A Stampin’ Up! DSP Special!

Can’t decide which colour you prefer in the Designer Series Print DSP? Well, May is the month for you! Stampin’ Up! are releasing a special pack of 48 6″x6″ papers for the fantastic price of $12.95 with every order over $35 RRP in the month of May! How great is that.

In the pack of 48 papers you get 12 sheets of  each of 4 different colours – and 2 are exclusive to this offer and not available to buy in the 12″x12″ paper – So Saffron and Almost Amethyst (great for all the purple lovers out there!).

To place your order or find out more about this fantastic deal email me at karigail@internode.on.net

 

To check out the swatches and colours of the DSP click here

 

Fall Flowers For a Friend!

Okay – say that five times fast!!!! These cards are some more little thank yous I’ve made to have in my stash, some for customers, some for friends, and so on. I decided I needed to use this gorgeous Fall Flowers DSP and these cards just show one of 12 designs that come in the pack. The colours used in the DSP pack and in my cards are Sahara Sand, Really Rust, Old Olive and Soft Sky. As you can see I’ve used all those colours in these cards and I stamped in Stazon on Whisper White so I could watercolour the flowers (love my aqua painter!)

The ‘For a Friend’ stamp set is a Level 1 Hostess Set. That means that if you hold a workshop and achieve over $300 in sales – or if you place an individual order that totals over $300 you could receive this set for free! PLUS you would receive another $30 of free products! How great is that?! Contact me via karigail@internode.on.net if you want to book a workshop or place an order to earn this set.

Happy stamping!

More thankyous……

I’ve been having fun using my Baroque Motifs stamp set! It’s such a lovely set and a fantastic price, especially considering the lovely big scroll stamp you get. These cards were inspired by a perfume box I saw – can’t remember which perfume it was – but the pink with the black is a lovely classic combination and I will be sending them as thank you cards to a couple of girls that have organised shares in SU! products for demonstrators – saves us having to buy one of everything!!! Even if we REALLY want to!!

 Bye for now! K

Nanna’s Birthday

Hi! Just popped on while both my boys are having a morning nap and wanted to share this card we’ll be giving to my mum a bit later today. It was her birthday yesterday and this year I thought I would make her cards – one from Aidan and one from hubby and me. I decided to make a little picture for Aidan’s card using the ‘All in the Family’ set. It is so cute and when my Stamp-a-ma-jig (SAMJ) arrives I know I will use this set a lot more as it will be easier to line up all the little heads and bodies! I have stamped in Stazon on Whisper White, then used my watercolour crayons and Aqua-painter to colour in the images.

It’s funny but I hadn’t realised how many cards I had still been buying over the past few years, depite me having all this papercarft stuff here! I was making lots at Christmas and then occasional cards throughout the year, but the last 12 months I have been actvely trying to make more of them – and trying to do it earlier than on the day I need them!!! I guess the one thing with making your own cards is finding something nice to write in them – eg a ‘Hallmark’ sentiment – but I have been spending a bit of time on the web (Surprising I know!!) and have come across nice poems/verses there, as well as in a few books I’ve seen. I even got a fantastic response to the card I made for my hubby on Valentines Day! He was so thrilled that I had ‘finally’ made him a card! I never would have thought he’d really want a handmade one, but he was thrilled, so that spurred me on to resist buying any this year.

That’s all for now! Enjoy the long weekend and spending time with your families – a day for honoring and rememberance is what this day is all about. K

Thankyou notes

Hi! I just thought I’d share these thankyou notes with you. They are for Aidan’s birthday and I’m really pleased with how they turned out! Aidan LOVED the ‘painting’ part where he got to play in the paint with his hand – I must admit to not knowing exactly how they do finger painting with a group of kids at childcare! One is enough to keep an eye on whilst doing it! for the cards I used up some non-SU! cardstock I had around the place, but I had to sneak a bit of SU! in! Can you spot my SU! product?

 

By the way, I apologise for spelling errors you might find in my posts. I try to re-read them but as I am usually posting in the late hours my eyes are not as good at spotting the typos! Also, the spellcheck function seems to have disappeared, so I can’t even cheat and use that. Anyway, sorry for any errors, hope you can make sense of any babble – most of the typos are coz my fingers are slower than my brain!!!

