WooooHOOOO!!!

Hellooo! Long time no post, I know. (Yes it is a post Brownwyn Eastley!)

I FINALLY find my mojo creeping back after an exremely long and frustrating absence, so I have a cute project to share with you.

Interestingly it also fits in beautifully with the Bah Humbug challenge over at Just Add Ink, so I am going to be doubly brave and enter that too!

The challenge was to make a Christmas project that does not use Christmas stamps or papers. A Christmas sentiment was allowed though.

My card was inspired by some of the wonderful creations shared on Holiday Card Boot Camp, by Jennifer Mc Guire and Kristina Werner. If you haven't checked out their online classes and you are in need of inspiration, I highly recommend you have a look.

Sooo, drum roll please.... Here it is, my first card posted in 18 months!

I made two different versions using two equally yummy patterned papers from Stampin' Up! The first uses the Mocha Morning Specialty Papers and the second the Spice Cake Papers from the upcoming mini catalogue. You can't see it in the pic but the circles are all shimmery and sparkly - sooo pretty. I think I like the Mocha one best - what do you think??

Supplies used: (all from Stampin' Up!)

Mocha Morning and Spice Cake DSP

Crumb Cake and Pear Pizzaz cardstock for card bases

Merry and Type Stamp Set for sentiments

Parlour Prints background stamp

Crumb Cake Seam binding ribbon and Chantilly Crochet Trim, Hemp Twine

Pearl Basic Jewels

Hope you like my cards, and I hope to be back a little more often now. :)

Thanks for stopping by.

It's finally here!!

Hooray, after weeks of planning, the ESAD Christmas in July blog hop is finally going live.





I hope you're ready for the ESAD Christmas in July Blog hop!

What is ESAD?

ESAD stands for Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators and it is an online group just for Australian and New Zealand demonstrators for Stampin' Up!

We so love what we do, and not only do we love to share it with our customers, friends and wonderful blog visitors, but we share out love for what we do with each other as demonstrators. We run swaps, challenges, tutorials, product know how and cyberstamps and we are always there to help and support each other when it is needed.

So if you are a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand, then please feel free to click here to join our wonderful group.

You may have come to my blog from the super talented Paula Fuller or you may be starting with me. Either way WELCOME! I hope you enjoy the project I have to share. To continue on your way, just click on the link at the end of my post.

There are 25 very talented ladies on this hop, so grab yourself a cuppa, settle in and prepare to be inspired by wonderful cards, 3d projects and gift ideas. You will be so filled with inspiration that you will be dying to get started early on those Christmas projects.

The project I have to share with you today was a huge hit with my "Christmas Club" ladies last year - waving to you girls! It makes a perfect $5 KrisKringle gift for a workmate (or a gift for your child's teacher) and can be personalised to suit their tastes.

This idea came from a very talented US Stampin' Up! Demo - Amy Rysavy. You start with a clear glass bauble (they can be purchased from any large craft supplies store) and customise it using Stampin' Up! re-inkers and glitter. For my baubles I have used Chocolate Chip ink with the Chocolate Supernova glitter, Riding Hood Red ink with Dazzling Diamonds glitter and Kiwi Kiss ink with the Olive Supernova glitter. Don't they look gorgeous sparkling in the sunlight?

To complete the gift and make it easy to present, I needed a box. I discovered that the too clever and sooo easy to make 7's box, designed by the incredibly talented Marelle Taylor, (you can find the directions here). Fits these baubles beautifully! I have used Chocolate Chip cardstock and decorated it with DSP from the Bella Rose paper pack.

Here it is open:

And closed - ready to give as a gift:

I hope you liked the project I shared with you today. Pop back in the next few days and I will share a tutorial on how to customise the baubles. Leave a comment and share your thoughts!

Now on to the creative musings of the inspiring Shelly Stewart. Enjoy the rest of the hop!

Cheers

Claire

Too cute!

Hello! A really cute project to share with you today.

I needed a special thank you gift for a freind that I stayed with in Sydney a little while back (waving to you Gerry!). I wanted the gift to be very special so it has taken me a fair while to decide what to do and then to put it all together. This friend of mine has a beautiful wee lad who will turn one later in the year. So I decided that an assortment of cards for little people may be the go!

