Happy New Year!

I hope that 2009 brings you everything you want!

Another from our weekend in Dubbo

A Super Simple Fun card for a 4 year old who loves cars, red & yellow. I am loving the Occasional Greetings set, it's one I don't own and I'm starting to wish I had it... Maybe I can have the self control to wait until the new catalogue in April to make sure it won't retire on me...
Stamps: By Land, Occasional Greetings
Ink: Whisper White Craft Ink, Real Red, Bold Brights & Neutrals SW Markers
Cardstock: Yoyo Yellow, Glorious Green, Basic Black


Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Avery

Allison from over at Stampin' When I Can. On Christmas Day she gave birth 3 weeks and 3 days early to gorgeous little Avery Judith. When she was 3 hours old they realised there was something not quite right with her breathing and after some tests she was diagnosed with "transposition of the great arteries" I've linked to allison's post on everything that has happened so far but it basically means that the blood is pumping backwards and causes issues with how oxygen is distributed through her body.
They were able to do an operation to temporarily get more oxygen through her bloodstream and they were fortunate enough to get her transferred to a hospital in Edmonton with a surgeon who has a 100% success rate of the particular operation she will need in the long term, but even knowing she is in such good hands it will be a nerve-wracking experience for everyone involved so I thought it would be nice if you could all pop over to her blog and send her a little Aussie love!

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Really, really late for Makeesha's challenge...

I started this card ages ago for one of Makeesha's Inspiration challenges but I just couldn't seem to make it work with the stamp set I wanted to use at the time so I just set it aside and for the last few weeks I have kept meaning to get back to it. Anyway, the other day I needed a quick masculine card so all I did was add the "Wish Big" & Hodge Podge frame and I was done, so fast and simple.
Stamps: Short & Sweet
Ink: Whisper White Craft Ink
Cardstock: Kraft
Accessories: Bashful Blue 1" Double Stitched Ribbon, Pewter Hodge Podge, Hidden Garden Rubons

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you & yours!!!

Playing with Bali Breeze

Just playing around with Bali Breeze DSP the other day at Lisa's and I used some scraps to make this super easy card. Have I mentioned lately that I'm in love with this paper?!?!? It's a really simple card & there's not really much more to tell other than I love love love Bali Breeze!!!
Stamps: Occasional Greetings
Ink: Old Olive
Cardstock: Bali Breeze, Kraft
Accessories: Blossoms & Basics On Board, Flower Fusion, Earth Elements Buttons, Rose Red DS Ribbon, Scallop Edge Punch

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Happy Birthday to Me! (But I'm giving you the gifts!)

***This is a sticky post, it will remain at the top until the 19th of December so please scroll down for any new posts***

It's my birthday today and my kind of* 1st anniversary as a Stampin' Up! demo so to celebrate I thought I would give away a little Blog Candy.
I haven't taken a photo of what you will get, but let's just say it's pretty and you can tie it in a bow ;o)
To enter all you have to do is leave a comment with a link to your blog entry which links back to this one. If you don't have a blog don't worry you can still enter, just place an order with me between now & the 19th of December to get an entry in the draw!
I am opening this up to anyone including demo's and people overseas (however if the winner is outside Australia they will have to pay part postage). I will leave this running for 2 weeks and will come back and let you know the winner then.

*The starter kit was my present last year but my official start date is the end of Nov, but I count my birthday as my start date

Playgroup Artwork

I wanted a way to store Charlotte's artwork from playgroup this year but there wasn't enough to warrant making a book or mini album dedicated to it (as she's only just started using the crayon rather than eating it lol). Instead I have taken a large envelope (bigger than A4 sized) and trimmed the top off and covered it with DSP to attach to a scrapbook page.
The photo is one I took at playgroup back in August when we were early one day and she had the toys to herself.
Stamps: ABC Alphabet Lower, Rough Edges Alphabet, Petals Wheel, Polka Dots & Paisley, My ABC's Wheel
Ink: Versamark, Regal Rose, Old Olive, Taken with Teal, Rich Regals SW Markers
Cardstock: Petals & Paisleys DSP, Taken with Teal, Regal Rose, Whisper White
Accessories: Earth Elements Eyelets, Rich Regals Brads, Fairy Tale Ribbon Originals Pack, Scallop Edge Punch, Corner Rounder

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Setting up a home office *cough*stamp room*cough* part 1

