Today's share project is a decorated picture frame with an embellished insert panel.

Read on for a quick tutorial.

This project was the basis of a class I taught last month at Melbourne's Craft & Quilt Fair. My first foray into craft show classes!

How To:

1. Remove back of picture frame, and cut Designer Series Paper (DSP) to fit the size of your frame.

2. Embellish DSP as desired – we used Basic Jewel Rhinestones so it was very 'blingy' in real life. 

3. Stamp images from Pennant Parade (p37 Aus/NZ Idea Book & Catalogue), and punch with the Pennant Builder punch. Layer, and join pennant pieces with Bakers Twine.

4. Tie or adhere banner into position. Our frame had a gap of approx 2cm between the back and the glass, so we had plenty of room for raised embellishments and lots of Dimensionals. Remember to take into account how much space you have behind the glass before sticking everything down.

5. Adhere DSP panel to back of frame (to stop it sagging behind the glass) and reassemble frame.

6. Decorate outer frame with paper flowers, rosettes or punched shapes. We put tiny adhesive-backed rhinestones in the centre of our flowers – for added sparkle!

TIP: This project is a great way to use beautiful papers with large, bold images, such as those found in Timeless Portrait.

Remember that all the Designer Series Papers in the current catalogue are retiring at the end of the month, so this is your last chance to get them. 

Well, craft fair season is well and truly upon us here in Victoria.

A big hello to all the lovely crafters I met last month at the Craft & Quilt Fair in Melbourne, and in only TWO WEEKS we'll be at Paperific!

I'll be there on SATURDAY 1st of SEPT. Come and say hello!

Happy stamping,

Can't believe May is here already! But the start of a new month is the start of an exciting promotion for us here… Free Designer Series Paper!
(Designer Series Paper is also known as DSP in the Stampin' Up! world – in other words, the patterned 12×12 paper packs in lovely coordinating colours and designs, 12 full double-sided sheets in a pack!).

During May you can get free Designer Series Paper in one of two ways:

1. Buy 3, Get 1 Free!

Get ONE FREE PACKAGE (value $18.95) when you buy three. No limits.

2. Join Stampin' Up! as a demonstrator with the NEW LOW-PRICE STARTER KIT ($169), and get a FREE PACKAGE of DSP every month until the end of the year!

Yes, that seriously is over $130 worth of paper, on top of the great value starter kit contents! You can read more about the new starter kit here.

I looooove using DSP because I know it's going to coordinate with my inks and cardstock. Here's a card I made recently using the Attic Boutique pack of DSP from the new Autumn-Winter mini catalogue. I love this combo of the papers, and was inspired by various cards I saw recently on Pinterest created by Debra Currier, Chiaki Haverstick and others.

Attic Boutique has big bold papers, as well as some softer ones like these….

Time for me to stock up on more lovely new papers I think.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Contact me for more information about any of today's big announcements.

Sometimes I come across unusually shaped presents and – wow – aren't they a challenge to wrap?!

I usually wind up scrunching the paper at one end and sticking heaps of tape over it. Then I quickly turn it upside down before the whole thing pops open. Lol. Know what I mean?

So anyway, I was giving the beautiful Stampin' Up! paper snips as a gift recently and was perplexed at the unusual shape.

(Yes, I was ignoring superstitions about giving scissors as a gift because they really are the BEST scissors and cut right to the teeny tiny tip).

With its triangular shape I didn't want a replay of any scrunchy wrapping paper incidents. So I grabbed a sheet of the beautiful paper from the 2010-2012 In Color Paper Stack (p130 in the new Idea Book & Catalogue) and set to work on some customised gift packaging.

Gift packaging embellished with Vintage Brad, Tiny Tags stamp set and Jewelry Tag punch

With a snip here and a snip there, and some discreetly placed Sticky Strip, we were done!

Love that Blushing Bride colour. Just the right shade of 'not-quite-pink'.

Thanks for stopping by today. If you can spare a minute feel free to leave me some comment love and let me know you were here.  xx

Happy stamping,

No stamping at all on these cards! Just the Celebrations Designer Series Paper and Quick Accents, BDay Party rubons and coordinating cardstock. For more info on these products and how you can get a sampling of them at a great price, check my previous post. 

Celebrations Designer Series Paper

Happy stamping,

Stampin' Up! are absolutely the best in doing 'coordination'. Check out the "Birthday Bash" suite of products and samples on page 34 and 35 of the Idea Book & Catalogue, and you'll know what I mean. Love it! What a bright, fun and vibrant collection of supplies.

We got the Party This Way stamp set at our annual Convention this year, along with the matching BDay Party rubons, so I couldn't help myself and ended up getting the Celebrations Designer Series Paper and Quick Accents as well. 

It's soooo easy to whip up quick cards when everything works together so well!!

Do you want to have a play with all these goodies too? Click HERE to see the brand new CARD KIT that I'm offering. It's an affordable way of getting a sampling of all these coordinating products for a fraction of the full pack price.

Over the next week I'll be sharing more projects created with this 'Birthday Bash' Suite. See you soon!

Happy stamping,

I spent the past weekend in Canberra with my friends and downlines Melissa and Juliana. It was a combination girls’ weekend/Stampin’ Up! event as we all went to the Canberra Regional training day together too.

Mel was one of the lucky few who won a brand new stamp set from the upcoming Summer Mini catalogue.

Here she is with Sophie Zadeh, the training facilitator from Stampin’ Up!

On the Saturday night we did ‘shoebox swaps’. What’s that, you ask? Well, first of all you have to go shopping and buy a new pair of shoes so you have a shoebox… Only kidding!

(But we did do some serious shopping while in Canberra, and had a few spare shoeboxes by the end of it!)

So with a shoebox swap, each person brings the supplies to make a project (bring enough for everyone) and then you take it in turns creating each other’s project using the supplies in the box.

The great thing about shoebox swaps is that we are all contributing to the craft session, and we all get to make new things too! Mel’s project was the very cool Designer Series Paper tree at the top of this post. It was made by cutting circles of different sizes with the Circle Scissor Plus (p149 Idea Book & Catalogue). Then just fold each circle in half four times to create score lines, then fold along those lines concertina-style. There’s a wooden skewer up the middle of mine.

Mel even supplied the little red bucket and the florist foam for it to sit in. (Thanks Mel – what a hostess!).

When I came home I had the bright idea – well, I thought so at the time – to cover the florist foam with tiny punched out flowers from the Boho Blossoms punch and matching Punch Potpourri stamp set (Level 1 hostess set). But…. do you know how many punched out flowers it takes to cover a fairly small area? Let me tell you, it’s a lot! LOL. But it was a great project to make with Miss 7 who had a little operation today. She’s fine, but needed to stick extra close to her mum today so we had plenty of time to stamp and punch lots… and lots…. and lots of flowers.

I love how the new limited edition Sleigh Bells ribbon goes so well with the Jolly Holiday designer series paper.

Happy stamping,