I purchased Andrea Walford's gorgeous stationery purse class here. Then spent a fair bit of time customising it to suit Aussie card sizes. (These things do not come easily to someone as numerically challenged as I am - lol!) Then of course I had to decide on colours and stamps etc. Eventually I decided to use some of the leftovers from the flip flop album I made for my Secret Sister. (See my previous post) So I ended up using the too cute Hoppy Memories Simply Scrappin' kit and the gorgeous Fox and Friends stamp set. I am thrilled with the results and I hope that Gerry will like it too!

Here is the purse closed:


And here, fully opened out:

Inside there are two little pockets on either end, one for gift tags


and one for gift cards or little 3x3 love notes

The colours used in the Hoppy Memories Simply Scrappin' kit are Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red and Kiwi Kiss. I threw a little Melon Mambo in there so some of the cards etc would have a more "girly" feel.

The two centre pockets contain full sized cards and envelopes:


I love that this project is so bright and cheerful. I hope you like it too... Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Claire

More Secret Sister Gifts

My Secret Sister Linda had a birthday in April, so I made her a special card. I had seen lots of quilted top notes around, so I made my own version using the Cottage Wall Designer Series Papers (DSP) and the too cute new Bird Punch from the SU Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue. I also used a couple of the Designer Buttons I made from the same DSP. If you are interested in how I did this, there is a fab tutorial on Danielle Daws' blog - here


I also made and sent these gifts to Linda:
Linda loves to bake so I wrapped her gifts in these gorgeous tea towels for extra protection in the post, and also as useful wrapping paper! The card is inspired by a series of Heather Summers' from her Simply Stamping online classes. It uses the Friends 24-7 stamp set.

Inside the tea towels were a personalised mini album for each of her children.


Archie's uses the Hoppy Memories Simply Scrappin' Kit and is a Flip Flop album, again designed by the oh so talented Heather Summers. Sophia's is a Paper Bag Album designed by the awesome Jan Tink (you can purchase the instructions here) and uses the Sunny Day Simply Scrappin' Kit from the Autumn/Winter mini.



Here is a pic of the inside of Archie's album. The centre flap and the left hand flap flip upwards to reveal more pages that flip downwards. It is very cool!



Here is the inside of Sophia's album - unfortunately the pic insists on turning itself sideways when I upload it (I have no idea why!!) but you get the idea lol!

I hope you like these projects, I certainly had a ball creating them. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Cheers

Claire

Secret Sisters Round 3

Well as you know from the few bits I have posted of the lovely gifts I received from the gorgeous Gardenia (check out her blog here), I have been taking part in a Secret Sister Swap with some other Aussie Stampin' Up! demos. The rules are that we need to make 2 cards and a small gift for our sister for the first 2 months, then in the 3rd month, two cards and a larger gift. Most of the items are to be Stampin' Up! related. So, whilst I was receiving all of the wonderful items Gardenia made for me, I was busily making gifts for Linda Craven. I was really lucky and got to meet Linda at convention and give her last gift in person. Here is a pic of us together at the Awards Dinner. (Linda is the gorgeous blonde on the left!)


Anyhoo, I thought I should share with you some of the projects that I made for Linda (I had so much fun doing this swap - you have no idea!)


This is the first card I made, using the fab Razzle Dazzle stamp set from the Summer mini, i sooo hope this one makes it into the new catty come September! My apologies for the photos, it was a *very* sunny day in Tassie, the day I took these pics... Roll on warmer weather I say!

This next card was one I made for Linda's son, as he turned 4 during the swap, so I got to ink up my brand new Lots of Bots and make a card for him. Again, the photo is not so great but there is lots of masking and embossing going on here!

I hope you like these projects. I know they were received with genuine delight, which makes it all worth while. I will be back again soon with some more of the goodies I received from Gardenia, and some more of the pressies I sent. Thanks for dropping by, leave a comment and let me know you were here!

Cheers

Claire

Convention Swaps Part 1

Helloooo! Here I am at last, back from convention and with piccys to share. I do have to say that I have been trying to write this post since last Sunday, but for some reason blogger was refusing to upload my pictures - and let's face it, what's a card blog if it doesn't have pictures of yummy cards on it? Before that, I had not had a second to blog as life has rather smacked me in the face since I got home from convention, but you know, it happens sometimes...

So, as variously requested by quite a few of you - here are the swap cards that I made for the Stampin' Up! convention in Sydney a couple of weeks ago. The first one (above) uses the Echoes of Kindness hostess stamp set and Baroque Motifs. The background was made by dragging Pretty in Pink and Sahara Sand ink pads across the cardstock and the flowers were coloured with a White Gel pen. I just love the effect it creates. I was really chuffed as this one ended up on a display board at convention too!