If you have been reading my blog over the last few months you will know that we are in the middle of renovating our house. We have FINALLY (after 4 1/2 months of sleeping on the loungeroom floor) finished our bedroom as far as we are able to take it at this stage.
Here is the final product, not huge but after not having a bedroom I really do appreciate it. Do you recognise the feature wall colour?
I took in a scrap of Almost Amethyst Cardstock to the paint shop and asked them to colour match it. I then got a 1/4 tint for the other walls, 1/2 tint for the trim and about a 1/32 tint for the ceiling. The big white patch next to Justin is actually the door, we haven't painted it yet as we aren't sure what colour we will want to paint the hallway and I don't what to repaint something that doesn't need repainting so for the time being it is only undercoated. My brother in law will also be around sometime (hopefully) soon to finish the doorjamb so we can put the door handle on.
So now that our bedroom furniture is in our bedroom and not in the Stamp Room (or the office as Justin is under the impression it is called) it is time to organise ourselves in there and set up my desk so Justin can have his back and his computer is off the coffee table.
We were hoping that we would be able to do it up straight away but for the sake of my sanity as well as financial reasons (ie termite treatment is damn expensive! - even when you catch it before they have done structural damage) we have decided to leave it for another 6 months or so, meaning that we need to make our house look more like a home than a storage unit.
~~~
Sooo... since I may not get as much stamping done over the next few weeks as I was hoping to, I thought I would take the opportunity to review some of the space saving & storage solutions that I come up with along the way.
The first one I thought I would share with you isn't strictly stamping related but the more space you save with the boring stuff means the more space you have to store stamps ;o) anyway these are great little Stackable drawers by Oates. I got mine from Big W for around $16 each.They are designed to hold DVD's or CD's, however we will be using it to store software CD's & DVD's because I hate how you have to keep them handy in case you ever have to reinstall the software but they aren't something you need to access on a daily basis.
These will be going on a shelf in the wardrobe so we can stack other things around them but we don't have to go digging through boxes when we need to reinstall a program, instead we will just slide out a drawer and they will be sitting there spine up so we can easily grab what we need. They come with little dividers so that if it's not full they won't slide all over the place.
I will be buying another one to go in the bottom cupboard of the entertainment unit as it would be a better way of storing our console games (a nintendo DS or PS1 game will fit perfectly instead of CD's and other game types will fit as DVD's) so they don't fall over every time you even look at the stack of games in there...
PS If you are looking for a great way to store ribbon these fit a large ribbon spool easily and depending on the thickness of the ribbon you could probably get about 11-15 spools per drawer

My Baby girl's first card!

This year we have been going to the Playtime playgroup at the Parkes Baptist church (IMO the best playgroup in town!), Charlotte has only just started participating in the craft during term 4 and I was so excited last week when their project was a Christmas Card, and since we have a special little friend in mind to send it to I thought I would post it here as a record of this MAJOR milestone.
I will admit that she had a little help (I'm not going to let a 1yr old run wild with a paintbrush full of PVA glue) but I was only helping with the fine details, everything is where she wanted it put - well except for the candy cane, she wanted that put in her tummy ;o)

Anyway, here's what she came up with:The inside of the card has the story of the candy cane and a little Merry Christmas message with a place to write their friends name & sign.

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Tidying up my blog... Does that count as housework?

I just spent a few moments tidying up the search cloud at the top of the page. The US retiring list got me thinking that if I keep retired stamp sets in the search cloud that one day you won't be able to find my posts from all the junk in the search cloud at the top of the page.
So I have made a few changes to how it will work:
I have added 3 new tags, Retired Stamp Sets, Spring 08 Mini Catalogue, Summer 08 Mini Catalogue.
I have changed tags on my posts for any retired set names and replaced it with the Retired Stamp Sets tag.
Posts with Mini Catalogue sets have now had a tag added for the appropriate mini so that you know not all the stamp sets are still current, but there is still the possibility that they will make a reappearance in April. When I know what will be making the cut and what won't I will remove the Mini Catalogue Tag along with the tags for any sets that didn't make it in & replace those with the retired tag.
