SAM Creative Challenge #12

I love the Stampin' Up! scrapbooking challenges over at Stampamemory and the fabulous inspiration the design team give us to scrapbook. This fortnights challenge SAM #12 was a pet/animal theme and I just had to jump in and create a page after seeing the fabulous pages the design team had come up with.

My page is about Bella, my Mum's pet horse. Bella is one indulged horse! Each day Mum lets her out of her lovely paddock at the back of her large block into Mum's backyard and it's not unusual to be making a cuppa at Mum's house and look up and see Bella staring back at you through the window! She gets carrots and apples for afternoon tea, as well as her normal feed and unfortunately has also been known to supplement her diet with Mum's vegie patch before Mum fenced that off! The boys absolutely love visiting Mum in Busselton and love to pat and feed Bella, so we hope to get back to WA to be able to see my family again soon.

Here's a summary of the Stampin' Up! products I have used on this layout:

• Stamps: Jumbo Outline alphabet; Vintage Vogue
• Cardstock and DSP: Kraft, Baja Breeze, Urban Oasis DSP
• Accessories: So Tweet Chipboard; Round Tab Punch; Small Heart Punch; Designer Buttons; Vintage Brads, Clear Rhinestone Brads

It's going to be a bit quiet with new creations on my blog over the next couple of weeks as school holidays start tomorrow in Victoria and my focus will be very much on the boys and spending some quality time with them. We are looking forward to hanging out together and spending a week at the family beach house together with my sister and niece who are flying over from Perth. I don't get to see my family very often so this will be very special for us.

I will pop in with a pre-planned project for the next Art With Heart blog hop on the first Saturday in July. Other than that I hope you have a great couple of weeks and I will see you back after the school holidays.

Happy creating,

Claire xx

 

Totally unrelated to stamping, but ....

Do you know anyone with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), or who is trying to lose weight to assist with getting pregnant? That's my 'other' work and I am trying to spread the word about my new PCOS Diet Blog and PCOS Facebook Page where I will be updating on these topics regularly. There are some articles already written on these topics, and you can also sign up to receive a link to a PCOS friendly recipe to try out each week - these will start this week.

Thanks for helping me spread the word!

Claire

Stampin' Up! Fox and Friends ...

Last night I had a fabulous fun night stamping with 5 of my downlines, while Paul and the boys had a Dad and sons weekend down at the beach house. The first girls arrived just after 3pm and the last left at 1.45am so it was a fabulous night with lots of laughing, creating and eating! Love these get togethers where we get to borrow each others stamps and share ideas and WOW at each others projects. I managed to get 10 cards completed! Here's one of them which I made using Sam Kaspars borrowed stamp sets.

These little Stampin' Up! Fox and Friendscritters are certainly growing on me and have firmly planted themselves on my next SU order list. I teamed them together with Just Add Ink #22, a colour challenge - Rich Razzleberry, Kiwi Kiss, Temping Turquoise and Whisper White. This is the first time I have used the Stampin' up! set Heard from the Heart from the Autumn Winter Mini Catalogue. I LOVED how it stamped so fine and crisp, even with the white embossing so that's on my next order too!

The little strip of Kiwi Kiss patterns Designer Series Paper is actually attached to the inside of the card with the scalloped border on the front. Another tip - if you are embossing with white embossing powder, the embossing buddy is a must to make sure the embossing powder doesn't go where you don't want it to! It's just $9.50 and you can grab one from me. You just wipe it accross the cardstock before stamping the image in Versamark.

Here's the Stampin' Up! supplies I have used on this one:

• Stamps: Fox and Friends, Heard from the Heart, Polka Dot Background
• Cardstock and DSP: Rich Razzleberry, Tempting Turquoise, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss Patterns DSP
• Ink: Temping Turquoise, Rick Razzleberry, Kiwi Kiss, Versamark
• Punches: Square Scallop Punch, 1 1/4" square punch, Scallop Border Punch
• Other: White Embossing Powder, Embossing Buddy
   

Hope you like today's card. Just email me or call me on 03 97352946 if you would like to get any of the supplies I have used to recreate this card at home.

Have more cards and treats to show you during the week so see you back here soon,

Claire xx

Calling all Early Bird Christmas Papercrafters .....

One of my lovely customers Judith Tetley, is hosting an awesome early bird Christmas crafting event on her blog for all types of crafts, and I am chipping in with some papercraft tutorials and inspiration. It goes for 4 months and the idea is that you get organised and prepare as many Christmas things by the end of September. Each month has a different theme and this month is mini gifts. You can read all about the event on Judith's blog here. If you do choose to sign up as a result of reading about it here on my blog, please leave a comments and let me know. As well as listing your name on Judith's blog I'm suggesting us papercrafters have a link to each others blogs for this project so we can check out what everyone else is making. What do you think? Would be fun and friendly in the lead up to Christmas.

