Some scrapbooking and some tangerine loveliness from Christine ....

I have been spending some time this weekend updating some photo albums and posting some of them in my sidebar to enable easier searching through my past creations. In the process I came across some layouts that I haven't shared on my blog, so here they are!

This one was of our summer holiday at Tootgarook last year. The picture opens out to include some more photos and lots of journaling.

 

 

This next one is a snapshot of three different days at the same church, St Andrews Uniting Church in St Georges Terrace Perth. The top photo is my Mum and Dad and after their wedding in 1954. The second photo is my sister Debbie and my Dad at her wedding in 1976, and the bottom photo is my own wedding in March 1997.

 

This one is for my All About Me album, and is just a little story about how I NEED my me time, and peace and quiet.

 

My lovely friend (and now Stampin' Up! downline) Christine popped over Saturday and made me laugh and rescued me with a desperately needed craft supply. She bought some of here creations with her which NEARLY make me love orange! Aren't her cards gorgeous? Just love the combination of the Old Olive stems and Kiwi Kiss reeds in this Inspired by Nature card. It really shows the depth don't you think?

 

There's also this lovely Choc Chip, Tangerine Tango and Kiwi Kiss Fifth Avenue Floral card.

 

Christine has been lucky enough to recently score a custom built craft room (sooooooo jealous) so if you are in the Mt Evelyn area, give her a call. Christine can be contacted via her blog.

Be back soon, have a happy and creative week and don't forget to check out my updated galleries. Yes I am now very aware I need to make more baby, kids and male cards. I think I have enough floral ones to last me a few years!!

Claire xx

Circle Circus ....

Needed some bright and happy cards and reached for the versatile Stampin' Up! Circle Circus again. I am loving how easy it is to combine the various patterns in this set. This is also one of my favourite colour combinations Chocolate Chip, More Mustard and RoseRed.

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

• Stamps: Circle Circus, Basic Phrases, Sanded Background (left card)
• Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, More Mustard, Whisper White
• Ink: Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, More Mustard
• Punches: Word Window (left card), Large Oval (right card)
• Accessories: Rose Red 1" stitched ribbon (left card), Chocolate Chip 5/8" Grosgrain, Flower Fusion, Flower Fusion Too, Earth Elements Brads, Vintage Brads

Hope you are having a lovely creative and happy week!

Claire

Bloomin' Beautiful and another guest stamper ....

Last night my four favourite stamping buddies came over for an impromptu night of stamping as Paul has gone away with some mates on a golf weekend. The boys got to sleep in the lounge and we sat and stamped and laughed until the week hours. Was lots of fun. Josh (7) has got to know these friends so well and gets very excited when they come over to stamp. Last night he even wanted to do a pass the parcel game for them which was very cute! While he was at school I packaged up some treat bags with each of the girls favourite colour combination and Josh wrapped them all up and ran the game (with his own singing, not taped music). It was priceless.

Here's the one card I managed to come up with for the whole night. In fact the Basic Gray base was already stamped and embossed, so I didn't do much at all in over 5 hours. I did have lots of fun chatting though :)

The base is stamped with the retired Linen background and clear embossed with Baroque Motifs. The flower from Stampin' Up! Bloomin' Beautiful is watercoloured using the ink pads (Pink Passion and Old Olive) and then raised up with Dimensionals and Crystal Effects added. The greeting (from Basic Phrases) is embossed in white. Here's a side on view.

Each of the girls made some beautiful creations. Judy and Christine have both recently signed up as demonstrators and have started their own blogs. Leanne is really getting into card making and bought along a gorgeous monochromatic Friends 24/7 card but I didn't get a picture. Next time!

Kerry is our bright colour stamper and always makes the most lovely creations. She would have signed up too, but already has her online stamping business called Scrapinabox. She made the most gorgeous card using Raspberry tart and the Embrace Life stamp set which she has white embossed onto the patterned paper. I asked her if I could borrow it for a guest stamper spot. Isn't it GORGEOUS?

 

These girls are so much fun, and I am so grateful they are so tolerant of my sometimes crazy boys. We are going away for a Christmas in July weekend of stamping in a couple of months. How much fun will that be. Here's a picture of Leanne and Kerri playing pass the parcel last night.

      

Quiet night at home tonight so hoping to have some more creations to share in the morning. Let's see if I can manage more than 1 card in 5 hours!

Hope you are having a great weekend,

Claire xx

Introducing Di Gill in Blackburn ...

On Monday one of my downlines popped in for some one on one support and she also bought along some of her latest creations. Wow she had some gorgeous cards, and this is just a tiny sample. I was particularly impressed with the way Di uses colour. She has a great eye for colour combinations and she was telling me she used to work in design involving colour in a previous job.

Check out these lovely creations she let me 'borrow':

 

 

Di holds a monthly stamping get together for customers and will soon be starting classes. She is also available for workshops, so if you are in the Blackburn area or happy to travel,Di would love to hear from you. You can contact her by email and check out lots more creations on her blog. I know you'll love being inspired by Di :)

Back with some creations of my own tomorrow. Hope you are all warm, well and happy,

Claire xx

Bella's Bloom and Bella's Border ....

This was one of the beautiful sets I was given as part of the incentive program with Stampin' Up! last year. It was on my wish list as soon as I opened the catalogue, so it was lovely to get it for free. Stampin' Up! are a very generous company and there are so many opportunities to earn free stamps as being a demonstrator).

My first card on the left is cased straight from the catalogue on page 143. I changes the stamp set, used Baja Breeze instead of Bashful Blue and added the small flower to the background. The other colours are Kraft, Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip. The flower image has been stamped off once to give a softer look. Whenever I use a dark colour for a card base, I like to stamp an inside section for the handwritten note. I like to keep this pretty simple, but coordinating with the card front. Here's a close up of this card and the inside as well.

 

 

For the next card I used the coordinating stampin' around wheel Bella's Border. I love this border wheel. It has such a shabby chic feel, so I distressed the edges to follow that look. The greeting was made using a combination of the Word Window (cut in half and stretched out under the greeting), the 1 3/8 circle punch and the Designer label Punch. Other than that it's just some stamping of the small flower in Versamark, and some Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon, which is one of the swaps I have available this month (more information below). Here's a closer view of the card and the inside of this one.

 

 

This Months Kit - buy just the instructions for $25. Available until May 31st.

The instructions for theBeautiful Bella 6 projects featuring Stampin Up Friends 24/7 stamp set and Bella Rose Designer Series Paperare ready to be emailed to anyone wanting to either buy the kit (and get the instructions free) including the products, or just buy the instructions for $25.00.Demonstrators are welcome to purchase. These can also be emailed worldwide). Here's a sneak peek of the projects, lots of shabby vintage loveliness!

 

To view the product contents and buy the kit, visit the kits page.

To buy just the instruction for $25.00, pay via credit card using the PayPal button below or you can also pay via direct deposit (email me for details). These instructions are an email PDF file.

Product Shares

Would you like to stock up on some gorgeous Stampin' Up! ribbons that coordinate beautifully with our papers and cardstock? If you participate in a ribbon share, you can get lots of different colours for around the price of 1-2 rolls of ribbon. For example you could have all these gorgeous soft Taffeta colours:

You can read all about the ribbon shares available and how to get your name on the list on my ribbon share page.

Hope you have a lovely week. Until next time, happy creating!

Claire xx