If a post has items that are current as well as retired you will still be able to find it under the tag of the current set as well as the tag of retired sets.
Clear as mud? Basically this won't make much of a difference to you guys except that my blog will stay a little tidier...

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Happy Birthday Nyah!

Here is the card that I made for Nyah's birthday. Her favourite colours are Purple & Blue but lately she has also liked "rainbow" as a favourite colour so I have used the Baby Wipe Technique with Lovely Lilac, Tempting Turquoise & Purely Pomegranate to make the butterflies "rainbow" I stamped the outlines in Lovely Lilac and then I used the Dazzling Diamond Dust Technique to give it some shimmer. I topped it off with some bling from the Styled Silver Hodge Podge & voila, 1 happy birthday girl!
Stamps: Bold Butterfly, Party Punch
Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Tempting Turquoise & Lovely Lilac Reinkers, Tempting Turquoise & Lovely Lilac Classic Inkpads, Versamark
Cardstock: Lovely Lilac, Whisper White, Glossy White
Accessories: Styled Silver Hodge Podge, Heat & Stick Powder, Dazzling Diamonds, Baby Wipes, Designer Lable Punch

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Makeesha's Inspiration Challenge #2

Here is my entry for Makeesha's latest challenge. I took my inspiration from the pillow on the right. I had been thinking about making a card for it but I didn't think I'd get one done in time, but I had inspiration (or should that be inkspiration ;p ) it hit all of a sudden - I glanced at my pack of beachfront ribbon originals and saw the rik rak and I just knew I had to make a card for the challenge whether it was still open or not. I made this in like 10 mins because I knew exactly what I wanted.
I have been having a fantastic day of stamping fun with my upline Lisa so Keep an eye out for heaps more creations to come over the next few days.
Stamps: Wild About You, Occasional Greetings
Ink: Versamark, Basic Black
Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Black, Kraft
Accessories: Styled Silver Hodge Podge, Beachfront Ribbon Originals, Black EDP, 1" Circle Punch

PS Don't forget to check out my birthday blog candy - it is open to anyone & everyone with 2 ways to enter!

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Survey

Stampin' Up! are currently conducting a short survey regarding SU! colours and they have asked that we also give our customers a chance to participate. It takes less than 5 minutes and they don't ask you any personal questions (unless you count what is your favourite colour as personal lol).
This is a great opportunity for you, our customers, to have a say about what you want out of SU! So if you have 5 minutes to spare please go to the customer survey page and let us know what you think.

PS Don't forget to put your name down for my blog candy

Christmas Gift Voucher

If you need to tell Santa what to get you, or you need to be Santa for a special stamper drop me a line(zjgould@gmail.com or 02 6862 2552) and I will be glad to help you out with a gift voucher.
For just the value of the gift I will hand stamp a gift certificate(minus the black scribbles of course, they are so everyone doesn't see what Santa is bringing this person) for your special stamper & include a 'gift-wrapped' envelope so it looks pretty under the tree. Your special stamper will have all year to use their gift (however with Sale-A-Bration just around the corner in Jan I don't think anyone will have the self control to wait all year!) with me and it can be used in conjunction with any SU! promotions that are currently running, however you should know that they can only be redeemed through me.
Stamps: Merry Merry
Ink: Versamark, Real Red
Cardstock: Old Olive, Dashing DSP, Whisper White
Accessories: Gold EDP, Small Tag Punch, Large Tag Punch, Bold Brights Eyelets, Jumbo Eyelets, Crop-a-
Dile, Fire Round Rhinestone Brads, Large A4 envelope (from Office section of Big W),

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Another little Notepad

Another little altered notepad for customer Christmas presents.
PS Don't forget to enter my blog candy!
Stamps: Office Accoutrement
Ink: Cameo Coral, Old Olive & Ruby Red SW Markers
Cardstock: Ginger Blossom DSP, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Hodgepodge Hardware - Pewter, Crop-a-Dile & Paper Snips

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

May Your Merry be Very

This card was inspired by the lovely Carol Dunstan's entry for Kristina Werner's Colour Inspiration #32. It looks nothing like her original card but after seeing what she did with the half back pearls I just had to try it!
