(Special thanks to my gorgeous  and very talented Stamp Club member Trish  for the idea behind this project – and the candle too! Thanks Trish)

The Spring Mini Catalogue is coming to an end, so this is your last chance to grab those items off your ‘Spring Mini’ Wish List.

Items will no longer be available after Monday 30th November, including:

• Oval Scallop Punch (aaarggghh) and the matching Oval All stamp set
• Great Friend stamp set
• Choo Choo train set and matching Right On Track wheel (as used above)
• Designer Flower Brads in Choc Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Pretty In Pink and So Saffron
• Sense Of Time stamp set
• Tree Trimmings stamp set
• and more!

Contact me by 8pm Monday November 30th if you’d like to place your order and we’ll rush it in before the deadline.

Happy stamping,

This is a fun little project and makes a great gift idea for kids and tweens. You could even wrap the undecorated journal in cellophane, along with a few basic craft supplies and it would be a much-loved gift for a creative person to personalise.

The On Board Art Journals (p147 Idea Book and Catalogue) feature sturdy  .079 guage chipboard covers on front and back, complete with 20 sheets of Very Vanilla cardstock. That means you can stamp IN it and ON it too!

You can use it for scrapbooking, collecting recipes, sketches, writing,making to-do lists, jotting down quotes, taking notes, gift album, and a thousand other uses. If you want to add pages of any colour, use Stampin’ Up!’s Spiral punch and insert the pages. Stamp it, cover it, decorate it,and make it your very own.

Don’t forget that an $85 purchase from the Gift Giving Guide will earn you a free punch such as the Boho Blossoms punch (that’s where the flower embellishment came from!). This journal and the spiral punch are both on the Gift Giving Guide, along with cardmaking basics like Whisper White A4 cardstock.

If you’d like to order some On Board 5×5 Art Journals as Christmas gifts, contact me and I will organise everything – including the gift wrapping! But not the decorating – I’ll leave the fun stuff up to you.  

Happy stamping,

 On Saturday I spent a great day in Camperdown, Vic., with my wonderful team member Maureen and her group of Ink Link demonstrators for a training and stamping day. It was so nice to sit, stamp and chat with like-minded people (aka fellow stamping addicts).

Maureen joined my team when I was still pretty green and it’s been an absolute pleasure to get to know her over the past few years. She really is one of those people that everyone says "isn’t she lovely". Plus she’s a very talented cardmaker too!

Here are some of the Make & Takes we did (ok, so I was too busy talking to finish them at Maureen’s but I did finish this card when I got home!)

This card features the Friends 24/7 stamp set  (p81 IBC) and the matching Friendly wheel, and was inspired by another team member, Juliana. The flower was punched with the Wide Oval punch, then sponged around the edges and then coated in Crystal Effects to create the look of a cameo. Very effective technique, although it is a bit difficult to see the full effect in this picture.

We also made the crimped envelope card (CASE of Leonie Schroder’s):

And we EVEN got to play with some yummy new toys that will be available next month in the NEW Summer Mini catalogue! Ooooh how exciting. I’ll share those with you another day

Happy stamping,

Tonight was the start of a new round of Stamp Club, and it was a great nightl I’ve known these ladies for a while now and they are soooo lovely – I’m rapt that I’ll be stamping with them once a month at least.

They had a bit of a laugh at me tonight because it is my dear son’s 9th birthday tomorrow – aargh – and I hadn’t made his card! Criminal, I know *lol*. But I had a good excuse. The stamp set I wanted to use only arrived TODAY.

So, to my Stamp Club girls, this is what I came up with about half an hour after you left tonight….

[Definition "jawing" (verb): to talk, jabber]

This is the Just Jawing stamp set, which is one of the products on the Gift Giving Guide. I wasn’t too sure about this set for me when I first saw it, but it has reeeeeeeally grown on me since Jenny Adams sent  me this amazing card a couple of months ago.

 Wow! That really opened my eyes to the possibilities.  

I was just teetering on the fence, so to speak, when my DH said to me last week (while flicking through the Idea Book, what a darling): "why don’t you have this set? I’ll buy it!". And he did! He actually paid me money for it and put in an order, which the kids thought was hysterically funny.

He’s right, though. I often   moan that I can’t make good boys’ cards, and I know this stamp set fits the bill perfectly. It’s great to have a bit of fun and mix things up a bit. Try a different style, technique or ‘look’.

Here I’ve covered the love heart eyes with white punched circles and added punched stars for the eyes. (I could have just left the ink off the heart-eyes but I didn’t think of that earlier )

It also makes great girls’ cards too… I’m picturing Pink Passion and black. Hmmmm, that might have to be the next card.

Anyway, better go because my big boy will be up bright and early in the morning to open his pressies.

Happy stamping,

I found a use for the faux metal punch piece I shared in the last post….it’s now a Gift Wrapping embellishment!

It’s a little… unusual, I know! But I had a ball making it AND I know just who I’m going to give this to for Christmas, which is even better.

See the twill tape? I love this stuff!! You can stamp on it and sponge on it and even emboss it and use rubons on it (so I’ve heard… that’s still on my ‘to do’ list). This time I used the Soft Holly wheel and rolled Chocolate Chip ink down the length of the tape to add to the festive feel. 

The Twill Tape is great value too and you get 3 different widths and over 8 metres of the stuff. That’s a lot of twill! See p150 of the Idea Book & Catalogue or contact me for details.

Happy stamping!

Just a quick post today to share with you this cute Faux Metal embellishment. I haven’t worked out yet what to do with it. Any ideas? 

I’ll turn it into something and post it here in a couple of days.

Faux Metal is a great technique. If you can emboss, you can create the ‘faux metal’ look. Just press your versamark pad directly onto your cardstock (I used Whisper White), then sprinkle on your embossing powder and heat.

Repeat this about 4 times so you’ve got a good thickish coating. While it’s still hot (and therefore soft) carefully push your uninked stamp into the surface and it will create a great impression! This picture is a bit shadowy so the image doesn’t look too clear, but in real life it looks great! Just like a metallic buckle!

This stamp and its matching punch are part of the Curly Label Punch Bundle (p153) which is one of the handy dandy items on the Gift Giving Guide. Click on the November Promotions tab at the top of this page for more details.

Happy stamping,