Get your free products with Sale-a-bration – it starts today!

If you love Stampin’ Up!, then this has got to be your favourite time of year – between the 24th of January and the 31st of March, you can earn free products simply by placing an order worth $100 or more! Yep - it’s Sale-a-bration time!

This year SU have increased their free products offering, which is great news, because you can now either choose one of four absolutley gorgeous stamp sets, OR you can choose the delightful Everyday Enchantment DSP paper pack (12 x 12inch sheets!), OR even a Ribbon and Brad Pack to match.  Yes that is 6 different free product bundles you can choose from with every $100 order.

So let’s take a closer look at the products you can choose from:

Fresh Vintage Stamp Set which coordinates perfectly with the Everyday Enchantment DSP…

The Elementary Elegance Stamp Set which coordinates with the Curly Label Punch…

The Sprinkled Expressions Stamp Set which is just a must have for kids cards (in my humble opinion)…

and the Outlined Occasions Stamp Set which is just so cool…

And my absolute winning pick – this paper has to be seen to be believed…

And the Brads and Ribbon to coordinate are just heaven…

I can’t wait to share some of the projects I have created with the Everyday Enchantment DSP and Brads with the gorgeous organza ribbon – but as everything I have made to date is for friends who’s birthdays are coming up – you will just have to wait! Until then here are a few samples from Stampin’ Up!

Feel free to email, text or call me with your order if you’d like to take advantage of this amazing promotion…

Thanks as always for stopping by:

Technology and Lego

Just had to pop back and tell you about our day at the Radu household… I don’t often post personal on here, but I just had to share this with you.  Have your kids ever been on www.lego.com ? It is an amazing website for kids full of games and mini movie clips – just so much for them to browse around (head to the products tab and they can click on whichever kind of Lego they like e.g. Hero Factory and then from there, see all the games etc related to those products).  And what I love about this site as the content is completely safe for my kids!

Now the amazing thing about today is that we discovered that you can browse and download the PDF of just about every Lego instruction manual ont he market. Now this obviously comes in handy if you misplace one – but lets just say you have a Lego whiz for a 7 year old, your 5 year old is pretty great at it too and you have an underbed storage container over flowing with Lego?

First we browsed here  and chose instructions that we thought we had most of the pieces for and if not exactly, we thought we could “improvise” (one of our favourite words in this house).  At first we were going to print them but I was lamenting over all the ink I’d go through when I had a brain storm – I saved the PDF to file, added it to my iTunes library and from there, we transferred onto my iPad – perfect! The kids sat the iPad on the floor next to them and started to find pieces and build to the instructions.

This was at 8:30am.  it’s now nearly 6pm and we have had a small break for lunch, swim and dinner – that’s it!

The even better thing is that most of the instructions to download from this link I’ve given you are small 3 in 1 models – beauty!

Kyan excitedly told me that they “got” new Lego toys today – they just had to use their own pieces – how good is that! And for Laurenz who basically only wants new Lego so that he can conquer the instructions – this is just awesome! New instructions at no cost!

I’ve just had another look around the site and found a link to customer service where you can access 3300  building instructions online – all you need is Adobe Acrobat to view them – Oh My!

So get on over to www.Lego.com sign your kids up to Lego Club if you want to personalise their experience, or just browse the site as a visitor and away they go – you won’t regret it! It can be quite interactive where kids can create and upload to show off their building skills…

Laurenz created this big guy yesterday and we uploaded it to a Create and Share Board today for all to see – he stands about 30cm high!

And Kyan loves the “build your own Hero” in the Hero Factory Section

Ain’t Love Grand?

Happy New Year! First blog post of the year for me, and I’d like to share a card that I created for a dear friend who recently lost a close friend of hers, and I just wanted to pop something in the post to tell her that I was thinking of her xxx

So I had this idea of a folding top note after chatting with my very talented friend Michelle Martin who was describing the card she made at our Stampin’ Up! team day on Saturday – I think they used the Circle Scalloped Die in the same way – so that was my inspiration to create this:

I folded a piece of the new Spice Cake DSP (in love with this at mo) and placed it over the top note die being sure to keep the folded side from going over the die.  This is a similar technique to creating the double butterflies so I’m sure you get the gist

And it opens like this:

to reveal a heartfelt sentiment inside:

I love the way you see both sides of the gorgeous DSP with this technique..

And then I will add my personal message inside the card which I have also stamped:

Can you see the love hearts on the envelope? They are punched from the Owl Punch, and then covered in crystal effects – here is a closeup of the little hearts on the balloon:

Hope you enjoyed my card and thanks for stopping by!

A Dashing Christmas and Other Card Ideas

If you need any help with some last minute Christmas Card ideas, here are a few fast options that I went with this Chrissie -

Here is a cute Christmas Card I created using my Dasher Stamp and Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint Mixed With Pale Plum (retired colour) re-inker.  The DSP is from the Letters to Santa Pack and the Colours are Blushing Bride and Old Olive.  Love the Square Scallop Die that I used here to Mat my stamped image!

I love the masked bauble technique  I’ve used for my next card, just use a circle punch to create a template and sponge some shimmer paint first, and wheel or stamp over without moving your mask template – really quick and super effective!

This card is really straight forward, I’ve used a central shape to frame my Ornament, and featured the new Glimmer paper from SU

And lastly, here is another quick ornament card again featuring yet another colourway from the Letters To Santa DSP.  These ornaments have been stamped in versamark, then colour, then covered in the new Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder before heating with the heat gun.  Super Sparkly!

