Grungy Boy Birthday Card with Extreme Elements

I had masses of fun with this one!!  Some people say they struggle with boy cards, but I find them quite refreshing to do.  Must be channelling my inner tomboy... :P

Here is a card I made for a little school friend of my daughter, turning just 6, but past the teddies and trains stage for sure.  I love the "Extreme Elements" set, with the co-ordinating single stamps available, here I have used "Extreme Guitar".  The messy background style stamps make it easy to create a masculine look.

I started with a base of Early Espresso cardstock, and used the new "Wonderfully Worn" background stamp with matching ink.  After that, I have stamped the smaller backgrounds from the set onto a piece of Marina Mist, again with matching ink.  Then I scrunched and distressed it.  Just think of a scrap of paper that has been kicking around the base of a kid's school bag for a few weeks.  I'm familiar with that look, I have a boy turning TEN this year!!!!  This layer was deliberately stuck down skew-whiff.  Think pasted in homework sheets there. 

To brighten it up, I used the yummy new "Daffodil Delight" yellow - so much of an improvement in the useability stakes than the old bright Yoyo Yellow!!  Again, this is stamped with background stamps and torn and distressed.

For the stamped image panel, there is first a layer of Very Vanilla, stamped win Marina Mist ink with the splodgy background stamp, and stamped again with the "Extreme Guitar" bloke in Early Espresso ink.  I deliberately smudged the stamp sideways to get an impression of movement - to do this you need to ink the stamp really well, and make a sharp deliberate movement to one side as soon as the stamp hits the cardstock.  It helps to practice first on a scrap, as it may be easier to slide in one direction than another.  Over this, I inked up the bloke stamp again, this time with daubers to get a patchy tie-dye look.  I carefully trimmed around this second image and mounted it over the base smudged image.

To finish and personalise, I used a large star punchie with  the distressed crown from the "Extreme Elements" set, with an alphabet monogram from "Just Perfect Alpha" Embellishments can sometimes be tricky for boy cards, but these mini library clips are fabbo!

Hope you like, the recipient did, perhaps not as much as the contents of his parcel though, a Nerf Super Soaker water gun :D

Ooops! A VERY early Christmas project - Wooden Advent Calendar wth Ski Slope and Welcome Christmas

Oh dear, it's been a lot longer between posts than I intended.  Life has intervened, with two kids starting school for the year, and myself just about to start back at uni after a long break from study.  I've lots of things on my 'to do' list before my course starts, but posting here wasn't at the top of the list, sorry!

So, without further ado, I present a project that is either:
a) very early for Christmas 2011 (because I'm SO organised!)
or



b) so late that you won't even look at it!

Hopefully you'll choose option A!

I used a wooden Advent Calendar kit, and decorated it with the (now retired) Ski Slope Designer Series Papers.  Probably the biggest trick to assembling the pieces is to ignore the advice regarding painting first.  Assemble first!!  Yes, painting might be slightly more time consuming, but not as time consuming (or frustrating) as needing to sand back all the pieces before they'd fit!!!

The little drawers are covered in strips of DSP, and then decorated with rhinestones and Early Espresso marker doodle borders.  I painted the chipboard numbers in colours I blended to match Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood red and Kiwi Kiss.  The beauty of the SU DSPs is that the patterns and colours co-ordinate so well, and the double sided patterns make it a snap to use little offcuts and strips to vary the look.
I sponged the edges of the raw chipboard drawers with Chocolate Chip ink also, to take away the grey look.  The wooden snowflakes were coated in Tombow Multi glue and covered with our Supernova and Galaxy microfine glitters.  So Sparkly!!  I attached them to the frame with mini Glue dots.

The back of the calendar is covered with a 12x12 sheet of textured cardstock in Riding Hood Red, and I used strips of a red Ski Slope DSP to make a border.  I chose a Baja Breeze print Ski Slope DSP for the front window background.  I didn't stick in the page, as I wanted to be able to re-do one with each year's christmas tree kid pic.

