something for the man in your life

Last Sunday was Father's Day in New Zealand and this is what I made for my father in law. He was a builder so it was really appropriate. I silver embossed the tools (from Totally Tools stamp set) and then using a Versamark pen to colour the inside of the stamped image and embossed in silver to make them look like metal. The paper that they are wrapped in is the lovely Newsprint DSP that has just been released in the new Stampin' Up! Ideas Book & Catalogue.

To get the textured background I just scored the card at 1cm intervals. The original idea of tools wrapped to a bouquet was by a fellow Stampin' Up! demo Tania Cordie from Queensland.

Thanks for visiting my blog and have a great weekend!

Shopping Helps!!

Like the card says - "Life Happens, Shopping Helps" !!! and that's often the case with us so what better thing to do than to go shopping for crafts. This is a quick card I made up with one of the new Hostess stamp sets out of the Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalogue (have you got yours yet?) called Playful Pieces. It has 30 (yes 30) stamps and you can get it for FREE!! with qualifying sales at any workshop or order. It is made up of lots of shapes and you can create lots of things from these shopping bags to cakes and Christmas trees and LOTS MORE.
To get the coloured embossing on the shopping bags I first put Versamark on my stamp and pressed once on to the coloured stamp pad and then straight onto the card. I quickly put clear embossing powder over it and heated it with my heat tool. The key is not to rub off the Versamark when you put the colour on. To make the handles you first punch out a small oval from a piece of card (which you can use for another project) and then place your large oval punch around the small oval hole and you get the oval ring. You can do it to any shape that you have two different size punches - round, square etc.
So contact me today to order your catalogue or to start shopping from it! I am happy to show you how to get this stamp set for free. email me at julia.leece@slingshot.co.nz

Just Add Ink #33 entry

here is the cool sketch that the team over on www.just-add-ink.blogspot.com have set for this week and here is my interpretation of it. Go and visit the site to see all the wonderful ideas people have come up with.

I used Jet Black Stazon ink with the Very Vintage Jumbo wheel to create the pattern on the thick window sheet (acetate). Did you know Stampin' Up! have these in the Idea Book and Catalogue? I then used my most favourite Stampin' Up!'s Big Shot die - Top Note and also the Sizzlites dies - leaves and lots of tags. The flowers are from Vintage Vogue, stamped with the Jet Black stazon again. The words are from the set - Thoughts and Prayers. I finished it with a but of Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon and stick on pearls.

I love the combination of Basic Black and Very Vanilla - they are made for each other. I was inspired to create this card after hearing about the continuation of the aftershocks in the South Island following Saturdays big quake. My thoughts are with all my friends down in that area.

For prices or for ordering any of these products email me at julia.leece@slingshot.co.nz

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

birds with no feathers?

hee hee these sweet birds are made from Designer Series Paper (DSP), I used the Greenhouse Gala DSP from the new Stampin' Up! Ideas Book & Catalogue that has just been released. To make these yourself, go to Gretchen Barron's blog- here is the link http://gretchenbarron.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/08/decorative-dsp-bird-free-tutorial.html here is a link to a video on how to do them. http://www.stampinpretty.com/diary-of-the-stampin-pretty-zone.html
The birds are also featured in the catalogue on page 125. I found the smaller one was actually easier to make than the bigger one, although it could of been just because I had made one already! LOL

PS - sorry no stones in the background today - ITS RAINING here now!

now for something completely different

I get an email every day or so which a fellow crafter called Kelly Mayou http://weekendstamper.blogspot.com/ who puts together a list of great crafting blogs to visit and get inspiration from http://blogfindsoftheday.blogspot.com/ and the other day she had given this information which I thought was really interesting. So today I thought I would share you this while I worked on some cards to send to some fellow crafty friends who yesterday got their lives turned upside with a HUGE earthquake. The quake struck at 4.30 am and was a magnitude 7.1 earthquake which was about the same size as the Haiti quake. Many have lost there houses but amazingly no one lost their lives! So my thoughts are with you all in Christchurch and the Canterbury area.

