Baroque Fireworks

(Photo and creation courtesy of Lorraine Mastalski)

Hello _FINALLY_,

Thanks for your patience while my non-stamping world has kept me away. I really appreciate that you keep checking back for new posts and haven't given up on me. A quick note of explanation....I am currently working three part-time jobs (in addition to Stampin' Up!). I've always had a few balls in the air but recently I was offered the opportunity to work part-time in my original profession of science. Paper-crafter and scientist - it doesn't have a poetic ring! But the offer to get back into the corporate world was too attractive to turn-down (I have the best boss in the world and I get a lap-top all to myself, no more sharing with hubby and kids) and is helping to keep my family in the manner to which they are becoming accustomed, i.e. lots of take-away food, an ironing lady, after-school care and a scatter-brain wife and mother. Just joking, it's not all bad. We have just bought a much-needed second car and are planning a holiday to Fiji later in the year.

Anyway, enough of me, you didn't come here for a soap opera but I felt some explanation was necessary and I thank you in advance for your patience until I get into a new routine. Today, I'm plugging a community event. If you're in Australia, do you miss Firecracker Night? Maybe you're too young to remember it but I have very fond memories of bonfires and crackers on our long weekend in June to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's birthday.

Schofield's Public School is holding their Annual Fireworks festival TONIGHT = Friday 29 May 2009. If you're in the area, and would love a kid-friendly afternoon/evening out, then take the kids along, and be sure to drop into the Stampin' Up! stall. Sadly, I can't be there (I'm working elsewhere) but my good friend and team member Ryn Gibbs will be there with a display, catalogues to browse, and paper-crafted treats to buy. There are also Carnival Rides, sideshows, entertainment, a BBQ and a Showbag Stall, so there is something for everyone! And you'll be supporting children's education while having all this fun.

Where: Schofields Public School - St Albans Road, near Junction Road. Click HERE for a map.

When: 4.30 pm - approximately 8pm (fireworks when darkness falls)

And lastly, but certainly not least, thank you to Lorraine Mastalski for her fireworks card (shown above) made with one of my favourite ever sets, Baroque Motifs. Visit Lorraine's website for more card details.

But you know me, I couldn't end it there, in my search I found this cute journal cover from Pat Sell. Thanks for sharing your talent Pat.

(Photo and creation courtesy of Pat Sell)

Well, my time really is up now. I'm off to make lasagne and butter chicken, I am helping my dear friend and new Stampin' Up! demonstrator Carolyn (note this is a link to Carolyn's Facebook Page, register or login to view) to cater for her Winter Warmers luncheon tomorrow. Have a good weekend, squeeze some stampin' in.

Love from Crafty Kim

Reminder about CRAFT SALE

Remember this? That's right, a group of mad paper-crafters are clearing out their stash and having a:

For sale will be all things crafty, both SU! items and goods from other manufacturers. Papers, stamps, punches, embellishments, in great condition, all priced to go.So please come along and grab yourself a bargain. There will be lucky door prizes to win too.

When: Saturday, 23rd May 10am -2pm
Where: The Church Hall (Blacktown East Presbyterian) Cnr Heffron Rd and Gallop Gr, Lalor Park (near Bella Vista and Blacktown). Please go to the Where Is? web site where you can get directions from your home to the hall.
Admission: FREE

If you have any questions , please phone me on 0402 347 010 or email me. Thanks for reading and hope to see you on Saturday.

Love Crafty Kim

Heading off to Stamp Camp

Hello,

Tonight I am heading off to Collaroy (a suburb on the Northern Beaches of Sydney) for a Stamp Camp. I will be back on Sunday afternoon (17 May 2009).

I won't be posting while I am away (I will try to sneak a couple more posts in before I go). Instead I'll be creating so hopefully I will have lots to share with you when I get back. If you need anything while I am away, please contact me on my mobile phone 0402 347 010.

It's a fairly unstructured get-away; we do share tools and tips but not in a formal way. It's my 4th year of attending; in the first two years I was helping my paper-craft friend, Kathryn, to plan and run it. But now, Gaib is doing a wonderful job of getting us all accommodated, fed and water. Thanks to Gaib and her off-siders.

I wish we humans could bank sleep ahead of such gatherings to make the most of dedicated craft time. I'm hoping I won't be asleep at my craft table too early. I also hope your week allows you to do something crafty too.

Bye for now,

Love KimT

Lillian's Build-a-Roo Birthday Card

This is the card I made for a little girl who turned four recently. Thank you to Margaret Crawford who supplied a sheet of images from the stamp set, Build-a-Roo (page 56 of the main SU! catalogue). The images are water-coloured with SU! Markers and the smaller images (hearts, gift and joey) were cut and stuck over the top of the main image. I've used some retired paper and ribbon (it feels good to be using items from my stash). It never fails to amaze me how using decorative paper can add that something extra to a card which makes it a "stand-out". Notice the colour co-ordinated button? Firstly, it is sewn on. "So what?" I hear you say but given I can't sew and I made this card at about 1am in the morning with very tired eyes, I'm proud. It's a Clear Button (P. 151 of the main SU! catalogue) with a piece of coloured card stock behind them. Such a simple concept and it works well. I can't wait to use some of the new Designer Buttons.

I had the privilege of helping with the birthday party. Here is the birthday girl blowing out the candles on her enormous cup cake, baked and decorated by her Mum.


I love decorating kids' birthday cakes but unfortunately my last effort for Ashley's 7th birthday party got eaten by a VERY NORTY Beagle dog just before the party commenced (thankfully The Cheesecake Shop saved the day).

On Mother's Day, I was thrilled to receive this card from my own cherub:

The poem reads:

Mum, you've always been the best
A better mum than all the rest.
I'm thankful for all the things you do
I'm glad my mum is extra special you!

On Mother's Day, I want you to know
You're the greatest mum, and I love you so.
There's one more thing I want to say:
I wish you a Happy Mother's Day!

Aaaawwww...he had a bit of help from his school teacher, Mr C - pretty creative for a bloke don't you think? Okay better stop there before someone nabs me for sexual discrimination.

Love from Craft Kim

Happy Mother's Day & Alisa's Creation

(Creation and Photo Courtesy of the Very Talented Alisa Tilsner, with THANKS)

Firstly, Happy Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mums out there. I thought I'd leave aside the emotive motherhood quotes and try a few funny quotes about mothers:

A mother forgives us all our faults, not to mention one or two we don't even have ~Robert Brault

It's not easy being a mother. If it were easy, fathers would do it ~ From the television show The Golden Girls

A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after ~ Peter De Vries

Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly ~ Ambrose Bierce

Hope you got a smile from these.

Now onto the card above. Continuing on with the Convention-themed posts, this card I spied on Alisa Tilsner's bag not long after reaching Canberra. I had hoped to score one of her Convention swaps but alas, I was too late to trade. But luckily she posted this beautiful card on her website so for more details, please visit her there.

I have long admired Alisa's water-colouring. She is one of the most highly-regarded water-colouring artists in the paper-crafting realm. And she generously shared some of her skills with us at Convention in 2008. To view her water-colouring demonstration, please click here. Thanks again to Alisa for sharing her creativity and expertise.

The flower stamp above is from Fifth Avenue Florals which I have just ordered for my own collection so please stay tuned for more cards made using this set. At Convention, I also purchased an Umbrella featuring the stamp set, how cool is this:


A close up of the images follows:


Looking outside, I might even get a chance to use mine tomorrow.

Well that's it from me today. I'll be back to show you the card my son Ashley made for me for Mother's Day. But my life is very full of non-crafty distractions right now so thanks in advance for your patience.

Love from Crafty Kim

Upsy Daisy Silhouette Style Card

Gotta love Upsy Daisy. It's a solid, flat image but I've given it depth by firstly inking up the whole flower image in Baja Breeze. I then took my trusty sponge daubers and daubed (is that a word?) Not Quite Navy onto the tips of the flowers before stamping the image on Whisper White. You probably can't see it well in this photo but I finished up with Dazzling Diamonds on the same flower tips applied via my 2-Way Glue Pen. You can probably figure out the rest of the card...Kiwi Kiss, Urban Garden DSP, Best Yet stamp, Circle, Circle Scallop and Scallop Edge punches and Organdy Ribbon (shhhhh, it's retired but I love it so much that it's making a guest appearance).

At Convention, Pam Morgan (the Tim Tam fan) showed us a similar technique, but she used three colours on the Upsy Daisy stamp, Kiwi Kiss for the stems, and Regal Rose and Rose Red for the flowers, all applied with sponge daubers directly :


In summary, this is one Silhouette technique. And on the subject of tips and techniques, check out all the different ways you can use sponge daubers (courtesy of Angela Sargeant). I seriously wonder how I did paper-craft without them.

Better go but I'll be back tomorrow to wish all the Mums a happy day.

Love from Crafty Kim

Buy Three Packs of Decorative Paper and Get One Pack for FREE

Marvellous May is National Scrapbooking Month and to celebrate Stampin' Up! are offering a FREE Designer Series Paper Pack when you purchase three DSP packs.

I was hoping to get this offer to you earlier this week but I think I have a good excuse. Here is the reason for the delay:

His name is Sammy Beagle and I am his foster carer. He is 4 months old and his former family were unable to continue homing him so he is with me until we find his forever family. Shouldn't be too long, he is very endearing. If you would like to know more about the Beagle Club of NSW's rescue and re-homing service run by volunteers like myself, please visit its website here (keep scrolling down). In the mean time, he sure is passing the time for me!

