Top Note Cards

Sorry I havn't blogged for a while, I am still loving the world of papercraft and trying to fit in some crafty and blogging time. Hope you like these recent birthday cards I made using my beloved Big Shot - it is such a nifty way to cut shapes and dry emboss, how did I live without it?

The first card uses Friends Never Fade and the Curly Cute greeting set and was a CASE of a card made by my SU friend Michelle Dyson. I just loved the colour combo of Rose Red, Pear Pizzazz, Perfect Plum and Peach Parfait - plus the sparkly bling of two way glue and Dazzling Diamonds Glitter complete with a pearl centre! The second card was a 1st Birthday card for a friends littley and uses the cute critters from Fox and Friends.

Until June 30 Stampin' Up! has an 'Extra Extra' promotion which offers an $110 in hostess dollars to spend when a workshop total reaches $450 - INCLUSIVE of the shipping and handling charges. That's on top of the usual exclusive Hostess stamp set of your choice.

My next Scrappin Sunday will be on Sunday 26 June 12-4.30pm, just $15 for use of all my tools, inks and scraps, plus afternoon tea, ideas galore and casual tuition. Book your spot at the table by just emailing me. 

So if we can reach $450 in purchases (incl postage & handling) we can divide up the $110 credit. For example if 5 people attend the workshop plus me thats 6 people spending $75 each and receiving an extra $22 each of free product of your choice. Even if you can't attend the workshop but would like $22 of your choice of free products let me know. This is a great deal guys so lets get together and make it work for us!

Be back sooner than later

Caz xx

Fundraising Raffle for Ethan

 One of the nicest things about being a demonstrator is the wonderful friendships that develop between us. We rally together to support many worthy causes, this time to help Ethan.

Ethan is the 6 year old son of Corina Beyer, a Riverina demonstrator. Ethan has Type 1 Diabetes, very difficult to manage in a young child. He has an insulin pump fitted, reducing the burden of multiple daily insulin injections. However, he still requires blood glucose monitoring every 2 hours round the clock, to prevent him from lapsing into a diabetic coma. Imagine the kind of stress this places on a family, if only from lack of unbroken sleep!
Ethan has recently trialled an automated continuous blood glucose monitoring system, which sounds an alarm if his levels fall outside the crucial range. However, the device costs $1250. And, the consumables cost more than $150 per week. Unfortunately, the Diabetes subsidy scheme does not cover this equipment. Your support will help to give Ethan a much more normal life, as well as his family!
 Tickets are $2 each, or 6 for $10


Your name and contact number will be recorded against ticket numbers, and you'll receive an email with your ticket numbers once your payment has been received. Prizes will be drawn using an online random number generator on TUESDAY 31st MAY.
 How to purchase tickets?


Please follow these steps:


1. Email michelle.dyson@bigpond.com with your name, address, contact number and the number of tickets you would like to purchase.


2. Make a deposit to the following account: St George BSB: 112879 Acc: 456399187 Name: Michelle Dyson and use your SURNAME as a reference.


3. Receive an email with your ticket numbers and drawing details to keep as your record.


We'd like to acknowledge the kind donations from members of the team, other demonstrators and Stampin' Up! Australia.

There are 5 amazing PRIZES!

GOOD LUCK and thank you!!

Royal Wedding Fever

Well those of you who know me will know it doesn't take much to make me tear up. I just started watching the Royal Wedding build-up and yep I've already started with the waterworks. Probably thinking of my wedding to Danny in 1996 and also all those fond memories of Diana, her wedding and the sadness of losing her in 1997. But who doesn't love a wedding? And Mum, Jo and Sophie are off to London town to see the Prince and Princess today how exciting! Im celebrating with my very own Princes Robert and Stephen with Fish and Chips, and wearing my very own tiara!

I'll leave you with my latest wedding card. It uses the gorgeous new Decorative Label punch as the centrepiece on the Love Letter paper. I have used a very cool trick by a clever lady called Carla Bazhenow. The trick mounts the label on another layer which looks like I have 2 punches, but I swear its only one! Looks great and its very easy!

Enjoy!

Eat-ster wishes

All my love and homemade Easter wishes to my friends and customers in blogland. Don't you just love these Wabbit Cupcakes my Aunty Trish made for us yesterday. Super cute and very yummy! Hope you are having a terrific long weekend and enjoying time out with family and friends. I have been scrapbooking again, so nice to have time to pull out all my toys and not have to pack them up for qute a few days!

