Birthday Card #2

This is the card that Kylie made me for my birthday - it is so me, all white, bright and sparkly. If you would like to see some more of her creations, take a look at her blog here.She too used an orange base, and one of the new stamp sets we received at convention. It is a fabulous set which has some really awesome stamps in it.

She has used dazzling diamonds on the embossed piece to make it all sparkly - there seems to a theme going on here LOL.

Next time, a thank you card I received, which surprisingly is also very sparkly.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Birthday Card #1

I received this stunning card from a very good friend and fellow demonstrator, Michelle Dyson. She too has a blog, so pop over and check out her latest creations here. In case any of you didn't already know, my favourite colour is orange. I know that's kind of strange since I was a 70s baby and my bedroom when I was a kid was orange and white, but over the past 10 years it has become my all-time favourite colour. It is such a happy vibrant colour.

Michelle of course knows of my love of orange, so she made me an orange card. She used a WOW technique we were shown at Convention in Melbourne last month, which involved ripping the middle out of the centre of the card to make a frame. She also used gold spritz all over the card and it is fabulously sparkly. I tried to photograph it, but of course I couldn't get a photo that showed it.

Thank you so much Michelle, I love it.

Next time, a card made by Kylie Swain, which also shows a sneek peak of a new stamp set we will be getting in our next catalogue, so be sure to check back in a couple of days.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Growing Green Birthday Card

Are any of you as sick of the rain as I am? My kids have been home sick for half of last week, and they are going absolutely crazy today. Please please please can the rain stop as I think we all need to get outside and I would like to get some washing done!

Now on to something far more interesting ... One of my fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrators had her birthday last week and this is the card I made for her. I used the Growing Green stamp set, and managed to whip this card up in half an hour. It came together exactly how I had imagined it, and believe me that doesn't happen too often.

Here is a close up of the flower, which I coloured with my blender pen and ink pad.

I was very happy with how it turned out.

I have a couple of birthday cards I received to share with you over the next week, so be sure to come back and check them out.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Time has got away on me again...

I am having trouble fitting everything in these days ... I don't know about you, but life seems to be so busy at the moment ... what with kids appointments and my appointments, the days are just flying by.

I haven't even had a chance to sit at my desk and create anything for so long ... however I have most of this week free, so plan on doing just that. The house is clean and tidy, so there is no guilt about what I "should" be doing LOL.

I will give myself all week to create and will do a post on Friday to show you what I have been up to. If anyone is still reading my blog PLEASE leave me a comment.

Have a great week.

Keep on creating.



xx Nicky

Final Deals of the Week

Here are this weeks specials.

Item 113838 Page 62 Right on Track Stampin' Around Wheel Was $11.95 NOW $8.37

Item 115619 Page 68 Retro Remix Stampin Around Wheel Was $11.95 NOW $8.37

Item 119975 Page 134 Vintage Type Rub-Ons Was $15.95 NOW $11.17

Item 118760 Page 134 Play Date Rub-Ons Was $16.95 NOW $11.87

This is the final deals of the week, so if there is anything you would like listed above please email me or phone your order through (0407-418-063) no later than 9pm Tuesday 31st May.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Deals of the Week are back ...

Remember last year when Stampin' Up! had their Deals of the Week promotion ... well they are doing it again. Every Wednesday in May they will be releasing deals on selected products from the 2010-2011 Idea Book and Catalogue (with up to 40% off).

The deals are available until Tuesday evening (or when they sell out). Make sure you get your order to me quickly so you don't miss out.

There are no limits to the number of Deals of the Week you can purchase and no minimum purchase is required.

This weeks deals are:

Next weeks deal starts on Wednesday, 11 May, so be sure to check back then to see what fabulous specials are available.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Eat Chocolate #2

Here is another card I made for a swap. This one was for a team training swap for the new mini catalogue.

This one also uses the eat chocolate stamp set and the tasteful trim die for the Big Shot - which I think is fantastic. It makes a full 12"strip that you can use for scrapbook pages or cut up and use on two card fronts. Here is a close up of the stamped panel. To get the shaded bit on the top and bottom I have simply punched the label out again on brown cardstock, cut it in half and adhered it to the top and bottom.

It has been raining here in Sydney since we came back from NZ and I am sick of it. It is cold, wet and miserable. On a brighter note though, the kids went back at school today so at least I finally have some peace and quiet. Hopefully I can do some creating ... I have to make my swap cards for convention, which is in less than 2 weeks!.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Eat Chocolate

I'm not sure what happened to the scheduling of the posts while I was away, but apparently they didn't go through, so I will do the first one manually now.

