Today I decided to return to a sketch challenge I haven't used in a very long time:  Mojo Monday.  This is not an SU! specific challenge, but I really like Julee's sketches.

I played along with Mojo Monday #539 in specific.  Here's the sketch:

In fact, as I was creating my first card, several more came to mind, so I wound up making 3 in short order! As you can see, I didn't take many liberties with the sketch layout itself.

Do you have a favourite?  Let me know in the comments!

July Monthly Card Class:  In-Person* or Kit-By-Mail

Make 5 projects featuring a variety of techniques and great Stampin' Up! products. Perfect for experienced and novice crafters!

Class will be set up to maintain safe physical distancing with enhanced sanitising procedures.  Limited to 5 participants per session. *Subject to Covid-19 conditions.  If necessary local participants can pick up a kit and participate by Zoom.

$30 – includes all supplies and afternoon tea.

Saturday, 18 July, RSVP Deadline Thursday, 16 July
Tuesday, 21 July, RSVP Deadline Sunday, 19 July
​1:00 - 4:00 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.

Last week I participated in an online crafting class led by a fellow member of Kylie's Creative Crafters team.  It was fund to receive a picture and list of supplies and then craft along in a group while chatting.

The original card as designed by Kylie Swain was made in Night of Navy and Daffodil Delight.  I changed it up a bit to make it in Misty Moonlight and Bumblebee.

I had so much fun that I immediately made a second version, this time in Gray Granite and Petal Pink!  I also snuck in a little tousle of Silver Thread (retired).

Do you have a preference?

​Here's what I used:

July Monthly Card Class:  In-Person or Kit-By-Mail

Make 5 projects featuring a variety of techniques and great Stampin' Up! products. Perfect for experienced and novice crafters!

Class will be set up to maintain safe physical distancing with enhanced sanitising procedures.  Limited to 5 participants per session.

$30 – includes all supplies and afternoon tea.

Saturday, 18 July, RSVP Deadline Thursday, 16 July
Tuesday, 21 July, RSVP Deadline Sunday, 19 July
​1:00 - 4:00 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.

Recently a member of my Stampin' Up! team, Lynn, achieved Bronze Elite status.  This is the first milestone on the advancement path and comes with significant rewards, including a bump to a 25% discount/instant income rate and 1500 Flex Points awarded twice a year that can be used to purchase product or exclusive SU! demonstrator merch.  Earn enough of them in a year and you can redeem for a fantastic holiday trip for 2 - my ultimate goal as an SU! demo!

​To recognise this achievement I made this card for her:

It uses the Forever Greenery Designer Series Paper (DSP), the Forever Fern stamp set and coordinating dies, and one of the Greenery embossing folders.  In addition, I pulled out my Stamping Your Way To The Top stamp set, exclusive for demonstrators, for the sentiment, which I stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Copper embossing powder.  I used Copper Foil for the metallic leaf sprigs, as a stand-in for bronze.

Do you live in Australia and love to stamp?  I would love to talk with you about how joining my team can help you maximise your crafting budget, especially during June with this Pick a Free Bundle Starter Kit promotion.

Let me lay out  a scenario for you:

• Choose any $235 worth of product you love.  
• Add a stamp/tool bundle, perhaps the Blossoms in Bloom Bundle I used in this post.  It retails for $104, but it is yours FREE!
• Shipping is FREE!
• You pay $169 for all of the above.  This saves you $186.95!

* Choose any Punch Bundle (pp. 168-169) or Die Bundle (pp. 173-180).  Your savings will vary based on the price of the bundle you choose.

​But the savings don't end there...you will get a 20-25% discount on subsequent orders as long as you remain a demonstrator.​  Yes, please!

And, as a demo, you get early-access to new products, like the new Mini Catalogue that will be available for demonstrators to order from in July.  And the new Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine (p. 170) - available for demos in August.  Customers will need to wait another month for each!  

Do you see yourself ordering from the Annual Catalogue or new Mini Catalogue, or investing in one of the new Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machines?  Why not do so at a discount?

Some reasons you might be holding back:

• I don't want to sell to anyone or teach classes.  That's fine - you don't have to!  Most of my team are what we call "hobby demos," and just joined for the discount.
• I'm unsure what my obligations are as a demonstrator.  Nothing, really.  If you join in June you will be a demonstrator and receive a discount on all your orders until the end of September.  If you haven't ordered/sold $470 beyond your starter kit purchase by then, you will return to being my customer, no drama. Oh, yeah - that $470?  That's retail...with your discount it's only $376. 

​Other questions or concerns?  Give me a call/text or drop me an email and let's chat!
I'm here to support you every step of the way.  No question before or after joining is too small for me to answer, and if I don't know I can find someone who does!

Ready to join?  Click the button below and get started today!

