Extravaganza! 21st to 28th November ONLY!

Stampin' Up! is having an Extravaganza with loads of products discounted for a very short time! I don't want you to miss getting something you would like at a discounted price, so please do go to SusanSalutations and click on the Shop link. You'll see the Extravaganza link on the left. Some items are only available while stocks last so act now!

Card Class Day

Had a great time with some friends at one of my card classes :) They let me take this photo:

Yes, it was fun!
Come and join us if you are in the Morayfield area. Class times and dates are on SusanSalutations.
We made some cool cards too. You can see how to make the Magic Card on  PaperCraftCentral

We stamped with the Star of Light stamps set. It has matching framelits too but we didn't need them for the Magic Cards.
It was a magical day. We also made Fairy Celebrations cards:

The embossing folders had different colours of ink sponged right onto them before we put our cardstock through the Big Shot.

Fun!

The New Seasonal Catalogue is Here!

The new Seasonal Catalogue is here and is packed full of beautiful new supplies! There are kits, stamps, new embellishments, Big Shot bundles, paper, ohh, it is all just wonderful. I always want ALL of it. I'll have some new projects to show you using Seasonal Catalogeu products soon.

Meanwhile, why not make a cup of something you love and sit down to browse through the online Seasonal catalogue? 

If you would prefer a hard copy of the catalogue, are in Australia and not a Stampin' Up! demonstrator already (demonstrators already have their copy of the new catalogue as that is one of the perks of being a demo - you get to see everything early!) contact me at susanl_hl@yahoo.com and if you are among the first 10 new contacts, I shall send you one for FREE!

Giant Paper Flowers

For my new Stampin' Up! catalogue launch, I wanted to make sure there were some memorable decorations for people to see. When I found out how to use our framelits to make bigger versions of flowers, I decided to go with making one giant paper flower! There is a tutorial for making these at www.papercraftentral.com/giant-paper-flowers.html I hope people will  try these out! If you would like me to run a class on how to make them and you live in or near Morayfield, Qld Austarlia, just contact me through SusanSalutations to arrange a booking :)

This one is made from one of the new In Colour cardstocks, Sweet Sugarplum. I did use So Saffron and another In Colour, Flirty Flamingo, to make the centre.

Welcome to the New Stampin' Up! Year!

It's exciting that our new catalogue is being uploaded at Stampin' Up! headquarters overnight!

By the morning, you should be able to access all the new products and supplies, stamps, In Colours, inks, papers, dies, markers, cardstock, designer series paper and so much more!

There will be many surprises, and it is always so exciting to me to have a refresh of my crafting supplies.

Enjoy browsing the new catalogue and placing your first order for the new Stampin' Up! year with me!

Happy Mother's Day, Bright Spark!

This year I wanted to do a funny card for my mother. She has a real sense of humour and while she likes heartfelt cards too, she loves to have a laugh. So it was the perfect chance to use a new stamp set that I got from attending the Stampin' Up! Demonstrator's On Stage Live event, called Pun Intended. 

I made the light behind the street lamp with a sponge and some Daffodil Delight ink.

The sentiment from Teeny Tiny Sentiments is embossed in gold and some of the gold embossing powder also adhered to the lamp switch, which was serendipitous! The card base is one of the new in colours for this year, Emerald Envy.

Here's the punchline, inside the card. I changed it to read We' instead of 'I' as the card was from both DH and I:

I know it made her laugh!

Happy Mother's Day to everyone who is a mother or mother-like, and a special hug for those whose mother is no longer with us. It must be a hard day for you folk and my heart goes out to you. ♥

Becky Higgins!

I got to meet Becky Higgins at my local Spotlight store this week :) She is so nice! We made a few pocket pages a la Project Life and she answered everyone's questions about anything and everything. Then she signed post cards and canvases for us and posed for photos too. Her crew were also marvelous and friendly. What a good afternoon!

Here I am with Becky Higgins:

 And here is a sneaky peek at the pages I made on the day:

I also discovered that there is a Becky Higgins Project Life APP! And you can get the Stampin' Up! Project Life KITS on it! I downloaded the app right away and will be experimenting with it, maybe making page layouts on my phone. You can get your pages printed at Big W. How about that??

Thanks, Becky and crew. You gave me a very special memory.

Anzac Day

Bunny Invasion

A blog I like to go see now and then is Qbee's Quest. She is such a clever woman who makes wonderful papercraft projects and tells you how to make them! Her bunny cards were so cute, I made them for all my grandchildren and one special person last night. Some of the stamp sets Qbee used are not in my collection yet so I improvised with the faces and drew my own.  Likewise with the framelits I didn't have. I improvised. Once you have a crafting idea, you can usually make something similar using your existing supplies, right?

