Hi there tourists ;-)

Hello there blog tourists, I hope you're having fun with all the wonderful eye-candy on offer.

You would of just come from the uber talented Louise Ryan of 'Stamp to it"here: http://stamp2it.com/ and I'm so glad you made it this far down the list to come and visit me, have fun browsing some of the gifts I've made and then you can pop back to the "Inkspirations site to get back on board the tour in case you didn't start at the beginning, I'll pop the link at the bottom of my gift pictures and you can also find it on the right hand side of my blog.

Hand made Christmas gifts...

Well hello and welcome to the tour, I hope you have enjoyed the wonderful array of goodies presented today. I have a few things to show you, all of which I have had lots of fun making up for friends. I had to make a couple of Secret Santa gifts this year and one of them was for my lovely down line Marryanne, I made this cute little art journal using one of Stampin'Up!s raw journals, I covered it using some papers from the packs called Love Letter and also from News Print. I added a wee bit of stamping and some shimmery new smooch spritz on the scallop flower. I love all the pretty ribbons down the binding and it seems that Maryanne really loved it too, along with the other goodies I put in her bag.

These necklaces were made using some large washers and covering them with designer papers and crystal effects, before covering them in the crystal effects I added some bling by way of Rhinestones and pearls. This was the first time I had a go with making these and I loved the way the turned out.

I made a little box which housed 16 Christmas tags to add to pressies, this was tied up with some more lovely ribbon which was a free gift from Stampin'Up! when you made a purchase of a special Christmas bundle.

You can never give someone a present without adding a bit of sweetness, so I made this treat pull box with some yummy chocolate inside.
I also put some green and red M&M's into skinny tube bags with a topper, this were given out to all my lovely card making groups and all my downline at our Christmas dinner.

some of the Christmas cards I made this year had a little gift box attached and held three very yummy scented candles inside, these were to burn on Christmas day in memory of loved ones who couldn't be with us this year.

You can't have Christmas without shinny! So this was my contribution to the glitz addicts out there, I purchased some plain empty glass baubles from our local craft shop and filled them with different coloured inks and glitters, it was a little time consuming but well worth the effort I think, I love the Tempting Turquoise one the best.

I hope you liked a few of my gifts and they will help to inspire you to have a go at making some yourself. Take this link back to the "Inkspirations" Challenge blog where you can find the start : http://www.inkspirations-challenges.blogspot.com/ have a safe and Happy Christmas,

lots of inky Christmas hugs from ....

A bit of Christmas Cheer.

Hello there,

I hope you are all getting into the Christmas spirit! Well I'm begining to finally, I have organised a dinner get together for my lovely Paper Charmers team members tomorrow night and we are all going to exchange some hand made gifts. I will show you what I made for my secret Santa partner on the seventeenth because I will be part of a fantastic blog tour which is being organised by the very talented Makeesha Byl, she actually used to be my upline but has since taken a break from the Stampin'Up! world to do some exploring with with other craft products and spend some extra time with her beautiful family in Cairns. If you would like to visit her blog/ web site just click on the 'Inkspirations' link on my side bar.

This Christmas card is one I made when we did the big Stamp-a-thon back in September, it has a book mark on the side which can be torn away for a keep sake easily, due to it being perforated. I used the great set called Tree Trimmings and the new one called Perfect Punches which was a gift at this year's convention in Sydney. A jumbo eyelet was used to thread the ribbon through and the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder was used on the white card stock for some added texture. Hope you like it and it makes you feel a little Christmassy, lots of inky hugs from ....

Birthday butterfly for a friend.

Hello there,
Well time has just flown past this week, with classes and demos to be done, all good fun though.
I saw this beautiful card on the very talented Teneale Williams blog in pinks a while ago and knew I would have to make one for a friend who loves butterflies, it was her birthday last month, so a good opportunity to make one up for her. I used the beautiful butterflies die with the big shot to make the butterfly and I stamped the images from the set called Elements of Style. I must say I really love this set and use it quite a lot at the moment. I stamped it onto some Bashful blue card stock which I then mounted onto some of our new Marina Mist, There is a little Vanilla taffeta ribbon rouched behind the butterfly too and the little pearls in the top right hand corner are from the gorgeous Basic Pearls and at only $9.50 for 150 of them you can afford to embellish everyones card with a little sophistication!
I hope you like it, take care and thanks for stopping by today. Lots of inky hugs from...

