Help make a difference in the lives of those who continue to suffer from the effects of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January. From now until 28 February, 2010, Stampin’ Up! will set aside $2 from the sale of every I {Heart} Hearts stamp set and donate it to the Red Cross’ Haiti Relief and Development Fund. The Red Cross is already well-established in Haiti, and this money will be used to provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need.

Email me now to place your order for this lovely stamp set while helping out this worthy cause

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Do you receive my papercrafting newsletters?  If not, now is the great time to add your name to the list – I’m sending out my newsletter shortly and you won’t want to miss it.  I share tips, hints and projects that are exclusive to my newsletter and not posted on my blog.  Enter your email address in the box on the right so you don’t miss out.

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Like everyone else I seem to accumulate huge amounts of scrap paper.  While I can just throw it out, the hoarder in me wants to keep bits of patterned paper just in case it comes in handy.  A fun, quick and easy way to use up those scraps that are ‘too pretty’ to throw out is to feature a range of them on a card or scrapbooking layout.  If like me you use patterned paper that’s double-sided and/or comes in a pack of matching paper then it’s so simple to whip up a fun yet coordinated card like the one I’ve made below. I’m thinking too that I might take this same idea and use it on a scrapbooking page.

Looking back over my cards I realised that I’ve used the same layout idea as this card. While this was unintentional I’m now thinking I’ll have to look back through my blog to see what else I can transform by using up my scrap bits of cards.

Hope you like my card and that it’s inspired you to have some fun with your stash of scrap patterned paper.  If you have any questions about my card or the products I’ve used then please feel free to email me.

All products used on this card are by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com

Rubber Stamps:
Hello Again (Stampin’ Up! Australia Summer Mini Catalogue 2009/2010)

Inkpads:
Real Red

Cardstock & Paper:
Whisper White
Cameo Coral
Real Red
Raspberry Tart Designer Series Paper

Accessories:
Fleurettes II (Stampin’ Up! Australia Summer Mini Catalogue 2009/2010)
Playground Buttons (Stampin’ Up! Australia Summer Mini Catalogue 2009/2010)
Filigree Designer Brad
Clips Assortment (mini clip)
Red Gingham Ribbon

Tools:
1 1/4″ Circle Punch

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals
Glue Dot (to adhere the ribbon and button)

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Woohoo! I found a new fun card that I enjoy making that I think would be great for a few different occasions.  I think it’s good to have a ’standby card style’ that you can whip up easily for different occasions. I made these cards for some of the ladies on my Stampin’ Up! team but I’m already thinking they’d be cute cards for my daughter’s friends – especially since the Sticky Cut Letters I used on the front can be substituted for Sticky Cut shapes like hearts or flowers.

And have you noticed? No rubber stamping.  I didn’t even realise that until I had made a couple of the cards but I decided they were fine the way they were.

If you’ve never used Stampin’ Up!’s Sticky Cuts I’ll just quickly explain what they are and how to use them.  They’re seriously simple – you just pop out your Sticky Cuts shape (in this case I used the Sticky Cuts Letters), peel off the protective backing and place the shape onto your paper or cardstock or whatever else you want (it’s super super sticky just like Stampin’ Up!’s Sticky Strip).  You then rub the top of the shape with your finger – Sticky Cuts just like Sticky Strip is ‘heat activated’ which means when you rub it, it adheres beautifully and allows you to pull the top protective covering off very easily.  Once you’ve peeled off the top then you just dump your glitter over the top.  I just dump the whole lot then pour the excess glitter back into it’s container.  So quick but really cool looking

Want to see what else is in the new Stampin’ Up! Summer Mini Catalogue?  Simply email me at angelasargeant@gmail.com to receive your own copy or if you simply can’t wait then you can view the Summer Mini Catalogue on-line here. (Link will download the pdf file to your computer)

All Products used to make the cards in the top photo are by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com

Cardstock & Paper:
Green Galore
Tempting Turquoise
Pixie Pink or Pink Passion Textured cardstock (either)
Kaleidascope Patterned Designer Series Paper (from the Stampin’ Up! Australia Summer Mini Catalogue)

Accessories:
Sticky Cut Letters
Fine Supernova Glitter (Aqua)
Clips Assortment
Turquoise Grosgrain Ribbon
Ice Circle Rhinestone Brads

Tools:
1/16″ Circle Punch (to make a hole in the ribbon)
Scallop Edge Punch

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals

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Aaak! only 25 more days until Christmas.  So in preparation I thought I would share with everyone The Australian version of Jingle Bells.  Maybe my Australian readers would like to print this out and insert it into their Christmas cards.  For everyone else reading this I hope you get a kick out of it:

Australian Version of Jingle Bells

Dashing through the bush, in a rusty Holden Ute
Kicking up the dust, Esky in the boot
Kelpie by my side, singing Christmas songs
It’s summer time and I am in
My singlet, shorts & thongs

CHORUS:

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summer’s day
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Engine’s getting hot, we dodge the kangaroos
The Swaggy climbs aboard, he is welcome too
All the family’s there, sitting by the pool
Christmas day, the Aussie way
By the barbeque!

