This week, Just Add Ink brings you another colour challenge, and what a cracker it is!  The lovely Bronwyn Eastley – fellow DT gal – came up with this one…

I can honestly say that left to my own devices, I would likely never have combined these colours in a single project, but that’s why they call it a challenge, right?!

Here’s my contribution…

Saved by my DSP collection

All I did was punch out 1-1/4″ circles from whatever Designer Series Papers that I could find with the relevant colours.

A bit of embellishing here and there (quite literally) and I was all done.

Hop on over to Just Add Ink to check out some fabulous creations with this combo and while you’re there, have a go for yourself

Just Add Ink Challenge #22
Stamps: Seeing Spots
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Rich Razzleberry, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Bella Rose DSP, Cottage Wall DSP
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Sunny Day Simply Scrappin’ Kit, 1-1/4″  and 1-3/8″ Circle Punches, Circle Ice Rhinestone Brads, Boho Blossom Punch, Button Bouquet, Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot grosgrain ribbon

It’s not super often that I stamp just for fun and without a specific reason or recipient in mind, but this afternoon I did just that and had SO much fun!

I had received the gorgeous Asian Artistry Level 2 hostess set from the Autumn/Winter mini a good few weeks ago, and hadn’t even got around to mounting it, so I rectified that today, pulled out some of the very small amount of Haiku DSP that I have remaining in my stash and made this…

The next thing I plan on rectifying is the amount of Haiku DSP that I have in my stash, which coincides nicely with the fact that it’s part of the current Deal of the Week, but only until tomorrow night, so if you’d also like to build your stash of DSP to the tune of more Haiku, Raspberry Tart, Pink Flamingo, Tea Party or Sweet Slumber, then you’d best be contacting me asap to make sure you get it at its current awesome price!

Here’s another Haiku creation that I don’t believe I have shared here yet…

This one also uses the awesome Two-Step Bird Punch, which is such good fun and has loads of possibilities for use.

The thing I think I love best about Haiku is the colour combination.  It’s not one that I would likely have come up with on my own, but it works so well and has become a bit of a fave.

It’s Tangerine Tango, Old Olive, So Saffron and More Mustard for those of you wishing to play along at home

If I haven’t managed to sway you in the direction of Haiku yet, check out some more projects I have posted previously –>HERE<– and –>HERE<–, then make sure to order yours before the Deal finishes tomorrow night!

Asian Artistry Haiku Card”
Stamps: Asian Artistry
Paper: Haiku DSP, Tangerine Tango, So Saffron, More Mustard, Old Olive, Watercolour Paper
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Tangerine Tango, So Saffron, More Mustard, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Aquapainter, Old Olive 5/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon, Horizontal Slot Punch, Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals

“Haiku Bird Card”
Stamps: Sanded, Trendy Trees (greeting)
Paper: Haiku DSP, Tangerine Tango, So Saffron, More Mustard, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Ink: More Mustard, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Two Step Bird Punch, Scallop Edge Punch, 3/4″ Circle Punch, Big Shot, Top Note die, Tangerine Tango Striped Grosgrain, Clear Buttons, Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals

This week over at Just Add Ink, we have a sketch challenge for you.  It’s a beauty of a sketch, with so many possibilities, two of which I discovered for myself when I wasn’t sure about the first card I made, so made a second.

Here’s the sketch…

And here’s my first go at it…

The colour combination is a bit left of centre, and came about as a result of having tidied my computer desk and finding a selection of cardstock under the various debris.

This brought about a vague recollection of having seen a picture online somewhere and taking inspiration from the colours in it, then being distracted by some other random cyber stampin’ sighting and forgetting about it until the long overdue desk clean up.

I wasn’t super happy with the result (that will teach me for tidying up!) so I made a second one…

The colours in this one are much more my speed

I also had fun with the scallops around the edge, wanting to something a little bit different.

