Upsy Daisy Birthday Card for Sis!

This is the birthday card I made for my sister whose Birthday was last week. I used one of her favourite stamp sets from the new cattie - I was about to buy it when I was placing my very first order for the new cattie when she said she'd buy it and let me use it at my workshops, that way she wouldn't feel guilty using it all the time :o).

This card was sort of made last minute and as my poor brain was a bit frazzled, I went on the good old net to get some inspiration and found a lovely card made by the lovely and talented Claire Daly (see the link to Claire's website in the side bar) - I'm hoping to catch up the Claire at Convention this weekend. I loved the colours and layout that Claire had used for her Upsy daisy card so I created my version of it.

If you would like to know what I used leave a message and I let you know!

Lynda xo

Where does the time go????????

Hi ya all !!!

Yes I'm back here in the land of blog at long last - have been meaning to get here for the last couple of weeks but there is never enough hours in the day at the moment!

What's happened since our last catch up (apart from the usual - working full-time, the usual chores around here, doing workshops and playing ball or Santa to Bell (will post a photo soon of her with her Santas) I hear you ask? Well SU!'s new cattie landed here in the land of Oz and have to say I absolutely LOOOOVVVVE IT!!!!!!!!!! Also had my open house a couple of weeks back to welcome it here and everyone had a great time.

I've also been madly trying to get my swaps done for our Aussie Convention which is this weekend in chilly Canberra - compared to the beautiful weather (29 degrees C) we've been having here in Perth lately, I think my poor little toosh is going to freeze - finished them all yesterday. But have to admit had some help from some stamping addict members of my family - mum, Aunty Margaret and my cousin Narelle :o) - had a stamping day here at home on the Easter Monday which turned into a happy day for me as my new cattie order was delivered by my lovely Aussie Parcel Post delivery lady (was so not expecting it to turn up until either the next day or the Wednesday after the long easter break as it takes at least a week to get here in Perth from Sydney and normally longer if there is long weekend thrown into the mix). So you can just picture me doing a few little jiggy dances when I realised what was here and after I opened up my boxes!

Also caught up with members of my family over Easter and last weekend remembered the diggers/soldiers who fought (and in many cases lost their lives) at war during our ANZAC Day (similar to Veterans Day in the US).

Anyway better go - will be back soon with some cards I've done recently.

Take care

Lynda xo

Open House Sausage Sizzle Cards

Hi everyone

Have been meaning to post these cards here for the last couple of months so here they are at last. Back in January I held a sausage sizzle (meant to be snagger - aussie slang for a sausage - in wrapped in a slice of bread but it ended up a bit bigger than that!) open house to launch saleabration and the summer mini and as usual I do two cards for my lovely customers to make.

The first one was using the For Father Stamp Set from the Summer Mini and I have embossed the image (and also the greeting) before only colouring in certain parts of the image - basically spotlighting!

Anyway here is what I have used is:

CARD : Basic Gray, Black, Watercolour Paper and Gable Green & Green Galore Textured Card

STAMP SETS : For Father and Weathered/Antique Cracking Background Stamp

INKS : Going Gray, Versamark and Basic Black

ACCESSORIES : Clear EP, Black Grosgrain Ribbon, Watercolour Crayons - colours and neutrals, aqua painters and stampin dimensionals.

For the Saleabration card, I used the Botanical Blooms and Yummy stamp sets. You'll see that the face of the card is not a full face - it is only roughly two thirds. One tip to keep in mind is scallop edge punch the back side of the card before folding over the face card, as this will make it easier to place the choc chip card on the back to enable you to get a full size card.

Here is what you'll need:
STAMP SETS : Botanical Blooms and Yummy SAB sets

CARD : Kraft, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Purely Pomegranate and Pumpkin Pie.

INKS : Sahara Sanda, Chocolate Chip, Purely Pomegranate, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red and Old Olive.

ACCESSORIES : Scallop Edge Punch and Sponges.

