MIA .....

Hi everyone,

Sorry but I too have been MIA lately though I see a lot of you have been very busy creating!

We were up in Queensland over the Australia Day long weekend for a wedding and I have been busy trying to catch up on all my emails plus the usual chores which have piled up in our absence.

I have missed the deadlines on a few recent challenges but still managed to finish one card since we came home very late on Sunday night - I will upload it in the next day or so to show you all.

The wedding was lovely but the hot and steamy weather up there really knocked us around -
we were so glad to get back home. Even though we are experiencing a heatwave here at the moment, it's a dry heat and bearable!!

Well, that's it for today - it's very late and I must go to bed or I'll never get up in the morning for work.

Will catch up with you all again by the weekend (and hopefully have some more things to show you).

'Bye for now - please come back again to visit very soon :-)

WOW ! I've reached over 1000 hits .....

I was checking my blog yesterday and noticed that I had received well over 900 hits then tonight when I checked it, the figure was 1,025 !

I can't believe that I've had so many people visiting my blog since I set it up just a couple of months ago - to all of you, I give you my heartfelt thanks.

It's an amazing feeling to know that you are interested in my artwork and keep coming back to see what I've done with stamps, paper, ink and ribbons - especially when it's something that I just love doing.

To all you 'seasoned' artists, thank you for taking the time to look at my work and for all your kind comments and your encouragement.

To all you fellow 'newbies' like me, together we will grow and create new exciting things, learning from each other and flooding the world with beautiful works of art!
So far, it seems that thousands appreciate what we're doing!! LOL


Here's a big HUG for all of you and once again THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH. :-)

Luv from Ramona.

KWerner Colour Challenge #38

Hello,

I've managed to take up another challenge offered by Kristina Werner. I was a bit dubious about using these colours together but once I started to mix and match with cardstock and paper, it all fell into place.

Here is the card I created using the new Sale-A-Bration stamps - (if you like this card and want to try making it yourself, contact me for the brochure which features these beautiful stamped images).

For this card I used the Ruby Red as the base and stamped the beautiful corner flourish onto some DS paper. This was then matted on Ruby Red and Pretty in Pink cardstock.

The scalloped flower was made by stamping the image in Ruby Red onto pink and white polka dot DS paper then punching it out with the Scallop Circle punch.

The greeting was stamped in Ruby Red on Whisper White card then punched out using the large oval punch. I added red adhesive gems to the heart and the flower centre for a bit of bling.

I also added 3 more gems at the top of the card to co-ordinate with the main elements.

The striped DS paper was punched with the scallop border punch. I sponged the edges of this piece of paper, the oval greeting and the flower with Ruby Red ink to define them.

SU Supplies -

Cardstock: Ruby Red, Pretty In Pink, Whisper White

Stamps: Yummy, Polka Dot Punches - both from the 2009 Sale-A-Bration brochure

Ink: Ruby Red

DS Papers: Pumpkin pattern from the Bali Breeze set, Pink striped paper from the Petals and Paisley set

Punches: Scallop Circle, Scallop Border, Large Oval

Extras: Self-adhesive gems

It's fun doing these challenges as you stretch your mind to sometimes think outside of the square and use colours that you never thought would work together. You are usually surprised when you've finished !

Well, that's it for now. Come back again soon to see what else I have up my sleeve to show you ........

Thanks for stopping by.

Live Your Dream - another card .......

Hi everyone,

Like all of you who have the Live Your Dream stamp set, I just love using it and keep thinking of more card ideas to try. Here is my latest effort ......



For this one, I used Blue Bayou for the base card instead of one of the co-ordinating colours which match the Afternoon Tea DS papers. I wanted a blue that was a little darker and contrasted a little more with the pastel colours in the paper.

The flower image was coloured with Soft Sky and Wild Wasabi inks and I then inked another image of the flowers only, in Soft Sky and cut them out to attach them over the base image for a 3D effect.
I sponged the edges of the white card with the Soft Sky ink and attached this to a piece of Old Olive cardstock which had been punched at the bottom edge with the Scallop Border punch.

