Summer Mini Launch

Stampin' Up! have a beautiful new mini catalogue out for Summer and it's jam packed with gorgeous stamp sets, fun accessories and awesome embelishments! On January 15th @ 7pm I will be hosting a little Summer Mini workshop. It'll be a fun night creating a couple of cards and a sweet little gift box. Cost is $10 for the three projects with plenty of fun and laughs thrown in for free! Contact me if you would like to attend. Please RSVP by January 11.

Some Scrapbooking

I thought I would share with you some scrapbooking that I managed to put together whilst on our trip up North. These are some photos of Levi on his actual first birthday when we went to Muddy's playground for a play and fish and chips lunch. He just loved splashing around in the water there. Ethan popped that little yellow flower behind Levi's ear and it stayed there for a long time. Doesn't he look so happy about life?
I am still defining my scrapbooking style but I would have to say that I am much more into putting a few photos onto a 12x12 layout than just focussing on one shot. However sometimes you do have such a gorgeous picture that it can be the only one on the page.
I used some adhesive die cuts from the Hoppy Memories Simply Scrapping kit and they are so cute. I love the images in this kit with the frogs and turtles and thought this cute little character was the perfect company for Levi's cuteness on this page!
I do have to apologise for the picture quality here. I really struggled to get it all in focus. I do hope you can see it well enough.


Recipe:
Cardstock: Yoyo yellow and Pacific point
Ribbon: 5/8" Kiwi kiss striped grosgrain.
Embellishments: From the Hoppy Memories Simply Scrapping Kit
Marker: Chocolate chip

Happy stamping!
Love Claire

Pink Daisies

This is an effective way to use your Stampin' write markers. Using a larger detailed stamp such as the Daisies from Upsy Daisy start by using the lightest colour markers to colour in the stamp. I started with Regal rose on the flowers and then added the rose red to the centre base of a few daisies before colouring the stems in old olive. By this time the ink has dried a little so you need to give a good warm huff with your breath all over the stamp to moisten it. Then stamp onto some whisper white cardstock. The card was finished with some pink pirouette cardstock and 5/8" striped grosgrain ribbon and a Kiwi kiss base. I stamped the greeting also from the Upsy Daisy set in Old olive as I don't yet own the Kiwi kiss ink.

Enjoy and Happy Stamping!

Love, Claire

Something bright and cheerful!

This is a sweet little card using a new set from the Summer Mini. It's a happy little card which can be changed to suit the occasion by your choice of greeting. The stamp set is called Hello again. The card is whisper white with Lovely Lilac and Kiwi Kiss cardstock. I used markers for the flower in Pumpkin Pie and Old olive and the Lavender Lace for the butterfly and greeting. The greeting comes from the Upsy Daisy set but you could also use the 'Hello' which comes in the Hello again stamp set. The ribbon is the 5/8" Striped grosgrain in Kiwi Kiss.

I hope this is a little bit of inspiration for you!

Happy Stamping!

Love, Claire

I'm back!

And I have lots to show you :) I took a bunch of stamping things up North with me and had lots of fun creating. It was lovely to have the opportunity to have a stamping night with some of the MAF ladies in Nhulunbuy before we flew out to the little island of Milingimbi. A couple of the girls were keen to make a Tri shutter card and I just happened to have just enough cardstock and patterned paper to make another version of this card using the Butterfly Prints stamp set from the Summer Mini. We had such a great night together.



We used a kraft background with Washington Apple papers, Bashful blue, Real red and Pumpkin pie ink, Bashful blue 1/4" grosgrain ribbon and the beautiful Butterfly prints stamp set. It would have saved us a fair bit of time if I had received my butterfly punch in time... but now I have it and it's wonderful! I love it! And it also co-ordinates with the butterfly images from Flight of the butterfly (p. 82) in the Idea book and catalogue.

I only have a couple of dates available for workshops in January. Contact me if you would like to have a workshop with some of our lovely new products from the Summer Mini.

Also, until January 24th there is a great inventory clearance sale on with Stampin' Up! There are some awesome reductions! Check them out at http://www.stampinup.com.au/

Happy Stamping!
Love,
Claire

PS Stay tuned for some scrapping layouts and more cards over the next few days!

Faux metal effect

Hi girls!

