Magnolia Down Under Challenge # 6

Hi everyone,

I have been honoured by Kellie Winnell of Magnolia Down Under Challenges to become a Guest Design Team Member for the month of April.

This is my first design as a team member - it's for our Challenge No. 6 - 'A Baby Is Born'.

I love this image of baby Tilda and thought that her pink jumpsuit and yellow socks would team beautifully with the Spring Flowers paper from Stampin' Up!.

I layered this floral paper onto the yellow polka dot paper (which had been given a scalloped edge) then adhered them to the dark green base card.

The piece of striped paper was embossed using the Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dots' Embossing Folder then positioned over the other papers.

I stamped the greeting in green ink on yellow cardstock, punched it out using the larger oval punch and then punched a hole at each end using my Crop-a-Dile. The sheer pink 'Baby' ribbon was then threaded through the holes and adhered to the card using double-sided tape.

Baby Tilda was then positioned over the ribbon using 3D foam dots and for the final touch I added a pale yellow flower with a gold brad.

I coloured Tilda with watercolour pencils and an aquabrush then added SU Crystal Effects to glaze her dummy, buttons and the yellow heart on her jumpsuit.

Here is a side-on view of the card so that you can see the glazing effect.

SU Supplies:

Cardstock - Mellow Moss, So Saffron

Ink- Wild Wasabi

Papers - Designer Series - 'Spring Flowers'

Punches - Scalloped border, large oval

Crystal Effects

Extras -

Pink ribbon, paper flower, gold brad.

Please join in this week's challenge - it's a lot of fun, gets your Mojo working and you'll be inspired by all the lovely entries from our other Design Team Members.

Click on the link here to take you to this site.

Hope to see lots of lovely entries for this Baby Challenge and don't forget, we have a new challenge every Sunday so come back each week to see what the new theme is and then start crafting !

Thanks for stopping by - I'll be posting another design next week!

See you soon.

Magnolia Down Under Challenge # 5

Hello again,

I've been busy today but have managed to make this little card for my entry to Kellie Winnell's
Magnolia Down Under Challenge this week.

The theme is Easter and as I had just bought a Magnolia stamp of Tilda with her bunny, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to use it.

The beautiful paper is from Stampin' Up! Prints Designer Series and it was just what I wanted for this card. I teamed it up with some pale blue and navy SU cardstock.

I coloured Tilda in with watercolour pencils and an aquabrush and I found the perfect ribbon to match in my container of ribbons. The little felt flower is from the SU Flower Fusion range.

Hope you like it - thanks for dropping in to visit today.



I hope to see you again soon.

Malin's Mini Blog Candy

Hi there,

I came across this offer of Mini Blog Candy from Malin and thought I would share it with you.

Aren't these little characters so cute ?

To be in the running for this offer, check out Malin's site and leave a comment for her with a link on your blog but be very quick as the offer finishes tonight 31st March.

Thanks for stopping by - come back again soon!

Demo's Day Out !

Hi everyone,

Well today I had a wonderful day out with some of my team members.
Jenni Oliver invited us to her house for a get-together and we had a fantastic day.

The weather was warm & sunny - just perfect for the drive to the beautiful town of Gisborne here in Victoria where Jenni lives. I picked up my friend Debbie and we drove up to Jenni's together where we met up with Yvonne (our upline) and other members of our team and also some girls from Jenni's team.

We spent a lovely day together talking excitedly about what we were all going to order from the new catalogue as we already have ours - we're all going to be broke in the next month or so judging by the number of items on our Wish Lists !! LOL

As we have been able to pre-order some of the new stamps, inks and other items, some of the girls had brought along the new stamp sets to share them around for some stamping fun !

We had a great time playing with them and bouncing ideas off each other for cards we were going to make when we got home. Jenni then treated us to a beautiful BBQ lunch and we had all brought along some sweet goodies to share for dessert so a good time was had by all.

For a special treat (and to get us into training for Convention at the end of April) we all made cards /items to swap with each other - there were some fabulous ideas there and we all went home loaded with inspiration !!

Here is the card I made for the swap - I used one of the new stamp sets so here's a SNEAK PEEK at what you'll find in the new catalogue which will be available from 1st April.

For this card I used the Fresh Cuts stamp set with the Kiwi Kiss ink and the new Baja Breeze and Kiwi Kiss cardstock. The strip of blue paper is from one of the new Designer Series sets and these colours just blend together perfectly!

I added a bit of glitter to the leaves and to the flower centres to give the card that little something extra ! I managed to make quite a few of these cards over two nights so have a few extra ones to put away for that unexpected occasion when I need a card in a hurry and don't have the time to sit down and make one! Will have to get into the habit of making one or two extra of each card I make from now on so that I can build up a stockpile.

Well I hope you like this card - it's a SNEAK PEEK at some of the lovely things in our new catalogue so if you want to be one of the first to receive one of these new catalogues, contact me now and I'll send one out to you.

They are $12.95 a copy and I already have a box full so what are you waiting for ? Call me now to see what great products I'll be using in my upcoming classes !

Well, that's it for another day - must get to bed or I'll turn into a pumpkin - it's well past midnight and I really should be asleep.



