June Stamp with Me Club - Cheep Talk

June Class : Cheep Talk Stamp Class at Home

Birds and flowers are on trend at the moment and you can be too.  In this class make two cards and a scrap layout using the Cheep Talk stamp set from Stampin' Up!.  With bonus card designs, a scrap layout that takes you from a 6" x 6" page, to an A4 page and finally to a 12" x 12" page, you'll be delighted with your projects!

Say good bye to the winter doldrums and have fun using the Good Morning Sunshine Designer Series Papers exclusively from Stampin' Up!

Cost $25

Email me or contact me on 0417 165 345 to reserve your workshop/kit now.

Click here for more information!

A productive sort of day

Despite having a shocker of a headache and just under 3 weeks for Baby McPherson to be born, I actually achieved a few things today.  Namely heading down to the local Spotlight store and ordering/paying for our custom made curtains.  I have given up on the idea of making them myself.  Our new house is a house of windows (20 in total), so best left to the experts!!  I got lots of comments today on my T-Shirt I was wearing!!

My mum sent me this T-Shirt from Holland, so you just have to love this sense of humour.  Speaking of Dutch things, I discovered (through Facebook of all places!!), a really pretty and inspirational blog, that also happens to be Dutch.  Check it out for yourself ... Dutch Blue.

Matthew keeps rubbing my tummy and talking to the baby.  Not sure if he's talking to the one in my tummy or the one on the T-Shirt!!

Anyway, I've also been busy preparing kits for June Stamp Club @ Stamp with Me, so stay tuned for details!!

Friendship Book - Final Part !!

Yes, I promise, this is the final instalment of the Friendship book!!  The pages are all so fantastic that I just wanted to share them all with you.  Also a permanent reminder of the book we made while we wish Colette a speedy recovery and all the health in the world!

Page 6 - By Felicity

Felicity also uses assorted stamps, papers and embellishments, however ..... her page also had a beautiful handmade necklace and matching earrings (she's such a clever cookie)!!

See, I told you so!!  Aren't they just adorable!

To finish this wonderful book off, lovely Michelle made a gorgeous box decorated with ribbon and butterflies.  Just love it!

The Friendship book is now safely in Colette's hands.  She just loved them by the way!!

Friendship Book - Part 2

As promised, I am going to show off the other pages in the Friendship Book we made for Colette.  I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we did in making them!!

Page 3 - by my son Luke

Stamps: Circle Circus
Papers: Whisper White & Very Vanilla CS
Inks: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Brilliant Blue, Ruby Red & So Saffron
Other: Circle Punches & Red Riding Hood ribbon

Page 4 - by Petra

Petra's page uses assorted ribbons, papers and embellishments.

Page 5 - by Trudy

Trudy also uses assorted stamps, papers, ribbons and embellishments.  Gorgeous colour combinations aren't they!!

Okay, we're almost finished the book, but I'll save that one for tomorrow too!!

Friendship Book - Part 1

Okay, it's been waiting over a week now - but I can finally show pictures of a friendship book.  This friendship book was put together by our Monthly Craft Group for our good friend Colette currently undergoing chemo.  We wanted her to know we were thinking of her and missing her at our nights!!  We look forward to when she's through the chemo and able to join us again!!

We started off with a Pocket book which was sponged with distressed ink by Michelle.  Gosh that was an effort in itself!  We each had a page & pocket to decorate as we so desired.  Here's the first few pages:

The Front Cover:

Stamps: Friends 24-7
Inks: Close to Cocoa, Ruby Red, Kiwi Kiss & Soft Suede Classic Inks, and VersaMark
Papers: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip & Whisper White CS, Baja Breeze DSP
Other: Aqua Painter, White Taffeta ribbon & Eyelet Border Punch

Page 1 - by Me!

