Spring is Coming!

Hi everyone

Our friends are now safely back at home in WA after a hectic 2 weeks of holiday in Melbourne. Last week we went to the musical 'Chicago' which was excellent, did lots of shopping and had afternoon tea at The Windsor Hotel (what a treat!). I have been busy washing and cleaning for the last 2 days getting everything in order before heading back to work on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to spending tomorrow relaxing with some stamping and creative activities as my reward  .

The first green shoots are now appearing on my Birch trees, so to celebrate the imminent arrival of spring, I have this card to share with you using the Flight of the Butterfly stamp set and my favourite colour - pink! The butterflies are popped up on dimensionals and the flowers have tiny flat back pearls in their centres for some bling. The details are below.

  

Card Details
Stamps	Flight of the Butterfly
Cardstock & Papers	Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Going Gray, Whisper White, Raspberry Tart DSP
Ink	Basic Gray, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink
Accessories	Kaiser tiny flat back pearls
Tools	Eyelet border punch,  Dimensionals

This week is Stamp Club night, which I'm really looking forward to, having missed last month due to work commitments.  I hope you enjoy your week.

Judy.

A Flower for All Seasons

Hi there

Well it has been a busy few days being host to our friends from WA. On Sunday we helped our Godson Joss celebrate his 18th birthday with a lovely breakfast at home, the afternoon at the football and then a wonderful dinner at the Waterfront restaurant at Crown. It was a big day and we were all pretty knackered on Monday.  I've been showing Fiona the delights of the Maling Road cafes and shops (really hard work!) so a good time has been had by all.

What I have to share with you today is a set of gift cards that I made while at Mt Buller using  A Flower for All Seasons stamp set. This set is a real delight to use and a fabulous size for gift cards. I stamped the images with Ancient Page Coal Black (this is similiar to Stazon) onto watercolour paper and then used the Stampin' Up! Watercolour Crayons to colour them. I am going to make a batch of the Poinsettia cards to go with my Christmas gifts this year. They are a bit more special than To/From tags but still quick to make (and watercolouring is very therapuetic!). A pack of these would also be lovely as a pre-Christmas gift for a friend.  The cards are 10cm x 7.5cm, so you can get 6 from a 30cm x 30cm sheet of cardstock, making them very economical and excellent for using up your cardstock scraps. The details are below.

  

Card Details
Stamps	A Flower for All Seasons, Best Yet (Level 1 Hostess), Pocket Silhouettes (Sentiment), Basic Phrases, Soft Summer (Sentiment)
Cardstock & Papers	Bazzill White, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Bella Rose DSP, Old Olive, Real Red, So Saffron, Walk in the Park DSP, Cameo Coral, Watercolour paper
Ink	Ancient Page Coal Black, Basic Grey, Not Quite Navy, More Mustard
Accessories	More Mustard grosgrain ribbon
Tools	Scallop Edge Punch, Eyelet Border Punch,Ticket Corner Punch (NAH), Dimensionals, Scallop Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, Word Window Punch, Circle Punch, Paper Piercer and Matt Pack, Watercolour Crayons

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Judy.

 

Bella Rose & Mojo Turns 100

Hi Everyone

My month from hell (work-wise) has finished and I have spent the last week at Mt Buller with our friends who are visiting from WA.  The boys had a fabulous time skiing and us girls had a relaxing time with a lovely facial and massage at the day spa and some crafting time. The first day we woke up to snow falling, which was really lovely. This is a photo outside the door of our apartment.

I took a limited set of craft limited supplies with me (very challenging!) but I really enjoyed sitting down and relaxing  - I don't ski as my joints are well past it.  I was able to take a quick peak at the Mojo Monday Turns 100  Day-2 sketch courtesy of the laptop that our workaholic friend brought with him, to produce this card.  I have used the lovely Bella Rose Designer Series Paper with the sentiment from Great Friend. This was really quick to put together apart from the bow which just about did my head in trying to get it tied in right direction!  Here it is, the details are below.

 

Card Details
Stamps	Great Friend, Flight of the Butterfly, A Rose Is a Rose
Cardstock & Papers	Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Bella Rose DSP
Ink	Versamark, Basic Gray, Old Olive, Regal Rose
Accessories	White Taffeta ribbon
Tools	Scallop Edge Punch, Corner Rounder Punch, Dimensionals

This week we have lots more activities planned with our friends including the musical Chicago and afternoon tea at the Windsor.  Hopefully a bit more time for some cardmaking as well before I have to head back to work.

Judy.

Raspberry Butterfly

Hi there

I have been getting an early start on the spring cleaning as we have friends arriving next weekend from the wheat belt area of WA to stay for 2 weeks. It is wonderful to look through sparkling windows, into my spotless oven and my amazingly tidy pantry, but it is all very time consuming and tiring. I finally found a few minutes in between everything to make this card to share with you.  It uses the Great Friend stamp set out of the new Spring Mini Catalogue. It really is great value for $31.95 with a frame, two sentiments and two images.  The butterfly is really lovely and will be useful with many other sets.

The card is based on the Mojo Monday Week #96 sketch from a few weeks ago. I have used the Raspberry Tart Designer Series papers with the centre panel using the Great Friend images. To add some extra dimension to the butterfly I have strung some beads onto narrow gauge jewellry wire for the body with the wire curled into 'feelers'. I attached the body to the butterfly with Pritt glue. Here it is, I hope you like it.

 

Card Details
Stamps	Great Friend
Cardstock & Papers	Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, Regal Rose, Whisper White, Raspberry Tart DSP
Ink	Basic Gray, Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories	Regal Rose grosgrain ribbon, Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon, Oval and round beads, Jewellery wire.
Tools	Circle & Scallop circle Nestabilities, Cuttlebug, Dimensionals

It is going to be another busy week and I will be in Canberra for a conference for 2 days. I hope life slows down soon  .

Judy.

More Soft Summer

Hi there

I have had a really busy week with work and no time to do anything creative, unfortunately. I hope to remedy that this weekend in between the usual chores, rose pruning and window washing (visitors arriving in a couple of weeks!).  As it is the first day of the new SPRING MINI CATALOGUE I have another card for you using a different technique with the lovely Soft Summer stamp set.

The outline image has been gold embossed onto Stampin' Up! heavyweight vellum. On the reverse side of the vellum the image has been coloured with Stampin' Write markers and a blender pen. The image has been layered onto Whisper White cardstock which really highlights the image. This is a great technique for outline images and gives a soft elegant look.  I have also stamped the outline image onto the base card in Versamark to carry the theme through.  The sentiment has been stamped in Elegant Eggplant and the flower coloured with Stampin' Write markers to link into the main image. Here is the card and the details are below.

 

Card Details
Stamps	Soft Summer (New) , Oval All (New)
Cardstock & Papers	Mellow Moss, Almost Amethyst, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White, Vellum
Ink	Versamark, Elegant Eggplant
Accessories	White Taffeta ribbon, Gold brads
Tools	Large Oval punch, Scallop Oval punch (New), Corner Rounder punch, Stampin’ Write markers, Blender pen, Eyelet edge punch, Gold embossing powder

Yesterday I received a pack of the Ski Slope Designer Series paper (from the Spring Mini) which will be great for Christmas cards. It combines the traditional red and olive with chocolate and the lovely Baja Breeze to give it a contempary lift.  All I can say is that the picture in catalogue doesn't do it justice, it is really yum!

You can look at the Spring Mini Catalogue by clicking on the image in the side bar on the right (note the file size) which will download the file and you can save it onto your computer to refer to again. Alternatively, I can pop one in the mail for you.

Have a great weekend.

Judy.