Every month a little packet of papercraft supplies becomes the basis of our challenge with the You Can Create It – International (YCCI) team. Our mission is to turn those elements into a card, or gift packaging, or some other finished project.

In this month’s packet of supplies, each YCCI (You Can Create It) recipient got a kraft Pillow Box, one of the cute Best Dressed tassels and a length of white Baker’s Twine.

I decided to streeeeeetch my box, by cutting it in half and then inserting an extra panel of cardstock/paper in between the ends. This was secured with liquid glue so that it wouldn’t come loose. The ends of the pillow box still open and close like normal.

The Night of Navy patterned paper came out of the ‘extra materials’ packet that was also included for the January-March subscribers, namely the Neutrals 6×6 Designer Series Paper pack.

The tassels in the packs were all different colours, but I wanted to share a cool idea for colouring them. This technique works with most colours, although it’s definitely more noticable on white or light-coloured tassels.

The tassle was coloured with Stampin’ Blends, starting with the darkest colour at the tips and then gradually applying light colours.

The Thank You sentiment, the die cut label, and the decorative die cut border were all from the brand new Ornate Garden products that I shared in this post.

The sentiment was stamped and coloured with the ‘ombre stamping’ technique. If you’d like a demo on how that was done, just leave a comment or reach out to me and I’d be happy to share that here on my blog.

YCCI International Design Team

Let’s check out what the fabulous design team created with these same supplies.

How amazing is all that!

I love seeing how everyone uses the same products but they all end up looking so different. How funny that a few of us all did the ‘extended pillow box’ idea – great minds think alike. hehehe

LAST CALL: If you would like to grab one of the April-June YCCI/You Can Create It kits just get in touch. I’m finalising the list and will be packaging then all up over the next week.

Happy stamping, 

A new month brings NEW PRODUCTS from Stampin’ Up!

With all the angst and uncertainty in our world, I’m hearing from many of my customers about how much they are enjoying the diversion of craft at this difficult time. With that in mind, I’ll continue to share these new products with you but please know that my thoughts and prayers are with all those who are suffering at this time, as the whole world battles the Coronavirus.

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The ORNATE GARDEN suite of products will be in the upcoming annual Stampin’ Up! catalogue, but we’re getting an early release of these products. How nice! Something fun for us to use to create pretty cards and other projects.

Download the full flyer here

Now there’s a lot going on here, so let me break it down for you.

There are two sets of stamp and die bundles. All items are available separately of course, but you will save 10% if you buy the stamp set and coordinating dies as a bundle at the same time.

The bundles are called ORNATE THANKS and ORNATE STYLE.

ORNATE THANKS

The Ornate Thanks stamps work together to create all kinds of thankful phrases to convey just the right message.

The Ornate Border dies are something special.
Two of the wider floral dies actually cut on one side of the image only. The other side remains intact on the cardstock. This is handy for creating decorate edges on the side of the cardstock, or as a layering panel to go over a contrasting colour.

There are other border dies too, with detailed cuts and patterns. Gorgeous!

I can see I’ll be using this set a lot.

ORNATE STYLE

The Ornate Style stamp set includes 4 amazing outline images, that are perfect for those who love to colour! Grab those Stampin’ Blends, watercolour pencils or sponge daubers and get to it.

It also includes a couple of pretty decorative flourish stamps.

The Ornate Layers Dies is a generous set of 8 dies, including 5 decorative label dies and 2 accent dies. I used these dies within minutes of taking them out of the box! They all nest too, so you can create gorgeous frames as well as matt layers.

And more. . .

The fun doesn’t stop there.

The Ornate Garden suite also includes these coordinating extras:

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Learn more about all the products in this gorgeous suite here.

You can even watch a video about it here.

Reminder: YCCI Orders now due

I’m currently finalising registration for the You Can Create It packs for the upcoming April-June quarter.

If you would like to get a pack of happy mail with surprise products to play with, please email today or reach out via my Facebook page.
Cost is AUD$25 and includes delivery!

Read more about this program on our YCCI post last month or the one before that (February) or January’s post.

If you have purchased one of these before and expressed interest in getting this quarter’s too, you can go ahead and finalise your payment now. Thank you!

Take care this April, my friends. Stay safe and well.

Happy stamping, 

We have all found ourselves in a strange new world where the best thing we can do for our community is to #StayAtHome.

I don’t know about you, but I’m planning to use this time to get a whole lot of things ticked off my To Do list.

Have you got one of those lists?
Who are we kidding, we ALL have one!
‘When I have time I will…”, “One day I will…”, “I really need to…”

Apart from tidying up the linen press, doing some gardening, painting the bathroom – plus a gazillion other things – one thing I’m looking forward to doing is making and sending a whole lot of cards.

Because #socialdistancing shouldn’t mean social disconnecting.

In fact, now more than ever, snail mail is needed to keep us connected to our friends and family.

So, if getting back into cardmaking is one of the things you want to do while you #StayAtHome, now is the perfect time to clean up your craft space and do a little stocktake.

Make sure you have everything you need, and if not you can contact me and I’ll take care of it for you, or you can jump over to my online store and order what you need. To help with that I’ve put together a little stocktake checklist for you.

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Craft Supplies Stocktake

These are some of my most-used products, the ones I re-order as soon as they run out.

Do you have a similar list?

