I've been having so much fun in the studio this week playing with my latest find. My LSS is stocking the most fabulous range of mirrored acrylic shapes from Kutalicious, a brand new local manufacturer. The birds and birdcages in the range are so appealing and being reflective, they're eye catching too! In my last post I told you about how magpie-like I am - always attracted to bright shiny things so you can imagine what I was like when I first saw these. I just had to have them! Oh what joy in the studio this week! What do you think of them? Aren't they gorgeous? My photos don't do them justice (it's hard photographing reflective surfaces). But if you click on the images for a larger view you can see them in a much better light. There are also black birdcages available which are my No. 1 pick from the range. I can't share images of the pieces I've made with them just yet as they've been submitted for consideration for publication. And I can't share ......

Brrrr..... it's been a cold winter here in South East Queensland. Yes, I know, I know, we have no idea what cold is here in our little corner of the world, but then, we are not geared up for cold weather. Night time temperatures have regularly hovered just a few degrees above zero and that's pretty chilly when you don't have any heating. But spring is not too far away in the southern hemisphere and to banish away the winter chills, I've decided to bring spring forward a month and let the butterflies take flight in search of spring blossom. My butterflies are all breaking free of their chrysalis - their winter nest, so to speak - in search of all the wonders or spring..... blossoms, love, sunshine. Yes indeed, warm sunny days. I'm looking forward to those! The base of my butterfly chrysalis is a Pavlova Magic container. Now you have to be an Aussie or a Kiwi to know what that is. Pavlova is kind of like our national dessert and we both lay claim to having invented i......

Happy Valentine's Day to you all - the day where we get to be all soppy and mushy and can get away with it! So with that in mind I'm sharing this set of cards with a romantic theme with you. Whether you have a special someone to share today with or whether you're just a romantic at heart like me, this set of Valentine's cards is just for you. And if you don't have anyone special to share today with then I hope that Cupid soon finds you and points his bow in your direction. 'Til next time.........

Day 11 is here and the Pipers weren't able to make an appearance either so I've smooshed a la Tim Holtz again but this time I've swapped the bold red, black and gold for delicate blue, white and silver. Now the photos just don't do this card justice - it was very tricky to photograph and I might try to get some better photos which I'll add later. In real life, the card has a real WOW factor and yet it's deceptively simple! The base of the card is made of acetate and the front was run through the Cuttlebug and then I've painted the depressions of the pattern with white Pinata alcohol ink and Claro Extender - this is the hardest part of the card! Actually, it's not that hard really, just a little time consuming, but I think it's worth the effort. Unfortunately, the photo doesn't show the embossed texture, only the painted pattern. If you didn't want to try painting and embossing the acetate, you could try stamping an image with Opaque White Sta......

Day 6 and we've reached the halfway mark. So I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the cards I've made so far: But of course, you're here to see today's card! You've already seen a sneak peak of it at the top of this post and if you guessed it's called Reflections , then you'd be right! This name couldn't have been more apt as I had all sorts of difficulties photographing it because of the reflections off the acetate. But anyway, here it is: I used the Cuttlebug and holly embossing folder to create the background for this one. To get the beautiful shimmery colour on the leaves (which the camera hasn't picked up), I swiped them with a Versamark Watermark inkpad and then dusted on Polished Pigments. There are other mica powders you could use (Pearl Ex, Perfect Pearls, etc) - I just happened to have a couple of nice greens in the Polished Pigments so I used those. I stamped Mon Arbre with black StazOn ink and traced over the image with Uniball......

Today is Day 5 of my Twelve Days of Christmas event (aka twelve ways to use one stamp challenge) and the card today is called O Tannenbaum . The scan doesn't do this one justice so a description is in order. Looking at the photo, you might think that I've magically stamped the image on top of glitter but I can assure you that I haven't found a way to stamp directly onto glitter that leaves such a strong impression. Besides, stamping on glitter is messy and leaves glitter sparkles all over your rubber. But what I did do is stamp the image with black StazOn ink on acetate which has been wrapped around the card and attached invisibly underneath the silver ribbon on the side. So that the image popped, I used very fine Prisma glitter and 2-way glue to create a tree directly onto the card stock underneath the acetate but you could cut the tree out of Jac Paper and sprinkle it with glitter and then apply that to the card as an alternative. I added a few snowflakes to the acetate -......

I've had a hectic week with teaching and preparation of samples for upcoming classes but I wanted to share this piece with you. It was a bit of an experiment to see whether or not acetate would turn white when it was embossed through the Cuttlebug. Well that's what I'd expected would happen, and I had some ideas on how I would use this in a project but, to my surprise, the embossed pattern on the acetate stayed clear. I could immediately see possibilities with alcohol inks and this is the result - a gorgeous tapestry look when the acetate was layered over a sheet of card from the Core'dinations Vintage Collection range. I'm really loving this look and can't wait to try out some more ideas. If you'd like to learn how to create this look, I'll be teaching the technique in a class at Stamp Antics in July. Check out my website for more details....