This will probably be my last post until I return from NT. But I just had to share this fun technique with you! This is my latest swap in my Artist Trading Card (ATC) techniques swap and the technique is Faux metal. If you are into heat embossing then you must try this... if you are not yet into heat embossing then you must get into it and try this because it is such fun and a great effect!
There is a tutorial here on Splitcoast. Basically you use versamark ink and Silver embossing powder on cardstock and heat set four layers or so. Then you quickly whilst the embossing powder is still wet press a stamp into it. This is how I made the silver flowers on the ATCs. The recipe is below.

Recipe:

Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Whisper white

Ink: Versamark, Certainly Celery, Basic Black

Accessories: Heat tool, Silver embossing powder, Old olive 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Snail adhesive.

Stamp sets: Eastern Blooms and Best Yet.

Enjoy!

Love, Claire

Love Album

This is just a little album that I made for my lovely husband for our 7th Wedding anniversary... how time flies when you are having fun! I can't believe we're at 7 years already :)

It was a fairly simple process to make. It starts out as a 12"x 12" piece of Cardstock which you score at 4" and 8" both ways so you end up with a grid of 9 squares. Then you cut out the 4 corner squares and embellish. I trimmed the front flap a little and used the corner rounder punch to neaten it up.

I plan to make a few of these for family for Christmas in colours from the Bold Brights family - such as Real red, Tempting turquoise and Only Orange. But I will put photos of our children in them instead for a little keepsake for the grandparents!

Recipe:

Cardstock/Paper: (I am so naughty... that blue - the base of it all is not a current colour... I'm off to the naughty corner)... Kraft CS, Bordering Blue CS, Very Vanilla CS, Urban Garden DSP.

Ink: Versamark, Bordering Blue and Basic Black Stampin write journaller.

Stamp sets: Big deal alphabet, Always

Accessories: Kiwi kiss striped grosgrain ribbon, Mat pack, 1 3/8" circle punch, Corner rounder punch, Stampin' dimensionals.

Happy Stamping!

Claire xo

Something a little different

In just over one weeks time we will be heading off into the sunset on a special mission! My husband Julian will be doing some relief work for an organisation called MAF - Mission Aviation Fellowship - for three weeks during December. This work involves him flying between remote Aboriginal communities in North East Arnhem Land. He will fly local people, doctors, nurses, teachers and others in this time. Ethan, Levi and myself will be accompanying him!

We lived in Arnhem Land a few years back when Ethan was a baby so we are really looking forward to returning and seeing what has changed, what is the same, catching up with people and especially seeing how the community we will stay in is going. We hear there has been quite a revival in the church there so we are looking forward to opportunities to just spend some time with them.

The island is very remote. We will travel into Gove (Nhulunbuy) on Qantas, spend a couple of days there whilst Julian does some flight checks and I do some grocery shopping and catch up with some girls. Then we will head off to the island for 2 and a half weeks. There is not a lot on the island - just a small shop and a take away. There is an art centre but I am not sure if it's operating at the moment, we'll see when we get there - it would be nice to be able to get some local artwork to bring home with us though. There is also a school, the airport (obviously) and... um... a health clinic. I think that just about covers it!

I hope to do some blogging of projects before we go... but with one week left.... and lots to organise.... I know you will all forgive me if I don't quite get there!

Blessings to you all,
Claire xo

Brayering

I find that as I spend more time practicing techniques and making cards that I am really enjoying the creative side of stamping. Something I love right now is using a brayer. The brayer is like a smooth rubber paint roller. You ink it up and apply the ink to gloss card stock to acheive a gradient look like you can see on the card here. I love my Owl together now stamp set and it was fun to use it on this little card. The cardstock colours are Not quite navy, Summer sun and Ruby red. The ink colours used for the brayering were Ruby red, More mustard and Summer sun. The branch, owl and greeting are stamped in Basic black and then coloured using Chocolate chip, More mustard and Always artichoke with the blender pens. The greeting is from the God's blessings stamp set.

Happy Stamping!

Love, Claire.