I used various colours of pink and blue cardstock and their matching or coordinating Stampin' Write! markers, plus some Wink of Stella for the noses and ears. I used my oval, circle and heart framelits, and I used oval, tiny flower and owl punches to create the rest. I forgot to take a picture of the back of one of these cards. Each has a Whisper White tail.

 

Happy Easter!

Make Your Own Rub Ons

I know rub ons aren't that commonly used any more, but I was reminded of their versatility recently when I wanted to add a sentiment that I didn't have a stamp for to a piece that I could not put through the printer. That's when knowing how to make your own rub ons or transfers is so handy! I made a tutorial for you about this very thing at PaperCraftCentral.

Here's a cute little bookmark I made with the technique. I added the sentiment on the tag by using a home made rub on. I hand made the rose too but that is a story for another day. The stamped flowers came form the Botanicals For You stamp set. I used Whisper White, Old Olive, Tangerine Tango and Pool Party cardstock for this project, and the Scalloped Tag Topper punch.

Just click on the link to the tutorial to find out how to customise your own sentiments and images with your computer, printer, a paddle pop stick and a Window Sheet!

All supplies but the ribbon are available from Stampin' Up! at this time.

Flower Fair Window Card

Making a pretty garden come to life in a window is possible when you have the right stamp set and framelits, and inspiration from Lisa Wilkinson. Lol!

I stamped out flowers and leaves from the Flower Patch stamp set using various inks (Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo, Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Certainly Celery and Wild Wasabi) and cut it out with Flower Fair framelits. I made my card base square with Melon Mambo and Blushing Bride cardstock, and ran some Whisper White through my Big Shot with the Brick Wall embossing folder to make the wall as my first card layer.

Then I cut and matted a window frame with my Paper Trimmer and some Melon Mambo cardstock. I ran a scored line inside my frame so it looked more like a casement.

Finally I added all the flowers and leaves, popping them up with Stampin' Dimensionals. I made the sentiment banner, folding the ends back on themselves, and added my greeting from Teeny Tiny Sentiments before popping it up too.

I wanted to make the inside of the card special too so added some retired Washi Tape, another flower and a sentiment form God's Blessings.

Happy Stampin!

Corner Garden Card

I needed a sympathy card unfortunately, and I wanted to make it as beautiful as I could for the lady left behind. I thought of the Corner Garden stamp set almost immediately as it has such lush floral images.  I imagined it on a white, dry embossed background, and then I saw a card on the web made by a beautiful crafter who I cannot now remember. I did change my card a bit as I only glimpsed the other crafter's card, and it stuck in my head about what I wanted to do. I would have liked to acknowledge whoever made the card that inspired me and will have to be more careful in future to remember.

I started with a square piece of Whisper White, stamping the image onto it in Basic Black. I used various ink colours to bring the flowers to life with my aqua painter. The deeper colours on some flowers are areas where I went over them twice with the same ink colour. This was a labour of love and took me a little while to do, but it was worth it.

I added some discrete shimmer with my Wink of Stella clear pen. After I was happy with the flowers and everything was dry, I ran the stamped piece through my Big Shot with my decorative Dots embossing folder. After that I mounted it on some Pacific Point cardstock and a Whisper White card base.

I stamped and punched out my sentiment and mounted it on the front of the card with Stampin' Dimensionals. Then I made an envelope with my Envelope Punch Board but I forgot to take a photo of that.

Hope you like it.

RIP, my friend.

The Kissing Technique

Learning different papercrafting techniques can be fun. If you have not heard about extending the use of your stamps by using the Kissing Technique, I have a page for you that tells you how to achieve that effect. It's a good way to make very interesting images for your projects.

Valentine's Day is Coming!

Valentine's Day is a short time away and I have been playing with heart themed images in my craft room. I have been thinking about other projects I have made fro this lovely day, such as the heart shaped chocolate box and this lovely anniversary card, and I also have been thinking about the kissing technique for rubber stamping. But the one thing I have done so far is to make an image for a card with the  new Bloomin' Love stamp set (item number 140643 from my SusanSalutations shop). Isn't it pretty?

This set comes with a bundle and that includes the stamp set and a beautiful lacy framelit, and you can get matching coordinating papers and embellishments too. I was silly and only ordered the stamp set at first, and now I am waiting for the framelit to arrive in a separate order! I hope it gets here soon.

What are you making for Valentine's Day this year?