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Thursday 19 December 2019

Stampin' Up! Artisan Design Team Blog Hop - Dec - Tags

Hello Crafty Friends,


Welcome to the final Stampin' Up! 2019 Artisan Design Team Blog Hop. It has been an absolutely mind blowing year and I feel so honoured to have been given this amazing opportunity.  I am extremely appreciative for all the support we have received and feel immensely grateful to call all the ladies on the Team, my very special friends.  


We are going out with a bang so be sure to hop all the way through as we have so many incredibly inspiring ideas using the Tags Tags Tags Bundle and the Mini Curvy Keepsake Bundle or both! Here's a sneak peak....

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The creations I have to share with you today were inspired by one of my daughters favourite first books - the very hungry caterpillar. She read (sucked on and maybe even ate) the book to the point I swear it was growing things on the torn page edges lol. Knowing that it is still a favourite for children today, I decided to create a caterpillar inspired projects using the Mini Curvy Keepsake Bundle.


To create the Caterpillar, I have die cut the Mini Curvy Keepsake Box from Bermuda Bay and Granny Apple Card. The face has been constructed from different sized circle dies and punches. A few Glitter enamel dots in Granny Apple Green and Coastal Cabana have been added to the body and eyes. 


The hungry Caterpillar has to have an Apple to eat, right? Lol. The apple has been die cut from Poppy Parade card with the stamped and die cut leaves from the Rooted in Nature Stamp Set adhered to the top along with a strip of Soft Suede card that I have used to mimic the stem.


The matching card incorporates a bit of punch art and was inspired by a creation made by my super talented friend and fellow West Australian demo Rachel Lewsley from My Paper Haven. The die cut circles that make up the body have been stamped with a 'splatter' stamp from the Rare Blessings Stamp Set to give the "skin" a little depth.  Little black die cut hearts were used for the feet (turn then upside down) and glitter enamel dots for the centre of the eyes. A few die cut stitched stars were added to the top left of the card along with a White Bakers Twine bow.


That is all from me today. Thank You Stampin' Up! for a year I will never forget. Extra special thanks to our inspirational leader, Lauren Alarid, the super talented Concept Art Team, all the Ladies on the 2019 ADT and all those who supported and encouraged us on our Artisan journey.

Up next in this Blog Hop is my super talented friend, Jennifer Picard with her uber cute creations.


Blog Hop Participant List



I am super excited to introduce the incoming 2020 Artisan Design Team!!! 

Image may contain: 16 people, including Rochelle Blok, Lauren Garcia Alarid, Tammy Wilson, Manuela Geiswinkler, Hélène Den Breejen, Narelle Farrugia and Jan Clothier, people smiling

2020 Artisan Design Team Blog Roll


Just Add Ink #487 - Sketch

Hello Hello Crafty Friends

Welcome to the final Just Add Ink Challenge for 2019. I hope you and your family are all ready for the madness that is Christmas!! This weeks JAI challenge is Just Add A Sketch. I love sketch challenges and was especially looking forward to this one as I supplied it! 
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The card I have to share with you today is not the card I had envisioned creating for this weeks sketch! The items I wanted to use are still in Transit......somewhere between Sydney and Perth! So with my knickers in a twist, I marched upstairs to my crafty space and found a few items left over from previous projects and whacked them together to create this thank you card.
I started with the double die cut Tropical piece that has been cut from Shimmery White card. Using an Aqua Painter and a few different coloured green ink pads I quickly coloured the panel. Once dry, the darker green splatters were added. 

The Tropical Die cut panel was then adhered to a piece of embossed white card and then a piece of basic black card. Granny Apple Green and Blushing Bride panels were adhered on diagonals to the Crumb Cake card base with the Tropical panel placed in the centre.

I stamped the flowers from the Painted Poppies stamp set at Onstage and decided to use them for this card. Ink has been applied using sponge daubers and then the images were fussy cut and adhered with dimensionals.


To finish the card I added the die cut sentiment which has been created from pink blended card, die cut and then adhered to black card and fussy cut.

That is all from me today. We would love for you and your crafty friends to play along, if you have a blog you can add your creation to the Just Add Ink gallery here. Don't have your own blog? No problem! Just send us an email  to  just-add-ink@hotmail.com with a photo attachment. We will upload it to our challenge entry blog for you.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Merry Christmas & A Very Happy New Year for 2020!!! Stay safe, spread the joy and remember to take time for you. Until next time stay awesome and stay crafty.




Sunday 15 December 2019

Stamping Sunday Goodbye Holiday Favourite

Good Day Crafty Friends,


Welcome to the Stamping Sunday Blog Hop for December. We are ending the year with a theme that sees the Design Team saying GOODBYE HOLIDAY FAVOURITE. With Christmas only weeks away and my stash of cards quickly disappearing, I decided to use this opportunity to bash out a few last minute Christmas cards.

