Finally!!

Sorry for the long time between posts, but I have a good reason - honest!! I was busy making swaps for my first Convention, and I arrived home today, still buzzing after a great weekend.

We had an awesome time in Sydney (my first visit) and I was fortunate to share a room and spend lots of overdue time with my friend and upline Karen. I also met a couple of blog friends in the flesh, made some new friends too, received some AWESOME swaps, made some great projects and came home inspired!

So, here's the most popular of my swaps (by a narrow margin). I wanted to work with collaging again and think this wheel and set work perfectly for it. I wheeled the base card in Sahara Sand too to soften it (not easy to see in the photo) and keeping in with {my} Vintage style - a bit of sponging and lots of distressing added to the softeness.

Thank you to everyone who swapped with me - there we SO many awesome swaps. If you have popped over to visit because I swapped with you, please leave a message :) I'm going to try to visit everyone's blogs who I swapped with over the next week or so.

Will post my other swaps, the projects we made and some photos later!!

Thanks for visiting!






Stamps: Vintage Vogue, Very Vintage Jumbo Wheel (both Autumn-Winter Mini)
Card: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Sahara Sand
Other: Vintage Brads

Sweet Birthday

I was a bit eager last month and arranged a new catalogue swap with a group of lovely ladies. We had to work to 3 criteria: use at least 1 stamp set brand new to the new catalogue, use at least 1 new In Colour, and use DSP. The card I ended up was was COMPLETELY different to what I was originally trying to work with, but it just was not happening for me - the only similarity was it contained Pink Pirouette. So on quite a different tack, this is what I sent out:

I had to get the new set Party Time. I think it's so cute!! I have paper pieced the icing of the little cake with Sweet Always DSP, and used the blender pen to colour the candle with Pumpkin Pie ink (and the flame ever so lightly before adding the Dazzling Diamonds). The scallop is popped up with dimensionals and I love how the taffeta ribbon just finishes it off. I was MUCH happier with how this one came together.

Stamps: Party Time, It's a Loop Thing (Level 3 Hostess Bundle)
Card: Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White
DSP: Sweet Always
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Pink Pirouette
Accessories: Scallop circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, corner rounder punch, Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds

February Layout Swap

I've been wanting to post this for a while (and this is the one you've been waiting for Leah!!) but as it was for a swap, I wanted to wait until all had been received, which should be the case by now (plus, a friend in NSW told me she has hers now - hi Karen!).

The February swap was a layout one, using the layout of the middle card from page 85 of the current IB&C.

I used Elegant Notes which is a stamp set I fell in love with when the IB&C was released last year, but have only just ordered (and it's now being retired....). I am a muso from way back and this set made me think of my theory books!! But the treble and bass clefs are a lot nicer than my squiggles!! The background swirl is from Baroque Motifs, which is being continued - yay!! I have used the colours Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Perfect Plum, Pale Plum and Very Vanilla, and have finished off with a couple of Antique Brass Brads from the Hodgepodge Hardware (another retiring product...) to echo the bass clef.

This is NOTHING like I originally had planned (think black and turquoise using Time Well Spent!) but I am really happy with how it turned out.

If you have also fallen in love with this set, or are in need of more hodgepodge, please contact me ASAP to place your order - products are running out fast.

Thank you Karen (Pooi-Lim)

I made this card for a Sale-a-Bration swap back in January. The inspiration for this card came from a very unexpected gift from a friend I did Nutrition and Dietetics with for Chinese New Year. Karen is Malaysian-Chinese and is one uni friend I have kept contact with over the years and miles. I was a little bit intrigued when a card arrived in the post from her mid-January as Christmas had been and gone and it was addressed to Luana; upon opening it there was a card for all of us for Chinese New Year and a gift for Luana - Karen explained that it is customary to give gifts in her culture to children for New Year as a symbol of blessings for the New Year and growth in children. I was quite overwhelmed and just HAD to make a thank you for her. So this is what eventuated, inspired by Chinese New Year, and more specifically the envelope Luana's gift arrived in:

I have used Real Red, Basic Black and Whisper White card with the Botanical Blooms SAB set. I stamped the 'rounder' flower outline in Real Red, and the lily in Versamark before embossing with gold - 3 lilies as 3 is a Chinese number of good luck! 'Thanks' is from Live Your Dream (one of the sets that supports the Bushfire Appeal at the moment) and is stamped in Basic Black.

