Wedding Bells are ringing

Well it's been a week since Cassie & Jake got married at the beautiful Boathouse at Lake Karapiro, the wedding has been 18 months in the making & gosh weren't we lucky the event was last weekend & not this weekend when an awful lot of New Zealand is flooded. In a lot of places we're getting our monthly average of rain in a day or in some places more than double. But last weekend the sun shone & we had a fabulous time celebrating this special day.

I was really fortunate that I had the perfect card sitting in my card stash for the day. I made this card at one of Sally Williams' card classes and at the time I went ohhh this is just stunning, I'm saving it for Cassie's wedding day.

All products are Stampin' Up! & we used the Floral Phrases stamp set & detailed Floral thinlit dies.

Thanks Sally for such a fab card.

✿ Karen ✿

Happy Valentine's day

Pete is a lucky chap or will be when he gets home as I must have been a stroppy class attendee lately demanding this time to make the planned Thinking of You card & matching box into a Valentine's card at a recent class I attended with Sally Williams. It wasn't too much of a demand as the stamp set I needed was on the table I just needed a block to mount it on to make my tag say hugs & kisses instead of thinking of you!

 You can see Sally's card & box & the recipe HERE & the saying & wee hearts I've used come from Sealed with Love stampset (Stampin' Up!).

I really like this colour combination of Sweet Sugarplum & Mint Macaron, it's the same colour combo from my last blog post.

Talking of Sealed with a Kiss stamp set, when I attended a class at Debbie Lamb's we got to make this wee treat for a loved one using the stamp set & the Love Note framelits dies. it was one Jaffa for the bag, one for my tum!

The wee envelope is so cute I almost don't want to give it away. Well I hope Pete enjoys his treats & you all have a fab V-day!


✿ Karen ✿

Thoughtful Branches

Just sharing an awesome card I made at a class with Sally Williams recently. Fingers crossed this makes the SU! catalogue for real as it is just adorable. At this stage though SU! says limited time only to purchase to the end of this month. I'm off to Aussie for a 2 week holiday & I have had a lot of treats lately with monthly card kit purchases etc so it broke my heart to say I can not afford it at the moment but I did love the card. The bundle is really versatile & has some fab fonts. It's $110 for the bundle of 23 stamps & 9 framelits.

I really liked the new petal burst EF that I can afford and I also liked how Raspberry Ripple complemented the new in-colour Sweet Sugarplum which I also love.

There's heaps of great ideas out there on Pinterest with this bundle, so if you'd like to own your own contact Sally before August 31st. She's got the recipe on her blog of all the products used too. I think on this day I'm day 2 of our Ghan train trip about to arrive in Alice Springs. I can't wait for my flight over Uluru or Ayers Rock. I am sure it is going to be AMAZING!
✿ Karen ✿

Pretty in purple

It's a long weekend in New Zealand as we celebrate our National Day but I'm working through on a shift at the hospital, but I sincerely hope kiwis enjoy the 3-day weekend & have some free crafting time.

I'm loving the Stampin' Up! free Sale-a-bration stamp sets on offer this year, so love the size of the lettering & the font.

My dear friend Sally had her birthday this week & anyone that know her knows she LOVES purple, so I wanted to make her a purple card.

I decided to make a watercolour wash background using my Distress Inks. I love how it turned out & will be making a few more cards like this in other shades.

1. I used Scotch painters tape to hold down the watercolour paper to a board which is why it has a wee "border" if you look closely at the top layer. 
2. I then used a wide paint brush to wet the paper (flat 1). 
3. The inks I just rubbed on my craft mat & added the lightest colour first with another paint brush (round 10). 
4. The Ranger inks really blend well & I tilted the board to get some mixing going going on as well.
5. Then dried it all with my heat gun. 
6. I then sprayed my hand with water & threw droplets at the background which I then dabbed with a paper towel to make the splotches. 
7. Then dried again with my heat gun. 
8. I then rubbed an embossing buddy all over the background before embossing "hello" in black. Rather than using Versamark & black embossing powder I used Versafine Black Onyx & clear embossing powder so I didn't get stray black embossed bits on the card - much cleaner.
9. I added various purple & gold sequins using Ranger Matte Multi Medium which I have in a small bottle with a precision tip needle to just add a wee dab where I want the sequin to stick.
10. The "- birthday girl-" also comes with the stamp set and is white embossed on the black card stock. I used one of my square punches to make the banner.

