Some Little Knick Knacks...

I just wanted to show you some little knick knacks I've been working on this weekend. I am going to share a stall at a school fete with a friend in a couple of weeks, and I have been playing with some ideas of what things to make to have there.



These little 'flower pots' (with Chupa Chup inside) are so cute. I got the idea for these from Dawn Olchefske at DOstamping with Dawn. I had to make the 'flower pot' a bit larger than Dawn's, as her pot didn't quite fit around our Chupa Chups.

The paper is Summer Picnic Designer Series Paper, and the flowers are from the Blooms Die Cuts, both of which can be found in the Stampin' Up! Spring Mini Catalogue.



These little bags are also made using the Summer Picnic DSP and decorated with the Blooms Die Cuts. The handles are made with Pumpkin Pie Grosgrain Ribbon. I have popped a little packet of Ovalteenies inside.

Hope you like them. I have to run...part two of a Doctor Who we started watching last week has just started :-).

Sam.

Incy Wincy Spider...

Yesterday I went down to our local shops with Mr 2 and Miss 4. We were in Cotton On Kids at one point and Mr 2 saw a black shirt with a red-back spider on it and was very excited about it. He doesn't often get enthused about clothing, well other than his Bob 'Billa Bulla' shirt (aka Bob The Builder ;-). Anyway I got him the shirt, and later I was thinking about how easy it would be to make a spider using our Stampin' Up! punches. So today, I did!

It is a bit of an odd card, probably not everyone's cup of tea:



The colours are Basic Black, Real Red and Whisper White. I've used the Cheesecloth background stamp in Real Red ink on the Real Red layer. Black brads in the corners, black and white gingham ribbon, and a whole bunch of punches for spidey.

While I was outside taking photos I thought I'd get a shot of my new fishies...another lovely pressie I got for my birthday. We have lots of bits and pieces like this scattered around our garden. I love it!



Only 5 more sleeps till SPRING starts! Yippppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Sam.

Father's Day

I just wanted to show you some goodies from a recent workshop.

We made two cards, one for Father's Day, and the other a Christmas card. I won't show you the Christmas card just yet because I am making some as swaps for Regionals (well that is my goal at any rate ;-).

You have seen the Father's Day card on my blog before, just with different DSP:



I got the design from Linda at Stamping School. These are made with the beautiful Summer Picnic DSP, available in the current mini catalogue. I LOVE this paper. I am going to have to stock up ;-). I think these shirts look so groovy!



And...since I like Summer Picnic DSP so much I made the Hostess Gifts and Lucky Door prizes using that too.

Thanks for visiting.
Sam.

Happy Birthday...to me!

Hello stampers, cardmakers, scrappers, blog readers, and those who ended up here by mistake!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Here in beautiful downtown Canberry, Australia (the Nation's shining capital), it was a lovely cloudless day, and reached a balmy (well...maybe not exactly balmy) 14.8 degrees celcius (I even broke out a T.shirt in honour of it almost being spring ;-).

But I digress....the reason I come to you in such high spirits is that I recently celebrated a birthday, and I operate under the school of 'celebrate your birthday the week before, the week during and the week after...the big day ;-)'...so suffice to say it is STILL my birthday and that makes me happy!

Just wanted to post a couple of pics in honour of my special day (if I don't...who will??, so don't you be rolling your eyes at my self-indulgence!!!).



This photo shows one of my birthday gifts from my hubby and kids. The photo does not really do it justice. The vase and stems are made out of aluminium, and the flowers are made out of glass. The flowers screw into the stems, so you can move them around. Hubby brought this back for me from Albuquerque (please excuse any spelling errors...this is an extraordinarily hard name to spell), New Mexico. It was SUCH a lovely surprise!



On my birthday hubby stayed home from work and we all went to visit the National Botanic Gardens, here in the ACT. I LOVE these gardens. The trees and flowers are magnificent. The shot above shows some gorgeous paper daisies growing by the rock pool where we usually see the water dragons...but they must have been visiting abroad that day, as they were nowhere to be seen. We also enjoyed a delicious lunch at Hudson's in the gardens. I had Thai Fish cakes and a scrumptious salad that included couscous..YUMMO!



This pic shows the birthday card given to me by my good friend Kim (Hi Kim!). Isn't it lovely? The base of the card is Confetti White, stamped with Purely Pomegranate Classic Ink and the Paisley background stamp. There is then a layer of Purely Pomegranate, then Regal Rose, then more Confetti White.

The Happy Birthday is stamped in Purely Pomegranate ink and clear embossed. The flower stem is made of double-stitched Wild Wasabi ribbon, and the leaves are Wild Wasabi cardstock which has been crimped, cut and folded (and looks fabulous!!!). The flower petals are made from Purely Pomegranate, Regal Rose and Pretty in Pink cardstock, all of which have been stamped with the Paisley background stamp, clear embossed and then punched out with the Round Tab punch. The flower centre is a So Saffron flower punched using the Spring Bouquet punch, and then a Pretty in Pink Button, with some thread tied through.

Thank you Kim, I love this card :-).

Ciao,
Sam.

Mademoiselle Butterfly

Just another 'because' scrapbook page!



* Because I really like the photo - what a cute dreamy look;
* Because I've had a bit of a thing about embroidery recently;
* Because I've been thinking about how pretty butterflies are;
* Because I can!

