Artfully Asian

Just wanted to show you a thank-you card I received in the mail this week. Using all Stampin' Products, it really tickled my fancy. I love that the stones have been created with sponging of various grey inks and then cut to size. A bit more sponging around the edges, and they look life-like!



The black frame of the border has been embossed with leaves using black embossing powder. The mauves and pinks of the flower are just divine!! I love it and will be planning on making some just like these!

A quick post today though, happily I can say I've spent the day studying and have finished my assignment. Just a last minute proof-read tomorrow with fresh eyes and then it's done. Onto the next one though .... (sigh).

A Sunny Layout!

Do you remember the card I made other day with the bright yellow card base (click here to see) and the little flower stamped in Rose Red?? Well, I loved it so much I used it as the inspiration for my double scrap-layout!! I am so pleased myself. This one just came together without too much stress (a big thing for me) and was just perfect for some of my Floriade photos!!

I put a little extra effort into the embellishments, to try and convey the bright colours of Floriade and the really happy afternoon we had!! Do you know what I mean???

Sunny Layout Page 1

Stamps: Garden Whimsy and Garden Friend
Papers: Yoyo Yellow, Green Galore and Whisper White CS
Inks: Rose Red, Yoyo Yellow and Green Galore
Other: Rhinestones (for bling!), scallop edge punch, white taffeta ribbon and Stampin' Dimensionals

This page features the grass which I made with two pieces of Green Galore CS and snipped many times with my paper snips. I have stamped all over the Yoyo Yellow CS with Yoyo Yellow ink and made flowers with rhinestones!! I love my bling!

Sunny Layout Page 2

Stamps: Garden Whimsy and Garden Friend
Papers: Yoyo Yellow, Green Galore and Whisper White CS
Inks: Rose Red, Yoyo Yellow and Green Galore
Other: Rhinestones (for bling!), scrap of blue ribbon, Certainly Celery poly-twill ribbon and Stampin' Dimensionals

This page is rather special! I have used the "free" ribbon I got from SU for placing an order over $100 this month for grass and ruffled it by sewing a gathering stitch for the width of the page. Stick it down onto sticky strip, so it stays there. I have made lots more flowers and coloured some in with rhinestones as well as using the white gel ink pen. My journalling is also with the white gel ink pen, except for the journal tag hidden behind the picture. You may have also noticed, that I have pierced a hole in each scallop along the photo mat.

Anyway, I'm really proud of this one and hope to develop my scrapping skills from there!

More Projects!

It is the first day of the school holidays here in Canberra and I had to drag my big boy Luke to work with me. Holidays for me officially start tomorrow, although I'm not sure if you could call writing uni assignments, holidays!! I have two to write by the end of October and then this unit is done!!

Today I would like to share with you two projects I made over the weekend at a Make & Take here in Canberra. It's nice to be the one sitting in the audience and admiring new craft projects coming our way!! This card uses lots of pink and glitter. What a great combination! Now I just need to find a little girl to give it to!


This little bookmark uses the new product on the craft market called Smooch. It is just like nail polish but specially designed for us crafters. I love it and have ordered myself a few colours :) ... just couldn't help myself of course!


Anyway, I've just heard my WH's car arrive in the driveway, which means my boys are home :0). Happy Days. See you later!!

Staying at Home

This weather has been crazy!! We've had dust storms, rain storms, and wind storms since Tuesday and pretty much nothing else!

After going out on Friday night for a Make & Take at a friends house, we then came to my place for some 'late night' scrapbooking! The rains came and came and came! When I woke up the next morning on Saturday, my car was that muddy red colour again from ANOTHER dust storm. This dust is awful. Roads, footpaths, cars and even washing lines have the red dust colour!! Anyway, it made a perfect excuse to stay warm indoors!

In fact we did! On Saturday we had our first Craft at Melba Hall day. The building might be old, but the heaters worked a treat. And with cups of tea and coffee in hand, crafting was on!

As for today, the weather was just cold, bitter and wintery. I am not even sure what happened to Spring! More excuses to stay indoors. Although we did do a quick dash in the morning to pick up a few supplies. I had to get some papers for the projects we've been working on.

Anyway, just wanted to show one of the weekend's projects. This little Bag-a-Lope is filled with chocolates and features the 'Neighbourhood' jumbo wheel. Perfect for making little gifts for our 'old' neighbours who we miss!


Stamps: Neighbourhood
Inks: Basic Black, Close to Cocoa, Riding Hood Red & Pink Pirouette
Papers: Whisper White, Riding Hood Red DSP & Envelope
Other: Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

Please contact me if you would like instructions for the Bag-a-Lope!

