A little baseball...

 Hello fellow stamp addicts, I hope this finds you all having an inky week! I unfortunately have had quite a few unfortunate weeks of mishaps and accidents ;-( but I'm hoping things can only get better ;-) So I thought I'd share last weekend's inky session that I enjoyed with some very special friends who always cheer me up and lets face it, how could you frown when colouring in this cute little Lala land baseball Luka. I paired him up with lots of Stampin'Up! goodies to complete this card
including designer paper for the paper piecing technique used for his uniform, which is a fun way of colouring in your images.
 I rarely colour in boy images so this was quite a struggle for me to be honest, I guess it's because I only had girls and wasn't really in the habit of making many cards for boys. I hope you like him and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me, don't forget I love to get some blog lovin' too so please leave a comment to let me know you've stopped by for a visit.
                                            The finished card...

                                        A closer look at Luka.....

                                            The inside view....

                                           A different hat...

you can click on the image for a closer look if you wish, thanks for stopping by, lots of inky hugs from .....

a little water colour wonder...

 Hi there craft lovers, I've had a very special weekend of birthday love, my eldest daughter flew over from Melbourne and was able to join our family for a birthday dinner at our favourite restaurant, the only one missing was daughter number two as she is currently living back in the UK ;-(.
 Anyhooo! this post is about the wonderful medium of water colour, I love dabbling in a bit of water colour technique and this was no exception.
 Whilst attending this year's Stampin'Up! south pacific convention on the
Gold Coast, I was privileged to watch a lovely young lady called Petra Tailor do a really lovely technique in one of the booths. this first card is my interpretation of her technique, using a few different colours but I love this technique and will definitely be using it again. Can you spot the beautiful new set called  'You've got this' I'm totally in love with this set, the sentiments alone are good reason to have this set in your stash. check it out on page 113 of the new catalogue, if you don't have one you can either browse it on line on my website found to the right after the 2nd of June, or you can contact me for your very own hard copy.

the colours aren't that great in this photo but I'll do my best to get another one done soon to show you, I've used the new colours Delightful Dijon, Mint Macaron and the returning colour Night of navy. The ribbon is Wisteria wonder seam binding and the card is matted onto silver foil, onto brushed silver then onto Whisper white.
 The second card is a new technique I've developed using an aqua brush to do the thumping technique instead of the usual marker pen way. I have used the new colours that were mentioned above as well as Old Olive and Rich Razzelberry. Just click on pictures for better view of colours.

The stamped image of the tree is from another of my go-to sets called Sheltering tree. I hope this post adds a little serenity to your week, if you would like to learn these and other techniques please contact me for details on my classes or check out my list of up coming classes on my web site : http://charmainesinkyhugs.stampinup.net/  lots of inky hugs from ........

Catch up time...

Hi there friendly blog suffers, I have returned from a great convention on the Gold Coast held by Stampin'Up!. As per usual we were all spoilt with lots of presents and door prizes etc. those of us that were titled manager or above also got an extra day for leadership training as well as a fabulous night of entertainment at the Out Back Spectacular show. It was an amazing show and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone visiting that area in the future.
 Well we had some great surprises at convention including the hot off the press about to be released catalogue for 2015/16, you're gonna love it! and I cant wait to share lots of the new goodies with you all, however in the mean time I will share some cards that I've made over the past few weeks and not posted. so to start with here's my birthday card which I made for little Lucy , our precious God daughter who turned one a couple of weeks ago. I made this card using Stampin'Up! punches, it was really fun and I was super pleased with the outcome, I found the original on Pinterest but changed colours and a few of the punches.

Hope you like it, have you made any punch art cards lately?

Lots of inky hugs from ....

Would you like a sneak peak ? ...........

Get New Stampin' Up! Product Now

The new Stampin' Up Catalogue is being released soon, demonstrators have been ordering all day selecting stamp sets, the New In Colour Inks & Papers and fun accessories early.

NEW demonstrators can also get them in their starter kits!

Remember, these cannot be ordered as a customer until June 2nd unless you are a demonstrator or you sign up:)

Sneak Peek PDF

Hostess Sets (can be purchased now as a demo or earned free after June 2)

Samples PDF

Email me at charmaineblack@y7mail.com or call me 040 232 0779 to ask any questions you may have.

  The starter kit is for hobby/discount shoppers as well as those wanting to teach classes or to start a business.

It's only $169. and you can choose $235. in products and 

FREE shipping for the starter kit to sign up.

