One For the Boys!

Posted in Cards, Mostly Flowers by Chris

I recently received some cash as a birthday present from both my Mum and my sister, they wanted me to buy some new stamp sets with it. It was such a lovely thought but oh what to buy? Which stamp sets? They said, just choose your favourites. Sounds logical, problem is, they are all my favourites!! Anyway, this card is made using one of those stamp sets that I bought, called Mostly Flowers. The other was Garden Whimsy, and I suspect you will be seeing quite a few cards using these stamps 🙂

I also wanted to do a card for the men and boys in our lives since we have just recently celebrated Father’s Day, and also because I find that so many stampers make lovely girly cards etc but I very rarely see really nice male cards. So it is one of my personal challenges to make more of them. I hope you like it.

Sorry about the photo, it has turned out a bit dark, but you get the idea.

Stamps Sets: Mostly Flowers, One of a Kind

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Sahara Sand, Bashful Blue

Ink: Basic Brown

Accessories: Vintage Brads, Dimensionals

Artwork by Chris Parker-Barnes

8Sep2008

A Card for Me!

Posted in Cards, Garden Whimsy by Chris

Ok so I am inspired by what I saw and learnt on Saturday at the seminar, and just couldn’t help myself but make another card 🙂 Jamie has been really good today, and was happy to play outside, I guess he is just happy to have all his toys back after a weekend away from them 🙂 So I made the most of that time and put this card together.

Although I have only been a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator since May, I have really been struggling to get my business up and running and have started to question my ability to earn enough from it to let me stay at home with Jamie while he is still little. As a family, we have many things that we want to achieve including a new house which we have bought and will be moving to in October, and many others things as well. Going to the Stampin’ Up! seminar on Saturday has given me many new ideas about my business but has also inspired me in other ways too. But I made this card because it is what I have been telling myself recently, it is what I need to do to for myself and for my family – I need to Follow My Heart!

At the seminar we had a fantastic tutorial on making Window Cards, so I thought I would give it a go. The layout for this card is similar to one we did in the Make and Takes in Sydney, and I liked that as well so, may as well add the two things together and……………..

Stamp Sets: Garden Whimsy

Cardstock: Basic Black, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White

Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Pretty in Pink

Accessories: Pretty in Pink Ribbon, White Gel Pen, Urban West Rub Ons, Scallop Circle Punch, Circle Punch, Stapler, Sponge.

Artwork by Chris Parker-Barnes

8Sep2008

Sydney Regional Seminar

Posted in Uncategorized by Chris

Wow, what a fantastic weekend!! On Saturday I took the opportunity to go to my first Stampin’ Up! seminar and I had such a great time. There was just so much information, new techniques and ideas, new inspiration, new business ideas, and to top all of that off we got a new stamp set (which hasn’t been released yet), did four different make and take projects which were just fantastic, met lots of new stampers and got lots of swaps 🙂

This was the swap I made, I wasn’t all that pleased with it, but I really wanted to use some of the beautiful Designer Papers and tried to do something a little different with them.

Stamps: Itty Bitty Backgrounds, One of a Kind

Cardstock: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Ruby Red, Very Vanilla

Designer Series Paper: Fall Flowers, Spring Break

Inks: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou

Accessories: Scallop Circle Punch, White Gel Pen

Artwork by Chris Parker-Barnes

One of the many things I really enjoyed about the seminar was the opportunity to meet some of the amazingly talented demonstrators who live in the region, and whose blogs I visit on a regular basis. One of these people was Jayne Mercer, and today’s card is based on one that she has on her blog. I had not thought of combining these colours and was trying to work out what to do with Taken with Teal as it is a beautiful colour just not one that I have used very much. I have used a similar design but different stamp sets to the one Jayne uses. It is a nice simple layout, and quite an easy card to make, which is just as well as I think the rest of the day will need to be a recovery day from the weekend 🙂

Stamp Sets: Season of Joy, Garden Whimsy

Cardstock: Taken with Teal, Chocolate Chip, Confetti White

Inks: Taken with Teal, Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise

Accessories: Dimensionals

3Sep2008

No Stamp Card

Posted in Uncategorized by Chris

Yep, that’s right. Today I thought I would make a quick and easy card with no stamping required. Last night I had some of my card and papers out and was looking through it, then put it down to do something else, and when I came back I had this colour combination there in front of me. So I thought I would use it in a card. I have used some of the papers from the Palette of Prints promotion from earlier this year which is no longer available, however you can still get these papers in some colours, so please contact me if, like me, you just love them and have to have lots of them 🙂