The upside of the whole process was that I got to spend a few days absolutely BLUDGING at my folks’ place!  It was decided that it would be easier for Tim to just have the girls to look after rather than all 3 of us, so I was treated to some mummy love (the BEST kind!) and did four fifths of bugger all (to quote my Aunty Mair :)) for almost 5 days!  Actually I lie, I read an entire book, 3 or 4 magazines, watched 2 dvd’s and more television that I’ve ever watched in my LIFE before!  It was awesome and I’m trying to think of what other surgical procedures I might line myself up for so that I can go and do it all again!!

Tim was AMAZING in my absence and I came home to a tidy house, no washing in the laundry, dinner cooked and two poppets who had been perfect angels the entire time I was away.  I am one lucky girl

Thanks to those of you who popped in and left messages while I was away too - it was lovely to read them

So I thought I would put up a card or two, since cardmaking rather than oral surgery is in fact the main focus of my blog, so here is one that I made a few weeks ago (several times over in fact) as a thank you card for the girls in my team that arranged the stamping projects and demonstrated at our recent team day at the end of October..

It’s a technique called “faux poplin” achieved by feeding your stamped piece of cardstock through the crimper first in one direction, then turning it 90 degrees and putting it through again.  Here’s a closer shot…

I saw the technique somewhere months ago and filed it away in my head until I wanted to give it a go, but now of course I have no idea where I first saw it….  Splitcoast maybe..?!  Anybody know?!

Anyway, I was quite happy with the results and think that it’s a funky technique worthy of some exploration with different stamps and maybe even Designer Series Paper…hmmmm

“Faux Poplin Thanks!”
Stamps: Bud Basics, Short and Sweet
Paper: Rose Red, Old Olive, Whisper White, Certainly Celery
Ink: Old Olive, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Regal Rose wide grosgrain, Certainly Celery thin grosgrain, Large and Small Oval Punches, Rich Regals brads, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I also made a baby card using this technique for Sarah-Jane who recently had her second sweet baby girl…

I haven’t used Little Pieces for ages, but thought that randomly stamped in pretty pastels would make for a very poplin-esque result

“Welcome Baby Ella!”
Stamps: Little Pieces, Short and Sweet
Paper: Barely Banana, Pretty in Pink, Blush Blossom, Whisper White
Ink: Barely Banana, Pretty in Pink, Blush Blossom, Apricot Appeal
Accessories: Very Vanilla wide grosgrain, Soft Subtles brads

I have quite a few things to share and will do so as soon as I am back to bloggin’.

Thanks for your ongoing patience with me…

Firstly, here is the colour inspiration picture…

And here is my contribution to the challenge….

I do love these colours together, and as is often the case with Kristina’s challenges, I would never have thought to combine them unless prompted in this way!

The idea that I have had for some time and only just brought to life here is to use what remains of the 12×12 sheet of die cut blooms, once all the blooms have been used, which mine were quite shortly after getting them.  LOVE those things!  The sheets left behind are effectively great big stencils/masks of all sorts of funky, different sized flowers and I have been meaning for some time to use them as such!

For this card, I chose a few of the different flower stencils and sponged through them onto Ruby Red cardstock using Ruby Red ink.  Then with the mask still in place, I took my paper piercing tool and pierced around the edge of the shapes to further define the flowers.  It actually looks quite funky on the back too, with just the holes in big flower shapes -an idea for another time perhaps….

After I had filled the piece of Ruby Red, I took a variety of circle punches and the two other colours of the challenge and made flower centres for them all.  The rest of the card is quite simple, so as not to be too busy as the flowers are busy enough on their own!

Kristina’s colour challenge #28
Stamps: Basic Phrases
Paper: Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Sage Shadow, Whisper White
Ink: Ruby Red, Sage Shadow
Accessories: 1″, 3/4″, 1/2″ and 1/4″ Circle Punches, Pumpkin Pie striped grosgrain, Stampin’ Sponges, Tool Kit, Die Cut Blooms

The next card, which I actually made first before I decided to have a go at the colour challenge, uses the same masking idea, but this time I took a card-front sized piece of Certainly Celery and sponged through the flower shaped stencils using Versamark, then embossed with clear embossing powder.  I made similar flower centres, this time a bit funky and off centre, then the rest of the card kind of evolved from there.

