Handbags by Cara & I

Hi, it's bad blogger here! Sorry about the lack of posts...again! School hols have been really busy & I haven't managed to blog even the very few projects I've made, but I'm trying to start catching up over the next week. Cara started back at school today & I have a half hour to get this post done, so let's get to a card or 2...Cara & I made these during the holidays. She said she wanted to make a handbag card, which is a very old favourite of mine. She also chose the stamps & colours – the heart from Polka Dot Punches (a Sale-a-Bration set) & pink passion (not one you see very often from me!). The template I used was one I modified from a swap made by Michelle Cox for the 2007 SU convention. (I couldn't find a blog or site for Michelle, but if someone knows of one, let me know & I'll add a link). The rose & celery ribbon on mine is a retired SU one. Miss Cara chose some pink & white spotty ribbon (non SU). If you;d like more information or a copy of my template, just drop me an e-mail.
Making these cards brought back very happy memories of my first Stampin' Up! event as a Demonstrator, back in June 2007, as it was the make & take project for my launch. What a chaotic but totally fun day that was & I had no idea that it would be the start of many, many fun classes at home with so many wonderful ladies & now friends.
Just a reminder that during Stampin' Up! Sale-A-Bration, you can receive the 'Polka Dots Punches' stamp set I used here for free during Jan & Feb when you place a $100 order or host a $600 workshop. Check out the link at the right or contact me for more information.
I'll be back with some more backed up projects....Promise!
Di
PS: Best wishes to all the mums with kids starting or going back to school today. The house feels so quiet here!
SuppliesStamps: Polka Dot Punches
Card: very vanilla, pink passion, certainly celery
Ink: Pink passion
Accessories: ribbon, sticker (non SU)
Tools: horizontal slot punch

A challenge or 2 - KW 37 & Mojo 68

Today is the first day in what seems like ages that I've been able to sit down & make something. So, ready to go, I called & called on my mojo, but it wasn't taking any notice so, I decided to try using a sketch to get me started. Enter, my first try at Julee Tilman's Mojo Monday sketch 68 (or Mojo Friday in my case) Then, I saw Kristina's colour challenge 37 was up, so I decided to have a go at combining the two. Imagine my surprise when I realised that Kristina's colours would work beautifully with some of new 'Bali Breeze' paper & ever so cute felt flowers. Yay! So off I went. Here's the challenges.......& here's what I came up with.I had to substitute bashful blue for baja breeze, as we don't have it yet (although I think the blue in the paper is baja breeze?). I was pretty happy with how it came together. The only thing I'm not as happy with is the greeting, as I couldn't quite find one that suited the shape & style I wanted. But hey, it's complete, so it's all good! Anyway, I hope you like my first of hopefully more challenge cards to come.
Thanks for checking it out & happy stamping!
Di
Supplies
Stamps: It's Your Birthday
Card/Paper: old olive, pumpkin pie, bashful blue, Bali Breeze designer paper
Ink: Chocolate chip
Accessories: styled silver hodgepodge frame & brads (summer mini), choc chip grosgrain ribbon, felt fusion flowers (summer mini)
Tools: designer label punch, large oval punch, paper piercer

Christmas stars & new year wishes

Well, I'm back again with my very last project for Christmas & 2008 too. Wow! Where did the year go? I realised that I started blogging last December, so I guess it's my blog-iversary too (hmmm, maybe a celebration is called for)...but I digress. Back to the project – a star card. Earlier in the month I saw this wonderful star on Shelli Gardner's blog, which was a gift from an Aussie demonstrator, Felicity Gray. I absolutely loved it, so when I found this tutorial on Jackie Topa's blog, I HAD to have a go at making some... & couldn't stop. Here's a 5 pointed version.
I've used Holiday Thyme designer paper for both stars, but they'd look beautiful with so many others too. 6 panels are needed if you want to alternate patterns with 2 different papers, or use the same paper in reverse, but I like how 5 points look too. I also added a greeting panel to one side of the base, so I could add a Christmas message.