Quick Christmas Card Kit

Paula and I have come up with a fun Christmas card kit so that you can get your cards made up pronto! Plus, with this kit you will have two scrapbooking pages completed before the Christmas photos have even been taken and 6 tags for your gifts! You are going to be so organised :)

Our I wish Christmas card kit includes:

• 1/2 pack of "I Wish" Simply Scrappin' Kit (2 1/2 sheets designer series paper, 4 sheets textured 12"x12" cardstock, 3 sheets of self adhesive die cuts)
• 8 sheets of Kraft A4 cardstock
• 1m Real red 1/4" grosgrain ribbon
• 1.5m Chocolate chip Taffeta ribbon
• 1m White Taffeta ribbon
• 10 Stampin' Dimensionals
• Stampin' Write Marker pen (your choice of colour)
• FREE punched shapes

The kit makes 12 Christmas cards, 6 gift tags and 2 Scrapbooking layouts (all pictured below). In your kit you will receive printed pictures of each card design for your inspiration or you can create as you wish.

All this for just $34 including postage

Why not add on some Tombow glue ($7.95), Snail adhesive ($12.95) or a Horizontal slot punch ($11.50) and we'll waive the postage charge!

Levi is 1!!

We had a little party for Levi as he turned one last week! I can't believe how fast this year has gone. *sigh*

Here is the gorgeous birthday boy enjoying a swing before his guests arrived:

This is the cake:

Levi's first taste of cake... and blue (what was I thinking?!) icing:

Our family on party day:

Thank you to all our friends who were there and your lovely presents. It was a joy to share this special occasion with you.

Flower pot card

Hi my fellow stampers!

I wanted to share this cute little card with you because it's just so, well... cute! There are lots of versions around on the web but this is my version of it using the sets and things that I own. I found the template for the pot at Andrea Walford's blog and she has her version of the card too using the Petal Pizzazz stamp set which I don't have yet. I used Eastern Blooms to stamp mine and the round scallop punch to make Old olive greenery behind the flowers. The flowers are stamped in Pink Pirouette and Rose Red. The pot is Close to cocoa and the DSP is Walk in the park from our current mini catalogue (available until end Nov). I hope you like it!

Please comment or join as a follower if you are enjoying my blog. I love to hear what you think! Happy Stamping!!

Clairey

More Christmas cards :)

I hope you are feeling festive! Because I have a couple more Christmas cards for you! These cards were part of our Christmas Stamp-a-stack which we held today. We had 14 ladies altogether and had heaps of fun and I think everyone left feeling pretty happy that they had *already* completed 12 Christmas cards!

This card is really quick and easy. Just trace a circle in pencil on the front of your Very vanilla card and then stamp the medium Old olive snowflakes around the circle. Pop the small Real red snowflakes in between and voila! You have a wreath. A touch of Riding Hood Red Striped Grosgrain ribbon and the card is completed. The stamp set we used here is Snow Swirled.

This one took a little longer... But basically you just stamp your Real red Christmas decorations onto Whisper white cardstock (Using the Stampamajig here for perfect placement is ESSENTIAL!). It is almost impossible to see in the photo but the middle decoration has some dazzling diamonds glitter on it. The ribbon is 1/4" Basic black grosgrain and we used the large oval and delightful Oval Scallop (Spring mini) punches for the sentiment. The stamp sets used are Tree Trimmings (Spring Mini available until end Nov 30) and Best Yet which is a level 1 hostess set.

Thanks for looking!!! Claire xo

Beautiful butterflies

I just love the Great Friend set from the Stampin' Up Spring Mini Catalogue. And there are only two more months left that it can be purchased. I thought I would have a little play with it today and came up with this card using the rock and roll method for the butterflies:

I used Certainly Celery for the card and the inks used for the butterflies are Orchid opulence with Lovely lilac, Pirouette pink with Pixie pink and Tempting turquoise with Brilliant blue. The ribbon is 1/4" Pretty in Pink Grosgrain and the oval punch is pink pirouette.

I hope this can be a little bit of inspiration for you!

Happy Stamping,

Love Claire

Christmas is coming...

A friend said today that there are only three months til Christmas. I almost fell off my chair! Where has this year gone?
Actually I have already started designing Christmas cards - we made one of them during August for our Spring Mini release.