In fact, let’s make a game of it – you tell me how I did it

And then tell me which card you like better, ’cause I’m still undecided…

“Just Add Ink #21 – Take 1″
Stamps: Pick a Petal, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Paper: Tangerine Tango, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Summer Sun, Whisper White, Raspberry Tart (just $11.02 until Tuesday!)
Ink: Tangerine Tango, Rose Red
Accessories: Rose Red 1″ Double Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Pretty in Pink Taffeta Ribbon, Clear Buttons, Soft Subtles brads, Scallop Border Punch, Crimper, Stampin’ Dimensionals

“Just Add Ink #21 – Take 2″
Stamps: Petal Pizzazz, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Paper: Rose Red, Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss, So Saffron, Whisper White, Bella Rose DSP, Sweet Always DSP
Ink: Rose Red, Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: 1/2″ Circle Punch, Word Window Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Over at Just Add Ink this week, we have a colour challenge for you!  I chose to bust out my Aquapainter and Watercolour Paper this week, hence the title of my post.

Here are the colours…

And here is my card…

I had no idea where I was going with this, I just sat and watercoloured while my small girl played Dora games next to me on the computer.

Aside from the occasional utterance of some Spanish phrase or other from the little one, we sat mostly in companionable silence doing our thing.  Such a nice thing to be able to do

If I’m not back before Sunday, which at this stage is a fairly likely scenario, Happy Mother’s Day to all the lovely mums out there.  May your day be filled with lovely things that hopefully don’t include a bunch of kitchen appliances from the department store catalogues that always appear at this time of year.

Seriously, can we not have something frivolous and whimsical instead of white and practical for Mother’s Day?!

Although having said that, I’d change my tune quite happily for a Thermomix….

“Just Add Ink Challenge #16″
Stamps: Embrace Life, Trendy Trees
Paper: Watercolour Paper, Soft Suede, Ruby Red, Pretty in Pink, Sweet Slumber Specialty DSP
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Soft Suede, Ruby Red, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Versamark
Accessories: Soft Suede Polka Dot Ribbon, Button Latte, White Embossing Powder, Corner Rounder Punch, Aquapainter, White Gel Pen, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Kitchen String

So I mentioned in a previous post that I would be back the next day with an additional card showcasing a similar look to that day’s card but in a different colour scheme.

And I had the best intentions in the world of doing so, but as it turns out, not a single spare second to fulfill my promise, between a super fun Saturday afternoon workshop (hi Sharima and girls!) and a school fete all day Sunday.

But I’m here now, just in time so that you can all rush at me to purchase Framed with Love before it is no longer available after tomorrow…

Here’s the card:

You can see that I used the same wallpaper-ish effect of stamping the scroll-y image repeatedly in the same way as the previous card, but that’s pretty much where the similarity ends.

Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip and Kraft would have to be one of my absolute favourite colour combinations and was perfect for this birthday card for my dear Mum-in-law and Mama to my girls, whose birthday was back in December.

Now if you would all form an orderly virtual queue, I can take your last minute orders for Framed with Love or any other set that you will be requiring from the Summer Mini, as well any Sale-a-bration sets that you might qualify for should your order be in excess of $100.

No pushing now, I will get to you all in time, and while you’re waiting, you might like to check out the next post due to pop up tomorrow showing you a sweet project with another Summer Mini set

“Mama’s Baja Birthday Card”
Stamps: Framed with Love, Occasional Greetings
Paper: Baja Breeze, Kraft, Naturals Ivory, Chocolate Chip, Parisian Breeze DSP (retired)
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Baja Breeze 1″ Double Stitched Ribbon, Kraft Taffeta Ribbon, Button Latte, Linen Thread, Stampin’ Sponges

So I’m back with my project for Just Add Ink Challenge #9, which is another sketch challenge!

Personally, I’d be delirious if every challenge included a sketch, as I just love having a map of where things go for a starting point and many times will return to a sketch over and over to save myself time and angst when I need a card in a hurry.

So here’s what we got for this week…

And here’s what I turned it into…

The obvious thing to do where the sketch indicated a scalloped edge was to use a punch, but I wanted to do something a little bit different to show how a sketch can be interpreted in something other than the most obvious fashion.