On yesterday's Facebook Live video I played along with with the CASE-ing Tuesday challenge for this week.  You can watch the video on replay on YouTube or Facebook.

CASE-ing Tuesday is a Facebook group that posts a picture from a current catalogue, along with the layout in a sketch with measurements.  The challenge is to use these as inspiration to makeover the card however you like.  You can change the layout, colours, stamp set, whatever you get inspired to make.  I encourage anyone who is struggling with what to make (that would be ALL of us at some point!) to do some challenges, whether they are sketch, colour or something else.

Here's challenge #257 for this week:

Here's what I made:

I used the same layout and stamp set, but changed up the colours, sentiment, ribbon and card base.  I also chose to add some bling.

When I was figuring out what I wanted to do, I decided to choose a colour I hadn't used much recently as my starting point.  As I scanned my cardstock, my eye landed on Merry Merlot.  Then I chose other colours that complimented it.

One of the things I did was to correlate the same elements between the cards.  This means the leaves and sentiment layer that are Night of Navy on the sample card in Merry Merlot on mine.  The Petal Pink images and ribbon on the sample are Sahara Sand on mine.  The biggest change I made is putting the stamped layer on a Sahara Sand card base instead of Whisper White.

​If you choose to play along with this or another challenge I hope you'll share what you make with me!

​Here's the products I used to make this card:

I. Just. Can't. Stop. Making. Split. Cards.

Do I need an intervention?  I don't think so, LOL!  There's almost an endless variety of ways to use this time-efficient technique.  Here's my latest:

I stamped the large Blossoms in Bloom image in So Saffron ink, and added a few of the leaves in Pear Pizzazz.  Then I layered on the 2-part Many Layered Blossoms dies in Blushing Bride and So Saffron.  Both have a strip of Blushing Bride cardstock to the side, and a sentiment from Lovely You stamped in Pear Pizzazz.

This one has plain Rhinestones Basic Jewels.

This one has the same Rhinestones, but I coloured them with the Petal Pink Dark Stampin' Blends marker a few times before applying.  It's subtle, but I can see the difference in person.

​What do you have in your stash that you can use to make split cards?  Give them a try and send me some pictures!

I am so happy that the Country Home stamp set has carried over into the 2020-2021 Annual Catalogue.  For my June Monthly Card Class I decided to CASE (Copy and Selectively Edit) this card by Karen Hadler.

This card uses quite a few fun techniques:

• Masking (we stamped the milk can, masked it, then stamped the jug)
• Applying ink to the Brick & Mortar 3D embossing folder before using
• Stamping-off the "bubbles" for the image layer background
• Embossing the image layer with the Subtle 3D embossing folder after stamping and colouring
• Layering colours and removing colour with the Stampin' Blends and Color Lifter Markers
• Dying Whisper White Baker's Twine with Ink Refill

Want to learn techniques like these?  Get registered for my July Monthly Card Class (details below).

Here's what we used to make this:

NEW!  Fun Folds Cards #3
We'll be making a Triple Pop-Up Card, a W Card, a Window Easel Card and more in this 3-D card class!  Participants will take home written instructions to create these fun folds again and again.

Class will be set up to maintain safe physical distancing with enhanced sanitising procedures.  Limited to 5 participants per session.

$35 – includes all supplies and afternoon tea.

Saturday, 27 June,  RSVP Deadline Thursday, 25 June
Tuesday, 30 June, RSVP Deadline Sunday, 28 June
​1:00 - 4:00 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.

July Monthly Card Class:  In-Person or Kit-By-Mail

Make 5 projects featuring a variety of techniques and great Stampin' Up! products. Perfect for experienced and novice crafters!

Class will be set up to maintain safe physical distancing with enhanced sanitising procedures.  Limited to 5 participants per session.

$30 – includes all supplies and afternoon tea.

Saturday, 18 July, RSVP Deadline Thursday, 16 July
Tuesday, 21 July, RSVP Deadline Sunday, 19 July
​1:00 - 4:00 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.

This is a card I made while I was visiting the U.S. back in February.  I immediately knew I wanted to make it in a class, but had to wait until now to be able to do so!

It's actually a fun fold card!  Surprise:

I only had a limited amount of this paper, and needed to adapt to have enough supplies for my class, so I came up with this version:

So if you've got some of this paper hanging around (or it sparks your creativity with another paper) give this layout a try!

I just can't stop making versions of the Split Cards!  Here's a pair I made recently using the Beautiful Friendship stamp set: 

A quick refresher - one stamps or applies die cuts down the centre of a piece of cardstock, then cuts the piece in 2 and trim to fit card bases.

I gave the stamps, inks and a variety of card bases to my class participants so that they could get in on the fun...here's the results:

Here's what we used to make them:

NEW!  Fun Folds Cards #3
We'll be making a Triple Pop-Up Card, a W Card, a Window Easel Card and more in this 3-D card class!  Participants will take home written instructions to create these fun folds again and again.

