Bethinking

Faux Metal

Faux Metal is one of the techniques we'll be doing at my upcoming "Embossing Options" class. The idea of the class is that you'll learn a few different ways to do embossing so that your cards have greater variety. I'm a big fan of silver and blue together, so I was happy with the way this card turned out!

Supplies Used

Stamps: Priceless, Fresh Cuts, So Swirly wheel

Ink: Baja Breeze

Cardstock: Whisper White, Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze.

Accessories: Silver embossing powder, Baja ribbon, Silver brads, punches, heat tool.

Discovering Kraft

I've had a bit of a light bulb moment recently. I've discovered how fantastic Kraft cardstock is! Now, I know there's a bunch of you thinking, "well, yeah... der, Beth, we've known that for ages..." but sometimes you just have to find these things out for yourself.

So, I'm loving Kraft. It seems to go with everything, and looks especially good with this year's In-Colours. I've used all the In-Colours on this card. It's a pretty simple design - stamp some random images, punch them out with the 1" circle punch, then add accessories, but I really like how it's turned out. I have to give it away as a birthday card tomorrow, so I think I'd better make another one now before it leaves the house!

For those of you who subscribe to my Newsletter, I recently had an article about how to use the "Build-A-Brad" kit. I've finally used one of my home made brads - the little bird brad in the bottom right corner. If you don't subscribe to my newsletter, please feel free to sign up so that you can also find out about classes, specials, products and techniques!

   

Valentine

Here's to a Happy Valentine's Day for everyone; a time to cherish and appreciate our loved ones.

Thanks to Marelle of thINKspot for the sketch inspiration for this card.

Stamps used: "Priceless" (part of the Bush Fire appeal), Polka Dot background and A Happy Heart.

Colours: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip.

Bushfire Appeal

  Bushfire Appeal

Join with Stampin' Up! and Stampin' Up! demonstrators from around Australia and New Zealand in helping the victims of the Bushfire tragedy.

You can help by purchasing select stamp sets from 12 February through 31 March 2009, and Stampin' Up! will donate of the sales of these sets to the Australian Red Cross Victorian Bushfires 2009 Appeal. I will also be donating my 20% commission from the sale of these sets to the Red Cross.

The images show a few projects that I've made with the "Priceless" stamp set, which is one of my all time favourites.

The Bushfire Appeal sets are:

Stamp Set	Item Number	Page Number in Catalogue	Retail Price
Priceless	112312	105	48.95 AUD/57.95 NZD
Seeing Spots	108909	89	29.95 AUD /35.95 NZD
Baroque Motifs	112380	98	39.95 AUD /46.95 NZD
Live Your Dream	114261	3**	55.95 AUD /66/95 NZD
Looks Like Spring*	108864	76	58.95 AUD /68.95 NZD
The Snowflake Spot*	108934	27	39.95 AUD /46.95 NZD
Bodacious Bouquet*	108756	80	58.95 AUD /68.95 NZD
Polka Dots & Paisley*	110247	46	35.95 AUD /42.95 NZD
G'day Mate*	111973	115	35.95 AUD /42.95 NZD
Be Happy*	108744	51	39.95 AUD /46.95 NZD

*These sets will appear on the upcoming list of retiring products, so they will only be available for the Bushfire Appeal--while supplies last.

**In the Summer Mini Catalogue.

So please, if these are sets that you've ever been interested in, then purchase them now while their sale helps the victims of the Victorian bushfires.

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.

Stamping Transparencies

Transparencies and Acetate products are pretty trendy in Scrapbooking at the moment. I love using them and they're great products to alter slightly using stamping. On this layout, I wanted to use Heidi Swapp ghost letters for their transparent quality, but I also wanted them to have a design on them. What to do? Solution: stamp them, of course!

For the stamping I used my StazOn black ink, and the flourish from the Baroque Motifs stamp set. The letters are a bit slippery, so you have to hold the stamp firmly and be careful not to smudge the image when you stamp. StazOn is great, though, because it can be used on so many different surfaces.

I also stamped the same image onto a clear Stampin' Up! button. Here's some close up pictures so that you get a better idea of the effect:      

The butterfly was for a different page, but it was stamped in the same way with a stamp from the Priceless set.

All products are Stampin' Up!, except the Heidi Swapp ghost letters and butterfly!

Pink

Blue has always been my favourite colour, so I find it pretty ironic that our family is now dominated by so much pink! After seeing this photo of our 3 daughters, all wearing various shades of pink, I wanted to record how amusing I find that, and how blessed we feel to have our 3 beautiful daughters.

The main stamp I used on this page was the Happiness background stamp. I stamped it in a couple of different colours, then cut the images into strips so that I could mix the colours up a bit. I used the Happiness word from that stamp as part of the title, and the "is" was also two letters from the word happiness punched out with the 1/2 inch circle punch.

I stamped some birds on patterned paper (a good way to use your line art image stamps if you don't want to colour them in!), and added some butterflies and rhinestone brads down the bottom to accentuate the girly feel of the page.

Materials used:

Stamps: Happiness, Scribble wheel, Fun and Fast Notes, Priceless

Cardstock: Soft Sky textured, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, various Designer Series Papers

Inks: Regal Rose, Rose Red, Whisper White

Accessories: Corner Rounder punch, 1/2 and 3/4 inch circle punches, Rhinestone brads

Other: Heidi Swapp ghost letters.

Family Album

This photo shows the cover of an album that I've made for my Mother In Law for Mothers' Day. It's a 6 x 6 album which was fairly quick to bring together because I stuck to a basic colour scheme and pattern. I used four colours; Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Mellow Moss and Close to Cocoa, and Very Vanilla as my neutral.

Most of the accents and embellishments, including the patterned paper, were created using the "Priceless" stamp set. Have I mentioned already that it's my current favourite from the new Idea Book and Catalogue?

If you'd like to complete this album, either for yourself or for a Mothers' Day gift, then please come along to the class on Thursday, 8th May 7:30pm at my place in Turramurra. The cost is $20 which includes materials. Obviously you'll need to supply your own photos!

RSVP via mail@elisabethstewart.com by May 5th.