The History of Greeting Cards(from the Postcard and Greeting Card Museum - www.emotionscards.com) Sending greeting cards to friends and family is a tradition that goes back about 200 years. They were mostly sent by the elite and wealthy in the early to mid 1800's. Most of the early greeting cards were hand delivered and many were quite expensive, but they soon gained mass popularity with the introduction of the world's first postage stamp issued in 1840 and a few ambitious printer's and manufacturer's perfecting printing methods, hiring artists and designed both elaborate expensive cards as well as simple affordable ones by the 1850's.As you visit our galleries you will see that cards of the past were fine pieces of art. Manufacturer's used quality artists and many of the large manufacturer's held "art" competitions to generate interest and to get new ideas for cards. Some of these competitions awarded as much as $1,000.00 to the winner!The oldest known greeting card in existence is a Valentine made in the 1400's and is in the British Museum. New Year's cards can be dated back to this period as well, but the New Year greeting didn't gain popularity until the late 1700's. The Valentine and Christmas Card were the most popular cards, with Valentine's offering us the most "mechanical", "pop-up" and filigree cards, followed by Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Cards gained their highest popularity in the late 1800's and early 1900's offering us cards with some of the most unusual art. The Victorian age give us the most prolific cards. Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, when lovers said or sang their Valentines. Written Valentines began to appear after 1400. Paper Valentines were exchanged in Europe where they were given in place of Valentine gifts. Handmade paper Valentines were especially popular in England. In the mid to early 1800's, Valentines began to be assembled in factories. Early manufactured Valentines were black and white pictures painted by workers in a factory. Esther Howland (see below) known as the Mother of the Valentine made fancy Valentines with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap". She introduced the Paper Lace Valentine in the mid 1800's. By the end of the 1800's, Valentines were being made entirely by machine.Christmas cards were introduced and popularized by John Calcott Horsley, the artist of what is known as the world's first Christmas Card and Louis Prang, known as the Father of the American Christmas Card.The rest is History. With the exchange of New Year's, Valentine's, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Birthday Cards, just to name a few, there is probably no occasion that doesn't have its own greeting card!

little card set

Isn't this cute!!! This is what we did this week at my class. I made the hearts with the solid heart

punch but I "kissed" it with another stamp before stamping it on the Very Vanilla card. The first one I inked up the wood grain stamp and then "kissed" the heart stamp to it and the result is the wood grain lines within the heart shape. The other one I inked up the heart stamp with Real Red and then "kissed" it with the clean wood grain stamp giving a different look again. You can kiss lots of stamps - it seems best to have a stamp that is solid so the patterned stamp (or wheel) can leave a good image.

The little "magazine holder" was inspired by a swap I got last weekend at the Stampin' Up! Hamilton Regional Seminar. Karen Williamson kwilli@ihug.co.nz from Tauranga made them as her swap and was lovely enough to include the template for them with her swap - thanks SO MUCH Karen!!! I did alter the measurements but isn't it a neat way to present a little card set like this or a small chocolate like Karen did with her swap - I LOVE CHOCOLATE in swaps! Actually I LOVE CHOCOLATE anywhere and anytime!! LOL

The lovely Designer Series Paper (DSP) is the awesome Newsprint one from the new Stampin' Up! Ideas Book and Catalogue 2010-2011. Only $20.50 for 12 sheets of double sided sheets 12" x12" in size. There are some BEAUTIFUL DSP's in the new catalogue - I can't wait till my first order arrives with them in it!!!!

Thanks again for visiting - have a awesome weekend!

TIME for a change!

The new Stampin' Up! Ideas Book & Catalogue goes live today!!! whooooaaaa
There is so many lovely things in it - like this Designer Series Paper (DSP) I have cut up some of the sheets and put them together on the clock, even the sheets with numbers are in the pack. I sponged the edges with Basic Black ink and then covered it all with Crystal Effects which seals it. There are 12 sheets (2 of each design) in each packet of DSP and they are double sided and are Basic Black and Very Vanilla. Isn't it a great pack for just $20.50.
(order number 117166 page 127)

If you haven't got your catalogue they are $10 (RRP $15.95) or FREE if you hold a workshop with me. Contact me today to book a date!