I used a border style stamp from one of my brand new stamp sets out of the up and coming Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue to convey my idea of a scalloped edge and am quite happy that it turned out pretty much how I envisaged it

The other thing I wanted to do, not necessarily specifically with this sketch, but sometime soon, was bust out my Chunky Sprinkles which I got when they were part of the Inventory Clearance Sale a couple of months back, but haven’t shown the light of day to since!

To create the very glittery (and as it turns out, quite heavy!) effect that you can see here, I first stamped a piece of Whisper White with my new stamp set from the up and coming Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue, then covered the entire stamped piece with Versamark.

I then covered the whole thing with Heat & Stick Powder, blasted it with the Heat Tool, then liberally spread the Crystal Iris Chunky Sprinkles over the top.

Before I returned the excess sprinkles to their container, I pressed down on them with my fingers to ensure maximum stick-ability and to try and avoid them all coming off again as soon as the card was vertical.

It seems to have worked a treat, and also ensured that everything I touched for the remainder of the day was dusted with a chunky sprinkle or seven

If you’d like to play along with the challenge for this week, or see what the rest of the Design Team have come up with, head on over to Just Add Ink then get busy!

Just Add Ink #9 – Sketch Challenge
Stamps: A new stamp set from the up and coming Autumn/Winter Mini catalogue (!)
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red
Accessories: Heat & Stick Powder, Chunky Sprinkles, Chit Chat Rubons, Button Bouquet, Stampin’ Sponges

My word these weeks are passing quickly and it’s time once again for a new Just Add Ink challenge.

This time it’s another sketch challenge – love these – and here it is for your inspiration…

This one shouted “scrapbook layout” to me, so after I had asked it to please use its inside voice  (we don’t shout in our house… ) I set about creating a layout according to the guidelines of the sketch.

And here it is….

You will notice that I flipped the sketch around as there was more empty space to overlap the smaller pictures on the left hand side of the large one, but other than that, I stuck pretty faithfully to the original layout.

To the left of the small pictures, you will notice some little tabs…

These were created using the “left-over”  part of the Round Tab Punch as you can see in the following “how-to”:

These tabs have function as well as a decorative purpose, as they actually indicate that the photo’s can be lifted up to reveal the journalling underneath…

The journalling is divided between all three of the lift-up photo’s and following on from the first bit that you can see above, says:

A couple of days after Christmas, we got to work on creating a fabulous ‘do’ for her.  One hour and a very patient 6 year old later, she had a head full of bouncing barrel curls.

Then it was time for the photo shoot…  Sophie hadn’t been too keen on the hairstyling thing, but definitely wanted in on the modeling action…

27 December 2009

To balance the page, I added a little embellishment in the top right, using the Eyelet Border Punch to create a pretty photo corner, then layered on some stamped images and small embellishments to fancy it up a bit more.

Truthfully, the main photo is just a tad pageant-ish for my liking, but since we were just messing about and playing hairdressers, I figured she could get away with being a bit of a diva for the camera just this once

So now it’s your turn!  Head on over to the challenge at Just Add Ink and see what you can turn the fabbo sketch into!

“Just Add Ink Challenge #6 – Stylin’ Layout”
Stamps: Framed with Love, Always
Paper: Close to Cocoa textured, Rose Red, Whisper White, Bella Bleu DSP
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White craft
Accessories: On Board Lots of Letters, Eyelet Border Punch, Round Tab Punch, Flower Fusion and Flower Fusion Too, Button Bouquet, Pretties Kit, White Embossing Powder, Stampin’ Sponges

Yesterday I mentioned how much I love the For Everything stamp set from the Summer Mini catalogue, and went so far as to say it was my current favourite stamp set.

A bold statement for someone with a large and growing collection of stamp sets, but a true statement nonetheless.

I also mentioned that I would show you another baby project using this very stamp set, so here it is.

Baby Nadia is the new little sister of one of my big girl’s classmates, and she was born towards the end of the school year last year.

The whole project was inspired by the actual gift inside the box – a delightful little outfit from Target that you can see when the box is opened…

How I love tiny girlie clothes, and those frilly little knickers – TOO cute!!

