This card features the Hand Delivered stamp set, which is only available to purchase with Stampin' Rewards (more on that below).  I made it for my friend and (former) downline, Nickie, who has taken over doing my classes in Scottsdale.  All reports are that she's doing a great job, and I wanted to acknowledge her success.

This set is so easy to use!  The pretty line art drawings are on photopolymer stamps, so that they are easy to see through on the clear blocks.  The skirt and legs are on one stamp, and the sign and hands are on another, with a variety of sentiments on still more.  

I stamped the legs/skirt first on Whisper White, then lined up the sign/hands and stamped it, adding my sentiment. I coloured in the legs shoes, and hands with Stampin' Blends Markers.

Then I stamped the skirt again on a piece of Twinkle Twinkle Designer Series Paper (DSP) and hand cut it with my Paper Snips.  These snips are so sharp and easy to cut with!  Then I glued the DSP skirt over the stamped image on the Whisper White panel.  This technique is called "Paper Piecing" and is great for adding patterns to images. A great tip is to cut your DSP image directly on or just to the inside of the stamped line...the stamped image on the bottom panel will peek out and make a sleek line.

I mounted the stamped panel and an additional piece of Twinkle Twinkle DSP onto Night of Navy mats, popping some up on Stampin' Dimensionals.  Everything is layered on a Thick Whisper White card base, with a few Basic Adhesive-Backed Sequins added for a touch of bling.

Stampin' Rewards:  This "money" is earned when one places an order or hosts a party with orders totalling a minimum of AU$250.  These rewards can be applied to anything SU! offers in its catalogues, but are the ONLY way to receive the exclusive host sets featured on pp. 226-229 of the Annual Catalogue or pp. 54-55 of the Holiday Catalogue.  Want to learn more about how you can earn FREE products?  Contact me today and we'll discuss!

Here are the products I used to make this card. Click on any image below to go to my Online Store and order.

Let's Get This Started Open House
8 December 2018
1:00 - 5:00 PM
Nancy's Stamping Studio
1801/151 Berkeley Street, Melbourne 3000
1 block E of Haymarket tram stop (19/59) and Flemington Rd/Peel St (58). Also 3 blocks W of Lincoln Sq./Swanston St - UniMelb tram stop. Contact for parking info.

This kickoff event is a FREE open house to introduce everyone to what I offer. There will be make-and-take projects, snacks and displays. Come when you can, leave when you must. Feel free to bring a friend. RSVPs by 1 December appreciated so I can have enough materials prepared.

I'm playing along with the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge 195 today:

As you may have seen, our SU! catalogues are labeled as both a "catalogue" and an "idea book".  Chock-full of pictures of projects made with our products, they can be a great source of inspiration!  Today's card was inspired by a picture on page 142 of the Annual Catalogue.  I've always heard that CASE stands for "Copy and Share/Steal Everything," but I recently heard my upline, Kylie Bertucci, say that it is for "Copy and Selectively Edit" which I like better!

In the catalogue they show a long, skinny card set on top of an envelope made from the Nature's Poem Designer Series Paper.  I liked how the Petal Pink and Blackberry Bliss looked layered together, so I decided to make a standard-sized card using these elements.

I kept the three leaves from the Rooted in Nature set stamped in Petal Pink, Blackberry Bliss and Mint Macaron inks on the Whisper White panel spattered with ink droplets. I also added a few rhinestones for a bit of sparkle. You may notice that in the end I changed which side of the Petal Pink panel I attached it to...I just liked the balance and flow better with it to the left side.

 used the triple leaves stamp with Petal Pink ink on the Petal Pink cardstock.  And I switched out the sentiment and it's colour and placement. I like that this card is very feminine in its colours, with the strong, affirming words to go with it.  What do you think?

There's still time for you to play along with this week's challenge...send me your pics if you don't want to upload them on the WWC website!

Here are the products I used to make this card.  Click on any image below to go to my Online Store and order.

Let's Get This Started Open House
8 December 2018
1:00 - 5:00 PM
Nancy's Stamping Studio
1801/151 Berkeley Street, Melbourne 3000
1 block E of Haymarket tram stop (19/59) and Flemington Rd/Peel St (58). Also 3 blocks W of Lincoln Sq./Swanston St - UniMelb tram stop. Contact for parking info.

