It’s been a while since I’ve played with the Stained Glass technique but I knew the So Very Grateful stamp set would be just perfect for it.

Here’s a card I made recently for Wonder Hubby’s mum who is out with us from the UK for a while.

The aim of the technique is to give the appearance of a stained glass window by embossing an image onto Vellum Cardstock so that you can see through it. Using a black, silver or pewter powder adds to the look of the ‘leadlighting’ and colouring with markers on the reverse side adds the ‘stain’ to the ‘glass’.

To get the full effect of the vellum I cut a window into the card to allow the light to flow through. Alternatively you could mount it onto a light coloured background so that the area is at least highlighted even if it’s not completely transparent.

This picture shows what it looks like when held up to the light.

I love, love, love this stamp set. I know it’s going to get a lot of use!

So Very Grateful (Occasions p32)
Wood (133050) $39.95
Clear (133053) $31.95

Cheers

Genna

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The Card In A Box is another design that’s hugely popular at the moment and I have no idea who to credit as its source.

One of the reasons it’s so popular is because it’s so stunning and yet so simple once you know how.

I made this one for one of my cousins who recently got engaged. The invitation to the engagement party was all in Vanilla and Black. I wanted to match their colour scheme but was struggling to make it work without a feature colour to make it pop. I settled on red and was so pleased when I got to the party to discover the bride-to-be had done exactly the same with her party decorations!

You can ‘fill’ the box part with whatever images you like, in as many layers as you like. This one has two layers, plus the back, as you can see from the bird’s eye view. 

And there’s plenty of room on the back to write your message.

The best thing about it is that if you design it well, it will all fold flat and fit inside a standard C6 envelope.

The Card In A Box is so popular and so many people have asked how they’re made that I’ll be including one of these in my April class. Keep an eye out for more details soon.

Cheers

Genna

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You can see how this punch can be used for decorative edges on tags and bookmarks, but what else can you do with it? 

Scallop Tag Topper Punch (Occasions p35)
(133324) $39.95
Also comes as an Angled Tag Topper Punch
(133323) $39.95

  What about a fantastic new way to create a closure for a card? This is not my idea and you might have seen it from many different sources like I have so I’m afraid I have no idea where the original idea came from. Whoever it was though is amazing! What a clever idea. 

How pretty does that look on the front of the card!

The idea to use the punch might not have been mine but these designs are. I’ve teamed a background piece of patterned paper with the simplicity of a greeting from the Label Love set. The coordinating punch makes this so easy. Stamp the greeting, punch it out. Punch out a second Artisan Label from coloured cardstock, cut it in half and adhere it behind the greeting. Done!

This one uses the colourful paper from the Watercolour Wonder pack in the Occasions Catalogue.

And I’ve used a bit of a trick with the ribbon. It might look like there’s one piece that goes across the card and then gets tied through the scalloped flaps but it’s actually done in two pieces. One is adhered flat to the card front, and only the small piece is tied to the closure.

Cheers

Genna

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Here’s our gorgeous stand at the GO Festival at the Royal Exhibition Buildings…

We met loads of lovely new ladies and introduced them to the art of stamping with some Make and Take mini cards.

Everyone who stopped by could choose to make a card using the Banner Blast Sale-a-bration stamp set and matching Banner Punch…

…or using the Petite Petals stamp set and matching punch.

There were lots of choices to be made with a bunch of greetings from the Occasions catalogue and a huge range of colours to mix and match.

It was so much fun chatting away all day and discovering that many had never stamped before. I loved seeing their faces when they made cards that looked just like the samples and couldn’t believe they’d done it by themselves with their own two hands. This is what my job is all about!

Cheers

Genna

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If you’re in Melbourne this coming weekend come and see our Stampin’ Up! stand at the GO (Girls Only) Women’s Expo…

(click image to view the official website)

We’ll have displays, demonstrations, prizes and the chance to make a free card. 

There’ll be a few designs to choose from and you can create with the Banner Blast set and matching punch from Sale-a-bration:

Or if florals are your thing you can use the Petite Petals stamp set and coordinating punch instead:

All in your choice of colours!

Which one is your favourite?