CHORUS:

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summer’s day
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Come the afternoon, Grandpa has a doze
The kids and uncle Bruce
are swimming in their clothes
The time comes around to go
we take the family snap
pack the car and all shoot through
Before the washing up

CHORUS:

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summer’s day
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

(Colin Buchanan)

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Christmas is getting closer and closer so I’m in a frenzy of Christmas card making at the moment.  As with most people, I have many Christmas cards to make but don’t have much time (I also need to make some birthday cards, congratulations cards, thank you cards, etc., etc…. you get the picture!) so I’m all for speeding things up a little.  An idea you might want to try is to stamp your image onto patterned paper, it gives interest to your card without colouring-in.  In this card I stamped the Christmas tree onto some patterned paper and then cut it out (the cutting was super quick).  Speaking of patterned paper, one thing I’ve been asked many times over is how to mix patterned paper effectively without it being overwhelming.  You’ll notice on this card I’ve used 4 different patterned papers but it’s not overwhelming in the slightest.  The trick I’ve used here is to use patterned paper that is related, that is – the patterned paper is from one range.  The paper I’ve used here is from the Ski Slope Designer Series (by Stampin’ Up!) and because the patterned paper colours are all pulled together in the striped paper and I the plain cardstock and ribbon I’ve used are all the same colours in the patterned paper, it makes it all work.

All in all I’m pretty happy with the way this card turned out.  I enjoy using some metal hardware and ribbon on Christmas cards as it seems to reflect wrapping and treasures.

So how are you going with your Christmas cards? all done yet?

(all products used in this card are by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com)

Rubber Stamps:
Christmas Classics

Inkpads:
Chocolate Chip
Real Red

Cardstock & Paper:
Real Red
Old Olive
Whisper White
Ski Slope Designer Series Paper (retiring in less than a week!)

Accessories:
Styled Silver Hodgepodge (star brad)
Baja Breeze Double Stitched Ribbon

Tools:
Circle Scissors (available 1st December 2009)
Word Window Punch

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals

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Last week I made this masculine card and I mentioned that you could easily turn it into a feminine card.  Although I’ve changed the image because the occasion didn’t suit for the person I was mailing it to, I could have kept it the same and it would still have been a feminine card. Anyway, the patterned paper used in this card is the same as the masculine card, only I’ve used the other side of the paper – stripes for masculine and flowers for feminine.  The other thing I did a swap of was I used some elegant ribbon instead of the twill and a pretty flower shaped ribbon charm instead of the grommet.  The colours of the card though are pretty much the same.

I hope this inspires you to look at your craft products a little closer and see how you can swap one item for another to change the theme of the card.  Please feel free to leave comments, I love hearing your opinions.

All products used to make this card are by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com

Rubber Stamps:
Friends 24/7

Inkpads:
Basic Brown
Baja Breeze
Kiwi Kiss
Creamy Caramel (sponged around the watercolour and vanilla cardstock)

Cardstock & Paper:
Watercolour Paper (used for bird image)
Very Vanilla
Baja Breeze
Chocolate Chip
Parisian Breeze (patterned paper)

Accessories:
Styled Silver Hodgepodge (flower ribbon charm)
Valet Ribbon Originals

Tools:
Sponge Daubers
Aquapainter (used with inkpads to watercolour the bird and add colour to the sentiment)

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals

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We wish you a Twilight Christmas, we wish you a Twilight Christmas and a happy new year! LOL.  Okay it’s a bit early for all that but since I went to the movies last night and saw New Moon I was inspired to do a Twilight Saga inspired Christmas card today.

As usual I made my Twilight inspired cards to amuse myself.  I love trying to figure out how to use my stamps to make them fit into a certain theme and it’s particularly stretching the creativity to come up with a Twilight Christmas card (well it was for me anyway).  Anyone who’s watched the movie will get the ‘dazzling’ line bit… “do I dazzle you?”.  After watching New Moon last night I think the inside of the card should say “just watch out for paper cuts!” LOL.

So here’s Edward in all his sparkly glory presenting Bella in her famous red truck a Christmas present.  But seriously, if you’ve got Edward who needs any presents ever again???

Hope you like my Twilight inspired Christmas card. I’d love to tell you about New Moon last night but I don’t want to give anything away.  I’ll just say that I absolutely loved it (thank goodness) and can’t wait to see it again next week.  Surprisingly there were some funny lines but the funniest thing was listening to the Twimums giggle during the kissing scenes and giggling again when Jacob took his shirt off. LOL, too funny.

