It's Been A Long Time

Yowzers, it's been ages since I've posted. This is the card I whipped up this afternoon for my partner's youngest brother's birthday, which was today.



I never thought that I would ever use ribbon on a 'boys' card, especially for one who's turning 20, but you know what they say, 'Never say never!'


This was a pretty simple card. The ribbon determined my colour choices - Ballet Blue, Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip, Real Red and Whisper White. The chipboard slider is from SU's On Board Accents - I am SO diggin' this chipboard stuff! This time I gave it a light coat of Jo Sonja's white paint before sponging some Ballet Blue craft all over. The white paint dried SO much quicker than coating it with W/White Craft. I'm thinking now though, I might trying mixing some re-inkers with the white, to give a deeper colour and so I don't have to sponge the colour on! The stamped images are all by PaperTrey Ink. The sentiment is from the Paper Tray set and was stamped in Ballet Blue. In hindsight, I should have used Brilliant Blue to pick up the darkest blue in the ribbon and so it showed up a bit better. Even though these stamps are clear, I wasn't sure that I could stamp exactly over the top with the darker colour, so I decided to leave well enough alone.


The circles are from PaperTrey's Green Thumb (the biggest circle) and Butterfly Kisses (the 3 smallest ones). I used my markers to ink them up. This is the first time I have used either of these sets and unfortunately I could find my eraser to remove the residue left from manufacturing process and they didn't ink up as crisply as they do using the actual pads. (Never mind, 20 yo guy's never gonna notice, LOL). The C/Chip layer is raised up using foam tape (didn't waste my lovely dimensionals on him either!)

Quite like the way it turned out!

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Paper Tray, Butterfly Kisses, Green Thumb (all PaperTrey Ink)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Real Red
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Ballet Blue, Brocade Blue Sampin' Write Markers, Ballet Blue Classic Ink
Accessories: Jo Sonia's Titanium White paint, Stampin' Sponge, American Crafts ribbon, Foam mounting Tape

A Bit of Housekeeping (only not in our house)

You may have noticed that I have updated my list of Blogs I Like. This is a listing of all those on my Google Reader. This is THE best thing since sliced bread and there's no way I could possibly read all of these blogs without it!

My partner was looking over my shoulder the other night whilst I was posting and asked how I came up with the name M.I.S.S. InkyFingers. I thought I'd explain it whilst I'm here. The M.I.S.S. is the name of my company that I established when becoming a SU demonstrator. It stands for Maximum Impact Stamping Supplies. At the time, I didn't realise the first letter of each word spelt MISS until my boss at my 'day job' pointed it out (I was pregnant, LOL). It was inspired by our dog Max, who does everything at maximum pace, speed and enthusiasm and I had come up with the corny line 'Create Maximum Impact with Stampin' Up! (I know, it's bad). The InkyFingers part, well that's kind of self explanatory - without fail - everytime I stamp, that what I end up with!

Anyway, that's it for tonight - The Amazing Race has started - can't wait to see who gets eliminated this week (I'm cheering for Oswald & Danny since Jill & her partner (forgot his name) got elminated almost the first week in)

Feel Better Soon

I made this card for one of the little girls in Harrison's playgroup. She is going for surgery this week to correct a problem with her hip that was not properly detected at her 6 week check up.

This is a really big card, it's a piece of A4 cardstock (Almost Amethyst) folded in half. It needed to be big so there would be enough room for everyone to sign it! The inspiration for it came from my downline Anna, who did a scrapbook class using this paper (or something very similar). The paper is Basic Grey Romany from the Gyspy line. I highlighted all the veins in the leaves and the white parts of the surrounding flowers with some Diamond Stickles that I found here. The center of the flower, along with the name plate are from my new On Board Accents that were covered with W/White craft ink and then sponged with A/Amethyst classic ink. (btw - how long does the W/W craft take to dry using this way??) I hit it with the heat gun several times & it still refused to dry completely! In the end, I covered the name plate with Versamark and covered it with clear EP. However, when I did this the A/Amethyst kinda melted into the white and it's really hard to see that it had been added at all. I also covered the flower centre with Versamark and applied H&S powder and then covered with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The sentiment is from the Paper Tray set from Papertrey Ink and was stamped in W/White craft & embossed with white EP.

