pretty new stamps!

Just a quick one to show a thank you card that I'm quite proud of... my very first solo attempt at the baby wipe technique! My upline (Mae Collins) demonstrated this technique at her last class, and I was amazed at how easy it was.

I added a bit of pearl shimmer paint on the flowers, but it may be a bit tricky to see in the photo.
I haven't invested in too many of the ink refills, but I think I'll have to start getting some more. This technique is so easy, and I think it looks quite effective too!

Card: Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede
Inks: Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze
Stamps: Elements of Style, Teeny Tiny Sentiments, En Francais
Other: Antique brad, Chantilly Lace, Pearl, Pearl Alcohol Ink

Bye-bye Sale-A-Bration

*sniff* I am very sad to say goodbye to the lovely stamps and DSP from this year's Sale-A-Bration catalogue. I especially love the DSP, and I can see myself torn between using it on everything, and being really stingy with it so I don't run out!

Here is the last card I made using these awesome products:

On a completely different topic... OMG do I need to learn how to take better photos! I guess it would help not leaving them all until last thing at night... but with all my "helpful" children running around during daylight hours, getting any photos taken would most likely never happen!

My usual trick is to try a few pics, say "oh these look rubbish!" then ask my darling husband (and amateur photography enthusiast) to take them for me :) Unfortunately, he has yet to return from his latest jaunt to the US, so you poor unfortunates will have to make do with my efforts!

Easter treats!

It's only a week away... the visit from the fluffy white Easter Bunny!! Here are the cute little treats we made at my Easter workshop last weekend - I know, how very slack of me having taken nearly a week to post them!

These little toppers were pretty quick to make - and everyone at the workshop got to make 6 of them! A few M&Ms inside and they're ready for the kids to find on Easter Sunday. I can't take credit for inventing these myself, but there are so many floating around on the interwebs that I'm not sure who to credit the original idea to. I think I took some elements from a few different sites, and made up a few of my own because I didn't have the right punches :) But isn't that how it all works?

These little cuties I found on Jill Coleman's blog, and I thought they would be a really quick addition to the workshop. Great to put a few mini choc eggs in and have at the table for the big family lunch :)

I wish I'd remembered to take a photo of the cute little basket I made for the door prize... some more punch art, but a cute little chick hatching out of his egg this time! Oh well... maybe next year I'll remember!

An exciting footnote: my new craft space is almost ready!! Well, by "almost ready" I mean that it's been framed and the plaster has been put up, and the extra lights & outlets have been added. So all that's left really is painting, floor covering and moving all the stuff back in. It'll be done in a jiffy!*

*that's a Dalton jiffy (approximately 3 months), not the technical one the brainy people use (In astrophysics and quantum physics a jiffy is, as defined by Edward R. Harrison, the time it takes for light to travel one fermi, which is the size of a nucleon. One fermi is 10⁻¹⁵ m, so a jiffy is about 3 × 10⁻²⁴ seconds.) Thanks Wikepedia!

It's almost time....

for a new Mini Catalogue!!

The sad news is that we say good bye to Sale-a-bration at the end of this month (have you got all the stamps yet??), but the good news is that as of April 1st, there will be a new mini to drool over!!

I've had a bit of a peek, and I have to say I'm impressed. A few excellent new tools are making an appearance, as well as some luscious new stamps and DSPs. Stampin' Up! have also added a new dimension to card making with SCENTED EMBOSSING POWDER!!! That's right.. now you cards can look awesome and smell delicious!

Here is a quick card I made with my new goodies tonight, inspired by Yapha Mason's card (sorry for the p.poor photography):

How many new goodies can you spot? Oh if only you could smell over the internet...it's delicious!

I've got a mad few days coming up - work, kids sports, renovations, dinner out with the girls, so I may not be able to get many cards made :( I've got soooo many ideas, just not enough time at the moment! Hopefully I'll be able to get one or two done and uploaded. Wish me luck!