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Okay, okay, I know. I'm slack and more than a little bit behind on my "one card per day" challenge, but it's been a crazy week for me. Anyway, I buckled down last night and today and did some serious CASEing to catch up, so I have my 4 cards for this week and a couple of scrapbook pages as a little bonus for my tardiness! Hope you enjoy... CASE of Marelle Taylor CASE of Alisa Tilsner CASE from SU! demo site CASE of Georgina Martin Thanks, Ladies, for the inspiration and for sharing your stunning work with us. You're all wonderfully talented and I so enjoy reading your blogs!

Monday... all day today!

I've had one of Sam's songs in my head ALL day today. He loves a show called "Jack's big music show" -it was on Foxtel up until a few weeks ago. We had recorded some, but in a crazy moment of Mummy-brain, I deleted all but one of them, so now he watches that one over and over again. Anyway, this recording starts with a promo type thing with a song about what day of the week it is. I was singing this song to DH this morning before he went to work, and thus it's been in my head ever since. It's 8:30pm and it's still going. It's a great song, and I usually love it. Part of it goes, "If yesterday was Sunday and tomorrow will be Tuesday, that means today is.... Monday! Yes, it's Monday! All day today!" It's sung by this really cute little puppet. Sam loves it too and he sings and dances while it's on. So cute! But I have to say, it's losing some of it's appeal with me today. Repeating in my head about 3 times an hour is wearing a little thin! I so hope it's gone by tomorrow! So, anyway, yes, it IS Monday all day today... lol... Here's today's card: It's a CASE from Toni Lockyer -one of my fellow Elite Stampers. I love this card of Toni's and it was so quick -took me about 10-15 minutes! Thanks, Toni! Cardstock: Whisper White, Regal Rose Ink: Black Staz-On, Regal Rose Stamps: Scribble This Accessories: Aquapainter, Watercolour Wonder Crayons (Rich Regals)

A teary moment and today's card

So, this afternoon Sam walked across the room, on his own, with no encourage from us. DH and I were sitting on the lounge, watching a movie and Sam was playing quietly on the floor in front of us. Next thing we know, Sam is walking, yes, WALKING, across the room, headed for his play area in our dining room! Needless to say, I was as good as crying, so proud of him, yet realising with none-too-little a jolt that my baby is definitely no longer a baby. I really don't think I'm ready for him to be so independent of me just yet! I know the clinginess and "mummy, hold me" pleas do get tiresome, but walking?!? I mean, come on, a mummy needs time to adjust to this!!! Okay, before I start crying again, here's today's card! It's another CASE of Alisa Tilsner's gorgeous work (told you I'm a fan!). Cardstock: Cool Carribean, Whisper White, Basic Black Ink: Cool Carribean, Black Staz-On Stamps: Office Accoutrement, Greetings Galore, Little Pieces Accessories: Round Tab Punch, Black Gingham Ribbon, White Signo Pen

Gotta love the weekend!

I've been wanting to try the shadowing technique for a while, so today's card features this technique. It's quite simple -just stamp your image with the same colour ink as the cardstok you are stamping onto, then use the stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp in white craft ink, but move your image slightly to the left, so the shadow of the coloured ink shows through. Cardstock: Whisper White, Rose Red, Certainly Celery Ink: Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Whisper White Craft Ink Stamps: Bodacious Bouquet, Petals and Paisley Accessories: Celery Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals We're off for a nice drive in the sunshine today -such a gorgeous day for it in our neck of the woods. I hope the sun is shining for you -enjoy your weekend!

Another day, another card...

Today's card is a CASE from the IB&C -a great birthday card for the men in our lives (and aren't they just the hardest to make?!?) Cardstock: Whisper White, Mellow Moss, Old Olive Ink: Mellow Moss Stamps: Print Pattern, Happy Everything Accessories: Celery Grosgrain Ribbon, Paper Piercer

It's Thursday

And here is today's card. We've been out all day and I have a big headache, so I'm glad today's card took all of 30 minutes from start to finish! And that included getting out the stuff to make it! Cardstock: Whisper White, Rose Red Ink: Rose Red, Old Olive Stamps: Both Way Blossoms (Level 2 Hostess Set) Accessories: 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" Circle Punches

