As promised, here are the cards I made using the beautiful free products from the Sale-a-Bration brochure! This patchwork card is made using 2cm squares of the Everday Enchantment Designer Series Paper and then embossed in the Sqare Lattice embossing folder.

And here is the postcard I made using the Fresh Vintage stamp set. I chose Stampin’ Write Markers in the colours to match the DSP and coloured direct to rubber before huffing and stamping! Again the stamped piece is embossed in the Square Lattice embossing folder, mounted onto Poppy Parade cardstock and then onto a postcard back. You can find the templates on the internet to print and create your own postcards.

Don’t forget you can earn one of these and other Sale-a-Bration products for free with every $100 you spend! Host a workshop over $600 and also earn one Sale-a-Bration item free along with your hostess benefits! Contact me today if you would like to hold a wokshop to take advantage of these beautiful free products!

Here’s the sneak peak of the two cards we made at last weeks stamp club. The card on the left is made with the Fresh Vintage stamp set, and the one on the right is made using the Everday Enchantment DSP – I love it! I’ll show you the complete cards after next week’s stamp club!

I just want to quickly share these cards with you while the festive season is still around us and before the New Year kicks in! Prior to Christmas I held my last stamp clubs for 2011 (they will be resuming again in 2012!) and this is one of the cards we made using the Beautiful Season stamp set, Stazon Black ink and watercoloured using an Aqua Painter and Riding Hood Red, Old Olive, Crumb Cake and Soft Suede ink pads.

The larger section is made using the large scallop circle and the clear circle dies. The middle section is made using just the clear circle die, and the smaller section using the largest scallop circle on the scallop circle #2 die, and the 2 1/2″ circle punch.

This Christmas Star card is made by punching out a star from Vellum cardstock (OMG! I just realised this punch has been retired!) and using it as a reverse mask to sponge Crumb Cake ink onto Very Vanila cardstock. Keeping the mask in place it is then overstamped with the script stamp from French Foliage stamp set using Soft Suede ink. The mask is then removed and the Christmas greeting is stamped in Basic Black ink. The  lacey mount is made using a 9.9 x 9.9cm piece of Real Red cardstock, and punched using the Scalloped Trim Border and Scalloped Trim Corner punches. The pieces are layered together with a Crumb Cake mount embossed with the Petals a Plenty embossing folder. Super easy and super effective – well, I think so anyway!

Wow, today’s the 1st November already - where did October go? I had an extremely busy month preparing for our annual Stamp ’n’ Scrap Retreat which was held at The Cove in Denmark the weekend before last. I promised I would post photos of the projects we made – everything was based around the Beau Chateau collection….

 Friday night we covered an on board journal with Beau Chateau fabric. This one is based on one made for our demonstrator retreat by one of my downline Sharon Tunbridge (thanks Sharon!) To cover this one we opened the spiral and removed the covers and pages.

Saturday morning we spent creating a double page scrapbooking layout using Beau Chateau DSP and the Creative Elements stamp set. The concealed journaling tag is made using the scallop ended tag from the Two Tags Die.

This is the second page of the double layout. We cut an extended tag using the folded tag from the Two Tags die, to enlarge the tag so a small photo could be added with journaling inside the tag. These photographs are copies taken of my maternal grandparents taken during WWI and also on their wedding day in 1921. The shoes are my grandmother’s which she wore on her wedding day – I can remember trying them on when I was little! We are fortunate enough to still have them in safe keeping. I am yet to add titles and journaling to my pages.

Next on the agenda to make was the Beau Chateau and Creative Elements Card & Envelope Compendium. I love how there are so many different uses for this stamp set – it’s just so versatile!

The pocket holds an assortment of tags made using Teeny Tiny Sentiments stamped onto Very Vanilla  card and punched out with the Word Window Punch and adhered to a Modern Label punched in Soft Suede card. A label can be chosen according to the occasion and can be adhered across the oval on the face of a card.

An assortment of cards made using Beau Chateau DSP and Creative Elements.

One of the Saturday afternoon/night projects was the Card Organiser made using the Elisabeth stamp.

The pages are made from 12×12 card and folded to make pockets to hold finsihed cards to give.

Scraps of Beau Chateau DSP were then used to decorate a Tri-Shutter card.

I just love the coordination in the DSP!

