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