You can tell that there was no colour challenge involved here as I reached for my well-worn colour path of Rose Red, Regal Rose and Certainly Celery!  The So Saffron is a tiny variation on the theme

Enjoy!!

“Die Cut Masking”
Stamps: Life Definitions
Paper: Rose Red, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, So Saffron
Ink: Rose Red, Versamark
Accessories: 1″, 3/4″, 1/2″ and 1/4″ Circle Punches, Regal Rose wide grosgrain, Certainly Celery thin grosgrain, Stampin’ Sponges, Clear Embossing Powder, Die Cut Blooms

I wasn’t sure that I was even going to manage to hold a WCMD event, but I decided at the last minute to have a bit of a Christmas card making day and 8 lovely aforementioned ladies elected to join me for the festivities (*waving* ladies!!)

The cards that we made were very varied in style and design, some absolute cases from cards I had seen elsewhere (no need to mess with perfection I figured) and some that just kind of evolved by putting together different ideas I had seen.  Anyway, enough nattering, here they are….

This first one is almost an exact copy of one made by my wonderful friend and stampin’ team member, Tracey.  Stunning in its simplicity and highly mass produce-able (I think I may have made that word up!) this one was the favourite of the day among my guests

“Glitter Baubles”
Stamps: Occasional Greetings, So Swirly Jumbo wheel
Paper: Brocade Blue, Night of Navy, Naturals Ivory
Ink: Brocade Blue, Night of Navy
Accessories: 1″, 1-1/4″ and 1-3/8″ Circle Punches, Two way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Stampin’ Sponges, Brocade Blue Stampin’ Write Marker

This one used my current favourite Christmas set, Season of Joy.  I seem to always use the tree image from the set, so wanted to get some use out of the funky wording background and this was the result.

“In-colours of Joy!”
Stamps: Season of Joy
Paper: Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi, Very Vanilla
Ink: River Rock, Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky
Accessories: 3/4″ and 1/2″ Circle Punches, Silver brads, Wild Wasabi striped ribbon, White gel pen, Stampin’ Dimensionals

My much neglected Watercolor Wonder crayons were dusted off for this one.  They were perfect for the job of making a realistic looking tree.

“Lovely as a Christmas Tree”
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree
Paper: Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate, Confetti Cream
Ink: None
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Purely Pomegranate double stitched ribbon

This card was my favourite of the day and may well be my own Christmas card design for this year, if I can manage to get all that watercolouring done!  I used some ideas that I had seen on the Hero Arts website.  I saw the white spots stamped onto Kraft here, and the placement of the stamped element here and combined the two ideas, tweaked it a bit and what you see above is the result!

“Fun & Fast Watercolour Tree”
Stamps: Fun & Fast Notes, Polka Dot, Short & Sweet (20% off this month! See Specials page for details…)
Paper: Kraft, Ruby Red, Watercolour Paper
Ink: StazOn Black, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, So Saffron, More Mustard, Really Rust, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Going Grey, Whisper White
Accessories: Aquapainter, Old Olive Wide Grosgrain, Double Rectangle Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals, White Gel Pen

As well as making all four cards, I also had a teensy little gift for each of the ladies, in keeping with the Christmas theme…

These three are little perspex keyrings, customised with watercoloured images from Time Well Spent.

Then there were two little fridge magnets, with watercoloured images from Fun & Fast Notes.

And finally, I made three “big clippie” bookmarks using the flower from Big Pieces and a variety of circle punches.

