July Two Step Stampin' Promotion

For the entire month of July you have a fantastic opportuntiy to get a 20% discount from some the gorgeous Two Step Stampin' sets.  A Rose Is A Rose is one of my absolute favourites and sadly it is going to be retiring as at the end of August.  If any of these sets are on your Wish List now is the time to grab them.

Item          Page             Description               Regular Price            Sale Price


116386     39                 Loads of Love            $39.95                 $31.96

116342    42                 Big Bold Birthday**     $53.95                $43.16

115860    78                A Rose is a Rose**       $66.95                $53.56

116332    86                Playful Petals**             $52.95                $42.36

115770   98                Cheep Talk                    $47.95               $38.36

115946  115               Wonderful Favourites     $39.95                $31.96

119187   14*              Tiny Tags (wood-mount) $38.95              $31.16

118592 14*               Tiny Tags (clear-mount)   $28.95              $23.16

119163 31* Cottage Garden (wood-mount)      $32.95             $26.36

120003 31* Cottage Garden (clear-mount)       $24.95             $19

** Retiring
*  Autumn/Winter Mini

If you NEED any of these sets, send me an email and I will order them for you.

Class Week 9 - Blue Birds and Flowers

If you know me you know I am not a huge fan of Birds - in any form of craft that is - not the real ones.  I did however buy the Two Step Bird Punch from the Mini Catalogue so of course I had to put it to use.  I had quite a bit of fiddling to get to the end result on this one but it has grown on me.
I was really upset to see that Brocade Blue was one of the colours being retired in September so it was a main influence in this weeks cards.  I am going to miss this colour.
The main card is Bashful Blue and we got to play with the Scallop Circle Big Shot die.  The large blue circle is cut with the Scissor Circle.  The birds stamped with En Francais background and edged with Bashful Blue.
The flowers are from the Boho Blossoms punch.
I don't often put in photo's of the insides of my cards but I will try and do this from time to time.

Our second card is also in Brocade Blue and Bashful Blue.  Using Vintage Vogue we created this field of flowers.  The Top Note makes a great background to work with.  Now I think that there should be a punch for everything but sometimes you just have to cut out.  We did have to do a bit of cutting this week but I think the end result was worth it.  Some of the flowers have had Dazzling Diamonds added to the edge of the petals and we also coloured a Dimensional and added some Bling to that.  The shape of our Dimensionals are fantastic for flower centres don't you think? 

If you are like me and love Brocade Blue now is the time to stock up on inks, card and ribbon as the retiring colours are now on a "until sold out" basis.

It's Not What's In The Box!

Whenever I place an order I am always so excited when the delivery man arrives with my box of goodies.  I can't wait to unpack it and play with any new and exciting things I have ordered.  I would normally unpack and then put the box straight in the bin.  Today it was cold and I have to go out later so I thought I would put the box out when I left.

Well to some it's not what is in the box that is important but the box itself, priceless!!!

Workshop Bonus

A common phrase around our house at the moment is - "It's EOFYS" which is directly related to the advertising on television.  For those of you blessed to not have heard this, it means End Of Financial Year Sale.  When my youngest heard this, he thought it was an actual event and wanted to know how long it went for and what happened at EOFYS.
I got to thinking and thought I will have my own EOFYS of sorts - so from now until the end of July, if you host a workshop and achieve the minimum of $300 in sales, not only will you receive your FREE Hostess set and $30 FREE spend on any products - I will give you another FREE Hostess set.  You will also receive a bonus gift from me!!!!  That's a lot of FREE goodies. 

Now I know a lot of you think workshops are a lot of work - but they needn't be.  All you really need to do is invite a group of friends around, have a cuppa or two and a bickie (preferably chocolate, of course).  That simple.  You can pick a theme for the projects you make and then just sit back and have fun, how easy is that!!!

So what are you waiting for? Give me call or email me and book a date before time runs out!

Inspired By Nature - Week 8 Class

When I post each weeks class photos it reminds me of how fast the weeks are flying by.  It is hard to believe that there are only 2 weeks classes left before school holidays.  I don't know about you but I am convinced that the world is spinning faster and the days are getting shorter.  Its either that or I just can't fit as many things into a day that I used to.

Inspired By Nature is one of my favourite sets and I haven't used it for a long time.  I also got to do a project that I have wanted to do for a long time.

This is an Easel Topped Desk Drawer and I have wanted to make on of these for months.  I have seen many people do these but I got my template from Jenny Moors.

