Happy Birthday, Terry

I wanted to tell you a story about my friend Terry. Picture this, you are in your mid-30's. You pack up your ENTIRE LIFE and wave goodbye at the airport to your Mum & Dad, board a plane with your dog in a crate, clutching the hand of your little 5 year old daughter and head to a new Country where your husband's waiting for you. Your 'home' is a strange apartment, furnished with a stranger's furniture. Your husband goes off to work that first day and you have no car, not one single friend nor a single family member to just give you a hug and tell you it's going to be OK. It took 6 weeks to find a home and move into what would soon become everything familiar.

Guess how lucky I got? I moved right next door to Terry. Oh my WORD. Poor woman must have thought I was a lunatic "where can I buy decent meat?", "where can I take Sarah to make new friends?", "how does this work?", "what do you use this for?" ... and she was a lifeline. In more ways than one. She made me feel like I had a friend, right from the first meeting. And I'm happy to say that 10 years later, she's still next door and she's still my lifeline. Our lives have changed a lot, I don't need her as much as I did in those first few months, but she's still my #1 American Gal and I love her to BITS!

Happy Birthday, Terry. We love you!

The card I made was really simple. I've made a pumpkin and a Christmas Tree card using this technique, so I thought I'd make Terry's card with a 3-D heart.

To make a 3-D shaped image, punch out 5 of your shapes and score down the centre. Fold Each shape and glue the sides together, then attach to the front of your card.

Recipe
Stamps : Floral Fillers, Perfectly Penned
Cardstock : Blushing Bride, Shimmery White
Ink : Blushing Bride
Accessories : Heart Punch, Pinking Hearts Border Punch, 1/2 Pearls, Blender Pen & Ink

October Club Projects

I had my Stampin' Up Clubs this weekend ~ the girls in Club make it so fun. These are the projects we made this month. They were a little bit 'tricky', lots of fussy-cutting, but well worth it :)

Karen Barber's Colour Challenge

Sending apologies for my lack of blogging. Lots of stuff going on around here which I won't go into on my blog ... but I lost my mojo pretty much completely after some news about my husband's health. I want to send special thanks over to the gorgeous and hugely talented Karen Barber who made my eyes widen and my creative mojo start rumbling this morning when she posted the Colour Challenge and THIS fabulous creation. The colours are Regal Rose, Lucky Limeade and Blushing Bride. Wowser ... what could be prettier! 

I decided to go 'vintage' ... well, my version of vintage anyway! This set is called Creative Elements and it's the first time I've cracked the box open to use it. LOVE IT! The sentiment is from Kindness Matters.

Recipe

Stamps : Creative Elements, Kindness Matters

Cardstock : Very Vanilla, Lucky Limeade, First Edition Specialty DSP

Ink : Crumb Cake, Lucky Limeade, Blushing Bride, Regal Rose

Accessories : Spritzer Tool & SU Markers, 1/2 Pearls, Word Window Punch, Limeade Ruffle Ribbon, Chantilly Ribbon

Online Ordering Tutorial BLITZ!

In conjunction with “About a Girl”, we are pleased to offer you the very first project in our series “Online Ordering Tutorial Blitz”!

If you place an online order with me of a $35 value or more (see our order suggestion below) you will receive NINE step-by-step photo tutorials FREE OF CHARGE, delivered direct to your e:mail. We have included everything you need for your Halloween Celebrations! All projects are planned around the Frightful Sight Suite of Products :

Scaredy Cat Stamp Set (w) 122555 $19.95 or (c) 122557 $14.95

Frightful Sight DSP 122351 $10.95

Black 1 ¼” Striped Grosgrain Ribbon 115615 $9.95

Totalling $35.85 for clear or $40.85 for wood

Check back over the next few days for more fabulous sneak peaks ~ and don’t delay, place that order today!

Here's a pic of our very first step-by-step tutorial you'll receive when you place your order. Isn't it FABULOUS? Robin came up with this gorgeous pin which is so fun to just wear, or attach to a Halloween gift bag. Yay ~ so easy to make too. Make sure you don't miss how to make it by placing your Stampin' Up order with me today!

Baby Shower Invitations

I'm helping a friend make her baby shower invitations tomorrow, I offered these 2 cards for her to choose from, she chose the one with the baby buggy on the right. We're going to have an assembly line going, we need over 80!!!!

The tutorial for this centre-step card is under 'free tutorials' on the right sidebar.

Embossed Stockings

I wanted to do the sketch challenge today, look how simple it is, just my style!

I chose the new 'Stitched Stocking' set from the Holiday Mini ... I know we're all going to be sick of seeing samples made with this by January, but look how gorgeous it is!!! I pulled out my embossing powders (I hope the pic shows the gloss) and trimmed the stockings with the new velvet ribbon. How couldn't you LOVE this?

... and a close-up of the embossing and stocking details .... see the dazzling details on the toes and heels?

Recipe
Stamps : Stitched Stocking, Bright Hopes (sentiment)
Cardstock : Holly Berry Bouquet DSP, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla
Ink :Versamark
Accessories : Embossing Powders (Wild Wasabi, Pewter, Cherry Cobbler), Big Shot, Snow Burst Embossing Folder, Curly Label Bigz XL Die with Punch Windows Movers & Shapers, Modern Label Punch, Vanilla Velvet Ribbon, Dazzling Details

A Quick 'How To' for Rhea

Rhea, from Rhea Stamps, left me a comment a few days ago about how to make the scallop square cards I often put together (I love them!). Well, my friend Robin, About a Girl, showed me this quick and easy trick to make the scallop square card PERFECT! A lot of people just make a fold and cut the squares with the fold just inside the cutting blades. But that makes the card lobsided  ... so here's Robin's trick :

Step 1 : Cut out TWO scallop squares using your Big Shot and Bigz Die

Step 2 : Score ONE of the scallop squares at the first indented scallop. On the Stampin' Up Simply Scored Tool it's at 1/2". (well, it would be at 1/2" on ANY scoring tool but I just wanted to say Stampin' Up Simply Scored Tool because it's the best one there is) ....

Step 3 : Using Sticky Strip (or strong glue), stick the scored back piece to the front.

And here's a pic taken from the BACK, see the score-line? This makes the perfect, scallop square card! Hope that helps, Rhea :)