I will being doing my Stampin Up order before the weekend is out so let me know if anything from the new Autumn mini catalogue takes your eye, or you need a top up of supplies. Here are some of my recents creations along the animal theme:

If you have any questions or comments about my cards please drop me a line or use the comment button below, I'd love to hear from you and see if anyone is reading my blog!

Love Carolyn xx

Happy 1st Birthday Princess Sophie

Here she is, my darling niece Sophie in her element surrounded by family and friends (in this case cousins Mollie and Keira), centre of attention and in her new handmade Peter Rabbit party dress - sound like anyone you know? LOL Its so cliche but I cant help but say how incredibly fast time flies when your'e having fun, it seems only yesterday that I became an Aunty for the first time, and I'm loving every minute! Looks like Soph is loving the fun and games at her Hello Kitty Birthday party:

Love this party stuff !  Q .is this a magic wand??

To celebrate her first year I decided to make Soph her very own scrapbook of memories and milestones. As my sister Jo and Soph are all the way over in the UK, most of our communication is via email, texts, Skype and the like, obviously not the same as real life but nevertheless I appreciate our ability to keep in close contact via modern technology. So much valuable information - thoughts, feelings, precious memories are recorded that way nowdays, so I typed up all the text messages and Facebook updates that Jo has sent me. This was the perfect journalling in the scrapbook and those precious memories will never be lost or forgotten.



Girls gotta love shoes: Soph and her friend Matilda comparing styles

Now to the crafty bit - I used the Stampin Up! Nursery Suite Specialty Paper with the Nursery Suite Quick Accents (sticky diecuts) which meant I could fly through the pages and also keep my colours coordinated - Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Pear Pizzazz, Regal Rose and So Saffron. These are gorgeous materials just perfect for scrapping the little people, and also make lovely and quick cards. I also used the Timeless Type Alphabet through the Big Shot for the letters and a few other dies through the album such as Top Note and Hearts and Brackets. Here's the titlepage of Sophie's Scrapbook:

Speaking of scrapbooking, its Scrappin Sunday again on the 1st May - May Day in fact! So let me know if you can join us for an afternoon of creative fun, choose your own projects, share inspiration and use all my SU tools including the amazing BIG SHOT - the best way to cut and emboss cardstock! If you havn't tried this genious invention why not try mine.

Will try to post some more Tigergirl Creations over the wonderfully long Easter weekend, but for now HAPPY EASTER, stay safe, eat chocolate, create and enjoy life!

Love Caz xx

Baby Bundle Baby Shower

Two weeks ago my cousin Sarah brought tiny Mollie Claire into the world, 7 weeks early but fairly good size (4 lbs 13 ozs) and well. Just a week before we celebrated the imminent arrival at her baby shower but had no idea that only a few days later Sarah would be a Mum for the first time! I'm pleased to hear today Mollie has no more tubes and getting stronger every day.

I made this card for Sarah's baby shower and decorated the baby bath hamper with matching butterfly punchies and ribbon. I absolutely love Bashful Blue with Rose Red, a great contrast don't you think?

I'm planning another scrappin' card day soon and my newsletter will also be out in the next few days so stay tuned for my May specials and more crafty ideas. I'm off to my friend and mentor's Michelle Dyson's home tomorrow for a day of therapeutic papercrafting. Happy weekend!

Love Caz xx

New Autumn Winter Product Range

April has to be one of the nicest months, lovely mild weather, Easter and lots of holidays which leaves extra timeout for being crafty and making something for someone special. I plan on doing just that this weekend, I am making a cute little album for my Niece Sophie's 1st Birthday, plus a matching card and wrapping - gotta love the coordination! What do you plan to do in April?

I've gotten lots of fresh inspiration from this new mini catalogue and absolutely love the new Botanica product range! So Vintage, warm and natural - did I say I love it!? There's a great new Big Shot Embossing Folder which will feature in a lot of my creations over the next few months, plus a gorgeous new stamp set called Strength and Hope which was designed specifically to raise money and awareness for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Stampin Up! you are such a generous and community minded company! Am also loving the Cupcake punch, matching Create a Cupcake stamp set and single Motorcycle stamp - so great for male cards!