I had LOADS of fun putting this gift together as the matchy-matchy thing just gladdens my heart, and of course Stampin’ Up! does matchy-matchy oh so well

For the card, I started with a piece of Watercolour Paper and used the same technique I mentioned in my previous post – stamping first, then going over the image with an Aquapainter.  Being watercolour paper, the images don’t need a lot of coaxing to get all blurry and undefined, so less is definitely more when you’re Aquapainting, unless you want a blurry smudge in the middle of your paper.

At least it would be a colourful blurry smudge, but it wasn’t the look I was going for, so I took care not to over-squeeze the barrel of the Aquapainter as I went.

I used the same colours for the box, then made a little tag to match…

The scalloped edge of the tag is one of my favourite features and is achieved by first punching a length of cardstock with the Scallop Edge Punch, then feeding it through the Crimper.

Then you take the length of crimped scalloped cardstock and pinch and squeeze the flat, un-scalloped side together, concertina style, until the cardstock starts to bend around into a circular, or in this case, oval shape.

Once I had the shape I wanted, I stuck the scalloped edge to the back of the punched out Wide Oval that I had already stamped with images to match the card.  Then I neatened it up by sticking another Wide Oval at the back to cover the edges of the scalloped border.

Not sure that any of that makes sense, but if you’d like a clearer explanation, a tutorial, or maybe even a video tutorial now that I have the capacity and machinery to create one of those, just shout!

“A Gift for Baby Nadia”
Stamps: For Everything, Polka Dot, Nursery Necessities
Paper: Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette, Certainly Celery, Barely Banana, Watercolour Paper
Ink: Whisper White Craft, Pink Pirouette, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Scallop Edge, Eyelet Border, Scallop Oval, Large Oval and Wide Oval Punches; Crimper, Certainly Celery Wide Grosgrain, Two-way Glue Pen, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter; Barely Banana, Regal Rose and Rose Red Markers; Aquapainter, Linen Thread, Button Bouquet, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Despite the fact that I absolutely LOVED so very many of the products in the soon to be defunct Spring Mini catalogue,  I don’t seem to have managed to blog about  them much.

I will be attempting to rectify that in the coming days as we wave a – possibly final – goodbye to the products that have graced us this Spring.

One of the things that screamed ‘Springtime’ most deafeningly to me has been the Walk in the Park Designer Series Paper.  The colours are so very fresh and pretty and Spring-y!

I thought it was about time I shared some more scrapbooking with you, so here is a layout I completed a little while ago featuring some of this gorgeous DSP and my equally gorgeous small girl.

I took the photos on a warm-ish Winter’s day in the park across the street from our house while Soph was intent on checking out the little pink flowers that were dotted throughout the grass.

The journalling reads:

Never happier than when you are communing with nature…  Sweet Sophie, my little garden girl

I used this sketch as a starting point for my layout and used a t-shirt of Sophie’s as the colour inspiration.

I’ve always loved the vintage-y look of this shirt and I think the colours are gorgeous together.

I zoomed in so you could see the beautiful detail in the image on the front of the shirt.

This happily also spares you from the assorted wrinkles and creases that are in abundance due to the fact that I don’t iron.  It takes away too much time from more enjoyable endeavours, so I have struck it from my list of ‘things that require my attention’.

I highly recommend it.

Stay tuned for some more projects involving Spring Mini stuff in the next little while, and to ensure that YOU get your hands on your must-have Spring Mini products, contact me today to get it while you still can…

“Garden Girl Layout”
Stamps: Jumbo Outline Alphabet
Paper: Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Pink Pirouette, Walk in the Park DSP, Bella Rose DSP
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Regal Rose and Riding Hood Red re-inkers (to colour the Pretties)
Accessories: Pretties Kit, Button Bouquet, Scallop Edge Punch, Old Olive Marker (for journalling)

Eight years ago on this very day, I promised, for all the days of my life, to love and honour the man that was to – seconds later – become my husband.