The New Summer Mini Catalogue.

Hello there everyone, I have a special delivery for you today, the new Summer mini which will be with us from now until the 31st of March 2011. If you haven't had a look through it already you are welcome to have a browse on line by clicking on the mini catalogue image on the right hand side of this blog. Of course another way to see it in the flesh is to contact me here and we can arrange a get together for you and some friends to have some inky fun and take home a finished project as well as the new mini to browse through at their leisure.
Lots of inky hugs from...

Got Gingerbread man.

Hello there, I am up late tonight and thought I'd just put this cute little gingerbread man from 'Got Treats' on here to Welcome December. This year has gone so fast and I can't believe how quickly Christmas is creeping up on us.

The weather was such a stinker today and it doesn't look like we are going to have a respite from it for a while which is part of the reason I am up at 1am, I can't sleep when I'm hot.

I have really enjoyed playing with the stamp set Got Treats and just love this cute little gingerbread man, I made his buttons with the crop-a-dile, he is a case from the catalogue.

Thanks for stopping by with me today, lots of inky hugs from....

December Frenzy.....

Well have I got good news for you, Stampin'Up! have decided to make Christmas shopping easy this year, that's right! they've put together some special bargains to put a smile on your dile ;-)

The sale starts on the 1st of December and runs through to the 29th of December, So to make the most of these offers please be quick, there are no limits and they have some items are as much as 50 % off so you can purchase one for your friend and one to put under your tree too. Check out these fabulous deals below and contact me here to order on line and have them delivered straight to your door.





Item Page Description Retail Price Sale Price


119181 39 A Little Treat Wood-Mount Stamp Set $21.95 $10.98
120018 39 A Little Treat Clear-Mount Stamp Set $15.95 $7.98
119189 40 Tote-Ally Tess Wood-Mount Stamp Set $37.95 $26.57
111255 43 Daisy Dash Jumbo Stampin’ Around Wheel $15.95 $9.57
121482 56 Baby Bundle Wood-Mount Stamp Set $49.95 $34.97
119161 72 Autumn Days Wood-Mount Stamp Set $38.95 $19.48
120012 77 Pendant Park Clear-Mount Stamp Set $27.95 $13.98
113031 88 Tart & Tangy Wood-Mount Stamp Set $21.95 $15.37
115806 91 Fresh Cuts Wood-Mount Stamp Set $38.95 $27.27
115946 102 Wonderful Favorites Wood-Mount Stamp Set $39.95 $23.97
119167 104 Heard from the Heart Wood-Mount Stamp Set $38.95 $23.37
119185 105 Teeny Tiny Sentiments Wood-Mount Stamp Set $62.95 $31.48
105115 118 Pumpkin Pie Stampin’ Write Marker $5.75 $4.03
105106 119 Certainly Celery Stampin’ Write Marker $5.75 $3.45
100045 119 Pretty in Pink Stampin’ Write Marker $5.75 $3.45
105114 119 So Saffron Stampin’ Write Marker $5.75 $3.45
105111 119 Bashful Blue Stampin’ Write Marker $5.75 $3.45
105108 119 Regal Rose Stampin’ Write Marker $5.75 $3.45
105109 120 Bravo Burgundy Stampin’ Write Marker $5.75 $3.45
100069 120 Night of Navy Stampin’ Write Marker $5.75 $4.03
100082 121 Basic Black Stampin’ Write Marker $5.75 $3.45
103104 122 Small Cello Bags $7.50 $4.50
111325 140 Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware $57.95 $28.98
112530 140 Circle Scissor Plus $54.95 $32.97
116681 161 Kind Heart Wood-Mount Stamp Set $11.95 $5.98

Friends never fade.