You will also receive a fabulous business supply kit valued at $80.00 added to your kit for FREE, making a total value of $315.00 for just $169.00.

Which means you could get the following sample starter kit right now for $169. (you can change products to better suit your needs)

In Colour Cardstock & Ink Pad Kit $58.00 
In Colour Markers $26.00 
Sprinkles of Life stamp set $37.00 
Tree Builder Punch $31.00 
Cherry on Top Paper Stack $14.00 
Cherry on Top cardstock asst. pack $12.00 
Triple Banner Punch $38.00 

Snail adhesive $12.00

Stampin' Dimensionals $7.00

TOTAL: $235.00 you pay just: $169.00!
 And your first full order out of the New Catalogue of $300 or more within 45 days could be at a 30% discount.

WHY NOT YOU AND WHY NOT NOW?

You can sign up HERE if it's right for you!

A belated Easter hello!

Hi there paper crafting friends, I've been a little late in posting a few photos for you, so I will endeavour to make up for it in the next few days with lots of completed projects.
 These first ones are of an Easter Stamping day I had with some inky friends, we made some Easter cards and three D projects as well as an interactive card.
Here's the Easter Bunny step card, that we all made using lots of Stampin' Up! punches and designer papers. I found the original on Pinterest by Jackie Topa, a very talented stamper in the US.

the next projects were these cute little "bag-in-box" containers which fit a small chocolate Easter egg inside for a treat.  These were found on 'Pootles' site along with a great little tutorial on how to make them using the fabulous Stampin'Up! envelope punch board. We have to have chocolate to keep our energy levels up when stamping!

The last project we made on that day was a fun interactive card using the Circle card thinlit, I love these dies because they come with so many little extras for embellishing your finished card and they're super easy and quick to make. This particular card also uses the circles collections framelits to make the window in which the spinning butterfly sits. You carefully wind the butterfly up and pop the card into an envelope so that when the recipient opens the card the butterfly spins around and around. It always makes me smile to see it spin ;-)

there are several versions of this card out there on the net so I'm not entirely sure of where I found the original. It was lots of fun to make and it's always fun to see the recipient open it.
 I hope you all had a beautiful Easter celebration with your family and loved ones.
 Lots of inky hugs from .....

 

 

Baby's and blocks....

Hi there inky friends, I hope this finds you all well and with ink on your fingers.
I have been longing to have a go at a block 'step' card and I also needed a baby card for a friend who's expecting her bundle of joy any day soon. So I had a little look online to see if I could find any help to make one of the block type step cards I was after, it didn't take long thanks to the wonderful World Wide Web! This is the card I decided to case with the help of a couple of different video tutorials , one being by D. valder who's card I decided to case.
 I had lots of fun making this card and used the great set called ' something for baby'  which has wonderful dies to match, so no fussy cutting....Phew! It was certainly a lot easier than I thought it would be and I will definitely be making some more of these cards with different themes.
 Have you made one of these and if so what theme did you make yours in??

Lots of inky hugs from.......

A nice surprise for you from Stampin'Up!.....

Hi there craft lovin' friends, I have a really nice and unprecedented surprise for you from Stampin'Up! Never before have we seen extra gifts bestowed upon us for the Sale-A-Bration period from SU but this year is special, because the Sale-A-Bration period is longer than usual they will be releasing some extra FREE goodies in the month of March for all qualifying orders, how cool is that!
Please don't be too slow in picking out your favourite items and be sure to get your orders in with me before you miss out on these amazing new sets, papers and accessories.
check out the goodies below by clicking the link:

http://www3.stampinup.com/au/documents/Flyer_SAB2_demo_Feb1715_SP.pdf

lots of inky hugs from ........

Friday's 'Keep it sweet and simple class'

Hello there craft loving friends,
It has certainly been a busy weekend for me but it started off with a great morning of stamping with my "Fabulous Friday Paper Fanatics" group, I love these classes, they're always relaxed and lots of fun. A beautiful bunch of friendly ladies come to my 'Keep it simple and sweet classes every other Friday and this week we made this cute bag that holds two cards, it could be used as a gift or kept for that occasion when you need a card all made up and ready to send.
I used Calypso Coral cardstock to make up this cute bag, which holds two cards and matching envelopes inside. The flower image has been clear embossed on the front along with another cut down in size to fit on the 'Top note' clasp which was embossed in Tempting turquoise. the stamp used was 'Blended Bloom.

