Idea Book & Catalogue 2009-2010

Well I have sat down and gone through the new catalogue a couple of times (not nearly as much and as closely as I was hoping to over this past week - too busy with other things!) and I have started making my wishlist which seems to keep on growing -- lovely new stamp sets, new In Colors (which I have from my preorder), new designer series paper, new designer brad embelishments, new designer buttons and ribbons, a couple of new punches I have my eye on and a couple of new wheels. I am sure that this list will grow over time as I get inspired by others and see what cards, gifts and scrapbooking layouts can be made using the new items.


In the picture above (not a very good one!) you can see a couple of the new In Color stamp pads, Baja Breeze and Tangerine Tango. Tangerine Tango is the ink that I used to stamp the Fresh Cuts stamp set onto the Fresh-Cut Notes which are new in this catalogue.

I am so glad that I am a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and can get my craft supplies at a 20% discount and so I don't use our 'housekeeping' money but can support my hobby myself and find a great way to relax and to share with others! If you are interested in becoming a demonstrator or just simply want to find out a bit more information feel free to email me at maecollins3@iprimus.com.au or check out my earlier post to see what type of demonstrator you may like to be (click here - http://maecollins.blogspot.com/2008/04/be-demonstrator.html).

I have managed to make a couple of cards using stamp sets that I received in my preorder and want to share them with you:

The birthday card above was made using one of the new hostess stamp sets Echoes of Kindness to stamp the flower image and which I coloured using my Stampin' Write Markers. I used my Sahara Sand marker to outline the image to give it some dimension.

This birthday card was created using the new In Color Riding Hood Red cardstock and ink, and coordinated with Bashful Blue cardstock and matching designer series paper that I had on hand.

The card below has not been created with any new stamp set (unfortunately this one For Fathe did not get added to the new catalogue as I had hoped) I wanted to share this one as well as I always seem to make more female orientated cards and not many masculine cards. There is a stamp set of tools in the new catalogue which would be useful for masculine cards and scrapbook layouts, called Totally Tools.

If you wish to book a workshop, get your own copy of the new Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalogue 2009-2010 or place an order feel free to email me at maecollins3@iprimus.com.au.

Feel free to share your comments on my blog by clicking the 'comments' link below and thanks again for stopping by!

Happy stamping!

Thank you! Victorian Bushfire Appeal

Thanks to everyone who supported my efforts to raise funds for the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal. Through Stampin' Up! orders placed and a workshop held over the past weeks I have donated my commission to the Bushfire Appeal and it came to a total of $130 (see photo of official receipt below). I appreciate your orders (big and small) as every $ raised will go to a worthy cause.


For those checking out the details on my receipt for authenticity will notice that the receipt states 'Mrs Hilda Collins', yes I am known by my middle name and have been since a baby! So for official purposes I have to use my first name.

Happy stamping!

My Pre-order NEW Idea Book & Catalogue 2009-2010 have arrived!!!

Hi all

Just a very quick post to let you know that my pre-order of Stampin' Up!'s NEW Idea Book & Catalogue 2009-2010 have arrived. I had been home from work and then gone out again and upon coming home again I saw a box sticking out of the back of my husband's motorbike pannier! I asked if that was for me from the post office and he said yes and I raced in side to see if it was the catalogues and I was not expecting any orders or other packages.

Yes, it was them so I am just starting to open the pages to browse and browse and browse! So I don't have time to tell you about it as I have not yet looked through. I go through it several times, first to browse, then to look in more detail at what I would like, prices, what I can create and what would inspire my customers and friends.

So after I have looked through it over the next couple of nights feel free to drop back to my blog to see my feelings of what is on offer.

If you would like to receive a copy of the new catalogue send me an email to mailto:maecollins3@iprimus.com.au - the catalogue cost is $12.95 plus postage. At this stage I only have 12 catalogues available direct from me but can have Stampin' Up! send one direct to your home address for $12.95 + $5.95 shipping and handling.

So exciting! I need to go look past the first 5 pages that I have seen so far!

Happy stamping!

Kristina Werner Colour Inspiration #45

Well it has been a while since I participated in a Kristina Werner Colour Inspiration and so to get the creative juices flowing I thought I would use this challenge #45 as a springboard for crafting this afternoon.

Kristina's colour challenge was similar to one she gave a while back but then it included an additional colour of our choice. However, this time it is simply monochromatic in only black, gray and white!

I ended up creating two cards the first one is my personal favourite, but I did the second one as I had already in my head the idea of embossing a white flourish on black card. Here they are:

Stamps: Fresh Cuts (NEW, soon to be released in the 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalogue)
Cardstock: Basic Gray, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Gray, Basic Black
Accessories: Flower from Pretties Kit, Spring Flower Bouquet Punch, Rhinestone brad, White Pigment Ink Gel Pen, Snail Adhesive, Corner Rounder Punch to make scallop edge (as I had lent my Scallop Edge Punch to a friend)


Stamps: Baroque Motifs
Cardstock: Basic Gray, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Gray, Whisper White
Accessories: Gray Organdy Ribbon, Corner Rounder Punch (to make scallop edge), White Pigment Ink Gel Pen, Snail Adhesive, Rhinestone brads, scissors, Double Rectangle Punch and Pop Up Glue Dots

Thanks for dropping by and please leave a comment via the 'comments' link below this post and let me know which is your favourite!

Happy stamping!

A Night for Zindorf Tutorials

Hi everyone, thanks again for stopping by my blog to see what I have been up to lately or if you are a first time visitor enjoy looking around my blog and seeing what I create, in particular, in the use of Stampin' Up! products.

