Sue Madex: Stampin Up Demonstrator Australia

For Everything Stamp Set

Aaahh, what a lovely way to spend a day!   First a card to share then some waffle!  Hee hee.

I CASED this one from the Summer Mini Catalogue - the card on page 15.  Loved how they used the ribbon behind the punch hearts.  Nifty idea!

I've used Bashful Blue and Choc Chip 1" ribbon and the gorgeous new spotty Red Grosgrain.   Great way to use up little offcuts of ribbon too.

Other supplies for the card: 

For Everything Stamp Set, Bashful Blue, Choc Chip, Real Red and Whisper White cardstock, Heart to Heart Punch plus the Scallop Edge punch, Mat Pack and Paper Piercer.

Now for some waffle!

Hannah(7) and my mum headed off today to see Angelina Ballerina at the theatre.  

Jack (3) and I had some fun playing jigsaws and reading Dr Seuss before he headed off for a nice LOOOOONNNGGG nap. 

Which left me with a couple of hours to fluff about! 

I made some cards, photographed a bunch I'd made over the last month (so I'll have lots to share in the next few weeks!) and did some more of the Jessica Sprague online photo/digiscrapping course I got for my birthday (way back in July.) 

I'm more of a paper scrapper really but I bought the online class so I could learn to use a few more bits of my Photoshop Elements program and its been lots of fun.

Did this one today.

And that got me in the mood for some Photoshop Elements experimenting.  Turned this shot ....

...into this moody portrait.  I quite like it!

Well lots more cards to show you but Hannah is back, Jack is up and John is home so that will have to wait for another day!

Cheers,

Sue  

 

StampAMemory Sneak Peek: Boys Layout

Here's a peek at the latest layout I've shared over at StampAMemory.  You can find the whole page by clicking here - StampAMemory: A Touch Of Sparkle.   If your scrapbooking passion needs a bit of recharging, check out the latest posts by the rest of the design team and guests.  Makes me want to turn off the computer and head to my craft desk every time!

Most often I start a layout with a photo, but this time I started with that gorgeous sparkly j.  I was most thrilled to receive one of these cards in the mail from Angela Sargeant, and ever since I've been busting to try those Sticky Cuts letters.  Except I didn't have any!  Well, the postie van arrived this week and rectified that ☺so tonight after the kids were tucked into bed and John was watching the cricket, it was time for me to hit my scrapping supplies.   I'll definitely be using more of those Sticky Cuts.  One of those things I'd sort of skipped over in the catalogue but if you're intrigued you can find them on page 145.

I love the school holidays.  Less day to day fuss and more time with my cuties.

If school holidays are part of your life right now, hope they're relaxing, fun and full of laughs. 

 (Well OK OK, its not all roses, mine do include the odd squabble and  'mum I'm BOOOORRREEEEED' moment too but I'm having a nice rose coloured glasses night  decade. ☺)

We went to see Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs at the cinema today.  Jack watched the first half with his fingers in his ears because it was 'TOO LOUD MUM.'  Half way through it either quietened down a little, or he got used to the volume, or he decided he REALLY wanted to eat some of the popcorn!!

Happy holidays!

Sue

Fifth Avenue Floral Card and Gift Card Holder

I've been looking through my photo folder and came across these ones I hadn't posted pre Christmas.  They are for a birthday card and matching gift card holder I made for my youngest sister Melissa.  (They were a bit late - oops - so I wanted to make them EXTRA special.) 

Her favourite colour is purple so I used Elegant Eggplant, and teamed it with Pretty In Pink, Pink Pirouette and Whisper White.  One of my favourite stamp sets is Fifth Avenue Floral so I used that too, plus Sincere Salutations for an elegant greeting.  I used the card on the front cover of the catalogue as my starting point for the design. 

I'd been playing with my spritzer tool so spritzed some Pretty In Pink and Elegant Eggplant onto the flower and background.

The large flower is cut out and layered using dimensionals.

I punched the greeting with the Wide Oval Punch.  I get such a lot of use from that one.  I added some crystals and silver metallic thread stitching for a dash of sparkle.   The mat pack and a paper piercer makes stitching much easier.  I used the template to pierce holes then grabbed a needle and thread to stitch.  A tiny scrap of Pink Pirouette ribbon tucked under the greeting just finished things off.

