Purple 21st

I recently made invitations for a 21st Birthday Party. The birthday girl is my brother's girlfriend Kate.

Kate wanted a purple party so here's what I came up with for her:





When mass-producing invitations I think it's best to keep it as simple as possible. Punches, wheels, backgrounds stamps, printing on the computer all help with this.

For this invitation I used punches and a background stamp. The most time consuming part was using the stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the 21 and the dots around it. Even so, this was still pretty quick to do.

Stamps: Polka Dot Background, Typeset Numbers (retired), Think Happy Thoughts
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Lavendar Lace
Paper: Elegant Eggplant, Lavendar Lace
Tools: 1 and 1/4" circle punch, 1 and 3/8" circle punch, scallop circle punch

Baja Breeze - how do YOU pronounce it?

Another CASE from the new catalogue:

I don't have the "Friends 24-7" set so I used "Echoes of Kindness" which is a Level 2 Hostess Set (which I borrowed from Bell) instead.

I also don't have any of the new Designer Papers yet so instead I stamped the "En Fancais" background stamp on the lower half of the card.

Of course, if I don't have the papers I also don't have the new ribbons yet either! So I subsitituted some Whisper White tafetta for the Baja Breeze ribbon.

I really love this new Baja Breeze colour! I have heard a few interesting ways of pronouncing Baja already...how do YOU pronounce it? I say "Ba-ha" since I figure it is a place in Mexico and in the Spanish language the letter J sounds like the English letter H. Leave me a comment if you agree/disagree.


Stamps: Echoes of Kindness, En Francais
Ink: Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Staz-On Black
Paper: Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Watercolour paper
Accessories: Whisper White Tafetta ribbon
Tools: Aquapainter

Gum Blossoms by Mum

Here's a card made by my mum using the new stamp set "Blooms Away". I think she's done a fantastic job of colouring the gum blossoms.

Simply Said CASEd

Here's another "CASEd" card from the new catalogue.

Stamps: Simply Said
Inks: Certainly Celery, Not Quite Navy, Bashful Blue
Paper: Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Earth Elements Brads, Flower Designer Brads
Tools: Stamp-a-ma-jig

And here's the original:

Pick A Purple Petal

The idea for this card came from the following picture in our new catalogue:

The catalouge is such a great resource! You can copy the samples exactly or do what I've done here and use it for inspiration. I've copied the layout but changed it a little bit by adding the scalloped border instead of a piece of ribbon.

I also changed the colours. The colour combination was inspired by the Colour Wheel. The colour wheel doesn't have the in colours on it so I substitiuted them in for other colours. The colour wheel suggested a combination of Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive and Pretty In Pink. I swapped the Olive for Kiwi and the Pretty in Pink for Pink Piroutte.



Stamps: Pick A Petal, Short and Sweet
Inks: Elegant Eggplant, Kiwi Kiss
Paper: Elegant Eggplant, Kiwi Kiss, Pink Piroutte, Whisper White
Accessories: nil
Tools: Word Window Punch, Scalloped Edge punch, Distressing Tool (Cutter Kit), 1 inch circle punch

Easter Cards

Easter is nearly here so I though I'd better show you a couple of Easter cards.I don't have ANY Easter Stamps!!! Well, except for the "Easter Wishes" greeting from the "Occasional Greetings" Stamp Set. So I had to make do with my punches!

My colour combination came from the Stampin' Up! Colour Wheel.

I have sponged around the edges of the card but it doesn't show up much in the photo. It is only light sponging.

Stamps: Occasional Greetings
Inks: Night of Navy, Sage Shadow
Papers: Night of Navy, Sage Shdow, Blush Blossom
Tools: Small and Large Oval Punches, 1/2", 1 and 1/4", 1 and 3/8" circle punches, scallop circle punch.
Accessories: Soft Subtles brads, sponge, black marker, googly eyes (not Stampin' Up)

This card is one that I made as a make and take at my Upline Liz's meeting last month. It is a half-sized card.

Stamps: Greetings Eight
Inks: Staz-On Black. Stampin' Pastels (chalks)
Paper: Barely Banana, Good Morning Sunshine DSP
Accessories: Bashful Blue 1/4" grosgrain ribbon
Tools: Paper Piercer and Mat Pack, Scallop Circle Punch, 1 and 3/8" Circle Punch, blender pen

Thomas for Toby

My son Toby LOVE LOVE LOVES Thomas the Tank Engine and all associated things!!

So for his 3rd birthday this year (which is on Easter Sunday) I have made him Thomas the Tank Engine party invitations. I got some el-cheapo foam-backed rubber stamps from eBay and got to work.

Now, these foam stamps were HORRIBLE to work with - absoloutely horrid! I didn't realise how great our Stampin' Up stamps are until I went back to cheap stamps! The image is not very deeply etched and is not trimmed nice and close so it was hard not to get those awful ink shadows around the image. It was also really had to stamp it evenly without patchy bits missing. Ugh.


I stamped the main image in Staz-On onto Whisper White. I coloured him in with a combination of markers and inkpads with an aquapainter. I used Ballet Blue, Real Red, YoYo Yellow and Going Grey. Ballet Blue was the closest we have to a Thomas Blue.

Colouring 15 of these darn things was quite a pain by the end of it all! LOL!

I stamped the same Thomas stamp as a background witht he Ballet Blue ink onto the matching Ballet Blue cardstock.

The "You're Invited" comes from the "Cheers and Wishes" stamp set.