Colour Challenge

Oh I know, I’ve been incredibly slack and haven’t posted in almost a week.  But in my defence, it’s the last week of school holidays and we’ve been rushing to fit all sorts of things in… dentist, movies, etc.  Where have the holidays gone? I can’t believe school is starting soon.

Aaaannnnyway, last night the Elite Stampers (my Stampin’ Up! team) got together for our first ever Cyberstamp Night.  What a great night it was having lots of fun stamping and chatting on our Forum and then uploading all our creations to our Gallery.  Thank you so much to Jayne Mercer who hosted this event for us.  Jayne set us lots of challenges to get the creative juices flowing and also some other fun impromptu challenges to keep us busy.  One of the challenges that Jayne set was a colour challenge.  It’s easy to keep making cards/layouts in our favourite colour schemes and fall into a bit of a rut, so Jayne challenged us to make a card using Bravo Burgundy, Ruby Red and More Mustard.  The first challenge I suppose is to pick stamps that go nicely with those colours… nothing too cutesy.  I must say I was dubious about using Burgundy and Red together but I think my card turned out not too badly.  So here it is:

You can’t really tell by the scan but what I did was stamp the butterfly from the Natural Beauty stamp set onto vellum using the Bravo Burgundy inkpad then embossed it using Clear Embossing Powder (yes the inkpad is a dye, but stamping it onto vellum meant the ink stayed wet enough for me to be able to emboss).  I then cut out the butterfly and spread some Crystal Effects onto the wings and sprinkled some Dazzling Diamonds Glitter onto it to make the butterfly sparkle.  Lastly, I folded the wings up and using some Stampin’ Dimentionals, I adhered the butterfly to the top of the card so that it looks like it’s just landed on the card.  Thank you to my lovely customer Sarah for giving me this idea for the butterfly - a while ago Sarah sent me a stunning card where she had done something similar.  I loved the look of Sarah’s card (much more elegant than mine) and I really wanted to try out her idea.

Also difficult to see from the scan is that I highlighted the words with markers to give them a two-tone effect.

Here’s a list of everything I used to make this card:

All products by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through angelasargeant@gmail.com

Bravo Burgundy cardstock, inkpad and ribbons (remember all Stampin’ Up! products are coordinated so they match nicely).
Ruby Red cardstock, marker and inkpad
More Mustard cardstock
Vellum
Crystal Effects
Dazzling Diamonds Glitter
Stampin’ Dimentionals
Hodgepodge (ribbon charm and brads)
Floral background stamp (stamped in Ruby Red onto Ruby Red cardstock)
Natural Beauty stamp set.

Maybe you’d like to take this colour challenge too?

A Quote About Children

I was driving past a local school today and while stuck at the lights I noticed a lovely quote on their noticeboard.  I decided to share it here on my blog as I think it’s beautiful either on a scrapbooking page or printed on the inside of a card.  Actually, it’d also be good on an altered book page or anything like that too.

Here it is:

“Children are the messages we send to a time we will not see”

Anyone else want to share a quote they recently read?

Win Free Stamps!!!

It’s competition time! Yay!  I love giving away freebies. :D   And guess what? You don’t even have to buy anything to enter. ;)   Gosh I’m nice. LOL.

So here’s how to enter:

  1. Look on the right hand side of this blog and you’ll see a subscription box for my newsletter.
  2. Subscribe to receive my monthly newsletter.
  3. E-mail a friend to let them know about my blog and ask them to post a comment on this post.  So that I can enter you in the competition, your friend should also mention your name in their comment as you being the one who referred them to my blog.

That’s it!  The more people you refer to my blog, the more entries you get.  Your referred friends are also welcome to enter the competition, as long as they also subscribe to my newsletter and refer another friend to my blog.

Of course there are a couple of conditions: I ask that no Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators enter this competition (you guys have enough stamps! LOL).  Winner must be a resident of Australia.  You are more than welcome to refer your overseas friends to my blog, but the winner must be an Australian resident.  Competition ends on 17th of February and the winner will be announced on this blog on the 18th of February 2007.

You can choose one of either of the Around The Block or Simple Wishes Stampin’ Up! stamp sets as your prize. 

To view these two stamp sets click here.  Don’t forget to use the Zoom or Magnifier or simply click on the stamp sets to see them close up.

And because I’m super nice, if you happen to already have both these stamps sets then I’m happy to figure out another Stampin’ Up! product as a prize for you.

Are You Royalty?

We’re still on school holidays here and the kids were starting to get a bit bored (yes, it’s hot and we have a great swimming pool and the kid’s rooms look like a toy stores but you know…) so my lovely neighbour who does a lot of work for her church kindly offered to take them to Bible Camp for the week.  Yahoo! LOL.  It’s 5 mornings for one week and the kids love going as they get to do craft, singing and outdoor games, etc.  The theme of this Bible Camp is Narnia - and for those in the know, Narnia actually has religious undertones.  Aaaanyway… to cut a long story short, one of the Bible Camp leaders asked the kids “Does anyone here come from a Royal Family?” (keeping with the theme of Jesus being King, etc).  Well my son (6 years old) decided that he fit that category.  He put up his hand and at the top of his voice said “Yes me. My sister is a Drama Queen”.  Snort!  Needless to say that my daughter (9 years old) was totally mortified. LOL.

