More Blossoms Abound

Morning All. This is what I've been up to the past few days. My nana is a social butterfly. She loves any reason to send cards to her friends. So I thought I'd help her out and send her a box gift set of blossoms abound. These two will accompany the previous two from my other post and two more in the making with matching envies and the finished box. Stay tuned for that. I have put a sneak peak of the box so far but will post again when complete.






This one uses bashful blue, brilliant blue, mellow moss and chocolate chip ink, co-ordinating cardstock , whisper white grosgrain ribbon and finally some real SU brads (yay).
Pumpkin pie, apricot appeal, old olive, co-ordinating cardstock, plus the background has paisley b/g stamped on it.

Gift box in the making - stayed tuned for finished product.







I pulled a late night last night trying to come up with my bold brights challenge for our monthly M & M's meeting tomorrow night as i have work tonight and tomorrow. Nothing like last minute pressure on oneself. I hope they like what I came up with. To any of the ladies reading my post you can stop now or you'll spoil the surprise. Here we go....................................................................

Garden Whimsey Bold Brights Challenge

Ok so here it is. It's so funny how sometimes when I'm just doing something for the fun of it a card just flows together but when challenged to use a specific thing I have the toughest time. Does any one else have this problem? I hardly ever use bold brights I don't know why cause there are some lovely colours. I had almost completed this when I thought it needs something else? A touch of crystal effects and a sprinkle of dazzling diamonds and instant bling. I think it just finishes it off nicely.

Alright if you kept reading ladies you spoiled your surprise. Hope you like. Look forward to seeing all your wonderful creations tomorrow night.

Blossoms Abound

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHIRLZ. Another year older another year wiser. Hope you enjoyed your day I know I did.

Okay so this is not bad for me. I think its only been what two days since my last post. Prettty good for me I reckon. Mind you it does help that I've had a couple of birthdays in the past two days that I've wanted to make cards for. The top one is the one I made for my very good friend shirlz. I had recently purchased blossoms abound and had a feeling it would make a pretty card. When I first looked at this set I thought I would have to use the stamp-a-ma-jig to get it all in the right places. But feeling a bit lazy decided to give it a go any way first without it. Its so easy to use, I loved it, and can honestly say this is going to be one of my favourite sets. Very cool. And I even managed a matching envelope.

Receipe: ink: old olive, pretty in pink,purely pomegrante. Card: whisper white, purely pomegrante and old olive. Accessories DSP, paper piercer, purely pomegrante double stiched ribbon, sponges.


So after I had made the top one, While all my supplies were once again littered over my office space I decided to try another. This time using pale plum and perfect plum, mellow moss and chocolate chip. I am wrapped with these results. I have not yet managed to purchase the marker set yet so was pretty pleased when i managed to use my pads to pull off the stems in chocolate chip and the leaves in mellow moss. The two tones are simple mellow moss stamped once with the branch and then stamped off once for the leaves. Hope that makes sense.









This was my last for the night. We have recently purchased a larger desk for my office which now allows me to blog hop and stamp at the same time. So while attempting the top two cards I stumbled across this one on Michelle Forces's blog, knew I'd have to case this so saved it to my pictures for future reference. Well you know how it goes I just couldn't resist trying this one straight away seeing as all the gear was still out. Changed the colours slightly but otherwise a complete case. Love it.

Receipe: old olive, pretty in pink, purely pomegrante (card and ink), whisper white card, sponges. purely pomegrante double stitched ribbon.


Well the weather here has been pretty nasty the last couple of days, just the right type for staying at home fire going and stamping. What to play with tonight I wonder?

Boatloads of Love

Gosh doesn't time fly. I've just realised how long its been since my last post. I've only just got both my kids back to school after 3 weeks of Chicken pox. You know how it goes one gets it, gets over it, then blow me down the other one gets it gets over it and the first one gets a cold. Oh well, you get that. This card I threw together tonight for my nephews birthday tomorrow. Not quite sure its appropriate for a nine year old, but I'm picking he'll be more interested in whats inside of it than anything else. I was hoping to combine my M & M's challenge to use bold bright card stock, and Blair's birthday in one hit but I think I'll have to have another crack at the bold bright challenge. I have a week left so I should be able to come up with something. Bold brights is not a card stock I use a lot of, its always good to try something new though. Push oneself to create. Listen to me(he he). Anyway enough burbling. .















Stampin' Up! news. There's a new SPRING MINI CATALOGUE coming our way. As a demonstrator i've had the awesome privilege of a sneak peek and believe you me there are some fantastic stamps and accessories in this catalogue. I'll have to start saving my pennies cause once again I want lots. It Starts 1st August and runs till 30 November, so be sure to keep an eye out for it. Well thats all for now. I'll try not to take so long with my next post.

Snail Mail for me

Okay. So todays post is not one made my me but one received by me. There is nothing like the thrill of receiving some snail mail. Today I opened by mailbox to find this wonderful card made for me by my great friend shirlz, so I just wanted to give a big shout out to say thank you. You made my day. I thought this card was too cool and I had to share it with everyone. It uses my two favourite colours chocolate chip and purely pomegranate. Gotta love that combination. THANKS SHIRLZ the chocs were um too, didn't last long and I didn't share. Naughty mum.