If you'd like your very own hard copy of the catalogue just let me know and I'll pop one in the post to you, otherwise you can view all the stampy goodness online here

I'll be back soon with details of my next papercraft workshops, Autumn special offers and some new Tigergirl Creations. Until then enjoy every minute

Carolyn xx

Get your free stamps before 31st March!

There's only a few days to go for you to get your FREE set of stamps with a $100 order from the main or mini catalogue. Why not combine the order with friends or family to make up the $100. You can choose any of the 4 stamp sets: Bliss, So Happy For You, Punch Bunch or Sweet Summer. I have been getting lots of use from Bliss (you know how I love butterflies!) and the Vintage look is very pretty. These are top quality wood block stamp sets worth at least $35 so its a pretty great deal, only available until 31st March.  

The Summer Mini will also expire on the 31st March so take a good look if anything takes your fancy, as there's no guarantee these products will return! For these cards I have used my new favourite greeting stamps Well Scripted from the Summer Mini. I think I'll get lots of use out of this set over the next few months with its Happy Easter and Wonderful Mother stamp and I love the pretty flowing font.

Hello to the ladies that joined me for my workshop on Sunday - it was such a buzz of activity and some stunning cards and pages were accomplished! The Big Shot was a hit and I look forward to sharing some of their creations on this blog.

I will be placing this final Saleabration order on Thursday night at 7pm so please drop me an email or call me on 9684 6443 (night) or 0408472510 (day).

Look forward to sharing some lovely new goodies with you soon as there is a new Autumn Winter Mini catalogue released on April 1. Contact me for your free copy. Hope you get some crafty time soon and enjoy this beautiful time of year!

take care

Carolyn xx

Love Defined Ruby Wedding Anniversary

In February my parents Rob and Rhonda celebrated 40 years of marriage, which is certainly an achievement to be very proud of. They took a holiday to the Gold Coast and Mum was the lucky recipient of a Ruby ring! When they arrived home we had a small family dinner and I gave them this card and a Ruby Red photo album filled with happy family memories. 

Card recipe

Stamps: Love Defined (from the Summer catalogue which closes on the 31st March), Artistic Etchings

Card: Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla

Inks: Cherry Cobbler, Riding Hood Red, Rose Red sponged on with dauber to create a mottled effect

Markers: Early Espresso for branch

Accessories:  Tope Note Die and Big Shot, Vintage Brad, Cherry Cobbler Wide Striped Ribbon, black stickers from my stash

In these uncertain days we need to cherish those we love and feel gratitude for all the goodness in our lives. I hope your day is filled with goodness and gratitude!

Take care

Carolyn xx 

Christening Name Frames

When it comes to stamping and papercraft we are only limited by our imagination. Traditionally cards and scrapbooking are the most popular projects created, however when my friend Karen mentioned she had to organise Christening gifts for her nephews a new idea popped into my head. I offered to make a little name frame for each baby as a keepsake gift his parents could also display in the nursery or next to the Christening cake. I set to work and came up with these:

I used the Big Shot Textured Impressions Embossing Folder: Perfect Polka Dots for the background on Whisper White card. The alphabet is the Timeless Type set used with the Big Shot - it magically cuts out each letter, and I have done two sets in white and Crumb Cake for a shadow look. I have mounted the letters with Stamin' Dimensionals which 'pop'  the letters.  Finishing touches are the border and scalloped oval Nursery Suite die cuts and white pearls. The whitewash frames are from Big W. I hope the proud parents like them!

All our love and thoughts go to everyone in Christchurch, what a terrible start to 2011. We are reminded of the important things in life; to cherish our loved ones and make the most of our precious time here. Enjoy every moment!

Have a great weekend 

Carolyn :)

Valentines Card

Hope everyone felt the love on Valentines Day, whether that be the love of your family, friends or special someone. I made this cute little card for Steve to remind him we arn't to old to celebrate St Valentines Day, even if it was on a Monday this year. Rather than celebrate on the busiest day of the week we are going to see Michael Buble this Saturday night, a much better time for a 'date'!