See you all again soon - thanks for looking in :-)

Magnolia Down Under Challenge # 4

Hello again,



I was out all day today but managed to make this card for my entry in Kellie Winnell's Magnolia Down Under Challenge # 4.
For this challenge we had to use some 'Bling' and looking at the lovely Tilda images I have the other day, I immediately had an idea in my head of the sort of card I wanted to make so when I got home I set to work!



I chose my cardstock from my Stampin' Up! supplies and chose navy for the base card and two
different shades of blue for mounting the lovely sparkly paper onto.


The sparkly paper is from the Alison Ellis range which came out around Christmas time last year and I knew it would fit perfectly with this challenge.


I coloured Tilda in with watercolour pencils and my aquabrush then cut out the image and mounted it over the crescent moon then attached both to the patterned paper.


I then stamped the greeting and cut it out with my SU Window Punch and mounted it to the paper using 3D foam pads.


To finish off I added the compulsory 'Bling' - I used Kindy Glitz - Crystalline along the edges of the moon and the greeting and also on Tilda's hair bow, dress buttons and the pattern on her socks.

Here is the card I made -




It's very hard to see the overall effect in the photo so I have taken a side-on view as well to give you some idea of what it looks like but photos never do the cards justice - they look so much better in real life!



You can't see the beautiful glittery effect of the paper very well in these photos but it's really stunning paper and the glitter on the moon and Tilda doesn't come up as effectively either but I hope you get some idea of what I was trying to achieve with this card.



























I hope to get some more challenges done tomorrow so check back again soon!

'Bye for now - thanks for stopping by.

Magnolia Blog Candy Giveaway

Hi there,

I have just come across a lovely blog called Pretty Pressings via Debbie P's Place and Rosa at this site is offering some fantastic Magnolia stamps for her Blog Candy Giveaway.

I have just joined the huge following of the lovely Tilda, one of the characters in the Magnolia range of stamps and have recently made my first card using Tilda in an Autumn Theme - click on my heading titled 'Down Under Magnolia Challenge' on my side bar to see the card I made for my first entry to that challenge.

Claudia at Pretty Pressings has created some gorgeous cards - take a look at her site to see what this talented lady has come up with ! I love her cards - the colours she uses are stunning and the images are wonderful.

(My wish list for this range of stamps is growing bigger every day as I see more samples of fantastic cards featuring Tilda and Edwin.)

Well, this is just a short post for tonight - I'll be back again soon, hopefully with some new cards for you to look at.

Thanks for stopping by - see you again soon !

Happy Wedding Day - Photos and a Card

Hi again,

My partner and I went to a really lovely wedding yesterday. The bridal couple were former workmates of mine who had met at work and started a relationship which had this truly 'Happy Ending' or should I say 'Beginning' ?

It was a second marriage for both so it wasn't the traditional 'White Wedding' but it was actually one of the most colourful weddings I'd ever been too.

(The bride was the 'Hen' I mentioned on my blog a few posts ago when I told you about the 'Hen's Weekend Away' bus tour which I went on.)

The ceremony was held at the edge of a small lake in a Reserve close to the couple's home - the day was very sunny and warm and just perfect for the outdoor event.


The bride looked beautiful in a stunning red dress with matching jewellery and she carried a lovely bouquet of Gerberas, her favourite flowers.
There were quite a few laughs during the ceremony which was led by a Wedding Celebrant and also some tears as the emotional groom declared his vows before his bride and guests.

I think we all had a few tears in our eyes listening to his words - they were truly beautiful !



It was a real family affair as the bride was 'given away' by her two handsome sons who walked her down the path towards her waiting groom, his daughter was one of the bridesmaids (looking gorgeous in a yellow dress which looked fantastic against the colourful Gerberas) and his son and grandson were also in the bridal party.

Another lovely girl was the other bridesmaid and she was wearing a pretty dress in a lovely shade of Oyster Grey.

(Sorry about this photo but the sun was directly in front of us and it was very hard to get a good shot of the bridal party from the top of the stairs where all the guests were standing.)

Below is a photo taken from the bridge on the other side of the lake - you can see the happy couple and attendants on the decking and all the guests on the stairs coming down from the Rotunda.

and lastly a photo of the stunning wedding cake -


The reception was held back at the couple's home and we all had a great night - I'm sure the happy couple had a wonderful day and will remember it for a long time to come.


Now, on to the card which I made for the occasion.

I used the SU Together Forever stamp set with Certainly Celery and Groovy Guava inks to stamp the floral image and the greeting.

I then punched out the floral image with the scallop circle punch and the greeting with the large oval punch and sponged around the edges with Certainly Celery ink.

I embossed the Whisper White card with my 'Birds & Swirls' Cuttlebug embossing folder then attached the stamped images with 3D foam dots and finished off the card with some lovely white and silver organza ribbon.

Here is a photo of the card I made - just a simple design but it worked out well.


And so, another weekend gone. Haven't done much today but relax and put up these two blogs.
Want to try to get some more cards done later tonight.

Please drop in again soon to see what my next creations will be.

Have a lovely day - see you all again soon!