Withdrawal symptoms from Garden Whimsey

Hi everyone, Hope you have had a nice weekend. I know it is only Monday. But I can't wait till the end of the week. It was a trying weekend for me. My DH is currently visiting his brother in the Cayman Islands. He phoned us on Sat morning to tell us the were preparing for a cyclone, talk about make me worry, forunately for the Cayman Island the storm passed over them. Having had a week with healthy children now my daughter Caitlin has come done with a virus, luckily not the high temperatures but a terrible cough and cold. The worst thing is the guilt, I feel really bad because I have had to take another day off work, where we are already short staffed, but as a parent children come first. It's sometimes difficult to get that balance. I am counting down to Sat morning when Richard arrives home. I normally enjoy a bit of time apart but this time I have missed him terribly. Now that I have finished what seems to be a weekly moan, on to some cards.

I haven't used my favourite set garden whimsey for a while, I was starting to have withdrawal symptoms. I just love this set. It looks great with any colour combination you put together. He are two cards have just made.




Recipe:
stamp sets: garden whimsey, so swirly jumbo wheel, think happy thoughts
card/ink: mellow moss, bashful blue, whisper white
accessories: photo corner punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, scallop punch, signo gel pen




Recipe:
stamp set: garden whimsey, so swirly jumbo wheel, think happy thoughts
card/ink: bashful blue, mellow moss, whisper white
accessories: 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, photo corner punch, brads, whisper white ribbon

As you can see I always seem to make two cards, using the same colours and sets, its good to see how you can change things with different placement.

Have a nice Monday. Thanks for stopping by.

Like it a latte

I have just got this set which is very surprising given my love for good coffee. I have to confess that I buy a coffee everyday day. I even have my husband so well trained that in the weekend when he goes out early in the morning and lets me sleep in he always returns with a coffee for me. It makes me a much happier person. I know I am very lucky. I had made a couple of cards before I did Kristina's challenge, but I haven't had a change to post them. Of course they are in pink and chocolate, because that's just the best combination for this set don't you think.

Recipe
stamp set: Like it a latte
card/ink: pretty in pink, close to coca, real red, whisper white
accessories: Liquid applique



Recipe
stamp set: like it a latte
card/ink: pretty in pink, close to coca, whisper white
accessories: slit punch, sheer ribbon

Thanks for stopping by tonight. I am going to visit some of my sisters from SBS23 blogs. I am been having trouble making comments, so bear with me.

I've been nominated

Well this is a first for me, I have been nominated for a blog award by two of my sister from sbs23. Thanks so much April and Joey. You guys have made my week.

The rules for this award are:
1. The winner can put the logo on her blog
2. Link the person you received your award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you have nominated.

Here are my nominees

Karen
Jacque
Rachael
Diane
Sally
Zoe
Teresa

Thanks guys for visiting my blog and making such lovely comments.

Kristina's colour challenge no 20

Hi Everybody. Well I just love Kristina's colour challenge this week. Anyone who knows me, knows that I just adore pink, and pink and chocolate together fantastic. So of course I just had to enter this weeks challenge. Because of the time difference I do not have a lot of time to get my challenge in. Here is what I came up with.

Recipe
Stamp Set: like it a latte
card/ink: chocolate chip, regal rose, pretty in pink, very vanilla, certainly celery
accessories: mat pack

Just a quick post tonight. Thanks for stopping by.

Getting grumpy with my laptop

Hi everybody. I am now back to my normal routine. I was a little bit spoilt last week with all the time off work. James is now back at school and I am back at work plus the usual after school activities. I have been having an argument with my laptop tonight. I have been trying to load all my new sister onto my blog, and vista keep wanting to run updates. It just shuts down the whole system while it runs then logs back on. Unfortunately my DH is away at the moment and can not look at it. I have got everyone loaded now so I am going to go visiting.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sisterhood of the Blogging Stampers 23

Hi everyone. Well I have been toying with the idea of joining the sisterhood and I have finally taken the plunge and joined up. I am really looking forward to getting to know everyone. It is going to be great fun to meet new people who all have a common interest.

A little bit about me. I have been stamping for around 6 years now. I got hooked when a friend showed me embossing. I have been stamping ever since. I became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator Aril 07 when Stampin' Up! came to New Zealand. I love Stampin' Up products and all my cards/pages use their products. I am part of a wonderful group called the creative inkers who are all lovely talented ladies.

I am married with 2 children a boy James aged 10 and a girl Caitlin aged 8. I work part time as a banker and stamp and scrapbook in my spare time.

I am really looking forward to meeting all of my fellow sisters, 19 new friends.
Thanks for stopping by, I look forward to chatting soon.

NZSU Embossing Challenge

Happy Sunday. I can't believe it 3 posts in 3 days, its a record. James is still not well, so we are housebound. What better thing to do on a wet cold Sunday afternoon than create. Both Caitlin (my daughter) and I spent some time this afternoon making cards.