Stamps: Organic Grace & Cottage Garden
Papers: Very Vanilla, Rich Razzleberry & Whisper White CS, and Cottage Wall DSP
Inks: Pale Plum, Soft Suede, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry & Orchid Opulence
Other: Rich Razzleberry Polka-Dot Grosgrain Ribbon, Eyelet border punch, Signo White Gel ink pen, white brad, Crystal Dimensions and Dazzling Diamonds Glitter

Page 2 - By Michelle

Michelle's page uses assorted stamps, papers and embellishments.  I wish the other photo I had taken worked better to see the beautiful colours she has used!!  I'll have to ask Colette if I can take another photo!

I will show the rest of the pages tomorrow, otherwise this will be the longest post ever!!

Special Joining Offer from Stampin' Up!

Starter Kit Special Offer

 
From 21 May-31 July, get a 20 percent discount on the Starter Kit when you join Stampin' Up! as a demonstrator!

Description	Regular Price	Discount Price
Starter Kit	$324.00	$259.00

If you're looking for more information, please contact me or click here!

Calendar Catch Ups!!

Where has the month gone?  In fact, where has the year gone??  I had to go to the hospital for my pre-admission appointment and realising I was 36 weeks gone and only a few weeks to go before baby number 3 arrives was a bit of a shock!!  I shouldn't be too surprised though, I look at both my boys and they are growing so big and so fast!!

And then it got me thinking, I haven't even shown you the latest calendar pages for May or April.  How slack am I!!  And if I don't show you now, both months will be finished and I'll be rushing to show you June!!  So without further ado ....

April's month has the feeling of Spring (even though not quite Spring in Australia!!) which evokes thoughts of Easter.  This calendar page was well and truly uses up scraps I had lying around too!!  Happy with that!

Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly
Inks: Orchid Opulence, Pretty in Pink, Soft Sky (retired), Almost Amethyst and Pale Plum
Other: Kindy Glitz and Rhinestones, Butterfly punch & sponge daubers

May's page uses scraps from the Razzleberry Cottage class kits I had prepared!!  Seeing as Razzleberry Cottage Stamp Camp was on the first of May, only makes sense to do this page!!

Here's what I used:

Stamps: Cottage Garden 
Inks: Rich Razzleberry & Cottage Garden
Papers: Cottage Wall DSP, Whisper White, Old Olive, Orchid Opulence, Pale Plum & Rich Razzleberry CS
Other: Scallop Edge Punch, XL Two-Step Bird Punch, Dazzling Diamonds and Stampin' Dimensionals

You never know, I might show the next month pages on time for a change!!!

Mr. Giraffe

Although May is a relatively quiet month in our household, it certainly ramps up in terms of birthdays all around though!!  I sent a whole batch of birthday cards off last week and now I'm trying to catch up on cards for this week!!  I am so behind on everything!  Having a week off work sick with a cold certainly threw a spanner in the works but now I've got this week to catch up!!

So today's card is a birthday card I made for my nephew Aaron who turned 3 this week.  Today is his party at McDonald's and his mum tells me he's very excited about his "first" proper party where he understands what's going on!!  I wish I could be there (it's in Melbourne) and see his fantastic birthday cake, but I hope to see photos soon instead!!

This card was great in using up lots of scraps I had laying around as well as pulling out a few of my punches.  I love punches!!  You know the cutting kind!!

This card was inspired by one I saw on this blog post (click here) but had to adapt the design as I didn't have the punch that was used for the face.  So I drew the giraffe on a piece of scrap paper, traced around it and then cut it out.  It may not be perfectly symmetrical but he certainly looks like a giraffe to me.  I will call him Jerry in honour of the giraffe I had as a tot!  My mum tells me I used to drag around Jerry my giraffe everywhere which would have been quite a challenge as he was bigger than a 2 year old!!