Now I must confess the Toile Tidings Suite was not my all time favourite from the Holiday Catalogue, but turns out it was the suite I created the most projects with from the Holiday Catalogue products - especially home decor items. The wrapping paper was so useful for coordinating gift wrapping with cards and tags and perfect for creating a DSP wreath.  I am a huge sucker for wreaths and the stamp and die cuts were definitely a well used product that adorned a lot of my Christmas cards this year.

I have two projects to share today -  a collection of cards - full sized and note cards. Both sets have been designed with creations suitable for beginners, casual and avid crafters

First up is the full sized cards.
This clean and simple card has a repetitively stamped sentiment card front, I would recommend using your Stamparatus for this step. A die cut Vellum wreath and punched Christmas Trees were added finished with a heat embossed sentiment.


The next card has an embossed panel, watercoloured die cut wreath , stamped, coloured and fussy cut elements and a heat embossed sentiment. DSP and a strip of Real Red Glimmer Paper have also been added.


For the avid crafter, I have used the same die cut and stamped elements as the card above, changing the layout a little and swapping out the embossing folders and DSP used.


And finally, a set of note cards for each level crafter, shown L to R, beginner/casual/avid. The little bird die cut is borrowed from the Well Written dies. 


That is all from me today. Thanks so very much for stopping by and hopping with the Stamping Sunday Design Team. I have had so much fun creating and sharing with you all this year and cannot wait for the exciting themes we have to inspire you with in 2020.

Have a Happy Festive Season, stay safe and see you in the New Year xx

Participant List







Thursday 5 December 2019

Just Add Ink #485 - One Layer Card

Hello Hello Crafty Friends

Welcome to Just Add Ink Challenge #485 - Just Add a One Layer Card.

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A one layer card is my biggest challenge in card making. I adore CAS cards but find it incredibly hard to create single layer cards...................must add........something lol

Anywho, I did manage to pull something together at the last minute. The bundle I originally wanted to use for this challenge to create a die cut edged card I had lent to friend so decided to pull out my absolute favourite stamp set of all time by Kindred Stamps. I have long adored the musical talents of  PRINCE, Bowie and Freddie and could not resist purchasing this set when shown by Tina - fellow Just Add Ink Design Team member. And yes I played music by all three artists while I created this card lol.


I started by tracing three circles onto a Whisper White card base with a Black Stampin' Write Marker. Next up, I stamped the three "Rock God" images inside the circles and coloured them with Stampin' Blends. I then stamped the three images again, this time onto Post It Notes, fussy cut and used these as masks so that I was able to sponge colour inside the circles.

I stamped a couple of the different sentiments from the same stamp set  to fill up some of the white space, and then added a few black sequins to finish the card.

That is all from me today. We would love for you and your crafty friends to play along, if you have a blog you can add your creation to the Just Add Ink gallery here. Don't have your own blog? No problem! Just send us an email  to  just-add-ink@hotmail.com with a photo attachment. We will upload it to our challenge entry blog for you.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Until next time stay awesome and stay crafty.





Tuesday 3 December 2019

Stampin' Up Artisan Blog Hop - 2020 Sale a bration Sneak Peak

Good Day Crafty Friends


Welcome to a special Stampin' Up! Artisan Design Team Blog Hop. We are super excited to be able to bring you a Hop full of fabulous creations using items that are available during the 2020 Sale-A-Bration Promotion. 

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Sale-A-Bration pre-earn is finally here! If you are a Demonstrator, pre-earn/pre-order is an exclusive benefit that allows Demonstrators to obtain product early - from 3 December 2019 to 2 January 2020! This means that demonstrators can earn items in the Sale-A-Bration Shop offering early. 

For every $90 AUD/$110 NZD or $180 AUD/$220 NZD you spend, you choose a free item from the Sale-A-Bration brochure that matches the level you spent. Demonstrators can even use the pre-order of the January–June mini catalogue and purchase items from that catalogue or any other current catalogue, and earn free Sale-A-Bration products! If you aren’t a demonstrator yet, this is a great sneak peek to see what is in store for Sale-A-Bration beginning 3 January 2020!

One of the stamp sets that can be earned FREE with any $90AUD purchase during Sale-A-Bration is "The Gang's All Meer" Stamp Set", which I had the pleasure of working with for today's Blog Hop.


Let me show you how to create the "shadow effect" that is the focal point of my card. Gather the supplies: Stamp Set of choice, Shimmery White Card,  Inks you wish to use for your sunset colours, sponges and a Black Stampin' Write marker.


Start by punching a circle from a Post It Note and place it onto centre of the Shimmery White Card. Sponge sunset colours - Pineapple Punch, Grapefruit Grove, Flirty Flamingo.

Once you have the sponged the sunset, remove the Post It note and then stamp chosen image, ensuring a portion appears in the "sun" area.