Take care

Lynda xox

A Fantastic Long Weekend

Hi all

Last weekend here in WA was our Labour Day Long Weekend and I managed to get away and go for a "social" visit to my cousin and her family down at Esperance - located on our south coast of WA - and Grass Patch - a 45 minute drive north from Esperance on the way to Kalgoorlie (WA's big goldfields town). Esperance is well known for its beautiful white beaches (and has the whitest beach in Australia) and the beautiful Cape Le Grand National Park! Now I normally go down to Grass Patch for my big annual stamping weekend down there but when I was down there last year, Narelle said I had to come back down for a 'social" visit. So early in the new year, we agreed that it would be this long weekend! I was really looking forward to the weekend as I had had a busy month of workshops for Saleabration and was ready to relax a bit!

So instead of spending 7 1/2 hours in a car driving down there (I don't mind the drive honestly!), I flew down on early Friday afternoon after Skywest brought forward my flight by about 2 hrs (which kind of threw our plans out the window a bit LOL!). The flight down there is only approx 90 mins or so and I arrived down there just before 4 pm. Narelle and the boys (Reilly and Myles) were waiting for me at the airport and we went into Esperance to unpack at the town house and did a food shop across the road at Woolies before heading back out to Gibson (approx 15 mins north) to the Gibson Soak Hotel for dinner and to meet up with Marcus and Chris & Roger (Marcus' parents). Dinner was absolutely delicious, us girls had the Snapper Supreme which was a grilled fillet of Snapper with creamy garlic prawns on top with chips and salad, Marcus had this massive T-bone and salad, Roger had the Fishermans Basket and the boys had pizza and chips. So if you are ever near or driving thru Esperance make sure you stop off at the Soak for a meal it is well worth it.

We had an early night as we were all pretty buggered and we had sort of an early start the next day. So on Saturday, Narelle, Reilly and I went and helped Marcus unload his things for the wedding he had booked as a DJ, and then while Marcus finished setting up, we went off to the shops and do what girls do best - SHOP! To say that we did a little bit of damage to our purses in a couple of hours of shopping is a slight understatement! However, the damage could've been a bit harder if the shops in Esperance stayed open past 1 pm on a Saturday. The big talk in town also was the Esperance races which was on that day! In the afternoon, Narelle and Chris wanted to go and see Australia the movie, so we toodled off to the cinemas for the afternoon but had to be back at the house straight after it finished as Marcus had to go off to his gig! We ordered Pizzas for dinners from Riccardos and had some sparkling wines while watching Sister Act 2 on tv (and trying not to fall asleep towards the end of the movie!).

On Sunday morning, we went to the Tearooms for breakfast which was also yummy and then while Narelle helped Marcus pack up his things from the wedding gig, Chris and I went for a walk around the Museum Village Markets. Once we had packed and tidied up around the town house, we headed back out to Grass Patch and the farm as Marcus had to get back to work and get on the harrower. Narelle and I watched a movie and then went for a walk down to the front gate and back again (about 6kms return trip) with Maggie their dog, before getting tea ready. We took Marcus' tea out to him as he was still on the harrower and ploughing the paddocks and as we were driving down the track we saw through some trees a big kangaroo bounding alongside us in the other paddock! Oh yeah, nearly forgot, we also checked out SU's retirement list while drinking our G&Ts before getting dinner ready!

On Monday, we had a sleep in and then around lunchtime, Narelle, the boys and I went to visit Cheray to do some stamping - in between drinking champagne and eating nibblies! We didn't get much stamping done - Narelle and I did two cards and Cheray did three! The girls advised me to call Skywest to check that the flight was still leaving that night - they were secretly hoping it wasn't - as it was a bit wild and wooly down there on the Monday, and apparently if there is poor visibility and after doing three circuits over the airport Skywest can't land they fly back to Perth or if the weather is way too rough, they won't take off! Alas, the weather wasn't that bad and the flight was still on! So we left Cheray's place just after 5 pm to go back to Narelle's so that the boys could have their showers and have dinner before she had to take me back to the airport!

So before I knew it my long weekend was over and we all agreed that it had been a great weekend with (in no particular order) great food, drinking, shopping, time spent with loved ones (and friends), and great fun was had by all :o). Big thanks and hugs to Narelle, Marcus, Reilly, Myles, Chris, Roger and not forgetting the animals - Maggie, Hagrid, Brock and the chooks (especially for the yummy freshly laid eggs - sure beats the ones from the supermarket any day LOL!) for a great weekend!

