Out with the old ... In with the NEW

Hello! Good news everyone! (Futurama fans will recognise that one). My mojo has returned with a vengance with the arrival of my pre-order and my new catalogues. A couple of bits and pieces to share with you today, incuding a sneak peek from the new Ideas Book and Catalogue. Can't wait for this one to go "live" there are some really great new stamp sets that I am dying to get my hands on! Not to mention the new brads, buttons, in colours ....

The first card I would like to share is a farewell tribute to my beloved Paisley background stamp. One of my first SU purchases ever - before I became a demo even, it has seen good service and been embossed, kissed with, "Josephed" and generally stamped extremely well. So here is it's last "official" outing before it disappears into my private stash forever. Not really sure about this one, it's a bit "fussy" for me - what do you think?

The Paisley was embossed in Basic Grey and then elements coloured with Regal Rose and Rose Red Markers. The inspiration for the colour scheme came from a shirt that I tried on the other day (I didn't buy it - it did nothing for me! But I loved the design). The sketch is Keesh's sketch challenge #6. You can check out the other fab entries here.

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Paisley Background (retiring)

Cardstock: Basic Grey, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Whisper White

Inks: Versa Mark, Basic Grey

Accessories: Ribbon, Markers, Scallop Edge Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Eastern Elegance Rubons (retired)

Technique: Coloured Embossing

The next card I would like to share with you is a blend of old and new. I made it for a friend's 40th birthday. I wanted it to reflect her personality, bright, bubbly and fun. I used the retiring Bali Breeze DSP together with the new Cheers to You stamp set (available from the 1st April), thanks Lynda for the loan!

The cocktails are coloured directly with the markers for a more vibrant feel, then covered with Crystal Effects to enhance the "glassy" effect, then I added some Dazzling Diamonds whilst the Crystal Effects was still wet, to give it some shimmer and bling. I think you can just see a little of the sparkle in the photo.

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Cheers to You (new)

Cardstock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Bali Breeze DSP (retiring)

Inks: Stazon Black

Accessories: Crystal Effects, Markers, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Scallop Punch, 1 3/4" circle punch, White Gel Pen.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Would love to hear your thoughts on my creations, it is always great to know who has been here.

Claire

Mojo-a-gogo!

Goodness, I have just realised it has been 3 weeks since my last post! How terribly slack of me, my apologies to those of you that check in on me regularly to see what I have been up to. The answer to that question is of course - not much! Well not much crafting to be more precise. I have come to the conclusion that since becoming a Stampin' Up! Demo, I hate the month of March! There is so much hype around the retiring list and the new Ideas Book and Catalogue arriving, that my crafting mojo goes into hiding. I have sat down at my desk a few times in the last week or so, but with images of stamp sets yet to come looming large in my head, suddenly the old ones don't seem so inspiring.

Anyway, rather than disappear of the face of the earth entirely, I thought I would share with you some swap cards that I made. These swaps were made to send to a sister demo in Canada. The idea was to make 3 complete cards (preferably from sets that they don't have in their catalogue) and post them to your swap partner. I received three gorgeous cards from Cathy Jonstone a very talented SU demo in Canada, you can check out her blog, here. I will post them later in another post, it is too dark and gloomy today to get good pics.

Here are the three I made to send to Cathy (thanks to Lynda for the loan of the All Aboriginal and Happy Christmas Mate stamp sets!). I can post them here now, as Cathy has received them.

Card Recipe:

Stamps; Ocean Commotion, Baroque Motifs

Cardstock; Ballet Blue, Gable Green, Ruby Red, So Saffron

Inks; Whisper White, Gable Green, So Saffron

Acessories; Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware, Crystal Effects, Stampin' Dimensionals

Card Recipe:

Stamps; Happy Christmas Mate

Cardstock; River Rock, Real Red, Dashing DSP, Watercolour paper

Inks; Stazon Black, Old Olive

Techniques; Markers direct to watercolour paper

Accessories; Markers, Aquapainter, Corner Rounder punch, Double Slot punch, non SU circle cutter, Ribbon

Card Recipe:

Stamps; All Aboriginal

Cardstock; Chocolate Chip, Brocade Blue, Ruby Red, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Spring Break DSP

Inks; Versa Mark, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red, Brocade Blue