Tonight I am having a quiet night at home and actually heading off for an early night soon as we're recovering from an awful tummy bug in our house. But a friend of mine is hosting a workshop at her house tonight even though I can't be there! She is a great stamper and will do a super job of it, I know! They will be making a couple of Christmas cards to take home and I thought I would share them with you. There are two cards in the picture with different colour options... and I have added to them. The vanilla card now has a Real red sentiment on it and the Chocolate card has a red tie on the ribbon now too!
It's not a very clear picture, I am so sorry (I have to work on my photography skills!)... but don't you just love the eyelet border at the top. It is such a lovely punch and really quite easy to use too.
Thanks for looking!
Happy Stamping,
Claire :)

Mini scrap card

At a recent workshop I made a version of this little Scrapbook Card. It is a simple and easy way to turn a few special photos into a little card to mail to someone. It can just pop into a small envelope to post! I used the bugs and kisses stamp set which I borrowed from Paula. It is such a fun set to use for kids. The colours are pacific point and kiwi kiss.

The base of the card is made using half an A4 sheet cut lengthways and then you score it into thirds to make the folds.

This is a fun project to show at a workshop - contact me if you would like to book one with me.

Happy Stamping!

Love, Claire

Fun kids stuff

On Saturday I had fun at a workshop for my lovely friend from church. School holidays have just begun and so she held a kids craft workshop and we made icypole cards... :) They are really so cute! The kids seemed to quite enjoy it. These are the cards we made:

They are really easy to make just using a few punches - 1 1/4" circle, 1 3/8" circle, scallop circle and corner rounder. The stamp set is called Tart and Tangy. Aren't the images so cute?

Another idea for kids that I came across a couple of weeks back is this little card. It was inspired by Aubri Nixon . I have changed it a bit but used her general idea. It is very simple just involved tearing, sponge daubing, stamping and a bit of watercolour. The lines on the road are made using our white signo pen.

Well that's it from me for now! Happy Stamping!!,

Love, Claire

Spring Mini Catalogue Launch

Just a quick announcement about my Spring Mini Catalogue Launch to be held next Saturday. If you are interested make sure you email me at jc_dauncey@bigpond.com ASAP so that I can prepare your kits! The classes will be run by myself and Paula Fuller and we will be using some beautiful new products from the Spring Mini Catalogue. So much fun!

CARDMAKING WORKSHOP!!

On Saturday 15 August 2009
From 1-5pm

You will complete 4 cards and 2 packaging projects
(this includes something for Dad for Father’s
Day), You will learn some new techniques and
have an enjoyable afternoon.
$25 per person, or bring a friend and
get in for $20 each. This includes afternoon
tea and lucky door prize.
Orders can be taken on the day or book your inhome
workshop. Bonus incentives for workshops
booked on the day.
Please bring: a friend, scissors/paper trimmer,
glue/tape adhesive, work mat, pencil and ruler,
scorer.

I look forward to seeing you there!
Claire

Spring Mini Swap

Hi all!

I was very excited to get involved in my first ever card swap last week. It was for the Spring Mini catalogue so we all used the new stamp sets and products from there. I made a little Christmas card using the Tree trimmings stamp set and the lovely Ski slope Designer series paper. This paper is quite Christmassy but also very adaptable to other projects using delicious colours such as Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Old Olive and Baja Breeze. I based my card around these colours as I thought it was such a genius combo. The sentiment is stamped from the hostess stamp set, 'Best yet' - one of my current favourites! The decorations have been given the bling treatment with a sprinkling of dazzling diamonds glitter.

For those who aren't in the lingo, A card swap involves making multiple copies of the one card to send out to a group of people who all do the same back. So what you end up with is a range of different designs from different people. There were 10 people in this swap so we'll all end up with 10 different cards.

I hope you feel inspired :) Happy Stamping!!

Claire

Great Friend Tri Shutter Card

This card was so much fun to create! A few scores, folds and cuts and you have this very special looking card. The left image is the front of the card when folded and the right image is the card opened up. I enjoyed using up some of my Raspberry Tart Designer Series Paper (DSP) and it looks lovely next to the Great Friend stamp set images. Great Friend is one of the new stamp sets in the Spring Mini Catalogue. In fact, if you attend our Spring Mini launch workshop on August 15th you will get to make one of these lovely cards. I hope to see you there!

Claire

Spring Mini Catalogue out now!

