You know how sometimes you recieve a phone call that comes just when you need it?? Well today I recieved a call just like that from my good buddy Vicki, it was such a great call and came at just the right time. I am also meeting with Vick tonight and wanted to make her a card to let her know that she is such a fabulous friend and a fabulous person. So here is what I came up with… I hope you like it.

Now there are quite a few stamp sets involved with this card so I will list them all for you – Scribble this, Simply Said, Pick A Petal and Really Retro. The base card is Chocolate Chip with some Tea Party DSP. The rest of the colours used are Chocolate chip, Almost Amethyst, Kiwi Kiss and So Saffron. I have also used the 5 Petal flower punch and some wide Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon.

Now once I finished this card I then made another in another colour way….

This one uses all the same stamp sets, but is varied with the Sweet Always DSP, and the colours are Pink Pirouette, Pretty-in -pink, pumpkin pie and Regal Rose. The greeting on both cards is stamped in Whisper white Craft ink and embossed with white embossing powder. And of course there is some stampin glitter to give both cards a bit of bling.

thanks for looking,

till next time,

happy stamping.

Oh I hope you guys don’t get bored with me making boy cards. I never understand when people tell me they struggle with boys cards… I love making them. They can be lots of fun, cute and happy or a bit rugged is also ok.

Here are three very different cards that I hope will inspire you all…

Card One…

For this one I really wanted to use the three buttons together, and was very excited when I realised that all three colours are found in the Hoppy Moments Scrappin Kit. I’ve teamed it with the Wild About You and Retro Greetings stamp sets.

Card Two…

I made this one at the same time as the first one of my flower cards here an it is actually the same layout. I love using a layout and using it for both male and female cards. I have used the Jumbo Star wheel with Kiwi Kiss ink on Kiwi kiss cardstock. Then punched some small stars from kiwi kiss and attached them onto the card, behind a piece of Good Morning Sunshine DSP and a piece of whisper white stamped with Outlined for Fun in Pacific Point and coloured with a blender pen and the kiwi kiss ink. The card is finished with a large punched Pacific Point star and a chipboard star, daubered in kiwi kiss and finished with crystal effects.

Card three…

You may not recognise this stamped image as it is one a friend of mine in the states sent me. It’s called Putt Putt and is so very cute. I’ve teamed it here with the Sweet Slumber DSP and the greeting is from Occasional Greetings. The tug boat is coloured with my aqua-painter and Riding hood red, baja breeze and so saffron ink pads. The card is finished with some Baja Breeze striped ribbon.

So thats it for today, as I said earlier I hope you like these and they inspire you to make some more boy cards. Make sure you pop in and let me know how you go.

till next time, happy stamping,

Try not to fall out of your chairs – but I have actually remembered to come back. I’ve even done a bit of scrapbooking. You’ve got to love a rainy day. The washing is slowly going one load at a time through the dryer. So even though I’m stamping and scrapbooking – I’m actually doing housework at the same time. Hubby and my oldest son have popped out to see a movie, some guy type thing with guns and stuff, so, I’m home and it’s quiet so its wonderful.

Enough rambling here is the scrapbook page….

As you can see the It’s Maori Mate was still out on my scrap table so it came into good use. I’ve also used some of our On Board Timeless Type, chipboard letters daubered with black staz-on ink, and then glossed up with Crystal Effects. I’ve used my sewing machine to make the two black borders. The decorative elements include Basic Jumbo grommets, basic gray cordoroy button, star designer brad and a playground button. The page is finished off with some striped grosgrain ribbon and a few riding hood red cardstock arrows.

Then because I had some scraps left over I made another male card to finish off my set of three maori mate cards….here it is….

Gosh I love playing with our circle punches – they make cards come together so quickly and easily.

Now, that’s about it for today….remember that Sale-a-Bration is on at the moment – just spend $100 on any SU product and you can recieve one of four stamp sets for free.

till next time, happy stamping,

Ok, I know that I said earlier that I might be back, but really did anyone think that I would be???

I think I’m even surprising myself, by remembering to pop back in. But I did want to share with you a couple of cards I made the other day whilst playing with my circle scissor. The first one is a birthday card I made for my dear friend Carol, and the second was another take on the same card. Both use the Pink Flamingo DSP, but by using different parts of the same sheet of DSP I was able to make the two cards with quite different looks.