The page is 8x8", on Baja Breeze textured cardstock.  I used the "So Swirly" wheel to decorate one edge, and sponged the other sides with Baja ink.  The photo is matted on Old Olive, with a border made with the Scallop Trim border punch.  A strip of Real Red cardstock is at one side, with faux stitching made with the Mat Pack kit and white gel pen.  Under the other side of the photo I used strips of Ski Slope paper cut into banner shapes.  The "Christmas" stamp is from Basic Phrases, and the "Joy" is from Welcome Christmas,  I stamped in Marina Mist, but it still wasn't 'popping' from the background as well as I'd like, so I traced around with the white gel pen to match the stitching doodles.  A snowflake from Snow Swirled was stamped in Whisper White Craft ink and punched out with the scallop circle, and I stamped the ornaments from the Tree Trimmings set in Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Real Red and Old Olive, mounting them on dimensionals and drawing 'strings' in with more gel pen.

The finishing touches were the drawer contents, but they are all long gone!!!  The little drawers are a good size to put praline chocolate balls and mini chocolate santa figures (I got mine from Aldi because I love their Moser Roth choc balls!)  You could probably squeeze in about 6 balls.

Hope you like, I am looking forward to bringing it out again for this coming Christmas, and making a new insert page with my cherubs.

Back again  soon!  (sooner than last time I promise!!)

Happy New Year! Well, the only way is UP right??

Well, we could have hoped for a better start to the year, what a shocker!! There have been fires, floods and snow across various bits of Australia since Christmas. The widespread flooding in several states, worst of all Queensland has put a literal damper on the lives of a great many people. Spirits remain high, despite the devastation and tragedy, as evidenced by the picture above - The bronze statue of "King Wally" outside his home ground of Suncorp Stadium, sporting some very weather-appropriate gear - he was literally swimming for a while there!  One of the great things about the community of Stampin' Up! Demonstrators is how they react in a crisis to do whatever they can to help. This is true also of the company itself - hence the information below about their efforts to fundraise for the victims.

From the Stampin' Up! Office:
Australia Flood Appeal


13 January 2011
As flood waters continue to inundate Australia in what has been described
as the worst flooding in 37 years, we express our deepest sympathies to
those who have lost loved ones and homes and to those whose lives have
been changed forever. We, like so many of you, feel a compelling need to
lend support to all those who have been affected.
Stampin' Up! demonstrators have a long history of making a difference in
the lives of others--especially when disaster strikes and the need is
greatest. Nearly two years ago, we watched another tragedy unfold in
Australia. Our hearts were touched as demonstrators, customers and friends
joined together in support of the Bushfire Appeal. We've done it before
and we can certainly do it again!

Please join with us by supporting the Australia Flood Appeal--a cause in
which Stampin' Up! will donate $2 AUD of the retail value of sales from
any stamp set (with a retail value of $30 or more) sold in Australia and
New Zealand from 15 January through 15 February to the State Emergency
Services in Queensland.


Plus, there are still a few more days to get a FREE pack of Heart Shaped Sweet Treat Cups with purchase of the Full Heart punch or the Sweetheart stamp set:

Item	Page	Description	Price
121576	38	Sweetheart Wood-Mount Set	$38.95
120780	38	Sweetheart Clear-Mount Set	$29.95
119883	146	Full Heart Punch	$33.95

Purchasing the wood-mount set qualifies for the donation amount, plus you get a free bonus worth $6.50!

And/Or get your orders to me now, ready to be placed on the 25th January, when the biggest sales event of the year, Sale-a-bration, begins!  With each $100 spent in product, you can choose a free stamp set from a limited edition collection of four.  And, with every stamp set in your order worth $30 or more, Stampin' Up! will make the donation.  This fund-raising effort across Australia and New Zealand until 15th February has every potential to generate a very large amount of money for people in desperate need, so please do join me in making it a great success!  Contact me for details of the free stamp sets on offer, and polish up that wish-list today!  I can have orders delivered to your door anywhere within Australia, with postage from just $5.95