Techniques; Emboss Resist

Sketch: Makeesha's Sketch Challenge No. 5

Accessories; Markers, Clear EP, White Gel Pen

Hope you like them. Please leave a comment and let me know you stopped by. It's alway nice to know who has visited. My preorder of goodies from the new catalogue has finally arrived, so I will have some new creations to share with you soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Claire

A Challenge combo

Hello, me again. Just recovering from the *shock* of the enormity of the Stampin' Up! retired list this year. My stamp collection is officially decimated! I will be particularly sad to say goodbye to my Paisley background stamp, I think I will have to keep that one for "personal use" lol! Looking forward to the new catalogue though, I can't wait to see what wonderful goodies they have replaced my old favourites with.

Now, to the real reason for this post. A challenge combo. For this card I have used Makeesha's Inkspirations sketch challenge no. 5 (to check out the other fab entries go here), along with Kristina's colour inspiration for this week. (Play along with Kristina's challenge here).

Kristina's colour challenge reminded me of some photos my Mum took on a trip through central Australia last year, lots of earthy desert colours combined with the green of the sparse vegetation and the blue of the sky. That inspired me to make this card with a set I borrowed from a friend to make some swaps. (Thanks Lynda!)

Not the greatest pic (it's late) but you get the idea! I used some of the masking and sponging techniques I learned doing Michelle Zindorf's chef tutorial (see this post) and have to say I am really pleased with the way this one turned out!

Card recipe:

Stamps: All Aboriginal, Polka Dots and Petals, Live your Dream

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Brocade Blue, Old Olive, Spring Break DSP

Inks: Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Versa Mark, Ruby Red, Old Olive

Accessories: Markers, White Gel Pen, Stampin' Dimensionals

Techniques: Emboss resist, Masking

Hope you like it. Please leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for stopping by.

Claire

Quick n' cute!

Hello, me again! Two posts in one week, I must be having a sudden rush of blood to the head. Just a quick post to share a mega cute card with you. I have been playing around trying to devise a card suitable for both boys and girls for our upcoming Inkydivas Stamp-a-stacK. (You can find the details here if you are interested). Anyway I was inspired by the incredibly talented Heather (Stamp with Heather) to have a go at this too cute little monkey she created with punches. You can see Heather's video tutorial here.

I had to adapt a little as we don't have the three hearts punch here in Oz yet, so I used the 3 flower punch and trimmed one for the hands and feet instead. What do you think? Is it too fiddly for a Stamp-a-stacK group? Would love to hear your thoughts, please leave a comment and let me know you stopped by.

Claire

Two for you ...

Hey there everybody. Too busy for Kristina's colour challenge this week. We had our first Christmas Club on Friday night. It was a great success, really fun and casual, everyone went home with four cards they were very pleased with. We still have a couple of spots remaining, so if you live in southern Tassie, and you would like to come along each 3rd Friday of the month to hang out with a great bunch of ladies and make some gorgeous projects - email me. candpharrison@activ8.net.au

The first thing I have to share today is the first scrapping layout I have done in a *very* long time. I just seem to be caught up in making cards all the time these days, since I became an SU demo. So, in a bid to revive my scrapping mojo I have embarked on an online journalling course. Awesome, amazing and incredibly inspirational would be the words I would use to describe it, four weeks in. The course is called Journalling 101, if you would like to check it out, go here.

Here is my layout for the week 1 assignment, a bit late, but - better late than never! We were challenged to create a layout that told the story of a regular event, the ordinary story. I chose to scrap my little guy's 10th birthday, which happened recently.

Project recipe:

Stamps: Non SU Foam Alphabet Stamps, Short and Sweet

Inks: Real Red

Cardstock: Brilliant Blue 12x12 textured, East Coast Prep DSP, Real Red, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi and More Mustard

Accessories: On Board Lots of Letters, Sponges, Stamp & Write Journaller. Markers, Star Punches, 1/4 " circle punch, Eastern Blooms rub-ons (retired) other rubons.

The second project I have to share was inspired by a tutorial by Michelle Zindorf - you can try the tutorial yourself here . I love my Voila stamp set, but it hasn't seen ink for a while. I went back to Michelle's tutorials to refresh myself on another technique and saw her card. I just *had* to make one! Here's my version;

Project recipe:

Stamps: Voila and Voila a la carte

Inks: Basic Black, So Saffron, Old Olive, Always Artichoke

Cardstock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Pumkin Pie

Accessories: sponges, brayer, markers, ribbon, brads

Techniques: Masking

Thanks so much for dropping by. Please leave a comment, it is so nice to know who has visited.

