Meeting Blog Friends....

Well as I mentioned in THIS POST, I met up with a very special blog friend Lynda late last month. I was in Sydney awaiting the birth of my nephew. Lynda and I dragged out kids out to Sydney's Bicentennial Park for a wonderful morning. The kids played happily and Lynda and I got to chat and laugh! It was a great morning!

Anyway the purpose of this meeting was for Lynda to give me these cute little Princess Anya images. I had saw this card she made on her blog incorporating these and she offered to post a few images to me - isn't she sweet? So this is what I created with Lynda's images.


Lynda also surprised me with this gorgeous little notebook! It's currently in my bag and I have finally allowed myself to write in it! It took a while as it's sooooo cute!


Lynda also gave me THIS card, which I put in an extra special place so I wouldn't lose it! It's still there. I am so glad Lynda put it up on her blog so I can direct you to it! LOL!

So this is a HUGE Thank you to Lynda for all the beautiful items you gave me and even more for taking time out of your busy schedule to meet up with me! I enjoyed myself immensely!

No ingredients this time, as lots of them are NON-SU.

Till next time, happy stamping...

Mixing the old with the new!

I guess I should apologise for not being here for the last week or so. I decided that I wanted to grow a hedge to 'fence' off my front yard and that now would be an ideal time to plant it. That way hopefully it will be established before the winter frosts come in. So with that in mind, I purchased 140 Japanese Box plants and have had to dig (well hubby did) 37 metres of garden. This then required planting, mulching and lots of water to help establish it. Just getting them all planted took four days! I have also decided to paint Miss 8's room, so I have been busy cleaning, emptying rooms out, washing walls, sanding, taping, undercoating, sanding again and painting. I wish I could say that I am finished, but I need to do another coat and then start on the trims in the room. Now onto the stuff you really care about...

Well this month we have been given the challenge to use green at the Stampin_Up_In_Oz Yahoo group. This was because we were working towards March which has St Patricks Day in it. There was no requirement to make anything symbolic of St Patricks Day, but I couldn't help myself!


I think this card is a cross between Aussie and Irish - Green and Gold for Australia and the Shamrocks for the Irish - perhaps I should call it my Aussish or Irie card?

Now all of the ingredients on this card are made from old stock, except the Stamp Set and punch! I just love this So Happy For You stamp set that's only available through Sale-A-Bration! It is very cute!

Card: Green Galore (retired), Summer Sun (retired)
Ink: Green Galore (retired)
DSP: Patterns Pack (retired hostess set)
Punch: Heart to Heart
Stamp Set: So Happy For You

Till next time, happy stamping...

Winners of Inkspirations 4U Easter and Spring session

Well as promised, today I have used the Random Number Generator to pull out the winning comment!

And the winner is:

Also winning a FREE pass for spending $50 with me is Janne McColl.

Congrats to both these ladies!

Now for those of you who missed out on winning a free pass, get over to the Inkspirations 4U site to register at the early bird price.

Till next time, happy stamping...

A Thank you to me and A Thank you to you!

Well firstly I'd like to say a super big THANK YOU to all those who have visited my blog over the last two years. I have just reached 25000 hits! I can remember when I started this blog thinking that I'd be lucky to get any visitors, however I have come to realise that there are many wonderful people out there who do pop in and visit. Some leave comments which inspires me, whilst others just look and learn! Either way, I am happy to have shown you something that hopefully inspires you!

Remember today is the last day that you can enter into the draw to WIN a FREE pass to Inkspirations 4U Spring and Easter session. Check out this post for more details. I will announce the winners tomorrow.

Anyway onto this next card.... Well I wish I could say that I made it, but alas I didn't! It was made by Andrea Lowcock for me! It arrived in a particularly nasty group of letters last week and it took all the sting out of the bills that arrived with it!

It was really hard to photograph, but the butterfly has the most beautiful sheen over it! I am assuming it's our shimmer paint. Which I haven't used yet!

Since it's early morning as I type, I am only guessing through my tired eyes as to all the ingredients. Hopefully I get them right, or else I am sure that Andrea will let me know which are wrong ;-)

Card: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Blushing Bride
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Close to Cocoa (retired)
Punch: Scallop Trim Border, Scallop Square
Ribbon: Bashful Blue 1" Double Stictched Grosgrain
Embellishments: Pearls, Shimmer Paint
Stamp Sets" All A Flutter, Elements of Style

Till next time, happy stamping...

