Sharing Time!

Hi Girls, 

WOW I have so many things to share with you today. Firstly, I am so happy to say that I have been selected as one of the new Design Team Members over at Just Add Ink! Check out my badge –> 

I’d love to see you all over there – if you’ve never joined in on a JAI challenge this is the perfect opportunity! It is so much fun and the sketch challenge this week is really interesting! Click on my badge to check it out!

I would also like to share a few projects that I recently demonstrated at a workshop (Hi Amanda!).  The first is a really cute pillow box using the Big Shot Die and a Window sheet – both featured in the Autumn Winter Mini: 

      

After first making one pillow box out of the Window sheet, I cut out half of another pillow using Cottage Wall DSP and slipped it in as a printed lining to the pillow.  One end of the pillow is punched using my horizontal slot punch and I’ve fed a little Rich Razzleberry Ribbon through and secured with a styled silver brad.  A contrasting scallop circle out of Cottage Wall is attached with one of my favourite sentiments from the Best Yet Hostess Set.  My hostess (Amanda) at the workshop suggested the great idea of popping a matchbox car in there for a kids party – how cute would that be? The kids could see right through to the surprise inside! 

The next project I demonstrated was a keepsake box featuring a scrapbook layout as the lid: 

         

I used one 12 x 12 textured cardstock in Tempting Turquoise from my Simply Scrappin Kit Hoppy Memories , and another Chocolate Chip 12 x 12 for the base of the box.  Most of the embellishments are from Hoppy Memories and the stamps are from Life’s a Breeze.  All of the sides are wheeled with my Nursery Letters Wheel – and the letters for Kyan’s name are cut using my Bigshot and the Timeless Junior Alphabet dies. I created this box to keep Kyan’s booties, umbilical cord clip, hospital name card etc nice and safe and in one place. 

The girls had a great time with the make and take – I really took it back to basics and love the result:

Stampin’ Pastels, a choice of stamps from the  Fun and Fast Notes set, the fast flowers wheel, and my small heart punch – simple and effective!

 The next thing I would like to share with you is the current special offer from Stampin’ Up! valid for the entire month of July and it’s a beauty! 

  

Stampin’ Up!’s Two-Step Stampin’ sets allow you to quickly and easily take your creativity to the next level. And from 1-31 July, you’ll get 20% off select Two-Step Stampin’ sets from our current catalogues–no limit, no minimum purchase required! Choose from any of the stamp sets listed below:

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	$19.96

*From 2010 Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue **Retiring stamp sets! 

 There are a few of my absolute favourites in there! If you would like to get your hands on any of these stampsets, give me a call on 0400 220 177 or drop me an email stampingelegance@live.com 

If you would like to book a workshop during July where I can demo some of these great sets on special get in quick before I head off to sunny Coral Bay at the end of July! 

Now another thing I would like to share with you is that I am now available for Stamping Elegance Craft Parties:

 - just check out the Craft Birthday Parties Page on my Blog or facebook for details.

I think that is enough for one post don’t you??? Come back tomorrow I’ll have some more projects to share with you!

Christening card with a wee bit of Mojo Monday

Our friend’s son Alexandar is being Christened on Sunday (Hi Kate!) and as we haven’t even met the wee soul yet (terrible friends we are) I wanted to make an extra special card for the occasion.

I decided to visit Mojo Monday for some sketch inspiration…

Here is the sketch for this week:

and here is my take on it:

Do you ever feel like sometimes your vision just works? I am really happy with the way this all came together – if you haven’t already played with the Whisper White Craft Ink Pad – you gotta try it! It really works on it’s own like this (or embossed if you have the time).

I started with Basic Gray, stamping my very versatile boat from the Life’s a Breeze stamp set with White Ink, added some bubbles for it to float on and used the same bubble stamp for a border print.

The Brocade Blue DSP is from one of my favourite Hostess Sets, and just matches the grey background beautifully. A wee bow in white grosgrain ribbon and I can’t resist using these little pegs for baby cards! (not SU)

Be sure to check out the Mojo Monday Blog and give some comment love to the other designs featured this week!

Jan x

How Versatile Can One Stamp Set Be???

Hi there and a very Happy New Year to you all!

Over the next week while I am still on holidays from work I am hoping to post quite a few new things for you – particularly a few scrapbook layouts that I have had so much fun creating recently! Stamping really does open up a whole new world of handmade embellishments – no need to stop by the craft shop every two seconds when you have a few simple supplies on hand!

I created these cards and scrapbook pages for a December Workshop and I think they really highlight how versatile one stamp set (life’s a breeze) can be with a little change of colour and stamp choice…

It all started with a 12 x 12 layout set around some gorgeous photos of Laurenz I have been itching to scrap…

 

Pacific Point, Summer Sun and Whisper White

 

My scrapping style is definitely “simple with clean lines” – It think this is probably a result of mostly scrapping pictures of my two boys – I love the shabby and antique looks that are so popular but when I combine these with pictures of the bruisers, it just doesn’s add up!

After completing this layout, I went ahead to create a 9 x 9 layout to demo at my workshop, along with a boys birthday card…

Using the same colour combo as the 12 x 12 layout, I’ve played around with placement of the images, and added a little Pacific Point DSP to the scrapbook layout as added interest…

For my birthday card, I’ve used the Schoolbook Serif Alphabet Stamp Set with the sentiment from the bottom of one of the Fun and Fast Notes Stamps (stamped on the edge of the stamp pad so that only the sentiment is inked)… The effect is a card wishing “Six happy birthdya wishes) – I now have a template to use for any age – and as you can see below – girl or boy!

For my girls card, I have used a colour combo of Pretty in Pink, Whisper White and Riding Hood Red on the Kraft Card Base.  I’ve girlied the sentiment up a little by stamping on the edge of the Life’s a Breeze sentiment to only ink the scroll and of course chosen a different combination of images.

Basically what I have here is a template for my kids birthday cards this year – mixing colours and possibly stamp sets to come up with any age or sex – as I play with my template I will post each new combo for you…

If you like what you see here – this stamp set is on special as part of the Inventory Clearance Sale – Check out the link here!

Inkspirations Sketch Challenge #17

I’ve been having a bit of fun with the Inkspirations Sketch challenge and my Life’s a Breeze stamp set which is part of the Stampin’ UP! Inventory Clearance Sale on now (Check out the details on my menu bar link above)… I’ve made this card for my neighbor who is about to embark on many weeks of school Summer Holidays (she is a primary school phys ed teacher and deserves the break believe me! – waving to Jo if you’ve had a sneak peak this morning!)  

   

Here is the sketch:  

Click here to see the challenge details

  

And here is my offering:  

  

I’ve used Summer Sun card Stock with Only Orange Ink and my Lazy Days Jumbo Wheel. Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon forms the central accent and I’ve added a strip of Pacific Point DSP.  The images from Life’s a Breeze are stamped in Pacific Point too.  The Summer Holidays Sentiment is printed on vellum.  Two silver brads finish off the sketch challenge. 

Be sure to click on the sketch link above and view the other entrants in the challenge!