This kickoff event is a FREE open house to introduce everyone to what I offer. There will be make-and-take projects, snacks and displays. Come when you can, leave when you must. Feel free to bring a friend. RSVPs by 1 December appreciated so I can have enough materials prepared.

As promised in my last post, here's the tutorial for the Hershey's Nugget Gift Bag I made.  Let me know if you have any questions!

This week's Watercooler Wednesday Challenge is an "Anything Goes" challenge, meaning it doesn't have to be a card. 

This little package is made from Joyous Noel Specialty Designer Series Paper (DSP) and holds DSP-wrapped Hershey's Nuggets.  

The tag is made with the Timeless Tidings stamp set and a few berries added with the Merry Merlot Stampin' Write Marker.  I just love this new Merry Merlot and Copper Reversible Ribbon...it picks up the tones of the DSP so well!

​I'll be posting a tutorial for how to make these packages sometime soon.  In the meantime, why don't you play along with the challenge?

This is the one-and-only Halloween card I made this year.  And I didn't even send it to anyone, LOL!  I really like the Spooky Bats Punch so I bought it bundled with the coordinating Spooky Sweets stamp set.  I also bought the Black Foil Sheets, which is what these bats are punched from, though it was hard to capture their glossiness in the picture.  That's all the Halloween stuff I bought this year.  No Designer Series Paper, no embellishments.  In large part this is because I knew I wouldn't be set up to hold classes yet, but also because Halloween is not widely celebrated here in Australia.  Shops are trying to get it going, but it's definitely a North American holiday!

So to make a card I had to be creative.  I used the starry background from the Bokeh Dots set and Basic Gray ink applied with a sponge dauber on Whisper White card stock.  I matted it on Basic Gray card stock and added the bats with Mini Stampin' Dimensionals.  The sentiment from Spooky Sweets was stamped in Pumpkin Pie and cut with a Layering Circles Die, and mounted on Basic Black card stock cut with the next larger die and popped up with Dimensionals.  A Pumpkin Pie card base ties everything together.

So for all my friends and family in the States, here you go...may you get many more treats than tricks today!

Here are the products I used to make this card.  Click on any image below to go to my Online Store and order.

If you live in Australia and are not working with another Stampin' Up! demonstrator I'd love to be your creative coach!  Let me know and I'll send you both the Annual and Holiday Catalogues.  In the meantime, click on each cover to view online!

I am playing along with the CAS(e) This Sketch Challenge #295 this week.  I had fun with it, although I'm not sure it qualifies as a Clean-And-Simple design.

I started by cutting a piece of Joyous Noel Specialty Designer Series Paper on the diagonal to get my corner stripe element.  To make it simple I used one of my Layering Squares Framelits dies and then sliced it in half on my Paper Trimmer.  The sentiment is from the Timeless Tidings set.  For both it and the Dashing Deer images I used a Sponge Dauber to put Copper Shimmer Paint on the stamps.  This makes a softer image than VersaMark and Copper Embossing Powder, but works just fine (which is good because my embossing powders are still in my shipping container on the Pacific!).

The tree is from Winter Woods, stamped in Tranquil Tide, and is cut out with the coordinating die from Woods Framelits.  Everything is layered onto a rectangle of another piece of Joyous Noel DSP, and matted on Tranquil Tide card stock before being layered onto a Merry Merlot card base.

I'm loving these rich colour tones for the holidays...how about you?

Here are the products I used to make this card.  Click on any image below to go to my Online Store and order.

f you live in Australia and are not working with another Stampin' Up! demonstrator I'd love to be your creative coach!  Let me know and I'll send you both the Annual and Holiday Catalogues.  In the meantime, click on each cover to view online!

I'm playing along with the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge again this week!  The theme is "All About Holidays" and I've jumped into Christmas for the first time this year.

The playful Mr. Claus in the So Santa stamp set is too cute!  For the last 7 Christmases I've lived in a warm climate, but not at a beach.  Now it will be officially summer at Christmas, though perhaps not much warmer than Christmas in Arizona.  It will all depend on which way the breeze is coming from, I understand. Nevertheless, there is surfing at the beach in Melbourne even if it's not as well-known as at our warmer neighbours to the north,  

I stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and then coloured with Stampin' Blends.  I chose a piece of the Tropical Escape Designer Series Paper to go with the beach-y theme.  The card is 10.5 cm square.  Here's the inside:

There are still a few days left to play along...why don't you give it a try?