I designed it as one of the cards for my last Christmas Card Club Class of the year on Saturday so we didn't cover all of the little diamonds with pearls as I wouldn't have had enough pearls to go around.
PS Don't forget to enter my blog candy!
Stamps: Merry Merry
Ink: Real Red, Old Olive
Cardstock: Real Red, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Pretties Kit, 1 3/8", 1 1/4" & Scallop Circle Punches, Mini Glue Dots.

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Monogrammed Love Notes

I have made some Monogrammed Love notes with a matching box for Justin's Nana as her Christmas present. She loves writing cards & little notes so I'm hoping she'll love these.
I have used the retired "Enchante" DSP as I absolutely love it and miss it! I know, I know I can still get "Le Jardin" which is a different colour combo of the same DSP, but I am attached to this DSP, it was the first SU! DSP I ever bought, so it makes me all sentimental!
PS Don't forget to enter my blog candy!
Stamps: Best Friends Alphabet, Carte Postale
Ink: Sage Shadow, Perfect Plum, Sage Shadow SW Marker, Pale Plum SW Marker & Perfect Plum SW Marker
Cardstock: Sage Shadow, Pale Plum, Certainly Celery, Perfect Plum, Enchante DSP (Retired)
Accessories: 1 3/8", 1 1/4" Circles & Scallop Circle punches, Certainly Celery & Very Vanilla 1/4" Grosgrain

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Scribble It GIVEAWAY!!!!

Scribble It GIVEAWAY!!!!
Hope I win! How awesome are these??? wouldn't it be nice if SU! brought out the Decor Elements Here? I don't particularly want to sell them (not that I don't think they would sell, it's just I love teaching people how to stamp) but I just want to be able to buy them... Maybe that isn't a good thing...


Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Journal for Mum

I covered another Journal for my Mum as her Christmas present. This time I used the Spring Flowers DSP. I love this DSP but for some reason seem to forget that I have it and as such it rarely gets used, so when I was picking out a DSP to use for Mum I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to use it.
The Embrace Life flower was coloured using my blender pen & inkpads in Cameo Coral & Barely Banana (taken from the colours in the DSP). Then I traced the stamens(?) with the fine end of my close to cocoa marker.
As I know that journals get more wear and tear than the average card or scrapbook page I have lightly singed the ends of the ribbon with a lighter to stop them fraying (I actually keep one with my stamping things for this purpose).
Stamps: Embrace Life, Rough Edges Alphabet
Ink: Stazon, Close to Cocoa, Cameo Coral, Barely Banana
Cardstock: Spring Flowers DSP, Mellow Moss, Close to Cocoa (for the inside cover)
Accessories: Scallop Edge & Spiral Tab Punches, Chocolate Chip 1" DS Ribbon, Mellow Moss Tafetta Ribbon

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Makeesha's Colour Challenge #2 - Thanks

Here are my entries for Makeesha's Challenge. I started out with the little notebook and then I thought that it wasn't really enough to use as a challenge entry so I decided to make a card too.
The velvet ribbon (from the Theatre Ribbon Originals pack) on the notebook photographed a little dark but it really is close to cocoa!
Stamps: Live Your Dream
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Groovy Guava, Soft Sky
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Groovy Guava, Soft Sky, Close to Cocoa, Fall Flowers DSP, Close to Cocoa Prints DSP, Spring Silhouettes DSP
Accessories: Aluminum Edged Tag, Scallop, 1 3/8", 1 1/4", 1" Circle Punches, Very Vanilla 1/4" Grosgrain, Soft Sky DS Ribbon, Theatre Ribbons Originals, Silver Brads

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Cardinal Stampers Challenge #5

It was my turn to set the challenge over at our team blog, the Cardinal Stampers. I decided that I would celebrate the start of the mini catalogue by asking everyone to use the card from page 19 of the catalogue as their sketch, but with a different colour combo & a different stamp set.
This is what I came up with for the challenge:I kept the design pretty close to the sample however I changed the sentiment to suit my card and sneak in a little extra certainly celery.
Stamps: Eastern Blooms, Short & Sweet
Ink: Almost Amethyst, So Saffron, Certainly Celery & Regal Rose SW Markers
Cardstock: Almost Amethyst, Very Vanilla, So Saffron, Regal Rose
Accessories: Certainly Celery 5/8" Grosgrain, Hodge Podge Hardware - Pewter

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Pretties Flower Hair Clip

I saw this beautiful tutorial over on Makeesha Byl's Make it Monday and had to have a go. I missed the step about using some crystal effects to set the flower and I did find it rather hard to work with (hence the little ring around the pearl) without the layer of crystal effects.
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky & Purely Pomegranate Reinkers
Accessories: Pretties Kit, Crystal Effects, Aquapainter, Ibis Clip

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould