Sneak Peeks as promised

There's lots more, these cards use just a small selection of the products on offer. I hope to get a chance to play with more of my pre-ordered products during the upcoming weekend, when I am attending a retreat with other members of Jayne Mercer's Inklings Team. Would YOU like to have access to the latest products first, and at a great discount? Give me a call on (02) 9484 9447 or email me with your contact details and I'll arrange to send you some more information on becoming a demonstrator on my team, StampInkPaper Inc.

Spring Mini Catalogue - almost ready to be unveilled!

So, what is a mini catalogue? For those of you who are new(er) to Stampin' Up!, you are possibly wondering.... It's a special catalogue featuring stamp sets and accessories that might not be available ever again. Other times, stamp sets which debut in a mini catalogue will appear in an upcoming main Idea Book and Catalogue. But, given that our current IBC will be running until September 2010, you'll have a wait indeed if you miss out this time! And, we never will know which lucky stamp sets will win a place in the big book, and which will retire forever - there have been tears and tantrums before! My advice is, if you see something you love, make sure it's at the top of your wishlist NOW to avoid disappointment.

How do you get your hands on a copy of this pretty booklet? There are a couple of options:

Local-ish to Cherrybrook? Come along to our Spring Mini Catalogue Launch Party on Saturday 8th August, anywhere between 2pm and 8pm. There will be displays, demonstrations, lucky door prizes, Make n take projects, champagne and delicious treats to nibble (Andrew is standing by with his Chef's hat on) Kim Tonnet and I will be hosting, and you'll have a chance to order. Cost is $5.00, and includes your own copy of the mini. Cost is fully redeemable against an order of $50 or more at the event. Please email or call 9484 9447 to RSVP ASAP!

Not local or can't make it? Call or email me with your contact details and mailing address to be posted a copy. If you already have a demonstrator, I'm sure she'd be delighted to give you one.

Off to do some photography of cards I've made, to give you a sneak peek of the gorgeous products on offer, come back soon!

A special card for a special friend

You've already seen one of the cards our family made for Kim, and here's mine. It's a layer upon layer job, 8 in fact!! The base is Perfect Plum, Kim's all time fave SU colour. This is sponged around the sides using s wedge of SU sponge and Perfect Plum ink. Next up is a thin mat of Always Artichoke. Then, a layer of Pale Plum stamped with En Francais in Pale Plum ink and again sponged along the edges. For good measure, this layer is popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Then we have a couple of layers of Nestabilities Labels 2 shapes, cut from Always Artichoke and Mellow Moss and then embossed. After practicing a bit, I watercoloured an image from the Echoes of Kindness Hostess set using my blender pens, inkpad puddle and aquapainter brush. There's Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss, and a touch of Lovely Lilac . Sahara Sand has been added to create a little shadow.

Then a matching pair of smaller Nestabilities shapes were cut and embossed for the greeting, from the On your Birthday set, stamped on Watercolour paper in Always Artichoke ink. A tie of Mellow Moss ribbon completes the outfit!

It did look good alongside her matching Perfect Plum and Pale Plum Punch cabinet!

Beginners Watercolouring! Echoes of Kindness

Yes, it is a little lop-sided in terms of matting. Yes, the colour combination is at best curious. Yes, the watercolouring isn't up to the usual standard! However, I think this is a great card, because my littlest stamper made it almost all by herself. This is the card that Lillian made for Aunty Kim's birthday recently. Both Ciaran and Lillian made Kim a card, and both took great pride in exertion of full artistic control over their creations.

They know that her favourite colour is purple, hence the choice of Elegant Eggplant for the card base. Lillian loves pink, and chose this flower stem stamp from the Level 2 Hostess Set Echoes of Kindness to colour. She even stamped the image in Stazon by herself.

The colouring was done with a blender pen and the ink-pad puddle technique, absolutely without any help at all, including the choice of Glorious Green and Pink Passion. Of course matching matting was required, and mum did help a touch with the use of the trimmer, although the sticking was all her own work.