This one is done in Not Quite Navy and Baja Breeze and the papers are from Urban Garden.  The flower is from Inspired By Nature and was punched out with the 1 3/4" circle punch.  The other two layers were done with the Circle Scissor Plus.  We added Dazzling Diamonds with the Two Way Glue Pen.  The "handle" on the drawer is from The Designer Brads.

Instead of putting a stamped image on the top, you could put a family photo and put a Post It Note pad instead of the calendar.  You could also put a brad or pearl instead of the calendar as an anchor for the easel.

We did this card to match.  The main image was stamped onto a larger piece of card and then cut into 1" strips to create a "tile"effect.  To create the illusion of the flowers being in the foreground we stamped off the grass before stamping onto the card.  This makes it lighter so it appears to be further away.

We created a 'spotlight" by stamping the flower image onto scrap adn punching it out and mounting it over the main image.  Of course we had to add some bling to match the Desk Drawer and you can never have enough bling.

This is the same class but done in Basic Greay and Kiwi Kiss.  The papers are also from Urban Garden. 

Hubby's Birthday

It is my dear hubby's birthday tomorrow and I have finally got around to making him a card. I always struggle with male cards and I am on a mission to use more of the patterned papers.  This is so far from what I had in my head when I sat down to start but I am happy with it.  I stumbled across an unopened pack of Urban Oasis papers (shock, horror) can you imagine not using it as soon as it arrived????? I fell in love with all of the sheets so you will be seeing some more cards using these papers soon.

I just recently got the Circle Scissor Plus and haven't had much time to play with it but it makes cutting cirlcles a breeze and will be one of my new favourite things I am sure.

I have used Basic Grey, Kiwi Kiss and Sahara Sand cardstock.  The words on the front are from Heard from the Heart in the new Mini and stamped in Basic Grey.  The inside sentiment is from A Little Birthday Cheer.
The colours aren't very clear as I had to take the photo at night and post it before I wrote in it.  Hopefully he doesn't pop in and have a look at my blog!

Upsy Daisy Revisited - Week 7 Classes

As much as I love Upsy Daisy I haven't used it for such a long time.  After doing the Stitches & Craft Show and using this set for hundreds of Make & Takes we needed a break from each other.  I did make this card some time ago but didn't feel like I wanted to do it in a class.  Well this week didn't give me much play time to create so I dug it out and I now have a new desire to dust it off and experiment again.

The colours are Bashful Blue, Whisper White and Night of Navy.  I inked up the stamp with Bashful Blue and then with the daubers, sponged Night of Navy just onto the tips of some of the flowers.  I then dabbed the Two Way Glue Pen onto the flower petals and sprinkled them with Dazzling Diamonds.  Its difficult to see in the photo but the flowers just sparkle and look gorgeous.  I punched out a half circle on the side and layered a strip of Night of Navy card stock with Bashful Blue Double Stitched Grosgrain tied around it behind the flower layer. (Hope that makes sense).  The Happy Birthday words are from Occasional Greetings. I'm now looking forward to playing with this set again.

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Our second card was male orientated using the Seaside set.  We learnt how to "Mask" which gives you the appearance of images disappearing behind another image.  In this card we have the smaller shells fitting under the large shell image.  The colours are Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss and Not Quite Navy.  The Baja Breeze and Kiwi Kiss layers were distressed using the Cutter Kit tool.  The words are from Teeny Tiny Sentiments and the back layer of the words is from the Scallop Oval punch trimmed down to give a whole new look with a few brads to finish it off.  We also played with some Shrinky Dinks and created a little version of the large shell to hang on the inside of the card. 

Cottage Garden Gift Tags - Week 6 Classes

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile but we have had a very busy few weeks in our household.  Sadly we lost Darren's Grandmother last week and had her funeral on Monday.  Great, as she was fondly called as she was a Great & Great Great Grandmother was 95 and one of those people that always brought a smile to everyone, always had a kind word and more than enough love to go around her huge family. 

Although she no longer suffers she will be hugely missed by us all.

In last weeks class we made a set of gift cards and a box using the Cottage Garden stamp set and Cottage Wall Papers.  The cards are 3 x 3 and have been made fairly neutral so they can be used for any occassion or given away as a gift.  The cardstock is Orchid Oppulance which is sadly going and Rich Razzleberry.  The ribbon is Certainly Celery and the punches used were Eyelet Border and small and large Tags punches.  The box was made by a 5 1/8" square and a 5 1/4" square, both scored at 1" around all sides.  This enables the base to fit snugly into the lid.  You can easily alter the box size to fit any card size.