Part of my gift was a photo shoot session of her boys.  (My Canon camera and I have captured some great pics of kids some days.)  I made my own voucher and popped it into the gift holder I made to match the card. 

The gift voucher is just a piece of white cardstock with Fifth Avenue flowers stamped in the background.  Using my Elegant Eggplant marker helped keep it all looking coordinated.  To make the holder I just folded a piece of cardstock around and taped one end closed.  I just made sure it was a little larger than the gift voucher.  I punched a slot out to make it easy to get to the voucher and added some decorative touches,  and of course a hat pin.

I popped a glue dot behind a couple of the beads to attach it.  The flowers, beads and hat  pin are all from a Pretties Kit - a great kit for adding some elegant feminine touches to your creations.  I spritzed the top flower for some speckle of colour.

I love the new wide Pink Pirouette ribbon from the Summer Mini.

When I was visiting Teneale's blog I saw how she'd added a half pearl on top of a big circle designer brad (pg 148) and thought that looked gorgeous.

You just wrap the ribbon around the gift card then its easy to pull it out using the ribbon.

I'm so lucky to have 2 lovely sisters who live nearby.  Melissa and I both have young children so we are often on the phone sharing the latest funny happenings from our munchkins and sharing 'mum' moments.  

Back soon - thanks for stopping by,

Cheers Sue

StampAMemory Creative Challenge 1: Christmas Challenge

Have you visited our scrapbooking inspiration site StampAMemory?  We're kicking off the year with the first of our scrapbooking challenges.  If you've made a New Year's Resolution to get more scrapbooking happening in 2010, perhaps our challenges will be just the thing to get those layouts going.  There are prizes to be won too for a little extra incentive.

You'll find all the details of the first challenge by clicking here.   StampAMemory Challenge 1.

Here is my Challenge 1 inspired layout.

We don't often get photos with Santa but came across this warm smiling Santa at Milleara Shopping Centre and I just love the photo.  (I'm not sure of the photography company to credit as it just had Milleara Shopping Centre on the packaging.)

 

I made a stack of cards with an I Wish Simply Scrappin' Kit earlier in 2009 and decided to use the leftover bits and pieces for this layout.  The textured choc chip cardstock, die cut border stickers and die cut title and journalling block made it a super quick layout to put together.

I used my Real Red and Choc Chip markers so my journalling coordinated with the layout.

Some red rhinestone brads were a little finishing touch.

So have you got some Christmas photos fresh off the camera.  Grab your scrapping gear and enter our StampAMemory Challenge 1.  Good luck!

Cheers, Sue
 
  

Happy New Year

Just a quick hello to wish you all a happy New Year.  May 2010 bring lots of smiles, fun and laughter into your life, and lots of craft time too! 

I LOVE this time of year - fresh new pages to put into the diary or crisp new calendars to hang up.  Life slows down a bit and we get time to relax and reflect a little on the past year, and make plans for the new one. 

Here's a quick bright couple of cards to start off the year in a colourful way.

I've used Kaleidoscope patterned paper and some of the matching cardstock, plus Butterfly Prints and the Butterfly Punch, all from the Summer Mini.

The greeting is from Hello Again.  This is a handy card design for using up odds and ends of paper.

  
The butterflies punched from the Kaleidoscope paper look nice layered on a plain cardstock butterfly.  

The button is from the Sherbert Pack - also from the Summer Mini.  Didn't summer kick in this week?  Nice to be back to some cooler breezes!

The greeting here is from the hostess set Best Yet.

Well back to playing with John and the kids for me.  We've been doing lots of ....

...this week.  Nice to turn off the electrical entertainment options and get back to some good old board games.

I'm also working on the new look Madex Creations Newsletter.  Keep an eye out in your inbox on Monday for that if you are part of my newsletter crew.  There's a sign up box up the top right column if you'd like to join in.  This month it includes some step by step instructions and pics for a Sweet Treats Cup card and lots lots more.

Hope you are having a super start to 2010.