Bye for now!

A great week!

Well, I have just put my things away after today’s class. It was only small, but we had a lovely afternoon making our cards and especially doing our scratch’n’sniff embossing! The girls LOVED the new catty! It was nice to have a few of the new products on hand – especially the new In Colors – to show them off in real life.

Something I just want to share tonight is how great I am feeling about my ‘business’. If some of you are reading this after hearing me talk about only wanting to join as a hobby, you will be giggling! It’s true! I really only joined Stampin’ Up! as a hobby and to get the discounts!!! I figured I might last a little while, but wanted to get lots of products at that time, so figured it would be worth it anyway!

Fast forward 6 months and my eyes and mind have been opened wide! There is such a new world out there which I haven’t been involved with before. I have a wonderful upline who provides support, advice and motivation to her team and through her forum of team members I am meeting lovely people from different places and backgrounds who share a common love, SU! I also have access to another forum (my uplines, uplines forum) and again I find that full of support, encouragement and inspiration.

Personally I have challenged myself in this last 6 months in several ways. I contacted friends to begin a monthly card swap – mostly greeting cards made according to a challenge or two. – and we have a group of 5 or 6 each month taking part. I also began planning and holding classes in my home to share new techniques with friends and customers. Lately I have begun doing workshops/demonstrations in peoples homes. This has been the most scary part – what if I look like an idiot in front of them! – but also the most rewarding! This last few days have seen me at 2 workshops and a class and I have met some lovely people and enjoyed seeing others that I already know. It is so nice to be able to share with them something that I enjoy so much and see them get to enjoy it too.

And of course my latest challenge was to begin this blog! I have had it up and running for a month now (okay, I know it wasn’t public for the first week or two, but my first post was on the 18th March!). This is another way for me to share my crafts and I am loving having the interaction with all of you in your comments and emails – especially when I check in at the end of a blah day from my other work and I find a comment that makes me smile. Thankyou for making me smile and to all those of you that are part of my SU! experience so far! 

Thankyou for reading tonight – and don’t forget, if the Stampin’ Up! experience sounds like something you want to enjoy feel free to contact me for more information!!

Late night stamping!

Happy Weekend! I hope you are having a good one! Mine is going well and I have been able to get in some stamping so that is always a good sign – puts me in a good mood too!

I have a couple of cards to share with you tonight. They are for my class tomorrow (well actually today as it is now 4 minutes past midnight! oops!) and we are focussing on embossing. Now, unfortunately you can’t tell from just looking at these cards, but they feature the scratch’n’sniff technique. It is a very easy technique and just adds another dimension to your cards.

This card features stamps from the set ‘Like it a Latte’ and I have mixed instant coffee with clear embossing powder (EP) and embossed this over the cup image (I stamped the cup in versamark then Chocolate Chip). Apart from being able to ’scratch’n’sniff’ the cup and get the lovely coffee aroma (you should have smelt it when I was using the heat tool on it! mmm!) the coffee powder also gives a bit of texture to the image which is nice. You could just stamp in Versamrk ink and then emboss that, however I found that the image didn’t appear as dark and was a little uneven in colour, depending on the coffee, so I preferred the image with the Chocolate chip behind the Coffee/EP blend.

This card is a little 3″ x 3″ one. This is a great size for a gift card or just for that little note you want to leave someone. The best thing about the one pictured here is that in real life, when you scratch the centre flower, it smells like raspberry! mmm! I’ve combine Pretty in Pink with the new Purely Pomegranate for the colours here and used stamps from the Petals and Paisley set and the Polka Dots and Petals sets. I’ve also used my punches to create the centre embellishment – they make it so easy to whip up a nice embellishment! I’ve used the new Scallop circle punch which I think I’ve used almost every day since my order arrived as well as some of my circle punches. Easy!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and thanks for visiting!

Meeting new people …

I’m just home from a lovely workshop! (Hi Wendy!) I met some lovely ladies and also a couple I already knew and I loved introducing them to SU! They got to make 2 cards and also have a play with watercolouring. I love watching how other people colour their stamped images. I have seen it at other workshops and then this one – no matter how many times you see a stamp used, once someone adds a bit of colour they make the image their ‘own’. Here’s the first card they made – colours are So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky, Very Vanilla. Hope you have a good night!

