This set has never really appealed to me.  I’m not a rustic/vintage kind of girl.  When I got this set (for free!) as a hostess reward last week I challenged myself to use it on three very different kinds of cards.  I was surprised at how easy they came together in three different styles, despite the “rustic” theme of the set.  The swirl image especially appeals to me, and it’s versatile, as you can see below.

First off, I did a rustic, earthy card with the Rooster watercoloured in earth elements, this was the easy one to come up with:

Project Recipe:

Papers: Garden Green, More Mustard, Close to Cocoa, Watercolour paper, Whisper White

Stamps: Sweet Little Sentiments, Rustic Rooster

Ink: More Mustard, Garden Green, Pacific Point, Ruby Red, Sahara Sand, Pumpkin Pie

Accessories: 1″ circle punch, aquapainter, hodgepodge hardware, dimensionals

For the second card, I used the rooster image once again, but in “girly” colours and design:

Project Recipe:

Papers: Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, Bella Rose DSP, Whisper White, Riding Hood Red

Stamps: Rustic Rooster, Oval All

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette,

Accessories: Eyelet Border Punch, Pigtail Ribbon Originals, Large Oval, Scallop Oval, dimensionals

Lastly, I had tho stretch myself on this one, but I came up with a Christmas card, minus the rooster:

Project Recipe:

Papers: Riding Hood Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Holiday Treasures DSP, Whisper White

Stamps: Many Merry Messages, Rustic Rooster

Ink: Old Olive, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: 1/16″ brad punch, gold brads, dimensionals

I got to play along with another one of Keesh’s challenges today!  Hooray!

 

I’m home with sick kids most of last week and it looks like most of this week (one is back to school and the other one is not well now .  It gave me little time to stamp today but I got this simple card done in record time!  Here is the sketch we had to work with:

 

And my card:

 

 

Project Recipe:

Papers: Real Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip0, Ski Slope DSP

Stamps: Winter Post

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Accessories: 1 3/4″ circle punch, 1 3/8″ circle punch, scallop circle punch, corduroy brads (baja breeze sponged with Chocolate Chip), Baja Breeze Double Stitched Ribbon

I posted a watercolouring competition this month in my customer newsletter, as well as on this website a few days ago.  I have had three entries, and I have chosen a winner!  (Actually my little boy drew a name out of a hat for me).  The winner is Jean!

Jean wins the “Comfort Food” stamp set that I got while overseas.  Congratulations!

I have to also show you the other two lovely entries as well.  First off, Fiona’s Card:

 

 

And last but certainly not least, Lynda’s Entry:

 

Like I mentioned yesterday, tonight is my Downline Meeting.  I, too designed a card for everyone to make.  A “shoebox swap” is where you design a card, cut all the pieces, and place all the items needed to make the card in a box and bring to the party.  We them will rotate the boxes around and make one of each of the cards in the box.  By the time the evening is over, we will have 6 cards, one from each team member plus me.  This is the card I’ve made for tonight.  It’s a CASE of the lovely card by Heather Summers here.  Since we dont have the stamp set she used, I used the Holly Jolly Christmas set instead.  I love using Non-traditional colours, but this is a combination I wouldn’t have come up with for Christmas, I love it Heather!

Project Recipe:

Papers: Kraft, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

Stamps: Winter Post (snowflake), Holly Jolly Christmas

Ink: Versamark, Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink.

Accessories: Button Bouquet, Linen Thread, Corner Rounder,

Tomorrow (Sunday) evening I’m having a Stamping Stars Meeting at my house.  Normally, at these quarterly meetings, I demonstrate a technique, do another demo of another project, then we just get to stamping.  I also use the time to update my team on new things up and coming with Stampin Up, and generally answer questions and be supportive for my team.  My favourite part of the evening is seeing the creativity of all the girls shine.  For tomorrow night, each of the girls is designing a project for us all to make.  I can’t wait!

This is one of the projects I’m going to demo tomorrow night.  One of the girls asked me to demo a box as it’s something she needs more practice with.  I chose this one from the demo website, and embellished it with the striped ribbon from the Spring Mini Catalogue as well as items from the I Wish Simply Scrappin Kit.  Since I took the photo yesterday I have also added one of the border strip around the lid.

If you would like to join my team, or find out more about being a Stampin Up demonstrator, click on the link on the sidebar, or email me for more information.  It’s a great time to join with a special promotion running, free paper and ink!  Contact me for more details.