Hello out there,

I hope you're keeping cool if you live in Western Australia it's a stinker today! The pool is looking mighty inviting that's for sure and I think I'll be sitting in there later on today.

I thought I'd show you this cute little magazine holder that I made, but of course it's for cards not magazines. I used the stamp set called Friends Never Fade and the matching DSP which is called Greenhouse Gala. I must admit that neither of these items were on my wish list when I first saw them, but since playing with them I now like them quite a lot. Hope you do too, lots of inky hugs from ....

25 and counting.

Hello there,
I wanted to show you the card that I made for my hubby on our 25th wedding anniversary this year. I cased it from the very talented Teneale Williams who is a fellow Stampin'Up! demonstrator, her lovely card was done in vanilla and crumb cake. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to do one in silver and white for our silver anniversary. I used the new bird punch for the leaves as well as the two love birds, I also used the vintage wallpaper embossing folder for the lovely textured background on silver paper. I put a couple of rhinestones on it to finish it off, I can't show you the inside because that's private, but I used the new scallop trim corner punch which I'll show you on another card soon. Hope you like it, lots of inky hugs from...

A spooky hostess gift....

Hi there craft lovers,
I know you must of thought I'd taken a little vacation for a while, but no such luck. Just really busy and also a little unwell, but I'm back with some pictures of work I did while M.I.A.
These two pictures are of a gift I gave to my hostess whoooo held her party on Halloween afternoon, we had fun making cards together and I finished off this cute little milk carton caddy with four milk cartons containing lollies (otherwise known as candies for our American friends and sweets for my folks back home in the UK ;-) Basically a good old sugar fix! I first saw this Halloween version done by a talented fellow Australian Demonstrator Michelle Merchant, who had posted her work on our demonstrators web site, just another of the wonderful perks to being a Stampin'Up! demonstrator and having access to so many great ideas. I really had fun making this gift up and the hostess really enjoyed her get together with friends, so a great day all round :-) Thanks for stopping by, lots of inky hugs from...

Whooo loves ya???

Hello there and welcome to Linked to paper, I made this card a while ago now, but you know how things get put aside and then you forget about them :-) I did this one to show my downline team how to make the wood grain backgound stamp look like wood, I stamped the image onto Very Vanilla card stock and then used sponges and inks to colour and stain the card stock until it looked like the wood colour I was after, you can make it a light pine or a rich mahogany, just by adding different colours and strengths. It's a great stamp to play with and lends itself well to lots of images, I have used it with the sweet little owl from fox and friends here and also used the label from the lots of labels die for the big shot, as well as the little leaves die, the window punch the 1 3/8 circle punch and the scallop circle punch. I hope you like this little easel card. Thank you for stopping by today, lots of inky hugs from....

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas!!!!

I know it seems early to be showing you a Christmas card, but everywhere I go there are Christmas decorations up and so I thought I'd better get started on some cards. I'm doing a few Christmas classes in the next couple of weeks, so this is one that some of my clients will be making.

It uses the gorgeous Dasher stamp from our A La Carte single stamps in the back of the catalogue, I've teamed him up with the sentiment from Contempo Christmas which is a very affordable set from this year's Christmas collection. The background stamp is En Francais and the DSP is from the Love Letter pack, then it's finished off with the lovely wide Real Red ribbon. The scallop circle die was used as well as the circle scissors plus for the inner circles, real red, very vanilla and basic black card stock were also used. A rhinestone jewel was placed in the center of one of the stars that are around his antlers, but you can't see it too well in this photo. I hope you like it as much as I do. Thanks for visiting with me and please leave some joy in my comment box, so I can see who stopped by :-) Lots of inky hugs from....

Project number two.

Hi there, I think Summer is definitely well on her way, the temperatures have been getting hotter and hotter, great for getting your washing dry, but not so good for your plants.

As promised here is another one of the six projects that were made at the World Card Making day, this one was made using the Fancy Favour Die. The paper that decorates the little basket is made using the lovey Growing Green set along with Pear Pizazz, Blushing Bride and Crumb cake inks. The tag is one of the mew A La Carte single stamps from the back of the catalogue, it's called 'To and From Tag' Good name Huh!!!