This next one has a really opulent feel IRL (in real life). The stamps from Asian Artistry are embossed in gold and then coloured with reinkers that have been mixed with Crystal Effects. The overall effect is a bit like stained glass.


This card uses the emerging colour technique. The Medallion background stamp was stamped first, then I clear embossed the solid image from Organic Outlines over the top, then brayered basic grey over the whole thing. This card was inspired by some bed linen I wanted to buy from a friend's linen party (hi Tracey!) but I couldn't afford to buy it and go to Sydney! So I made this card instead...

This one is my tribute to the vintage style, and uses the Very Vintage wheel and Vintage Vogue stamp set from the Autumn mini catalogue. There was lots of sponging and distressing to do for this one!

Finally, and I have to say I was losing the will to live after creating 20 each of the previous 4 styles, I had a go at a clean and simple card. This one is my prototype - I can assure you that the ones I gave out at convention were more evenly spaced and straight! (lol!)

OK, so those were my swap cards. I hope you like them. If you would like any more details, or if you would like me to demonstrate one of these cards at a workshop for you and your friends and family email me , I would be glad to help!

I will be back soon with pics of the swaps I received and also of some of the wonderful people I met. Until then take care, and thanks for stopping by.

Claire

Time Flies... and blog awards

Well here I am, finally back to chat to you after a whole month away from my blog - terrible blogging, my apologies. I have been flat out making things I can't share with you - gifts for my secret sister, I can't show you those until we have the "big reveal"later this month and swaps for Stampin' Up! convention in Sydney in a couple of weeks. However, it seems you love me still even when I neglect you for so long... In my inbox this week I have been delighted to receive not one but TWO blog awards - how excitement! But before I talk about those, I should probably show you the one thing I have made lately that is NOT a secret.

This is a photo of my little guy when he was about 18 months. We had some pics taken by a professional photographer who was looking for images for greeting cards. I loved this one, and it has only taken me 10 years to scrap it! The layout is a pagemaps sketch a wonderful source of inspiration, and the whole thing came together really quickly at the girls scrap night I try to get to each month (thanks for the inspiration lovely ladies!) I had trouble getting a good pic of it but hopefully you get the idea.


In this layout I have used a combination of the Urban Oasis, Sweet Slumber and Washington Apple Designer Series Papers, I also used the Very Vintage Jumbo Wheel and the Life Definitions stamp set. It's a really simple layout but I am thrilled with how it came together - as I say, the photo does not really do it justice. But I hope you like it.

Now onto the blog awards. The first one I received was a Beautiful Blog award


from my upline Mae Collins - thanks Mae. In accepting this award I need to nominate 10 other beautiful blogs and tell you ten things about myself. OK so here are 10 of my fave blogs to stalk for inspiration:

Tanya Kitto - Stamp n' Chat
Marelle Taylor
Nicole Derendorf - Stamping Down Under
Kirrily Matthews - KM Designs
Gardenia Pepworth - A Little Less Useless
Stamping with Steph
Rainbows by Robin
Bronwyn Eastley - addINKtive designs
Creating Cards with Andrea
Lynda Moss - StampINKins

Phew! That list took a while to compile. Now 10 things about myself hmmm

1. I am married to a chef I met whilst travelling in the UK
2. I have one brother.
3. I have one son.
4. My fave things to do include having lunch with my girlfriends, craft time with girlfriends and having lunch and/or crafting with my mum!
5. I LOVE elephants!
6. My husband thinks my elephant collection may eventually overrun the house and leave us nowhere to sit/sleep/etc (lol!)
7. The best thing about joining Stampin' Up! for me has been the wonderful people I have met both face to face and on line.
8. I am going to my first Stampin' Up! convention in 2 weeks!
9. I spent several months of my 20's backpacking overland from Kathmandu to London.
   
10. I have a pet dog called Snoopy.

Now the other award I received was from the lovely Leah click on her name to check out her gorgeous blog.

I need to nominate some recipients for this blog too - and link to their blogs so here we go:

Andrea Lowcock - EnchantInk
Stampin with Sonia
Susan Hogan - Time to Play
Ann Wills - Crafty Squirrel

Leonie Schroder - Stamp A Latte

Thanks to all of those listed above for the wonderful inspiration they share on their blogs. When my mojo a- go-gos, these are the places I head to so my creative ideas start to flow again!

Hopefully it won't be so long between posts this time - but I'm not promising!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Claire