After I made some, I thought, hmmm, they would be lovely to use year after year. So, to keep them safe, I made a little pizza box to give & store them in. The box is stamped with the star from 'Fun & Fast Notes' & Merry Christmas from 'Occasional Greetings'. I wish I'd remembered about that star stamp before now though, as it would have been beautiful on Christmas cards! Oh well, there's always next year.So, that's all for 2008 except for a LOT of thanks from me....

To my truly wonderful husband Damien, & beautiful girl, Cara, I feel very blessed to be part of your lives & I love you both so very much . Thanks also to Damo for your endless support of my 'crazy hobby' & messy stamping room (errr, home office - sorry!) ;o)

Love & hugs to all my friends & especially to Ngai, Nette, Wendy & Kellie, for so much love, friendship & encouragement. Love you girls!

To my extended family, thanks so much to everyone for their love, support & a welcome ear through a tough year for us all.

To my Stampin' Up family (up, side & down) Janine, Kellie (again), Leanne, Cathy, Andrea & Lynda. I'm so glad Stampin' Up has brought us together & I'm really looking forward to sharing the journey with you all again next year...& to Sam, you rock girl! - I'm so glad we met & hope to share more fun with you soon.

To all my Stampin' Up! blog buddies (so much talent, so little space...but especially, Karen, Sarah & Chrissie) who inspire me so much, thanks for sharing your ideas & creations. You're all amazing!

Thanks also to everyone who's visited this year & an extra 'mwa' to everyone who's left a comment (or lots....esp Chrissie). I love getting comments & really appreciate your thoughts.

Wow, I didn't think I had so much to say!
So finally, I hope you all have a fun new year celebration & a wonderful year ahead, full of love, happiness & many blessings... and a happy hogmanay to all my Scottish family!

Take care & best wishes & hope to see you here again soon in 2009.
Love Di

Supplies:
Stamps: Fun & Fast Notes, Occasional Greetings
Card/paper: Holiday Thyme designer paper (retired), cranberry crisp (retired), old olive & very vanilla card.
Ink: old olive & cranberry crisp ink pads
Accessories: organdy ribbon (retired)

I {heart} boxes

As promised (although a bit later than planned), here are the boxes I've made this month. Once I started, it was hard to stop, as they're so easy & the results are so cute. Most were samples I made to show at my Christmas gifts class, some were little gifts. All the boxes use the same basic principles & were custom sized to fit the items inside. Anyway, get comfortable, as this is a looong post.

Wintergreen BoxesI really like the patterns & colours in the Wintergreen paper pack....(I know what you're thinking, anything with celery!). While some are Christmas themed, many can be used all year round. I used my yummy celery grosgrain & artichoke grosgrain too to finish them off.
Mini Card BoxThis is a set of 4 gift cards that fit into a little sliding lid box. The stamps are from Season of Joy & Many Merry Messages.Choccy Boxes
These are filled with Dove choccies sandwiched between punched square scallops (a new punch in the Summer Mini). The enjoy stamp is from 'Be Happy' & the merry greeting is from 'Merry Merry'.
Dashing Boxes

Choccy Explosion BoxThis little explosion box filled with 4 decorated choccies is one of my faves. I followed the pattern of the spotty paper to create the lid & made a celery explosion box base to match.Tiny Pizza Box
I followed the Dashing paper pattern again to work out the dimensions of this tiny pizza box , which is filled with Dove choccies & a Stampin' Up!® magnet from Convention.Season of Joy Pizza BoxThis was a larger pizza box filled with more dove choccies decorated with circle scallops.