Lynda xox

Goodbye Fishy Friends

Hi all

Well I'm back again - I know its been a while since my last post but with all the devastation from the bushfires over in Victoria, I didn't feel up to doing much of anything and also February was pretty hectic for me with doing lots of workshops for Saleabration.

Anyway. SU's retirement list is now up and OMG it is massive! I was visiting my cousin down at Grass Patch when the list went on line - yes even us demos didn't know what was going until the same time as the public - so I went on Narelle's laptop late on the Sunday arvo (some 18 hours it went online here in WA) and printed off a couple of copies for us to have a look at! Picture this if you will - there was both of us sitting at her kitchen island bench with a couple of G&Ts and our catties going thru the Retirement List! The difference here was I also had a pen in my hand marking off what stamp sets & wheels I would be losing - okay, I was expecting quite a few of the older sets to go out and to lose quite a few but not as many as I have LOL! Anyway while I kept saying no over & over at what was going out, Narelle was getting very excited about all of the new stamp sets etc that we will be getting in the new cattie. I have no doubt the new cattie will be wonderful with a lots of fantastic stamp sets etc but it still is a bit hard to lose some old favourites of mine - but I'm up for the challenge of finding some new sets to love as much as the golden oldies!

One of my favourites going out is Fishy Friends - I've had this set from day one when I joined Stampin' Up! and I was fully expecting it to go out this year after it didn't last year! I think it is a great stamp set for kids or male cards, so as a farewell here are two cards I had made a while ago using my Fishies! The first one is one that I did for a swap at last year's Convention in Brissy and it uses the Salted Background technique which you can find the instructions for on Splitcoast Stampers' website. As you can see, it forms a wonderful background for your cards.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED IS:

CARD: Glossy White, Sage Shadow, Not Quite Navy & Whisper White

STAMP SETS : Fishy Friends & Its Your Birthday.

INKS : Not Quite Navy & Basic Black Classic Stamp Pads and Not Quite Navy, Sage Shadow & Bashful Blue Classic Ink Refills

ACCESSORIES : Aqua Painters or paint brushes, 3mm Handheld Circle Punch, White Gel Pen, 2 Way Glue Pen – 100425, Mat Pack or Crafters Tool Kit, Dazzling Diamonds, Sponge, Heat Tool (or your oven works even better!), Rock or Table Salt and Water!

My second card uses the water colouring technique which is brilliant with this stamp set. I have stamped the starfishes using a versamark stamp pad and my basic black stamp pad, and then clear embossed the images which gives them that little bit of a lift. It is another alternative if you don't have a stazon stamp pad to avoid the ink bleeding when watercolouring your images!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED IS :

CARD : River Rock, Soft Sky, Taken with Teal and Watercolor Card.

STAMP PADS : Versamark, Basic Black, Soft Sky and Taken with Teal.

STAMP SETS : Fishy Friends, It's Your Birthday & Polka Dot Background.

ACCESSORIES : Clear EP, Heat Gun, Scallop Edge Punch, Blender Pens, Taken with Teal and Tempting Turqoise Markers, and Sahara Sand Water Colour Crayon.

Hope you like these two cards and that they give you some inspiration!

Take care

Lynda x

Beautiful Bodacious Bouquet

Hi

Here is a card I created a while ago using Bodacious Bouquet stamp set. It was made on a day when I knew what stamp set, technique and colours I wanted to use but for the life of me I couldn't think of a design that I was rapt in. So I went to the current (08/09) Ideas Book & Cattie and flicked through the pages for inspiration for a layout - I found it on page 72 using the Wild Rose stamp set.

The technique I used was the rock ' n roll technique using my sponge daubers to add Ruby Red ink to the flowers after stamping them in Apricot Appeal before stamping them onto glossy white and with the leaves stamped them in Certainly Celery before daubing some Old Olive (my two favourite greens in SU's colours).

Here is what the finished card looks like :

Here is what was used :

Stamp sets : Bodacious Bouquet, Bodacious Jumbo Wheel and Curvy Verses

Inks : Ruby Red, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Old Oliver, Chocolate Chip & Versamark.

Card : Kraft, Confetti White, Glossy White and Chocolate Chip.

Accessories / Tools : Sponge Daubers, Sponge, Jumbo Wheel, Wheel Guide, Stampin' Dimensionals and Crystal Effects.