So I sat down in front of the telly last night and did some embroidery on this page. It was lucky I had something to put my mind to because even Josh Duhamel's fine form couldn't save last night's movie from being just plain bad! I would have been better of watching some Olympics.......those Jamaican boys can really RUN!

Anyway, back to the page: The colours are Elegant Eggplant, Pink Passion, Pumpkin Pie and Whisper White. The stamp set is Stampin' Up!'s simply beautiful 'Bold Butterfly'. I have highlighted the butterflies with Crystal Effects...which you can probably see a bit better in this shot:



The mademoiselle is my beautiful pixie girl!

Have a great weekend!
Sam.

PS. Go Libby, Go Grant, Go Michael!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Celebrate ...You

Recently Shelli Gardner, CEO and Co-Founder of Stampin' Up!, started her own blog. You can find it here. On it she has announced her first Creative Challenge, for any project - using the word 'Celebrate'.

I decided that my entry would be a 12 x 12 Scrapbook page...and here it is:



All materials I have used are available from Stampin' Up! The background cardstock is Certainly Celery textured 12x12 cardstock. The next layer is Pretty in Pink cardstock and has been faux stitched around the edges using a paper piercer and white gel pen. The next layer is a piece of Spring Fling DSP. There is also a strip of Whisper White textured cardstock across the centre, and the photo frame is So Saffron cardstock. the 'celebrate ...you' sentiment has been made using On Board Lots of Letters Chipboard - coloured white using white Embossing Powder (three layers) and then Heat and Stick powder and Dazzling Diamonds.



The three flowers are from the On Board Blossoms and Basics Chipboard and have been covered in Spring Fling and Spring Showers DSP. The flower centres are decorative silver brads from the Styled Silver Hodge Podge set available in the current Stampin' Up! Spring Mini Catalogue. The flower stems and leaves are Certainly Celery Grosgrain Ribbon.

I have pierced the So Saffron layer using a paper piercer and have also sponged the edges in So Saffron Classic Ink, and mounted the whole thing up on Dimensionals. The embellishment on the bottom left hand corner of the photo is an Aluminium Edge tag and has covered piece of On Board Blossoms and Basics Chipboard on it. Again, the DSP is Spring Fling. The beautiful girl is my daughter :-).




The Challenge is open to anyone...so if you'd like to participate...start creating! This challenge closes on 31st August...plenty of time left, and you need to leave a comment on Shelli's blog so she knows you've particpated.

All the best,
Sam.

Funny Faces

I only started papercrafting about three years ago, but when I did it was with scrapbooking, not cardmaking. Since then I have done a lot of cardmaking and not so much scrapbooking. I was thinking about this recently, and I think that the reason behind this is lack of time. I get a card done much more quickly than a scrapbook page and I like the instant gratification ;-). However, I love the 'long-term-ness' (that is not a word, but I think you will know what I mean....I think the word I am really after is longevity) of scrapbooking. I like knowing that my family will see my scrapbook pages in years to come...and hope that my pages will bring back lots of memories and smiles, but I doubt my children will be spending so much time looking at my cards (well especially if I have done with them what they were made for, and given them away...the cards, not the kids!!).

So with all of this in my mind I am making a concerted effort to spend a bit more time scrapbooking! I sat down a few weeks ago and made my first attempt in ages. I am not overly impressed with my effort, It feels a bit slap dash to me...but it makes me smile and I'm thinking this is what counts for me right now....plus, it is a start!



I've used Brilliant Blue, Wild Wasabi and Pumpkin Pie Cardstock, Jersey Shore DSP, On Board Lots of Letters Chipboard, Wild Wasabi Double Stitched Ribbon, Spring Flower Bouquet Punch, Whisper White Eyelets and White Gel Pen.

Thanks for visiting!
Sam.

More make n' takes

While I am here...just a couple more bits and bobs from the same workshop.

Sharon Turnbull's beautiful Gift Card purse. This one has been a big favourite at the workshops I have demo'ed at.




The colours are Blue Bayou, Soft Sky and Really Rust. We used some Fall Flowers Designer Series Paper, and covered chipboard from the Onboard Blossoms and Basics pack. I love covering chipboard!

This next photo shows the hostess gifts and lucky door prizes from this workshop. For these goodies I have used the same colour scheme as described above.



I have also been working on some scrapbook pages...but you will have to wait for them ;-).

Thanks for visiting!
Sam.

A recent make n' take

Hello!

If anyone is out there still checking my blog...I am sorry there has been a bit of a hiatus. It isn't that I have not been stamping, just that I have not had a chance to photograph my creations and upload them.

The cards below were some of the make n' takes we made at a recent workshop.






The colours are Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink and Whisper White. I have also used Spring Fling Designer Series Paper, Polka Dot and Linen background stamps, Fun and Fast Notes and Birthday Best stamp sets, Certainly Celery wide grosgrain ribbon, Whisper White and Pretty in Pink tafetta ribbon, sponges, paper piercer, gel pen, the tearing edge, Stampin' Pastels, crystal effects, dimensionals, mini glue dots and SNAIL adhesive.

We sponged the edges of the background cardstock...a bit hard to see in these photos. We used Crystal effects to highlight parts of the main image (which had been coloured using pastels). We also decorated a Whisper White envelope to coordinate with the card.

I had fun....I hope everyone else did too :-).
Sam.