Cairns Christmas Craft Fair

Are you local to the Cairns area? If you are you will know we certainly don't get craft fairs often so grab the chance while it's there!

Stampin' Stuff will be at the Cairns Christmas Craft Fair this year on November 8 so come on by and say HI!

You can click on the picture to see the details a bit larger. Where you don't need go, go gadget eyes!

Together Forever

Look at this... I have barely started on Christmas yet I am starting on Valentines... hmmm... great to see I have my priorities in order hey! This is Lily & Billy Sweethearts and it is an adorable set from Pink Cat Studio. I used some paper I have had sitting around for a little while now and some Prima flowers. Lily and Billy have been coloured using ink and my ever fabulous Twinkling H2O's!

Just a reminder (I've been getting quite a few emails lately!) if you haven't seen my watercolouring tutorial yet, click here and you can check it out!

If you like this Lily & Billy Sweetheart set I have now listed it in my pre-loved section of Stampin' Stuff.

Popcorn the Bear is BACK!

Popcorn sold out very quickly last time but he is back in stock now. You can check out the stamp sets available here! There is also a new category called Cute Companions and there are some adorable Christmas and Easter sets there too!

Now, on to the card! The card base is 5 x 5" so these stamps are huge! I wasn't too sure about what I could do with the room left around the image but came up with this anyway. I mentioned a pastel and VersaMark technique a few weeks ago and got a few comments about how it is done. It is a very simple technique where you stamp in VersaMark and then lightly rub pastel or chalk over the top to give it a subtle colour. It comes out looking quite soft so it isn't as harsh as stamping in coloured ink. You can barely see it in the photograph but I did the same technique on the blue card base.

ETA: If you look at the card blue card base you can see some brown on it. That is where I do the VersaMark technique. Not on my image... that is just done with ink and an aqua painter.

The stamp set used for this card is called 'Someone Special'

Going Green!

The High Hopes challenge this week is 'Let's Go Green'! Lacey has posted a couple of suggestions on what you could recycle for this challenge - buttons from a shirt, lace from a skirt or do what I did and go outside and find a few things that nature provided to add to your card!

I have been working on this card for a few days now. It is serving two purposes... it is this weeks challenge card and it is also my dad's birthday card for this Wednesday (shhhh). Dad has taken prospecting up in the last year or two so I thought this stamp would be great for his card. You can't really see them but I coloured some of the scattered rocks in gold Twinkling H2O too.

Santa Galore!

If you have seen this month's Cardmaking, Stamping & Papercraft (Vol 15 No 5), you may have seen Woodland Santa on the cover! There is also a three page spread of the happy little Santa's inside. As you can imaging I was pretty pleased to see Santa made it to the cover. I didn't receive a contributors copy so I hadn't seen the issue and my friend emailed me to say he was famous!

If you are after these Santas, they are back in stock at Stampin' Stuff!

These are my photos of the cards close up:

Twinkling H2O's In Stock!

They have been out of stock in Australia for a while now but they are BACK! My love for H2O's goes above and beyond! I use them on every single
card I make and I don't think my papercrafting life would ever be the same without them!

Are you wondering what you can do with Twinkling H2O's? Wonder no more... check out my watercolouring tutorial!

Twinkling H2O's add a little shimmer to your project. They are a small tub similar to paint only it is completely solid. Just add a drop of water to activate then colour with an aqua brush for rich, vibrant colour!

As the water dries they go solid again and store for next time! These little pots will last forever! A little bit goes a long way!

Click here to see the sets available!

Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!

Kimmie released her very own line of gorgeous rubber stamps today and they are now in stock at Stampin' Stuff! This is the sweet little Charlotte & Doll and I whipped this card up tonight because I really wanted to show her off! If you want to see the rest of Kimmie's Moonlight Whispers range, click here!

I really am hooked on the whole pastel on VersaMark background at the moment and I really like the effect!

Merry Christmas

This weeks High Hopes Challenge is Lotsa Layers! I'm hosting this one and I always need to push myself to put more layers of paper on cards. The stamp is Skiing Santa and I got the idea for the holly from an Australian blog I saw a few weeks ago. If you have seen this blog, let me know I simply just can't find it or remember the name. I do remember leaving a gushing comment on the idea!! I drew some holly leaves, stamped them in En Francais then rubbed some brown pastel over it. The red rhinestone brads were my idea and in person they look really cute!

There are some great Christmas stamps up for grabs for being the random winner in this weeks challenge so visit the High Hopes Challenge Blog for more info!

ANNOUNCING…..

THE STAMPIN' STUFF DESIGN TEAM!

The DT call seemed to run forever but really it was just over a month! I got SO many applications I was so stunned and didn't know where to begin! After hours of pouring through my folder of applications I finally came to the excruciatingly hard decision of two lovely, paper craftin' ladies!

MEET... MICHELLE!

Michelle's blog is called Colour on Cards and she has just become a guest High Hopes Design Diva! I'm pretty excited about that... more High Hopes for us little Aussies... sometimes we seem so far away from the action! Michelle has a talent for colouring and uses different mediums... all so well! So, check out Michelle's blog to see her wonderful creations!


MEET VICKI!

Vicki's blog is called Creative Considerations and she is great at doing what I have trouble with... layering... basically just putting everything together and making it look AWESOME! I am just stunned by the amount of detail she goes into for every piece of art! Vicki's style is just stunning so pop on over to her blog, say 'hi' and check out her fantastic work!