I’ve used the build-a-brads for the centre of my Pretties kit silk flower which I have daubered with so saffron ink. The card is finished off with some Chocolate Chip narrow grosgrain ribbon and the corners are rounded with the corner rounder punch. Oh and the greeting is from the On your birthday stamp set.

This second one I have rotated the orientation and highlighted the Tempting Turquoise in the paper design. I really like the radiating design of this paper. The punched centre for both flowers is from the boho blossoms punch.

Now that I have shocked you twice today, who knows maybe I will still pop back in tomorrow?

You will just have to wait and see?!?

till then, get your stamps out and START STAMPING!!!!  lol

talk soon,

This morning I went into my craft room to tidy up – but – got distracted by a card design that I have had sitting ready to inspire me, and I decided to blow the cleaning and tidying, and really I’m only going to make another mess anyway……

So, I grabbed a new stamp set (for me), that I have yet to ink up, It’s Maori Mate and decided to make a male card. I grabbed my old favourite Seaworthy and here is what I’ve come up with.

firstly,

I’ve also added a bit of Urban Garden DSP, and of course I’ve been playing with my circle scissor – I just LOVE this tool.

 I L O V E circles so its a great fit for me.

I’ve used Riding hood Red, going grey and Basic Grey inks and cardstock. The basic grey cardstock is distressed with the SU distressing tool.

Secondly, I came up with this design. The colours are the same as the first card.

The only extra tool I’ve added is the Mat pack, and I’ve also grabbed the Occasional Greetings stamp set for the greeting.

This one opens in a really cool way – check this out….

See how I’ve added the riding hood red strip inside the card and overlapped the circle surfer image? Pretty cool, hey?!? Well both the boys and myself think so anyway. These make great cards for the big boys mates who are turning 18 and 20 this year. They are really well recieved.

ok, so that’s it for this morning and hopefully, I’ll be back either this arvo or tomorrow with some more inspiration for you.

till then, happy stamping,

Hey Everyone,

Thanks so much for your comments, I love getting the feedback it makes me feel like at least there is someone out there having a look at what I do.

Anyway, as I said the other day, I was on a bit of a roll with the circle punched flowers so I thought I would show you another card using the same technique but in a totally different colour scheme. This layout is a CASE of the sample card in the Sale-A-Bration catalogue for the Happy days set. I love it that the catalogues always have such a great range of cards and scrap pages to copy and inspire.

This one uses a Kraft  card base, and the Bella Bleu DSP. I have added in a bit of very vanilla cardstock in the metal ring tag and of course I am still addicted to using the build-a-brads. I’ve finished it off with a half pearl from the Pretties Kit and a stamped greeting from short and Sweet. I know I’ve said it before, but I just LOVE how our Designer Series Papers co-ordinate with each other sooo much!

OK, so I will be back soon with some more cards, I’ve still got a few to share with you from the other day, and I’ve stamped a couple for a recent colour challenge. I will share with you soon, I promise.

Till then, happy stamping,

Hey Everyone,

Well after a long break I’m back ready for a new year…but before I get started on 2010, I should finish the wrap up from 2009.

As many of you know, I finished last year by having a holiday with my family to Bali. This trip was actually a present for my middle son Tristan as a reward for completing Grade 12. He was very happy to be finished school and even gave up Schoolies on the Gold Coast for a trip to Bali. We took the whole family and also Jareds Girlfriend Shannon came along with us. The entire trip was fantastic, but a highlight for Dave and Myself was that we were celebrating our 20th Wedding anniversary whilst we were in Bali and decided to re-new our wedding vows, with a Sunset Beachside service. Here are a couple of photos…

firstly a family shot,

  Left to right – Jayden , Jared, Nicki (me), Dave, and Tristan.

And then whilst the photographer was taking some other shots my Darling Dave was down writing a message in the sand….If you can’t read it, it says Dave loves Nicki XXX – isn’t he the best hubby in the world???!!!!

It was truly one of the most romantic things we have ever done. And, having the boys with us was just fantastic. Each of them played a part in our wedding. Jared escorted me down the aisle, Tristan gave the most amazing and emotional speech and Jayden was our ring bearer, and Shannon was my bridesmaid. It was wonderful, I still get misty eyed just thinking about it…..

But then of course, it was back to reality and Christmas and New Years both celebrated with friends and family and it was fantastic to spend all of this time together. Of course I wasn’t just sitting around eating and drinking, and sleeping….I actually spent a little bit of time stamping and heaps of time planning.

I was hoping to be able to announce the location of our retreat this year, but I am just waiting to hear back about some final details, so keep an eye out. Meanwhile, tech classes are back from the 9th of Feb at the the same time as last year.

