sale-a-bration 2012

Stampin’ Up!’s sale-a-bration sale starts today (24 January) and runs until 31 March 2012.  Check out the special deals below!!

I especially love the paper, ribbon and brads that are available in this catalogue!

Don’t forget that the Summer Mini catalogue is still running and also finishes 31 March 2012.
Note that the Stitched Stockings stamp set and the Stocking Tag Punch will not be continued once all stock is sold out.

Please let me know if you would like to make an order, book a demonstration, become a demonstrator, or join a stamp club.

Hope these warm your heart, make you smile and bring much inspiration!

Bec

(c) Stampin’ Up!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here are some cards I made for Christmas this year that I would like to share with you to spread some Christmas cheer!

This is one of the designs I came up with for my Christmas Stamp-a-stack:

This card was inspired by this card by Ministamper.

This is the other card I designed for my Christmas Stamp-a-Stack:

For the Mini lauch in December I designed little gift boxes:

I also made a card with this stocking punch, I’ll try to put it up in another post soon.

May you have a wonderful Christmas and a New Year filled with blessings. Hope these warm your heart, make you smile and bring much inspiration!

Bec

(c) Stampin’ Up!

December with Stampin’ Up!

Hi All,

December is such a busy time, but also a great time to take advantage of the new Stampin’ Up! Summer Mini catalogue and the December Frenzy sale!!

There are SO many great goodies in the Summer Mini!! Check it out at the Stampin’ Up! website!!

Christmas is fast approaching, Stampin’ Up has some great specials to take advantage of for your craft-loving relatives and friends (why not buy yourself some goodies too?!)

You can download the PDF file of sale items here it is set out really well and will save you having to flick through the catalogue to find the sale items.

Please let me know if you would like to order any of these items.

Hope this warms your heart, makes you smile and brings much inspiration!

Bec

(c) Stampin’ Up!

Life Long Friends 4 of 4: Transformation

Finally, the last card of this series was for a beautiful young woman who has grown and transformed so much in the time I have known her. The one thing that speaks to me most about transformation is the butterfly. I once heard that a butterfly needs to struggle to get out of its cocoon otherwise its wings will not form properly and it will not be able to fly. This is such a lovely analogy for the struggles that life brings our way.

My dear friend is also an accomplished artist and drew a beautiful blue butterfly that I felt represented her journey perfectly. Inspired by this drawing I found a cute little butterfly stamp (retired SU) that gave me a bold outline of a butterfly that I could use a Blender Pen with some Not Quite Navy and Marina Mist ink to colour in and give some depth.

I started with the envelope for this card:

On the back I used the same technique for the butterfly:

The feature of the card I wanted to do the same as for the front of the envelope. I chose to use different colours for the butterfly as I wanted this one to be unique. I used a Stanley knife to cut around the top wings of the butterfly and free them so that they could stand out from the card. I also added a rhinestone to the dot of the ‘i’ on the Life stamp (from Live Like You Mean It, SU retired).

I raised this on foam squares and stuck it to a Not Quite Navy border. The sentiment at the bottom of the card was stamped in Not Quite Navy and three silver brads were added to the left to look like the three periods connecting it to the ‘Life’ at the top of the card. the whole framed sentiment was raised on foam squares and stuck on the bottom of the card.

I stamped and coloured in butterflies to make a patterned paper for the background of the card just like the back of the envelope. The end result (I think) is stunning.

Here it is with the front of the envelope

Hope this warms your heart, makes you smile and brings much inspiration!

 Bec

(c) Stampin’ Up!

Life Long Friends 3 of 4: Growth

The next two cards that I did (of which this is the first) were a real struggle for me. I had too many ideas for one and too many abstract ideas for the other. In the end, they both were perfect for each of my dear friends (I am sure that God was guiding me and knew that I had all the right ideas, they just needed a bit better ordering!)

I love the idea of words on cards and what better words than encouraging ones from Bible scriptures. For this card I cut and pasted special Bible verses into a Word document and then bolded the words that stood out to me. I then printed the verse onto a piece of Marina Mist card stock. The words are also significant because of the power they possess.

I have been trying to use different colours in my projects and I love Rich Razzleberry, so I added it to this card with some Crumb Cake (all SU!) and a hint of Very Vanilla to accent.

The “Life” on this card (from Live Like You Mean It, SU retired) was stamped onto the Very Vanilla with Marina Mist ink. I roughed up the edges and coloured them with a bit more Marina Mist and raised it up with some foam.

The Rich Razzleberry really offsets the Marina Mist well. The sentiment (again from Live Like You Mean It) was stamped onto the Marina Mist card using Basic Grey (SU) to match the printed background. I put three small pearls from KaiserCraft as the dots.

The flower was one that I made for a different card at a Stampin’ Up demonstration I went to that Sharnee ran. I thought that the colour and the Very Vanilla accents went with this project perfectly! (It was made using a Very Vanilla button, the 1 3/4″ Scallop Circle Punch and the flower stamp from Button Buddies, all SU). Looks like I’ll have to find another embellishment for the card I made of Sharnee’s though! – Sorry Sharnee!!

