playing with bleach!!

FINALLY got my camera going and so now can blog again! yippee! hehe

Yesterday at class we played with bleach. This time we painted with it rather than stamped with it.

Different card stock changes colour differently with the bleach. If it has a 'yellow' tinge to it it will go a pale yellow colour but we discovered the Melon Mambo goes nearly white! So what you can do with it increases.

The first card here is a KISS card (keeping it simple sister! lol) where I have left the bleached area plain. What you do first is emboss an image on to the card stock then you paint the bleach inside the image. The embossing helps keep the bleach inside the image.

The second is card is the same image but I have recoloured the image using the Stampin' Up! markers. Isn't it neat to be able to put a coloured image directly onto to coloured card stock!.

oh and we had a wee visitor to class yesterday - wee Holle Mason, isn't she cute!

I have a few more samples to show so come back and visit tomorrow!

another cool Crafters Anonymous class project

over on our Crafters Anonymous site we have a on-line class every week and yesterday Tia took the class and we made this cool set. The bottom two are drawers but the top on opens up like a pizza box. The bow I will be teaching at a class in two weeks so if you are a dedicated crafter (all crafts are covered at the site) email me on julia.leece@slingshot.co.nz for an invite to the site.

The tutorial for this class will be made available to purchase on the site later in the week. If you attend the class you get the tutorial for free.

I did get some other projects made to share with you but my cameras memory card decided to break so I can take pictures of them! Hopefully I will get that sorted this week.

Don't forget I have a catch up class tomorrow (Wednesday 30 April) at my place - we are using a real cool technique so email me for more info.

Brad earrings

No these aren't little Brad Pitt earrings! lol They are made from Stampin' Up! brads! In fact they are Stampin' Up! Antique brads - aren't they just divine!!

They are so easy to make - just cut off the 'legs' off the back of the brads (I used Stampin' Up!'s Rubber scissors) and attach some blank earring posts using Chrystal Effects. That is it!!

I got the idea from Helen Williams - go visit her WONDERFUL blog HERE

Finally had a chance to craft!! YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO

and this project was for the on-line class at Crafters Anonymous. The wonderful designer taking the class was Anne Brignall and I think these bags are SOOO cool!! the are really sturdy too - and simply made from one sheet of 12x12 paper!

I used the Stampin' Up! Naturals Stack Pack and Basic Black card. The stamp set on the pocket is 'Bliss' which is a Sale-a-bration set - don't forget Sale-a-bration ends at the end of March so contact me TODAY to secure your FREE set (with qualifying orders).

I have been busy with work for Stampin' Up! (not all crafting unfortunately! lol) and of cause sorting out more stuff - I really don't know how everyone does everything as I find there are never enough hours in the day or energy in the hours I do have!! lol

Hopefully I will be able to post a bit more often now anyway! Have a great Wednesday!!

this is why I haven't crafted for a day or two!

we have sold our house and so are shift and I need to sort out all my stuff before we shift.

So I have started on my craft room - all I have taken out is all my mosaicing stuff out.

I am wanting to make sure I don't shift 'junk' with me so I have started going thru EVERYTHING!! I have so much stuff that I don't need in here as well as things are not well stored so I am hoping by the end of the week I will have it all sorted!

my birthday pressies!

wow as I mentioned yesterday it was may birthday and I got so spoilt with some beautiful cards - many home made. This first one is an AMAZING card from my dear friend Sharon in Hamilton. She is such an amazing paper artist!

the next is from Irene who comes to my classes - just so pretty!

this one is from my mate Bron - check out her blog as her photo of the card is way better than mine- everything was a bit blue today for some reason!

this one was made by my dear daughter Kelly - cute eh!

these lovely goodies were made by a friend from Motueka - Dee she has some awesome projects on her blog. She knows I love my chocolate and pineapple lumps are a fav so this way NO ONE can eat mine!! She also made me a lovely card that I will share with you next month (psst - it showcases some yummy new products being released by Stampin' Up! next month!

This next card was made by my mum Noelene - it's so pretty and has lots of BLING on it! I think she must of sneekly got into my craft room to stamp that birdcage stamp as I know she doesn't have it! lol

now since I said to my hubby that I didn't know what I wanted to get for a birthday pressy from him and the kids he came home from work with this lovely bunch of flowers! it was a lovely surprise! and they smell BEAUTIFUL!!

these last cards are from other friends and family who I have yet to convert to card making! lol

so THANK you for everyone who wished my a lovely day - which it was because we bought a house!! we have been looking for so long and have lost 3 houses along the way but the house we managed to get was the last one we missed out on. The people who out bidded us had trouble getting their finance sorted before the set dates and we were able to offer a unconditional agreement which was successful. We don't move till June at this stage although this may be bought forward. SO it was a BIG day - even had some french champagne which is rare for me! lol

So today it is my resting and recovering from it all yesterday and hopefully a bit of crafting!!

bye for now!

sorry for a late post

It's my birthday today and I have been so busy answering emails, phone calls, Facebook messages and visitors I haven't had a chance to take a pic of what I wanted to show you! so come back tomorrow to see some cool things that people have made me for my birthday!

Thanks to everyone who has wished me a great day - it has been an AMAZING day and tomorrow I hope to share some very exciting news with you too (keep your fingers crossed for me!! lol) secret till then. hehe

Cheers Julia

making the pillow die longer

here is a group of cards that I recently made. The three cards and envelopes go in the acetate box and the pillow box has chocolate in it (of cause!!)