Claire

Victorian Bushfire Appeal

So many people have been affected by the tragic bushfires that hit Victoria (Australia) last week. Living in a country where the climate can be so harsh, bushfires are a constant danger, but no-one could have anticipated the horror of the weekend before last. With such a small national population, most of us know someone who has been directly affected by the disaster. Everyone wants to help, and the fundraising to date has been both awe inspiring and incredibly humbling. But there is still more work to be done.

As a company with heart, Stampin' Up! is doing it's part in the fundraising effort. We, the stamping, scrapping and papercrafting community can do something to help, by supporting SU's fundraising campaign. SU is helping the Australian Red Cross in their efforts to support those affected as they pick up the pieces and begin again.

Here's how you can contribute:

From now until 31 March 2009, Stampin' Up! will donate 50% of the retail value of all sales from a select group of 10 stamp sets to the Australian Red Cross Victorian Bushfires 2009 Appeal. I will also add my 20% commission to the donation.

This means that 70% of the purchase price (not just the profit) of the stamp sets listed below, will go directly to the Australian Red Cross Victorian Bushfires 2009 Appeal.

Here is a list of the bushfire appeal stamp sets.

Stamp Set, Item Number, Pg in Catalogue, Price

Priceless, 112312, 105, $48.95

Seeing Spots, 112380, 89, $39.95

Baroque Motifs, 112380, 98, $39.95

Live Your Dream, 114261, 3, $55.95

(summer mini catalogue)

Looks Like Spring* , 108864, 76, $58.95

The Snowflake Spot*, 108934, 27, $39.95

Bodacious Boquet*, 108756, 80, $58.95

Polka Dots and Paisley*, 110247, 46, $35.95

G'day Mate,* 111937, 115, $35.95

Be Happy*, 108744, 51, $39.95

*The sets in blue will appear on the upcoming list of retiring products, so they will only be available for a the Bushfire Appeal, while supplies last. These are expected to be very popular.

If you would like to support this worthy appeal, please email me at candpharrison@activ8.net.au

Unfortunately I am not able to sell stamp sets to the international visitors to my blog, if you have seen the footage on TV. If these people's plights have touched your hearts, please click on the link here, to donate directly, on line to the Australian Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

For those of you who would still like to do more, please visit Rainbows by Robin, for links to card appeals, and thank you cards for the CFA (community fire fighters).

Thank you for your support.

Claire

Always Valentines

Hello! A couple of new projects to share with you. Both use Kristina Werner's colour inspiration for this week, though the first was a fluke! (I had to substitute Real Red for Riding Hood Red as we don't have it here in Oz – yet!)

I recently caught up with an old friend. (We have known each other since pre-school. He's more like a brother than a friend, we seem to spend a lot of time just stirring each other up!) He has just returned from a stint living in Scotland with his Scottish partner (whom he met in Sydney). Anyway, whilst they were away, they decided to get married at beautiful Loch Ness (who wouldn't if the opportunity presented itself?!) Unfortunately Nessie has not made an appearance in any of the wedding photos L. To cut a long story short, the beautiful bride was admiring the wine glass charms I made for my Mum a few years ago. So I decided to make her some as a little, and belated, wedding gift. Here is the box,

and on the inside,

By fluke they used this week's Kristina Werner colour inspiration! Having made this little project, I decided that I loved the colour combo, and the way the hearts from the Always stamp set look when they are embossed in black. So I made a Valentine/Anniversary card for my hubby. (Yes our wedding anniversary is on Valentine's Day – how romantic!) Here it is.

Project Recipes:

Stamps: Always, Paisley Background, So Many Sayings (hostess)

Cardstock: Real Red, Basic Black, Basic Grey, Whisper White

Inks: Versa Mark, Basic Black, Real Red Marker

Accessories: Ribbon, Buttons, Word Window punch, Embossing Powders – white, black and clear, White Gel pen, non SU wine charm wires, beads and charms

Techniques: Embossing, Out of the box (on the card)

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment, I would love to hear what you think.
Claire