I am trying to scrap the card and envelope, so hopefully will get it done at some stage. It's providing a challenge as the envelope is red, gold and black, and the card is blues, greens and browns....

Thank you Karen for thinking of us!! Hoping you had a truly wonderful Chinese New Year!

Here comes 2009

Wow. It's hard to believe it's the last day of 2008. This year has certainly been an interesting one for the Murray family - especially the last few months - but we wouldn't have it any other way.




I hope your Christmas was filled with love and laughter. We had a wonderful day with friends of ours that are moving tomorrow :-( The kids had a great time, the food was wonderful and we were with people we love (even though our families were on the other side of the country).


On this last day of the year, I thought I would share my contribution to the recent Summer Mini swap I was involved with. Once again, my apologies to the girls for being late, but I will fit too much onto my plate and decide to travel all around the country at short notice!

When I saw the Summer Mini Ocean Commotion caught my eye and I just had to use it for this swap. I had planned what I was going to do during a rather dry lecture at Uni, but this is not very much like I'd planned at all. I drew inspiration for the colours from the gorgeous Bali Breeze DSP, which also features. I stamped the fish in Purely Pomogranate on Whisper White, masked it and stamped off the Old Olive seaweed once before stamping over the fish. This was mounted on Old Olive and finished off with a bit of Purely Pomegranate double stitched ribbon and a couple of Styled Silver brads. This was all mounted with dimensionals on the torn DSP which was layered into Purely Pomegranate card. The greeting from Short & Sweet was stamped in Whisper White.

I am now heading off to help finish clean a house - it means our friends are one step closer to leaving though.

Wishing you all a festive New Years Eve and may 2009 bring you all you wish for.

Adelaide Regionals 2008

I was really lucky that my latest trip to Adelaide coincided with Regionals - and to think I was going to head down a week later!! As I mentioned in my previous post, it was a fantastic day. I learned so much, met some truly talented people and was thoroughly inspired! If you ever get the opportunity, attend one of these sessions, and take heaps of swaps!!

Here are the 2 swaps I contributed:

This one was actually taken from a farewell card I made for friends leaving the Territory. It uses Sahara Sand and Really Rust cardstock, and Apple Cider DSP (Spring Mini - retired). The crocodile from Wild About You (what else for the Top End?!) and the greeting from Sweet Serendipity (Spring Mini - retired) are stamped in Wild Wasabi, with the greeting stamped on the round tab punch out. Quite simple, but please remind me not to fussy cut swaps again, especially when I'm travelling across the country while completing them!! Lori from SU! in the USA quite liked this one!

I based this one on the photo board I made for Paul's birthday in October - I liked the diamonds! Once again quite simple (but I was quite happy for that when I was finishing them at 1am after travelling all day!). I used Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White card stock, with Certainly Celery Print DSP (Iran out of Chocolate Chip though and had to improvise! I used DSP swiped heavily with Chocolate Chip ink for the middle panel on a few....). The greeting and flowers are from Short & Sweet (I can't figure out know why it took me so long to get that set!) all stamped in Chocolate Chip and finished with Certainly Celery brads. The middle diamond was attached with dimensionals.

There were so many gorgeous swaps I received but I thought I would share my favourite 5 with you. From top left: Nicole Derendorf (http://stampingdownunder.wordpress.com/), Lorrae Weiss, Kari Hughes (http://www.karigail.wordpress.com/), the lady who made this cute little owl didn't put her name on it but it's just so cute!, Deb Darby.

Thank you to everyone who swapped with me!!

And here are the projects we made. They all use the new Live Your Dream stamp set, and a combination of Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi and Groovy Guava (inlcuding the new Afternoon Tea DSP). Not bad for a couple of hours!!

Thanks Card

Thanks Matchbook Card

Dreams 6"x6" Scrapbook Page (I put the photo in after I got home)

Thanks Card Folder

Thanks Card Folder Love Notes with lined envelopes

A fantastic day! Thank you Stampin' Up! for bringing Regionals to SA!!