I have been slack lately and have not entered any of the NZSU challenges. I am absolutely loving the watercolouring at the moment, so thought I would incorporate it into the latest challenge at NZSU which is embossing. I feel you are going to see quite a bit of the bloomin with beauty set until I get it out of my system. Here is my entry for the challenge. The floral background stamp has been embossed using versamark and clear embossing powder.



Recipe:
stamp sets: bloomin with beauty, floral
card: watercolour paper, basic black, night of navy, ballet blue
ink: stazon black, versa mark, ballet blue, bashful blue, mellow moss, so saffron, chocolate chip, grey
accessories: stampin emboss powder clear, aqua painter, heat tool

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your evening.

Watercolouring

Hi Everyone, Hope your having a nice Saturday. This afternoon I had a chance to have another play with some new stamps from the spring mini catalogue. When I first saw the bloomin with beauty set, I did not like it very much, not really my style. But during some recent blog surfing I have seen some beautiful cards using this set. Another thing I have never tried is the Stampin' Up! watercolor paper. To be perfectly honest I really didn't think it would make that much difference to the watercoloring. I ordered some to give it a go. This afternoon I tried it out. I stamped the 2 flower images from bloomin with beauty, one on the watercolour paper and the other on whisper white. I used the same colours on both. I have to admit I am converted. I couldn't believe the difference, the images stamped on the watercolour paper were brighter and more vibrant. Here are the stamped images



The image on the left is stamped on watercolour paper, the image on the right on whisper white.



Again the image on the left is stamped on watercolor paper.

Here are the two completed cards. What do you think.



Recipe
stamp sets: bloomin with beauty, floral background
card/ink: always artichoke, pretty in pink, purely pomegrante, watercolor paper, grey black staz on, so saffron
accessories: aqua pen



Recipe
stamp sets: bloomin with beauty, so swirly jumbo wheel
card/ink: not quite navy, soft sky, certainly celery, chocolate chip, creamy caramel, grey, black staz on, watercolor paper
accessories: certainly celery ribbon, matt pack.

If you haven't already, order some watercolor paper, you will be pleased with the result. Have a good evening, thanks for stopping by.

Sara's new blog

Hi again, my friend and team member Sara has just started her new blog called stampscrapjourney.blogspot.com, be sure to check it out and leave a comment for her so she is encouraged to keep blogging.

Tart and Tangy

Hi Everyone. I am soo pleased it is finally Friday. What a week it has been. My son James has been off school all weeks with this nasty virus. Today is the first day he has not had a raging temperature. There are certainly a lot of nasty bugs out there at the moment, hope none of you are ill with any of these.

My DH and I have been playing tag all week, one of us at home with James and the other at work, Tues and Wed we crossed over a couple of times, Rich went into work, came home at 9.00am I went into work came home at 2.30pm then Rich went back to work. We were both had it by last night. Unfortunately this week was not a good week for James to be ill, I had auditors at work (never a fun experience) and Rich was trying to get organised for his overseas trip. He is at this moment on a flight to LA. Hopefully he will sleep. It is not always easy to be a working parent.

Enough moaning from me, now that I have that off my chest. I am sitting here doing my first post from my laptop, I am still switching from my laptop to our other computer as Rich has not had a chance to load everything on, but guess what, I will be able to post whenever I want during the next two weeks.

I received a delivery from stampin up earlier this week, with some sets from the new spring mini, of course I had to have a play. Here is what I came up with.




Supplies
stamp set: tart and tangy
card/ink: real red, whisper white, old olive, designer series paper summer picnic
accessories: 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, scallop punch, photo corner punch, white ribbon, marker

Supplies
stamp set: tart and tangy, everyday flexible phrases
card/ink: real red, whisper white, designer series paper summer picnic, only orange
accessories: corner rounder punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, scallop punch, round tab punch

Supplies
stamp set: tart and tangy, sweet shapes
card/ink: bashful blue, whisper white, only orange, designer series paper summer picnic
accessories: 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, scallop punch, small oval and large oval punch.

Well I am going to try and publish this post now, hope you have a nice evening. Thanks for stopping by.

A New Look

Hi All, hope you are having a good weekend. James my 10 year old son and I have been having a bit of a play today with my blog. Have you noticed any changes. I am been wanting to change to a 3 column template, we had a practice go last week but couldn't get my header image aligned properly so I decided to make a new one. Now I just need to reload a few things and I will be done. I have also taken out the labels as the list was getting longer and longer. I have inserted a search box which you can use to search different sets. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. thanks for visiting

Just Creating

I have had a week of just creating. No particular theme or stamp set. Kristina did not have a colour challenge this week, I am hoping she is feeling better next week and will post a challenge. The first card I have to show tonight will look familiar to some. I have been playing with one of my hostess sets, a little bit of happiness. I really like this set, it is fun to color and there is a stamp for most occassions.



Supplies
stamp set: a little bit of happiness
card/ink: brocade blue, whisper white, groovy guava, kraft
accessories: twill tape, hodgepodge hardware, blender pens

The next cards were cased from Alisa Tilsner's blog, using one of my favourite new sets garden whimsey. I really love both of the colour combinations, I use them quite regularly.