I then tied a piece of Bashful Blue taffeta ribbon around this panel and attached self-adhesive pearls to the flower centres.

The greeting from the 'Say it with scallops' set, was stamped in Old Olive onto white card then punched out with the Square Scallop punch. This was then attached to a square of Old Olive card.

To assemble the card, I cut a piece of the floral striped paper from the 'AfternoonTea' collection and attached it to the Blue Bayou base card. I then attached the stamped panel over this and using 3D foam squares, attached the greeting to the right side of the card.

SU supplies:

Cardstock - Blue Bayou, Old Olive, Whisper White.

Stamps - Live Your Dream, Say It With Scallops.

Inks - Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi.

Paper - DS Afternoon Tea collection.

Ribbon - Bashful Blue taffeta.

Punches - Square Scallop, Scallop Border.

Extras - Self-adhesive pearls.


I hope you like it.

Thanks for stopping by - please come back again soon to see what else I've been up to!

Happy Stampin' !!

Hints and Tips

Hi again,

As I learn a lot of things from other stampers' tips and techniques, I thought that I would share a couple of mine with you - you may have heard of these before but for those who haven't, here they are.

As we don't have Stampin' Up! ribbons or embellishments in every colour to match our cardstock, I am always on the lookout for suitable ribbons, trims or other items when I go out shopping.

To take the guesswork out of picking a colour and hoping that it will match once I get home, I've punched out scalloped circles of all of our cardstock, labelled them with the relevant colours and colour 'families' and attached them to a metal ring which I keep in my handbag.

Then when I find myself in a shop that sells ribbons and other items I'd like to use with my SU supplies, I just take out my little circles of colour and try to match them up then and there.

Here is a photo of my little gadget - I keep it in a sealed plastic bag, it doesn't take up much room in my handbag and is always ready whenever I need it.

My second tip for you is a neat way of dealing with sticky areas on your cardstock or papers when you've used a bit too much adhesive and you've got little sticky areas around your cardstock or papers which then stick to everything else !





Your glue eraser will work but if you don't have one, you can always do this - just sprinkle a little talcum powder on your fingers and rub them over the sticky areas then wipe away the excess - you'll find that you no longer have any sticky residue.

This is not only great for your cards and scrapbook layouts, but also works on other items where you may have removed a price label and it's left glue on the actual item which you can't get off by washing - e.g. CD / DVD covers, books, stationery items, etc.

Try it - it works!

Well, I hope these two little snippets may help you. I'll upload more as I think of them in future posts.

Hope you've all had a great weekend. See you again soon!

'Bye for now.

Makeesha Byl's New Year Challenge

I thought I would try Makeesha Byl's New Year Challenge today and I ended up doing a 'Double Challenge' !
What's that, I hear you ask ? Well, you know how we stampers get when we see things around us in the home or at the shops and we suddenly get hit with an idea for a card, today I did just that.

I took a new tube of toothpaste out of the cupboard and loved the colours on the box so much, I decided to make a card using those colours!
Yes, it's sad I know, but I thought well, why not combine the 'Toothpaste Box colour challenge' with Keesh's sketch challenge!


Here is the box from the toothpaste so you can see the colours I wanted to work with,



they were aqua, orange, silver and navy. I started playing around with cardstock, papers & ribbon and voila, another card was born!

I used the DS floral paper to 'lighten' the contrast between all the strong colours and added a glittery silver flower for a bit of 'bling'.

I attached Tempting Turquoise to the Night of Navy base card, then attached a strip of DS floral paper to a piece of Only Orange cardstock and added some Turquoise grosgrain ribbon to this panel before attaching it to the base card.

The greeting is from the Occasional Greetings set and I used the Only Orange and Night of Navy markers to colour in the words then stamped it on Whisper White cardstock.

I then sponged the edges of the white card with Tempting Turquoise ink and distressed the edges before attaching it to Night of Navy card.

The glitter flower was in my stash of assorted flowers so I attached it with foam pads to a circle that I had punched out of Only Orange card.

SU Supplies -

Cardstock - Night of Navy, Tempting Turquoise, Only Orange.

