INKYART

Making Merry Monday

A friend told me this weekend just past that there are 8 weeks until Christmas.  Is anyone else as shocked by that little gem of information as I am?  OMG - that's not long is it.

Without further ado, here's a card that I was going to teach in a Glitter class.  Yes I am going to say WAS because this class is doomed I think!  I've had to cancel it so many times for all sorts of reasons, so I am thinking it is a sign - this class isn't meant to happen :o(

Here's a close up of the sparkliness (yes a new word for the 2011 festive season). And how do we do that?  

Well you stamp your image first.  Then take your Versamark pad and stamp this over the image - straight onto the cardstock - not onto the stamp - you need to cover the cardstock completely.  (Tip: I tend to stamp several images on one piece of cardstock and then Versamark and glitterise (not sure that is a real word either) the whole lot at the same time).

Cover the whole piece of card with some Heat and Stick powder - use a heat gun to melt this.  When the powder is moulton, sprinkle over Dazzling Diamonds.  Tap off the excess and heat again.  (Tip:  just a little flash of the heat gun this time - we are just setting the Dazzling Diamonds not melting it).

Hey presto you have some lovely sparkly pieces to make into cards.

This card uses the Delightful Decorations set and matching Ornament punch. Using a matching stamp and punch means you can churn a few of these out in double quick time - just what we need with only 8 weeks left to go!  The swirl is from Baroque Motifs.

Happy Making Merry Monday.

Nikki

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Big Shot Blog Hop

Yes it's that time once again for another blog hop -  this time show casing the lovely Big Shot - one of my favourite tools.  There are  six stops along the way - grab a cuppa and hop on board for some lovely inspiration.   

My most favourite die is the Timeless Type alphabet - being a scrapbooker I love that I can create any title I like.  I took a tip from Tina Gillespie (the hop before me)  and 'chopped off the curly bits' to change the style of the letters - what a fab idea.  

I also love the versatility of the embossing folders.  Just on this scrapbooking page alone I have used both the alphabet and three embossing folders.  

Embossing cardstock and papers is a cheap and easy way to change their look and feel.

Hop along now to see the lovely Sue Madex - she's been absent from our hops for a little bit and we've missed her.

Just have to finish this post with a close up on my boy, did he really look like this once?  Was he really this little and cute?   

Happy hopping and big shotting!

Nikki

 

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Shabby Chic Flowers

I was a little late with this birthday card.  A lovely class and workshop friend of mine, Tracey, has recently celebrated her birthday - and a slight technical hitch (I have brithdays loaded into my calendar on my phone but sometimes the reminders don't work - operator error of course) - meant that this ended up being a little belated!

Tracey creates the most beautiful cards and scrapbooking pages so the pressure was on to make something I didn't think she had seen before.

These flowers really are simple to make - the way the cardstock acts when you spray it with water and scrunch it up is amazing - I think Tracey will like the end result.

So happy belated birthday Tracey.

Nikki

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Field Flowers

This is another one of those sets that as soon as I saw the new catalogue I knew would be in my collection very soon.  Inspired by the cover of the new book, I made the following card.

I've dipped into the new In Colour range - Calypso Coral and Lucky Limeade, teamed with Very Vanilla and Early Espresso.

The swirly background stamp is from the Creative Elements set - its quite a useful set with this swirly stamps, a butterfly, a flower and a few other stamps too.  The First Edition Speciality papers are great to stamp on - I've highlighted the centres of the flowers using Dimensionals to.

I decorated the inside of the card too.  The flower parts are separate stamps, and I used the Stamp-a-Ma-Jig to line everything up perfectly.

Happy Stampin'

Nikki

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Making Merry Monday

Welcome to another Making Merry Monday.  I have been wanting to make these lovely flowers for a few months now.  So I 'invested' in a couple of punches and here's my first attempt.  I love it!

Who would have thought that wetting and scrunching cardstock would have resulted in such a lovely shabby chic flower?  Yes it really is just water and cardstock!  And when you've finished scrunching and squeezing you just add a spritz of Shimmer Mist and leave the whole lot to dry overnight - amazing.