This is how she left it, and I finished it off before giving away with a scallop circle and circle punch greeting to match, and Kim will hopefully find a few spare minutes soon to show you the completed version. I'm very very proud of my little one, and Aunty Kim loved it too :)

I'm baaaaaacckkk! and Event Updates

Sorry to be away so long, I have been back from holidays a week now, but it has been a jam packed week, so no time to pop in here. I had a great time away with Kim (my newly adopted SU 'mum' and bestie) and various combinations of our families at Huskisson on the NSW south coast.

The weather was great for the days we were there, and the kids even braved a SWIM a couple of times. Well, if not full immersion in the ocean, a really good splash and dash which got them thoroughly wet and sandy. We also saw some (little bits of) whales off Pt Perpendicular and Cape St George, and I took some photos I'm pleased with, of the kids and scenery, not the whales!

Quite a bit of late nite crafting went on, Kim and I took advantage of the luxury of sleeping in while my hubby got up with kids each morning. I still haven't photographed everything I've made yet, and I've been flat out with workshops, swap making (and the inevitable holiday unpacking and washing) It's a lovely sunny day in Sydney today, so you never know your luck. Stay tuned....

Other happenings:

TOMORROW SATURDAY 25th July - Stampin' Crop Day - BOOKED OUT, sorry! - put your name down now for Saturday 22nd August.

SATURDAY 8th AUGUST - Spring Mini Launch Event - with Kim Tonnet and myself at my home in Cherrybrook

When: 2pm-8pm, come when you can, leave when you must!

What: We'll be show-casing items from the new Stampin' Up! Spring Mini. There will be make-and-takes, a WOW demonstration & give-aways to enjoy. Plus refreshments.

Cost: $5 including your copy of the Mini catalogue. This is fully redeemable if you place an order of $50 or more at the event.

RSVP: Friday 7 August 2009 by email or phones 02 9484 9447 / 0402 347 010.

I'll leave you with a photo or two from my break away. Back soon I hope!

Pocket Silhouette Step Up

Here are two cards I made in one stamping session. The first was to get the idea floating in my head into a concrete form, and the second was a step-up version with more details.

The stamp set used is Pocket Silhouettes, a very cute little set, found on page 72 of the IBC. It includes 4 stamps with stems and flowers in a silhouette style (obviously!) and two sentiments (not used here) "friend to friend" and "thanks so much" I have seen lots of different ideas using this set, the images lend themselves to punched shapes and tags as well as being layered as borders or backgrounds.

The cards also feature cut and embossed shapes made with Spellbinders Nestabilities, of which I have somewhat of a collection. I don't show them all that much here on my Stampin' Up! blog, but of late I have decided to show you how well SU products can work with things you already own. Versatility is key these days! The particular design used here is "Labels 4", all the other "labels" designs are just as nice!

Both card bases are Perfect Plum, and I have cut them in a Gate Fold. A minor twist is to use them in a landscape orientation, and the Label shape acts like a seal across the opening, and draws the eye to the centre of the card where the sentiment is stamped. The simple version has a single layer of Pale Plum cut with the Eyelet Border punch, and the top section of the card is left undecorated. The step-up version has a double layer of Eyelet border punching, and I have stamped the top flap with Perfect plum ink using the Polka Dot background.

For the simple version, I repeat stamped one of the stem images in Perfect Plum ink, overlapping them and altering the height slightly to create a border along the base. The step-up uses two different stem images alternately for extra visual interest, balancing the top section of the card.

The label is stamped with a fabulous sentiment from the "On your Birthday" set, page 113 of the IBC. I inked up the wording in Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and Mellow Moss. Both versions have inked edges, I think the Mellow Moss looks better, in the step-up version. Some Mellow Moss ribbon finishes the step-up card, and also acts as a seal.

I love this colour combination, you'll see another card using it soon....

Upsy Daisy Watercolor Crayon technique

I LOVE my Watercolor Wonder Crayons, they are probably my favourite method of colouring stamped images, because they are so versatile. (Well, I love my markers, blender pen and inkpad puddle methods too, but crayons are 'IT' at the moment!)

