Close to Close to Cocoa

If you have found my blog from reading my upline, Steph Pike's, wonderful work, you may have seen the selection of gifts that I gave her for Christmas. If not, check them out here. What you can't see in the photo, as Steph has mentioned, is that I have stamped the big flower from Embrace Life (LOVE that set) all over the vase in White Stazon, so that when you look at the vase at an angle, you get a lovely textured effect.

The vase that I gave to Steph is a bone coloured vase, and when I visited my local discount shop, I found a very similar one, but this time in a colour very close to Close to Cocoa, from the Earth Elements colour family. And I thought.........why not try it again?

This time I have used Razzle Dazzle as the stamp, and have tied a bow using the the polka dot Real Red ribbon (which I adhered at the back with a little bit of Sticky Strip). Both these products are available in the SU! Summer Mini Catalogue. The flowers are made from the Die Cut Blooms, that I have stacked using dimensionals, and then I have stuck them onto a wooden skewer. To keep them in place in the vase, I picked up some Florist Foam, again from the discount store.

Happy Stamping........Manda

Haiti Disaster Relief.....

We have all been saddened by the disaster that hit Haiti recently. Stampin' Up! have just launched their campaign to help raise much needed funds.

For every purchase of I {Heart} Hearts stamp set from the Summer Mini Catalogue, from now until the end of February, $2.00 will be donated to this very worthy cause. Please contact me if you would like to purchase this set.

Happy stamping........Manda

Stamp Club 2010

Each year I run a Stamp Club, where everyone commits to spending $30.00 (min) every month February to November inclusive, and everyone has a turn of "hosting", where they earn the hostess benefits of a free exclusive Stampin' Up! stamp set and free hostess dollars to spend on SU products of their choice. This allows you to build your stamp collection easily, and still gives you the benefits of hosting a workshop.

It is now time to register to be a member for 2010. Please email me at jatla@aapt.net.au if you would like more information, or the registration form.

I thought I would share with you some other magnets that I made, which were part of my "Thanks for a great year of Stamp Club 2009" gift that (surprisingly!!!) I gave to the members of my 2009 Stamp Club. (Hi Ladies!!)

After I had prepared the magnet base (see previous post) I have inked the Upsy Daisy image in VersaMark and then coloured ink before stamping onto DSP. Then I used clear embossing powder to seal the image. A butterfly from Butterfly Prints and the sentiment from Upsy Daisy completed the magnet.

Hope you like them.......Manda

House Full of Fun.....

My friend and fellow demo, Louise came over last week and we had a go at some watercolouring while the seven (yes, seven) kids played together without a single cross word.

We used the very versatile Wagon Full of Fun stamp set from the summer mini. I have to admit that at this point this is the only card that I have made up from our colouring session, but I have been a little sidetracked with the final Twilight novel!!!

This is the very bright Kaleidoscope DSP from the summer mini also. These are not my usual colours, and I have alway found them very challenging to use. I am still not sure if this card actually works or not. I took the layout from a Mojo Monday sketch.

Happy Stamping......Manda

A Birthday Gift......

One of my very good friends had her birthday last week. We caught up a couple of days later, and had a lovely chat. As part of her present, I decided to make a birthday book. I know that these have been around for a while, but this was the first one that I have made. I'm not sure where I originally saw the idea, but I muddled my way through, and I am very happy with the way that it turned out.

Every month has it's own page, with a list to add in who has a birthday on that month.

The double sided DSP is fabulous for this as it makes an easy pocket to put your birthday cards.

This way you can be organised in advance, and not have to try to whip up a card in time to catch the postman!

And the cover........

........so that you don't forget what the book is for!

As you can see I have used some retired products in this one, as well as the Big Deal Alphabet, on the cover. I also was really pleased with the way that the binding worked out. I used Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon, that I threaded through the holes in a 'kind of' blanket stitch. I then used some extra little pieces to knot the outside crossed over areas.

I hope to show you a couple more of these books soon.

Bye for now.......Manda

Baby Cards

Recently DD1's teacher left to have her first baby. I was asked to make up 2 cards, one for the parents and one for the children to sign. This was the first time that I had tackled a larger than normal card, and I was very happy with the end results.

This is the card that the parents signed. I used an A4 sheet of Sage Shadow CS which I folded into a gatefold card, which I wheeled with So Swirly Jumbo Wheel when the card was shut so that the pattern of the stamp matched up when the card was shut. I then made a belly band with a strip of 12 inch Whisper Whit CS that I decorated with some retired SU DSP (I had to resort to my old stuff - do you know how hard it is to find gender neutral baby appropriate DSP?). The embellishment is a filligree brad with a green rhinestone brad in the middle that I have secured to the white grosgrain bow with some retired silver cord.

The kids card is again a sheet of A4, this time folded in half vertically. I have used Sweet Always DSP and the giraffe from Wild About You. There are little white grosgrain ribbon bows on their necks. The kids thought that the giraffes were very cute.

Happy Stamping.........Manda

Some Christmas Ideas

I know that Christmas is over well and truly, but I thought I would share with you some of the gifts that I made for DD1, DD2 and DS to give to their school and playgroup friends.

I thought it would be nice for their friends to have a present that lasted a little bit longer than a Christmas Candy Cane! I found some fridge magnets that had really trite sayings on them, but they were very reasonably priced. I removed the dodgy covers, which left a clean silver magnet and adapted them to what I needed.

The first two photos show DD1's magnets, girls and boys. They are all 8-9 years old, so I wanted something a little bit grown up.

The 3rd and 4th photos show DD2's gifts, to 5-6 year olds,

and the last one is DS's 2 year old playmates. The girls were very eager to help create their friends gifts, so please excuse the odd little mistake in alignment!

All supplies (except the magnet bases) are from Stampin' Up!, and are a variety of current and retired stock.

Happy Stamping.........Manda

Hello.....

Hi there everyone....

I have (after much urging and encouraging) finally taken the plunge into blogging. I will be sharing with you my stamping creations, and I hope that you find inspiration and ideas in the following pages.

Happy Stamping........Manda.