So today's Christmas card is made with Cherry Cobbler cardstock, Mocha Morning speciality papers (this one is flocked and is lovely), and a piece of Whisper White which has been run through the Vintage Vogue folder.

Happy Stampin'

Nikki

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Get The Kids Scrapbooking Too!

Check out Stampamemory today - its my turn to share some scrapbooking inspiration with you.

Happy scrapping!

Nikki

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Making Merry Monday 2011

With it being October now - I thought it would be a good time to bring back Making Merry Monday. MMM was invented by Anita Meade a few years ago and the idea is that you post a Christmas idea every Monday (or you could reword that last sentence to read 'Nik is going to be super organised and have all her cards made in good time this year' LOL).  Here's the first one.

When I saw this set in the new catalogue it was top of my 'had to buy it now' list.  Beautiful Season is great for watercolouring and the little bird can be made into a little robin very easily.  The little sentiments in the set fit perfectly with some of the punches too, this will make it easy to mass produce cards if you need to - I'll have a sample or two to show you very soon.

Have you seen the new sparkles in the catalogue this year?  Glass Glitter (page 145) is so lovely, and I've used Sticky Strip to glue it into place.  And isn't the new Stripes embossing folder lovely - very Christmassy I thought.

What this space for more Christmas card ideas - this is the month to make a couple extra and donate them to a good cause - I make and collect cards the Defence forces serving overseas - if you have any cards you'd like to donate also please get in touch.

Happy Stampin'

Nikki

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New Catalogue Swaps

If you read my OLW post of a couple of days ago you'll have read about these swaps that I made.  I've used the Just Add Cake DSP, Baja Breeze, So Saffron and Peach Parfait.

I've used a scoring tool to make the little pinwheel or lolly, I am keeping my fingers crossed that we see the new Stampin' Up! Scoring Tool in the Summer Mini which will be released on 1 December.

Not overly happy with these, but very happy that I finally completed the task.

Happy stampin!

Nikki

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Ribbon Shares

Do you love the new In Colours?  And do you love ribbons?  I thought it was about time I ventured into the world of sharing .... so here's a ribbon share for you.

It works like this.  There are five shares and each share costs $18.95 plus $1.10 postage (or you can collect it from me and save yourself the postage).

You will receive 1.8 metres of each of the five new In colours, Calupso Coral, Insland Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party and Wisteria Wonder.

I will place the order once I have five particiapants in the share. 

Payments can be made via PayPal, bank deposit or cash if you want to collect.  Email me to take part in the share and if you want to pay by PayPal I'll send you an invoice.

Happy Stampin'

Nikki

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Simply Stockings Promotion

Have you seen the Simply Stockings' Promotion?  This really is too good to be true.  
This lovely set is going to feature in the Summer Mini which releases on 1 December.  Yes, I know that doesn't give you a lot of time to use it to make Christmas cards, so Stampin' Up! are giving you two ways to receive this lovely set and punch during the month of October.

Do you want to receive it for FREE?  Of course you do!  

All you have to do is host a workshop, reach $450 in sales and you'll receive both the punch (value $33.95) and the 7 piece Simply Stockings set (value in wood $53.95 or $42.95 for clear mount) as a gift.  

This doesn't affect your hostess dollars either, you'll still receive $60 to spend on whatever you like in the catalogue - WOW.  That adds up to $147.95 worth of freebies for holding a qualifying workshop this month (or $136.90 if you choose the clear mount option).

So hands up who wants to host a workshop?  Call me - I'm taking bookings :o)

Click on the image above if you want a close up of the stamp set.

 So I said there were two ways to get your hands on this set didn't I.  The other way is to purchase the set and or punch yourself this month.  If you don't want to hold a workshop that's okay - you can join in the fun too.

Workshops and / or orders have to be placed by close of business on 31 October.  Call or email me if you want this set.

Happy Stampin!

Nikki

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