Quick Share

Hi there,
I hope that everyone around Australia has come through the natural disasters that we are experiencing relatively unscathed. Cyclones in Queensland only weeks after almost the entire state was flooded, bush fires in Perth and flash floods here in Victoria over the weekend have caused havoc. My sisters craft room was flooded so they have had to rip the flooring out, but luckily it didn't get too serious just enough to be annoying and have to call in the insurers. We had water come through the shed where my brand new (delivered Friday) workbench units for my craft room were sitting awaiting assembly. Our cabinet maker made them up in flat packs so handy hubby can put them together!! Only a few pieces got a little water on them so I was very lucky, I feel for the people who have had their homes flooded.

As my craft room is in disarray waiting for the new cabinets to go in, here's another quick share of a sample card I gave you a snippet of in the Sale-A-Brations announcement. Hopefully I can get back in there soon to do what I love ..................     .INSPIRE . CREATE . SHARE .

This fresh little card is done in Whisper White and Marina Mist with a touch of Pear Pizzazz and Blushing Bride on the flowers. I have used the delightful Scallop trim border and corner punches on the Marina Mist cardstock to add a lovely border. The flowers are from the Sweet Summer stamp set and the Happy Birthday 'planter' is from the Punch Bunch set both from the Sale-A-Brations flyer. A touch of Whisper White Satin Ribbon tied in a bow and the card is done.

Don't forget, now is the time to book a workshop to earn FREE products during 

SALE-A-BRATIONS at Stampin' Up!

Stay tuned for the pics of my new and improved crafting area!

Cheers Dani xoxo

Photo Inspiration

Happy Sunny Sunday,

It's a very warm 40 degrees here in Gippsland today, the perfect days to stay indoors with the air con going and get stuck into some crafting. Today I have made a card to enter into this weeks Just Add Ink challenge. This is the photo to inspire us and as soon as I saw the crisp colours and beautiful big flower, I knew exactly what I was going to create. The card I have made features a large yellow flower made with the full heart punch from Stampin' Up! Here is the card and a few instructions to help you re-create it for yourself.

The colours I have used are Marina Mist, Daffodil Delight and Pear Pizzazz with a touch of Basic Black stamping. I wanted to keep the colours crisp just like in the photo so opted to sponge all the cardstock and papers in the matching tones. The sentiment and butterfly are from the For Everything stamp set. I have simply stamped the sentiment, using my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line it up straight onto the card in Basic Black and then highlighted the Thanks with Marina Mist ink and a blender pen. The butterfly was stamped onto white card and blended with Daffodil Delight ink, I then cut it out and adhered it to the card.

Here's how you can re-create the flower.............

You will need 7 hearts to make your flower.

Using the Full Hearts Punch, punch out your hearts in your chosen colour, I have used Stampin' Up DSP in Daffodil Delight. Next fold all of your hearts down the center. To make the leaves you want to use the       1 3/4" circle punch. Take a piece of Old Olive cardstock about 4cm wide, the length will depend on how many leaves you want to add, fold in half length ways.  Slip the folded edge of the card into the punch about a quarter to a third of the way in. The size of your leaves will depend on how far into the punch you place your card.

You can vary the size of the leaves depending on how far into the punch you place the card.

 Next ink all your pieces including the center fold of the leaves. I wanted to create a darker center to my flower so I have also sponged the tips of the hearts with Basic Black ink. Now you are ready to assemble.

Sponge the edges of all pieces including the center fold of the leaves.

Using Daffodil Delight cardstock or DSP, punch out a circle using the 1 3/4" punch. Cover the circle with Multipurpose Liquid Glue, leaving a border about 5mm in from the edge.  Allow this to sit for a minute so it starts to go a little tackier, this will be the base for your flower. Start adding the hearts to the circle base, heart tip first, mountain fold up.Work your way around until you have a nice even flower. Add a button or brad to the center to finish. Adhere flower to card front and place leaves where appropriate and there you have a beautiful flower card. I think this would look great in shadow box frames up on the wall too........ maybe a project for another day!