First though I will update you on our holiday to New Zealand. The kids and I had the best time. The weather was cool and crisp but not as cold as I had anticipated, which was great. I managed to read three books while there and let Nana and Grandad do breakfast so I got to sleep in a little every day. I ate everything I can't get here - bluff oysters, green onion potato chips and yummy cheese rolls. I have come home feeling very relaxed and more than a little homesick.

Now for my post I had scheduled. This card is one I made for a team swap for the new mini catalogue. It uses the fabulous Eat Chocolate stamp set which I knew I had to have as soon as I saw it - as I am a chocoholic.

For the colour scheme I went to the Cadbury colours of espresso, concord crush and white. I used the inlaid embossing technique on the background. It is such a cool technique and adds heaps of texture to the card with little effort. The sentiment was punched out with the new label punch, which I punched twice to make it a little smaller.

I was really pleased with how it turned out - just like I had imagined in my head - which to be quite honest, doesn't happen too often.

I have another Eat Chocolate card to share with you next time.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Happy Birthday Jess

I can hardly believe it, but today was Jess' 7th birthday - my how time flies. Carrying on with the bear theme from her party last week, I made her a bear card. Unfortunately I couldn't find the bear stamp I wanted to use - heck I'm not even sure whether I own it or was just dreaming I owned it - so I used the same bear that I used on her invitations. I made an easel card in purple and white (to match the Hannah Montana bear she got at her party). Here is the front of the card: I covered the bear in dazzling diamonds and it looks amazing in real life (but I can't seem to get a good picture of it). Anyway here is a close up of the bear:And finally a picture of the card opened up.Jess really loved it. We have had a very busy day with the last day of school, the easter hat parade and her birthday. Tomorrow we have to be at the airport at 5.15am to fly to NZ to see my parents for the holidays, which we are all really looking forward to. I will be checking emails while I am gone and have done a couple of posts to pop up next week and the week after. I am still having problems with getting paragraphs in my posts (they show up on the post but get lost in the preview and when I publish the post), if anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated. Hope you all have a great weekend and I will be back to regular blogging on my return. Keep on creating. xx Nicky

Jess' birthday invitations

Wah-hoo I am back - and feeling so much better than the other day, the extreme tiredness seems to have disappeared and I am left with a lingering cough. As promised, I have Jess' birthday goodies to share with you. Having a Build-A-Bear party obviously meant that the invitation had to have a bear on it, so I used the first rubber stamp I ever brought (over 10 years ago) - who knew that this one stamp would create a monster! Jess chose the colour scheme of brown and orange and after looking through my dsp stash I decided to use the retired sweet always papers. I used my favourite new technique on the background. Cutting strips of cardstock, placing them on card and then running them through the big shot with the square lattice embossing folder. I just love the interest and texture it gives to a card ... here is a close up:

I also made goodie bags with the fancy favour big shot die in matching colours.

Here they are side by side, I was extremely happy with the result, what do you think? Finally, a picture of the birthday girl with her brand new Hannah Montana bear, aptly named "Miley".

Have a great day. Keep on creating. xx Nicky

Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue is here ...

It has been a very busy week at our house and I have been ill for the past 10 days. I hope I get better soon as I am tired of being exhausted! I have done no creating at all and was supposed to participate in the INKlings blog hop on Friday, but on Thursday evening I had to realise my limitations (well my tiredness) and pull out. On a much brighter note, the new autumn-winter mini catalogue is here ... and it has some fantastic new products in it. I have added a link to my side-bar so if you would like to download it, just click over there. If you are like me and would like to have one in your hand to look at, mark everything you want to purchase and generally make it all dog-eared and tatty, drop me an email and I will put one in the post to you. Jess is turning 7 next week and we had a party for her today over at Build-A-Bear. It was a blast and all the kids had so much fun. I will be back on Monday to share her birthday invitations and party bags, along with a gorgeous photo of the birthday girl. I hope the rest of your weekend is fun and relaxing. Keep on creating. xx Nicky (PS the formatting for this post has gone funny and I can't seem to fix it - hopefully it will be better on Monday xxN)

Punch Bunch Owl notecard

When people order Stampin' Up! products off me I like to include a "thank you card" with their order. It is normally just a notecard size, but has a thank you note stuck to the inside with sticky dots, which can then be thrown out and they can use the card to give to someone special.

This is the most recent card I made. It is 3 1/2" inches square and uses the owl image out of the Punch Bunch Sale-A-Bration free stamp set.

The scallop circle image behind the owl is actually the homemade stamp set from the a-la-carte range at the back of the summer mini catalogue, and I just covered the "homemade and to die for" image in the centre with a 1 3/4"circle punched out of the same coloured cardstock.

