Dog Crazy Layout

I did a Dog Layout class on Thursday night with Liz from Crafting in Style and I had so much fun! I had the best time doing this one and I am really happy with how it turned out! There are lots of little 3D bits and pieces with a lot of the circles being raised and cute little epoxy brads all over the place. I couldn't be happier with it! There is a similar cat layout that I am going to do when my supplies arrive. These are all Cloud 9 products and have to be the best pet stuff I have found... there is just not much around in the pet theme and it annoys me a bit... I figure, not everyone has kids to scrap!

Hope you like it as much as I do!

What a SHOCK!

This morning when I opened up my email I got such a shock! Jan, my former CM Consultant from SA had left a comment on my blog! Jan – where on earth did you find my blog?? I don’t have contact with anyone in SA anymore so I was completely stunned! It was a great start to my day!

For those who don’t know, Jan introduced me to scrapping forever and a day ago! I didn’t even know scrapping existed until the day I went to her lovely home for a workshop! My friend rang me early that morning begging me come to ‘some photo thing’ to help make up numbers for her friend Linda. I dragged my sister, Kelly along too not even knowing what we were going to!

I still remember leaving that day so excited yet stunned that Jan knew so much about something I had never heard of! Jan was just a huge help… she sent me home with some paper, photo splits, a page and page protector and told me to get started! It seems like it was only yesterday really! Jan – I still have the black journaller you gave me (I was SO excited when you gave me that! – my scrapping was on a really tight budget back then!) You would be surprised at how often I still use the pen… it would be around 5 years old now and its still going strong! When I look back now… Jan, you opened a really big can of worms there!

Anyway, I am really grateful Jan for all of your amazing help and support and it was lovely to receive that comment… I just hope you come back now!

I thought it might be fun to post a photo of my very first layout; the one I did on that very first day of my new obsession that surprisingly lasted to the point where I couldn’t live without it anymore!

ATC's

I joined an ATC's swap last week... seemed like a good idea at the time.... nah, really it was quite fun but I did get a little sick of the mass production side of it by the end. This was my first attemp at ATC's and I have wanted to give them a go for a while now. I just hope they are up to standard really! I did Teina's great effect by screwing up the paper (that was Matt's job) and then glueing it on leaving bumps and creases. Not only does it look great... its really fun too... I learnt that one in Teina's canvas class a while back and it still looks good even on a small scale.

Anyway, thats it for this week. I have been doing a bit of scrapping, just big pages like Movie World and Australia Zoo from last Christmas' trip to Brisbane... I have been trying to get through it all year. The pages are rather plain becuase they are just full of photos so I tend not to put them on here. If anyone is actually interested in seeing them, comment and I will post pics!

Over and out!

Look What I Found

I was going through my cupboard of rubbish and I found these star sign cards that I made using a template from Stamping & Papercraft when I first started cardmaking. It was probably a bit over a year ago now. The photo's don't really do them justice but it was funny coming across them again and I have to say, I am still pretty proud of them! I completely forgot I made them! If anyone else has the mag with the other months in them, would you mind leaving a comment? I wouldn't mind doing the whole set!

New Look Website

It took me a few days but I finally finished building my new website!

I moved up from FrontPage and tried my hand with Dreamweaver this time. When I did my first website I started out with Dreamweaver and having no web design knowledge at all I almost went insane so I tried FrontPage instead.... it was much easier... pretty much like MS Word. Now I have a good idea of whats going on with all the funny words and acronyms I managed to come out of the Dreamweaver experience reasonably sane. Well, sane as I can be considering what I went in like!! Feel free to have a look at the site if you like at www.stampinstuff.com.au . Beware though that it's not as bright and in your face as the last one. I was going for simple (or bland!) this time... trying for a bit of class or professionalism maybe. It's just basic and as time goes on I will make it more pretty with pictures and stuff so its a work in progress.

Hoppy Birthday

I thought it was time to bring the little fwoggies back out of the box and make a card with at least one of the little guys today! I might attempt another one this afternoon after a nap. It has just started to rain again and the noise is so nice its putting me to sleep. *snnnnnooorrrrrrre* I've had a busy day today... I have made two cards, decorated some boxes and I have and watched 'She's the Man' and 'Crocodile Dundee'.... that's a big day for me! I deserve a nap after all of that action! Nah, really the truth is, in an attempt to wear our dog out more in the mornings I have been jogging our walk rather than just plodding along half a sleep.... but MY LEGS!! I have muscles I didn't realise I had and my legs...... OOOOHHHHHH! Today was the third day... I hope I can move enough tomorrow to make it a fourth! Still... I found out I can run further now that I have ever been able to in my life... that's gotta count for something, right?

Stamps: Unfrogettable & (you guessed it...) Canvas Print Background
Ink: Garden Green, Jet Black Stazon and VersaMark
Cardstock: Garden Green, Certainly Celery, Close to Cocoa and Watercolour Paper
Accessories: Linen Twine

Best Wishes

I am still having trouble thinking of good ideas for this set. It's a hard one really. I just don't know what to do with the background. I played around with the paper for a while today but this was the best I could come up with! In the end I just left it at that and moved on!

Stamps: Carte Postale & French Flair
Ink: VersaMark, Rose Red & Regal Rose
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Rose Red & Regal Rose
Accessories: Ivory Organdy Ribbon

Thanks

I was feeling in the mood for plain yesterday when I whipped this one up. It took all of 5 minutes. I just felt it would look good just focusing on the stem and leaves of this stamp rather than taking away from it by going overboard with the background. The Ivory cardstock has a really pretty texture to it with little speckles like pepper so it highlights really well and makes the card look really natural. What do you guys think? Less is more?

Stamps: Stem Silhouettes & 'Thanks' from Everyday Flexible Phrases
Ink: Handsome Hunter
Cardstock: Ivory, Handsome Hunter and Sage Shadow

Mon Amie

How nice is this colour combo?? I love it! It's really pretty. I saw a card by Claire with similar colours and it looked great. I added the Bravo Burgundy and it turned out really nice. I did quite a bit of 3D work on this one, not that you can tell from the photo but there are quite a few layers there of the Carte Postale stamp and the Mon Amie.

Stamps: Carte Postale and Canvas Background
Ink: Chocolate Chip and VersaMark
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, Bravo Burgundy and Sage Shadow
Accessories: Large Oval Punch and Foam dots

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Lovely as a Tree

This card is my fave of the stack I did yesterday and on the weekend! I finished this last night before we had to turn everything off because of a thunder storm. I made the reflection of the trees by stamping and sponging on vellum and then turning it over and putting it upside down.

I tried to take a close photo so you can see that I made little ripples or waves to make it seem more like water by doing lines and scribbles with some Crystal Effects. I did learn the hard way when doing that you need to cover the entire back of the vellum in snail or some sort of dry adhesive before putting on the Crystal Effects becuase it makes it bubble and warp. There was still a bit of warping but it wasn't too bad second time around.

I was a bit annoyed I didn't have a punch big enough to fit the author of the quote in but it is 'Whatever you are, be a good one' - Abraham Lincoln.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree

Ink: Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue, Night of Navy, Certainly Celery, Mellow Moss and Black Stazon

Cardstock: Ivory, Night of Navy, Mellow Moss, Certainly Celery, Gloss & Vellum

Accessories: Sponge Daubers, Crystal Effects, Linen Twine and Large Oval Punch

Lovely as a Tree

I just LOVE Lovely as a Tree... I don't know why, they are boring old trees but for some reason they work! This is a really surprisingly versitile set! I have seen it used in so many ways it isn't funny. This set came in my order yesterday so I jumped at the chance to get it mounted so I could try it out. I decided to start out simple and just did a plain landscape. I used Gloss paper and sponge daubers to dab ink all over the area after I masked each colour off. There is still so much I want to try out with this set!

Also in my order was Naturals Ivory cardstock... I have never seen it before so I thought I would try it out and its absolutely gorgeous! Its just fantastic... I don't have enough describing words to say how much of a nice colour it is. If you haven't tried Ivory before... get it... its just beautiful for a neutral colour! As for the three colours of cardstock I used... who would have ever though Night of Navy, Mellow Moss and Certainly Celery... before making this card I never would have even attempted putting those two greens together but I love it. Just quietly, I was just taking the easy way out when I came up with that combo and just used the colours I used for the sponging!

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree
Ink: Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue, Night of Navy, Certainly Celery, Mellow Moss and Black Stazon
Cardstock: Ivory, Night of Navy, Mellow Moss, Certainly Celery and Gloss
Accessories: Sponge Daubers

More Counting of Blessings! :)

I received Stem Silhouettes in the mail yesterday too and I looked at it for a while before I thought of anything I could do with it. When I ordered it I had heaps of ideas.... I just don't know where they all went in my head... I'm sure they are somewhere in there! I gave up after a while and decided to borrow one by Sarah becuase I just LOOOVE the colours! I love Kraft but I struggle to find good combos (my fave so far is Kraft, Perfect Plum, Pale Plum and Mellow Moss) I was really happy that someone else has found a great combo!