Holiday Thyme Boxes
I had lots of Holiday Thyme paper left from last Christmas, which I really liked (ahhh memories of cranberry crisp....& did you know the prints in this pack are the same as Wintergreen?), so I made some boxes with it too...as well as one more project I'll have to show you next time.
Holiday Thyme Pizza Box
Holiday Thyme Ink Pad Box
This is a larger rectangular version of a pizza box, which I made up to perfectly fit a Stampin' Up! ink pad. Phew, that was a lot of pics to add! If you'd like more information on anything here, just drop me an e-mail. I'll be back with one more & probably my favourite find of the season.

Back soon!

Di

Supplies:

Wintergreen boxes:

Stamps: Season of Joy, Many Merry Messages, Merry Merry

Card/Paper: wintergreen designer paper, certainly celery, sage shadow, always artichoke & whisper white card

Ink: blue bayou, sage shadow, always artichoke

Accessories: ¾ in celery grosgrain, ¼ inch grosgrain – artichoke, celery, white, artichoke brads (Rich Regals pack)

Tools: punches – scallop circle, square scallop, 1 3/8 in & 1 ¼ in circles, horizontal slot

Dashing BoxesStamps: Season of Joy, Merry Merry, Priceless, Occasional Greetings
Card/Paper: Dashing designer paper, certainly celery, real red, old olive & very vanilla card
Ink: old olive & real red ink pads & markers, summer sun (marker)
Accessories: ¾ in vanilla grosgrain ¼ inch grosgrain – real red
Tools: punches – scallop circle, 1 3/8 in & 1 ¼ in circles
Holiday Thyme BoxesStamps: Occasional GreetingsCard/Paper: Holiday Thyme designer paper (retired), cranberry card (retired), old olive cardInk: old olive ink padAccessories: organdy ribbon (retired)Tools: punches – large & small tag, horizontal slot

Merry Christmas Everyone

I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas, shared with your nearest & dearest. I've had a generally relaxing couple of days with family, after a blur like rest of December. Like the beautiful song I heard sung at church on Christmas Day though, (truly wonderful Christine & Fairlie), "All is Well" in the greater scheme.

Many things I'd planned for this month didn't quite happen as planned, including blogging, finishing a new design for my Christmas cards & actually mailing any cards...except a lucky few that went with parcels. I'm hoping to send some out anyway, but if this doesn't happen, please know that I send the best of wishes to all my family, friends, customers & blog buddies for a wonderful Christmas & new year.

Even though Christmas is becoming a memory, I thought I'd share some final Christmas projects with you. These could easily be adapted to suit any other occasion too!

Christmas SAS Card – Crazy for Pomegranate

This was the 2^nd card from my last Christmas card SAS in November. The colours are purely pomegranate, river rock & old olive & I used part of the tree image from Crazy for Christmas, which is one of my very first & favourite sets. (It's also 20% for a few more days off this month – see this post). At the class, all the ladies made versions with the bauble & present stamps in the set, which looked great too....the colours are off a bit so it doesn't really do it justice (what is it about river rock?)

Christmas Gift Ideas Class

These are the projects we made at my Christmas Ideas class on 6 Dec.First, we all made my fave patterned paper gift card folders using some 'Dashing' designer paper & stamps from 'Big Bold Birthday'.

The second project was a co-ordinated gift box, tag & gift card. Here are two I made:I wanted to show everyone how quick & easy it is to custom make boxes to fit the gift you're giving using a couple of different box making techniques. The box base (15 x 15 x 5cm, or approx 6 x 6 x 2 inches) & gift card are cut from one A4 sheet. You could also make a tag from the leftover, but I needed just a little more for the oversize tag we made. The lid was from part of a 12 x 12 sheet (with plenty of leftovers). If you'd like any other information, or the pattern template for the box & lid, just drop me an e-mail.

I made lots more little boxes, filled with cards & chocs to show everyone how to adapt the principles to make their own custom boxes. There's too many to show you tonight though, so I'll try to get back tomorrow or Sunday with those.