I was happy with how it turned out and hope the ladies who are receiving it like it.

Til next time.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Bliss make-n-take

I have had a couple of workshops this month, and this is the make-n-take we have made. It uses the fabulous FREE Sale-A-Bration stamp set, Bliss. To receive this wonderful stamp set for free, all you need to do is spend $100 on product from the catalogue (before postage) and it can be yours.
I used an early espresso and crumb cake colour scheme and was really pleased with the results. The cream panel has been spritzed with champagne shimmer mist mixed with isocol. It has a great shimmer to it (unfortunately you can't see it in the photo).

The card was finished off with a sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Sentiments stamp set. Althought this stamp set is expensive, there are so many sentiments and I have used it so much that I think it is definately worth the cost.

Next time I have an owl notecard to share with you, so be sure to check back in a few days.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Easter Blossom Swap Card

Well what a start to the week I have had, what with all the rain we have had in the past 5 days, and then I came down with a bug on Monday and literally slept for about 40 hours out of the 48 hours to last night. However I am feeling better now, so onto the card I promised.

This card was one I made for the summer mini catalogue swap. It uses the Easter Blossoms stamp set. Orginally when I saw the stamp set I wasn't that impressed as obviously our Easter is in autumn, not spring, but when I played around with the stamp and omitted certain parts of it, I realised it was really versatile.

For this card I omitted the basket of eggs the little girl is carrying and made it a birthday card.
The background was embossed with the foliage stamp.

I think it is a really sweet card - what do you think?

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

AWOL again!

I didn't plan on this break from blogging, but an important job came up a couple of weeks ago, and I am still trying to get it finished. I think I have finally got my head around it so hope to have it all tied up today or tomorrow.

I have lots of swap cards to make which use new products from the winter mini catalogue as well as some thank you cards for a workshop I had last week. I am going to make those over the weekend and resume blogging again on Monday.

Hope you have a great weekend and see you next week.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Guest Stamper

How cute is this card? My friend Sandra called in on Sunday and brought some cards to show me. I absolutely loved this one, it is based on one she saw on the net and is a wedding card for her new neighbours. Here is a close up of the owls.

Be sure to stop by later in the week to check out another swap card I made using the Eastern Blossoms stamp set.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Hostess Gift

This is the hostess gift I made for a workshop I had last weekend. I made 9 cards to go in it, using the stamps from the level 1 hostess set, punch potpourri. I kept them all together with some black striped ribbon tied with some twine, a button and tag from the tiny tags stamp set.One of the demos at the Stampin Up Regional event in Sydney had used this idea as a hostess gift, and I thought it was a great one. You just make a 4" square card, stamp the image on the bottom right of the front cover, colour it in and punch it out. Once punched out, close the card and adhere the punched images in the holes with dimensionals.

Card design #1 -

Carde design #2:

Card design #3:

The only image you can't use in this stamp set is the bird. I was really pleased with how it turned out, it was so quick and easy to do.

Have a great weekend, I have a stamp-a-stack on tomorrow, so I'm off to prepare for that.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Punch Bunch swap card

Today I have a swap card to share with you. This card uses one of the free Sale-A-Bration stamp sets, Punch Bunch. I wanted the stamp to pop so I used a whisper white card base, which I sprayed with champagne shimmer mist to give it a soft shimmer. Here is a close up.
It looks really effective.

I hope you are having a good week, I will be back on Friday to share a hostess gift with you.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Happy Birthday Dad

Well ok his birthday was on Boxing Day and when I sent his present I forgot to include the card (Jess had been looking at it and I didn't realise it wasn't in the parcel until I got home from the Post Office) but he did receive it a couple of days after his birthday.

I made the card while at the INKlings christmas dinner and was extremely happy with how it turned out. I don't actually own this stamp set, but was able to borrow it from Michelle on the night, and I must say I like it a lot.
I knew I would be buying the Well Scripted stamp set as soon as I saw the mini catalogue because I loved that it had father and mother sentiments in it. Here is a close up of the boat.

And a picture of the layers. I used the crimper on the baja breeze strip and sponged around the edges of all the layers.

What do you think?

Next time I will have some swap cards to share with you. Have a great weekend.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Thinking of You card

One of my friends had to have an operation in December, this is the card I made for her:

It uses the fabulous Growing Green stamp set, which went to the top of my wish list as soon as I saw the new catalogue.

A close up of the flower which I coloured with my blender pen and ink pads.

If you have any questions on how it was made, please leave me a comment or email me.

Well I'm off to tidy up and clean out my children's bedroom. It is a job that unfortunately can't be done while they are here, because everything I try to throw out, they want to keep! Have a great day.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky