A card for my love

Hi stampers!

It's my hubby's birthday today and I thought I would share with you the card I made for him.

For those that haven't caught up with the news, we are off to Melbourne (we arrived last night!) for a new job for my husband with an airline! He'll be flying a similar plane to the one in the Sentimental journey stamp set (sadly retired) so I thought this was the perfect image to use this year.

The sentiment comes from Bring on the cake (y'all must know how much I love this Birthday greeting set - it's so versatile!). The background text stamp is from Daring adventure, one of my new most favourite stamp sets and the papers come from the Floral district set of DSPs. This is a good example of how floral papers can be used in a men's card especially when the papers are double sided! The button is one of the gorgeous new Naturals desinger buttons and there is a little bit of the Midnight muse satin stitched ribbon in there too. I love trying to break the rules and sneak some ribbon onto mens cards!

A roll of this gorgeous satin stitched ribbon can be yours for free when you place a $60 order this month and you can choose from 5 different colours. Click here for more information and contact me if you'd like to order. You can also visit my facebook page for regular updates and message me on there.
Happy stamping!

Something "manly"

Hi my stamping friends :)

I truly used to fear making mens cards but over the years I have realised that they are actually quite easy! I have a few key tips for making mens cards:

• Rough it up a bit. Distress the edges using not too sharp scissors or our Cutter kit (p.149 of the Idea book and catalogue)
• Ink up the edges using a Stamping sponge or sponge dauber and the same colour ink as cardstock. This just gives a bit of an antique/aged look. 
• Add some metal. Stampin' up!s Metallic Brads are perfect! 
• Add some texture. I have to hold myself back from using my square lattice embossing folder on every mens card I make! 

The card pictured is one that we made on Friday evening at an in home workshop. The hostess asked for some ideas for mens cards and this one I felt was fairly neutral and could work for different ages. See, you can even make a man card without a car or a boat stamp in sight!

We used the super fun Grunge rock stamp set and some of the girls who knew guitar playing men decided to add a little stamped and hand cut guitar image from the same stamp set to their cards. I love seeing the creativity expressed at workshops! It's awesome.

If you'd like to host your own workshop (and request a theme) then please let me know as I would be thrilled to help you out! Don't forget until the end of July we are still showing our hostesses how much we love them by giving them an extra $90 to spend when sales reach $650!

Happy Stamping!
Love Claire

New mini and a stamping class!

Hi my stamping Friends!!

It's April! Time for a new mini catalogue! YAY!
Oh and it's so beautiful... please click the link to the right of this post to see the lovely new Autumn-Winter mini catalogue. I had to seriously hold myself back from buying almost everything in this one!

Below I have a little card which uses a few new products!

We have a gorgeous new set of diecutting frames for the big shot. They are called Framelit labels and come in a set of 6 so you can cut out and layer them! And, of course, it wouldn't be Stampin'up! without a co-ordinating stamp set! The lovely Apothecary Art set works delightfully with the framelits. The stamp set includes four label shaped stamps of different sizes and two greetings, "Happiest birthday"and "So grateful".



In this next photo you may also notice some divine new pleated satin ribbon in Baja breeze as well as that dainty little patterned paper down the bottom there which is from the Twitterpated range that includes DSP (Designer series papers), Designer fabric, some flowery little designer buttons in Blushing bride and Baja breeze and of course that ribbon! Yummo!

 

You can see here I have also had some fun with the Vintage wallpaper and Square lattice embossing folders and the sweet little Scallop trim border punch. The little flower comes from the Boho bossoms punch and has a little pearl as the centre.
The colours used on this card are Whisper white, Lucky limeade, Basic Gray, Calypso coral, Poolparty (marker), Baja breeze (ribbon and DSP).

I will be running a stamping class next Thursday evening, April 19th at 7:30pm. And this is one of the cards we will be making on the night. If you can make it along please RSVP by April 16th.

Thanks for looking and Happy Stamping!
Love Claire

Something pretty.... and some upcoming blog candy!

Hello my friends!

I have a pretty little card to share with you today. This was made for my Mum's birthday in late May. I just love making these sweet little flowers at the moment! I have used the square lattive embossing folder for the crumb cake base of the card and there are also some stamped flourishes from the Vintage vogue stamp set there too. The other colours I have used are Chocolate chip, Very vanilla, Blushing bride and Pear pizzazz.

