Winner of the Scrapbooking Software

A big thanks to everyone who left comments and entered the My Memories scrapbooking software giveaway.

And the lucky winner is:    RHONDA

I numbered everyone except for Anonymous (Christine Bennett) who already has this software.  Using a random number selector 8 was the lucky number.

Congratulations Rhonda and I look forward to seeing some classy scrapbooking pages featuring your new grandson.  I will email you details of your win.

For those of you who were not so lucky don’t be too disappointed – just take advantage of the special offer (in my sidebar) using the promotional code for a $10 discount on the My Memories software together with a $10 voucher to use in their shop - $20 value.  My Memories is normally $39.95 USD so with the discount it is a very, very affordable buy.  Apart from scrapbooking, there are just so many other things you can do with it.  Try it.  I know you will be impressed.

Thanks again.

Our grandsons

Once again I am trialling my new My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software.  Made these two pages on our grandsons in a flash using the templates that come with the software.  Have used nothing else, just inserted the photos and voila!!  I will get more creative later and start with a blank page and pull in the different backgrounds and creative elements myself but for now am quite content to use their wonderful designs.  And you will never run out as there are literally hundreds of  cool design packs that can be bought at a small cost (yes I was amazed at how cheap they are) from the MyMemories.com shop.

Only another 3 days to go before I do the draw for one lucky reader to win a free copy of this fantastic software.  Just go to my previous post which gives the instructions for entering this giveaway.  Thanks to all those who have already entered by leaving comments and naming their favourite design or background pack.  You will soon know the winner and if that is not you don’t despair.  See my offer on the right of this page and save money buying the software suite with the generous discount My Memories are offering my readers.  The normal retail price is only $39.97 USD so with the discount and no shipping (just download straight on to your computer) this is a really reasonable price for such wonderful software.

Here are the pages I made.  By the way, by using the correct paper and printer settings I have been able to make a much better job of printing out these pages so that makes me real happy.  Might have to look around and see about replacing my A4 printer with an A3 one so that I can print them out larger.

 

 

Taken at the beach a couple of years ago.

Love these photos.

 

 

 

 

 

Had a hard job finding photos of these two.  As it is the one of the two of them fishing was taken a few years ago.  I have got plenty of them when they were younger but no recent ones.  Must speak to my daughter and see if she can let me have some.

Scrapbooking Software giveaway

I am thrilled to tell you that I am hosting a giveaway of the top rating My Memories Suite Scrapbook software.  Scroll down and see some examples of what I have made so far using this software, not only quick, fun and easy to use but also utilises some of the nicest designs and templates I have seen.  Make scrapbook pages, photo books, greeting cards and much, much more.

To enter simply leave a comment either on this blog, or on Facebook when this Networked Blog shows up on my Facebook page and let me know your favourite digital paper pack or layout that you find on www.memories.com.  I will give each comment a number and the draw will take place on Wednesday 5th December.  I will use a random number selector to pick the winner.

However, do not despair if you do not win a free copy of this software as My Memories has offered my readers a special $10 discount off the purchase price of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the My Memories store - $20 value!)  To get this special offer just enter the promotional code STMMMS30955 when purchasing.

These are the two pages I have done.  My printer isn’t the best but hope to upgrade one day or get them printed out professionally.  I will show you 2 versions of each page – the first will be just as it comes using the My Memories suite and the second is printed out and has some 3D embellishments (using stamped images) to show how you can ‘lift the page’ a bit more and give it more dimensions.  Please remember I am a newbie using digital scrapbooking so hope to get more creative as time goes on.  I have been neglecting my scrapbooking over the past couple of years and am well behind so hope that now it is much easier to create my pages that I will get my enthusiasm back though I do like to combine the digital with the hand-made concept.

  

On the left is the original and on the right my printed and 3d embellished version. As you can see my stupid printer has got the colours wrong!!  I removed the original flower embellishment in the bottom right hand corner and replaced it with a stamped, cut out flower and added the butterfly.  Both are raised using dimensionals.

   

Once again the printed version on the right is different colours but you will see the only alterations I have made are the butterflies which I stamped, coloured and punched out and raised using dimensionals.  Only a subtle difference but in real life looks really nice.

Please also note that I did not print these in a photo format which probably results in a much clearer printout.

Anyway, please go check out My Memories and take advantage of these great offers.

