Happy Mothers' Day !!!!!

I hope all my readers have had a lovely Mothers' Day today. Just wanted to post this card that I made quite a long time ago now, but, I have always loved because it can be used for any occasion. By making cards with sentiments like "just for you" or "thinking of you" etc... you will always have on hand a ready supply of cards no matter what you need them for.

I am not taking any credit for this card, it was completely cased from another blog, but it was so long ago I can't remember who the original artist was. I hope you are inspired by it just like I was to go ahead and make your own.

Happy Stamping,

3 Weeks till Christmas

I think this might be the one stamp set I have used the most out of all my stamps!! Season Of Joy (pg 31 of catalogue) has so many ways that it can be used. When you are on a very tight budget, versatile stamp sets are very important!

This card may look involved but it was so easy to make. This is a basic 5" Real red square card with 16 small 1" squares cut out in Whisper White. Then I just stamped away, varying my colours and not worrying about how images lined up because I wanted a very random look. I then sponged around the edges of each square and adhered them to the card. You could easily add some ribbon or other brads/embellishments if you desired but I liked how the card looked left as it was.

Happy Stamping,

4 weeks till Christmas

With only 4 weeks to go it's time to start decorating the house !!! Sure, you can go out and buy just about any decoration you can think of these days, they light up and play music....... BUT call me old fashioned, I prefer the old traditions of making your own paper chains and baubles. So in the 5 minutes I had tonight, between taking kids to dance classes, cooking tea and getting the washing off the line, I had a play and made a few things as you can see above.

No special tools or creativity required, just have some fun. It's economical too because you can use up all your scraps and leftover bits etc... I'm sure you can get a lot more advanced than these examples here. We're in for a hot weekend here, a good excuse to stay indoors with the kids and get creative.



Happy Stamping,

8 Weeks to Christmas

This week I have a very easy project for you all, making gift card holders. These days you can purchase gift cards just about everywhere and they make a very easy present for those "hard to buy for". Below are two holders I made up in hardly any time at all, which are the sort of projects we need at this busy time of year!


The holders open up by untying the ribbon, and inside is a middle flap where the gift card slides into. You also have plenty of room to write on the inside so it becomes a card as well.


You can find a tutorial for this project (and the place I find a lot of my inspiration) over at Makeesha Byl's blog. A link to her blog is on my side bar. Once at her site if you scroll down you will find "Make it Monday" Tutorials and under this is "Gift Card Holders". There are actually 3 different types, the one I used above is the third tutorial. You will notice that I chose to use Designer series paper etc for my decorations, rather than a Stampin Around Wheel. This meant my entire project was actually Stamp and ink free to make it an even quicker project.

The materials list for my designs are:
Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red & Whisper White.
DS Paper: Ski Slope (from Spring Mini-only available till end of Nov)
Ribbons: Riding Hood Red Taffeta & Kiwi Kiss Satin.
Other: Self Adhesive diecut embellishments from "I wish" Simply Scrappin Kit; Scallop Circle punch; 1 3/8" circle punch; Sticky Strip & Snail Adhesives; paper cutter.

I hope you have enjoyed this week's Christmas project.
Happy Stamping,

10 weeks to Christmas!!!

Hi stampers, yes now only 10 weeks to Christmas. And this week I have a product to highlight from our fantastic range. The Simply Scrappin' kits are great value and have so many uses. Not only are they a must for scrapbookers but they can be used to make quick and easy cards, gift tags, gift bags etc... Here is a picture of some of the samples you could make using our "I wish" kit with it's Christmas theme.


The kit is only $36.95 and for this you get 8 sheets of textured 12"x12" cardstock, 6 sheets of exclusive double sided Designer Series paper and 6 sheets of exclusive, self-adhesive die cuts. Below are 2 simple 3"x3" gift cards I whipped up in a few minutes. All I needed was my paper cutter to cut out the 3" cards from the textured cardstock then I just peeled and attached the die cut pieces. The only thing used not already in the kit was a red rhinestone brad. Too easy.


Don't forget our October specials. Scroll down to previous posts for all the details. Time is running out.

Till next week,
Happy Stamping,

11 weeks to Christmas !!!

Yes, one week has finished already, only 11 weeks till Christmas now! I'm cheating today with a card I actually made last year. From memory this was cased from another demonstrator but as it was 12 months ago I can't remember who. It was one of my favourites so I really wanted to share it with you. It's school holidays here and while that should mean more time for stamping, I am away from home for a week so have left all my stamping gear behind.

This card features a very easy technique where you create a collage of images to make what looks like your own patterned paper. It's very quick as the placement of each stamped image isn't important. For the "very merry" greeting at the bottom I have used my oval punches to create the layered image and this is actually adhered to the inside of the card. I have then lined up the oval punch on the front of the card so you can see the words through the "window".

This is a useful technique because it adds decoration and the greeting to both the front and inside of your card at the same time.



Don't forget our October specials. Please scroll down to the previous posts for all the details. Stampin' Up have the World Card Making Day promo, and I have my product bundle special that you can order for this month only.

Happy Stamping,

12 weeks of Christmas!!!!!

To get over the scary thought that it is ONLY 12 weeks till Christmas, I thought I would start counting down in a fun way instead. Over the next 12 weeks I will be showing you lots of Christmas card ideas, gift ideas, and putting together lots of great packages to purchase along the way with great savings for you!

So, for this our first week (or week 12 of our countdown), I have made the card above which was very quick and easy. This is for those of us who like to make their own Xmas cards with a minimal of fuss. The best way to do this is come up with just 1 or 2 designs that are easy to churn out in a production line style. It is then easy to make a whole stack of cards in no time at all.

For this card I have used patterned papers from Bella Rose and the coordinating colours Riding hood red and Kiwi Kiss. The greeting is from the Level 1 hostess stamp set Best Yet. You might not have considered the Bella Rose papers as Christmas paper before, but if you have a closer look at them they lend themselves very nicely to the season.

My Special Offer For You

I have put together the following bundle which includes many of the items I used in the card above:

1/2 pkt Bella Rose Patterned Paper (1 sheet of each 6 double sided designs)

1/4 spool Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon (approx 2.28m)

1/4 spool Kiwi Kiss Satin Ribbon (approx 2.28m) (This ribbon has Very vanilla on the other side)

10 sheets of Whisper White A4 Cardstock (enough to make 20 cards)

20 Whisper White envelopes

Total Price $25.00

Optional add ons: Riding Hood Red Ink pad $11.95 ; Kiwi Kiss Ink Pad $11.95; Scalloped Oval punch $30.95; Oval punch $30.95.

Purchase the bundle and the add ons for the bargain price of $100 AND receive FREE P&H !!!!!

(You can substitute an item of the same value in the add ons if you wish, just email me and let me know what you'd like to get instead!) This offer is only available until Oct 31st from me. See contact details on the side bar.

Happy Stamping,

Father's Day Card

O.K, so here is a "guy" card using the layout from the last post as inspiration. Scroll down to read the last post if you haven't already so this all makes sense!

All I have done is made my stamped image a wider strip and centered the other image below it, but otherwise you can see the similarities. I have used the "Trendy Trees" stamp set for this one and trust me when I say you have to use a "Stamp-a-ma-jig" with this set unless you want very wonky looking trees!! The sentiment is from the "Greetings Eight" stamp set which is perfect for Father's Day cards. I couldn't go past 2 of my favourite colours, Chocolate Chip and Kiwi Kiss on this one. I've added a bit of sponging around the edges too to give it a bit more of a masculine look. Hope you like it.