I really wanted to have a flower on this card for this special friend as it represents how much I have seen her grow and blossom this year. To add to the detail, I ran the Very Vintage Jumbo Wheel (SU) along the bottom of the card and then added the Victoria Crochet Trim.

It was difficult to cover up all of those wonderful passages with other card! I was very careful to try and only cover as much as I absolutely had to.

Next, I decorated the envelope with Rich Razzleberry and Very Vanilla flowers and the Life stamp again in Basic Black (SU). I used the Three For You Punch (SU, retired) and the Boho Blossoms Punch (SU) to create the flowers and added some more pearls.

I forgot to photograph the inside of this card as well. It had the sentiment from A Rose Is a Rose (SU retired) in it which says “Thank you for touching my life”.

Such a pretty card:

Hope this warms your heart, makes you smile and brings much inspiration!

 Bec

(c) Stampin Up!

By the way I have a Facebook page now!! Please feel free to head over and ‘like’ it! (You should see a Facebook Widget in the right panel of this screen!)

Life Long Friends 2 of 4: Adventure

The next card that came to me was for one of the girls who has a heat for travelling and other cultures. As hot air balloons are so fashionable in cards at the moment I just had to make one with one on it. Last year I made a card at an SU party with Sharnee that had a balloon and use some map paper (also quite in at the moment). I coud see the layout coming together in my head and couldn’t wait to make it!

There are a lot of funky stamping techniques on this card. The balloon has been punched out of Chocolate Chip (SU) using a 2″ circle punch with another one raised only through the middle with some square sponges and stuck down on both sides to give a 3D curved effect. I also used hessian (burlap) for the basket (something I have been itching to use on a card for some time). I love how cute this looks! To make the card a bit more feminine I found a lovely KaiserCraft brad for the basket and put one of the flowers from the Boho Blossoms punch in Real Red behind it (both SU).

I used a VersaMark stamp pad to put the “Life” (from Live Like You Mean It, SU retired) on the front of the balloon. I masked off the dot in the ‘i’ using a small piece of card and I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig (SU) to position it. Using the Stamp-a-ma-jig again I then VersaMarked the bird from Itty Bitty Bits (SU) in the place of the dot (because I know she loves birds). I used White SU embossing powder to finish the effect. The strings that make up the ropes of the balloon are some twine split apart to make it a bit thinner.

The sky was made using Marina Mist and Whisper White clouds punched out using the Cupcake Builder (all SU).

Next I worked on the bottom of the card. I really wanted a map of the world so I hunted around and found “Travel Map” from KaiserCraft and cut out a curve. I decided to raise the words (from Live Like You Mean It) to finish the sentiment on the front of the card and made the three dots using SU silver brads. Again to create the words I used VersaMark and SU White embossing powder on Chocolate Chip (SU) card.

I really love the positioning on this card, the layout came out better than I had imagined.

On the envelope I stuck a punched out section of the “Travel Map” and a heart punched out using the Owl Builder (SU) punch in Ridding Hood Red (SU). I dabbed the heart on the VersaMark stamp pad to give it a shiny look and stuck the whole thing down with a couple of raised square sponges in the middle to give it a 3D look. I picked Australia from the map for this part of the card to signify that ‘home is where the heart is’. Ideally I would have put the heart over Tasmania, but then you wouldn’t be able to see it! So I decided that in the middle would do fine.

Using Chocolate Chip (SU) stamp pad I stamped the “Life” on the front of the envelope as well.

I forgot all about taking a photo of inside the card (I have not been putting sentiments in most of my cards lately). It had the sentiment from A Rose Is a Rose (SU retired) in it which says “Thank you for touching my life”.

I love this card and I had so much fun making it (a lot went into it).

Hope this warms your heart, makes you smile and brings much inspiration!

Bec

Life Long Friends 1 of 4: Beach

This year I participated in a Personal Formation subject through uni that required I participate in a small group for the year with four other women. It has been a very rewarding experience for me and hopefully one which has yielded life-long friends.

I wanted to give each of them a special gift from me that represented them and what better way to do it than through a card each! As part of our last official group together, we were asked to reflect on and give some encouragement and feedback to each other.

This first one came to me while I was lying in bed thinking about the girls in the group and how much this one loved the beach! I could see the waves and the sand and a lovely blue sky. I sat down and had a play with all of the blues I have and came up with this:

 

I used a scallop punch to create the waves. The sky is in Soft Sky (SU retired) and the waves are in Tempting Turquoise, Marina Mist and Baja Breeze (SU). I slightly distressed the ripples so that they stood out from the card slightly. The card itself was in Ivory (SU) and I punched out the clouds using the SU Cupcake Builder in Whisper White. The little pearls are Kaiser Craft and the stamp set is an old retired SU set called Live Like You Mean It in Marina Mist (SU).

Inside the card I used the sentiment from A Rose Is a Rose (SU retired), such lovely words!! Again I used Marina Mist to stamp the words with.

Obviously I also decorated the front of the envelope with the rippled sea and the blue sky. The only other thing I did which I forgot to photograph was I also stamped the “Life” sideways on the sky on the envelope.

I really love the calm, peaceful feeling this card portrays, it’s exactly what I was trying for!

Hope this warms your heart, makes you smile and brings much inspiration!

Bec