My commitment to cardmaking

I've decided to set myself a challenge. Every day, for the rest of October (at least!), I'm going to make and post a card EACH day! I'm hoping that the habit will form and I will continue to do it indefinitely, but baby steps... For now, I am committing to a card a day for the next 21 days. And this is in addition to the "for a purpose" cards I'll make, like birthday cards and thinkng of you cards and whatnot. So, enough dribble, here's today's card! This card is a CASE from Alisa Tilsner -I just love her work! Alisa is a fellow Elite Stamper and such an inspiration! Cardstock: Bravo Burgundy, Whisper White Inks: Cranberry Crisp Stamps: Be Happy Accessories: Burgundy Grosgrain, Tag Punch, White Signo Pen, Jovi (my favourite girl -the Cuttlebug!) -oh, and a stapler if you want to get specific!

October Special

Oh, what a deal! October Special is very tempting... purchase the Looks Like Spring Stamp Set together with the Spring Bouquet punch, and you can choose either the Spring Flowers or Spring Showers Designer Paper Pack for FREE!!! That's $16.95 value, free! The card above was designed by one of the super talented peeps at SU! HQ, and features the Spring Flowers DP, together with Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral and Mellow Moss cardstock and inks. Keep an eye on my blog -Over the next week or so, I will show you just why you HAVE to have the Looks Like Spring stamp set -such versatility!

A Thank-you from Madonna

I recently hosted a couple of swaps with some of the girls of the Elite Stampers. I got some really nice thank-you cards, which I will show you over the coming days. This first one is from Madonna Dunn. What a sweety. Such a cute card! I'll definitely be CASEing this one! Madonna has used the Polka Dots and Paisley set from the Spring Mini, and the Terrific Tags Level 1 Hostess Set. Colours are Tempting Turquoise (I think, sorry, haven't cross checked this to confirm -it may be Taken With Teal) and Whisper White, white grosgrain ribbon and a silver brad. Too cute, Mads!

Josh's Birthday Card

My nephew turned FOUR last week! I can't believe it. I vividly remember (like it was yesterday!) waiting at my other brother's place for the phone call to say he had arrived. We waited for ages the night we heard his mum had gone into labour, but the call didn't come until the following morning! It's funny how so many labour stories seem to fit with the personality of the baby when you look bacK. My own with Sam is one of them, too. But that's another story for another day (or NOT!). Anyway, so here is Joshy's card; Stamp Sets used are Wild About You and um, will have to get back to you with the greeting one, I know I only inked up part of something!. Colours are Kraft CS, Not Quite Navy and Cranberry Crisp. I've also used the Cranberry Crisp stitched ribbon from the Spring Mini. I cut the scallop shape and matching circle with my Quickutz Silhouette.

Leonie's Birthday Card

I sent this card to Leonie Schroder for her birthday the other week. She's on our team at Elite Stampers. Lovely lady. I really enjoyed making this card, and it's another of my "branch out on my own" experiments that I have been increasingly trying since joining Stampin' Up!. I picked the stamp and the colour I wanted to use, then surfed the net for a while, looking at some ideas and inspiration, and this is what I came up with. I think it works. Was a lot of fun to make, too! Colours used are Ballet Blue and Whisper White, with Garden Green, Bashful Blue and Elegant Eggplant in the watercolouring. Stamp sets are Summer By The Sea and Paisley Background. I've also used silver cord, which I adhered under another sheet of cardstock on the inside of the card.

A card for the Mr...

I had so much fun making this card for my husband. I used SU!'s fabulously gorgeous watercolour paper, and OMGoodness!!! I'm never going to watercolour on Whisper White again! The WC paper gives SUCH a beautiful finish. I am very much in love with it! I've always been apprehensive about watercolouring, being so NOT an artist myself, but with the WC paper, it just worked. Do yourself a favour and try it! I promise, you will not be disappointed! Stamp sets used were Summer By The Sea and Warm Words. The card is a CASE from the IB&C, page 130.

Cards for Victoria... Can you help?

