Bethinking

Thankful

Thanksgiving is not something that we celebrate in Australia, which means that we miss out on the opportunity to annually reflect on our blessings and be thankful for them. I’ve been thinking for a while that I’d like to create something that I can look at regularly that will remind me to be thankful. I’m blessed with so much, and I find it so easy to forget that in the day to day running around and lack of sleep that seems to make up my life at the moment.

So, thanks to Shelli for making “Thanksgiving” the topic for her November Creative Challenge. This scrapbook layout has been swirling around in my brain for a while, looking for an opportunity to get out! Of course, there’s more to the project that’s not pictured here yet – my journal that I’m making where I can record in more detail some of the things for which I am thankful. I figure hey, at least I’ve started the process and had some time to be thankful as I’ve been making it.

It was fun to create, too, basically choosing all my favourite images and "patchworking" them together. Here are a few close-ups, too:

        

    Supplies Used:

Stamps: Lots! Always, A Beautiful Thing, Live Your Dream, Big Deal Alpha, Pick a Petal, Looks Like Spring, A Happy Heart, Priceless, Fun and Fast Notes, Life Definitions, In the Spotlight.

Cardstock: Spring Silhouettes DSP, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Watercolour

Inks: Pretty in Pink, Purely Pomegranate, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery.

Happy Mothers' Day!

Okay, so I know that Mothers' Day was a week, ago, but I did mention that I'm in catch up mode! I wanted to show you some little fridge magnets and tags that we gave as gifts for all the Mums who came to our Church last Sunday.

Traditionally we give out flowers, but we thought it might be nice this year to give something that would be more lasting and a bit inspiring, as each tag has a quote about parenting on it. Hopefully when the Mums go to their fridge, they'll remember what a blessing and a challenge it is to be a Mum. My favourite of the quotes was this one from Tenneva Jordan, "A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie."

The magnets and tags were so quick and easy to make, even though we made 100. The flowers were stamped and punched out, either with the flower punch or the scalloped circle punch, and the centres were done with the 3/4 circle punch, which fits perfectly with the images from the "In the Spotlight" set - one of the fantastic hostess sets. To make the tags I printed the quotes on Confetti White cardstock then used my So Swirly wheel with Caramel ink to add some decorative swirls. So, Happy Mothers' Day (for last week!) to any mums out there!

Crayon Resist technique

The crayon resist technique is one of my favourites to use. The leaf stamps from this set were stamped onto glossy white card, then coloured in with a normal white wax crayon, stolen from my daughter's collection!

I then sponged Ruby Red and Really Rust ink over the card, and the crayon areas "resist" the ink, but the rest of the white gloss cardstock picks up the colours. This card is an Artist Trading Card that I did recently for a demonstrator swap - all of us created a different card using this technique.

The stamps used are from Artfully Asian, with the background being from Looks Like Spring and the word from Everyday Flexible Phrases. I'm waiting for my order of new catalogue goodies to arrive, so am trying to keep myself occupied by being creative in the meantime!

More Birthday cards!

It's been a while since I specifically designed a male birthday card. This is the second card for an upcoming class (see previous post!) and it took me a while for the ideas to come together. In the end I decided to use the Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalogue for inspiration, and found a layout that I liked, so I adapted that for my purposes.

The colours are Sahara Sand, Vintage Violet, Mellow Moss and Cranberry Crisp. Vintage Violet and Cranberry Crisp will both be retiring at the end of March, so if you need to stock up on supplies of these or the other In Colours, make sure you do that soon! It's a good idea to make sure you have an ink refill for any of your In Colour inkpads, too.

I used some Hodgpodge Hardware and brads on the card, too, which gave it accents without feeling like I was using girly embellishments. I hope you like it!

Spring is in the Air

One of the things I love most about Stampin' Up! is how well all the products co-ordinate together. I've been having fun playing with my Looks Like Spring stamp set, which is a great example of this. I've used the set for scrpabooking, made a couple of cards with it and made this great little origami box with the stamp set, the Spring Bouquet Flower punch and the matching Spring Flowers designer series paper. Making the box was part of a challenge set by my Stampin' Up! upline, Jayne. We followed the directions for how to make the box from Kristina Werner's blog. Thanks Kristina for sharing the idea! The Spring is in the Air October special uses all these products. If you purchase the Looks Like Spring stamps and the flower punch, you receive a matching paper pack free - that's one of the designer series paper packs, so it's 12 sheets of double sided paper, worth $16.95. Check out the Stampin' Up! website for more details: http://www3.stampinup.com/au/ena/default.asp.

When I use the Designer Series paper it's really easy to choose cardstock colours to match, as the papers use Mellow Moss, Barely Banana, Cameo Coral and Chocolate Chip. So, you can guess what colour inks and cardstock I've used in each of these projects! Please contact me if you'd like to take advantage of this great special.

Labels: Stampin' Up Specials

Cards for Ronald McDonald House

We had a fantastic time last night. As it was World Card Making Day, a few of us got together to make some cards for Ronald McDonald House. The 5 of us completed 80 cards, as pictured above. A huge thank you to Kim, Jodie, Julie and Eunice for giving their time and money to make the cards - sorry about the diamond background stamp!

One card was aimed at kids, and one at adults. The penguin card uses "Wild About You" and "Be Happy", and is done in Tempting Turqouise and Pixie Pink - we were aiming for bright and happy! The floral card uses the "Looks Like Spring" stamp set, with Marigold Morning, Old Olive and Cranberry Crisp cards and inks. We punched out the little flower centres with the Spring Boquet flower punch.

Labels: Cards for Charity

Spring Scrapbooking

I created this page for Felicity's album last night, using the "Looks Like Spring" stamp set and matching Designer Series Paper, and the Spring Flower punch. The colours I've used are Barely Banana, Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip and Cameo Coral, and it's based on Very Vanilla cardstock. I've added glitter to the big flowers using Heat and Stick Powder and Dazzling Diamonds. (Just ask me if you want to know how to do that!) I'm pretty happy with the page, but I think I need to add a title under the photos. I couldn't think of one - any suggestions?

Labels: Scrapbooking