Now, take a Black Stampin' Write marker and fill in the stamped image. I used the brush tip to fill the main portion of the image and then the fine tip to trace the edges of the stamped image.


Using the brush tip end of the marker, I have coloured the base of the card front and then stamped the Palm tree image from the new Timeless Tropical stamp set.


Need more inspiration with the uber cute Meerkats? Here are two creations I previously shared on Instagram. 
Using the Cacti, Lizard and Party Hat stamps, I have stamped and coloured the images on a piece of Whisper White card and then die cut with the Rectangle Stitched dies along with the Granny Apple Green card behind. The Meerkat Gang has been stamped in Memento, colouring using Stampin' Blends and then fussy cut. The "Happy Birthday" greeting was created using the Well Said Stamp Set, white heat embossing the two sentiments onto Black card.

For the next card I created a sunset sponged background, stamped it with the "gang of Meerkats" and inserted it behind a "photo frame" made from Whisper White card that has been embossed using the Subtle Embossing Folder. The Meerkat images were coloured with Stampin' Blends, fussy cut and adhered with mini dimensionals over the stamped image inside the frame. I couldn't resist adding the line of lizards along the bottom of the photo frame which were also coloured with Blends, fussy cut and adhered with mini dimensionals.


That is all from me today. Up next in this months Blog Hop is my super talented friend, Jennifer Picard with her stunning project which I am sure you will totally love.



Artisan Design Team Blog Hop Participants


Wednesday 27 November 2019

Be Inspired Blog Hop - Feeling Festive

Hello Hello Crafty Friends


Welcome to the BE INSPIRED BLOG HOP for November. This month the Be Inspired Design Team are sharing creations with a "FEELING FESTIVE" theme. Such a timely challenge if you are anything like me and are still making Christmas Cards like crazy.

Living in Western Australia we get to celebrate the festive season during the Summer months and my family and friends love Christmas Cards with a beachy - summery vibe opposed to wintery scenes. The first two cards I have to share today were requested by Hubby - he asked for "cards with no lard" LoL, which basically means clean and simple without too many layers and embellishments. 


I have inked up images from the Timeless Tropical stamp set for these two cards. I was SOoooOoo stoked when I won this set in Prize Patrol at Onstage. Out of all the sets that were given away on the day I really really wanted this one as I just couldn't wait for preorder!!!!


Both cards share the same layout, made to look like a holiday snap of Palm trees. To create the "photo frames" I have simply removed a square from a rectangle piece of Whisper White card. Next, I took a piece of Shimmery White card and sponged Soft Suede, Coastal Cabana and Bermuda Bay inks, then cut it in half and adhered to the "frame" with Tombow.

The Palm tree images and flowers were stamped in Memento and coloured using Stampin' Blends. I have white heat embossed the sentiment from the Christmas Gleaming stamp set and tucked it under the flowers - which have been attached with mini dimensionals.
Jaxx Crafty Creations, Stampin' Up!, Be Inspired Blog Hop, Timeless Tropical, Tropical Cards, Tropical Christmas, Christmas Cards.

The next card disregarded Hubby's request for clean and simple!! This one is for me to send one of my crafty friends who will appreciate all the "lard" LoL.

Jaxx Crafty Creations, Stampin' Up!, Be Inspired Blog Hop, Timeless Tropical, Tropical Cards, Tropical Christmas, Christmas Cards.

This card starts with a piece of Shimmery White card to which I have sponged, Soft Suede, Coastal Cabana and Pacific Point inks in layers like they were sand, water and sky.

I have then stamped and fussy cut several flowers, pineapples and the Palm trees from Timeless Tropical stamp set and added a few die cut stitched rectangles and Tropical die cuts. Before adhering the card front to the base, I have added some linen twine. To finish the card I added the heat embossed sentiment and a few Holiday Rhinestone jewels in pumpkin pie to the centre of the flowers.


That is all from me today. Be sure to follow the Hop all the way through for loads more inspiring ideas using this months FEELING FESTIVE Theme. Up next in this months Be Inspired Blog Hop is super talented Cathy Caines with her stunning project.


Thanks so much for stopping by. I appreciate the time you have invested to visit my blog. Until next time, stay awesome and stay crafty.





Thursday 21 November 2019

Just Add Ink #483 - Choose Two

Hello Hello Crafty Friends,

Welcome to Just Add Ink Challenge #483. This week the challenge is to chose two elements from Spots, Stars or Sparkle.

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Can you believe Christmas is only five weeks away!!! I always aim to start my Christmas Card making earlier and earlier each year but it seems no matter how early I start I never have enough. Perhaps I need to be making them all year round?

This challenge was the perfect excuse to add to my Christmas card stash, as all three challenge elements just scream the Festive Season to me.


