Dec 04

Technically Speaking #1

Today I’m kicking off my “Technically Speaking” Classroom for StampNation, with a tutorial on embossing with dies techniques, which is also my first attempt at a video! It’s made public for two weeks from today only but you’ll have a lifetime access to it afterwards, from the StampNation Forums. I hope you’ll like it!

I’m well aware of the fact that the quality of my performance (and the video itself) is far from perfect, but I hope you guys will take it easy on me… I’ve been learning from scratch and burning at all ends making this one happen - I’ve never taken a video before other than a phone quickie and I’m quite camera shy - some of my friends can tell that I was a tough one to be forced into it to start with 🙂
I also hope that you’ll be able to understand my accent. I knew I have it but only hearing myself I realized that it’s quite thick… yikes!

Here’s what today’s project looks like.

There is some info missing from there, so please do ask if you have questions. One thing that I caught, I failed to let you know what the doily die is. It’s a Nautical Wheeler Doily by Cheery Lynn. The supplies are listed at the end of the post, as per usual.

You have until 18th of the month to view this video freely, which is the date that my next tutorial goes up. Afterwards it will be made private on my Youtube channel and available exclusively for the SN members.

Click here to learn more about the benefits of StampNation Membership.

I can’t wait to see you there! Enjoy 🙂

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Dec 02

December Beautiful World Tour

Hello and welcome to December Flourishes Beautiful World Tour! I hope you’ll join us for the blog hop and get inspired by the talented girls from all over the globe. Leave a comment on every stop, and you could WIN A FREE FLOURISHES STAMP SET! You’ve got until Dec 31st for your chance to win.

You should have arrived here from Sasha’s blog, you can also join us from the beginning at the Flourishes Blog.

This month our hostess is Meredith and she chose the theme of White As Snow. Texture is always the winner for white on white cards, and so I chose a lightly textured cardstock for my card base. Then I cut the circle from glitter paper and embossed the branch from Winter Berries on vellum, applied some colour to the back of it with markers and cut it out.

I added subtle colours here & there; the sentiment was stamped in Memento Luxe Pistachio, and I flicked some ink straight from the October Afternoon Sprinkler‘s dispenser tube. A dark green twine and a couple of sequins, add definition to the design.

I used the STS#9 sketch below, to jump start my card:

I’m also linking this card to the current challenge at Curtain Call:

Thanks for taking time to visit me here in Australia, it’s time to grab your passports and board Flourishes Flight, your next and last destination is…

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Nov 28

Christmas cards aplenty

Yesterday I was hit with a big Christmas cards order and I found out that I don’t have enough to cover it, not to mention leaving some favourites aside for myself. Needless to say, I’ve been busy creating! I’m not a fan of rushing my cards and my mojo suffered a bit, I’d certainly change a few things here & there but there you go… There’s plenty of photos and lots of cards to show, so I’ll once again be brief. With so much visual content, you wouldn’t pay too much attention to the written part anyway, hey? 😉

First up, I made the MME All Is Bright paper pad work for me, and combined the lovely, graphic papers with a Flourishes poinsettia stamp (paper pieced and topped with the image die cut from one of the papers) (it seems to be retired now). The alpha stickers come from Glitz Design Teeny Alpha in ivory.

Next up, a white-on-white card, with a touch of silver. I combined here Spellbinders & MFT dies with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and a sentiment from a brand new & gorgeous stamp set from Waltzingmouse - Seasonal Flourish.

Here I made a rather unconventional Holiday card, by arranging some (not necessarily Christmas stamps) into a wreath. The leaves come from WPlus9 Folk Art Florals, the stars and snowflakes are Simon Says and Waltzingmouse‘s respectively, and the baubles are made by stamping with the back of different circle-shaped stamps. The touch of sparkle comes from a glitter glue.

Here I pulled out my old favourite, a Hero Arts Christmas Reindeer, for this cheerful card. Coloured the guy and the trees with Copics:
fur E89, E84, E81 & colorless blender, sweater R27, R24, R20, trres BG93, BG96, G82, ground BG72.

Last but not least, is this light & eclectic card. Lots of things combined here: the dies used are Spellbinders and SSS own, the stars also SSS, the sentiment Waltzingmouse. The music notes are an old Glitz Design rub-on.