This is a view of the inside of the bag, two clear bags have been adhered to the inside to hold the two cards which are cased from the 2015 Sale-A-Bration catalogue

This is card one which is made using the wonderful designer paper 'Best year ever' along with the matching stamp set called 'Best Day Ever' both from the 2015 Sale-A-Bration catalogue.

 The last photo is of card two which uses the same stamp set and the new ornate tag topper punch from the occasions catalogue. I also used Coastal cabana, Crushed curry and Calypso coral inks. A few in-colour sequins were scattered on to give this card a bit of bling!

I hope you like this week's projects and if you would like to join the Friday class please feel free to contact me for further information and to book your seat, as places are limited.

I look forward to hearing from you soon, lots of inky hugs from ....

 

This week's 'Weekly Deals'

Hi there, if you haven't seen  this week's 'Weekly Deals' yet, then do yourself a favour and check them out, don't miss out on these great bargains and let me know as soon as possible if you'd like to take advantage of any of the deals because they're only available at these prices until next Tuesday24th of Feb. have fun.....

Weekly Deals

Wood you be my Valentine?

Hi there inky friends, I hope you all had wonderful Valentine surprises over the weekend.
I was up early on Saturday in order to get off to my Scrapbooking class I was teaching, but as I went to put the kettle on for my morning cuppa, I found a beautiful Valentine's card from my gorgeous hubby. Of course I had made one for him too and I'm pretty sure he was quite impressed.
 Some of you may know that my hubby is a design technology teacher and often teaches wood work which he has a real passion for, so I thought the new Stampin'Up! set called "Wood you be mine" was rather appropriate for making a card up for him,I found inspiration for this from my usual source on Pinterest and the original was designed by J Tink. I did a fair bit of fussy cutting but I think the end result was worth it, I used blendabilities to colour in the image along with some  Stampin' write markers, I also used a piece of designer paper from the new paper stack in the occasions catalogue called Adventure Bound. If you have any questions on how this card was made please feel free to leave a comment below and I will endeavour to answer it for you.

Thankyou for stopping by, please visit again sometime soon, inky hugs from......

Butterfly love.

Hello there inky friends, I hope this finds you all with inky on your fingers. I have had a busy few days and enjoyed a wonderful team meeting last night with my gorgeous Paper Charmers team, such a friendly bunch of ladies and filled with paper crafting talent which they freely share with each other. We all swapped cards with the theme of 'Open' using anything from the new catalogues, I love receiving swaps especially when its using a set that I have but would never of thought of using it that way, its a great way of learning new tips as well.
 I'm really looking forward to welcoming any new team members and would love you to join my happy little team, so please feel free to contact me any time for more information on the great benefits of being a part of the Stampin'Up! family. I will leave my contact details on the bottom of today's post but you can always find them on my website as well.
 Todays card uses the beautiful Butterfly Basics set and of course the fantastic new matching butterfly thinlits dies. this is a copy of the sample card in your occasions catalogue on page 26, I've changes a couple of the colours a bit but it's essentially the same..Why change something if its already beautiful right!

The base butterfly is made from our pretty gold foil card stock and the top one using whisper white, then sponged the edges with some calypso coral ink. I would love to show you and some friends how to make this card at a workshop/party, so why not book a  get together with some friends and I'll bring along all the materials and tools need for a fun time with inks and paper crafting tools.
 Tel: 040 232 0779, email: charmaineblack@y7mail.com I'm looking forward to hearing from you, lots of inky hugs from........

Swinging by to say hi!

Hi there friends, I hope your Sunday was as fun as mine. I had the pleasure of doing a workshop with some stampin' buddies north of the river and it just so happened to be a birthday get together too so that made it even more special.
 I'll post the cards we made tomorrow but for now I hope you enjoy seeing another creation using the Sheltering Tree set, I just love this set as you know and I particularly like the fact there is so many extra little stamps that you can change the look of the tree with. Instead of using the big canopy of leaves to fill this tree, I used one of the smaller stamps with only a few leaves on it and coloured it with different inks to make it bright and Summery.

Thanks for stopping by and please come back to visit again soon, lots of inky hugs from........

Four Seasons with a Sheltering tree.