Oh well that's it for now, thanks for stopping by, lots of inky hugs from...

Projects from World card making day.

Hello there my lovelies, I hope you are having a nice weekend. I have had an all day class here today with a very gorgeous group of ladies, we made a beautiful writing compendium which turned out really well.

This picture is of one of the six projects that everyone had fun making at our World card making day, it uses the top note die and the lots of dots embossing folder for the big shot, it also uses the gorgeous little owl punch which I absolutely adore! Isn't he just the cutest.

The bag is made with Tangerine Tango and that poor tattered piece of ribbon is Daffodil delight, it was handled rather a lot and became a little frazzled on the ends :-). There is a little gold paper bag inside that you can put some goodies in for someone special. I'll post another project soon, thanks for visiting with me today, lots of inky hugs from...

Thank you!

Today's post is to thank all those who were involved in making our World Card Making day event a wonderful success, I'm so happy to announce our final tally of what we were able to send to The National Breast Cancer Foundation. So Drum Roll Please.............
$1,900.94 I'm sure you will agree that is a good effort and I have already heard back from the NBCF with a lovely thank you for all we did. I know this amount is a mere drop in the ocean compared to what is needed to continue the much needed research that will help fight this awful disease for our future generations, but every little helps.
We will definitely be doing another event like this next year, so keep posted and get in fast, as everyone asked to come back to the next one, which made us so happy. It's good to know that all the hard work in organising and preparing for it was worth while.
I will post the pictures of the projects made on the day this week so please come back to see those. Thanks for visiting with me today, lots of inky hugs from ....

Winners are grinners....

Hello there craft lovers, today I thought I'd show you a couple of our winners from the World Card Making Day, we were so blessed with such wonderful prizes to give out which had been donated from Stampin'Up!, Catherine Baudains, The National Breast Cancer Foundation, Vivi of Buds of May and a few items from my personal stash of goodies.
here is a picture of me presenting the large silent auction prize to Maureen who made the winning bid.


This is Sam presenting Sue with one of her many prizes, she let out the biggest squeal of delight when she won the big raffle prize and everyone just got so caught up in her excitement. Well done Sue!

This is me presenting the lovely Sharon with the first prize of the day, we had so much fun giving out the many prizes from the very generous Stampin'Up!

Thanks for stopping by today, lots of inky hugs from...

Pink sea part two...

Hello again and welcome to part two of our World Card Making day event to raise funds for The National Breast Cancer Foundation. We were blessed to have such wonderful attendees to our event and a couple of them brought along their very new little babies, My husband even had a cuddle of one of them and took him outside for a walk in the fresh air.

This picture is of my gorgeous daughter Elysia who very kindly gave up her one day off to come and help in the kitchen, I'm so blessed with a wonderful supportive family.

Here's a few of our lovely ladies taking a look and a few photos of one of our sample boards.

I have some more pictures and stories to tell you, so please come back for the next instalment.

Thanks for stopping by, lots of inky hugs from....

A Sea Of Pink....

Hello there,

On Saturday the 23rd of October there was a sea of pink at the Kelmscott tennis club and it was made by some gorgeous people doing their very best to raise funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. The gorgeous pink cup cakes were made by Cassie, the family culinary skills don't stop there, her lovely dad Fred made some awesome curry puffs for the day too.

Here on the right is a picture of Ann, my very good friend and downline, she worked very hard with myself and Sam to make the day a huge success and most importantly full of fun.

This picture is of some of the lovely ladies who joined us for the day to make six projects , win prizes, eat, drink and have fun.

These pink goody bags were waiting to be picked up by each participant at the door, inside were all the necessities to make all six projects along with a few extra little bits and pieces.

The day was wonderful and from all the feed back we have had so far, everyone really enjoyed themselves and have expressed their wishes to do it all again asap. Well we will do it again, but not til next year when we have fully recovered from this one :-) I have a few more photos to show you and will upload part two tomorrow, so please come back to see the next part of our World Card Making Day event.

Thanks for visiting with me, lots of inky hugs from ....

Christmas has come early!!!!