This card uses the "Upsy Daisy" set, from the main Idea Book and Catalogue. You can find it on page 75, and it's a bargain at just $33.95 (item code is 115898 for your wishlists)

It has been a very popular set, and there are loads and loads of examples you can find showing how it can be used, I think it is both because of the versatility of the sentiments, as well as the number of ways the large silhouette style flower stamp can be made to look.

Here I have used a watercolour painting effect, created with the water-soluble Watercolor Wonder Crayons (find those on page 127, go on, put them on that wishlist, they're FAB!). I have applied crayon directly to the surface of the rubber stamp, scribbling and blending. Because of the creamy texture of the crayon, you can build up layers of colour easily. I have used Summer Sun, Only Orange, Always Artichoke and Old Olive crayon colours.

The next step is to mist a piece of Confetti cardstock with a fine water spray, just enough to slightly dampen the surface. In this card I have used Confetti White, but you could also use Confetti Cream, Naturals Ivory or Watercolor Paper for this technique. In my water spray bottle (a Ranger Mini Mister) I added a few drops of reinker in Old Olive to give a light tint to the background of my image.

While the surface of the cardstock is still moist, take your crayon-coloured Upsy Daisy stamp and mist it very lightly with water, holding the spray some distance from the stamp. The aim is to dampen the surface enough to allow good transfer of colour to the paper, but without making it too wet, or else you will get the 'runs'.
Then stamp onto the moist Confetti cardstock piece and hold the stamp in contact with it for a few moments to get a good image. ta da! Your resulting piece should look somewhat like an abstract-style watercolour painted image of daisies. Purty, no?

To complete the rest of the card, I stamped the Sanded background in Always Artichoke onto a Mellow Moss card base. To pick up the bright colours in the stamped image, I used a mat of Summer Sun, but to avoid tooooo much brightness, I inked the edges with Always Artichoke and then overlaid this with a mat of Always Artichoke cardstock. I made it slightly asymmetric by using the Eyelet Border punch at one end, which allows the Summer Sun to peek through the holes.

The sentiment is stamped onto an oval punch (Whale of a Punch oval by EK success) which happens to co-ordinate with our new Wide Oval Stampin Up punch, made for us by EK. I'm hoping we get this size of oval punch, as it looks so much better than the Large Oval. I popped up the ovals on Stampin Dimensionals and it was all finished :) Hope it brightens your day just a little!

I'm off for a few days in Huskisson, on the South Coast of NSW, and I hope to create some more goodies to show you. Not sure about how I'll go with actually updating, but if I don't, perhaps you'll be inundated upon my return! Happy School Holidays to all my readers with kids in states starting winter hols this week, hope you can squeeze in some crafting time! Hint of the day - give the kids your scraps box, one stamp set and one (very important this bit) ONE!! ink colour, and challenge them to make a card or two. My 4 year old has been stamping now for a year or so, and it is quite interesting to see what she comes up with. My 8 year old makes quite an impressive card, I have a couple to show you next time. Ciao!

Save the Date! Saturday 10th October

It's on again!

As promised, Kim Tonnet and myself are running our popular "Get Ready for Christmas" Craft day.

The date we have booked is Saturday 10th October.

The venue has changed, as we were able to secure a date at our first choice of location this year, Epping Creative Centre, Dence Park Epping. It's near public transport, and has disabled access. We'll also be able to self-cater, woo hoo!

Stay tuned for more details, but I have put some links to last year's event so you can get an idea of what you'll be missing if you don't mark it on your calendars RIGHT NOW!!

Photos...

A great day was had by all...

sneak peeks...

and from Kim's Blog: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! But will you be ready???

I'm sure you'll agree it sounds like a lot of fun, and the perfect opportunity to get cracking on your Christmas planning this year.

Did you attend last year?? Why not leave a comment about how much you enjoyed it! Then, send either myself (michelle.dyson@bigpond.com) or Kim (stampinup@tonnet.org) an email to pop your name down on the guest list for this year.

Gift Voucher and Wish List services

Stuck for a gift? Left it far too late to shop for the perfect thing to please and spoil your loved one with? Never fear, StampInkPaper is here!!