Cheers, Sue
   

A Few More Christmas Bits and Pieces

Hello Everyone,

Hope you've spent time with your near and dear over Christmas.  We had a lovely afternoon with my side of the family Christmas Eve, topped off by a yummy seafood dinner, mmmmmm!  Then back to our house to quickly go to sleep before Santa arrived.  Christmas Day John's side of the family gathered at our place for a day of more delicious food and catching up.   For me Christmas is a time for family and it was so nice to be able to see most of our immediate families this year.  The kids loved playing with their cousins too.   Hosting this year means the added bonus that now our house is tidier than ever!  Aaah, bliss.

I've got a few Christmas bits and pieces left to share so thought I'd catch up on those today before a nice break from reds and greens and snowflakes!

I had a few panels left from my Christmas cards so made some giant gift tags with them.   I ran a few short so was most pleased to come across these faux silk panels I'd made ages ago when I finally got to the bottom of the giant pile of assorted junk that had accumulated on our bar.   (In the midst of doing a year's worth of housework in 2 days - hee hee!)

At the other end of the gift tag spectrum I whipped these quick and easy ones up Christmas Eve when we needed a few extras.  Cardstock, stamp, ink and punch - super easy. I punched a hole with my cropadile too after this pic.

Do you ever do those home style gift vouchers?  With mum and dad's gift I wanted to include a 'Susan voucher' for a photo shoot session of them and the kids, with me and my camera.  I wrote the details onto cardstock then grabbed Fifth Avenue Floral to pretty it up a little and popped it in a nice frame. 

And lastly, a way to dress up a cash gift.  I've used one of our little Love Notes and Envelopes.  It was for a nephew so needed a masculine version.

Pull the ribbon and out comes the money holder.

 

Anyway - back to relaxing for me.  Hope you've got some end of year relaxation happening too. 

My desk is all tidy and I'm looking forward to doing a bit of creating just for fun over the next few days.

Cheers, Sue
 

Last Batch Of Christmas Cards

I've been in mass production mode over the last week making Christmas cards.  (Yep I do remember saying I was going to start them in July! Maybe next year.  Hmmm - maybe next decade.)

That's all my doves getting a coating of crystal effects and sitting out to dry!

Here's the finished card ...
My first prototype is on the left then I tweaked it a bit for the finished version .....

Those little finished touches can make quite a difference. 

Here was my first red panel with the greeting stamped in White Craft Ink ...

I thought it needed a bit more oomph so I stamped some snowflakes in the background, sponged some Riding Hood Red ink round the edge and embossed the greeting in white.  I used my mat pack template to do the pierced hole pattern in the top right for a bit of balance.

The base card is Sahara Sand and I've used Wish For Peace and Snow Swirled - my two favourite Christmas stamp sets.  Whisper White ink for the background snowflakes.  Sahara Sand ink for the dove.

 
  
Now for my relatives and family friends I usually include a pic of the kids on the card.  Got the Santa Hat out and snapped 70 zillion photos until I got a 'wow' shot.  (Sending up a thank you for digital cameras!!??)

I decided to use my squares layout.  Have used this design for heaps of cards this year and it always seems to work.  Plus I love punches when you're doing a lot of something!

Here's the green squares in production ...

 

And my little teeny table all set up for assembling in front of the telly!   I resized my kids pics and put 6 onto a 4" x 6" file using photoshop, then got them printed at Harvey Norman.  Perfect size to fit in the square punch.

And here's the finished product ....

I have a few Christmas gift packages to finish then looking forward to doing some 'non Christmas' stamping!  I've cleaned up my study (shock, gasp!) and my desk is looking all gorgeous and just BEGGING to be created on!   
 

Well, things to do.  Cuppa is finished.  Better get moving!

Hope you are getting some moments of peace and quiet amidst all the pre Christmas hustle and bustle.

Cheers, Sue
 

Sparkly Christmas Cards plus Guest Card Maker: Denise

Way back in November (seems like ages ago!) we did Sparkly Christmas Cards at classes.  I've been checking my photo folders and have a couple more to show you.

This one is based very closely on one I found in a Christmas Card Gallery on Claire Daly's blog.   We used heat and stick powder and some of Stampin' Up's gorgeous fine glitter for the lettering since it was a sparkle class. 

I also discovered how much I like Bravo Burgundy as a colour with some matching ink sponged around the edge. Will have to dust off the rest of the pack and use it more often!