Here's what I used:

Stamps: Occasional Greetings & Circle Circus
Papers: Pacific Point, Old Olive, So Saffron, Whisper White & Chocolate Chip, scrap of DSP
Inks: Chocolate Chip & Close to Cocoa for sponging & VersaMark
Other: Circle punches (assorted sizes), Horizontal slot punch, XL Two-Step bird punch and Stampin' Dimensionals.

Razzleberry Cottage Cards

I can't believe it's almost two weeks ago, but Avid Inkers - the Stampin' Up! Team I am part of organised a Razzleberry Cottage Stamp Camp on 1 May highlighting new products from the Autumn/Winter mini catalogue.  And wouldn't you know it, they were some of my favourite products from the catalogue as well!!

These are our featured projects from Razzleberry Cottage Stamp Camp:

And it's not too late to join in on the fun of Razzleberry Cottage.  Contact me now for more info or click here!

And I made a few of these cards, not exact to the instructions as I was using up my scraps and offcuts from all the kits I put together.  I love the fact that you can make things a little original anyway!!

Card 1:

Card 2:

I hope you enjoy!

Mother's Day card

I bet you've been wondering what I made my mum for Mother's Day.  Now that the day has been and gone, I can show it now (just in case you were checking my blog mum!!).  I had to make mine quite a while ago, as it had to go airmail to Holland!  I can't even remember the last Mother's Day I celebrated in person with my mum, it's been a while!!  So here's my card for my mum:

 It was a card inspired by one I saw on the Stamping Madly site.  One of a number of blogs I love to visit!

I made my own background on a piece of Whisper White CS by stamping the large baroque motif over it with Versamark ink and then clear embossing it.  I then sponged Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Soft Sky and So Saffron ink over it.  The photo doesn't show it so well, but it looks fantastic.  I have also stamped the strip of So Saffron CS with the same stamp in Versamark to get a very subtle background pattern and then sponged the edges with Pretty in Pink.  The rest of the card speaks for itself (I hope!!).

As it turns out, my card features many of the colours in the Just Add Ink challenge this week (JAI16) although I did have a few more colours (just had to of course)!!

The Just Add Ink challenge this week used colours: So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Ruby Red & Soft Suede.

They're very cute aren't they!!

All products are from Stampin' Up! (but of course!!).  Here's what I used:

Stamps: Occasional Greetings & A Rose is a Rose
Inks: Soft Suede, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Ruby Red, Pretty in Pink, Soft Sky (retired), So Saffron SU Classic Inks and Versamark
Papers: Pretty in Pink, So Saffron & Whisper White CS
Other: Sponges, Sponge Daubers, Pink Taffeta ribbon, Eyelet border punch, Stampin' Dimensionals, Heat Gun & Clear Embossing Powder.

May is Scrapbooking Month!

Celebrate May! The month of Scrapbooking!

Contact me to see how you can use your Stampin' Up! products to make fabulous scrapbook pages!

Did you know Stampin' Up! have the perfect range of colours, papers, embellishments and more for your scrapbooking needs?  See for yourself:

• Easy Colour Coordination!  SU provides many products in our exclusive colours, so you can easily coordinate card stock, ink, ribbon, patterned paper, buttons, brads, glitter, hardware and more. 
• Scrapbooking safe products!  We know scrapbookers want their pages to last, so we created the Stampin' Memories line of products with them in mind. Our card stock is acid and lignin free, so it won't damage pictures. And our albums and page protectors are also perfectly safe for storing your priceless photographs. Not only that, but we provide Craft ink: a thicker, longer-lasting pigment that works wonderfully in scrapbooks.
• Beautiful Papers!  Stampin' Up! 12" x 12" Designer Series papers feature exclusive patterns printed on both sides. They coordinate beautifully with our card stock, ink, and accessories; plus, they can be trimmed to be used in any size scrapbook. They are also acid and lignin free.
• Simply Scrappin' Kits make scrapbooking a cinch! They come complete with coordinating self-adhesive die cuts, patterned paper, and card stock. Your scrapbookers will love how easily their pages come together with these kits.