I am trying to get my blogging (or computer use) in a better balance again and so am trying to follow my initial goal of updating my blog on a weekly basis to share what I have created or been up to the previous week. As I am on a computer everyday at work, to spend more time on the computer at home is not good, althought it is the best way I can share with you all what is happening in Stampin' Up! and also share what I have been creating.

I haven't done much crafting last week as I was unwell and had time off my 'regular' job and I could not find the desire or motivation to create! However, that all changed last night and I felt inspired to try a few tutorials out of another Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Michelle Zindorf, who is very talented with the use of the brayer and shares her tutorials online on her blog.

The first one I created was following her 'Embrace Life Today - Tutorial #180' and here is my result:

One thing I learnt from doing this tutorial was that I should not rush the detail. I have a Versamark pen and enjoy using it but felt it my dry quicker than when I use my Versamark inkpad so I rushed the step where you go over the small flowers with the Versamark pen prior to embossing. What this did was caused me to go outside the lines of the small flowers so when I embossed them this was set outside the flowers and any ink that is sponged in that area will not stick so the flowers have white areas outside some of the small flowers - you may have to look closely to notice this but it is something I will be aware of next time I use my Versamark pen for fine detail, take my time!

The second tutorial I followed was Michelle's 'By the Golden Pond - Tutorial #175' and I feel my road looks almost another water area like the pond and I also smudged some black ink at the horizon section of my road, however, I was reasonably pleased with the result. What do you think?

My third and final tutorial that I did last night was her 'Thinking - Tutorial #164' and as I did not have Prismacolor markers I simply used my Stampin' Up! Markers and selected colours similar to what she used - Taken with Teal, Tempting Turquoise, Bordering Blue, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Really Rust, Sage Shadow. I labelled my image 'Reflections' as I think this sums up not only the image created but the mood of the card.

Have you tried doing reverse image stamping? It is a fun technique to do and if you don't have a 'Reverse Image Stamp' (which is simply a blank stamp) and the stamp image is small you can use a brayer to get the same effect - I will have to try to take some photos of doing it this way and share them here on my blog.

Well I hope you enjoyed looking at my creations, althought they are no where near as good as Michelle's she has such a talent for the brayer and blending. I would so love to be in America to be able to attend one of her workshops! Anway thanks Michelle for sharing your tutorials and inspiring myself and others in our craft!

Please feel free to leave a comment here on my blog and definately check out Michelle's tutorials, if you haven't already.

Happy stamping!

As Sale-A-Bration promotion finishes - the Retired List is available!

I just popped into our Stampin' Up! website to check out a few things and I noticed that the 'Retired List' of items that are to be discountinued from the current Idea Book & Catalogue 2008-2009 is already available, check it out here - http://www3.stampinup.com/au/ena/6454.asp.

These items are to be retired to make room for new stamp sets, new In Color range and new accessories to be released in the new Idea Book & Catalogue 2009-2010 - which is due to be released 1 April 2009.

So make sure you don't miss out on any sets that are on the retired list and also on your 'wishlist' by emailing me today with your order!

Happy stamping!

One Sheet Wonder Workshop

Many of you who drop by my blog would know that I enjoy creating One Sheet Wonders (OSW) - which is essentially one sheet of stamped cardstock (or patterned paper) that is cut up and used as the feature element to create a number of cards (or items). It is an easy and quick way of creating coordinated greeting cards and a method that I like to use to bulk up my personal card supply, to give away as a gift set or just recently as a format for one of my Stampin' Up! workshops.

What I want to share with you today is the workshop and template that I developed around a OSW based on an A4 stamped sheet and using only two contrasting colours in a monochromatic colour scheme. My aim was to create templates that utilised as much of the cardstock as possible (thereby having less offcuts, although these were often used as embelishments) and had little 'expensive or flashy' embelishments and were thereby quick and easy to create and could be completed within a workshop time frame. My workshop timeframe was approx. 3 hours in which participants stamped their A4 cardstock, cut the templates and card bases and mounted the resulting cards - making 8 cards in the process!

What I learnt from running this workshop was that when cutting the templates some did not cut the straight through lines and therefore often cut through pieces which were meant to make up, for example, Card No. 7. I have yet to learn how to put dashed lines with a scissor image on my templates in Photoshop to guide users in which order to cut the templates.

Below is two sets of 8 cards I created based on the A4 OSW Template and the templates (which I modified slightly after the workshop) that I used for the workshop and provided a copy to each participant. As this was a specially designed workshop (and not my standard format), using more materials etc I charged each participant $10 for which they received the handout and necessary materials to create the 8 cards (5 sheets A4 Whisper White cardstock, 1 x A5 contrasting colour 1, 1 x A5 contrasting colour 2, one smaller pieces of Whisper White cardstock for greetings/embelishments (half A5 piece), 50 cm coordinting ribbon and one piece of Silver Hodgepodge Hardware to use if they wanted to. If you would like a copy of the handout that I used at my workshop please email me at maecollins3@iprimus.com.au and I would be happy to share it with you for your personal use or to use at a workshop - but not for submission to magazines or competitions etc.

Have a go at using the templates yourself and let me know what you think of them. I would also enjoying seeing what you create using these templates and your creative interpretation of them, so feel free to add a link to your blog/website when posting your comments below.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy creating OSWs as much as I do. These would also make a great format for Stamp-a-Stack workshops.

Happy stamping!