Hope you like it, thanks for looking and see you tomorrow with more projects!

A bright inspiration

Don't you just love bright flowers? I sure do! Bright flowers are happy. Happy flowers make me happy! So when I saw a cute little card on Dawn's Stamping Studio while surfing the blogs, I just had to make my own. Of course, here in Australia we don't have the same stamp sets or In Colours, due to our different catalogues (don't worry, that will be fixed next year!), I had to go hunting for something similar!

The pinks and yellows of these beautiful flowers was my inspiration for colour. The yellow tulip was the only yellow one in a field of pink. Don't you just love how nature makes it own choices, despite us attempting to interfere!

So having seen the bright colours of Floriade, I put the two together and came up with this!

It's so simple, but so bright, I love it and am now going to try a few other combinations! In the meantime, here's what I used!

Stamps: Good Friend & Live your Dream (retired)
Inks: Yoyo yellow, Green Galore and Rose Red
Papers: Yoyo Yellow, Whisper White & Green Galore
Other: White taffeta ribbon

You just can't get better than that!

Floriade 2009 in Canberra

Yes, I'm still here. As usual, I have left our tax returns to the very last week and am now frantically chasing up receipts, statements and other paperwork. Of course, having moved house a little while ago, doesn't help the process!! You know what they say about builders, not finishing their own house, or mechanics having lemons (bombs) for cars that break down, well the same can be said for accountants. I leave it all to the last minute.

So rather than share projects with you for the moment, I am going to share some highlights of Floriade 2009 here in Canberra. My most favourite time of the year, especially when you have a Dutch heritage like me!!

A touch of red colour with tulips!

What is it (Floriade!)?

Floriade is the biggest flower festival in Australia, a spectacular celebration of spring, set in Canberra's Commonwealth Park. Anyway, you can find out all the info you want from their website - Floriade Australia.

The family of swans that live at the lake in the heart of the gardens for Floriade!

My son Luke and my niece Bella walking down the path lit up with Chinese paper lanterns (pity it wasn't dark!).

Poppies at Floriade!

Happy Birthday - Big 40

My husband (WH) is still waiting for his card and personal present from me. Of course he got his presents from the kids and me on Friday, his party on Saturday and catching up with my family on Sunday. But I haven't had a quiet moment to give him a card I made and a book, which I just know he will like! I won't tell you what it is, in case he's reading before he gets home from work tonight!

Anyway, this is the card I made for my WH:

I had to do some hunting, but I found this stamp of a classic Holden car! My husband is Holden mad, so I know he'll be impressed that I managed to find it!

This card does use SU things too, how could it not!

Other than the car, the feature of this card is the acetate window I made to adhere the chipboard numbers too, of course, the number 40. I coloured them in with a Ruby Red Stampin' Write Marker to match the Ruby Red cardstock I used for the car. The car and the border used Basic Grey and the birthday greeting uses Taken with Tea.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Maybe inspire you to a card with 'numbers' on it!!

Catching up with Fresh Cuts

It's been a few days now since I last updated my Blog. As good as my intentions are, the other parts of life do get in your way! This time all good stuff. Things like my Wonderful Husband (WH) 40th birthday, the party and visitors from our family from Melbourne. As much as I want to sit down and play, then share it all with you, sometimes I have to prioritise!

I'm at home today, as my littlest (Matthew) is home sick today with a nasty cold on top of his ear infection. So while he's napping I am playing catch up!!

So I'll go back to Sunday 13 September when we held our Fresh Cuts Notes & Totes workshop.

This little tote is fantastic. It is cute, a great size and sturdy too. I love it!

We then made 4 Fresh Cut Notes (cards) using a few techniques, including embossing, faux suede, dyeing ribbons to match your cardstock as well as experimenting with punches, brads and felt flowers from the Flower Fusion set.

I can't make my mind up on my favourite colour combination. Might have to make some more to experiment!

Looking Back

Do you ever look back and see how far you've come in the world of stamping, paper-crafting, scrapbooking or crafting? I do. Some of my earlier work is so basic, naive and simple, but at the very end of the day, well-meaning!

I just wanted to show you two of my 'better' first cards as a way of looking back on my journey with stamps, and eventually joining Stampin' Up! myself.


I don't think I'll ever have the courage to show you my first scrap pages. I rarely even show them to friends. I look back and think, what was I doing, but I'll never replace them. They show how far I've come in the world of scrapbooking. And believe me, I still find it challenging!!