Here's another view where you get a touch more of the sparkle.  The letters are popped up on dimensionals.

Tip:  Now the trick with heat and stick powder is to watch it carefully when you're heating it and stop as soon as it changes.  (Thanks Sue Bayliss, glitter queen, for the tip!) You'll see it will look 'wet' then you know its all tacky and you can add your glitter.  Another quick burst with the heat tool seems to 'set' the glitter.   

Stamp Sets:  Lovely Letters and Baroque Motifs

Colours: Bravo Burgundy, Riding Hood Red, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla

Other: Circle punches and Rhinestone brads, Heat and Stick Powder, Versamark, Fine Glitter and Heat Tool.

One of the other cards we made at Sparkly Christmas Card Class was this one.

I liked the tweak Denise gave the design and she was kind enough to let me take a pic to share with you guys.

Special Guest Card Maker:  Denise

Here's a close up of the rhinestone brad in the centre - it really sets off the card.

Thanks Denise for letting me share your card with the ladies in blogland.

Well, can you tell I'm in housework avoidance mode!! 

Better get back to my 'to do before Christmas' list. 

:-)

Cheers, Sue

Circle Scissors Scrapbook Layout: Sneak Peek

I've been having fun playing with the newest tool in my tool kit - Circle Scissors.   It's a great tool for cutting circles and I love that you can cut rings with it as well.  

Circle Scissors Tips: I had to play with it for a little while to get the feel of it.  Some tips from other demonstrators were terrific - attach your cardstock to the  glass mat using Dotto repositionable adhesive (pg 154), and use a light touch.  I found keeping my grip light and going round a few times worked the best - when I gripped the blade holder more firmly I'd move the tool slightly.

I ended up with quite a pile of circles and rings on my craft desk so grabbed a handful to make a scrapbook layout.  You can see it here at StampAMemory website.  Here's a sneak peek.

 

While you're there, check out the groovy new header Tanja created and all the great scrapbooking inspiration from the other girls on the design team. 

If you're after a holiday project, Miriam has a great Mini Album Tutorial available for just $10.  Find the details here.  You'll need a Simply Scrappin' Kit and some basic supplies from your stash to complete the project. 

Have a great weekend.

Cheers, Sue

Cards With Sweet Treat Cups

Have you seen the little sweet treat cups in the new Summer Mini?  They're great for adding a bit of 3D wow to a card.  I've filled one with a mixture of chunky glitter for this bright and colourful kid's card.

The stamps for the flower petals, the greeting and the heart are all from Something Sweet stamp set on pg 9 of the Australian Summer Mini.   You can find the Sweet Treat cups on pg 8.  You get 12 for $6.50.  Just peel off the backing tape and stick them to your card.  The 1 3/4" Circle Punch(also on pg 8) is perfectly sized to fit the cups. 

I've used my Bold Brights Markers direct to rubber to colour all the stamps for this card.

I also used my trusty markers to colour a length of white taffeta ribbon, turning it into a bright colourful rainbow ribbon that coordinates perfectly with the cardstock and stamping.  (Leave to dry before attaching to your project, or give it a bit of a rub with some paper towel to remove any excess ink.)

If you're interested in a fabulous marker club, check here for details.  2 spots left, starting in Jan 2010.

I figure once the little girl who receives this card is done with it, she can use the glitter to add a bit of sparkle to a craft project herself.

Speaking of little girls, my daughter is beckoning.  She's been making plaster fridge magnets and wants to paint them now, so I'd better go help her get set up.  Jack is napping.  Which is just as well because I was rather tempted to tie a bow around Mr Mischief today and pop him under the Christmas tree!

Before I go though I thought I'd quickly show you the Christmas cards Hannah made for some of her friends and her teacher this year.  She designed them all herself, deciding to opt for purple rather than traditional Christmas reds and greens.   She picked out Christmas Classics stamp set and used some of her Stampin' Write markers to colour the trees. She also decided to go for 'open from the left' designs too (not sure if that was by accident or on purpose!)

She worked hard to make quite a pile and was very proud of herself.  It is a nice feeling to look at a craft creation you've put time and love into isn't it. 

Happy stamping.

Cheers, Sue

Off to play with Hannah and recharge the patience levels before my little man wakes up again!

Who me???

:-)