Ink - Tempting Turquoise.

Stamps - Occasional Greetings (main catalogue)

Markers - Only Orange, Night of Navy.

Ribbon - Tempting Turquoise grosgrain.

Paper - DS Bali Breeze collection.

Extras - Circle punch, foam glitter flower.

This card is something different from my normal style as it's very bright but it worked out well.

I may do another card in softer colours for Keesh's challenge if I have the time so check back again soon.

Happy stampin' !

KWerner Colour Challenge #37

Well, I've started my New Year's Resolutions to take up more challenges from various blogs.

Here is the card I just made for Kristina Werner's Challenge #37.

I received the lovely felt flowers from my upline Yvonne at Christmas time included in a lovely gift she had made for me so I thought this would be the perfect time to use them.

I used some of the floral DS paper from the Bali Breeze set which co-ordinated with the cardstock and the felt flowers. We don't have the Baja Breeze cardstock here so I substituted Tempting Turquoise and I used the Scallop Border punch for the decorative edge.

I then added some Pumpkin Pie grosgrain ribbon, gold brads for the flower centres and a rub-on greeting from the Eastern Elegance Rub-ons set.

SU Supplies:

Cardstock - Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise

Felt Flowers - Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie

Grosgrain Ribbon - Pumpkin Pie

Rub-ons - Eastern Elegance

Extras - 3 gold brads

This was a very quick card to make and I loved the way the bright colours worked so well with the Chocolate Chip base.

I have another Challenge card to make so come back soon to see that one !

'Bye for now - happy crafting!

KWerner Colour Challenge #36 - Card 2

I was having so much fun creating my previous card for Kristina Werner's Colour Challenge #36 that I decided to make another one just for the heck of it.


Still on a floral theme, I decided to stamp the flowers this time.


I really love this combination of colours - so pretty and feminine!


For this card I used the Live Your Dream stamp set and coloured the stamp with the markers, stamping two images on Whisper White cardstock.
I cut out the flowers and two of the leaves from the second image and mounted these on 3D foam squares, applying them over the base image for a raised look.

I then mounted the white card onto Old Olive then onto Pretty in Pink cardstock and attached it to the Rose Red base card. After cutting out a strip of Old Olive cardstock, I used the Scallop Border punch to punch one edge, leaving the other edge straight.

The photo corner was punched out of Pretty in Pink cardstock using the SU punch.

For added decoration, I pierced holes in the scallops and the bottom edge of the green strip and also in the photo corner.

Then to finish it off I added pearls to the flower centres, a pink taffeta bow to the scalloped green strip and used a white rub-on for the greeting.


SU supplies:

Cardstock - Rose Red, Pretty In Pink, Old Olive, Whisper White.
Markers - Rose Red, Pretty In Pink, Old Olive.
Stamps - Live Your Dream
Rub-ons - 'Dream' from the Eastern Elegance rub-ons.
Ribbon - Pretty In Pink taffeta
Punches - Scallop Border, Photo Corners.
Piercing kit

Extras - Self adhesive half pearls


Well, that's it for today. Thanks for visiting.

Please come back over the weekend for more things to see. I'm uploading as much as I can as I will be back at work on Monday so won't have much time for writing new Posts.

See you next time !

KWerner Colour Challenge #36

I just love the colours in Kristina Werner's latest Colour Challenge - they're so pretty together.

Here is my creation - I just love adding flowers to my cards and this one gave my SU punch a good workout!

SU Supplies:

Cardstock:Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, Old Olive, Whisper White
Inks: Rose Red, Pretty in Pink
Stamp: For You (from Occasional Greetings set)
Punch: Spring Flower Bouquet

Extras: Grosgrain ribbon, pink & clear crystal gems, white half pearl.

I will definitely use this colour combination in other cards - it's so nice.

Until next time .....

Iris Folding ......

Hello again,

I thought that I would show you some of my other non-SU cards which I made awhile ago.
I took a class in Iris Folding when I first started making cards and was instantly hooked.