This particular card, is inspired by Runway Inspired challenge #48:

Whew! That’s it for now, but I may need to get some more still. Eeek! Bear with me 🙂

Joy, Peace & Love card

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Joy to the World card

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Wreath card

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Reindeer card

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Season’s Greetings card

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Nov 26

StampNation sketch meets Monday Mood Board

Howdy, crafty peeps! I had a bit of time on my hands tonight (I know, shocking!) and I decided to play with the current StampNation challenge. It’s a two-weeker and also a very cool sketch - check it out!

I combined it with Monday Mood Board #24, which I adore. I couldn’t wait to play and put my head, buzzing with ideas, to rest. Too bad that I’m still waiting for this year’s WPlus9 Christmas release stuff to arrive… I ordered a few of those scrumptious sets and dies from Simon Says and a bigger bummer still that the most coveted set, the wreath, is out of stock in both SSS and WPlus9 store. Ouch!

Here’s what I cooked up… stamped the mixed border in red, white embossed the sentiment, cut the snowflake from glitter CS and wrapped some twine over the die cut ‘joy’ word - a great look for this cozy, homey feel 🙂

If you’re wondering what StampNation is, you might have missed the news! Here’s some of the things waiting for you there:

Over 370 exclusive video tutorials
27 Lessons in the CAS Classroom
Bimonthly Trends Articles
Weekly Challenges
plus coming shortly, the Technically Speaking tutorials taught by yours truly!

Oh yeah, and lots of fun too. Click here to learn more about membership benefits.
If you’d rather have a little taste of the deal first, why not sign up for the newsletter? The 12 Weeks of Christmas video series is on for four more weeks, taught by Catherine Pooler and free for subscribers! This week’s idea includes an exclusive video to make the quickest and easiest Gift Card Holder in town.

As a newsletter subscriber, you will also receive the 4 part video series: The top 10 things every stamper needs to know AND 3 – 4 newsletters a month with the latest, greatest and a project tutorial.

See you on the flip side 🙂

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Nov 23

Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #110

Hi guys! The frantic month might have eased up on me and I’m looking forward to a bit of a breather before the business of the Holiday season kicks in, as well as the StampNation buzz and new projects (Thank you all so much for your encouragement and kind words! Did you sign up yet?? 🙂 ), but I’m still only half way there… I mean, the sketch is here (and I love it!) and so is my sample, but I yet again run out of time to coordinate a Guestie. Insert a pout here 🙁
Next time I’ll finally succeed I’m sure! Hope I’m not doing the wishful thinking here… hehe

So… do you like this layout as much as I do? I can’t believe I still haven’t tackled it. It has all of my favourites in it, including banners and a doily (but of course it can be whatever you fancy) and I had heaps of fun giving it physical shape. I’m also joining the November Pajama Party with my card - I know that I announced my last DT post two days ago, since I wasn’t sure if I can make it to this month’s event, but I did and therefore I’m making this one the last opportunity to put my beloved DT badge on.

I’m using the Little Lantern set, paired with the brand new, matching Cutting Edge die. What a delightful combo that is! There’s quite a bit of die cutting going on here, plus dry embossing… when did I last use an embossing folder?? Ugh, had to dust off this buddy before I put it to use earlier today 🙂

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If you would like to play along:

- You’re kindly asked to save the sketch image onto your computer first, and if you make a card based on it, please link back to this post.
- Share the link to your creation via the Inlinkz widget below, so that I can come and check it out!

Perks:

- A new sketch is posted every other Saturday night (9pm Australian EST, 6am American EST, and the link widget is open for two weeks. However, you’re welcome to play any time! Just leave a link in the comments section and I’ll pop in to see it.

- I’ll be inviting one person who uses my sketch, to join me for the next one! I’ll be also highlighting the entries that caught my eye, on my Facebook page.

- Every now and then, I will also invite an inky friend to join me as well, for an extra dose of inspiration.

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An InLinkz Link-up

Nov 20

A Waltzingmouse Christmas - tags

Welcome to the special, four day event at Waltzingmouse Stamps, called A Waltzingmouse Christmas! Today we roll in with TAGS! You can have a proper Christmas without these!

It’s kinda lame but I ended up using the same stamp set that I did yesterday, Compliments of the Season. Figures I really love it, I know it well enough, but still my sincere intentions were to focus on something else today. Once I had an idea for a tag, I just could not find a better sentiment, though. One that would make a statement.
I took inspiration from the super lovely tags, pinned HERE to my Pinterest board, full credit for the idea goes to the designer of those beauties. I used a Spellbinders snowflake die to cut the shapes (I cut double and adhered the snowflakes back to back), and then a regular circle for the insert. I then distressed the edges generously with Old Paper ink.