Some More SAB Calendar Gifts

Hi!

I'm back, as promised, with the other three calendars I made as gifts for my family.

To make construction of the five calendars a bit quicker and easier I did it in a bit of a production line.  First I chose and cut the DSP I wanted to use from the Sycamore Street DSP pack. I then chose the cardstock colours to coordinate.  I stuck to three colours to simplify the process a little - Island Indigo, Pool Party and Rich Razzleberry.

Once I'd cut all the pieces, including the Scallop Square Bigz Clear die cut on the Big Shot, I started assembling each calendar.

Finally came the embellishing - the punches, stamping and bling.  Best part? They all fold down flat for convenient mailing!

Bye for now,

Tina

Some SAB Calendar Gifts

Hi!

Every second Christmas I travel home to see my family for the holidays.  I love going to catch up with my mum and sisters and their families.  When I returned this year I decided to make each of them a small gift to thank them for their hospitality.  I had some calendars left over from my calendar class last year, so I decided to make them an easel calendar each.

I used the gorgeous Sale-A-Bration exclusive Sycamore Street DSP. It's lovely and bright - perfect for cheerful projects.

The colours I chose to use - Rich Razzleberry and Pool Party - are from the DSP colour palette.

I also used the SAB stamp set Bloomin' Marvelous for the sentiment and the rest of the stamping on the Decorative Label punchie.

I used the same colours on the second calendar, I just switched the DSP to a different pattern. Easy peasy!

I'll be back soon with more of the calendars I made.

Bye for now,

Tina

Just Add Ink #150: Sketch Challenge

Hi!

It's Friday again, and nice to get back into the routine of a Design Team post on a Friday. This week at Just Add Ink Mae has given us a fantastic sketch to play with.

Isn't it a great sketch? You can interpret it any way you'd like.  I substituted the flag ends for the wavy lines.  What will you do?

I decided to use one of the larger frames from the Peekaboo Frames Bigz L die to create the focal panel of my card. The sentiment is from the Sweet Essentials Stamp set.

I used the smaller scallop punch from the Holiday Catalogue to create the scrunched flower on the front of the card. They are really easy to make - just punch about 5-8 scallop circles, pop a brad through the middle and then scrunch them up one layer at a time.  You then just open it out again to achieve your desired look.

Here's what's under the flap. The sentiment is from Perfect Punches and the flower is from one of the new Sale-A-Bration sets, Bloomin' Marvelous.

I deliberately left the inside blank (except for the flags of course!) as I don't know what I'll use this card for yet.  I'll stamp it when I know!

I hope to see you over on the Just Add Ink blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

Stampin' Cookies

Hi!

Apologies for the late post today.  The kids and I have been enjoying the last few days of the summer holidays. I also got a Thermomix recently and was keen to try out a few recipes.  We're all big fans of ginger bread biscuits so we decided to give them a whirl in the Thermomix.

 

Oooh yum! We baked them this morning, and now it's nearly 5pm and the batch is all gone! Well, except for the ones I kept aside to give to Poppy for his birthday today. Definitely a winner, and the process was made lots of fun for the kids with Stampin' Up!'s Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps. So quick and easy for the kids to do - just roll the dough into a ball, stamp down and bake. I rolled one ball first so they could see the size they needed to make theirs (you can see it at the front) and then I just left them to it.

 

You don't need a Thermomix to make these biscuits, but you definitely need some of Stampin' Up!'s Cookie Stamps!

 

Bye for now,

 

Tina

A Bloomin' Marvelous Sneak Peek

Hi!

The biggest promotion of the Stampin' Up! year starts tomorrow.  Sale-A-Bration is nearly here! As usual Stampin' Up! Demonstrators have the opportunity to get their hands on some of the SAB products before the promotion starts and have fun creating some projects.  One of the first things I ordered was the SAB stamp set Bloomin' Marvelous which has 4 images and 4 sentiments.  Here's a birthday card I made with the set.

 

The card started off as a CASE of one by Mary Fish. I ended up changing it quite a bit though. The colours I used were Island Indigo, Sahara Sand and Summer Starfruit.

