Friday 31 May 2013

Something For Everyone on The Retiring List

The retiring products are many this year so better get your skates on if you want to grab your favourites before the sell out forever.   Some items have as much as 40% off, what a bargain.   I think I'm going to stock up for sure!

Head to my website to see all the retiring items.  
You can shop right there or call or email me; you'll find my details on the Contact Me page in the right side bar.  

Happy Friday!  

Saturday 25 May 2013

Be The Difference

This is Stampin' Up's theme this year.  So naturally we took our pic in front of the banner!

We are beginning our final day of Convention.........ahhhhhh and still have so many things to share.    I'll pop back later with some project pics.   

Hope you have a great weekend!
Karen

Thursday 23 May 2013

Convention Fun

I am having a wonderful time in Brisbane.   This year was my first time to attend Leadership & Managers Reception and I loved every second!!!




Meeting up with the lovely Wendy Walsh again.

Feeling great about achieving this level. Thanks to all my lovely customers and team members for helping me to get here.  

Our special Managers gift....no sneaky peeky's allowed just yet!

Spending time with Shelli is always delightful and inspirational and this year is the 25th anniversary of her amazing company so we are being treated like royalty!  

Check out my Facebook page for more pics.   And I'll try to add more here later. 

Yours in crafting heaven. 
Karen 

PaperLicous Team Gifts Convention2013

I am lucky to have two of my lovely PaperLicious team members join me again this year at Convention.   Tracy has been to 3 now, and it is Joey's first one this time around.   As you read this we will be in sunny (I hope) Brisbane having a fabulous time crafting, learning, meeting with Shelli and enjoying some relaxing time with fellow demo's and the odd glass of wine or so!

Here's what I made for my girls to celebrate our little crafty get away....







These tins are stamped with
Staz On and the flourish from
Established Elegance.  

 
And inside they have 2 necklaces made using Stampin' Up's! gorgeous fabric.  This one is Cherry Cobbler & Rich Razzleberry.    The scissor charm or key chain is made from the Soda Pop Tops in the current mini and I've used Collage Curios, stamped then covered with Crystal Effects.

The fabric here is Rich Razzleberry & Marina Mist. 

Next year I hope to have more of my lovely team come along.  We have so much fun!

Cheers
Karen

Wednesday 22 May 2013

Swaps for Convention 2013

Well, I finally got my swaps done after A LOT of deliberation.  I had even toyed with the idea of not doing any this year!  OMG!

I thought I'd share the process with you that I went through to decide on my final project.  And also to explain the mess in my craft room of a few days earlier.  See here.

I should start by explaining that I've never made a card for a swap before.  I always do some kind of 3D project.  There are lots of card swaps and I like to make something that stands out a bit.

That said, this year I wanted to do a card.

 
I got the idea for this card on a U.S. blog......I can't remember the one, as usual I was just surfing in blogland and got lost somewhere!   Anyway, I based this card on that layout.   I love looking "through" to the feature image.   But since I wanted something CAS for my swap, this was obviously not the right one for me! 

 
I then dug out some things I'd made recently.  This card is one of my absolute favourites.  Trouble is, I couldn't remember if it was my design, or if I'd copied it from somewhere.   Not wanting to take the risk, I decided to delve further into my creativity.  I'll use the colours from this one....maybe!

 
Ah, next came a technique I love - Faux Silk.   Everyone likes swap cards with techniques they can try out so this was a real possibility.  It has the colours I'm after - I think, and the cute little embellishments, but there's no looking "through" like the card in the first sample.
 
Then, wham, it hit me.......and here's what I ended up with......
 
I love the simplicity of this card.  And I got my wish - the cute little "look through" window, the heart and butterfly embellishment, and all in the colours I wanted.  Yay!

The Cherry Cobbler heart is embossed with Elegant Lines, and the little Rhinestone jewels just finish it off nicely.  You can't really tell from the pic, but I've used textured cardstock in Pool Party.

And lastly, surprise!  I couldn't help myself and had to have a 3D item so I settled on these fridge magnets which are pegs that you can use to attach a shopping list or school notes to.  Nothing new about this one (I taught it in class for Mother's Day) but it's cute and I like it!!
 
Keep an eye on my blog for updates on Convention.  I hope to post as I go this year, but we'll see.  Sometimes it's just too busy.  Fingers crossed.
 
Yours, in crafting heaven!
Karen
 

Tuesday 21 May 2013

A Quick Card

Just thought I'd share this quick card with you today.


I've let the Designer Series Paper speak for itself here.   Isn't it pretty?  It's called Sunny Garden and unfortunately retired.  It's almost my last piece so thought it was time to get it out and use it!  And I do wish that stamp set (Well Scripted) was still around.  I have a lot of retired SU product that I just can't part with and every now and then I play with it for my own personal use.  Lovely!

I'm off to Convention tomorrow so will be posting my pics over the next few days.

Very excited.........
Cheers
Karen

Thursday 16 May 2013

What a Mess!

I have spent the last two days working on various projects....and this is the resultant mess!



I didn't tidy anything up, well not much, as I continued to create until it reached the point where I actually couldn't find anything!  Even things I'd just put down were completely invisible to the naked eye! 

Goodness, I'm going to have to clean up tomorrow!  And I'll pop back with the projects I was working on.

Happy Thursday
Karen

Wednesday 8 May 2013

PPA158 Colour Challenge

I love a colour challenge because it forces me to work with colours that I might otherwise overlook.  This is one such challenge!  Yep, if you know me, you'll see that one of these colours is my least favourite - ever!





My card uses DSP from Summer Smooches (the Lucky Limeade piece) and from Comfort Café (the Summer Starfruit piece).   The Pool Party textured cardstock comes from the assorted In Colour pack.  Stampin' Up's! Paper Daisies are so pretty and they dye really well.

I've used Summer Starfruit to dye these and I'll be posting a video tutorial to show you how so watch out for that.  The Apothecary Framelits are perfect to make frames and mats for your embellishments.  And a little bit of Pool Party ruffled ribbon completes the card.

Considering I don't like........did you guess?.......Summer Starfruit, I'm quite pleased with the way this card turned out.

Don't forget to look out for the video.
Cheers
Karen

Tuesday 7 May 2013

Emboss Everything

Stamp University was a great success on Saturday.  Thanks to all the lovely ladies who participated.  It was a lot of fun and I particularly enjoyed seeing everyone complete their folders, as they now have a great paper craft resource to turn to whenever creating a special project.

Here's a cute, but simple, card I made as a sample of embossing with the Big Shot.


The base is Crumb Cake, with a layer of Early Espresso embossed with the Tulips Embossing folder.  Very Vanilla was embossed in the Vintage Wallpaper folder and cut into rectangles.  Yes, I've deliberately measured the pieces so they are identical!

Finally, the Fashionable Hearts Embosslit in Cherry Cobbler makes the feature, all topped off with some of our lovely Pearl Jewels.

If you'd like to order these products, visit my online store here.

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen