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!