As I said I plan to do tutorials to inspire the papercrafters in this event as a way of helping Judith and joining in the fun. My first tutorial is a gift box which is designed to fit the little 85g boxes of Guylian chocolates (about $3-$4 each in Coles). I thought these would be quick and easy gifts to have on hand.

Here's the step by step instructions to make this little pizza box to perfectly fit the Guylian choccies.

Start with a piece of Chocolate Chip A4 cardstock. I decorated mine first, by stamping the snowflake stamp in matching Chocolate Chip ink from Stampin' Up!'s Winter Post Stamp Set (available from me, just $47.95 plus postage and handling** straight to your door anywhere in Australia).

Leave it the full length (11 5/8"), but trim to 6.5 inches wide, and then score and trim:

• Score at 1 1/4" along both of the long sides.
• Score at 1 1/4", 5 1/4", 6 1/2", 10 3/8", 11 5/8"
• At the end that you finished the scoring on, use a circle punch (I used 1" but other sizes could be substituted)
• Cut along each of the score lines on both long sides (4 places) up to the 1 1/4" score line.

Your cardstock should look like this:

Next place strong adhesive (I have used Stampin' Up! Sticky Strip which is great for holding papercraft boxes firmly together) on the right sideof each of the four corners and the centre tab. 

Each of these tabs is now folded inwards and adhered to the adjacent side piece to make a little pizza style box.

I then decorated my box using elements from the Stampin' Up! 'I Wish' Simply Scrapping Kit and some matching Stampin' Up! Real Red ribbon.

This 'I Wish' Simply Scrappin' Kit is a great little kit if you want to do some Christmas crafting and have everything coordinate. You get 8 sheets of textured 12x12 cardstock in Old Olive, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, as well as 6 sheets (3 each of 2 designs of coordinating 12x12 Christmas paper) and 6 sheets of cardstock weight stickers. Everything matches and we even sell the coordinating ribbon. If you would like to get this great Christmas papercraft pack sent straight to your door anywhere in Australia, it's just $36.95 plus postage and handling**. Just email me or call 03 97352946 to order. 

Well I hope this has inspired you to get into some Christmas crafting and to participate in Judith's challenge. If you would like some more free papercraft tutorials, check out my free tutorials page. I'll also be making some more projects and posting them here as part of Judith's challenge. Thanks for the inspiration and friendship Judith!

Until next time, happy crafting.

Claire xx
 
** Postage and handling on Stampin' Up! orders is 5% or $5.95 (whichever is greatest) and orders placed through m can be sent to your door quick smart anywhere in Australia. 
 

 

Scrapbooking 6x4 Photos ...

If you are anything like me you have stacks of 6x4 inch prints lying around just begging to be scrapbooked! It's sometimes nice to have enlargements to scrap, but I also like scrapbooking 6x4 photos. It lets me order prints before I have decided what my page layout needs to be, and then when the scrapbooking bug hits me like it did this past long weekend, I am ready to go!

Here's some easy 6x4 photo layouts, all using Kraft cardstock as my background. Why don't you have a go scrapbooking some 6x4 layouts of your own using these layouts? I'd love to see what you come up with, so make sure you leave me a linked comment if you do!

This first one was a story about the fabulous day my friend and downline Miriam Thomas had before convention. It was great fun cruising on the harbor, walking around and having a long lunch on the waters edge! This is just a simple stack of 3 6x4 photos, with some embellishments.

Stampin' Up! products used:

• Stamp Sets: Baroque Motifs and Friends 24/7
• Cardstock: Kraft, Naturals Ivory, Taken with Team and Really Rust
• Ink: Sahara Sand
• Other: Two Step Bird Punch, Designer Buttons, Timeless Type Junior Alphabet for Big Shot.

This second one features just one 6x4 photo, one I really liked of my first two Art with Heart team Managers to come with me to a Managers Reception at Convention, Sue Madex and Miriam Thomas. I am so proud of them and their great team building and leadership skills! I think this scan is a bit glary - sorry! It looks nice in real life! There's also a pink Rhinestone brad in each damask image that hasn't shown up too well.

Stampin' Up! Products used:

• Stamps: Friends 24/7 and Baroque Motifs
• Cardstock and Paper: Bella Rose DSP, Kraft, Whisper White
• Ink: Pink Pirouette, Black Stazon
• Other: Two Step Bird Punch, Rhinestone Brads, Paper Piercer

This final one uses photos that had been waiting to be scrapped for nearly 18 months from an impromptu photo shoot in the backyard on Fathers Day 2008. There's a couple of bits and pieces from my stash on this one as well. Again I love the versatility of the Kraft background.

Stampin' Up! products used:

• Cardstock:Kraft, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive
• Paper: Bella Rose Designer Series Paper
• Other: Two Step Bird Punch 

I hope this inspires you to dig out some 6x4 photos and scrap them yourself. If you do, please link back her and leave a comment with a link to your page so we can come by and give you some comment love!

Until next time,

Claire xx