Here are the products I used to make this card.  Click on any image below to go to my Online Store and order.

If you live in Australia and are not working with another Stampin' Up! demonstrator I'd love to be your creative coach!  Let me know and I'll send you both the Annual and Holiday Catalogues.

Before I get to today's card, I just wanted to pat myself on the back for a moment.  I was chosen as a Watercooler Rocker for this card that I made for the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge last week!  Very fun, and much appreciated..  Again, I urge you to play along with some challenges and see what you can do!

In the last couple of months before leaving the U.S. to move to Australia one of the hardest things was not getting to play with some new stamp sets.  I had a couple of boxes from Stampin' Up! awaiting my arrival in Melbourne, and in them was this great host set, Hand Delivered.

This photopolymer set is see-through, which makes lining up the elements a total snap.  I didn't have to use a Stamparatus or Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to get the balloons and arms to line up perfectly with the legs and skirt.  Likewise, the sentiment was easily positioned.  

I coloured in the picture with Stampin' Blends...not my best colouring jobs (use the bullet tip instead of the brush tip to go around the outline to avoid bleeding outside the line!), but still a cheerful card to send out.

Did you notice that I stamped the balloons in VersaMark on the Lovely Lipstick card base?  I could also have used Lovely Lipstick ink for a similar, but slightly darker, effect.

This set, or any of the other host sets, can be yours with purchase of AUD$250 or more.  You will receive 10% of your purchase in Stampin' Rewards which can be used to purchase anything in any catalogue...but the host sets can only be purchased with Stampin' Rewards.  Check out these sets on pages 226-229 of the Annual Catalogue, or pages 54-55 of the Holiday Catalogue.

Here are the products I used to make this card.  Click on any image below to go to my Online Store and order.

Did you know you can make a card that meets the requirement of multiple challenges?  While I was mulling over my design choices for the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge 192 "Masculine Anything Goes," I came across the CAS(e) This Sketch #294 Challenge.  CAS in this instance does double-duty for Clean-And-Simple and Copy-And-Share (everything).  Here's the sketch:

My card started with the Twinkle Twinkle Designer Series Paper, which I think works well for a masculine card.  I layered it on a piece of Whisper White that I ran through the Big Shot with the Subtle embossing folder.  The sentiment was cut with the Happy Birthday Thinlits Die out of both Whisper White and Night of Navy card stock, and snipped the words apart..  Tip: use the Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets on the back of the card stock before cutting - makes it an easy-to-place sticker!  Add a Night of Navy card base and there is my clean-and-simple masculine birthday card.

Everything I used to make this card is listed below.  If you live in Australia and would like to purchase any or all of these items just click on one to go to my online store.

Speaking of my store, SU! has a 24 hour sale on tomorrow!  Click on the graphic below to get your copy of the list of stamp sets that are on sale.   Place your order in my online store and save 15% Tuesday only! 

In my last post I talked about how having a card kit on hand can be helpful when you want to create but are needing some inspiration.  This week I was reminded by a new friend and fellow demonstrator, Tristan Dawes, how great card challenges can be for this, too!  She's a member of the design team for the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge, so after checking it out I decided to play along.

The theme for this week's challenge is "Masculine Anything Goes,"  As we card crafters know, it's more challenging to come up with cards that the guys will really like, so it's great to have them in our stash.

For this card I wanted to use the Enjoy Life stamp set by Stampin' Up!  I really like doing silhouette stamps against a watercolored background and played around making a couple until I got one I really liked with this stamp.  My favorite technique is to smoosh ink pads onto a clear block, then spritz with water before pressing it onto a piece of Whisper White card stock.   Once it was dry I stamped the image 3 or 4 times with Memento Tuxedo Black using my Stamparatus. I love how I can get a really opaque image this way.  The sentiment only needed one stamping to come out nice and crisp and dark.  I kept everything simple by mounting the image directly to a Cajun Craze card base.

Why don't you play along, too?  Don' have a blog to link? Please send me a picture of your creation:nhoetker@mac.com.

If you live in Australia and would like to purchase any of the supplies I used to make this card, click on the image below and go straight to my online store.