Here you can see the flower up a little bit closer - it is made using the scallop circle punch. You cut the scallop circle into a spiral before winding it up into the flower shape. I must confess that I learnt this technique on youtube!

I have also noticed that I am coming up to my 100th blog post so I thought that it was high time I had a blog candy competition!! I will be back in the next couple of days with more information about how you can enter to win some free Stamping items!

Stampin' up! are also offering a great promotion this month. It is a free gift with purchase promo which means that if you spend $100 you will receive a free roll of ribbon and a set of 48 designer buttons (see picture below)! Click here for more information.



Please comment or email me at clairedaunceysu@gmail.com if you have any queries about this card or this months special offer.

Happy Stamping!
Love, Claire

A FUN Inkspiration

Hi girls!

I am not sure what it is but the Inkspirations challenges are inspiring me to scrapbook lately! This weeks challenge (#56) is a colour challenge comprising of Basic black, Cherry cobbler, Baja breeze and Whisper white. I'll admit, it wasn't an easy one for me at first but once I pulled out all my ink, CS and accessories it started to come together quite quickly. I have just made an A4 layout here (I didn't have 12x12 in any of the colours!) so I will probably place this onto a 12x12 at some stage. I do quite like making progressive pages such as this where you can place a smaller completed layout onto a 12x12 sheet. I think for me a 12x12 piece of CS can seem a little overwhelming at first!

I have once again used the big shot for a bit of added texture and interest. I just love this square lattice embossing folder and of course the sweet little top note shape for journalling. This stamp set, Notes and Details from the Summer mini catalogue is perfect for Scrapbooking with. I have also used the now retired Big Deal alphabet and the also retired baja striped ribbon.

This is my favourite part of this layout, Ethan's cheeky little smile! Oh I just love him :)

Happy Stamping!

Love, Claire

Just in time for Just add ink!

I have a last minute entry for this weeks challenge over at Just add ink. This is such a sweet colour combo that I couldn't miss it! The colours are: Early espresso, Soft suede, Rose red and Regal rose. I have been waiting on my order to arrive from Stampin' Up! which included some soft suede cardstock but alas it is not here yet so this card had to go ahead without it! Please excuse the poor photography... it was way too windy outside today to get a decent photo and I had dear little Levi (2 years old) 'helping' me with the camera also! lol


I really love using this Vintage vogue stamp set. Here I have done a little collage stamping using soft suede and rose red. The collage panel is dotted with three small hand cut flowers each centred with a basic pearl. This is then mounted onto some regal rose cardstock which is on some embossed Rose red which is finally mounted on some Early Espresso for the card base. This sweet soft suede polkadot ribbon is from the mini catalogue in Autumn last year. I do wish I had bought more of this ribbon at the time! Oh well...

I hope this inspires you to create something today!
Happy Stamping!
Love, Claire

Something for the man in your life

Hi girls!

A big happy new year to you all! May 2011 be a wonderful year for you in all you do!

I have a confession... when the 2010-11 Stampin'Up! Idea book was released I was quite disapointed by the lack of new mens stamp sets. Well can I just say that the new Summer mini catalogue has totally redeemed this situation! There are new products in this mini that make great mens cards!

Here I have made a card for a male birthday. I have used the gorgeous new Sentimental Journey stamp set from the mini and teamed it up with the Travel Journal designer series papers. That gorgeous Bashful blue cardstock has been embossed with the new Square lattice embossing folder on the Big shot and to tie in with the DSP I have used a knotted piece of pumpkin pie grosgrain ribbon (love this vibrant ribbon) and stamped a sentiment from the Upsy Daisy stamp set in Pumpkin pie ink. All of this is positioned on a Crumb cake base.

The Sentimental Journey stamp set has 8 stamps in it including a ship, airplane, car, suitcase and compass plus three word stamps - journey, travel and detour. This is a set that is also brilliant for scrapping with and I plan to use it for this as I have so many travel photos yet to be scrapped!

Please click on the link to the left to see the Summer mini catalogue and drop me an email if you wish to make a purchase.

I mentioned that there are a few new products for masculine cards in this mini, so I will be back with more soon!

Happy Stamping! Love, Claire