Recipe:
Stamp Set: Hello (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark
Distress Inks (Ranger): Victorian Velvet, Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet
Card: Strathmore cold pressed watercolor, Neenah Solar White, black
Embellishments: Various companies including SU!, Lucy's bright copper kettle, CTMH sick-on purple glitter gems
Other: Clear & white embossing powder, embossing buddy, heat gun, various paint brushes, dimensionals, square punch, craft mat, Ranger Multi Matte Medium.

The Hello stamp set is only available free until February 16th from your Stampin' Up! demonstrator with a $110 order. So if you love it too, you only have 11 days to go to get your own.

Enjoy your weekend & hope you get your fingers inky!

✿ Karen ✿

Non-traditional & easy Christmas card.

I might be the last person in the land to try or spy the Bokeh technique but when I saw it I suggested to my friends that are SU! demos they run it as a class & I'm very glad Sally rose to the challenge.

We created this really effective one for Christmas plus a happy Daffodil Delight & Melon Mambo combo as a thank you card. Both are fab, thanks Sally. This combo is Bermuda Bay & Night of Navy.

Our only comments as a group after we created the cards was that the words need to be embossed with coloured ink (black etc) otherwise the bits that touch the craft white "bubbles" disappear into the ink.

Absolutely loving the Sleigh Ride Edgelits

Hi all its been awhile again since I last blogged but I have been crafting a lot so I have good intentions to blog at least once a week going forward, I'm going to attempt to blog every day for the next week & share some KReations to get my blogging mojo back!!

This is the fab card Sally Williams taught us to launch the new holiday catalogue for Stampin' Up!

It was really quick & easy & I think really effective - just what you need when you want to mass produce a few Christmas Cards.

Nothing tricky about the card but the snow is created by rubbing a white craft ink lightly over the embossed piece.

Under the houses we've used a post it note & lightly sponged a bit of Soft Sky ink to create snow drifts.

Sally used Dazzling Diamonds on her card for a real glittery look on top of her snow drifts but I am in love with one of my recent non-SU! purchases; which is a clear Zig Wink of Stella Brush marker which leaves a very faint sparkling effect, which is really pretty in real life. So all products in the recipe below are Stampin' Up! apart from the Zig brush pen which I purchased from Create

Recipe:
Stamp set: Embellished Ornaments ( Christmas word - as well as gorgeous ornaments, gorgeous font)
Ink: Night of Navy, Soft Sky (for sponging the snow drifts), Whisper White Craft
Paper: Whisper White, Night of Navy
Dies: Oval framelits, Christmas Greetings thinlits, Sleigh Ride edgelits
Embossing Folder: Softly Falling
Other: Clear Zig Wink of Stella Brush marker

More fab swaps from convention

L>R Judy, myself, Sally & Donna - definitely looking WOW!

I maybe biased but today's swaps are some of my favorites as they contain the swaps from 3 of my own team - the WOW paperKRafters, that I had the pleasure of attending convention with & did we have a fab time; Sally Williams, Judy Beetson & Donna Blackmore - above is a snap of us in our finery for awards night.

Though we didn't win any awards on the night Donna & myself were very chuffed as we both got to march on stage TOGETHER as we have both have reached our 5 year anniversary with SU! which was a rather special moment.

We were also pretty lucky as a team with 50% of us winning a prize in prize patrol, even though  I didn't win prize patrol this convention celebrating SU!'s 25th anniversary truly was the most awesome with great sessions, demonstrations & I returned home with SIX (yes 6) new stamp sets, silver glimmer paper, rhinestones, silver dazzle, cute clips, a new bags & tags kit, new colour coach & most importantly a new annual catalogue 2 weeks early.

Back to the cards & posting them in alphabetical order.

Donna Blackmore's swap - totally blown away by how much effort went into this swap & so many layers, it really is a piece of art.

