Final days of the 2009 - 2010 Stampin' Up! Idea book & catalogue

Hi everyone,
Well here we are - the end of August.  How fast is the year disappearing?!  I've had a busy month, with three family birthdays in August, plus a business trip away for my day job, and lots of other things to keep me head down, tail up!

Stampin' Up! have announced some extra special deals to mark the end of the current catalogue (counting the days now until the new one opens on September 1st!).  They have already run out of stock for some of these deals, but let me know asap (click here) if you would like to order anything from this list before it's too late!  These are only available until Tuesday evening:

Item #  Page Description  Discount Discounted NZ Price

116342 42 Big Bold Birthday 50% $ 31.98
116408 100 Seeing Spots 50% $ 17.98
116344 121 Big Deal Alphabet 50% $ 45.98
105538 127 Bold Brights Stampin' Write markers 25% $ 51.71
105537 127 Soft Subtles Stampin' Write markers 25% $ 51.71
105540 127 Rich Regals Stampin' Write markers 25% $ 51.71
105541 127 Many Marvelous Markers 25% $ 209.96
105550 128 Bold Brights Classic Stampin' Spots 25% $ 37.46
105551 128 Earth Elements Classic Stampin' Spots 25% $ 37.46
105539 128 Earth Elements Stampin' Write markers 25% $ 51.71
105552 129 Rich Regals Classic Stampin' Spots 25% $ 37.46
112042 132 Urban Garden Designer Series paper 50% $ 9.98
112041 134 Bella Rose Designer Series paper 50% $ 9.98
107305 152 Oval Large punch 50% $ 17.98
113692 152 Eyelet border punch 50% $ 17.98
109043 152 Scallop Circle punch 50% $ 17.98
113694 152 Heart to Heart punch 50% $ 17.98
112082 152 Wide Oval punch 50% $ 17.98
112091 152 Scallop Edge punch 50% $ 17.98
113693 152 Full Heart punch 50% $ 17.98
104310 155 Crafters' Tool Kit 25% $ 68.96
112004 Autumn Winter Mini 1-3/4" Circle punch 50% $ 17.98
116629 CO* Butterfly punch 50% $ 17.98

Now in case I don't manage to blog again before the end of the month, here's some important info for you:
- My launch party for the new catalogue will be on September 12, starting at 2pm at my home.  Come and make a project for free using new products from the catalogue, check out other new goodies and lots of samples on display.  I will have retired product for sale, and prize draws for you to enter!  Bookings are essential so email me to book your place.
- I'm still awaiting my stock of the new catalogues (my first order went AWOL!), but if you contact me before the end of the month, you can reserve your copy at just $10 (RRP $15.95).  The book is a fabulolus resource for ideas, too!

Finally, this wouldn't be a great blog post without pics to share, would it?  So here you go - these are the goody bags I made for my daughter's recent birthday party. 

The boys' one uses Fox & Friends stamp set plus the Elegant Thank You stamp from the last mini, while the girls' one uses Flight of the Butterfly.  Can you see the glitter sparkling on those butterflies?  Little girls love bling, so I reached for the glitter!  The butterfly punch made light work of this bag, no hand-cutting in sight this time!  For these bags I made the most of the retiring colours and used some favourite colour combinations - Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip and Old Olive for the boys, and Lovely Lilac, Almost Amethyst and Pixie Pink for the girls.

And finally, here's a birthday card I whipped up, featuring the Baja Breeze patterns DSP, the Flower Fusion Too felt flowers and the Baja Breeze striped grosgrain ribbon.  I will miss all of these retiring items!  The leaves on this card are die cut using the Stampin' Up! Little Leaves die, isn't it neat?

Hope you enjoyed these!

Last Chance List & Auckland Extravaganza

Hi everyone!
OK, I'm sorry for neglecting you.  Life got in the way of blogging, again!  I've been just a tad busy with my day job (how dare it get in the way of stamping and blogging!) and my little darling's 6th birthday.  Of course I had to make the goody bags for 16 excited children to take home after I'd pumped them full of sugary treats!

Anyway, if you haven't already heard, the Last Chance list has been issued and what a whopper of a list!  Click here to view it and make your selection.  The products on the Last Chance list won't be available after the 31st of this month, so if there's anything you're after, do click here to e-mail and let me know.  I'm away on a short business trip for a few days but will be back on Friday night, just leave a message with my hubby if you call me at home, thanks!

Hard to believe but I haven't blogged since before our recent Auckland Extravaganza, and I'm sure there are some of you out there who have been waiting to see the project I taught!  So here it is, a cute little bag and a coordinating card to go with it.  The bag design was shown to me by my Demonstrator team mate Julia, and I designed the card to use the same set of paper and colours we'd opted for with the bag, plus the Cottage Garden stamp set.  These use the gorgeous Cottage Wall Designer Series paper, which will not be available again after the end of the month.  So if you need some of that paper, let me know!