All really simple card ideas made from just a few different elements but brought together quickly and effectively!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Petal Cone Tips – Tutorial for alternate sizes and DSP Matting

Hi Girls,

I’ve gathered together a few tips to get the most out of your petal cone die – here is my first example:

This is one of the teacher gifts I created on our Toodyay Weekend – with of course a matching card.  And a close up of the detail:

If you are wondering how I got the stamped images so shiny and deliciously glittery, I stamped in versamark, tapped on Cherry Cobbler Ink (or Old Olive), stamped and then embossed using the new Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder from the Summer Mini. I love the result!

And the matching card:

I’d like to share an easy way to cut out the triangle mats in DSP that I’ve covered each side of my petal cone with:

Cut a strip of your DSP to 11.5cm (your length will depend on how many triangles you want to cut.  My example is A4 length and it gives me enough mats for two cones.

Next measure along the top side and mark at 6.5cm intervals – so at 6.5, 13, 19.5, 26

Next measure along the bottom side and mark at 3.25, then 6.5cm intervals (9.75, 16.25, 22.75, 29.25.

Next you can draw the lines if you like, but I usually just line up the markings on my trim and chop up my triangles.

Easy!

Ok next tip is how to change the shape of your petal cone into a little “chinese takeaway” type box:

Here is my first example:

So as you can see for this size which is a little taller, you first score a line 6cm from crease mark at the top of your cone, and then cut at 8cm (this will leave you a 2cm flap to secure the bottom of your box.  If you want a longer overlap on the bottom maybe for a stronger box, you could leave a 2.5cm gap before cutting offf (at 8.5cm). These measurements will result in a 6cm high box with a smaller base.

And for another example:

This one is is a shorter style, and this is achieved just by scoring and cutting at different measurements.  These measurements will result in a 5cm high box.

I’d just like to shout out to Michelle from ministamper.com who taught me the basics of both of these techniques

Hope you liked my tips and if you have any questions just drop me an email or give me a call!

Bingo – Stampin’ Up! Style

Hi Girls,

I am excited to share something a little different with you today… Last weekend I had a fantastic crafting weekend at Avalon Homestead in Toodyay and this was one of the projects on my list that i had to try…A Bingo Game using Jolly Bingo Bits and the Bingo Background stamp, with a game spinner from Stampin’ Up!

I started by decorating a metal tin with the Bingo stamp and a few glittery snowflakes, and then created 4 game cards (all using a different combination of stamped imges from Jolly Bingo Bits), a Game Spinner using the Penants Builder Punch and a Game Spinner, and then matchboxes to house a set of counters that I ordered from eBay.

I love these colours for Christmas – I’ve taken my cue from a “boyish” sheet of Letters to Santa DSP with Marina Mist, Early Espresso and Old Olive.  “Boyish” becuase I made this game for Laurenz and Kyan and they have been playing ever since! Here are some other pics:

I love thinking outside of the box and trying projects other than Cards and Scrapbook Pages – hope this inspires you too!

Shabby Chic with Beau Chateau

My Mum recently asked me if I could make a special card for her long time friend who was turning 65…My Mum is an amazing woman, and any chance to do anything for her (even if it is just making a card or two – and I am up for it!)

I started with my newly purchased Beau Chateau DSP and this is what I came up with:

I found these adorable roses at a craft store and wanted to use them with this paper – only they are really bulky so I decided to create a little box to put the card in instead of an envelope:

I just love these soft colours together.

Dinoroar’s first outing

I recently made these cute cards for two sweet little boys having birthdays this month – it’s the first time I have inked up Dinoroar and it was a joy to colour! First time stamping on twill tape too – what ya think? The DSP I used is Well Worn – just matches really well!

and inside one of my favourite stampsets Outline for Fun

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Cards with Stampin’ Up!

Just getting prepared for our Toodyay Stamping Retreat where we focus on getting our christmas cards, teacher gifts and other christmas projects sorted in one fantastic weekend of stamping, friends, food and fun!

Here are a few designs I have been working on to date:

Christmas Bingo with Jolly Bingo Bits and New Glitter Glass

Wisteria Wonder and a Dazzling Diamonds Medallion

Contempo Chrismtas and Letters to Santa DSP

Folded Christmas Tree with Embossed Alfoil

Contact me if you’d like any details about these projects, and thanks for stopping by today!

 

Kyan’s Carnival Birthday

Hi Girls,

Well as promised, here are the other projects I created for Kyan’s recent 5th Birthday which just happened to be a Big Top Carnival Theme:

First – the cake.  Now I had many a friend suggest cake designs or indeed send me links on facebook (smile) of amazing big top cake creations – but look – my talents are far more comfortably spent on paper craft – not cake craft! LOL

So instead I had the Cake Factory whip up this Icing Sheet using an image from Big Top Birthday DSP and I baked a quick Vanilla Sponge to show it off:

The colouring of the icing was just a perfect match to the colouring on the icing sheet – all in all I was pretty happy with it

And for the party favours I used the petal cone die and Big Top Birthday DSP – Kyan’s had a special Happy Birthday embellishment and the other 20 had the thanks embosslit as their embellishment:

And I created this little scrapbook page to display next to the favours:

I will pop back soon and post his very simple but effective birthday card – I’ve just realized that I haven’t photographed it yet! Until then,