The things kids say. LOL.  Anyone else here had their child come up with a real gem lately?

Inkpads and Storage

So what do I like doing other than buying stamping/art stuff and creating papercrafts? Apart from reading industry magazines (Stamping & Papercraft, Somerset Studio, etc.), I absolutely love sorting all my toys. :D Actually it’s probably more correct to say I have an on-going love affair with storage – and my lovely Tupperware lady (hi Kim!) would no doubt agree. LOL.

Lots of people have asked me about my storage preference, especially for inkpads and ribbons, so here’s a photo of some of my inkpads (some being the operative word). Note that the locker has been photographed open, there’s two slide locks on the doors to open close and they slide into the side of the locker when not being used, which is why you can’t see the doors in this photo.

Note how wonderfully the Stampin’ Up! inkpads (only $9.95 ;) ) fit into this great Inkpad Locker. Actually I have two of these inkpad lockers and I’m looking to buy a third one as they also fit Versamark, Brilliance, Adirondack, Memories and Tim Holtz inkpads too (you can just see the Adirondack pads up the very top of the photo in my second inkpad locker). The cool thing is in the top section of the locks there’s two trays which fit two packs of the Stampin’ Up! markers perfectly.

So where do you get it? I bought mine from Craftainers and if you look carefully on the right hand side of the photo you’ll see that I also have the ribbon locker too. The shelves on the ribbon locker are adjustable so you can use any size ribbon spool you have. Very cool. :D

Did I tell you I love storage? One day I might show you my shoes and boots storage. ;)

Anyone else out there with a storage fetish?

Edited 2 years later to add:  Please note that the manufacturering of this storage locker as ceased.  It’s been over a year since I’ve seen this inkpad locker sold in the shops.

Favourite background technique

When I’m making a card I like to pick a technique that I’m going to use as I find this cuts down my “stuffing around” time a lot and gives me a bit of focus.  This time I decided I’d take one of my own challenges (I set weekly challenges for my team that way anyone who is bored of what they’re doing can have somewhere to start).  My starting point was to use my favourite background technique and this is stamping, crumpling and inking (sometimes I spritz too).  I like the way this card has turned out, okay it’s not earth-shatteringly different but I like it.

Here are the products I used to make it:

All products by Stampin’ Up! and available for ordering through me.

Art Of Life stamp set (this is a hostess set and can only be earned through purchase/sales)
Bravo Burgundy cardstock and matching inkpad
Elegant Eggplant cardstock
More Mustard cardstock and matching inkpad
Very Vanilla cardstock
So Saffron inkpad
Watercolour crayons (Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive)
Mini Gable Boxes & Tags (I only used the little square bits out of this)
Gold brads
Gold cord

I also made an insert for the card.  Just click on the thumbnail to see it full size.

For the insert I stamped the branch from The Art of Life stamp set using watercolour crayons.  The “Thinking Of You” message is from the Elegant Greetings stamp set.

Simple Fresh Card

I just made this card. 

It’s inspired by a card that was displayed at a Stampin’ Up! convention so I don’t know who the originator was.  I’ve used different stamps and layering from the original.

 

© Stampin Up 1990-2006

I think it’s simple and fresh looking, just something to brighten up someone’s day.

The technique used here is “Poppin’ Pastels” which is where you stamp with Versamark ink and then colour over the Versamark using chalks.  It’s a very simple technique but I still find myself going back to it time and time again as it can give you a different look each time depending on the stamps and colours you use.  It can be vintage or elegant or fun and also great for doing backgrounds.

The materials I’ve used here are all from Stampin’ Up! and are available for purchase through me.

Only Orange cardstock
Pixie Pink cardstock
Green Galore cardstock
Tempting Turquoise cardstock
Whisper White cardstock
Stampin’ Pastels®
Versamark Inkpad
Apple Green grosgrain ribbon
Blue Gingham Ribbon
Stampin’ Dimentionals®
1 1/4″ Square Punch
1 3/8″ Square Punch

Sell-A-Bration Time!

Sell-A-Bration means free stamps!!!

Would you like some free stamps?  You can earn free set(s) of Sell-A-Bration stamps when you purchase any Stampin’ Up! products anytime from now until the 26th of February 2007.
Receive a free Sell-A-Bration set when you spent at least $100.  And there’s no limit!  For every $100 you spend, you can select a free Sell-A-Bration set.  Spend $300 and not only can you choose 3 free Sell-A-Bration stamp sets but you are also eligible to receive Hostess Benefits!  Contact me on angelasargeant@gmail.com.com for more information.

Want to see the Sell-A-Bration stamps that you can earn for free?  Click here.
 

Ever thought about becoming a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator yourself?  Well now is the time!  Sign up to be a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator during Sell-A-Bration and choose any set from the 2006-2007 Idea Book & Catalogue absolutely free! (this offer is valued at up to $79.95)