While I'm here, I might mention that today is my Wonderful Husband's 40th birthday. Other than organising for a little birthday party for the kids today and the big party tomorrow, it's been one of the few things this week keeping me busy and away from the computer!! All good, just busy! Anyway, I'll be back later this weekend with a couple of pictures to show you that while I am proud that I made these cards a few years ago, I'm even happier with the quality of cards I am making now.

Crafting is a journey. Where are you now???

200 posts!

Golly golly gosh. I've officially made 200 posts on this blog. I never realised I had that much to say!!

It was a lovely spring weekend. Cleaning on Saturday (much easier in a new house, even if it is bigger), shopping, baking and crafting. The boys played outside and enjoyed the sunny spring weather too!

Sunday, the weather was sunny but windy. But that's okay! I was inside doing the Fresh Cuts Tote & Notes workshops. I will show you our lovely results later this week, when I have a chance to take a pic in the daylight!!

So instead, I'm going to show a couple of my projects over the last week. This scrap layout is one I enjoyed with Trudy on our Monthly Craft Night. I think it's called the Interactive Seahorse Scrap Layout. And it is rather interactive, the sea horse moves. He's been carefully positioned on acetate and a brad to help him move up and down!!


This second page, allows for more photos and journalling. Unfortunately I didn't have any photos with a beach theme. I better go to the shop and get some printed!! I have really cute ones of Luke at Fiji. No beach here in Canberra.

If you're wondering what I used, well .....

Stamps - Seahorse, shells, waves, all from Kaszazz
Inks: Marigold Morning (retired) & Brocade Blue, and reinkers, all from Stampin' Up
Papers: SU Whisper White CS, Bazill CS (blue, yellow and tan)
Other: Dazzling Diamonds, mini-misters, adhesive, chalks

The seahorse was stamped on Whisper White CS with gold, and then coloured in with chalks. The background of the paper was misted/sprayed with a combination of water and a few drops of Marigold Morning or Brocade Blue re-inkers. We also misted with a combination of water and Dazzling Diamonds.

Maybe it's the spring air, but I've been doing more unpacking of boxes and I found this absolutely gorgeously cute birthday card for Matthew.


Don't you love it? It was made by his Nana Cheryl. His little sign moves too. I should start thinking of a card for his second birthday!!

Anyway, I'm off to Sydney for a couple of days (work-related). See you when I get back!!

Bella Friendship Mini Album

I had a special treat last night. I joined a workshop being run by a friend of mine and made the Bella Friendship Mini Album. It was so nice to attend a workshop where all the prepping is done fore you, and you get to stamp and play!! It was a special treat, as it gave me a break from study and tax time, and a reward for my own prepping for the Fresh Cuts class on Sunday!!

Here's what I made:

The front cover has an acetate cover cut to size and sponged on the edges.
The first page has the black border and the bird on a branch. Here's more detail:

The next page uses a combination of the scallop chipboard and cardstock:

As you can see, the blue page opens up with lots of room for photos & journalling!


Lots of stamping and sponging. I SO love these silhouette stamped images!! Especially the vespa girl, she means a lot to me!

The back cover:

As you can see, some hinged rings and ribbons to decorate, has made this a lovely little album. I know the perfect person to give it to (once I've put pictures in of course!).

I hope you have a great Friday and I hope to share more projects with you soon!

More boy stuff

It's funny isn't it? After shying away from male themed cards for quite awhile, Father's Day pushed it to the front again! While I had my stamp sets on the craft table for making Father's Day cards, I decided to do two more male-themed cards while I was there!

I used the same colours, stamps and techniques .... but wait for it .... I used a couple of new things too! Can you pick them??? How about the Big Shot SU Top Note Die ... or ... the 'thump and bump' technique ....

Stamps: Totally Tools
Inks: Chocolate Chip & Close to Cocoa
Papers: SU Chocolate Chip, Kraft and Bazzill blues
Other: silver brads, hemp twine and SU Big Shot top note die


Stamps: Unchartered Territory & Birthday Wish
Inks: Timber Brown StazOn, SU Baja Breeze & SU Chocolate Chip
Papers: SU Whisper White, Kraft and Bazzill blues, watercolour paper
Other: watercolour pencils

Are you intrigued yet? About 'thump and bump' I mean!! It's just "thumping" your stamp pad direct onto your paper. Each time you lift up from "thumping", you change direction or angle. This technique makes fantastic background prints and perfect for male cards!!

Anyway, I must dash - time for work. Have a lovely day!

Happy Father's Day!

To all the dads out there, Happy Father's Day! To the special father's in my life, I send extra special wishes (to my very own dad and my WH, dad to my 2 boys!)