Supplies:

Crazy for Christmas

Stamps: Crazy for Christmas, Season of Joy
Card: purely pomegranate, river rock, old olive, very vanilla
Ink: purely pomegranate, old olive
Accessories: pomegranate double stitched ribbon
Tools: bone folder (distressed edge)

Gift Folder
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday

Card: real red, old olive, very vanilla card, Dashing Designer paper

Ink: old olive real red

Accessories: gold brads, real red & old olive 3/4 inch grosgrain ribbon

Tools: paper piercer, mat pack

Box, Card & Tag

Stamps: Many Merry Messages

Card:Wintergreen designer paper, Certainly celery, always artichoke, soft sky, sage shadow card

Ink: Always artichoke

Accessories: certainly celery 3/4 inch grosgrain ribbon

Tools: large & small oval punch (card), horizontal slot punch (tag)

Live Your Dream projects

I've been waiting for ages to show you these fab projects we made at the last Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Regional training day...but finally here they are. Training days are always huge fun, but this one had the added excitement of getting a first peek at some of the goodies in the Summer Mini. The stamps are from the 'Live Your Dreams' set, the paper is from the co-ordinating Afternoon Tea' paper pack. I also loved the colour combination of choc chip, guava, wild wasabi & soft sky.

This was my favourite of all the projects. It's a little card folder with 3 love note cards & envelopes. Isn't that paper scrumptious...& did you see the square scallop punch? This was also where I got the idea for this larger note card folder.
This is a matchbook type card, complete with edge scalloped with the new scallop edge punch. It's such a simple card, but I think the textured cardstock, metal tag & ribbon make it really special.This is a long tent fold card. We used the flower stem to make the branch for birdie....& I know I'm not usually a big tearer, but I really like it here.Finally, I made some more love note cards with the leftover scraps. There's something about fiddling about with little bits of paper that I really like.

Anyway, hope you liked this peek at what we got up to at Regionals. I'll try to post my second Christmas SAS project tomorrow...once I take some new photos.

Bye for now
Di
Supplies:All ProjectsStamps: Live Your Dream
Card:choc chip, groovy guava, wild wasabi, soft sky, confetti white card. Afternoon Tea designer paper
Ink: wild wasabi, choc chip, groovy guava
Accessories, round metal tags, silver brads, dimesionals, groovy guava & soft sky ribbon, choc chip grosgrain ribbon, choc chip taffeta ribbon, hemp twine
Tools: square scallop punch, scallop edge punch, 1 3/8 & 1 inch circle punch, mat pack & paper piercer

Tie up some Christmas Savings

Not organised for Christmas yet? – no problems. Stampin' Up! have announced a new offer to help you complete your Christmas projects just in time.
All through December, you can purchase the 12 Christmas stamp sets, calendars and accessories listed below at 20% off, when you spend $20 on regular catalogue merchandise....Oh & sorry about the table. It will just not line up for me!

Item #...Page..Description................................Reg Price*.Offer Price*108790...27....Festive Favourites stamp set............ $45.95......$36.76
108772...28....Crazy for Christmas stamp set...........$39.95.....$31.96
110244...29....Snow Flurries stamp set...................$20.95.....$16.76
108930...43....Tag Time stamp set.........................$53.95.....$43.16
108869...111...Many Merry Messages stamp set.........$64.95.....$51.96
103604...133...12" x 12" Days-to-Remember Calendar..$20.95.....$16.76
104144...133...6" x 6" Days-to-Remember Calendar.....$18.95.....$15.16
109663...138...Winter Bright Simply Scrappin' Kit........$36.95.....$29.56
112670...143...Three for You Punch Box.................. $85.95.....$68.76
109055...146...Very Vanilla 5/8" grosgrain ribbon........$14.95.....$11.96
109050...146...Certainly Celery 5/8" grosgrain ribbon...$14.95....$11.96
103372...147...White Square Aluminium Metal Edge tags.$7.50....$6.00
*excluding shipping & handling
Marker Update: There's still time to purchase single Stampin' Write markers for $4.95, as the offer has been extended until 14 December, so don't miss the opportunity to add more of your favourite colours to your stash.
Contact me for more information or to place an order. I WILL be back tomorrow with some Summer Mini projects to show you tomorrow. Sadly, housework got ahead of posting today!
Di J