My card uses the Perfectly Plaid stamp set, some retired Polka Dot DSP (loved this pack of DSP!!) and I incorporated the sparkle element with some Glittery card stock. A few gold stars were added to the tree tops and voila all three challenge items on one card.


The plaid trees were stamped in Coastal Cabana, Granny Apple Green, Melon Mambo and Highland Heather inks. The sentiment has been white heat embossed onto Vellum and wrapped around the card front before adhering to the card base with dimensionals.

We would love for you and your crafty friends to play along, if you have a blog you can add your creation to the Just Add Ink gallery here. Don't have your own blog? No problem! Just send us an email  to  just-add-ink@hotmail.com with a photo attachment. We will upload it to our challenge entry blog for you.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Until next time stay awesome and stay crafty.




Thursday 14 November 2019

Stampin' Up! Artisan Design Team Blog Hop - Nov - Toile Tidings

Good Day Crafty Friends

Welcome to the Stampin' Up! Artisan Design Team Blog Hop for November. This month we have the pleasure of showcasing the TOILE TIDINGS SUITE. This traditional patterned and coloured suite is full of goodies, including two stamp and die bundles, DSP, Ribbons, Embellishments AND coordinating wrapping paper. You can find all the coordinating products on Page 7 of the 2019 Holiday Catalogue.


I have a couple of projects to share with you today.  I decided to make a few decor items for my house to show the versatility of this suite - My house is going to have a very Red & White feel this year which is perfect as I have a White Christmas Tree.

The first project I am excited to share is a curled DSP wreath using the Toile Tidings Gift Wrap for the wall next to our dining table. A few Sheets of the Gift Wrap have been cut down into 12" squared sheets and then I have taken the 12"x 12" and cut it down into 1" strips. To construct the wreath you will need a polystyrene wreath, dressmaker pins and loads of curled strips of DSP.  Once the DSP strips have been curled - I used a bone folder, simply take a pin, place into one end of the curled DSP strip and poke it into the wreath.


I thought the wreath looked like it was missing something so I decided to add the Poinsettia and Ribbon. The Poinsettia Flower has been created using the leaf dies from Nature's Roots Dies. Real Red & Call Me Clover card stock has been lightly spritzed with water before die cutting and embossing the two different sized leaves, using the dies with an embossing mat.  Before attaching the Flower, White Flax Ribbon and Real Read Ribbon were adhered to the wreath using a Hot Glue Gun.


The little house gift boxes will look fantastic on the table on Christmas Day. These house shaped boxes will hold bags of Russian Fudge - just lift the tab that forms the "roof" to reveal the treats inside. To decorate the boxes, Toile Tidings DSP has been die cut using the Stitched Nested Label dies, then a few Air Dry Clay Star Shaped tags were attached to the outer two boxes. 



The wreath that adorns the front of the middle gift box has been created with the All Around Wreath Dies. The "banner sentiment" is from the Toile Christmas stamp set and has been gold heat embossed on vellum, die cut and then adhered to a plain whisper white die cut - this ensures the heat embossing is not lost in the busy pattern of the DSP. A few Cherry Cobbler embellishments from the Holiday Rhinestone Basic Jewels were then scattered around the wreath.

Using the Toile Tidings Gift Wrap, I took the Dark Pool Party Stampin' Blend and coloured in the vanilla background. I then used this sheet to create a couple of cards combing products outside the suite. A few felt embellishments from the Let It Snow Embellishment Kit were used for the card on the left. For the card on the right I have used the Snow Globe Scene dies and the "tis the season" die cut from the Jolly Season Dies.  


I did manage to use the Gift Wrap for its intended purpose and wrapped a trio of boxes that will sit on our Coffee Station on Christmas Day, along with the rosette banner. I have used wooden letters to match the timber on Coffee Station but these can be substituted with die cut letters or an alphabet stamp.


The last set of projects I wanted to share is a few gift boxes made from A4 sheets of Very Vanilla card stock and then decorated using Blushing Bride, Real Red card and Toile Tidings DSP.  These boxes are perfect for my daughters smaller sized gifts, enabling multiple facial scrubs and lip glosses to fit into each one.

As with the trio of boxes above, I have used the Real Red 1" Ruched Ribbon along with some Real Red 1/8" Curly Ribbon. The "Joy" gift tag attached to the large gift bow was created by stamping the letters j,o and y from the Lined Alphabet stamp set. These were then fussy cut and attached to a Very Vanilla Stitched Circle with Multi Purpose Adhesive.


And that is all from me today. Be sure to keep hopping all the way through the Blog Hop for loads more inspiring projects by the Artisan Design Team using the Toile Tidings Suite.

Up next is my super talented and wonderfully creative friend, Jennifer Picard with her gorgeous projects - enjoy x


Participant List

Jackie Aitken 

You can find some of the products used in today's blog post in the item list below.

Product List
Heat Tool
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$50.00