The ladies drew numbers to work out who got what pressie, then the luckiest lady of the day (hi Meredith!) also won a door prize…

This little bag has been sitting on my “alterables” shelf since Brisbane convention in April!  After convention, we drove to Sea World on the Gold Coast and grabbed a quickie McDonalds dinner on the way home.  This little bag contained the packet of dressing and maybe even the plastic fork for the Caeaser Salad that I had (and in fact so did mum, so there is another bag just like this around somewhere…!)  Much to Tim’s horror, I saved the bags, knowing that I would be able to put them to great use some day!  He tried to chuck them out while I wasn’t looking, but I salvaged them and am very glad I did!  Now I hope to find where I might be able to purchase them new, as they make great little gift bags, but I don’t know that mass consumption of McDonald’s Ceaser Salads would be the sensible way of obtaining a bunch more!!

Back in July, one of Hannah’s little kindy friends from last year welcomed a new little sister into her family - sweet Phoebe Elizabeth (which coincidentally is the same name as Shelli’s newest bundle of grand-baby!).  We managed to finally catch up with them in the first week of the holidays and I took along a little gift that I had in my head for AGES and brought to life for little Phoebe’s bedroom wall….

I just LOVE the On Board chipboard and covered in pretty paper and popped inside one of these 3d frames, it makes the perfect gift for a little person’s bedroom :)  I used the Lots of Letters pack to make the flower personalised with her initial and glittered it up a bit with some Dazzling Diamonds.  Here’s a bit more of a detailed look….

For the accompanying card, I pulled out my All in the Family set, which I haven’t used for quite some time, and using some more of the Spring Fling DSP, made this card…

ETA:  This card layout has become one of my “go to” designs as it is such a quick and very simple but sweet idea.   I had completely forgotten the origin of the idea, but it was my friend Tracey (who has made some FABULOUS renditions of the card here) that introduced me to the design, which was originated by Michelle Force.  Thanks Trace and Michelle!!

I had a lot of fun making it when I finally got around to getting the idea out of my brain and into living colour!

“Baby Phoebe Gift”
Stamps: All in the Family, Short and Sweet, Polka Dot, Background Sampler
Paper: Spring Fling DSP, Celery Prints DSP, Pale Plum, Barely Banana, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Watercolour paper
Ink: Whipser White, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, StazOn Black
Accessories: On Board Blossoms & Basics and Lots of Letters, Scallop, 1-3/8″ and 1-1/4″ Circle Punches, Aquapainter, Dazzling Diamonds glitter

Something I’ve been having LOADS of fun with lately is boxes.  Although there are templates galore for all shapes and sizes, back in July when I wanted to package up some pens as gifts for my stampin’ team, none of the existing templates I knew of were a good fit, so I went about making my own.  Since then I have played around with the same idea, just adjusting the measurements depending on what was going inside, so that was what I decided to do as my presentation!  Custom boxes based on a simple and adjustable template :) 

I must apologise in advance for the not-so-great picture quality.  In my nervous state prior to leaving for Regionals, I completely forgot to photograph my projects, and as they were handed in a samples for Stampin’ Up! to keep, the only pictures I have are ones that I could get at the end of the seminar itself!

Here is the actual box that I demonstrated on the day, filled with pencils that I covered in DSP to make a funky little gift idea…

Another sample along the same lines, but with a flap over the top to close it and some ribbon to tie it together was this one using the Summer Picnic DSP from the Spring Mini.  There are a few different views here to show some of the detail -just click on the pictures for a larger view…

Then using the exact same idea, I made a box large enough to hold a set of cards and envelopes with the Spring Flowers DSP…  The Groovy Guava ribbon wraps right around from the back, runs underneath the flap at the front and through two Jumbo Eyelets before being tied in a bow to hold the flap down.  Does that make sense…?  Hope so

I also had one of my original pen boxes that started my whole custom box phase there as a sample too.  So there you have it, fun and very simple (I really should work on that tutorial so you can see exactly HOW simple!) boxes for whatever you want to box up!

So here is the inspiration picture…

And here is my take on not just the colours, but also the texture and design of the plate itself…

I couldn’t get the correct angle in a picture to show the embossed pattern, but basically I just stamped the big and beautiful Baroque background onto a piece of Very Vanilla, embossed it with clear embossing powder, then brayered over the whole thing with Pumpkin Pie ink.  The whole reason I actually got Baroque in the first place was because I envisaged it being used with the emboss resist technique, but up until now, have never actually tried it out!  I have plans for some more now though…..