Hi there inky friends, I've had a lovely day  with my stampin' buddies today and we created some pretty cards using the set called 'Sheltering Tree' which can be found on page 22 of the new occasions catalogue, its such a versatile set and could be used for so many different occasions, for male or female cards.
 Friday get togethers are for KISS cards, (keep it sweet and simple), so these are definitely made keeping that in mind and could be easily stepped up if you wanted to spend a bit more time on them etc. I found my inspiration for these cards through my usual source on Pinterest, the Winter, Autumn and Spring were inspired by Patty Bennett who is an amazing Demo in the US and the Summer card was inspired by Jacquii McLeay, I have changed them from the originals somewhat and really had fun creating them using lots of different techniques, such as dry embossing, heat embossing, thumping technique, direct to rubber and a few others. If you would like to learn some of these techniques, you are welcome to come along to one of my classes or perhaps book a party and I'd be happy to share some stamping tips with you and some friends.
 just contact me for further details by leaving a comment on here or go to my "Shop" and you will find my phone number and email address.
                                           All four seasons.

Summer, using heat embossing and Blushing bride embossing powder, as well as White embossing powder used with the 'Wood grain ' background stamp. The frame is a Framelit die from the set of dies called 'On Film', the beautiful faceted button from the Vintage faceted designer buttons on page 209 of the main catalogue. The hearts from the 'Owl Builder' punch.

 Spring, the bicycle frame and sentiment were heat embossed using cherry cobbler embossing powder.

 Autumn, uses the thumping technique to create a multi coloured stamped image.

 Winter, the hearts border punch, we used the direct to rubber technique to create the look of bark on the lighter tree.

I hope you enjoyed today's post and come back to visit soon

I hope you enjoyed today's post and come back to visit soon, I appreciate the time you have spent with me and would love to see feed back in the comments box, if there is a technique or particular set you would like to see me post, then please feel free to make a suggestion, I will endeavour to post your requests.

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

Mini treat bag.

 Hello to all you craft loving friends out there, Today's project is made using the new "Mini treat bag Thinlits die" which can be found on page 9 of the new occasions catalogue. This little treat bag is so versatile and can be made for all sorts of great gifts but with a little manipulation you can alter it to be a gusseted bag to hold bigger gifts.
 So the one I'm showing you today is the altered version but you can see the original being made before your very eyes on the great video that will be posted at the bottom of this post.
 Have fun creating and let me know if you'd like to see a copy of the new cataloges available at the moment, don't forget it's Sale-A-Bration time and there are so many awesome free gifts for you to choose from when you place a qualifying order with me, so please contact me for details or just click the "Shop" button on the right hand side to visit my web site with all the specials and projects for you to browse whilst sitting in your PJ's enjoying a cuppa.

I've also used the new "Spring flowers" textured impressions embossing folder which can be found on page 19 of the occasions catalogue.
check out this great video showing you some more ideas for using the mini treat bag:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFJTczcQfDk
lots of inky hugs from .......

butterflies galore.

Hi there fellow inky friends, I have been busy visiting my mother in law who is having a stay in hospital, she fell down on Australia day (before having anything to drink, I might add!) and broke her hip. So she has now had a full hip replacement and is in rehab till she is able to be more mobile again.
 This of course has played havoc with my crafting and blogging etc. so I hope to make it up to you over the next couple of days.
 To start with, here is one of the projects I helped some friends to make a couple of weeks ago, we used the new butterfly thinlets dies as well as some Stampin'Up! water colour paper, it was a lot of fun to put together and stands as an easel card when opened.
 I found the original version of this on Pinterest and it was pinned by L. Bauwin another talented demo from the US.
                                                     card open:

                                                  card closed:

I hope you like it, let me know what your favourite new tool or stamp set is from the occasions catalogue. Take care and stay inky. lots of inky hugs from..........

New stamps!

Hi everyone, I've been having lots of fun with the newly released stamps and tools in our Stampin'Up! Occasions and sale-a-bration catalogues so I thought you may like to see some of the creating I've doing. Here's one of many to be posted over the next few days, it's been made using the stamped image called 'Love is kindness' its a single wood mounted stamp and lends itself to all sorts of occasions, I've gone with the theme on the image of the flowers being wrapped in news paper and used some of the typeset designer paper to complete the look.
 I've used the one of the newly released Blendabilities colours which is Pink Pirouette and outlined the flowers in the lightest pen from the Coastal Cabana set. I must say I'm really enjoying using these new pens from Stampin'Up! and look forward to offering some speciality classes using these great alcohol based colouring tools, so if you've always wanted to have a go with alcohol pens and live in Western Australia I'd be happy to give you more information on joining my small classes or perhaps you would rather get a group of friends together for a workshop at your place.

 

Inky Hugs.....