Stamps: Stem Silhouettes (Summer Mini) & Canvas Print Background (as always!)
Ink: Rose Red, White Craft, Creamy Caramel and VersaMark
Cardstock: Kraft, Rose Red, Very Vanilla (although I realised after it would have been better as Whisper White)
Accessories: Silver Cord

Count Your Blessings

You can barely see it because the light in our house was terrible last night... (as always) even though we have a million downlights throughout! I think its because they put off a warmer light than the ol' fluro so it makes it harder to photograph things. Its been raining non-stop outside for days now and the lawn is a swamp so I couldn't take them there like I usually do.

I used my new background stamp that I received in the mail yesterday for this one and although Wild Hearts has never screamed out to me before now, now I have it I'm wondering how I ever lived without it! It's just a lovely little background and I'm sure it will go with SOOO much!

Stamps: Merci (Sale-a-bration) & Wild Hearts Background
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, So Saffron, VersaMark and Jet Black Stazon
Cardstock: Close to Cocoa, Elegant Eggplant, So Saffron and Watercolour Paper

Merci

This card was the hardest to photograph! It must be the colours or something! It's using a stamp from the Sale-a-bration catalgoue called Merci.

Stamps: Merci & Canvas Background
Ink: Rose Red, Perfect Plum, Mellow Moss, VersaMark and Jet Black Stazon
Cardstock: Perfect Plum, Mellow Moss, Rose Red, Close to Cocoa and Watercolour Paper

Isn't it SCARY?! hahaha

I was sitting in my craft room the other night killing time staring at the mess when Matt came in and said to me "Why don't you make a rainbow card?" I thought... yeah why not... I'll just go crazy, waste some paper and make something as hideous as I can make it with no care about what the outcome will look like! I very, very rarely use colours from the Bold Brights family (I'm not a big fan of them) so that was where I thought I would start. It came together so easily and its nothing like I have ever seen before... Its very simple but what else do you do with nine colours? The funny thing is, the more I look at it, the more it grows on me!

Stamps: Time Well Spent (2008 Level 3 Hostess Set) & Edgy Eloquence
Ink: Basic Black, Orchid Opulence, Pink Passion & Jet Black Stazon
Cardstock: *deep breath* Brilliant Blue, Lovely Lilac, Orchid Opulence, Pink Passion, Real Red, Only Orange, Yoyo Yellow, Green Galore, Glorious Green & Watercolour Paper! phew!

Craft Caddy (for lack of a better name!)

I saw something similar to this in Scrapbooking Masters at the beginning of the week and just LOVED it! Mainly the colours are just so ME! So I straight away rushed to Spotlight to get a caddy and to my surprise... they actually had what I wanted! I don't have a whole lot of luck when craft shopping in Cairns because as soon as it gets on the shelf its usually gone... anyway, this was the last one so I was really happy. THEN, I needed to find the Cosmo Cricket (Wanted) pattern paper.... that was tough! I finally found an online store that had them all in stock (Scrap Therapy) and on check out I found out they are actually in Babinda and they do deliveries to Cairns for only $2! THEN it gets better..... when I got home from work that day.... they were on my door step! Talk about EXPRESS, EXPRESS, EXPRESS post!!

What a great day! I can't believe I didn't have to settle for anything this time, like usual and was able to go home and start the project immediately! YAY!

SALE-A-BRATION

1 January - 29 February 2008

Check out the Sale-a-bration Catalogue!

Customers
For every $100 you spend on Stampin' Up! merchandise, you can choose 1 FREE stamp set from the Sale-A-Bration Catalgoue!
There is no limit to the amount of sets you can earn - spend $200 and you get TWO FREE stamp sets.... its just keeps going!

REMEMBER
Orders over $300 (excl. postage) are eligible for Hostess Benefits too!
If you place an order of at least $300 before 29 February, you will receive:

1 FREE Level 1 Hostess Stamp Set
$30 of shopping dollars to spend anywhere in the Catalogue
AND....
3 FREE Sale-A-Bration Stamp sets of your choice!!

What could be better than that?!

Recruits
Anyone who joins as a demonstrator during Sale-A-Bration can choose any stamp set, a value of up to $79.95, from the current catalogue, for absolutely FREE.