I love the end result and also this layout as I have done other cards using this layout since making this card. Just goes to show what a fantastic resource the Cattie is with all the lovely layouts and color combos you can get from it - and yes even us demostrators get ideas from it!

Talk to you soon - take care.

Lynda xox

Goodbye Beautiful View!

Hi Everyone

During the last week I have been getting ready for a BIG move at work - the boss has decided the rents are too high in the city and has decided to move out to the burbs! So after being in one building/location (just changing floors every now and then) since he started the firm approx 30 years ago, you can just imagine what a nightmare it has been trying to throw things out and pack things - especially as we were moving into a smaller office than what we were in LOL - all the while trying to get some work done!

Anyway, one of the perks of working in the city was getting to have a look out of the boss' window numerous times everyday at our beautiful city. This is a view looking out south and over the Swan River where we have our annual Australia Day fireworks every year and also seeing those amazing pilots during the Red Bull Air Race Sometimes you can even see dolphins in the river! The tall building in the front is the Perth Concert Hall.

This is the view looking out towards west of the Swan River and at Kings Park (which unfortunately was affected by a big bush fire lit by an arsonist two weeks ago and we had a birds eye view of some of it). And yes, that tall white thing in the middle to the right is our new ferris wheel - although it is not as tall as Melbourne's and definitely no where near as tall as the London Eye! Government House (and gardens) are in the front of the photo.

One thing I'm definitely not going to miss from working in the old building in the city though is the protesters, the riots and the few bomb threats that we experienced after 9/11 (although it did sometimes happen to make a slow day eventful!) as we also had the US Consulate in the same building (so you can also imagine the security was also really tightened up after 9/11) - the upside was having all the police and police horses there when it happened (if you know what I mean ;o) !

Anyway, we finished the move on Saturday during this heatwave of ours and it is really nice to be in a brand new (and I mean it literally, the workers are still there finishing off things!) office/building where everything is clean and works! I have been looking forward (& also excited) to this move for the last few months and am glad that it has now arrived - first day in new office was fantastic and am working with a lovely group of people!

Will be back soon with a card to show you!


Lynda xox

Stamp Camp Creations

Hi all

Back in the first weekend of December our Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Group - the Stamparoos - held our very first stamp camp held at Swanleigh in the beautiful Swan Valley here in Perth. I had a fantastic time spending quality stamping time with my fellow demostrators!

I was asked by Ngaire, my upline and friend, if I would like to take a class. I offered to show everyone how to do the polished stone technique as I have done this a few times for swaps at Convention and Regionals and everyone always asks me how to do it! I have also done it at many of my workshops and my lovely customers love it, and it is also another way of utilising your reinkers apart from reinking those good old stamp pads. To get instructions on doing the polished stone technique got to the Resources page on Splitcoast Stampers website for full instructions or leave me a comment and I can email you a typed up sheet of instructions.

So after a late night of brain storming ideas I came up with these two cards using stamp sets from the new Summer Mini:

Stamp Sets : Eastern Blooms & Sincere Salutations

Inks : Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red & Basic Black.

Reinkers : Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red & Encore Gold.

Card : Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red & Glossy White.

Polished Stone Needs : Isocol, Cotton Balls, Hairspray/Acrylic Sealer & Small Container.

Accessories : Daubers, Pumpkin Pie and Choc Chip Ribbon, Slot Punch (under flower for ribbon to slot thru!) and Dimensionals.

Stamp Sets : Ocean Commotion (only available in Australia) & Sincere Salutations.

Inks: Versamark, Basic Black & Not Quite Navy.

Reinkers : Not Quite Navy, Taken with Teal and Encore Silver

Card : Kraft (although it doesn't look like it in the photo), Taken with Teal, Basic Black, Not Quite Navy & Glossy White.

The Polished Stone Needs as noted above.

Accessories : Tempting Turqoise Ribbon & Mat Pack/Crafters Tool Kit.

We also had to do a swap card and it is one I sort of cased from the Embrace Life gallery on splitcoast stampers (sorry can't quite remember who it belongs to but thank you for the inspiration).

Stamp Set: Embrace Life.

Inks : Stazon, Rose Red and Regal Rose.

Card: Basic Black, Rose Red, Regal Rose & Whisper White.