Happy Creating, Dani xoxo


SUPPLIES:
All product are from Stampin' up! unless otherwise stated.
Stamp Set:     For Everything (116686)

Inks:              Marina Mist (119668), Daffodil Delight (119667), Old Olive (102277), Basic Black (101179)

Cardstock:    Marina Mist (121682), Daffodil Delight DSP (117155), Old Olive (106576)

Punches:       Full Heart Extra Large (119883), 1 3/4" Circle Extra Large (119850)

Accessories: Multipurpose Liquid Glue (110755), Blender Pen (102845) Stamp-a-ma-jig (101049)
                    Button from my stash

Retirement Guest Book and Card

Hello, over the past few weeks I have been busy adding the final touches to a retirement luncheon that Dawn and I have been organising for our founding Optom at work. I thought it would be a nice keepsake for Geoff, to have a guest book for everyone attending to write in. This is take two as the first covers I did I wasn't happy with. The book was purchased from my local scrapbook shop, which started as plain black covers with the white pages inside. I decided to use the oak tree stamp out of the Lovely as a Tree Stamp set, to kind of represent the tree of life. I used crumb cake, very vanilla and early espresso card stock and stamped in the two browns with soft suede as well. The front and back covers were stamped all over with the oak leaf stamp, I then mounted the tree and placed in the bottom right corner. Next to this I stamped a Confucius quote from a retired SU set. On the inside covers I printed a lovely message, a retirement quote and company history all typed up on the computer. To each of these covers I stamped the row of trees from the set and added the acorn in the corners. This acorn was also added to the corner of every page. Each cover was sponged around the whole edge before being attached to the book.
To finish the front cover I ran some ribbon from my stash that matched just nicely and made some little tags to hang of it.

Front cover

Inside of front cover

Inside of back cover

Back Cover

I am glad I decided to start over as this book turned out more in Geoff's taste than the first would have. I hope he will treasure not just the book but all the beautiful comments that his colleagues and staff wrote about him.

This is the personal card I also made for him using the same oak leaf stamped that I coloured with my blender pens this time using Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive and Soft Suede. The card stock is Cajan Craze and Early Espresso with the stripe being a Basic Grey out of my stash.

See you next time, have a great Christmas and time with your families.
Cheers Danielle.

Because I Care

This evening I would like to share this card I made for my Mum's birthday using the delightful Because I Care hostess stamp set and the new Texture Plate from Stampin' Up! that you will find in the Summer Mini.
The colours I have put together are probably my favourite combinations in Old Olive and Rich Razzleberry, I have also added some accents with Blushing Bride.
 To get the lovely soft colour in the hydrangea, I first stamped the image onto Very Vanilla card stock using Old Olive on the stem and Blushing Bride on the flower head. Taking my aqua pen, I then light swirled over the whole flower head image which just softened off the lines and allowed the colour to bleed into the petals. Next I took my stamp-a-ma-jig and carefully lined up the image, this time inking up the flower head only in Rich Razzleberry. Again using my aqua pen, I blended some of the colour from the flower centers out into the petals. This just gave the flower some depth, but be careful not to let it get too wet or you begin to loose the crisp outline of each flower and that gives the whole image a blurry kind of look.
I used Blushing Bride and Rich Razzleberry to blend the edges of the card stock. I layered this onto a piece of Old Olive which I scalloped down one side.
I love the new texture plate, it almost gives your card stock a fabric kind of look. I have ran a piece of Rich Razzleberry through the Big Shot and sponged the edges of both that and the DSP i have layered it on. This all got added to the Old Olive card base. A piece of ribbon from the mistletoe bonus that was available in the Dress Up Christmas Promo and what you see is the end result.
No card is complete without a lovely center, so I used the single petal and the leaves off the flower, the sentiment is from the Every Moment stamp set, which by the way, my Mum loved the saying.
I have you have fun playing with this idea.

Cheers Dani xoxo