A Little Gift Tag

I know it was been a while. In Australia it is winter and that means the season for colds and flu, I was hoping I was going to avoid it this year, but unfortunately not. Have been down with a cold for the last week and hoping that it is finally going way.

This is a little tag I created a while ago. I stamped the image using Versamark and then used the Stampin' Up! Pastels and a sponge dauber to add the colour to the image on the front.

I then sponged the outside of the cardstock with Whisper White Craft Ink and added some ribbon.

A Sweet Treat Rattle

This is another card I made for my Sweet Treat Class coming up soon. I have made of few of these in different colours as they are perfect for a card for a new arrival.

The balls in the rattle are from the cake section of my local supermarket - the perfect place to find things to put in the sweet treat cups. By the way the sentiment does say 'sweet little baby', the 's' is hiding behind the ribbon.

The base card is Chocolate Chip with a Whisper White Mat and Baja Breeze Designer Series Patterned Paper. I finished with some Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon for the bow.

A Take on a Regional Make & Take

Stampin' Up! hold Regionals each year, these are held in most capital cities for demonstrators to get together and learn some new things - lots of fun.

At the Regional last year we made the bag below (back right). It uses the Every Moment Stamp Set, the Fancy Favor Die, and was coloured using blender pens. I decided to use this for class I held last week, but of course I had to add a few more items that carried the design through.

The bag is made using two Fancy Favor Bags cut from the Fancy Favor Die from Stampin' Up! Make the base bag up as normal. For the top bag cut off the bottom pieces and turn upside down and slide over the base bag - Voila.

The image is stamped in Staz On and coloured using Baja Breeze, Old Olive and Soft Suede Ink and blender pens.

I also made up a little 2.5" square box using the same design. The edge on the lid is done simply by using a strip from the top of cardstock cut using the Fancy Favor die and attached around the edge of the lid.

Finally I had the ladies make 2 small notecards. These cards use a panel from the Fancy Favor Die.

All items were spritzed with Soft Suede.

A Sweat Treat Balloon

I have been wanting to do a class using the Sweet Treat Cups from Stampin' Up! for some time and I finally got around to coming up with the cards we will be making.

I was really pleased at how this first card turned out it uses the A Little Treat Stamp Set and the Sweet and Sour Speciality Designer Series Paper (apologies it was a dull day when I took this photo, the colours are much brighter IRL).

There are lots of things that you can put into the Sweet Treat Cups, including lollies, stationery items, buttons, or do what I did and visit the cake section of your local supermarket, there you can find lots of types of sprinkles and things to put on top of cakes that make perfect additions to the Sweet Treat Cup. I'll be back with another Treat Cup creation in a couple of days.

A Vintage Picture

I was experimenting the other day with using the clear blocks as a stamp to create a background. I had also just received the Clearly for You stamp set so put the two together and I came up with this little set.

This is a technique I learnt recently at a fun team day where we get to share some great ideas through a 'shoebox swap'.

I stamped the clear block in Sahara Sand ink then 'stamped off' before stamping onto some Very Vanilla cardstock. It creates a great background for this little stamp from the Clearly for You stamp set. The stamp was coloured using markers and stamped on top of the background.

After distressing the edge of the cardstock it was the perfect size to go on the front of an Always Artichoke mini milk carton. I teamed this with some lace, a mini peg (non SU), a mini safety pin and a tiny tag.

The card uses the same products, but I used a larger piece of Very Vanilla to make the image more of a focal point.

Black Magic Technique

This is a card I created for a Technique Class I held the other week. It uses the Black Magic Technique.

To create this effect you simply stamp in Whisper White ink onto Basic Black Cardstock (tip: make sure the white ink is dry before proceeding - a heat gun can speed up the process). Then using the Stampin' Up! Watercolour Pencils I coloured in the image. Using multiple colours gives more depth to the image.

End of Financial Year finally came

You may remember in a previous post I mentioned that work was crazy and I had so many deadlines for the end of Financial Year (or end of June). Well the end of FY, and my deadlines finally came - thank goodness, as my waistline was not going to handle the stress too much longer. As a result I finally had my annual leave day on the 1st July (the one I was supposed to have a couple of weeks ago but had to work) - YEAH. I had so much fun, I spent all day Friday playing, and boy was it fun.

I have wanted to try the Faux Mother of Pearl technique for a while now and finally had the chance.

To create the effect I stamped the hydrangea image from the Because I Care Hostess Stamp Set in Black Staz On and coloured the image with Marina Mist, Night of Navy, Wild Wasabi and Always Artichoke. Then using a sponge I applied some Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint in a 'bouncing' motion, followed by Frost White Shimmer Paint.

I layered my image on Not Quite Navy Cardstock and then on a base of Crumb Cake that I had covered in hydrangeas in Crumb Cake Ink.

I also did another version using Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant and layered on Elegant Eggplant cardstock.

It is a bit hard to photograph the effect (it looks better IRL), but with this photo I managed to capture some reflection of light on the image.