Supplies
stamp set: Garden whimsey
card/ink: bashful blue, mellow moss, whisper white, real red, always artichoke
accessories: matt pack

The last card tonight was one that I was just playing around with the markers for different affects. I was really pleased with how it turned out.



Supplies
stamp set: bodacious bouquet
card/ink: mellow moss, always artichoke, pretty in pink, regal rose, whisper white, so saffron

Thanks for stopping by, have a great evening

Happy Friday

Hi everybody, hope you had a great week. Well I got my laptop on Wednesday morning at work. I couldn't wait to get home and plug it in. It is cool I will take a picture in the moring to show you. My DH has been transferring all my folders onto it for me. One thing I am trying to get used to is not using a mouse, poor Richard was cursing and carrying on so we ended up buying a mouse tonight. I am hoping that all info will be transferred tomorrow so I can start really trying it out. Look out for some changes in my blog.

My New Laptop

I am just so exited. This week I am expecting a delivery from Dell with our new computer screen, and also a new laptop for me. I just can't wait. I have often complained in the past about having to make an appointment to use the computer, but soon I will have my very own laptop. This will mean more post and also I plan to change things a bit. I will let you know when it arrives. Have a good week. Thanks for stopping by.

2,5,7,10 boxes

Happy Sunday. Today has been a lovely day here on the North Shore. We have had so much rain in the last month, the grass is very boggy, but the sun is shinning. James and Caitlin have been making the most of the fine weather and have been outside on their bikes. I keep looking at my garden, it is such a mess, unfortunately it is still too wet so the weeding will have to wait a bit longer. Anyway I have been having a bit of fun over the last week making 2-5-7-10 boxes. These are great little boxes made from one sheet of A4 card stock.

I had a workshop on Friday night and for something a bit different, I decided to do a box and a gift card. Most of the guest were new to stamping and we all had a great time. The ladies got to try quite a few different techniques with the projects. Here is what we made. Thanks Gilly for a lovely evening, you were just a great host.



Supplies
stamp sets: heartfelt thanks, scribble jumbo wheel, scribble this
card/ink: real red, chocolate chip, whisper white, basic black
accessories: slit punch, blender pens
techniques used: two step stamping, wheeling, colouring with ink pad and blender pens, making a scallop edge with slit punch.

Here are another couple of boxes I have made over the last week.



Supplies
stamp sets: scatter sunshine jumbo wheel, simply said
card/ink: purely pomegrante, wild wasabi, soft sky
accessories: black brad, 1 3/8" circle punch, scallop punch, slit punch, white ribbon



Supplies
stamp sets: so swirly jumbo wheel, baroque motifs
card/ink: wild wasabi, purely pomegrante, soft sky, whisper white
accessories: rich regals brad, slit punch, white ribbon

This last card is one that I cased from Becky Carafa, her blog is the lakeshore stamper. I just had to make one. I love the bite out of the corner and I think all little boys would just love it. Now who am I going to give it to.



Supplies
stamp set: wild about you, canvas background
card/ink: blue bayou, soft sky, wild wasabi, spring break designer paper
accessories: scallop punch, word window punch

Color Challenge No 18

Time for another color challenge. I am really enjoying these. Kristina always comes up with great combinations. I found this one a little bit tricky as we weren't able to use any white. Anyway this is what I came up with.

Supplies
stamp set: simply said
cardstock/ink: basic black, rose red, pumpkin pie, green galore
accessories: black brads

Let me know what you think. I love getting your comments. Hope you have a great evening. I have some more to post tomorrow. I have to limit my time in front of the computer screen until our new one arrive this week.

New Spring Mini Catalogue

Hi Everyone. Sorry I haven't posted this week. I have been trying to stay away from the computer this week, as our old comptuer screen is giving me headaches. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of our new flat screen, which should arrive in the next week.

The new spring mini catalogue is now available to order from. It is packed with new stamps and accessories. The two cards I have to show you today are taken from the mini catalogue. One of the things I love about the Stampin' Up! idea book & catalogue and the mini catalogues are that they are a great source of inspiration. There are times when we are not at our most creative and at times like these, I like to call on our catalogue for inspirtion.



I simply love this colour combination. I have used the rock and roll technique on the main flower.

Supplies
stamp sets: bodacious bouquet, a beautiful thing
card/ink: pretty in pink, close to cocoa, purely pomegrante
accessories: prertty in pink ribbon, soft subtles brad




Supplies
stamp set: a beautiful thing
card/ink: chocolate chip, close to cocoa, whisper white craft ink, purely pomegrante, pretty in pink
accessories: pretty in pink ribbon, black brads, spring flower bouquet punch, signo white gel pen.

Next I have a set of four gift cards. I have had the simply said stamp set for awhile, but have never actually used it. I got inspiration from a similar card I saw on split coast stampers.




Suppplies
stamp set: simply said
card/ink: whisper white, pretty in pink, bashful blue, certainly celery, old olive
accessories: ribbon, brads.

Thanks for taking the time to visit. Leave me a comment. Have a good week.