Stampin' With Michelle Pepper

As promised, albeit late, show casing the Friday night girls' creations. The one above is by Ana. Gotta love them jewel rhinestones for covering up smudges or unwanted ink spots! That trick never fails :-) Irene's: Let me now introduce the newest member of my Stampin' Family, Juliet Hope.  I am so excited, and Juliet is so excited too, so we're in for a good time! She's also a scrapbooker, so I look forward to getting some scrapping tips from this multi talented mama of five boys.  Juliet's #1, followed by #2 when she experimented with a different colour, ie Blackberry Bliss. Margarita's: Rachel's #1, followed by #2 when she experimented with Daffodil Delights/Pumpkin Pie combo - just stunning! Didn't they do well? I love their individual spin on the original card.

Today's card features the Honeycomb Embossing Folder, and the "fall leaves" come from the Lovely As A Tree stamp set which often gets overlooked, by me anyway :-) The card again features the faux letterpress technique, where you ink up the embossing folder and then run your card stock sandwiched between the folder through the Big Shot. A button with twine through it and the thankful sentiment - that's all that is required to have a finished Thankful For You card, in time for today Thanksgiving Day. I know, it's not a Kiwi celebration traditionally, but there's no reason why I can't make it my tradition :-) So today, let me take a moment to say thank you all, my dear blog readers, near and far. And Happy Thanksgiving Day!

With 6 weeks to go till Christmas, my calendar is fast filling up - how about you? As my to do list gets longer and the deadlines get shorter because there is more of an urgency at this time of the year, I see my blogging is suffering, for it's been more than a week since my last post! That won't do, so just a quick one today. I love this card - I hadn't planned for it to be a vintage card, but I love the end result! I was so impressed with the technique after watching Catherine Pooler's video that I couldn't wait to try the technique out myself. I experimented a bit with different Embossing folders, and different colour combinations so that eventually I found myself with a stack of background pieces. These have been so handy to have. As you can see from this card, it needs only very few embellishments and snap, you got a card all ready to go :-) Hope you are inspired by this technique too - have fun playing!

This card showcase a different way to use Embossing Folders. I have used the Woodgrain folder here as a stamp! Don't you love it when you realize what you have has multi purpose uses to it? First, sponge on the Whisper White layer any color combination you desire. I love the Coastal Cabana/Strawberry Slush/Daffodil Delight combo and I love the way it turned out in this card. Sponging is probably the coloring technique I fall back on time and time again. I'd love to show you how if you don't know what it is. Back to the card…next, you take the embossing folder of your choice and spritz water on the raised side. You want it fairly wet. Then lay your sponged piece on the side with no water, colored side up. Firmly press close the embossing folder together. Open the folder and voila, you will see the imprint of the folder's design on your sponged card. It gets more pronounced by the second, literally, as the card dries. With such a pretty background, you won...

This card was first inspired by the Faux Letterpress technique I saw demonstrated by my Stamp Nation sista Catherine Pooler . Then, Stamp Nation also celebrated World Card Making Day on October 4th with an incredible series of challenges, one of which I was inspired to use the different shade of blues. The eventual card, as pictured above, was what I then used for a shoebox swap in our team training session last Saturday. A swap is a lot of fun - you prepare one design and depending on the number of people in the swap, you get that many number of different cards in return. A shoebox swap simply is a variation in that you have the supplies all ready in a shoebox or any kind of suitable container for others to make the card, and in return you get to make cards that others have designed. I have had so much fun playing with this Faux Letterpress Technique - I have now made several cards with this technique that I will be sharing with you over the next few days. I would love to show y...

Does this card seem familiar? It is my CASE of one of the projects I got to make at the recent Auckland Party Time event. I haven't (yet) got the Choose Happiness stamp set, so I set about a challenge for myself to CASE the Kraft Grid line Journal cover (see below) with the stamp sets I already have. Original Make & Take from event: Well, I can't stop at just one card, so I also came up with the card below in a softer colour palette. It is also another excuse to use the Good Greetings stamp set, which, until the 31 October,  is the Hostess' when she host a party with the qualifying sales. What do you think?  I hope you found it helpful to see how a card can be CASED, using stamps that you already have. It's no guarantee though, that you will not crave (all the more even) for the very stamp set you don't have that was used in the original project :-) Oh, that was quite a mouthful, lol!

As a demonstrator, we get the Impressions publication every two months from Stampin' Up. These are jam packed with ideas and training tips. This month I have been challenged by one of the articles about not neglecting the poor old envelope. It is so true that envelopes often take a back seat. The dear humble envelope can be so much more - just like the present itself is dressed up with a fancy package, so can the handmade card be dressed up with its envelope. It is another opportunity to say something about the recipient of your lovingly handmade card. So I made a special effort with the project for my "Connect through Creativity" class this month. What do you think? I would write the recipient's name on the heart die cut. The envelope can be re-used simply by removing the heart die cut which is only clipped to the clothespin. Then out comes the card from inside the envelope: The lighting is all funny but this next one is more true to the colours. Don...