Class will be set up to maintain safe physical distancing with enhanced sanitising procedures.  Limited to 5 participants per session.

$35 – includes all supplies and afternoon tea.

Saturday, 27 June,  RSVP Deadline Thursday, 25 June
Tuesday, 30 June, RSVP Deadline Sunday, 28 June
​1:00 - 4:00 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.

July Monthly Card Class:  In-Person or Kit-By-Mail

Make 5 projects featuring a variety of techniques and great Stampin' Up! products. Perfect for experienced and novice crafters!

Class will be set up to maintain safe physical distancing with enhanced sanitising procedures.  Limited to 5 participants per session.

$30 – includes all supplies and afternoon tea.

Saturday, 18 July, RSVP Deadline Thursday, 16 July
Tuesday, 21 July, RSVP Deadline Sunday, 19 July
​1:00 - 4:00 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.

These are the cards I made on this week's Facebook Live video.  You can watch the replay on Facebook or on YouTube.

They are made with the Celebrate Sunflowers Bundle.  

Both cards are stamped in a similar way, but finished with different techniques.

For this card I stamped the large sunflower twice, and then covered them with masks and stamped the small sunflower and leaves.  I decided not to colour them in, and added the sentiment from Lovely You, cut and matted with the Lovely Labels Pick A Punch.  After much deliberation, I decided to put a small Bumblebee Gingham Ribbon bow and some rhinestones to finish it off.

This card I also stamped and masked the large sunflower twice, but this time only added a few leaves.  Then I used a range of Stampin' Blends markers to colour in the images.  The sentiment from Here's A Card is stamped directly on the Whisper White layer in Early Espresso ink, which is also the colour of the card base.  I decided to keep this card unembellished to let the shading in the sunflowers stand on its own.

I hope you enjoy the video, and if there's something you would like me to feature in a future one please let me know.

​Here's what I used to make these cards:

NEW!  Fun Folds Cards #3
We'll be making a Triple Pop-Up Card, a W Card, a Window Easel Card and more in this 3-D card class!  Participants will take home written instructions to create these fun folds again and again.

Class will be set up to maintain safe physical distancing with enhanced sanitising procedures.  Limited to 5 participants per session.

$35 – includes all supplies and afternoon tea.

Saturday, 27 June,  RSVP Deadline Thursday, 25 June
Tuesday, 30 June, RSVP Deadline Sunday, 28 June
​1:00 - 4:00 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.

July Monthly Card Class:  In-Person or Kit-By-Mail

Make 5 projects featuring a variety of techniques and great Stampin' Up! products. Perfect for experienced and novice crafters!

Class will be set up to maintain safe physical distancing with enhanced sanitising procedures.  Limited to 5 participants per session.

$30 – includes all supplies and afternoon tea.

Saturday, 18 July, RSVP Deadline Thursday, 16 July
Tuesday, 21 July, RSVP Deadline Sunday, 19 July
​1:00 - 4:00 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.

I am just loving this Blossoms in Bloom Bundle (p. 51)...I can't stop playing with it!

This time I stamped the flower layer in Flirty Flamingo ink, and layered the two die cuts on top, first in Bumblebee and then in Flirty Flamingo.

The sentiment is from the Lovely You stamp set, punched out with the coordinating Lovely Labels Pick a Punch.

I adhered the Whisper White panel to a Flirty Flamingo card base, added a ¼" Bumblebee Gingham Ribbon bow and a few retired Flirty Flamingo Enamel Dots. Another Whisper White panel inside to write on with one of the little flower die-cuts, and it's good to go!

NEW!  Fun Folds Cards #3
We'll be making a Triple Pop-Up Card, a W Card, a Window Easel Card and more in this 3-D card class!  Participants will take home written instructions to create these fun folds again and again.

Class will be set up to maintain safe physical distancing with enhanced sanitising procedures.  Limited to 5 participants per session.

$35 – includes all supplies and afternoon tea.

Saturday, 27June,  RSVP Deadline Thursday, 25 June
Tuesday, 30 June, RSVP Deadline Sunday, 28 June
​1:00 - 4:00 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.

July Monthly Card Class:  In-Person or Kit-By-Mail

Make 5 projects featuring a variety of techniques and great Stampin' Up! products. Perfect for experienced and novice crafters!

Class will be set up to maintain safe physical distancing with enhanced sanitising procedures.  Limited to 5 participants per session.

$30 – includes all supplies and afternoon tea.

Saturday, 18 July, RSVP Deadline Thursday, 16 July
Tuesday, 21 July, RSVP Deadline Sunday, 19 July
​1:00 - 4:00 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.