Roses and more!

I thought I had better show you what I have been doing lately- it takes me so long to blog especially take the photos etc so it has been a while since Ive posted anything before today!
I came across this blog just last week and the flowers that the girls make are fantastic! I bought a couple of the tutorials & couldnt wait to go to Dubbo and get the florist wire and tape so I just used strips of old olive to wrap around a bamboo skewer (its not the best but I couldnt wait to try it!)

When I got the wire etc I stuffed the rose & didnt realise until after i had glued them in!

I put the outer petals on back the front! It still looks beautiful- even the hubby was impressed when I put it in a vase on the table! Im working on the spring bouquet at the moment but in the meantime pop over to http://diaryoftwocraftygirls.blogspot.com/ and check out their work!
I also saw this cute little 3D apple there & this neat gingham check technique!

When I was convention, I saw Vanessa Webb use shimmer paint to make a mother of pearl look which I have tried before but I have never tried a bag-a-lope which is what she had decorated for her WOW technique. Here is my first bag-a-lope they are so cute, I think you might see a few more of these!

You can really see the shimmer in this photo!
Just a little reminder about the reason to smile promotion- it ends on Saturday I hadnt even used this stamp until yesterday Ive just been looking at it thinking Ill use that tomorrow & I just dont get around to it- and its just such a nice set!
Here is just a super quick card to christen it!

Its hard to see but I used the designer frames as a border for the flower.

Occasions Workshop

I have just had my occasions workshop this month. We made a wedding, sympathy, male and female birthday cards and either a boy, girl or a netural gender baby card.

Here is the female birthday card- these pansys are different every time! I thought I might show the girls how to make these since they were all impressed by the flower pot card!

Here is the male card. I showed them the spotlight technique at the same time! I had two options for them- in case they wanted to make it into a thank you (you just never know when you will need a thank you for a male!) or with the modern label punch and word window punch they were able to make it into a birthday card!

Again I had two options for them- the top one is hard to see but I used the simply scored tool to score a double border all the way around the card (I saw that done at convention &thought it was such a neat way to dress up a card). The other one just has the hand drawn border on it- I actually gave away my original to one of my ladies after there was a little accident!

I have been hoarding away this designer paper (the Mocha Morning Specialty) and thought I had better use it before it is retired! It is just so pretty, it feels so nice! My original design is on the bottom (it fell on an open ink pad- oops) but I thought I would pull out an oldie if my ladies wanted a more fancy script (top card).
Finally, the baby cards- I LOVE this pleated ribbon- I would have it in every colour if I could!!

Stamps: "Baby Bundle", "Love & Laughter", "Well Scripted" (retired), "Forever Young", "Loving Thoughts", "Packed for Dad", "Sincere Salutations"
Ink: baja breeze, not quite navy, perfect plum, pear pizzazz, crumb cake, blushing bride, basic black, riding hood red, old olive, soft suede, basic gray, elegant eggplant, island indigo, always artichoke
Paper: whisper white, baja breeze, not quite navy, pear pizzazz, perfect plum, crumb cake, blushing bride, riding hood red, very vanilla, shimmer white, basic gray, island indigo, Twitterpated DSP, Mocha Morning specialty DSP
Accessories: Big Shot, framelits, ovals die, itty bitty punches, dotted scallop border punch, butterfly punch, 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" circle punches, baja breeze, pear pizzazz, blushing bride & riding hood red pleated ribbon, many thanks sizlit, blender pen, clear rhinestone brads, crochet thread, polka dots embossing folder, simply scored tool, heart punch, sponges, dimensionals,

Convention Swaps

Here are the two designs I made to take to convention that was held in Canberra. It was my first Stampin' Up! convention and it was fantastic! I thought i would have a hard time trying to convince the hubby to go to the next one (Brisbane) but he actually said yes without having to think about it too much! The joys of him living in the area years before and still having mates there to vist with the kids while Im out all day and night playing!!!!

This was my first design. I was fussy cutting leaves and flowers all the way to Sydney and back for our Easter holidays! Because this took so long to do I thought Id make a more simple one...

....a one layer design! This one wasnt as quick as I thought it would be- by the time I coloured the image in with stampin' write markers and thencoloured those in with the matching ink and blender pen! But I really love how it turned out. I took my inspiration from my mother daughter handbags with the image and colours.
Before I left for convention I had a "catch up techniques" class and one of the designs used the hand drawn border so I thought that would be the perfect way to finish off the cards!

Stamps: "Bordering on Romance", "Short and Sweet", "Fabulous Florets", Sincere Salutations"
Ink: Island indigo, pear pizzazz, blushing bride, riding hood red, baja breeze, lucky limeade, calypso coral, whipser white
Paper: whisper white, shimmer white, lucky limeade, calypso coral
Accessories: Big shot, framelits, heat gun, clear embossing powder, dimensionals, aqua painter, blender pen, ruler

Handbags!

Here is a VERY long overdue post! Below is the picture of the handbags we made back in January for our Mother Daughter workshop during the school holidays.
I designed this bag using the framelits and gave it a smooth edge along the top with the edgelits.
We used shimmer card as it holds up really well when colouring with a blender pen. I gave the groups the option of how they wanted to decorate the outside of the bags- stamp randomly all over and colour it in with the blender pens, or emboss the bags with the elegant bouquet embossing folder with the Big Shot. From there they could either leave it plain or colour the raised image with blender pens. All of the bags were that little bit different which is always great to see!

They also had the choice of either pear pizzazz for the cards or blushing bride.
The bag on the left has also been embossed along the top edge wth the new adorning accents embossing folders. Its not that clear but the pear framelits have also been embossed with the designer frames embossing folders.
The bag on the right has been embossed with the elegant bouquet embossing folder and left plain.
The bags hold 4 lovenotes with envelopes nicely. Erika made one with the Thursday ladies using the Pony Party stamp and coloured it in with pinks and purples (naturally!!) It still sits on her desk- it just has a few more stickers and drawings on it now!

Stamps: "Bordering on Romance"
Ink: pear pizzazz, blushing bride, baja breeze, riding hood red, black staz on
Paper: Shimmer card, pear pizzazz, blushing bride, 2010-2012 in colour DSP
Accessories: Big Shot, framelits, edgelits, adorning accents embossing folder, designer frames embossing folder, dimensionals, blender pens, silver brads, sticky strip,

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Reason to Smile

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Get the Reason to Smile Set FREE when you spend $125 on any Stampin' Up! products. Or purchase it at the regular retail price.

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Reason to Smile Clear-Mount Set        130828      $28.95           131051        $0.00

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