How would you like to dress up Christmas with some FREE ribbon ?
Create beautiful packaging to fit any Christmas gift with exclusive products from Stampin' Up! From 16 October-30 November*, there are two ways to get FREE ribbon:

•Get an exclusive package of ribbon for FREE when you purchase a Christmas gift-giving bundle!
•Get an exclusive package of ribbon for FREE when you host a $550 workshop!

Choose from these bundles:
.Gifted bundle: Gifted set and Holly Jolly Designer Paper (woodmount 124041; $66.90) (clear mont 124042; $56.90)

.Welcome Christmas Bundle: Welcome Christmas set and Christmas Cocoa Speciality designer paper. (W-mount: 124045; $69.90) (C-mount; 124046; $59.90)

.Season of Joy bundle: Season of joy set and So Swirly Stampin' around wheel. (W-mount 124043; $67.90)

.Delightful Decorations Bundle: Delightful Decorations set and Ornament punch. (W-mount; 124044; $72.90)

Choose from the following limited-time ribbons when you purchase a Christmas gift giving bundle or host a qualifying workshop:
Click on picture to see a larger view of ribbons.
Please feel free to contact me HERE to place your qualifying order or schedule your Christmas workshop.
I look forward to hearing from you, lots of inky hugs from ...

more projects from this year's Stamp-a-thon.

Hello again fellow blog surfers,
I can definitely feel Summer on it's way, yet another glorious day in paradise! As promised, here are a couple more pics of this years Stamp-a-thon projects. This cute little milk carton was made by Makeesha and the stamp set used to embellish this one was 'Morning Cup'. I have to confess I'm soooo in love with this new milk carton die for the big shot. :-) This wonderful creation was one of the lovey Louise's, inside is a pocket each side for a gift card and message. Isn't it just a brilliant idea for Christmas. Well done Lou :-)

Oh well, I'm off to do another load of washing and then onto more cutting of projects for the next big fun raiser. I know what you're thinking...I must be mad!!!:-)

Take care and thanks for stopping by today, lots of inky hugs from .....

Some projects From Stamp-a-thon.

Hello there people,
I'm sorry there has been a delay in my posting these pictures, I have had no Internet for two days, it felt like my right arm had been chopped off! Isn't it amazing how we all rely on our computers fro communication these days, I would never of believed that me of all people would be saying that! Oh well, here is a picture of the gorgeous little scrap album that Keesh deigned. Everyone loved making it and the new designer paper went with it really well.

This next creation was designed by the lovely Lou, I was so excited to see these stamps sets in our new catty and I think a lot of you were too. I especially love the extreme guitar man, as he reminds me of my hubby :-) Oh well, that's it for now, I'll be back soon with more, providing my Internet doesn't die again!

Oh by the way, for those of you came along to the Stamp-a-thon and really enjoyed yourselves, you may be interested to know that myself and two other demonstrators are holding a very similar event on October the 23rd, we have ten spots left. If you would like to come and join in the fun please contact me here: charmaineblck@yahoo.com.au I look forward to hearing from you, lots of inky hugs from...

Stamp-A-Thon News.

Hello everyone,
I'm back from a very interesting holiday in Cambodia, where my hubby and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, but I'll tell you more about that and show some amazing photos at a later date.
This post is to tell you a little bit about our Stamp-a-Thon event for 2010, which was held on the 4th of September. We had yet another wonderful day of stamping fun, while raising some much needed funds and awareness for the National Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Makeesha came back over from Cairns to host the show as well as design three of the projects for the day, she not only designed, but cut her kits out for the day and brought them all over safely in her suitcase. Louise Ryan designed another two projects which were simply stunning and I did two also. So all attendees made 7 great projects to take home and lots of lucky people won prizes too. There was lots of food and refreshments on hand which was so beautifully presented by the wonderful helpers in the kitchen, Louise's mum, Keesh's mum and two of Lou's lovely downline too. We were also very lucky to have the gorgeous Ann Gerlach to help in so many ways on the day as well as in the build up to it. So a big thank you to all who helped make the day a wonderful one as well as a successful one. This is a picture of me with the star super woman who must have ever-ready batteries Makeesha :-)

Here's me with the most gorgeous Louise with a heart as big as all outdoors!