So let me know, are you going to see New Moon?

All products used to make this card are by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com

Rubber Stamps:
Loads of Love (Truck, Christmas Tree and the “wishing you a” and “Christmas” sentiment. “Dazzling was handwritten”)
All In the Family (Edward)
Loads of Love Accessories (gift – only part of the stamp image was used)

Inkpads/Colouring:
StazOn Jet Black
Baja Breeze (to watercolour Edwards Shirt and to sponge around the watercolour paper)
Watercolour Crayons (to colour the rest of the scene)
Real Red Marker (to write the word ‘Dazzling’)

Cardstock & Paper
Watercolour Paper
Old Olive
Very Vanilla
Baja Breeze
Real Red
Ski Slope Designer Series Patterned Paper

Accessories:
Fire Rhinestone Circle Brads (only used the tiny red ones)
Dazzling Diamonds Glitter (for Edwards face and arms)

Tools:
Aquapainter

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals
2-Way Glue Pen (to adhere glitter on Edward)

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Have you ever had to make a masculine birthday card and not know much about the man you were making the card for? or maybe he just didn’t have any hobbies which means you can’t just stamp a golf club or tool set on the card. I had to make a masculine card this weekend but really didn’t know much about what the recipient enjoyed doing in his spare time so I decided to make something a bit more generic and this is what I came up with.

The centre of the card is two separate rub-ons, one is the martini glasses with ‘party’ under them and the other is ‘it’s your birthday’.  Here’s the interesting thing with the paper I’ve used – one side can be used for masculine cards and the other for female cards.  It’s awesome!  In fact, I could make this card into a feminine card simply by using the other side of the paper and changing the twill to ribbon and the grommet to either a white grommet or some pretty buttons.  What you can also do is pair up the floral sides with the stripes and dots and checks on the back to make cards that are elegant but with a bit of a shabby chic look.  To top it off the patterned paper is textured.  Sigh.  This paper only has two weeks left before it retires so I’m going to stock up on it.  The metal grommet you see there is new and is a little bit of a sneak peak of what’s to come in the new Australian Stampin’ Up! Summer Mini catalogue (I’m not going to show stamps though, you’ll have to wait for those!)  I didn’t press the nails right into the card because I made a knot in the twill so it kind of stood up.  Unfortunately I had to take a quick photo before leaving for the birthday party so I didn’t get to check the photo but in real life the metal grommet does sit straight but slightly popped up from the card.. not sure what was happening when I took this photo!

Like this card? Leave me a comment, I love hearing from you.  If you have any questions about Stampin’ Up! products or would like to order any Stampin’ Up! products please email me.

Cardstock & Paper:
Not Quite Navy
Very Vanilla
Chocolate Chip
Parisian Breeze (patterned paper)

Accessories:
Fashion District Rub-Ons
Twill
Jumbo Grommet (Stampin’ Up! Australia Summer Mini Catalogue)

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals

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Time for another Stampin’ Up! promotion.   From now until the 14th of December, if you purchase $85 worth of product from the Stampin’ Up! Gift Giving Guide (shown below), you will receive a free Stampin’ Up! Square Scallop punch.  Email me now to place your order and receive your free Square Scallop punch.

(Click the picture below to download this flyer onto your computer to see it larger)

Purchase from this list of Stampin’ Up! products to receive your free Square Scallop Punch*

I Wish Simply Scrappin’ Kit
Real Red 12″ x 12″ cardstock
Old Olive 5/8″ Grosgrain ribbon
Small cellophane bags
Curly Label Punch BUndle
Kiwi Kiss A4 cardstock
Whisper White A4 cardstock
Riding Hood Red 5/8″ striped grosgrain ribbon
From the Kitchen of stamp set
Thanks x 2 Simply Sent Card Elements & More Kit
More Thoughts Simply Sent Kit2U Simply Sent Card Elements & More Kit
No One Like You Simply Sent Kit
Dress Up Ribbon Originals
Valet Ribbon Originals
Cutter Kit
Button Latte Designer Buttons
Button Bouquet Designer Buttons
Pigtails Ribbon Originals
Petal Party Simply Scrappin’ Kit
Rock-a-bye Boy Simply Scrappin’ Kit
Sweet Nothings Simply Scrappin’ Kit
Hoppy Memories Simply Scrappin’ Kit
Just Jawing stamp set
Bold Brights A4 assorted cardstock
Real Red Stampin’ Write marker
Brilliant Blue Stampin’ Write marker
Glorious Green Stampin’ Write marker
On Board 5″ x 5″ Art Journal
Spiral Punch

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