Cheers

Genna

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I love Valentine’s day! So does Wonder Husband. We know it can be overly commercial but just can’t resist the excuse to indulge in something that lets us demonstrate how we feel for each other. Not because we’re supposed to because it’s February 14th. Not because the marketers want us to splurge on presents. Not because we expect it or demand it of each other. But because it feels good. It’s an excuse to be happy. It’s a reason to stop and think and not let the daily routine be our focus. And we make sure our boys see us making a fuss of Valentine’s Day too so they see there’s nothing wrong with declaring your feelings and letting them show. So we took them with us for a special Valentine’s dinner out – an early sitting so as not to disturb those wanting a more traditionally romantic dinner. Well that, and because we had plans to cuddle up on the couch and revisit When Harry Met Sally once we’d got them into bed!

Here’s the card I made for His Awesomeness this year using a series of hearts cut from the Hearts Collection Framelits. His response when I gave it to him was ‘It’s a bit pink isn’t it!’ This was said with a smile but it was in all seriousness. Here I was deliberately going for blue/green shades so that despite the imagery it wasn’t overly feminine and his colour blindness left him thinking it was pink! Seriously. He sees this as pink. Just as well he likes pink!

And here’s a close-up of the of the details. There’s paper piercing using one of our fantastic templates, sanded back Core’dinations cardstock, sponged ink, strings of bling and the new metallic Baker’s Twine. I went to town on this one and enjoyed every second of it! 

The stamp is from an already much-used set from the new Occasions catalogue:

Love You To The Moon (Occasions p25)
Wood (133140) $42.95
Clear (133143) $33.95

And before I go I have to share the card His Awesomeness gave me. He saw it in the shop and couldn’t believe how apt he thought it was for the two of us!

Cheers

Genna

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And Awesome Swaps!

I took part in a card swap recently. This is where a group of demonstrators get together to create a number of copies of the same card on a particular theme and send them off to a coordinator who sends back a whole pile of different cards made by all the other participants. It’s a great way to get ideas and samples in different styles without having to buy all the products. This one was for the new Occasions and Sale-a-bration catalogues. Here’s my contribution:

I took my colour inspiration from the Retro Fresh suite of products in the new Occasions catalogue. And I used the Hardwood backround stamp along with the Cool Kid set that I HAD TO HAVE the moment I first saw it.

Cool Kid (Occasions p29)
Wood (133122) $41.95
Clear (133125) $33.95

I also used the new Scalloped Tag Topper Punch – a new favourite tool that can be used for soooo much more than making tags! More on that later.

Scalloped Tag Topper Punch (Occasions p35)
(133324) $39.95
Also available in an Angled Top shape

And now for one of the reasons I HAD TO HAVE the Cool Kid stamp set – I knew my boys would love it! I just didn’t know how much.

After I’d made my pile of swaps there were various bits of leftovers on my desk. The instant my boys saw them they were asking to have them. They often ask to have things that I’m creating and are used to getting a negative answer because they want things I’m making for a specific purpose. So their jaws dropped this time when I said yes. They weren’t going to wait for me to change my mind and pounced on my desk to set about creating something from their new-found treasure.

Here’s Devon’s… 

And Zane took advantage of being slower to get done and used up everything else he could find: 

It was one of those moments where my heart just swelled that they were getting so much enjoyment from joining in with something that I love to do.

Can you tell that I love my job?

Cheers

Genna

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Same card, 10 different looks!

You may have seen this card from my February class using the Sweet Sorbet DSP from the Sale-a-bration range…

Well here it is again, and again, and again…all I’ve done is changed the choice of patterned paper from the Sweet Sorbet pack. Believe it or not, all the patterns made it look like the card had been designed especially to coordinate with it.

There are 12 different patterns in the pack and only 2 of them didn’t work very well with this design – both were pretty monotone and didn’t include either the Pistachio Pudding of the card base or the Summer Starfruit in the thread and the scallop circle. But I thought 10 out of 12 was pretty amazing and it meant that my class attendees had lots of choices when making their cards. Can you spot the patterns I didn’t use?

Until 31st March you can get this 12″ x 12″ paper pack for free when you spend $90 on products from any catalogue!

Learn more about Sale-a-bration here.

Cheers

Genna

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Want to see what’s inside?

As promised, I’ve recorded a video to show you how the Thank You Flip Card from this month’s Sale-a-bration Class works. It’s pretty basic but it gives you an idea of what it’s like in real life. Thanks to Zane for being the extra pair of hands I needed! I’ll just need to turn off my Mummy Eyes for a moment and not notice the state of his fingernails!

Cheers

Genna

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