This technique which looks complicated but is so easy to do, was created by two Dutch women
many years ago. It originally began using the inside of envelopes for the folded paper strips - in Europe apparently, envelopes have the most beautiful patterned papers inside in various colours and designs though we here in Australia do have some too.

Go ahead, look through your window-faced envelopes and see the different colours and designs. Unfortunately, we don't have very many beautiful colours but our shades of blue, grey and green are all suitable for this style of papercraft and I have used them to great effect when co-ordinating them with other coloured papers.

You can use a variety of papers for this technique - patterned scrapbooking papers, foils, old inner envelopes, wrapping paper, etc. as long as the paper isn't too thick for folding.

The 'Iris' in the term Iris Folding refers to the Iris of a camera or your eye, (not the flower), as you lay strips of paper around a central pattern template in decreasing layers so creating the central 'Iris'.

When you have finished laying down all the strips, you are left with an open space in the centre of your work which can be left bare or filled with whatever you choose - I usually use holographic paper or card but sometimes I add a small motif in the centre.

You need to cut an aperture in the front of your card which can be any shape - either the basic ones of circle, square, rectangle, triangle, diamond, oval, etc. or any other shape you choose.
There are blank cards available with pre-cut designs or you can create your own using punches or cutting tools.

The cut-out section is placed (with the wrong side facing up) over a design template and you just need to follow the designated lines, laying down your paper strips as required until you've completed the pattern.

When finished, you turn the card around and your design is behind the aperture - then it's just a matter of finishing off your card by covering the messy bits at the back and decorating it as you choose and giving it to that special someone!


Here are a few of the cards I have made over the last few years - I have more, but need to find the disc that they're on in my mountain of craft supplies but that's another chore for another day.....





























































As you can see, the designs are only limited by your imagination and there is a shape for any occasion.

I hope you like these cards. If you want to know more about this technique, please contact me and I can give you lots of ideas and tips on this lovely art. It's just another facet to the world of card making and something a little different!


'Bye for now - see you again soon!

SALE-A-BRATION Starts Today - Happy New Year !

Happy New Year everyone - hope you all survived last night's revelries without to much suffering LOL.

Here's to a wonderful new year full of all good things and to start off the year on a high, check out the great stamp sets on offer from our Sale-A-Bration catalogue - there are 4 beautiful sets which you can earn for FREE!

For every $100.00 you spend on any Stampin' Up! products you can choose any one of these FREE stamp sets.

There is no limit to the number of stamp sets you can earn - spend $200, earn 2 sets / spend $300, earn 3 sets / spend $400, earn all 4 sets, it's that easy !

There are also another two other ways to earn these free sets -

Host a workshop with sales of $600 or more and you'll get -

a FREE Sale-A-Bration set
a FREE Level 2 Hostess set plus a minimum of $70.00 to spend on any products of your choice
and for every $100 you spend yourself at your workshop, you'll earn another free Sale-A-Bration set!

What a great way to build up your Stampin' Up! collection of stamps!

If you sign up as a demonstrator during the Sale-A-Bration promotion - you can select any stamp set of your choice (to the value of $79.95) from the Main catalogue absolutely FREE!

This is a great way to get one of those higher priced stamp sets like the Alphabets - great for scrapbooking layouts or for greetings on your cards.


Want to know more about our Sale-A-Bration Promotion and how to earn FREE stamps? CONTACT ME NOW for all the information on:-

Booking Classes & Workshops

Placing orders - (yes, you can earn these sets for any $100 orders placed either online or at classes / workshops)

Becoming a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator - (and earning a free stamp set of your choice up to $79.95 in value not to mention joining our great family and making some fantastic new friends!)


Now don't forget, this promotion only runs from 1st Jan. to 28th. Feb. so get in quick for these great specials and as a further BONUS, I will throw in a free gift for anyone who holds a qualifying workshop (as above) or who joins up as a demonstrator during this promotion.

This is my own offer and is not part of any Stampin' Up! promotion or endorsed by Stampin' Up!

Go on, what are you waiting for - contact me now !!

Come back to my blog 'theatre' soon to see what projects I've created using these lovely new stamps.

"Bye for now - happy stamping!