Christmas cheer

A twist on the Peek-a-boo Frames Bigz L Die making a tea light candle surround.  This is open at the top and bottom, but I'd recommend using one of those little battery operated tea lights rather than a naked flame this close to cardstock. I've used 'Be of good cheer' Designer Series Paper from Stampin' Up's new catalogue, Cherry Cobbler cardstock and some silver glimmer card.  I also used vellum card stock for the "windows".  The Petite Pennant punch made the tree and the star is from the mini punch pack in the Holiday Catalogue.  Very sweet, easy to make.

Couldn't bring myself to discard the frames leftover from creating the peek-a-boo tea light surround.  So using a card sketch from PageMaps, I made this card using more of the "Be of good cheer" DSP.  Love how it turned out.

Apologies for the long delay between posts and hope you enjoy these two simple projects.

Cased card and News

So at our last StampInkPaper team meeting, I was making a bunch of birthday cards.  Kay, one of my sister team members showed me a card by Ruth Clarke and mentioned a friend would love this for her birthday.  I had loads of bits of the Spice Cake paper chopped up so I went to work.  Tea-bag fold on 8 circles which are then placed together to form a flower.  Brad in the middle and voilà!

Supplies are Spice Cake DSP, Antique brad, Bring On the Cake stamp set, Early Espresso card body, Pool Party layer, Very Vanilla layer.  Coloured "Birthday" with Pool Party marker and stamped sentiment in Early Espresso ink.

News is that I've accepted a position with the ACT Public Service in Canberra until the end of June.  I'll be travelling down on Sundays and returning home on Fridays.  Will be busy, but worth it for both mental and financial health.  Also hoping it will lead to other opportunities at higher levels in the future and allow the family to move in July.  But nothing is ever set in stone, so we'll see how it goes.  At the least it will give me very recent experience in work I very much enjoy (stuff I do voluntarily - being paid to do it is a bonus).

And last but not least, its my littlest man's birthday today.  Toby is 7 today!  I'd been in hospital for a few days with ruptured membranes (same thing happened with Ryan) and was anxiously awaiting induction for Toby.  This is an old scrapbook layout I did quite some time ago about how strong (read STUBBORN) he was at 2 weeks old.  Remember, this is one week before his due date: he was 3 and a half weeks early!  He was such a fighter from the very beginning, but I suppose that's how you might be against the world when you're evacuated from your nice warm place a bit early.

Spring Mini due 1 August

So there's a new mini catalogue for Stampin' Up! due out on 1 August. Here's a card using the stamp set "Tree Trimmings" and Ski Slope designer series paper as well as a 5/16" jumbo brad from the mini. The colour combination is also from the Ski Slope DSP - a great cheat to making great colour combinations is to use colours already mixed up in scrapbook papers! Anyway, hope you enjoy this card. Very simple and I think its a bit nice.

Happy Thoughts

This is a card I threw together for this month's Elite Challenge and is a combination of the Breezy Pirouette colour challenge and the sketch challenge. I kept both in mind while creating this card. Loads of distressing on this card too - isn't a fingernail a wonderfully handy tool?

Designer Series Paper sampler

My DSP sampler for 2009/2010 is made up of 3" square segments of each of the DSP appearing in the Australian 2009/2010 Stampin' Up! catalogue. I've used my tab punch after carefully measuring the size of the punch and making a template in Word to print the name and code number of each type of paper on an Avery A4 sheet. I used Avery labels because they tend to be a heavier weight label and I wanted the tabs to be fairly strong. I punched using a standard hole-punch and threaded the papers onto a 50mm hinged ring which I bought at my local newsagent.
We have some good news at the Gibbs' household - my husband has an interview on Friday. Keeping everything crossed that it goes well. And only two more sleeps til I head down to Canberra for my first Stampin' Up! convention. I'm SO nervous! The excitement about the convention ALMOST eclipses the THRILL of the children returning to school tomorrow. HALLELUJAH!

Sunny Boy box with a twist (excuse the pun!)

The box below contains the incentive stamp for my hostess at tomorrow's workshop. I designed this box when looking for something simple to do for our school Mother's Day stall. This will hold 3-4 heart foil choccies and have some kind of SU tag on the end. This one is made with Afternoon Tea designer series paper, a price-tag bought from a newsagent (sold in lots of 100 for about $6) and a scrap of ribbon. I think the scallop edge punch just adds a tiny touch of "special", don't you?
Thanks muchly to Kylie for her much needed inspiration to make this card work! Yeah, I cheat and visit OTHER DEMONSTRATORS blogs to get inspiration!! SHHH! Don't tell anyone! ;) Its crayon resist, a technique I hadn't mastered until now! Pale colours are very forgiving for this technique, so I've used Pink Pirouette and Baja Breeze as my jump points. Easy to add some Pacific Point and Baja Breeze cardstock at the other end. Stamp sets are Embrace Life and Say it with Scallops.
My new favourite stamp set - Bloom Away is coming from 1 April in the 2009/2010 Stampin' Up! catalogue. A lovely lovely stamp set for Aussies! I've stamped on Naturals Ivory card, water-coloured with Riding Hood Red and Always Artichoke and mounted it on Sage Shadow and Always Artichoke cardstock. Kraft is the base card, and choc chip 5/8" grosgrain ribbon. Simple but immensely satisfying to do!