ribbon: Natural Hemp Twine
Tools: Embossing Powder, Heat Tool
Stamp set: Rustic Rooster (Hostess set)

I'd love to promise that I'll be back soon, but I am heading back out to work for the next couple of days, so it may be a bit quiet.

Till next time, happy stamping...

Watering my rose!

Hello and suprise, I am back within a couple of days. I honestly thought that I only updated my blog yesterday, but it appears it was two days ago. Even still I am back in record time.

As promised I am show casing a card, using an apparently foolproof method of watercolouring. I am not 100% happy with the watercolour result, but it still looks good. Perhaps I am a fool!

For this card I used the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set. Stampin Up is a wonderful company and I received this stamp set for reaching quite achievable goals in June and July. Although this set wasn't originally on my wish list, I know that I am going to make a lot of stunning cards using these stamps.


I also used our Build-A-Brads in this card, which I think adds matching style. Sometimes it is just impossible to find the right embellishment and with the Build-A-Brads, you can make your own to match your project. It certainly saves a lot of frustration!

Card: Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Almost Amethyst, Rose Red
Ink: Versamark
Reinkers: Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirrouhette, Tangerine Tango
DSP: Sweet Always
Embellishments: Build-A-Brad, Clear Stampin Emboss Powder, Heat Tool
Punches:Eyelet Border, 1/2" circle
Stamp Set: Fifth Avenue Floral

Next month we have a new special for all customers who spend over $100. Stay tuned to find out more.

Till next time, happy stamping...