And right here, right now, I am going to honour (and possibly even slightly embarrass….!) this love of my life, this thief of my heart, this architect of the two most precious little girls on earth – the most amazing husband, wonderful father and truly the best life partner I could ever have been blessed with.

Pictures by Rocketown Images

Here are a couple of shots from our wedding day – a casual little Sunday morning affair that took place on Rottnest Island, 18km off the coast of Western Australia.  It pretty much turned into a wedding weekend in fact, with lots of our family and friends taking advantage of the opportunity to stay over and chill out “Rotto” style for a day or two

It’s hard to believe that eight years has gone by since then.

Looking back, it’s also hard to believe that I ever pulled off that hair colour.  Oh to have the guts (and time and money…) to maintain a highlighted strawberry-blondish “do” again.

But I digress…

Here is a little montage of one of the things that I MOST love about my handsome man – the father that he is to our girls

Clockwise from top left: with Hannah at karate, introducing Sophie, watching over teeny Hannah, with Sophie at the beach, squeezes at Adventure World, close up, with Hannah in Freo gear!

He has always played an absolutely equal part in the care and upbringing of our poppets and does THE most amazing job of it.  He is such a loving and positive influence in all of our lives and one of the things that I love about that is that our girls will always have this as an example of what a caring and good man is like and will settle for nothing less in their own lives.

Of course that’s assuming that they will ever be allowed to have boyfriends or go out on dates, which of course they won’t, so scratch that.

Moving on….

(*kidding* of course, but Tim always says that the first time a boy comes knocking at the door to take out one of his daughters, he will answer the door naked except for his black belt.  So in all likelihood, the minute that little snippet of news gets out, chances are they will never be asked out anyway…)

Last night while Tim was at work and the girls were asleep, I sat down to create what I hoped would be a fitting anniversary card for this fella who has added so much to my life.

Then I got up again as I had no single idea of where to start!

What I ended up with started out as the tiniest seed of an idea that I got increasingly excited about as I managed to make my vision an unexpected reality!

Here is the end result of my labour of love and stamp-a-ma-jigging…

I first decided on a colour scheme, then pulled out all of the occasion-appropriate wording stamps that I own to create my own Designer Series Paper.

I used no less than 11 stamp sets here and the trickiest part once all of the stamping was over was figuring out which boxes they all needed to go back into…

It’s a large statement, but this may just be my favourite card ever, based partly on the person it’s for and partly because I just LOVE it when something that starts as a tiny possibility turns into a reality that far exceeds any initial expectations!

The card itself is double the size of a regular one – simply a base of an A4 sheet folded in half and then all the layers, well, layered on top!  There is quite a bit of sponging and distressing in my attempt to bloke-ify it a little.  Possibly I could have bloke-ified it a bit more by omitting the Pink Pirouette, but I wanted a bit of contrast for the hearts…

So I mentioned that I used 11 stamp sets…  I thought it would be fun to offer a little prize to the first person that correctly names them all.  Actually just ten of them, as the small heart is from Cheep Talk but shown incorrectly in the catalogue as belonging to Good Friend, so that would be a bit unfair!

So ten stamp sets that the wording stamps are taken from….  Who’s up for the challenge?!  Here’s a little clue – nine of them are current and just one is retired (last year)

The prize will be… something from my craft room here.

Can you tell this is an impromptu little giveaway…?  I promise it will be something worthwhile

Oh and anybody that infers that it’s because I don’t have the inclination to write out the names and include all the images of the stamp sets that I have used is disqualified (…and correct…. )

Happy Anniversary Baby!

ETA:  I should have known this would happen – I missed one!  There are actually 11 sets you’re looking for peeps (there are 12 used in total).  Ready, set, GO!!!

“Happy 8th Anniversary to Us!”
Stamps: You tell me!
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Kraft, Whisper White, Parisian Breeze DSP
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Sahara Sand, Baja Breeze, Pink Pirouette
Accessories: Vintage Brads, Chocolate Chip wide stitched grosgrain ribbon, Stampin’ Spongers, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Button Bouquet, Linen Thread, 1″ Circle Punch, Horizontal Slot Punch, Stamp-a-ma-jig