Happy scrapbooking all.

Wedding wishes

Congratulations Jacque & Rob.  Today is their big day and I wish them years and years of happiness and love.

I made this card for them after a lot of hair-pulling!!  After all, Jacque is our Stampin’ Up leader and New Zealand’s top demonstrator, so didn’t want to send her a less than perfect card.  I do hope they like it.

   

The DSP is now retired but I think it is beautiful.  Not sure how to describe it – you have to feel it to appreciate it, all velvety and soft.

I ran the envelope through the embossing machine and decorated it to match the card.

It is nice to co-ordinate everything.

Note the sparkly diamonds on both the card & envelope.  Real of course – haha!

Just looking out the window.  It is overcast and the wind seems to have come up a bit.  As they are having an outdoor wedding and function, hope the weather improves a bit for them.  At least it’s not raining.

 

Moving on …

Our good friends and neighbours, Joan and David are moving to a retirement village at Mt Maunganui at the end of the month.

They will be missed not only by my husband and I, but by the community as David particularly, has been actively involved in community affairs and has achieved a lot of milestones for all of us.  I personally will miss Joan, another ardent scrapbooker and cardmaker.  Joan also has stood by me through all my cancer ups and downs and I am extremely grateful for her help and support.

Today they are having a farewell luncheon and this is the card I made for them.

 

I can’t take all the credit for this card as I have based it on a card made by Mercedes Weber. 

I wish them a happy retirement and sand-in-their-toes as they enjoy their walks along a sunny beach.

Triple Time Stamping

Earlier tonight I attended a class at Karen’s house (www.karenstampz.blogspot.com) and we made these 3 lovely cards using the Triple Time stamping technique.

   

One Christmas card

One female birthday card

One male birthday card

Wow, I love them and am hard pressed to single out one as my favourite.

I don’t normally blog all the cards I make at classes, but felt these deserve to be up here although Karen should take most of the credit for them – I only followed her instructions!

Dawn chorus

Just a simple card but I think it’s kind of cute.

I have used the new Serene Silhouettes stamp set.  I adore these kind of stamps especially when used on a brayered and blended background.  I have tried to make this look like a sunrise – hope I have succeeded.

I don’t think it needs any other embellishments.  The picture says it all.

I do have a couple more cards to show you but not until they have been given to the respective recipients!

Cheers

A Cheery Christmas

Have just got a new SU stamp set – Happy Hour which I have used for this Christmas card.  What a versatile set – ideal for birthdays, christmas, or even just to say hi to cheer up a friend.

Are you going to come and have a Christmas drink with me?

Off to a great stamping afternoon tomorrow – the Creative Inkers Christmas Extravaganza.  As Miranda’s mother would say - “Such fun”. (For non-NZers this is an English comedy programme that has been screening recently).

A Midnight Muse Xmas

I think I am going to really like this new in-colour.  It is a true deep blue and I love the contrast with white and silver in this card.

Stamps from three different sets have been used here – Welcome Christmas, Winter Post and Greetings of the Season.  As you have probably guessed I have used Midnight Muse as the main colour.

 

My fridge door has been really annoying me lately.  Always untidy with medical appointment letters, blood test forms, business cards etc. stuck all over the place so I quickly made a couple of items to help keep it looking tidier.

Before:   

and After:      

Ahh – much tidier.  Why didn’t I do this earlier.

79 days until Christmas

Sounds like plenty of time to get everything done but if you are like me, a procrastinator, then 79 days can just flash past without realising it.

So, onwards with the Christmas cards.

Can you smell that lovely sugar and spice aroma of the cute little gingerbread man?  Yes, he really does smell.  I have used the new Sugar and Spice embossing powder, and it makes me feel all Christmassy and warm.

Looking at the card I’m thinking I should have sponged the edges of the greeting to make it stand out more.  May do another variation of this card so will do that next time.

Hope you all enjoy a fantastic weekend.

Old Favourites

I have made this card using two of my retired, but well loved, stamp sets - Fresh Cuts and Vintage Vogue.

Colours used in this card are Daffodil Delight, Night of Navy and Very Vanilla.

I really enjoyed using these stamp sets again and wish they hadn’t been retired but nevertheless, I will keep on using them on occasion.

Hope you are all enjoying a crafty week.

Snowflakes for Christmas

This is a fairly simple card to make but sometimes it doesn’t take a lot to convey a message. 