One of the last projects to make was a Drawer Box Easel Card. We made 3D flowers using the new Lace Doiley Layering punch.

Last but not least to make was the 3D frame – stamped with Creative Elements, embossed in gold and gently watercoloured. Elegant! Thank you to everyone who came on the retreat!

I love this technique – it’s called Faux Silk and it’s so simple yet very effective! Basically, an outline image is stamped with Stazon Black ink onto white tissue paper, then coloured in using Stampin’ Write Markers. The tissue is then crumpled into a ball, and opened out. I have used the fabulous new Sizzix Adhesive Sheets to adhere the image to pre cut- to- size cardstock. It’s important to pat the tissue onto the adhesive – don’t smooth it over as it’s important to keep the textured finish. The template is one I came across somewhere on the internet. We made this card for my June stamp clubs. 10 points if you can spot the “whoopsie”!

Okay, so I know it’s been a few weeks now since Convention, but it’s taken me this long to get back on track – and thanks to this long weekend I’ve had a bit of time to upload and resize some photos! So, here are a few of my Convention Swaps….

This one’s using the new French Foliage stamp set, and is stamped with Stazon Black onto Metallic Gold, Copper, Cajun Craze and Always Artichoke squares of card. The background is stamped with Sanded stamp set in Versa Mark ink. The greeting stamp I realised after I made this sample card is retired, so on my swap cards I used the “wishes” stamp from Heard from the Heart stamp set!

This is my Vintage Collage card, using several different vintage style stamp sets and sponging. The cardstock and inks used are Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke and Bravo Burgundy, and I used Soft Suede ink for the En Francais background (stamped off a few times before stamping onto the card for a subtle background) and sponging the edges of the Very Vanilla card. The other stamp sets used are Noteably Ornate (for the bird), Artistic Etchings and Friends 24/7. The flower is subtly watercoloured using an Aqua Painter and inks.

I also made up about 15 pairs of earrings, some embossed and some using Play Date rub-ons. I forgot to take decent photos until breakfast time on the first moring of Convention, so this is my 3D swap done up in cellaphane all ready to go!

…and here are the many beautiful swaps I received in return…… so many different ideas and inspiration – gotta love Convention time!

We’re off shortly to have a look at the Albany Classic Event - it’s the one time of the year the classic cars get to race around the main streets of town on a special circuit. The sun’s shining after some morning showers, so it looks like being a great day for the event! Enjoy the long weekend!

It feels like it’s been ages since I actually made anything, though I have been busy with workshops and stamp club so I have been doing something! Anyway, thought I’d share with you a card I made for one of my stamp club nights. The panies are made using the butterfly punch and are hand watercoloured. They are a bit tedious to do, as you need to get the Whisper White cardstock pretty wet, but once coloured, dried and assembled they are well worth the effort!

Thought I’d share with you a copy of 79 engagement invitations I completed a few weekends ago. The white cardstock is stamped in Marina Mist ink using the retired Seaside stamp set. I printed the details onto a Vellum Paper overlay. The starfish were all silver embossed and handcut, then layered onto Marina Mist cardstock and hand cut again! The embossing folder I used was non-Stampin’ Up! though. I have changed the names, venue and dates on this one – in fact the venue is very fictitious!

Okay, so me saying I’d post more petal card pics tomorrow didn’t quite happen when I said it would! But non the less, here they are as promised…..

This is a pattern I originally took off a card made by Ngaire Anderson, a Stampin’ Up! demo friend in Perth. For this one I have used the gorgeous Greenhouse Garden (Two Step Stampin’ ) stamp set on textured Very Vanilla cardstock. The flowers are stamped in Baja Breeze and Soft Suede, and I have sponged the edges of the card in Soft Suede as well. The vine stamped in Soft Suede is from the Vintage Vogue set. And the rest is all in the scoring and folding! Here’s the open card…

I’m loving the Greenhouse Garden stamp set!

We had flip floppin’ fun yesterday making a flip flop brag book and this flip flop card! For this card I stamped the large flower from Tropical Party onto So Saffron cardstock in the same coloured ink. The DSP is from the Island Oasis pack, and layered onto Old Olive cardstock. The flip flops or “thongs” were cut out and placed in the Square Lattice embossing folder and then layered onto larger pieces to give added texture and dimension. Very summery and kind of cute!