Love is in the Air!

Well I'd seen this gorgeous technique around lately! I don't know what it's officially called but Embedded Embossing, sounds pretty good! Basically you dress up your cardstock however you like and add bits to it, such as the hearts in this image. You also do all your stamping first too! And then you just run it through your Big Shot with an embossing folder and suddenly the bits you added look like they are part of the original cardstock.


Card: Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Pretty In Pink, Bravo Burgandy, Melon Mambo
Ink: Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry
Ribbon: Black Satin
Punch: Heart to Heart
Embellishments: Pearls
Stamp Sets: Always, Short and Sweet

Till next time, happy stamping...

Don't forget to jump over to this post and leave a comment to get yourself into the draw to Win A FREE pass to Inkspirations 4U Easter and Spring Session.

Another round of Secret Sister

Well I know I've been a bit quiet on here of late. That's because I have joined two new rounds of Secret Sister. I have also been doing up my next tutorial for the next round of Inkspirations 4U. Don't forget to check out this post and leave a comment before 13th February 2011 to WIN a FREE pass!

Anyway as I am sure that you are aware I cannot show you what I have been making for either of those groups. I can however show you what I have received. This is my first card from my Stampin_Up_In_Oz Secret Sister. I hate to say this but she has definitely set the bar high! It is really beautiful. It was very hard to photograph, actually almost impossible, to catch the shimmer on card. Very classy!


As I haven't made this I will be guessing the ingredients, so I hope that they are right.

Card: Cake Crumb, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip and Riding Hood Red?
Ink: Chocolate Chip and Riding Hood Red?
Embellishments: Rub-ons to match Razzle Dazzle (retired), Shimmer paint
Stamp Set: Razzle Dazzle

Till next time, happy stamping

FREE passes to give away

Okay this will be the third time I have tried to post this message. I am hoping that it works this time...

Anyway I have two passes to giveaway to the next session of Inkspirations 4U which starts in March 2011. In order to go into the running for these passes you can either;

1. Become a follower of my blog and post a comment

OR

2. Place a AU$50 order with me. If you please a AU$100 order, you get two chances to go into the draw, plus will be eligible for a FREE Sale-A-Bration stamp set. Email me to place your order! Remember I can ship anywhere in Australia.

Till next time, happy stamping...

Help Aussie Demos In Need - A new support group!

THIS IS A STICKY POST - SCROLL DOWN FOR UP TO DATE POSTS

In light of the current natural disasters that are occurring in Australia at the moment, I felt that I needed to do something to help our sister demonstrators who have lost their stamping and therefore business supplies. I have created an online Yahoo group called HelpAussieDemosInNeed (HADIN).

Here's how you can help:

If you or someone you know of has been a victim of a disaster (or is affected in the future) which wipes out some or all of their supplies, contact me (soniagarbutt@yahoo.com.au) and give me their contact information.

I will contact them and get their permission, find out what their needs are, where we should send items, and (this is important) when they will be ready to begin receiving gifts of love from other demonstrators.

Once we know that, I will publish a list (kind of like a SWAP list but we won't be swapping, we'll be GIFTING) of what is needed to the HADIN group and people can sign up for what they would like to donate. They will mail the supplies directly to the person in need (please don't send them to me), but not before they are ready to receive supplies. I will co-ordinate the effort so that we don't send duplicates of items that can't be used and so that ALL demonstrators recovering from disasters of all kinds, can receive this outpouring of love and support from our caring family of demonstrators.

Items can be sent directly from you, using overstock or items that you would like to donate or you can place a CDO (Customer Direct Order) and have items shipped to them directly from Stampin' Up!®.

Please, if you know of anyone who has been affected by the recent flooding, storms and bushfires, email me as soon as possible so I can begin contacting them to see how we can help. In some cases, it may be difficult to contact the people, at least in the immediate aftermath of the destruction, but we will do our best.

Till next time, happy stamping...

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...

Tasty Lollipop Cover

Now I know that giant Lollipops are kinda cool on their own, but Rosita designed this cute tutorial for us, over at Inkspirations 4U Valentines and Birthday Extravaganza.

Isn't it just divine? I really loved the flower, which is made from the Heart to Heart punch! Who would have through?

If you are a true giant lollipop fan, you'll know that this photo has been staged! I used a skewer from the kitchen to give the look of it! I don't think this tiny little skewer would have the strength to hold up a giant lollipop.

Till next time, happy stamping...