And PMS days  and nights will resume shortly after this, I will update my calendar and include a full list just as soon as I have the retreat info available.

But now for some stamping, I have seen these beautiful paper flowers being created and wanted to give them a shot, so I grabbed all of my circle punches, punched out heaps of DSP cirlces, roughed up the edges with the SU distressing tool, crunched them up and then layered them into flowers. I love the shabby chic look of them. Here are a couple of samples I came up with the other day.

These two both have a kraft base card, then I have used some very vanilla for stamping onto and the Haiku DSP.

The stamp sets are – leaves from Petal Pizzazz, greeting from Curvy Verses, Thank you from Short and Sweet.

Here is a close up of the flower….

 I hope this makes it a little easier to understand.

Finally, here is another flower card using the Raspberry Tart DSP….

This one also uses the Build-a- brad for the centre of the flower. I have used the Autumn flair, level 2 hostess set for the leaves behind my flower and the Happy Everything set for my greeting. Jayden is taking this one to school for his new teacher on Wednesday as he is not only starting a new grade but also at a new school, so he wanted to say hello to his teacher with a card, aahhh….

Ok, so that should be enough for one post, I’ll be back soon with some more cards, I made 10 new cards yesterday so I’ve got plenty to share with you.

till then, happy stampin’,

I have arrived back from Bali and I will fill you in on the details soon, but I had to pop in to let you know about a special that Stampin’ Up! have just announced….a massive sale. Check out the prices of these items… just email me or give me a call to order. All items are available whilst stocks last, and I also want to offer you 15% off all of our items for the remainder of December 2009. Again just drop me an email and I will place the order for you.

My email is tidbold@optusnet.com.au

ok, I’ll be back with more about Bali soon,

A couple of weeks ago a  few of us girls headed off to “Cloudland” a very popular cocktail bar and nightclub in the Valley in Brisbane, for our friend Sues birthday. So of course I had to make a suitable card. My gift to Susy was a cocktail so I included a voucher she could use.

The “Cheers to You” stamp set was the perfect choice for this one. It has a choice of different cocktail images to join from. I have started with a Pink Passion base card, added some Pink Flamingo DSP, some punched circles of Only Orange and Summer Sun. I have stamped my image with black Staz-On and coloured it with my blender pen and ink pads. Finally I finished it with a drop of Crystal Effects on the olive and some dazzling diamonds glitter on the the drink and umbrella.

Inside I have included a voucher for a free cocktail of Sue’s choice and a little cocktail “token”. Sue loved it and all the girls thought it was very cute! Now I know you also want to know how the night went, well it was a Hoot!!! We had some lovely cocktails, a great dinner, and we even met and had a photo with Dave (Hughsie) Hughs from the “7PM Project” in channel 10. Overall the night was awesome, and we will definately be back at Cloudland another night.

Till next time, happy stamping.

Hey there everyone,

I am back with some more Christmas cards for you. I originally made these for the last stamp a stack class, but the girls all saw them before I had a chance to hide them…so I had to make up some more. But at least I get to share them with you all here.

1. Tree Trimmings

This card was really popular with everyone. The base card and bauble & greeting stamp are all riding hood red. The DSP is ski slope and the card is finished off with some choc chip cardstock and the branch from Bird on a Branch stamped in choc chip.

2. Holly Jolly Santa

This one was inspired by a swap card I recieved by the very talented Marelle Taylor. I just gave it a christmas twist. I do love this santa, although not all of my customers like to have to cut him out so much, haha. I have used the Santa from A Holly Jolly Christmas, and the greeting is from Punch Pals. The colours all come from the Ski Slope Dsp, baja breeze and real red.

3. Wake Skating Santa

 Well when I saw the Seasons Surfin’ stamp set in the spring mini, i knew it would be perfect for my family, with all the wake surfing my boys do behind our boat it is definately a favourite around here! This card has a base of riding hood red base card and taffeta ribbon, some pacific point cardstock and of course some whisper white cardstock. I have coloured the image with my blender pen and an assortment of ink pads, and finished it off with a bit of dazzling diamonds glitter and two-way glue pen.

So I hope you liked them. If you would like to book in for my final Stamp a Stack, it is on this coming Saturday afternoon, the 14th of November at 3:30pm. Then if you are having a great time, you are welcome to stay for PMS that night. Just give me a ring or send me an email to book in.

till next time

Happy stamping,