Adhesives

• Liquid glue (aka Tombow or ‘the green glue’)
• Snail adhesive refills
• Glue dots
• Foam strips
• Stampin’ Dimensionals

Paper Essentials

• White envelopes
• White standard cardstock
• White thick cardstock (for card bases)
• Crumb Cake cardstock
• Cardstock colours that coordinate with my ink pads
• Shimmery White cardstock
• Gold foil sheets
• Silver foil sheets

Ink Essentials

• Versamark & refill
• Stazon black (when colouring with water-based products)
• Stazon refill
• Memento black (when colouring with alcohol markers)
• Memento refill

Embellishment Essentials

• Wink of Stella glimmer brush
• Copper Trim (can be stretched and holds its shape)
• Linen Thread

Tools

• Trimmer
• Replacement Trimmer Blades
• Cutting plates for die cutting machine
• Grid paper
• Score board
• Paper Snips

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Free Gift with Purchase

Don’t forget, Sale-a-bration is still on! (But only until Tuesday).

So for the next few days you can choose one of these gifts for FREE with every order over $90.

If your order is over $180 then you can choose from these options.

If your order is over $169 then you might want to think about joining Stampin’ Up!. There’s no better time to join than during Sale-A-Bration, when you get special perks that you won’t see any other time of year. Until Tuesday you will receive a mini paper cutter, a 6″ x 6″ designer series paper sampler and your choice of a stamp set to any value, as well as $235 worth of products of your choice!

Plus of course you’ll get 20% off future purchase. More info here.

Stay safe everyone and remember to #StayAtHome.

Happy stamping, 

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Welcome to the Colour INKspiration Blog Hop. We are a group of Stampin’ Up! ® Demonstrators who love to create papercraft projects using Pinterest-inspired colour combinations. Every second and fourth Wednesday of the month our design team showcase projects using the featured colour palette. Our ‘home’ is the Colour INKspiration Facebook Group where we encourage everyone to join in by uploading their projects to highlight the current colour combo.

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No matter where you are in the world, I think it’s fair to say that we all find this to be an unusual time. Heartbreaking, scary but also filled with hope and so many examples of human kindness.

The sentiment on my card was chosen for this very reason….
“Thank you for making a difference in my life”. Even in lockdown and with the threat of a growing pandemic outside our doors, there are many ways we can make a positive difference in other people’s lives.

I was craving for normalcy this week so was thrilled to join the latest Colour INKspiration challenge. Not only that, but the photo used for our inspiration this time was one that I took – and what an honour it is to have my photo chosen!

It was taken on a trip to the gorgeous island of Mykonos during the 2019 Stampin’ Up! Incentive Trip. Honestly, it was my favourite day of the Greek Isles trip and just looking at this picture brings back fabulous memories.

My 16 year-old daughter and I went ‘exploring‘ in Mykonos Town, which translates to mean ‘we got hopelessly and blissfully lost‘. The winding streets were almost like a maze, but it was truly beautiful to be a part of it.

For my card I chose the By The Dock bundle, which has been a popular choice with my customers over the past month or two.

Colours used are Mango Melody, Night of Navy, white and gray.

I used Stampin’ Blends to colour the outline images, and watercolour paper washed with Navy ink was the ‘water’.

Will you join us this month? Don’t forget to jump over to the CI Challenge page to see what others have created with these colours, or to share your own creation.

Stay safe everyone and don’t forget to practice #socialdistancing.

Happy stamping, 

Hi friends, Welcome to the latest YCCI (You Can Create It) Challenge post.

Our February supply packets were so pretty and shiny. They included a panel of Parisian Blossoms specialty paper, a piece of Champagne foil sheet, half sheets of Petal Pink and Pool Party cardstock, and some gorgeous Champagne Rhinestones.

I decided to use the eiffel tower side of my patterned paper, and used it as a background in a die-cut frame.

The sentiment is white embossed on Vellum, which allows the patterned paper to still show through.

There was *just enough* champagne foil sheet to use as a frame and also cut the pretty die cut shape.

This gorgeous die is from the Flourish Dies set, and has been on my mind lately after helping a customer order it on the weekend. I was reminded of just how beautiful this die is, and I couldn’t wait to use it again. It’s one of my all-time favourites!

A very big thank you to my YCCI subscribers for this quarter who shared their February creations with me.

Here’s a picture of Jacque’s gorgeous cards…

And here are some from Chris…

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Design Team Projects

Thanks to the awesome YCCI Design Team for sharing their projects with us.

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Would you like to play along?

Just gather up these same supplies and see what you can come up with.

Let’s create!

BREAKING NEWS: Brand new SALE-A-BRATION products are now available! Check them out here.

Happy stamping, 

During the month of January our new group of YCCI (You Can Create It – International) subscribers received their quarterly packets of happy mail.

The box included a variety of products to experiment with – one for each month of January to March – plus bonus products to use at any time.

This is the packet they created with during January…

It included two heart doilies in Flirty Flamingo and Real Red colours, a generous length of Real Red Double-Stitched Satin Ribbon, thick Whisper White cardstock and a few Red Rhinestone Basic Jewels.

What would you create with these items?

It’s fun to let your imagination go wild.

This is what I made…

It was such a fun card our stamp club groups are making this one in February, along with a couple of other cards.

Hearts aren’t just for Valentines Day! So far we have turned this card into a birthday card, ‘my heart is with you’ card and a Thinking of You card just by changing the sentiment.

This card uses some of the gorgeous shimmery paper from the From My Heart Specialty Series Paper pack.

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Design Team Projects

Would you like to see what the design team came up with? Once again, a fabulous array of talented creativity.

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Subscriber Creations

One of our Aussie YCCI subscribers was super speedy and shared her January creation with me only a day after opening her packet. Many thanks Debbie!

Would you like to play along?

Just gather up these same supplies and see what you can come up with.

Let’s create!

Happy stamping,