Judy Beetson's Blooming with Kindness - really striking in Cherry Cobbler red & black.

and Sally Williams side spring card in of course purple! The flower from Creative Elements has been cut into 3 layers so the flower really pops.

Hope you agree with me that they're all fab & thanks ladies for some inspiring ideas!

Click HERE to order Stampin' Up! Products Online, Anytime.

Special Mail for me

Hi everyone hope your week is going well - I thought I'd just share the special cards that were made for my birthday which I've had recently. I'll blog them in the order I received them.

From Debbie Lamb :

From Judy Beetson:

From Sally Williams:

Thank you ladies I think they're all beautiful & I really appreciated them. Personally I still love & squeal when I receive a home-made card which I guess is one of the reasons I love what I do - hopefully inspiring others to share the love.

Quick, easy & WOW cards

Well we hope so; these were the other 3 designs my team the WOW paperKRafters taught at our Stamp-a-Stack in the weekend. We allowed 45 mins for each set of 3 cards & all ladies completed the task easily so guess they were easy & I hope a bit wow too.

From Sally Williams 3 baby cards using the SAB set Patterned Occasions (congratulations to Ann Mitchell who was the winner of our giveaway set on the day), wee saying comes from Petite Pairs & everyone made one in Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue & Certainly Celery

From Vanita Hurbuns our masculine card of the event using By the Tide & colours were Marina Mist & Sahara Sand.

From Debbie Lamb using the SAB ab fab set of 2013 Feeling Sentimental - I received from Debbie the Pink Pirouette version, but it was also created in Certainly Celery and one version in Early Espresso - ain't the little paperclips adorable too (they're a new accessory in our Seasonal Mini).

Clicking on the word Certainly Celery takes you to Debbie's blog where she has a lot more detail about the card & it's components.

Well I think these plus my sympathy card were fabulous value ($30 for 12 cards plus pizza) so if you'd like to know when our next team event is make sure you sign up for My Monthly Newsletter . If you missed the event & would like to host a home workshop contact me directly as I am more than happy to come to you too.

Thanks for poppin' in

Bloomin' Marvelous Notecard Holder

This was the very cool project (but I maybe biased) that Sally Williams & myself helped Vicky-Lee Mueller with at our team's stamping extravaganza AKA as an afternoon of papercrafting with like minded ladies that involves food & door prizes - my idea of heaven.

Recipe
Stamps: Bloomin' Marvelous
Ink: Pool Party, Rich Razzleberry, Tangerine Tango
Paper: Core'dinations & smooth Pool Party, Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Sycamore Street DSP
Other: Sycamore Street ribbon and button pack, Vine Street embossing folder, Apothecary Accents framelits, Finishing Touches edgelits, Bitty Butterfly punch, Dimensionals, Basic rhinestones, strong adhesive (Sticky Strip or equivalent), Stampin’ sanding block, Big Shot

As you can see the holder was designed to hold 4 SU! notecards & envelopes that Rachael Knight designed to co-ordinate with our project.

The Sale-a-bration exclusive items used in the 2 projects are Bloomin' Marvelous & Madison Avenue stamp sets, Sycamore Street DSP, Vine Street embossing folder, Sycamore Street ribbon and button pack. These items are only available until March 22nd & are FREE with any order greater than $120, no limits you earn one item for every $120 spent - this year we have 19 items to choose from, so we are really spoilt for choice. If you'd like to know more or would like to place an order don't hesitate to contact me.

6 sleeps to go & this is Scentsational

This is the lovely swap card I received from Sally Williams and it smells as good as it looks. She's embossed the wee gingerbread man with our new Sugar & Spice embossing powder so as well as making the wee man shiny - it makes him smell yummy & good enough to eat.

What's new on this card:  Scentsational Season stamp set, Holiday Collection framelit dies (yes the wee man has a matching framelit, as does all the stamps in the Scentsational Season set, Sugar & Spice EP and  Lacy Brocade embossing folder.

Stamp sets: Scentsational Season, Curly and Cute
Ink: Soft Suede, Versamark
Paper: Soft Suede, Whisper White
Other: Holiday Collection framelits,  Sugar & Spice EP,  Lacy Brocade EF, Scallop Squares Duo Bigz die, dimensionals, sponge.