 

 

I stamped the envelope to match. I'm going to try hard to stamp the envelopes this year - one of my New Year's Stampin' Resolutions!

 

 

Here's the inside of the card. I used the Memorable Moments stamp set for the inside sentiment.

 

Can't wait to play some more with this set!

 

Bye for now,

 

Tina

Just Add Ink #149: Big Shot Blog Hop

Hi!

It's Friday and it's time for the Just Add Ink Challenges to kick of for another year of fun and creativity!

 

We thought we'd start the year with a blog hop with a focus on the Big Shot, so the challenge for you this week is to make a creation using the Big Shot, or other die cutting machine. The blog before mine on the hop is the very talented Christine's, just keep on hopping round 'til you get back to where you started.

 

I thought I'd show you the gift card holders I made for gifts this past Christmas using the Two Tags Die.

 

 

Here's a little tutorial on how I made them.

 

 

After cutting the tag from cardstock you need to score along half an inch from the bottom and fold the flap upwards.

 

 

Apply your choice of adhesive to the flap you just created.

 

 

Cut a strip of DSP to 6 inches by 2 inches and apply adhesive to one end as shown. I used DSP from the Merry Moments Simply Scrappin' Kit.

 

 

You then wrap the DSP around the tag, adhering at the flap and centre back as you go. 

 

 

Now you just decorate as you desire. Easy! I also added some Seam Binding Ribbon so I could hang it from the Christmas Tree.

 

 

I hope you've found this tutorial useful, don't forget to link your Big Shot creations at the Just Add Ink blog for us all to see.

 

Now you are hopping over to Chantell's blog for some more beautiful Big Shot happiness. If you get lost along the way just pop back to the Just Add Ink blog for the links.

 

Bye for now,

 

Tina

Some More Gift Boxes

Hi!

On Monday I showed you the gift boxes I had made for Christmas Gifts.  Today I have more boxes, but these ones were thank you gifts for two special ladies.

 

I wanted to thank Lia and Isabel, the two creative genius minds behind Camera Creche. They had most generously given me a spot in their photography course and I had had a fabulous time learning how to use my DSLR in Manual Mode.

 

 

While I made these boxes, the design is not my own. They are based on the boxes we made as Make and Takes at Convention in 2012.

 

 

The ladies loved them!

 

Bye for now,

 

Tina

Teacher and Neighbour Christmas Gifts

Hi!

I know Christmas is well and truly over for the next year, but I haven't shown you the quick and easy gifts I threw together for the kid's teachers and our neighbours.

 

I used Kraft Gift Boxes as the base of the gift. At $4.95 for 4 boxes they are a cheap alternative to making your own.  They are a lovely heavy weight cardstock, stamp beautifully and are easy to dress up or down, depending on the occasion.

 

 

I decorated mine using a strip of DSP from the Be Of Good Cheer pack and then finished it off by wrapping some Scalloped Tulle Ribbon around the box and tying a bow.

 

 

So what did I put in the boxes? The teachers got chocolates and the neighbours got Snickerdoodle biscuits.

 

Time is running out for you to purchase from the Holiday Catalogue - you only have until the end of the month so get in quick if there's something you just have to have from the catalogue and haven't already purchased!

 

Bye for now,

 

Tina

Just Add Ink: A Year In Review

Hi!

Today's post is a link over to the Just Add Ink blog. Over there today is a Year In Review post.

We all selected our favourite project from 2012, whether it was for Just Add Ink or not. I selected my She Loves The Beach layout, one of the ones I completed for Stampin' Up!'s Heartfelt Events Display Boards.

So grab a cuppa (or a cold drink if it's hot where you are!) and pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog - you're in for a real treat.

Oh, and don't forget to come back next Friday - to kick off the new year of challenges.
Bye for now,

Tina

Notre Dame Selfies

Hi!

It's been a while since I showed you any more of the pages from my Paris Selfies album, so today I have some photos of our visit to Notre Dame.

 

The square at the front of Notre Dame was one of my favourite places to sit munching on Sucre (sugar) Crepes and people watch. There are always lots of people to watch!