Victoria has cancer. Her teacher is trying to get cards sent to her from everywhere around the world. I heard about this from a blog by a US SU! demonstrator. Here is a copy of the email from Victoria's teacher: 1. I want Victoria to receive cards and letters from EVERY STATE in the USA. This means WE - me and you, have to send out these emails to all our friends and relatives all over the country and get them on board with us. 2. I'm going to get a map for Victoria so she can map every piece of mail she gets. I think it would be so neat to see how far her name can travel. 3. We have to enlist everyone we know to send her a card. Suggestions I thought about: Sunday School classes, classrooms at school, organizations and groups you are a member of, clubs, workplaces, dr. offices, neighborhoods and the list can go on and on - USE YOUR IMAGINATION! All we would have to do is purchase several cards, take them with us wherever we go and have the people we come in contact with simply sign it as a way of letting Victoria know we are all praying for her. 4. Now, here's the challenging part. I want us to do this within the next 2 weeks AND I want Victoria to receive 5000 cards and letters during this time!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is only 100 cards from EACH state! I want the mailman to drop off bags of letters to 1205 Red Bud Circle. 5. Emails don't count - only snail mail!!! (I know, you might have to buy some stamps!!!!) 6. Homemade cards are great too! Anything that can be sent via the US postal service. 7. EVERY card MUST include the city and state from which it was sent. ( And if possible, a little bit about the people from whom the card was sent!) 8. As a teacher, I must give you a due date: All cards and letters must be sent by September 27, 2007 to be included in this project. 9. You can mail your cards and letters to: Victoria Enmon 1205 Red Bud Circle Orange, TX 77632 10. Let's have fun with this! Get out there and send some mail! Wouldn't it be awesome to exceed 5000 letters from ALL over the world!!! We can do it! Help me bring something fun and different into the life of this precious little lady! I want this to be something you pass along to your friends and family across the nation, encouraging them to pray for Victoria. Enlist people of ALL ages - from the youngest to the oldest - everyone can get involved!!! Think about where you go (dance, football practice, church, school, work, birthday parties, etc.) and use your imagination to get people involved. Buy some cards and send them with your children to their events and make this a family assignment! Have fun most of all!!!Remember: A nation that prays together ,stays together!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wendy Hanks Little Cypress Jr. High 7th Grade English Teacher

Elite Stampers CS Colour Challenge

We had a cyberstamp recently over on the Elite Stampers forum. Elite Stampers is my SU! team, we're all downlines of Angela Sargeant, who has one of the largest downlines in Australia. I think there's something like 200 of us! If you sign up to SU! under me, you will become a part of the Elite Stampers team and have access to the forum and gallery, with heaps of templates and business tips and also to the Elite Challenges Blog! Access to this team is limited to Level 1-5 downlines of Angela, so this is a privileged group! So, the challenge was to use Elegant Eggplant, Not Quite Navy and Garden Green in a card. Ok, so I got muddled and used Handsome Hunter instead of Elegant Eggplant, but the card design would have been the same had I used the right colour! Here's the card I created, I gave it to one of my fellow Elite Stampers as a thank-you for lending me her stamp set for a week;

Father's Day 2007

Here are the cards I created for the dads this year. The one above is the card we gave to my dad and the one below was for my father in law. "Dad" card colours used: Real Red, Buckaroo Blue, Whisper White, Garden Green "Happy Father's Day" card colours used: Tempting Turquoise, Barely Banana, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

And one for Mum

It's Mum's birthday tomorrow, so I whipped this card up this morning. It's a CASE from Splitcoast Stampers Gallery (just love that place!). You can find the original here: I hope she likes it!

A Birthday Card for Tash

Here's a card I made today for my sister in law's birthday (which was yesterday, sorry Tash!). It's a CASE from Fairle Beamen Carroll's blog, here is the link: I didn't change a whole lot, I love her work and this card was perfect for Tash. Colours are Rose Red, Basic Black and Whisper White. Stamp Set is Petals and Paisley from the new Spring Mini Catalogue (I am in love with this set!!!). So, Tash, I didn't forget you, meant to text you yesterday, but had a rough day with Sam. I'll post your card real soon, I promise!

And here they are...

As promised, here are the cards we created at my workshop by Georgina the other day. I love these cards, they were so simple to make, and yet they look so fantastic! Thanks Georgina!

My first SU! cards!

I hosted a workshop recently, run by Georgina (you'll find the link to her blog in my sidebar). It was such a fun morning and we created two gorgeous cards. I'll take a pic tomorrow in the daylight. I guess you could say this party was the beginning of my SU! journey, but I was in love with these products well before the party started!