I find it SO hard to use patterned paper, however this BG paper is SO beautiful it just seemed to make itself.

We hope everything goes well during her surgery (she will be in our thoughts and prayers) and we look forward to seeing her back at playgroup as soon as possible.

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Paper Tray (Papertrey Ink)

Ink: Whisper White craft ink (Stampin' Up!)

Cardstock: Almost Amethyst, Real Red (Stampin' Up), Romany P/P (BasicGrey)

Accessories: Big Flower (Bubble Bee Crafts), Diamond Stickles (Ranger Industries), On Board Accents, 2 -Way Glue Pen, Sticky Strip, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Clear EP, Red Grosgrain Ribbon (Stampin' Up!)

Better Late Than Never

Here are a couple of project from the workshop I did last weekend. I was meaning to post these on Tuesday, but with the US retired list being released, I got kinda sidetracked. It took me ages to mark off all of the retiring sets as there are HEAPS going, but boy, I'm excited to see what the new US catalogue will look like when released July 1.



This is what we did. My hostess had asked if we could do a Bag-A-Lope, but since it was an experienced group of stampers I figured that would take about 10 seconds to complete, so I thought we needed to do something else as well. Since Mother's Day is coming up (YES, I'm excited about the thought - it's going to be my 1st), I figured that would be the go!




I channeled my inner Angie (aka Duckwaddlequack) for this layout. I LOVED the card of hers that I 'cased' as part of the Featured Stamper challenge on SCS and I knew I wanted a design that incorporated cut out floweres popped up on dimensionals. After lots of false starts, this is what I came up with. The base of the card is stamped with the Linen background using Pretty In Pink ink. I also stamped the Happy Mother's Day panel before re-inking, so it's just that little bit lighter. The sentiment (from All Year Cheer II) is stamped in Pretty In Pink and mounted onto a piece of Rose Red cardstock. The flowers are from my new, beautiful Bodacious Bouquet and are stamped in Pretty In Pink and Rose Red. I used Always Artichoke for the leaves. All the centres of the flowers were dotted with 2-way glue and the sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The big ones are popped up on dimensionals (the leaves are attached to the flower) and only the middle one of the smaller ones in popped up.



With the card done, I figured a matching Bag-A-Lope would be cute. I used my Word Window punch to create the handles, an idea I found here. I then stamped the small flower with the For You sentiment underneath on a scrap of Whisper White, and punched out with my new Tag punch (love it). I then used the 1/8" punch to punch a hole in the top and attached the tag using some Olive organdy ribbon.


Now, I must admit, when I have previously given these as hostess and door prize gifts, I've just used envelopes that I've had to hand. I figured that an envelope is an envelope and there wouldn't be too much difference in quality etc. Well, I stand corrected! These SU envelopes are nothing short of stunning. They have such a smooth, beautiful finish, guests thought they were made with patterned paper before I showed them how they were made!


Supplies Used (for both projects):
Stamps: Bodacious Bouquet, Linen, All Year Cheer II, Happy Everything
Cardstock: Whisper White, Rose Red, W/White Envelopes
Ink: Pretty In Pink, Rose Red, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Word Window Punch, Tag Punch, dimensionals, 2-way glue, Dazzling Diamonds, Olive Organdy Ribbon, Sticky Strip

Smart Start Promotion

During the month of May, Stampin' Up! are offering the Demonstrator Starter Kit for $299, a $25 dollar saving off the regular price of $324 as part of their Smart Start Promotion - meaning you get $585 worth of stamping supplies for $299, plus an ongoing discount on your stamps & supplies!!

So, if you've gone through the new Idea Book & Catalogue and have a wish list as long as your arm, maybe this is the promotion for you, LOL!

If you would like some more detailed information on becoming a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, email me