 

 

In fact there were so many we almost didn't find the Zero Point of Paris.  All distances in France are measured from this point and legend has it that if you stand on the point you will return to Paris one day.  Here's hoping!

 

Pop back tomorrow, as the Just Add Ink team are doing a special blog post!

 

Bye for now,

 

Tina

Royally Unscripted Clockworks

Hi!

I haven't had a lot of time lately for entering challenges, but with the slower pace of summer holidays I thought I'd enter a few.  The two that jumped out at me were the sketch at Unscripted Sketches and the colour combo at Stampin' Royalty. I combined them to create this card.

 

I thought the two challenges combined were a great masculine card. The bottom layer was some DSP from the Comfort Cafe pack. I collage stamped the Crumb Cake layer with stamps from the Clockworks stamp set. I then spritzed over the whole lot with my Colour Spritzer and Soft Suede marker.

 

 

I stamped the inside in a similar manner to the front of the card. The sentiment is from the retired Happiest Birthday Wishes stamp set.

 

 

Well, that's it. I'm hoping to find a bit more time to enter some more challenges this year.

 

Bye for now,

 

Tina

More CAS Butterflies

Hi!

On Friday I blogged a CAS Birthday card that I had CASEd from Mary Fish.  You can see that card here. I also mentioned I'd made two in the one sitting.  Today's card is the second card I made, which was a get well soon card for a friend who was recovering from surgery on her arm.

 

The cards are identical, only the sentiments are different. It's a handy trick to make two cards at once, a great time saver, and a god way to boost your stash of 'just in case' cards.

 

 

Bye for now,

 

Tina

JAI Scrap #13: 2012 In Review

Hi!

It's the first Sunday of the month so it's time for another Just Add Ink Scrap Challenge!

 

This month Delys has challenged us to create a Year in Review layout for 2012.  It's a great idea to reflect on the past year, especially if you're making New Year's Resolutions.

 

 

I kept my layout very Clean and Simple, as I wanted the focus to stay on the photo. Funny how Delys and I chose the same piece of DSP to use.  It's a sneak peek of the DSP pack available during Sale-A-Bration and it's called Sycamore Street DSP.

 

 

Again, to keep the focus on the photo I used journalling strips that were the same colour as the main page - Island Indigo. I also used my Island Indigo Marker to write on them. I journalled some of the things we'd done or achieved during the year.

 

 

To create the title I covered chipboard numbers cut using the Typeset Alphabet Die with Summer Starfruit cardstock. I then coated them with a layer of Crystal Effects for a bit of added effect.

 

What will your Year In Review layout look like? Can't wait to see! Don't forget to upload it at Just Add Ink this month.

 

Bye for now,

 

Tina

Clean and Simple Butterflies

Hi!

A quick card today, at 44 degrees in Adelaide it's too hot for much else!

 

I love the clean look of the white on white layering. I think I CASED this card from Mary Fish as it's very much in her CAS style, but I didn't save a link and I'm too hot to be bothered going looking for it.

 

EDIT: The temperature has cooled off and so while the kids were watching a movie I went hunting for the card I CASEd.  You can find it here.

 

 

I made a second similar card at the same time, but I'm saving that one for another day!

 

Bye for now,

 

Tina

Happy New Year!

Hi!

Welcome back! It seemed fitting to make my first post back on the first day of 2013. I had a wonderful, restful Christmas break and I hope you did too.  I'm back at my craft desk and ready to create up a storm.  I have got my hands on some of the upcoming Sale-A-Bration products and can't wait to have a play with them.  I've also seen the soon to be released Seasonal Catalogue, and it's fantastic! Lots of exciting things from Stampin' Up! this year as it's their 25th Anniversary.

This was the photo I gave to my family at Christmas.  I was thrilled to take such a gorgeous photo of my gorgeous children (with a bit of editing help from Photoshop!) My photography skills are certainly improving as a result of doing the Camera Creche course. I highly recommend doing it if you live in Adelaide.

Bye for now,

Tina