I'm Back!!

My apologies to those who have been checking in on me and finding nothing new for the past month or so. I spent some time down South and a couple days after coming back, we went on a family get away to Kununurra for a few days. I had my camera the whole time, but nothing to download photos with, and only had limited access to computers.

Anyways, in SA I was fortunate to attend Regionals. What a great day! I will post the cards I made for swaps and what we made on the day later when I have had time to photograph them all. I was truly inspired and the day reinforced why I love what I do! It was fabulous to meet some very talented ladies, and another Territorian too (Hi Christine!!!) - there were only 2 of us!

While away, I also attended the final week of Uni for my diabetes course (1 more assignment to go....), celebrated my sisters engagement, found all of our dresses for the wedding (NOT the colours she originally picked mind you, so I need to re-think what to do for the wedding card!), spent some wonderful time with family and friends and took Luana to The Wiggles concert (I'll post photos later). I did manage to fit some stamping in and held a workshop (Hi Suze, Jude and Mabel), but haven't photographed those cards yet. It was a busy few weeks. To top off this trip, the Murray's decided to head over to Kununurra for the weekend just gone. We had a lovely time; I just love the stunning environment we have up here, especially the boabs in the Kimberley, and everything we are able to experience. I'll post some photos later too.

What a month!!

Ok. I've been working on our Christmas cards and some swaps too for the Happy Stampers. I'm still working on the Summer Mini one (sorry guys, have been trying to find the time), but here's my Christmas contribution.

I used the fabulous Season of Joy stamp set, in Tempting Turquoise and River Rock. My Whisper White ink pad isn't brilliant at the moment, so 'Merry Christmas' is embossed in white. The star has Dazzling Diamonds for a bit of bling, and I pierced all the 'dots' on the Christmas tree and swirls. I used dimensionals to attached the tree. I'm also making a similar version of this (using Soft Sky instead of River Rock and different orientation) for my fellow volunteers, host families and students involved with AFS Katherine.

I can't believe there's only 10 days to go!!!

Swaps and swaps

I am always up for learning something new (that's why I think I'll never stop studying!), so I am usually one of the first ones to put my hand up for a new swap. This month is a little different due to massive commitments, but over the past couple of months I have participated in 2 that I haven't yet posted - Mel's Basic Grey Mini Catalogue swap and the Happy Stampers (the team I belong to) Watercolour swap. Here are my contributions:

I was really happy with how my first attempt at spotlighting worked - it really does look better IRL.

Stamps: It's Beautiful Jumbo Wheel, Itty Bitty Backgrounds

Card: Basic Grey, Ballet Blue, Pumpin Pie, Whisper White

Ink: Basic Grey, Ballet Blue

Other: 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, silver eyelet

I was a bit unsure about the watercolouring, but think I managed to pull this off - it's going to take a lot of practice to improve my confidence though!

Stamps: Oh, So Lovely (Level 1 Hostess set), Garden Whimsy

Card: Bashful Blue, Regal Rose, Watercolour paper

Ink: Jet Black Stazon, Regal Rose

Other: Certainly Celery Prints DSP, Bashful Blue brad, Rich Regals watercolour crayons, Soft Subtles Stampin' Write markers, light blue gingham ribbon

Sorry about the spacing, this is one thing I can't figure out on computers sometimes....

Thanks Mel and Karen for organising these swaps. I really enjoy being a part of them!

Poppin' Pastels Swap

Well, I've taken my time posting this card too... As mentioned previously, I was involved in a Poppin' Pastels swap last month which provided me with quite a challenge. Third time lucky, this was the card I ended up swapping:

My offering was quite different to the other swappers, so I hope they liked it...
The main poppin' pastel image (and the flowers too) was from Bold Butterfly. I must say using sponge daubers makes so much difference with this technique. The background was Paisley. Card stock and inks were Taken with Teal, Lavendar Lace , Soft Sky and Old Olive. We also needed to include an eyelet, so mine were silver (thanks Mel!).

Now I just need to get my head around 2 more swaps I've put my hand up for.