Tonight’s offering!

Hi all! Are you having a good day? Mine was a bit blah, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I have to go to work tomorrow and I haven’t worked Wednesdays in over 2 years! Since I went back to work after Aidan arrived I’ve been part-time and have had Wednesdays off, now because he is 2 I have to be full-time again (unless I don’t want/need to work LOL!) so off I go tomorrow! Anyway, a bit of stamping cures the blahs any day of the week!

This is a cardfront I’m making for an Inklings swap (sorry if I’m spoiling a surprise, girls!! oops!). I’ve used the new In Color Groovy Guava with my new Baroque Motifs stamp set and a little bit of Mellow Moss and Veyr Vanilla thrown in. I’ve also stamped the big swirl in White craft ink and embossed it with clear EP, then sponged the groovy guava ink around the swirls to make it stand out a little more.

 

More soon – gotta keep on stampin’ tonight!!

Okay, I’m back again! Next card is from Wild Wasabi!!! Woo hoo!!! I’ve also used Purely Pomegranate (really like this, even though I’m not a ‘pink-girl’!) and the Polka Dots and Paisley set with the new Scallop Punch!

Okay, check out this next picture! This is a result of lots of hard work by my upline Jayne. Despite the fact that she had family coming to stay, two small kids, her own work to do, a Workshop WOW to prepare for and present at the Stampin’ Up! convention last weekend and numerous other things, she also did a HUGE job and organised a ribbon share between the Inklings member! these are the ribbons I ordered and recieved through this share – can you imaging how long it took Jayne to cut and organise all the ribbon for all of us that ordered them? You are an amazing women Jayne! Thankyou! and just look at the pretty ribbons!!! They fantastic in real life too!

Alrighty! Last card of the night! This is for my grandfather’s birthday – don’t think he’ll be checking on here, so no need to worry he’ll see it before he receives it!! LOL! I haven’t put a greeting on there, still thinking about what stamp/greeting to use. If only I had a some good ‘father type’ quotes! My new ‘cyber-friend’ Kylie (a fellow Inkling) has just helped design a set of stamps with Papertrey Ink! Check out her card using the set here. The Father Knows Best set looks great (isn’t she talented!) and would be wonderful for Father’s Day and scrapbooking as well as those hard to put together birthday cards for the men in our lives!

The card below uses Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip with the Baroque Motifs set and some gorgeous wide grosgrain. In the centre of the square motif is also a brass brad, can you tell how much I’m liking the Baroque Motifs set? I think it is a very versatile set and is well-priced at only $39.95. (Sorry no new colours in this one Kylie, but new stamps!! )

 

Okay, goodnight to you all! Thanks for reading this essay!

As promised ..

Okay – I have a couple of pictures for you today. I did make a couple more cards, but they are for workshops this week and my launch/class next weekend, so I decided to wait to share them after those girls see them!

I think maybe my photography is the issue and not the lighting! I seem to be having trouble holding the camera straight LOL! – and I promise you I haven’t had a sip of anything this morning so I can’t blame that either. Hope they show here okay, I will check out some photo tutorials to pick up some tips on better photography I think!

The first card uses Purely Pomegranate ink and double stitched ribbon plus some new double sided paper (DSP). The ribbon is lovely and I am in love with the Berry Bliss DSP! It is just gorgeous! The stamp set I’ve used is Simply Said – it is not new to SU! but new to me as I’ve been eyeing it off for quite a while now and finally decided it was a ‘have to have’! If you didn’t already know, the packs of DSP in the new catty are only $11.95! That is great value for 12 sheets and they are a heavy weight paper, so fantastic for scrapping as well as card-making. View the papers online here and check out pages 134, 135 and 136 for the great range of colours and patterns.

 

This little card is a result of me ‘playing’ with a few stamps and punches whilst using up some retired cardstock and DSP. I think it is cute though and I will be trying it again with my new stuff soon!

 

Okay, that will be it for now, I must finish off making up my little goodie bags for my launch attendees – bet you can’t wait, girls – I can’t either!!!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!