What time is it? – Summer time

I'm back with another song title post & much better, some new goodies – YAY, the new Stampin' Up!® Summer Mini Catalogue is here & boy is it a goodie. Lots of gorgeous new sets & accessories...& NEW PUNCHES! You all know I have a bit of a punch obsession, so I was overjoyed to see the scallop edge punch & square scallop punch.

You can view the catty in all its awesomeness online, by clicking on the picture above, or if you'd like a free copy, just contact me. I'll be back with some Summer Mini projects to whet your appetite.
Byeee for now.
Di
PS: Oh, & for those without daughters...the post title is a song from High School Musical 2...one of Cara's favourite & most played CD's.

Pink Petal Card Folder

Here's a fun project idea that I think makes a great gift at Christmas or any time.The card folder is filled with 4 co-ordinated note sized cards & envelopes (which are just a little smaller than normal size cards). I've continued my pink theme with 'Pick a Petal', & 'Loves Me' designer paper (retired) from last year's Summer Mini. The folder is purely pomegranate card & of course the ribbon is pomegranate double stitched. A big thank you to Sarah for sharing the butterfly card idea in her cute SAS cards (love 'em Sahr!). If you'd like any more info on this project, or you'd like to come to a class to make one, let me know.

If you'd like to see some more fab 'Pick a Petal' ideas, check out Sarah's gorgeous Christening card & happy2stamp4ever's card set & if you want even more, check out the thousand plus cards in the Splitcoast Pick a Petal gallery. This is clearly one very popular set!

Supplies:
Stamps: Pick a Petal, Short & Sweet, For a Friend (lvl 1 hostess)
Cards/Paper: Note cards & envelopes, Purely pomegranate, regal rose, rose red & whisper white card, 'Loves Me' designer paper (retired)
Ink: rose red, pretty in pink, close to cocoa
Accessories: purely pomegranate double stitched ribbon, whisper white grosgrain ribbon, pretty in pink button (Soft Subtles® pack), pretty in pink & silver brads
Tools: word window punch, ¾ inch circle punch

Blooms gift certificate pockets

This is a pocket card I've made using some Blooms die cuts & Summer Picnic paper from the Spring Mini. Like this pocket card, they can be include any sort of greeting or photo, but in this case, they're extra special as they include gift certificates that you can give or receive to friends or family members who's like some Stampin' Up!® goodies....& let's face it, who wouldn't? ;o).

I can prepare certificates for any amount, so, if you'd like to give one to a crafting friend or family member, just contact me for more information. Of course, you can always provide my details to your partner, friend or family member too, if you'd like to receive one yourself.

Each folder will vary according to the flowers & paper I have available. This is another folder in a different combination of Summer Picnic paper & Blooms.Of course, I can also make a Christmas themed folder if you'd prefer...note to self -must make some more to post!

Hope you all have a good weekend.

Best wishes

Di

Supplies:

Pocket 1:Stamps: One of a Kind
Card/Paper: bashful blue, whisper white, old olive, real red, Summer Picnic paper, Blooms die cut flowers
Ink: real red marker
Accessories: real red brads (Bold Brights® pack), dimensionals
Tools: large & small oval punches, 1 inch circle punch, piercing tool & mat
Pocket 2:
Stamps: One of a Kind Card/Paper: pumpkin pie, whisper white, old olive, Summer Picnic paper, Blooms die cut flowersInk: pumpkin pie marker Accessories: more mustard brad (Earth Elements® pack), dimensionals Tools: large & small oval punches, ¼ inch circle punch, piercing tool & mat