Accessories : Aqua Painters, 3.5 cm and 3.2 cm Circle Punches, Word Window Punch, Slot Punch, Regal Rose Wide Grosgrain Ribbon and Stampin' Dimensionals.

Finally, we also had a card competition. I left making my card until the night before camp although I did a dummy run of it on the weekend before after my embossing pen (not a versamark one LOL!) left a blue tinge to my cherry blossom flowers under the clear EP! I cased my card from Michelle Zindorf's website (see link in side bar) under the "At the Lake" Tutorial. Michelle does absolutely wonderful, fantastic, brilliant etc (the list goes on ...) work - especially with her brayering. If I went back to the States again for a holiday, I would go to Ohio and try and meet her and have a lesson with her.

If you would like to know what I used in it, leave a comment and I'll let you know but it is just about basically the same as Michelle's except where she used non Stampin' Up! products I adapted to Stampin' Up! products.

Well off to bed now, I'll catch you again over our long Australia Day long weekend - after I have had High Tea at the Hyatt in the city tomorrow!

Take care

Lynda

A Belated Happy New Year & New Year's Resolution

Hi Everyone

Got to say Happy New Year - a little late I know but you get that! Hope you all had a fantastic Chrissy / New Year break and are ready for the year ahead!

One of my New Year's resolutions - apart from a lifestyle change ie diet/lose some weight - is to organise my time/schedule and post more regularly here! I know we're three weeks in to the year already and this is only my first post for the year but things are going to get better!

I also know it has been a while since I last posted and well I can only offer these excuses for not posting - being really busy at work, doing Stampin' Up workshops right up to the end of November, our Stamparoo's stamp camp the first weekend of December at which I showed my fellow demostrator friends how to do the polished stone technique (which had me up until 1.30 one night madly designing and making the two cards LOL!!), madly trying to get all my Chrissy cards - 100 all up! - (staying up late at night or doing some during my lunch breaks LOL!) out before Chrissy which I just managed to do except for a couple, and finally sort out what was happening for Chrissy lunch with my family at my place all the while working right up to and including Chrissy eve! My poor Chrissy tree didn't even get put up until Chrissy eve (and is still up - another thing to do this weekend, put it down)!

As a result I basically did bugger all during my week and a bit off from work between Chrissy and New Year! I must admit I did not even feel one little tiny bit guilty about doing nothing either (big smile). I had a few things I was sort of planning to do over the break but needless to say they didn't get done just like those things I had planned to do before Chrissy that didn't get done! I only hit the stamps twice, once to make a Birthday card and a bag for my Mum whose birthday is three days after Chrissy - here they are:

Here is a close up of the card:

I used what is my absolute favourite stamp set out of the Summer Mini - Embrace Life! I had my fingers crossed that this would be in the new Cattie come April so you can imagine happy I was to see it in the Spring Mini - now I just have to hope that it still makes it into the new Cattie! I sort of cased the layout from RagDoll4You on the Splitcoaststampers Gallery for Embrace Life and here is what I used:

Stamp Sets: Embrace Life and Its Your Birthday

Card / Paper : Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Watercolour Paper & Ginger Blossom DS Paper.

Inks : Versamark, Basic Black, Chocolate Chip & Groovy Gauva.

Markers: Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip (to colour ribbon) Basic Black & Blender Pens.

Accessories: Clear EP, White Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals & Stampamajig.

I also made a special card for my Aunty Margaret's 60th Birthday also using the Embrace Life stamp set but cased a layout from the Ideas Book & Cattie. However when I went to take a photo of it before I left to go to her party, wouldn't you know it those darn little camera batteries were flat! I am going to do another one so I can put it in my sample file so as soon as it is done - might get around to it this Australia Day long weekend - I will upload it here for you!

I also had lunch with one of my lovely customers who has also become a friend (Hi Pam - big wave) in between trying to find a new fridge after my virtually died on New Year's Day - not happy jan! I was absolutely buggered after driving around and getting in/out of a warm car all day but I absolutely love my brand spankin' new side by side fridge/freezer.

Must admit it was a bit hard to go back to work after a week of doing nothing but am now back in the swing of things! Also had my Summer Mini/Salebration Open House Sausage Sizzle back on Friday 9 January so I had to madly plan for that the week I went back to work but will fill you all in with that hopefully tomorrow night!

Anyway better go - talk to you soon!

Lynda x