Card recipe:
Stamp sets: Love Defined (Summer Mini), A Happy Heart
Card: Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Riding Hood Red
Marker: Early Espresso
Accessories: Big Shot Embossing folder 'Vintage Wallpaper', Chocolate Pearls, Modern Label punch

Technique Tip: Multi-coloured images
When you'd like the stamped image to have more than one colour you can use a couple of tricks to achieve some great looks:
1. Markers - after inking up in one colour, use a cotton tip, your finger or tissue to remove the colour on selected sections of the rubber, and then use a marker to apply the second colour - like I have done with the tree branch. Markers are just $5.75 each
2. Daubers - Stamp up an image completely in the lightest colour then use daubers to apply darker sections of colour - colours blending into each other create a nice mottled effect. Daubers are $20.95 for a set of 12

Today I received a big box of new Stampin Up! goodies so I look forward to playing with some of you next Sunday 27 Feb at my scrapbook workshop - be sure to email me to reserve your spot!

take care

Carolyn x

Big shot cards and Scrapbooking workshops

It is such a relief to hear there have been no lives lost in the cyclone ravaged FNQ and lets hope it stays that way! 2011 has certainly gotten off to a bad start for so many, and my thoughts go out to those affected. The heat here in Sydney has also been pretty unbearable, especially for people who don't have air con - I am so lucky to have it at work and home. However, last night Steve and I went to see Sia at the Enmore and sweltered with little to no air in that squeezy venue - a health risk for many I'm sure -which made for a pretty poor concert experience allround! Maybe I am just getting old?



Anyway onto matters that always cheer me up - SCRAPBOOKING and CARD MAKING! I have been playing with my new toy The Big Shot cutting machine and it is seriously awesome! I can't wait for you to use it - makes cutting, embossing and lettering a breeze!
 
Here are some cards I have recently made using the Big Shot:

Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder



Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder

Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder

Top Note Die

Over the holidays I got stuck right into my scrapbooking which had been neglected in 2010. A lot of you have said "when the kids are back at school you will have some more time for yourself and can get into scrapbooking again" - so the time is here! I have choosen the following dates for my upcoming scrapbooking workshops:

• Sunday 27 February
• Sunday 27 March

My workshops are pretty informal and relaxed, everyone works on their own projects and shares ideas, plus you get to use all my punches, stamps, inks, Big Shot, scraps and stickers. I can be your creative coach or you can do your own thing and you can also use my collection of idea books and scrapbooks for inspiration. I sell individual sheets of cardstock and pattern paper and have prizes and giveaways. We usually go from 12 – 4.30pm and its just $15 including afternoon tea. Just email me to book your spot at the table.

Hope to see you soon!

Carolyn

Helping our Neighbours up North

This happy memory was from the weekend Steve proposed to me in his home town of Brissy. We had a gorgeous apartment overlooking the Brisbane River, and we spent 5 days exploring Southbank, cruising the River and eating at riverside restaurants. So we were both absolutely heartbroken to see this pretty city devastated by the worst flooding in our lifetime, and looking more like this:

Thankfully Steve's family and friends In Queensland are all ok, unlike so many others who have lost their lives, their loved ones and their homes. I shudder to think about losing precious photo albums, scrapbooks and precious family memories - what a nightmare. Steve's parents live near Toowoomba so were effectively stranded at home with canned food for a week, but we are just so grateful they are safe and dry.

There has been an overwhelming rush of assistance to help our neighbours up north and you may have already donated to the appeals however here is another way you can support the Queensland community, and treat yourself at the same time. Stampin' Up! have posted the following on their website: 

As flood waters continue to inundate Australia in what has been described as the worst flooding in 37 years, we express our deepest sympathies to those who have lost loved ones and homes and to those whose lives have been changed forever. We, like so many of you, feel a compelling need to lend support to all those who have been affected.

Please join with us by supporting the Australia Flood Appeal--a cause in which Stampin' Up! will donate $2 AUD of the retail value of sales from any stamp set (with a retail value of $30 or more) sold in Australia and New Zealand from 15 January through 15 February to the State Emergency Services in Queensland.

This coincides with the best time of the year to buy Stampin' Up products because from 25 January through to 31 March it's Sale-A-Bration where you get a FREE set of stamps with any $100 SU order. Click on this link to view the Sale-A-Bration catalogue which shows you the 4 lovely sets you can choose from. My favourite set is Bliss - so vintage! So get your orders to me before Feb 15 and you will be contributing to rebuilding lives, (as well as getting a nice free set of stamps]. Remember the Summer mini catalogue runs til the end of March.

I'll be setting dates for my stamping, scrapbooking and cardmaking workshops in the next week so let me know your preference of days and times. Hope to craft with you soon!

Love Carolyn