Thanks Sally I love my card - its surely is good enough to eat!

Brayering inspired by Paula

I'll have some more Convention photos coming but thought I'd share one of the cards we made at my home class last night (the other one I'd already blogged HERE). I was inpsired by the fabulous card that Paula Dobson from my team had swapped with me at Convention which I blogged about with my last posting. As the first card for class was already prepped & the predominating colour was Cajun Craze I had to change the colour combo - using my unbelievably fantastic Colour Coach I recreated Paula's card in More Mustard & Garden Green & as I know Paula loves Garden Green I'm sure she'll be happy with my efforts ;)

Stamp set: Just Believe
Ink: Garden Green, More Mustard
Paper: Garden Green, More Mustard, Very Vanilla
Punches: Word Window, 1-1/4" circle
Other: Brayer, vintage brads, post it note

Take a look at the difference sanding does to a solid stamp. I always sand my solid stamps lightly before use & then clean, as I had used this stamp set before I was a bit shocked to see how it stamped. Click on the image above to make it go larger too.

The image on the LHS is my demo from class & the one on the RHS my sample prep before class. I might post a  So Saffron / Wild Wasabi combo one day too.Sanding blocks are only $7.95 for 2 - once you own them you'll wonder how you ever did without them.

Last but not least I'll share a monochromatic wee note card my fabulous downline Sally Williams gave me using the Just Believe stamp set and Crumb Cake ink, ribbon & card stock - fabulous - very classy.

Well I think everyone enjoyed last night's class as those that didn't already own a brayer ordered one. Remember my home classes are the last Friday of the month at my place 7pm kickoff but if you'd like to have a go at doing something you see on my blog schedule a home workshop & now is the perfect time to host a home workshop (if your home is too small you can use my place) .

Stampin' Up! has announced an amazing promotion which has just kicked off & runs until the end of June - all hostesses with workshops with sales of $550 or more (including GST and shipping) that are held between 23 May and 30 June 2011, will earn an EXTRA $100 in hostess rewards on any catalogue merchandise! This is on top of all the other rewards you also receive. You may also gather orders from your friends to take advantage of this great offer & share the rewards of free shopping & stamps. Contact me to book yours today.

Blue and White Christmas

Well this is certainly not your traditional Christmas - but appropriate for us down under where we have lots of blue - skies & the sea are all around us. I received this card a s a swap from Sally & I really like the cleanliness of it all.

Sally mixed drops of Pacific Point re-inker with Frost White shimmer mist & daubed directly on the stamp to get a translucent look which does not photograph at all! The card in it's entirety revealed:

Check out her BLOG for all the finer details. Anyone purchasing the Delightful Decoration stamp set & it's matching punch receives a free roll of ribbon (4 to choose from - valued from $19.95 to $26.50 in value)

The WOW paperKRafters swaps

The perfect place to start with my favourite swaps from Convention is of course with my fabulous downline. For 3/4 it was their first convention & doing about 80 swaps - wow it is a lot of work but when you get so many fabulous cards & ideas in return it is so worthwhile.

From Judy Beetson; she's used Priceless and teamed it with the Very Vintage jumbo wheel in Mellow Moss (which is about to retire) & Elegant Eggplant.

And inside the card - too nice not to share!

From Donna Blackmore - she's really done something funky with one of the stamps from Circle Circus. Her trademark is there Crystal Effects and dazzling diamonds glitter & for those of you that know Donna in real life she sure does like her BLING.

She's used everyone's favourite new in-colour Rich Razzleberry & teamed it with Mellow Moss.

Sally Williams has also used Rich Razzleberry & the Very Vintage jumbo wheel plus the flowers from Vintage Vogue - what a fabulous 6x6" scrapbook page. Wheel stamps make it really easy to make a quick border plus a few stamped images for embellishments - so easy.

From Debbie Lamb a Vintage Vogue card in Tangerine Tango & Old Olive, love the ribbon ruffling. A very classy card - which is Debbie's trademark.