Here I have used the skaters from the now retired Winter Post stamp set which I love and only got a few months ago so intend to go on using it for a while.  The sentiment is from the new Greetings of the Season set which I love. 

You will see I have also used the Adorning Accents edgelits and the matching embossing folder.  Its great how these different shapes and embossing highlights just finish a card perfectly.  The paper is from the new Festival of Prints DSP pack.

Oops!!!

Did you ever start making a card but for some reason you just couldn’t make it work?  I was given this stamp of a little girl looking in awe at a butterfly but whether it’s because I am not practiced at using these type of stamps but I just wasn’t able to put my mental image onto card.  Have a look and see what I mean:

 

 

The yellow half-scallop circle is supposed to represent the sunlight.  I also tried to get clever and do a fancy corner on the card but that didn’t pan out so put a strip of yellow on the inside to try and make it look as if it was meant to be that way.  I actually have a lot of trouble getting the corner punch to line up correctly – what am I doing wrong?

 

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

An embossed Christmas

Getting brand spanking new product from Stampin’ Up really gets the creative juices flowing and as a result, another couple of cards for my Christmas stash.

 

This first card is created using the new Holiday Frame embossing folder.  So many ways in which this can be used.

Does it remind you of a cameo?  Really love this look.

Have also used one of the Designer Frames embossing folder.  Colours:  White and Olive Green.

 

 

 

Northern Flurry is the name of the embossing folder used on this card.  Unfortunately the Dazzling Details that I applied to the snowflakes doesn’t show up in my photo.

The word “Noel” from the new stamp set Greetings of the Season has been heat embossed in silver.

PS:  Ribbon is non-SU.

 

Two cards, very simple to make but effective.  Would love to see what other variations you can make from these two embossing folders.

A Polka Dot Christmas

The challenge for Just Add Ink #134 is to make a card using Polka Dots.  The card I have made is based on a card by Catherine Pooler.  I do like the contrast between the polka dots on the DSP and the tree.

 

This is such an easy card to make that I might do quite a few of these perhaps using different colours and papers and utilising the other stamps in the Scentsational Season set.

Hope you are all enjoying a great weekend.

French Foliage Fiftieth

Makes me sound so old!!!  One of our son-in-laws celebrates his 50th birthday today.  Hope you have a great day Murray but knowing you work will take precedence.

I spent a lot of time trying to decide how to make this card but after seeing a video by Dawn Olchefske (hopefully I have spelt that correctly) thought I would CASE it but use the French Foliage stamps instead to make it more masculine.

Here are the supplies used:

Cardstock: Naturals Ivory, Always Artichoke

Stamps:  French Foliage, Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Inks:  River Rock, Always Artichoke

Other:  Big Shot, Sizzix Timeless Type Alphabet, Extra Large Oval Punch

Just Add Ink Challenge # 132

I am running late with this entry so hope I don’t miss out altogether as I can’t load my photo on here until the batteries for my camera have finished recharging!

The challenge this week was a sketch – here is my take on it.

Supplies used:

Stamps: Mixed Bunch, Petite Pairs

Cardstock:  Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze

Ink:  Basic Gray, Baja Breeze

DSP:  Varied retired SU (have to use up!!)

Other:  Ribbon, Rhinestone Brad, Punches

JAI # 131

I always tend to be too late to enter cards into any of the challenges.  Decided I would do the Just Add Ink challenge this week which was to use these colours:

As I am trying to build up a stock of Christmas cards early this year I kept to that theme:

 

The photo is not very good as the lighting was not the best but the base cardstock is Very Vanilla, the ornament has been stamped on Crumb Cake using Chocolate Chip ink and the ribbon is Crumb Cake.  The DSP comprises Garden Green, Very Vanilla, and Chocolate Chip.

I have worked out that I have to make at least 2 or 3 Christmas cards a week between now and December if I want to have enough.

 

Dashing Dasher

Here it is – first off the press for my Christmas card collection.  Such an easy card to make – just have to love Dasher!

Thought I would deviate from the usual Christmas colours so I have used Cajun Craze teamed up with Very Vanilla and Early Expresso.

I like it.

Well at least that’s a start for the upcoming festive season.  Now for the other 50+ cards I require plus table decorations, presents, etc.  Feeling exhausted just thinking about it!!!

Have a fun weekend.