The Stampin' Up Spring Mini Catalogue is released today! Click on the link to the left to see all the lovely new stamp sets and accessories!
If you would like to host a workshop and see some of our gorgeous new products in action just contact me at jc_dauncey@bigpond.com to arrange your date.
We are also hosting a launch for the new Spring Mini on Saturday August 15th. Contact me for more details.

I hope to pop back on later today or tomorrow to upload some new projects from the new mini catalogue.

Happy Stamping!
Claire

Upsy Daisy

I received my new stamp set, Upsy Daisy the other day and christened it with a card inspired by a friend.

It was fun to use a new set and also some new Stampin' Up buttons. The card stock is Summer sun (textured), Riding hood red and Tangerine tango with Real red ribbon and ink. I have used the dazzling diamonds glitter on the daisies too.

And this is another card which we made at a workshop recently using white ink. The colours are Old Olive (textured), Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise and Rose Red. The stamp sets are Best Yet and Eastern Blooms.

My beautiful little boy...

Isn't he gorgeous? I just love him so much.... Just the other day he and Julian were sitting watching something on TV whilst I cooked dinner and I hear Julian say (with a little laugh in his voice), "Ethan, what are you doing?... Are you... folding washing?" to which Ethan replied with a giggle, "Yes!!"

My little rough and tumble, slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails 4 year old boy was folding the face washers whilst he watched TV! Just like his Mum!! Aah it makes me smile inside to think back to it!

Didn't he do a wonderful job?! I could not help but take a photo of it... which shall in turn be scrapbooked.

A pack of cards

Hi all (Well, hi Nat as I think she is the only one so far who even reads my blog :p !!)

Just thought I would upload a few cards I have made over the past few days. I am actually sending these to a friend as a gift - 'A pack of cards'. Hope she likes them :)




This is the 'wrapping' (The dark brown is the back of one of the cards) The stamp set is 'Yummy' which I wish was still available as it is a lovely and simple set of stamps.

This real red and brilliant blue card uses the 'Loads of Love' 2 step stampin' set which is really sweet and I have watercoloured (with ink and blender pens) the little truck and flowers. The large blue card behind the whisper white has been crumpled to add some texture to the card.

I challenged myself to create a card just with Designer Series paper and this is what happened! I cheated! I ended up adding some kiwi kiss/very vanilla ribbon and a stamped greeting from the 'Best Yet' current SU Level 1 Hostess set.

This was another attempt at a DSP only card which I used the scalloped edge punch for and added some lovely very vanilla ribbon to. This card was very inspired by one I saw on Splitcoast stampers.

Not too sure about this one.... I do like the colours though. i've been keen to try out using a thin strip of paper as ribbon.

My favourite card - I used markers on the flower stamp (regal rose, rose red, so saffron, old olive). I actually feel like there is something missing on this card but was very happy with the stamping effect using the markers.

I won't bore you by listing all the colours and stamp sets/papers etc but feel free to ask if you are interested.... and of course, all products are SU!! My cards are very simple but I hope you have gained a little inspiration.

Blessings,

Claire

whoo-la-la

This is the card that we made at my first Workshop held by my friend Kristie. It's using the new Two step stampin' set called 'Owl together Now'. I taught the group how to use the aqua painters and blender pens to achieve a watercolour look. We used the Stamp-a-majig to line up the stamps.

Cardstock: chocolate chip, rose red, very vanilla

Ink: Versamark, basic black (suitable for bordering watercolour), rose red

Ribbon: Old olive

Other: Watercolour pencils

Contact me if you would like to purchase any of these SU! products or have any questions.

Tea or coffee?

I just love having friends pop by for a visit. And usually, the first question they'll be asked after walking the length of our hallway is, "Tea or Coffee?". And hopefully there is something sweet and home baked to accompany that warming cuppa!!
I hope this blog will be a place that my friends can stop by to see what I have been up to in the world of food and craft.

This morning I had great fun with a couple of girls stamping at a Techniques workshop run by my friend (and Stampin' Up upline) Paula. We learnt some great new inking techniques including crayon resist, two-step stamping, using the brayer and split negative stamping.

I have just joined up with Stampin' Up! as a demonstrator and will hold my first workshop next Sunday night! I am really looking forward to sharing my enjoyment of cardmaking and scrapbooking with my friends.

Well my littlest is calling from his cot so that'll be all for today. Photos soon!

Claire