I didn’t want to do much else on the card as the background is so striking on its own and anything much else in the way of embellishing would have made it too fussy.  So I stamped the ‘because’ sentiment from Life Definitions inside the large label type stamp from Frames with a Flourish, sponged the edges, added some Hodgepodge with a smidgen of wide grosgrain and that was enough

“Kristina’s Colour Inspiration #24″
Stamps: Baroque, Frames with a Flourish, Life Definitions
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Ink: Chocoalte Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Versamark
Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder, Brayer, Hodgepodge Hardware (pewter), Chocolate Chip side grosgrain, Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I have actually seen Amy’s blog before in my cyber travels and CASE’d a funky Christmas tree card of hers last year, but oh my goodness, her watercolouring is something else!  So still in my jammies, but all inspired to get cracking with my Aquapainters, I went in search of some outline stamps that would be suitable for the job.  I decided to use my long neglected Time Well Spent level 3 hostess set and set to work on this….

The flowers are all stamped in StazOn onto watercolour paper and coloured using a variety of inks with the Aquapainter.  The colour is quite a lot deeper in real life, but you can kind of see the different shades blending together here, although I have a bit of a way to go before my images are literally jumping off the card like Amy’s!!  Mine are helped along in the jumping off with some dimensionals ;)  Here’s a slightly different and closer angle….

I spent aaaages poring over the colouring and thoroughly enjoyed myself, until such time as I emerged from my stampin’ hibernation to find every dress-up outfit my children own strewn about the loungeroom, along with a large variety of everything else they own!  So my Time Well Spent stampin’ was swiftly followed by Time Not So Well Spent Tidying Up After Cyclones Hannah and Sophie!

This card will shortly be on its way to a very dear friend of mine who has been going through a tough time of late, hence the greeting stamp (taken from Loads of Love).  Hopefully the bright flowers leaping off the page will bring a bit of a smile

“Time Well Spent Watercolouring”
Stamps: Time Well Spent, Loads of Love (greeting)
Paper: Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Old Olive, Basic Black, Watercolour paper
Ink: StazOn Black, So Saffron, More Mustard, Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie, Certainly Celery, Old Olive
Accessories: Aquapainter, White Gel Pen, Pumpkin Pie striped grosgrain, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Well having confessed my fear of eggplant to my friend, fellow demo and stampin’ cousin Makeesha recently, what should turn up in her latest colour challenge but Elegant Eggplant in all it’s eggplant glory?!  Keesh combined it with Pretty in Pink and Soft Sky for her challenge and I DO actually like the look of these colours together, but the question remains…..can I use Elegant Eggplant in a creation of my own and the result be even slightly visually appealing…?  Well friends, I have taken the challenge by the scruff of the neck, just this minute finished it and am actually not too appalled at the result…

Here is a bit of a different angle on all the dimension that’s happening on the centre element…

I’m not sure that I’m converted enough to go doing anything silly like buying a bulk pack of 24 sheets of cardstock, but I am certainly prepared to see what I can do with the several remaining sheets that I have :) 

Now if anybody can suggest some delightful colour combinations using any of Handsome Hunter, Bravo Burgundy (I KNOW, another one that SO many people use with wonderful results but that continues to haunt me!) Glorious Green, Brilliant Blue or Yoyo Yellow I would love to hear them so I can dust off those few sheets as well!!

Incidentally, this card uses Carte Postale and the matching Leaves a la Carte Jumbo wheel, part of the Free Wheelin’ promotion that finishes tomorrow!  Get your free wheels while you still can!!

Keesh’s Eggplant Challenge!
Stamps: Carte Postale, Leaves a la Carte Jumbo Stampin’ Around wheel
Paper: Elegant Eggplant, Soft Sky, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Soft Sky, Pretty in Pink, Versamark
Accessories: 1-3/8″ Square Punch, 1-1/4″ Circle Punch, Cherished Memories Rub-Ons, Soft Subtles brads, Stampin’ Dimensionals