When I sent out my customer newsletter earlier this month, I challenged my readers to use their blender pens to watercolour.  I started a “contest” so to speak.  Anyone who send me a photo of a card they had made with Watercolouring with Blender Pens, would be entered in a draw for a free stamp set.  Now this is not just any stamp set, it is NOT AVAILABLE IN AUSTRALIA.  I got my hands on this set when I went home to Canada so I guarantee you don’t have it!

 

This contest is open to anyone (demonstrators too!) in Australia.  I will post to anywhere in the country.  The winner will have their project featured on my blog next week.  The contest was meant to close tomorrow (the 31st) but given the events of the weekend coming up I’m going to leave it open until I get the kidlets back to school on Monday .

 

So get to your crafts desk NOW, get out your blender pens and show me what you can do this weekend!

 

Now, what’s going on this weekend at my house you ask???  Why, tomorrow is Halloween!  All those little treat bags you saw, the Halloween invitations I posted ages ago, it’s all tomorrow.  I’ll have heaps of photos to show when it’s all over but for now, here’s a sneak peek of my costume:

Yesterday I got a package in the mail from the lovely Lynda (you’ll see her comments on nearly ALL my posts:).  She had stamped some images for me to have a play with (those will come in another post when I’m finished).  Included in the package was this simply gorgeous card!  I love the simplicity of it and the tiny little flower pot!  Thanks so much Lynda!

On Sunday, the kids and I worked on birthday cards for my mom.  Emma (7 yrs) made her own, the only thing I helped with was tying the bow and stamping the StazOn (I can’t bear the thought of the kids using permanent ink…a bit paranoid!).

Graham (4.5 yrs) also made his own.  Again, I stamped anything he wanted to colour in with Staz On, and I added the glitter on the front.  He put alot of work into the inside, so I have to show that as well.   He really took his time with the colouring and was very gentle with my markers.

Aren’t they most excellent stampers!  I’m sure they would LOVE to hear your comments!

I borrowed this set from one of my downlines Brooke a couple weeks ago and had a good play.  I love having a chance to play with sets that I don’t own, and lucky for all of you blog viewers, you get another trio out of it!

First up, I made a real “girly” card.  The DSP reminds me of Grandma’s wallpaper and cups of tea on the table:

Project Recipe:

Papers: Tea Party DSP, Almost Amethyst, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

Stamps: Sip by Sip

Ink & Markers: Almost Amethyst, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Creamy Caramel

Accessories: Button Bouquet, Certainly Celery Poly Twill Ribbon (september promotion), Linen Thread, Dimensional

This second card was case’d from this card here.  I changed the blue colour and added the button, but otherwise, it’s mostly the same.

Project Recipe:

Papers: Pacific Point, Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Tangerine Tango

Stamps: Sip by Sip

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Pigtail Ribbon Originals, Button Bouquet, Linen Thread, Dimensionals, Glue Dots

Lastly, this card has a bit of Christmas Colours and theme.  I was inspired by this card here, but I changed several things on it to make it my own.  I especially loved the ribbon/button/twine so that’s what I built the card around>

Project Recipe:

Papers: Holiday Treasures DSP, Kraft, Vary Vanilla, Kiwi Kiss, Chocoalte Chip

Stamps: Sip by Sip

Ink & Markers: Versamark, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Riding Hood Red striped Ribbon, Baja Breeze Corduroy buttons (coloured chocolate chip with sponge daubers), Hemp Twine, Linen Thread, Dimensionals

These are some more samples of the Bleached Out cards I had on display for my Stamp club on Saturday.  The last three will be shown in a technique Trio in a few weeks time.

Project Recipe:

Papers: Mellow Moss, Creamy Caramel

Stamps: Seaside, Occasional Greetings

Ink: Always Artichoke, Versamark

Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Aquapainter, Bleach, Dimensionals, linen thread, paper snips, cropadile, spritzer tool, bleach

Project Recipe:

Papers: Ruby Red, Creamy Caramel, Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip

Stamps: Embrace Life

Ink: Versamark, Creamy Caramel,

Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Aquapainter, Bleach, Word Window Punch, Small Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon

Project Recipe:

Papers: Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel

Stamps: On Your Birthday, Seaside

Ink: Creamy Caramel, Versamark, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder, Aquapainter, Heat Tool, Large Oval Punch, Riding Hood Red striped Ribbon, Dimensionals

Project Recipe:

Papers: Close to Cocoa, Sweet Always DSP, Rose Red, Barely Banana

Stamps: Thoughts & Prayers, Friends 24-7

Ink: Versamark, Rose Red

Accessories: Black Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Filigree Brads, Aquapainter, Bleach.