Back to this great scrappin' offer...if you buy any three paper packs (each pack contains 12 double-sided sheets for $16.95) from the following selection, then you receive a free paper pack selected from the same list:

Item, Page, Description

112042 132 Urban Garden Designer Series paper


112470 132 Haiku Designer Series paper
113976 132 Pink Flamingo Designer Series paper
112468 132 Sweet Always Designer Series paper
113992 133 Tea Party Designer Series paper
113975 133 Raspberry Tart Designer Series paper
113966 134 Good Morning Sunshine Designer Series paper
112469 134 Holiday Treasures Designer Series paper
112041 134 Bella Rose Designer Series paper
113974 134 Bella Bleu Designer Series paper
113978 135 Urban Oasis Designer Series paper
112461 135 Washington Apple Designer Series paper
112039 135 Windsor Knot Designer Series paper
113980 135 Candy Lane Designer Series paper

Now this paper is great for scrapping. As you probably know, I only scrap occasionally so I'm going to share a layout idea from another demonstrator here because I haven't done much scrappin' with the new papers yet. Many thanks to Beth Stewart for her inspiring scrapbook layouts like this one using Good Morning Sunshine DSP:

(Photo and creation courtesy of Beth Stewart, for more details of this lay-out, please click here)

But paper is also great for making cards, remember this card? And this card? Both made with paper. Paper can also be used instead of one sheet of stamped paper for the One Sheet Wonder Project. Card making with paper is so quick and easy too.

Please phone me on 0402 347 010 or email me at ktonnet@bigpond.net.au to order or for more details.

Back soon as I can, puppy walking duties call and would you believe, I need to rescue a few items from Sammy's choppers.

Love from Crafty Kim

My Stampin' Convention Swap Card

Everything about this card and this post is quick. I would love to have made 50+ grand cards to swap with other Convention attendees but the night before Convention came and reality set in.

So, I set to work with Pocket Silhouettes to make the above card. I made several variations of it, both in terms of the featured image (there being four to choose from in the stamp set) and colour (shown above is Mellow Moss and Perfect Plum). Apart from using the Scallop Edge Punch, I've stamped off to get the lighter coloured flower stalks and sponged nearly every edge. I thought "Friend to Friend" was particularly appropriate given that I was distributing these cards to other paper-craft enthusiasts.

Pocket Silhouettes a great little set, so easy and so fast. Also great for Silhouette Cards. What do I mean by Silhouette Cards? I learnt all about them from Pam Morgan who is the Vice-President of Demonstrator Support with Stampin' Up! in the USA. For my fellow Beagle dog lovers out there, Pam is also the proud owner of Louie, a 9 year old Beagle dog (it seems Beagles the world over are given to naughty behaviour). She is also a huge fan of Arnotts Tim Tam biscuits and travelled home on Sunday with a large supply of several varieties. Her son had requested a didgeridoo as his souvenir from Australia but she had to break the news to him that it wouldn't fit into either her luggage or budget. Anyway, back to the cards, she showed several ways to add light and shadow to cards and I'll be sharing this knowledge with you in upcoming posts.

At Convention there was a swapping frenzy and by the end I had received a large number of swap cards in return and I'll be featuring some of these in upcoming days on my website, including a couple more using this same set, Pocket Silhouettes. I hasten to add that many of the card creators put much more effort into their swaps than I did so you're in for a treat.

'til then, hope you're squeezing some crafting into your week.

Love from Crafty Kim

NOW is the time to join Stampin' Up!, it's ONLY $150

I'm now back from the Stampin' Up! Convention in Canberra where I had a wonderful few days with my friends. I'll be posting later with more details of our activities but I just wanted to pop in here and let you know about this truly great deal:

Join Stampin' Up! during May for $150, and receive more than $200 worth of Stampin' Up! products and supplies. Then enjoy 30% off the first order you place as a demonstrator, followed by at least 20% off on all orders thereafter.

What happens after that? Most likely the product will almost sell itself to your family and friends and you'll do as much or as little with Stampin' Up! as suits you. SU! values all of its demonstrators, and never pressures those who are content to be hobbyists.

Who knows, you might even get yourself a part-time job and cover one or more of your monthly household bills.

But the best thing about being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is the friends you'll share your craft with. My customers and fellow demonstrators are a constant source of joy to me. I know it sounds "gushy" but this is statement of the heart. It's not some sales pitch.

And what happens if you decide not to continue? Nothing! There are no penalties. You keep the products you bought at significant discount and life goes on.

Please contact me on phone 0402 347 010 or email ktonnet@bigpond.net.au for more information.

Off to unpack and upload some photos to show you. Hope your week starts well.

Love from Crafty Kim