Products Scrapbookers Will Love:

• Necessities
• Card stock
• Designer Series paper
• Simply Scrappin' Kits
• Paper Cutter
• Linen Post and Ring Albums
• Page Protectors
• Adhesives
• Paper Snips
• Color Coach
• Stamp sets
• Alphabet sets (for page titles and journaling)
• Mini alphabet sets (for journaling and page accents)
• Background sets (for creating quick and easy backgrounds)
• Word and greeting sets (for journaling and page accents)
• Sets in the 'Elements' section of the catalogue (for quick and easy page accents and borders)
• Wheels (for creating backgrounds, borders, or patterned paper in a snap) 
• Sets that coordinate perfectly with our punches (for creating page accents)
• Sets in the 'Holidays' and 'Occasions' sections of the catalogue (for pages about special occasions and holidays)
• Perfect Page Accents
• Punches
• Rub-Ons
• Ribbon
• Buttons
• Clips
• Hodgepodge Hardware
• Pretties Kit
• Brads
• On Board Chipboard
• Crafters' Tool Kit
• Crop-A-Dile
• Storage Solutions
• Stampin' Stack & Store Caddy
• Stampin' Store Containers
• Forget-Me-Not Keeper (for storing and organizing photographs)

Learning to Crochet

Just popping in to say hi after a few days of absence :0).

My boys (the big ones and the little ones) took me to Sydney for a Mother's Day weekend.  We had a fantastic time showing the boys everything from the trains and ferries (very important for a 2 year old boy), to the Sydney Aquarium, Dinosaur Museum and the awesome Harbour Bridge (for the almost-7 year old).

A highlight for me, was my WH giving me Saturday morning to myself to join a Learn to Crochet class through the Craft Room, run by Notebook Magazine.  After wanting to learn crochet for a number of years, I grabbed at this special opportunity and now I can say, I can crochet!!

That's me in the yellow top studiously taking notes on how to try some new stitches.  You can see my little granny square sitting on top of the brown ball of wall.  I'm so impressed I did it.  Corrie our wonderful teacher is in the middle showing us the next step!

These are the colours I got to play with in my crochet kit.  They were so soft and went together absolutely beautifully.

This is certainly not my granny square, it was a demo piece shown by Corrie.  But it's the colour combo I plan on using if we have a little girl!  We find out this Friday!

For more info, visit the Craft Room at the Notebook Magazine (click on this link).  I so hope they come to Canberra to do some classes here!

All boys!!

It's all about the boys at my place!!  My house is significantly overtaken by boys.  From the dog, to my two beautiful boys to my wonderful husband, I'm so outnumbered.

So you can imagine how proud I was when about 30 minutes ago, Matthew my two year old came up to me, wiggled his cute little behind and sang:  stinky stinky bott bott, stinky stinky bott bott and so on.  I'm not sure who taught him the lyrics or the dance, but needless to say - there is a definite male influence in my house!!

The only chance I have of evening up some of the score, is if this baby due next month is a girl.  Don't know yet and not really tempted to find out!!  No wonder I need a craft room, need to have girly stuff happening!!

Anyway, following on from the baby card of the other day.... I had to make a birthday card for a one year old boy and in a hurry too.  With all the chaos (and I loved every second of it) of Razzleberry Cottage Stamp Camp on Saturday, I had to make a birthday card at 10pm and it had to be quick (I was so tired!!).  So I came up with this:

I am so loving the new sets in the Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue - especially this Fox & Friends stamp set.  It's perfect for kids, especially boys /:0)

Here's what I used:
Stamps: Fox & Friends
Papers: Pacific Point, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip & Old Olive CS, Tall Tales DSP (retired)
Inks: Soft Suede
Other: Square & Two-Step Large Bird punch, Big Shot & Timeless Type Alphabet Junior sizzlits dies.

Thanks for stopping by and I'll be back soon with pic's of Stamp Camp!!