Crafted by Alison

 Hello everyone, Thank you for visiting my blog. I usually post on a Wednesday & Sunday with new ideas & creations but regular readers may have noticed that there was no post mid week on the 23rd August. My sister has been very unwell, just coming out of palliative care this week & moving to a new nursing home where we hoped that her health would improve a little.  With great sadness she lost her fight & left us on Friday. This has meant a huge loss for myself, my family & her children & grandchildren. As we come to terms with our loss & administer her estate I am taking a break from posting. I apologise for the break but we all need some time to mourn, support each other & accept where life takes us now. I will return in a few weeks once life is a little more calm. Thank you for your understanding. Til next time, take care, hug those you love, show them & tell them you love them.  XXAlison

 Hello & welcome to my blog, My name is Alison & I am an independent Stampin' Up® demonstrator in Melbourne, Australia.  I love creating cards & gifts for my loved ones & this blog will show you how to create something special for those you love. I blog twice a week, once on a Sunday where I mainly showcase a stamp set or dies & sometimes special DSP. My second blog is mid week on a Wednesday where I look at techniques, colour challenges, card sketches, fun folds, tools & equipment & ways to make or improve your projects. That's what this blog is about. This week's blog is all about creativity & creating using a Tic Tac Toe challenge board. How this works is that the lovely people at  Tic Tac Toe Challenge  come up with a new Tic Tac Toe board each week with ideas to help you create, sometimes in ways that you wouldn't think of yourself. This week's card is made using a line from Challenge #222. I hope you enjoy this fun way to create

 Hello & welcome to my blog, My name is Alison & I am an independent Stampin' Up® demonstrator in Melbourne, Australia.  I love creating cards & gifts for my loved ones & this blog will show you how to create something special for those you love. I blog twice a week, once on a Sunday where I mainly showcase a stamp set or dies, embossing folders, projects & sometimes special DSP.  This week I am featuring a new stamp set that has really excited lots of crafty, creative people as it features lots of different types of crafts in the stamp set & also has matching dies! WOWSER. When I started to gather all of the materials I decided that I would make one feminine & the other masculine. I sorted through scraps Dandy Designs, Oh So Ombre & Let's go fishing to find pieces that could be cut into small squares then chose co-ordinating cardstock which is Night of Navy, Misty Moonlight, Bermuda Bay & Very Vanilla. Unfortunately the colour in the photo a

 Hello & welcome to my blog, My name is Alison & I am an independent Stampin' Up® demonstrator in Melbourne, Australia.  I love creating cards & gifts for my loved ones & this blog will show you how to create something special for those you love. I blog twice a week, once on a Sunday where I mainly showcase a stamp set or dies & sometimes special DSP. My second blog is mid week on a Wednesday where I look at techniques, colour challenges, card sketches, fun folds, tools & equipment & ways to make or improve your projects. That's what this blog is about. Regular visitors will know that my Mum lives in a nursing home near me. We are very lucky that she is so close & that she has some wonderful staff who love their work & their residents. Recently it was 'Aged Care Appreciation day' so I decided to thank all of the wonderful people who look after Mum, in the kitchen, laundry, cleaning, nursing, creating activities & maintenance. It t

 Hello & welcome to my blog, My name is Alison & I am an independent Stampin' Up® demonstrator in Melbourne, Australia.  I love creating cards & gifts for my loved ones & this blog will show you how to create something special for those you love. I blog twice a week, once on a Sunday where I mainly showcase a stamp set or dies, embossing folders, projects & sometimes special DSP.  This week I am featuring a stamp set that has been featured here before but now I've teamed it up with some new masculine Designer Series Paper to create some quick & easy cards, mostly for the boys. I hope you like them. I used a few basic cardstock colours that complimented the new Gone Fishing DSP along with some new & old embellishments. I'll take you through them one by one as they start out super easy & have little additions to make them a little more interesting.   The first card is simply DSP matted onto Early Espresso. I stamped Happy Birthday directly onto

 Hello & welcome to my blog, My name is Alison & I am an independent Stampin' Up® demonstrator in Melbourne, Australia.  I love creating cards & gifts for my loved ones & this blog will show you how to create something special for those you love. I blog twice a week, once on a Sunday where I mainly showcase a stamp set or dies & sometimes special DSP. My second blog is mid week on a Wednesday where I look at techniques, colour challenges, card sketches, fun folds, tools & equipment & ways to make or improve your projects. That's what this blog is about. This week I have a gorgeous card to share with you that was made for a wedding my daughter was Maid of Honour in. As it was a special occasion I wanted it to have some WOW factor so thought a funfold with a difference would be just right. I was so happy with the result & my daughter loved it too. They've all jetted off to Bali for a honeymoon/birthday celebration, lucky ducks! Here is the crea

 Hello & welcome, For those who are regular followers of my blog you will be aware that my life has been in a little turmoil this year. Currently my sister is in palliative care & we are unsure how much longer she will be with us. Because of this & the poor health of my Mum we have been trying to visit both my sister & Mum as much as possible & consequently my crafting time has been reduced. This means that my blog is not quite ready for posting so I will be posting either tomorrow or Friday. My sincere apologies but my family is obviously my priority. I will return as soon as I can. Thanks for your understanding, Alison XX

 Hello & welcome to my blog, My name is Alison & I am an independent Stampin' Up® demonstrator in Melbourne, Australia.  I love creating cards & gifts for my loved ones & this blog will show you how to create something special for those you love. I blog twice a week, once on a Sunday where I mainly showcase a stamp set or dies, embossing folders, projects & sometimes special DSP.  This week I am featuring a stamp set that has been featured here before but I've used it in a different way. the stamp set is Sweet Citrus but this time instead of using it to create citrusy delights I created a cocktail themed card.  When I was creating for my previous  blog  where I made a cigar box and co-ordinating card I noticed that one of the stamps reminded me of a coconut half. This immediately had my mind thinking of Pina Coladas! So I put that idea away for the future & now it's time to share what my idea ended up becoming. I hope you love it. So the coconut half

 Hello & welcome to my blog, My name is Alison & I am an independent Stampin' Up® demonstrator in Melbourne, Australia.  I love creating cards & gifts for my loved ones & this blog will show you how to create something special for those you love. I blog twice a week, once on a Sunday where I mainly showcase a stamp set or dies & sometimes special DSP. My second blog is mid week on a Wednesday where I look at techniques, colour challenges, card sketches, fun folds, tools & equipment & ways to make or improve your projects. That's what this blog is about. This week I'm sharing some tips to use when you are blending.  There are a number of ways & that you can blend & tools to use to help make it easier & achieve a great finish. You can use a sponge, a sponge dauber that slips onto the end of your finger or what I have used in this blog, a blending brush. Here is a picture of the finished card. I started with a Basic White card base, embo