Contact Me

Mon Amie

I took a little while to complete this card, I was too busy watching Tim Minchin video clips on u-tube at the same time! I did quite a bit of distressing of the edges on this card, I used a Heidi Swapp distressy thingy tool that I got from my LSS because I am running low on finger nails at the moment... I worked out how to use it eventually and its a good little tool!

Stamps: Carte Postale (Summer Mini Catalogue)
Ink: Ballet Blue and VersaMark
Cardstock: Creamy Caramel, Brocade Blue and Very Vanilla
Accessories: Ivory Organdy Ribbon

I've been tagged....... now what?

Thanks Chrissie for tagging me. Having never been tagged before, this might take me a while... then I need to tag more people!

The rules of the game:

• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I am addicted to stamp sets.... I have 60 sets now but rarely use any of them these days... yet I still keep buying them!
2. I used to be an apprentice lint brush... haha nah... that was ALF's first job... Matt gave me the complete four seasons of ALF for Christmas... you know the cute little alien that lived with the Tanner family in the 80's.... its still as great now as it used to be!
3. I have barely moved in the last two and a half weeks of annual leave from work... I have watched 2 seasons of That 70's Show, 1 Season of Desperate Housewives, 2 Seasons of Scrubs, 2 seasons of ALF and half a season of How I met your Mother... that was after I exhausted the video shop of decent movies!
4. I don't like to leave home.... if I had my way I would stay home forever!
5. Our dog, Rouge, is a Dalmatian x Rottweiler (yeah thats weird but she is cute... really just a 30kg Dalmatian with a bit of tan on her face) I love everything about her! Though, I hate walking her in the morning. Everything else is fine but I hate walking! I have to do it and its great to see how much she loves it but I would rather sleep in til 8!
6. I'm crazy for cake! The way to my heart is CAKE! Cheesecake, Mud cake... anything chocolate flavoured is a winner really.... I just LOOOOVE sweets.... which is why I am on a diet now... 4kg and counting!
7. I moved to Cairns from Barmera in SA (21 years) four years ago this August 4th (every year I count down to another whole year in paradise) I still think I came here 21 years too late and haven't regretted the move for a single second and never will!

Right.... now to tag seven more people....... ARRGHH!

1. Rach
2. Teina
3. Ness
4. Karen (Lexi)
5. Ruth
6. Susie
7. Kimberley

Sorry, the hyperlinks wouldn't work on those names for some reason. I will try and get them working another day when I'm not so tired!

Photo Screen

This one is an Aussie Scrap Source Kit that I got from Crafting in Style. It is just lovely and I had the best time making it!! I finished it about 3 or 4 weeks ago!

It was the best kit and I couldn't be more happier with the result! The photos are of Matt and Rouge at Ross and Locke when we went swimming at the beginning of December.

Workshop Christmas Cards

These are two of the cards I made for a workshop I had in December.... have I mentioned yet that I have quite a lot to update on my blog????

Our Christmas Tree

Matt and I are pretty 'Ba-Humbug' when it comes to Christmas trees. We figure, they collect dust, you have to get them out and set them up only to have to pull them down a few weeks later then store them all year just so you have somewhere nice to put your pressents... this year I decorated this Scrap-FX tree with Kaisercraft paper. I went crazy with this range of paper for a few weeks there and I still have SOOOO much left over... I hope its still nice and in fashion next year!!

I was having technical difficulties with it for a while and ended up covering each side about four times before deciding on the colours I have now. Then once it was covered I couldn't think of any way to decorate it! The bells were an easy one but then I was stumped for a few more days on what to do with the rest of it!

I am really happy with how it turned out in the end and I had it decorating the office at work from late November... now its in the lounge room at home and chances are it will stay there for a while yet!

Christmas Gifts

Merry Christmas! It's over now so I can finally post photos of the things I made to give away!

The first pressie I made (months ago!) were these two Eclipse Mint tins. I covered them and put a whole heap of little bits of hardware pieces in them and anything I could fit in them really. I gave them to Nerida and Jo, Matt's Mum and Sister.


I whipped the Santa journal up pretty quick and was surprised how easy it came together after I started, I used the gorgeous Basic Grey range and I'm kicking myself for not buying two of each paper now! I especially loved that they were double sided.... I am such a sucker for DS paper!! I hope they bring out more double sided in their range! I gave this one to Jade, Matt's sister-in-law to put photos of their son Isaac's first Christmas.