But as you can see the pillow box is longer than the standard shape. I used the Stampin' Up! pillow box die but folded the card before I cut it.

I thought I would give you a quick tutorial on how to do it.

start by trimming down the card stock to the width of the die but keep the card stock long.

now score and fold the card in half

place the folded card on the die with the folded edge just before the scoring line on the die like on the picture below


now put it thru the Big Shot - it should come out like this

open it out and it will be like this. To hind the middle fold just cover it with a belly band like on my original photo.

Hope that inspires you to get creative with the dies! you can do this to many of the dies - have fun and happy crafting!!

anyone for cake???

Now this is a FAT FREE cake as it's all made with card stock - Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip to be exact!! I made these cakes for our Regional Training which we had today. Being part of the Stampin' Up! team opens some amazing doors and Regional Trainings are one of those - must do events!

Each piece is a separate box which could be used for mints, chocolates etc. I cut out all the slices then cut some more pieces that went over the top and side and embossed it with the Lots of Petals Big Shot Embossing folder. I punched some Vanilla flowers using the Boho punch but then I distressed them with my bone folder and pulled the card stock apart - it comes away into two pieces and gives each one a softer texture that normal card. I used the words - 'Now & Forever' to place on a small oval so it gave it a wedding theme. To make it look even more cake like and cut strips of Chocolate Chip card stock and using the Petite Petals Jumbo Wheel I rolled the image on - hoping that it looked more like the texture of cake!

When you put 10 together it forms the whole cake. I tied them together with ribbon and placed a larger flower in the middle! I was really pleased with how it turned out. I have now got 21 little pieces of art from other Stampin' Up! demonstrators - that's the cool thing with swaps - you take something the same (21 in this case) and come home with the same amount of different!!
I am looking forward to sit back tomorrow and take in the cool swaps everyone gave me.

Thanks for looking - and if you would like a workshop or a class on how to make your own piece of cakes then email julia.leece@slingshot.co.nz

just love doing baby cards!!

and this card is for a special little boy. His name is Joshua and his family is close to us. His grandparents used to live next door to my in-laws and my husband used to do a lot of building work at both their home and the husbands place of work. Funny thing to their first grandchild Eden (Joshua's sister) was borne on my hubby's birthday! Eden is very close to my daughter Kelly to - they have a special connection even though they are 9 years different in age!

SO when they all shifted from Auckland to Fielding they built a new house and developed a little street - and as a result they were able to name the street and we were flattered to hear they called it 'Craig Court' after my hubby!

Young Joshua had been borne 9 weeks early - so he needs lots of love and thoughts to help his little wee body to grow and mature so he can go back home to his very excited sister and parents (and grandparents!!)

To make this card I went to the Stampin' Up! Color Coach which as I have blogged about before is AWESOME! the colours I picked are Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery and Chocolate Chip - not a combo I would of personal picked but they go really well together. The stamped image is one stamp - part of our A La Carte selection - so cute!!!

In New Zealand we are wearing Red and Black as support to those in Christchurch as that is the city's colours. Kia Kaha Christchurch

the awesome PRESTO PAPER!!!

One of the cool new products introduced in the current Mini Catalogue is this cool card called Presto Papers. What it is is pre embossed card that reveals it's pattern once you add colour. It works like 'emboss resist' - so you can apply colour by brayer (like I did here) or sponge or even a aqua brush would work. I used Pink Pirouette and Bashful Blue for this layout of my friend Claire's wee baby 'Holle'. I used the cool Hostess set - Punch Potpourri which is awesome because all the stamps match punches so no cutting out!! Gotta love that! I also used the Beautiful Wings embosslits for the beautiful cut and embossed butterflies.

The Stampin' Up! Big Shot stayed out while I embossed some of the blue background using the Final Press embossing folder. The I {LOVE} Love Jumbo Wheel was just perfect for more detail on one of the back ground card. I used the scallop trim and wide oval punches too along with the Lots of Tags dies to add some more touches. The lovely Organza ribbon just finishes it off (well I hope so) to tie it all together.

These Presto Paper is only available in the Summer Mini which finishes at the end of March SOOOOO contact me today to order yours! $28.95 for 12 Sheets 12x12 - 2 of each of the 6 designs. By the way it is called Presto Paper because when you add colour the pattern appears - like 'hey presto'!! To start with I thought it was called 'Pesto' paper and I couldn't work out why? I kept thinking maybe the paper only turns green?? LOL needless to say I was WRONG and it's still a joke in my house!!

Crafters Anonymous mystery class project

Once a week over on Crafters Anonymous we run a mystery class. This is where you are supplied with a list of things you need but you don't know what you are making till the end. Last night Jane McGlade Smith took a great class and everyone enjoyed it when they discovered what they were making. Here is my version of her class:

it was a milk carton tutorial. This is made out of an A4 card so it's a lot bigger than that Stampin' Up! die (which I LOVE too!!) I did the container in Real Red, and used the Celebration DSP and matching Rub On pack to create the words on the tag.

Of cause this is filled with chocolate - this time is was Pineapple Lumps! mmmm my favourite lollie to craft with! hehe

If you would like more information on me teaching this to you or for joining Crafters Anonymous then email me julia.leece@slingshot.co.nz