3x3 Gift Set

This ones for you incredible girl.



I was challenged to make a card using the seeing spots stamp set. O.K so I didn't manage to make a normal standard sized card (sorry megan) instead I chose to do these 6, 3x3 (roughly) cards and box. Boy did I find this challenge tough to start with. A lot of procrastination went on I can tell you. In fact it got so bad I wondered what on earth had possessed me to buy this stamp set. After several weeks of getting the set out, staring for hours and then moving on to a different set I finally came up with this. Sorry about the wait Megan, hope you like what I came up with. I also discovered a really cool way to use your scallop punch while blog hopping the other day. Sorry can't remember who's blog this was on (if anyone knows please leave a comment so I can acknowledge) but this is what you do. Punch out a scallop, attach to a piece of paper ( cardstock is too thick), then simple line up your scallop punch so it is in the middle of each scallop and punch again. What you end up with is a really neat kind of star explosion. Wow. I've managed to post some pics of this, Poor quality ones, but I hope you get the jist. The demons are playing havoc with my computer and they have gone from the bottom to the top of the page so hopefully they make it from draft to post o.k.

Black Magic

Check me out........ Hope this makes up for the lack of activity recently. So these are my trials with the BLACK MAGIC technique I have seen on a few blogs lately. This was so much fun to create. I grabbed one A4 sheet of black cardstock, my white craft ink and fabulous flowers stamp set and went to town over the page. Dried, chopped in 1/4's, watercolour pencilled and white gel penned for that extra pop. Couldn't resist trying out some different colours with co-ordinating cardstock. Hope you like. I think these would make a pretty cool hostess gift set with the right box. Hmmmmmm now there's an idea.

I Received An Award

Wow..... Trudi has sent me this really cool award. You rock socks and blogging with a purpose. Can't believe I have received these. Too cool. Don't you just love those blue socks? Thanks Trudi (you really do ROCK). Go check out Trudi's blog she has some really great inspirational pieces. Scrapbooking and cards. She is also involved with the NZSU blog. Yet another great site to visit for inspiration.

Garden Whimsey

I know........... its been ages since my last post. A great friend gave me a gentle reminder today so thought I better hop to it and post some new stuff. Had My workshop on Saturday thoroughly enjoyed myself( just love to be stamping with others nothing like it), my hostess was bowled over to receive a free level one hostess set. She had not anticipated getting this so it was so awesome to see her achieve it. We made one male card and one female card. I was in a bit of a panic late friday night, not a clue as to what i was going to do for the female card when I spied this lovely card off of Alisa Tilsner blog. If you haven't seen her blog yet head on over for a look. The colouring with markers she does is really awesome. All lovely rich vibrant colours. Well worth a visit. Thanks Alisa for this inspiration it went down a real treat.

Origami Necktie and Shirt

Wow. What a buzz. Today I decided to do some blog surfing (how unusual :D) and came across an origami necktie and shirt card. I just had to have a play. This is what I came up with. I felt like a little kid jumping around and yahooing when I had accomplished this ( My son Liam who is home with chicken pox, poor boy, thought me rather hilarious I might add). Don't you just love trying something new and it working out on the very first go. I unfortunately only have dial up so when i watched the video tutorial I had to have lots of patience. Not something I normally have a lot of in abundance but I managed ya. There are so many talented ladies out there I don't know where they come up with some of there ideas but I thank them for leaving wonderful instructions for the rest of us to follow. Here is the tutorial I followed. Thanks Susanna Boyd.

Receipe: Card. Chocolate chip, sage shadow, close to coca, very vanilla. Stamps: Canvas, dads day. Ink: close to coca, sage shadow. Accessories: Outlaw DSP, chocolate chip ribbon, designer label, 13/8 punch, horizontal slit, dimensionals, sponges, non SU brads. Also used DTP technique on main close to cocoa card (love the look).

Dads day

Last post for the night. While I still had the gear out from my colour challenge I whipped up this card as well. I have a workshop coming up where my hostess would like a father's day card hence the two pics tonight while I attempt to find one good enough to use at a workshop. Not sure if either of these will actually make the cut but thought I'd post anyway.


Receipe: Card: river rock, blue bayou, chocolate chip. Ink: chocolate chip, old olive, handsome hunter. Stamps:lovely as a tree, dads day. Accessories: designer label, horizontal slit, chocolate chip ribbon, non SU brads.

Hope your all enjoying a lovely long weekend.

Blue/Green challenge

Hi there. Well tonight I thought I'd have a play with the blue and green challenge posted on the NZSU site by louise forsythe. This is what i came up with.

Receipe: Card: blue bayou, soft sky, wild wasabi, certainly celery,whisper white. Ink: certainly celery, old olive, handsome hunter, bashful blue, night of navy. Stamps: lovely as a tree, dad's day. Accessories:wild wasabi double stitched ribbon, designer label & horizontal slit punch, sponges.

I so love to sponge. You can achieve some really cool results with this very simple technique.