I am pleased to be able to offer the following services, here's a little about how they work:

GIFT VOUCHERS:

I can post your recipient a hand-made card containing a voucher to the value of your choice. There is no additional charge for the card or the postage, as long as it is by standard post and within Australia (need Express Post? - contact me for more information)
If you've left it rooly ROOLY late, I can send your recipient an e-card with a PDF voucher, just supply me with their email address.

Vouchers are only redeemable through myself, Michelle Dyson, Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, and have an expiry date of 2 months from date of issue. I can take payment by credit card ($1 fee applies) for instant despatch or by bank deposit or cheque (if you have enough time up your sleeve for fund clearance)

Your recipient can then contact me with what they would like to order, and it can be sent to them, ta da!

WISH LIST SERVICE:

Do you have family or a partner who says "but I never know what to get you!" ??
Aha! No such excuses allowed any more! Now you can provide them (or myself) with your personalised Stampin' Up Wish List, and give them my contact details. I arrange the rest, including gift wrapping, card for them to write in to give you and delivery. Easy Peasy, you get what you want, and what bloke wouldn't jump at the chance to arrange it all with a single email or phonecall? Everybody happy!!

Simply contact me at michelle.dyson@bigpond.com to be sent a file or hard copy to have on hand.

Punch Art Puppy and some Pizza box Notelets

Here are a couple of projects I have been working on recently. The top one was based on a recent Splitcoast Stampers tutorial for making mini pizza boxes from a 6 x 11" sheet of cardstock. They were very easy, especially so when using a Scorpal board! You can find the link to the instructions online HERE. I decided to create some 3x3 notelets to go inside them, but they are a good size for lots of little gift items, such as cards, chocolates, Pandora bracelet packed with gold charms... you know the kind of thing!

I added some of the wide striped grosgrain ribbon around these examples, in Baja Breeze and Pacific Point. On the tops, one box I embossed with 5th Avenue Floral images, and the other I just stamped in Versamark. I made matted panels of Whisper White stamped with the 5th Avenue, and then popped some up on Stampin' Dimensionals and added blue chunky sprinkles in the centres with the trusty Tombow Multi glue.

For the notelets, I tooks some high quality copy paper (Canon High Grade) - this is a nice smooth bright white, and is 100gsm rather than standard 80gsm, so a little heavier in weight. It is very nice to stamp on, with little to no show-through. I cut the sheets into 3x3 squares, and stamped images from the 5th Avenue Floral set across the top in Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze and Pacific Point. Just the ticket to pop in with a delivery or a note for the teacher. Hope you like them, my recipients did!

The Punch Art card was inspired by this card on Splitcoast, by LeeAnn Greff , which was in turn inspired by a similar doggy card. Thanks LeeAnn! I made him in Basic Gray because the little friend of my son who's birthday it was for has a black puppy. I inked the edges in black, so there was enough definition. It is composed of several punches, including circles for the head, body, feet and muzzle, the word window for the ears and eye patch, a quarter circle for the nose, the horizontal slot for the tongue, and hand held circle punch for the eyes. I also used my Stampin' Write marker to add some whisker spots and pupils for the eyes, and toes on the feet.

The background is done on Whisper White cardstock, and the grass is stamped off several times in Kiwi Kiss ink using the Inspired by Nature set. I then cut out some cloud shapes and used them to mask off some areas of the sky, before sponging with Bashful Blue ink. Thanks to Kim Tonnet for the idea of the cloud shapes, she used it beautifully on a card she made recently.
The card base is Real Red, and it has been stamped in Real Red ink using the Sanded background, but that's probably a little hard to see!
To finish, I stamped 'happy birthday' in Real Red ink from the Family Phrases set - this set goes really well on kids cards because of the font style. He was a big hit with the recipient, and my son also used his twin (I made 2 cards at the same time) for a presentation he did in class on "interesting jobs". He was going to talk about his dad, who does have an interesting job, but the potential for interesting props like cards, stamps, ink and punches swayed him to decide on me ha ha! While looking for ideas for this card I found lots of super cute punch art, so maybe soon I'll get around to creating more!