This week Kris has set us all a Sketch Challenge while using the stamp set Under The Big Top.

And this is the card I designed for my beautiful niece Emma who lives in Ohio over in the States.

Emma turns the big “8″ in February and loves getting little surprises in the post box from Australia. If she’s lucky she may also get a packet or two of Tim Tams….. and Vegemite which they all miss terribly since moving from Australia.

So now it is your turn. We’d love to see your creations. Pop on over to Sunny Challenges and join in the fun.

Happy Stamping

Shirley

Today I have some great news to share with you all. The gals over at Sunny Challenges & Creations have asked me to be a guest designer for a few weeks while the lovely Gwen takes a much needed break.

Of course I jumped at the opportunity to join the wonderful team and guess what….. yep it was my turn to choose the challenge.

So this week I am asking you all to “Show us some Love”. With Valentines being just around the corner what better time to showcase all those wonderful “love” creations.

This is what I have put together for the challenge….

This cute little Stamp set is from the new Summer Mini and co-ordinates with the new square and postage stamp punches in the mini as well. Stamp, punch, stick. It’s that easy.

So now it’s your turn. Pop on over to Sunny Challenges and “Show us some Love”.

Happy Stamping

Shirley

Well let me tell you it was so easy peasy my 4 year old could of done one as well… Here is what I came up with.

This month I have quite a few cards to send off so why not do all my January Birthday cards using this technique.

Now these cards are so darn cute especially when you open them up. They look all fancy and special.

If you would like to have a go at this technique pop on over to Splitcoast and check out the tutorial.

Happy Stamping

Shirley

This week Vicky has put together a sketch with the added theme of “Celebration”.

And what better way to start of the new year but to “Celebrate” and “Cherish” all the friendships that I made last year. Both in person and online with my extended creative family.

Here is my entry.

I created this card using all the yummy Sale-a-bration Designer Papers that will be available from the 23rd of January. Aren’t they delish!

Well that’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed this little project.

Happy Stamping

Shirley

My Christmas and New Year’s break was truly wonderful spent with family and friends and eating way too much glorious food.

I have been squirreling away at some new ideas and concepts for 2012. So watch this space.

Lately I have been thinking about what is “my style” and looking back I think I have defined it as “Less is More” or simply put “Clean & Simple”.

So to start the year off with a little “love” I’ve made this clean and simple Valentines Card.

I’ve used the sentiment from Field Flowers and the cute little love heart stamp from Create a Cupcake.

The love heart’s are done in Melon Mambo, Pear Pizzazz and Regal Rose.

Hope you enjoyed my clean and simple valetines.

Happy Stamping

Shirley

I know these girls absolutely love chocolates (who doesn’t right!). And what pretty way to dress them up this time of year but to use the wonderfully versatile SU Fancy Favour Die.

I used the SU Letters to Santa DSP and I made some cute lolly flower embellies to dress up the front of the box.

Aren’t these the cutest little boxes you have ever seen…

Well I hope you liked this little project.

Happy Stamping

Shirley

Little Miss 10 (and I) are both into the hair accessories at the moment, and with so many play dates in the lead up to Christmas it was a great opportunity to make some little gifts to give to her friends.

Here are some cutie “sparkly” bobbies I made…….

Aren’t they just delish! I whipped these up using the SU Island Floral Die and of course a whole lot of Fine Galaxy Stampin’ Glitter.

To make the flower embellie I cut out some white card stock and some sizzix adhesive sheets, stuck them together and ran it through the big shot using the Island floral die. I then peeled back a layer of the adhesive sheet and merrily went crazy with the glitter. Adding a little bitty silver brad in the centre gives it that extra bit of bling don’t you think?

Well that is it for today. I hope you all have a nice and “sparkly” day.

Happy Stamping

Shirley

Well today I’m going to show you how to make some easy peasy self covered buttons that you can basically use on any of your projects. 

First let’s start with the essentials. You will need:

• Big Shot (or equivalent Die Cutter)
• SU Circles #2 Die
• SU Designer Fabric
• Self Covered Button Kit (includes button shell, button flat back & tools)

Ok so let’s get to it then….

The first thing you want to do is cut a couple of fabric circles using the second smallest circle on the Circles # 2 Die. (For this tutorial I have used 15mm Self Covered Buttons).

Next you want to take the button maker “cup” open side up and place it on a nice flat hard surface. Place the fabric circle (face down) onto the cup and place the button shell face down onto the fabric circle.

 

   Grab the other part of your tool and place it down onto the back of your button shell.

 

Using your thumb push the top end down into the button maker cup as far as it will go.

Remove the top part of the button maker and fold the material onto itself.

Then you want to take the flat button backing and place it onto the folded fabric.

Place the top part of the button maker onto the button backing and push down hard until you hear a little pop.

Now all  you have to do is to remove the button from the cup and use it as you wish on your projects.

 

And here is what I have made with this cute little set of buttons……..

Well I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and it inspires you to give your fabric stash another lease of life.

Happy Stamping (and button making)

Shirley

The last few weeks have been a flurry of crafting activities sandwiched in between end of year school concerts, breakup parties and graduations. So of course I’ve had little time to tidy up after my bursts of creativity.

This is what my craft space looked like this morning.

I had lost a few “tools” and a couple of missing stamps and I knew that I needed to get to the bottom of this pile if I was ever going to get some quality crafting time in during the holidays.

How do you find anything under this mess let alone do any quality crafting?

So I decided then and there it was time to tackle the mountain and at the same time re-arrange my cupboard to make it more efficient.

I started by pulling out my army of punches. (yes there is a dining table under that mess!)

Next was the reconfiguration of my button box. These tackle boxes are so handy and the inserts are interchangeable. All the buttons are colour and size co-ordinated which makes finding the right button really easy when I’m in a hurry.

One of my favourite accesories are my daubers. I often reach for them but in the past I have always grabbed the wrong dauber and used it in the wrong colour ink pad. So labelling them and popping them into a tackle box ensures that I use the right dauber with the right ink pad.

I’ve labelled all my wood mount stamps so I can easily get to the set that I am looking for.

My gorgeous and talented wood worker of a Sister In Law put this storage unit together for me for all my ink pads. Isn’t it gorgeous.

And of course after all this hard work I finally ended up with a clean workspace. (But not for long!)

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy Stamping

Shirley

So my aim is to get organised, and what better way to do this than with my own Card Folio.

For this folio I used the gorgeous new range of DSP available during Sale-a-bration which begins on January 24th.

I’ve been meaning to make one of these for a few years now but have finally taken the plunge and you wouldn’t believe how easy and quick it is to put together.  Just check it out for yourself over at Splitcoast.

Isn’t the new DSP just divine. I can’t wait to get my hands on more of these papers.

Well that’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed this little project.

Happy Stamping

Shirley