My September 2009 page from my flip calendar is dedicated to the men (dad & WH) in my life. The page was designed with them in mind. Simple, clean, neat & not over the top (fussy!!).

The textured cardstock was given subtle colour with a wash of water and a few drops of reinker. I used my Cool Caribbean reinker, a now retired 2007 In-Colour of Stampin' Up! I have stamped in Timber Brown StazOn and coloured with waterpencils. Very similar to one of my Father's Day cards. Yes, one inspired the other!

Stamps: Unchartered Territory

Have a good day everyone!

Casing for Father's Day

If you're like me and find gifts and cards for men challenging, pick up a catalogue, brochure, magazine, flyer, whatever and see if you can be inspired!

Today, while Matthew was sleeping, I grabbed the opportunity to take my big boy Luke to the shops for a bit of Father's Day shopping. I hate buying gifts for men. They are so impossible to buy for it, and they may not admit it, but they are fussy!!

After a quick stop at McDonald's (Luke was very hungry after his busy game of soccer (the last game of the season) and a coffee for me (!!). We were off on our mission. First stop to Dymocks, great place to look for books and if that fails, DVD's from their ABC range. Check.

Second stop. Hardware shop. Check. Not in stock. Pity, as it is a lovely family business which is being massively undercut by the bigger Bunnings up the road.

Third stop. Okay, I gave in and went to Bunnings! Busy. Busy. Busy. Luke and I were exhausted, so he got to ride on trolley (yes, I wished it was me). But present shopping finished. Hooray! If it was shopping for me, well - that's easy!!

Anyway, back to what my title's all about :0). I needed to make some Father's Day cards. I scrapped the one I had for my dad, made a new one as well as one for my Father-in-Law. My boys have made their own cards for my WH!!

So, looking for ideas, I turned straight to the Stampin' Up! catalogues. This is what I came up with!! This first card uses the Unchartered Territory set featured in the 2009 Spring Mini catalogue. It is perfect for making projects for men! I think it's going to come in very handy!!


Stamps: Unchartered Territory & Dad' Day (retired)
Papers: SU Chocolate Chip CS, Brocade Blue CS, Kraft CS & Whisper White CS and Watercolour paper.
Inks: StazOn - Timber Brown (for image), Baja Breeze & Chocolate Chip (for sentiment)
Other: watercolour pencils, Stampin' Dimensionals

This second card was inspired by the card in the main catalogue (aka SU Idea Book & Catalogue) on page 112. The stamp set featured is the Occasional Greetings set which is SO versatile too! Here's what I used!


Stamps: Occasional Greetings
Papers: SU Basic Black CS, Kraft CS, Not Quite Navy CS & Whisper White CS and Urban Oasis DSP.
Inks: Chocolate Chip
Other: Large star punch, navy grosgrain ribbon, crimper & Stampin' Dimensionals

You might not quite see the ribbon on this one, but all the colours I have used really yell out 'male' colours to me. I even distressed the edge of the blue DSP paper used as the background for the Fathers Day image!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy and unlike me, didn't leave your fathers day cards until the night before :)

As promised, tomorrow I will also show some of the other projects I've been working on. It's late, so have a good night and see you soon!

Knitting the day away

It's Friday afternoon, and I still haven't sat down with my boys and made a Father's Day card!! Luckily I had a stand-by card (from last year) to send to my own dad!

I've been busy creating baby gifts for my nieces and babies of friends (born/unborn). Lots of stitching, cutting, stuffing and yes knitting. Pictured in this post is the little Strawberry & Cream hat I'm making for a little dolly I've nicknamed Strawberry Blossom! She's almost finished, she is patiently waiting for her had and her strawberries!!


Hopefully I'll will have have her finished at tonight's monthly craft night. I've been working on her the last few nights when we've had no internet service and very little decent TV viewing!!

I'll post more about her, including the pattern details soon!

Happy Friday!

Exclusive Gift for You!

Stampin' Up! want to show appreciation to all their customers and hostesses! How lovely is that?

So during the whole month of September 2009, Stampin' Up! is offering an exclusive ribbon bundle FREE with a qualifying purchase or workshop!


All you need to do is spend $100 on Stampin' Up! products or host a workshop with $600 sales.

And you will be rewarded with the absolutely gorgeous Certainly Celery 5/8" poly-twill ribbon and So Saffron 5/8" grosgrain ribbon.

Make beautiful cards, scrap pages, beyond the page items and more, with these ribbons. You'll love finding new things to make with them!

Contact me today to get your exclusive ribbon bundle from Stampin' Up!