This is me with Ann, my ever calm and beautiful tower of strength. Thanks for your help Ann :-)

Here's a picture of just a few of the wonderful attendees, heads down and stamping their hearts out. I hope you all had as much fun as we did. :-)

Now for the news you've all been waiting for, DRUM ROLL PLEASE ........

The final tally of funds raised on the day is $5,476.93 So thank you to all those who came along and to those who made donations which made that sum possible. Makeesha, Louise and myself are very thankful to all of you, lets hope our contribution will help make the fight against this awful cancer a little easier.

I with the help of Ann and another fellow demonstrator Sam are holding another event on the 23rd of October to help raise some more funds for this wonderful cause.

Thanks for stopping by today and please visit again to see the projects which were made at this years Stamp-a-thon. Lots of inky hugs from...

Friends never fade.

Hello there,
I hope this finds you all enjoying your weekend, I've had the day off today and went shopping with DH to Harbour Town in Perth, we were looking for two new suit cases for our up-coming trip and managed to find just what we wanted at a bargain price, so two happy shoppers!
This picture is the second little collapsible box that I made, this one uses the stamp set called friends Never Fade. The designer paper that matches it is called Greenhouse Gala. I must admit neither of these two products were really on the top of my wish list, but now I've had a play with them, I'm definitely warming to them both. I cut a couple of the petals from the flower out and popped them up on dimensionals before sprinkling them with a bit of dazzling diamonds glitter. The whole thing is really simple and quick to make, so makes a cute little gift to go with a home made card. I've used Baja Breeze ink on whisper white card stock and also some Choc Chip card stock. Hope you like it, thanks for stopping by today, take care, lots of inky hugs from....

collapsible trinket box.

Hi weekend crafters,
I hope you are all enjoying a peasant start to your public holiday if you live in western Australia, the weather is certainly beautiful today. I busy keeping up with all my household chores, so that when I go away on my holiday to Cambodia next week, everything is left in order for my DD to look after for us. It is our 25th wedding anv. so we decided to forgo the party and go on a little break together, it's been a long time dream of my hubby's to go and visit Angkor Wat in Siem Reap to take photos of all the temples. He is a very enthusiastic photographer and loves to visit places that he knows will make good photos. So I think I'm going to choose where we go on our thirtieth:-)
Here are a few pictures of a little trinket box I made last weekend, I actually made two, so I'll show you the other one later. This one uses the flavour of the month stamp set which is Artistic Etchings. I hope you're not fed up with seeing it yet "LOL" I have also used the Love Letters DSP to decorate behind the Eiffel tower and keys, I also used just a tiny bit of the new platinum shimmer paint to highlight a few areas of the keys and tower. The great thing about this little box, is that it can be made collapsible which makes it easy to send though the post or keep folded in your sample box etc. I just stamped the sides and back, then put a closer on the front to hold it shut. The closure is made from one 3/4'' circle and a 1/2' circle with a brad in the centre.

Here's a pic of it when it has been collapsed. I will show you the other one tomorrow and "No" I haven't used Artistic etchings for it :-)

Thanks for stopping by today, lots of inky hugs from....

Every Moment ...Lucky last.

Hi There,

I hope this finds you all in a happy frame of mind:-) I have just finished teaching a card class and had a lovely time chatting to my clients about all things stamping. We made three lovely projects and were very happy with the finished articles.

As promised yesterday this is the third item we made at regional convention, it is a scrap page and we used one of the butterflies from the new die for the big shot called 'Beautiful Butterflies'

it has two different sized butterflies and matching wings to attach to it, which make it 3D. We stamped the sentiment from Every moment across the butterfly and used the paper piercer to make a swirl of dots over it all, the scallop edge punch was used for the white trim and the 1 3/4 circle punch was used for the green scallop edge. I really liked the simplicity of this page and just need to find the right photo to go in it now.

Take care and thanks for visiting with me, lots of inky hugs from...