We also used the faux suede technique on the flower embellishments for both the card and the bag.  Want to know how to do that technique?  E-mail me to book a workshop or class and I'll be more than happy to show you how.

Enjoy the rest of your week, I'll be back soon!

Candy Lane Scallop Envelope Box Set

Hi everyone,
Well doesn't time fly - I thought it had been a couple of weeks since I last blogged, but it's been slightly less than that.  Only slightly though, sorry!  I've had an action-packed few days which has seen me kept away from the computer a bit.  I taught a big class on Friday night, to a super group of ladies in Mt Eden (hi to you all!) and presented at an official Stampin' Up! training day on Saturday (my nerves were a bit jittery at first and I forgot to say lots of things, but never mind!), and then today (Sunday) was a family outing day.  I'm sad that the weekend is over!

OK, so now onto the project I have to share with you, it's the project I taught on Friday night.  I'm pleased with myself because I managed to do the prep work in the evenings this past week for 16 ladies to make this cute little boxed card set, and still keep my eyes open on Friday night!  There were about 35 separate pieces that I had to cut for each kit in this project, so that kept me busy for many hours!  The box easily fits 6 of these little 3x3" sized note cards - just perfect for attaching to a gift.

The box itself is made using the Scallop Envelope die from Stampin' Up!, I've made a few of these now.  All you need to do to make a box like this is to die cut two scallop envelopes from sturdy cardstock, add another couple of extra small side pieces to the width you want your box to be, and adhere it all together.  I wrapped some Chocolate Chip cardstock and some Candy Lane Designer Series Paper around the box to decorate it quickly and simply, and punched some holes through the front to tie my ribbon bow through.  That holds the scalloped flap down at the front - you might be able to see that I didn't use adhesive under that flap, I quite like the look of it sticking out slightly under the ribbon there.

Here's another pic with the box more side-on so you can see how it looks with the cards inside it too.  It'd make a great gift wouldn't it?  I'm toying with the idea of using the one I made as a prize at the upcoming Creative Inkers Extravaganza on July 24th.  If you want to win this cute set, then let me know and we can book you in!  I also have another very cool project I've made as a prize for the Extravaganza - but you'll have to wait until that event to see it, or if you're lucky I just might share it on here after we have a winner!

As well as the Candy Lane DSP, I used the set Best Wishes & More from the current Idea Book and Catalogue for the bird, heart and flower images.  I think it's a great set that is often overlooked - there's a great range of images in the set and some neat sayings to go with it.  For the sentiments on these cards though because they were small, I used the Teeny Tiny Sentiments set from the current Autumn-Winter mini catalogue.  I love this set - there's a saying in it to suit every occasion!  And they all fit into the Word Window punch so you can quickly stamp the greeting and punch it out, Stampin' Up! makes it so easy for us don't they?  The cards are Very Vanilla base colour, and the other colours are Pink Pirouette and Riding Hood Red.  Stampin' Up! have the cutest names for our colours, I think!

Those of you who are observant might say - but that Candy Lane paper goes with Close to Cocoa, not Chocolate Chip - as in the current catalogue.  But, as it's a retiring colour, Stampin' Up! ran down their stock of Close to Cocoa cardstock and they've actually now run out!  So what's a girl to do when she can't get her chosen colour?  Improvise!  I think the Chocolate Chip cardstock works great with the Candy Lane DSP.  I'm quite pleased with myself as I used the auto editing function on my photo editing program tonight and I think the colours in these photos are pretty true to life, it really is this vibrant!

That story about the Close to Cocoa cardstock is also to let you know that if you're thinking that you'll order some of the retiring colours before the end of the catalogue, my advice is not to wait!  Once it's gone, it's gone...  Click here to e-mail me if there's anything you can't live without and want to order now!

Have a great week!

The savings continue into July!

Hi everyone, Guess what, just when you thought the neat offers were over (yikes I went a bit crazy with those deals of the week in June!) here's another fabulous offer for you.  Selected 2-Step stamping sets are discounted for the month of July!  Check it out:

Item	Page	Description	Regular Price	Sale Price
116386	39	Loads of Love	$46.95	$37.56
116342	42	Big Bold Birthday**	$63.95	$51.16
115860	78	A Rose is a Rose**	$77.95	$62.36
116332	86	Playful Petals**	$62.95	$50.36
115770	98	Cheep Talk	$56.95	$45.56
115946	115	Wonderful Favourites	$46.95	$37.56
119187	14*	Tiny Tags (wood-mount)	$45.95	$36.76
118592	14*	Tiny Tags (clear-mount)	$36.95	$29.56
119163	31*	Cottage Garden (wood-mount)	$38.95	$31.16
120003	31*	Cottage Garden (clear-mount)	$30.95	$24.76

*From 2010 Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue

**Retiring stamp sets!

I went hunting through my archives looking for projects to show you that use these sets.  I'm kicking myself now because I know I've used some of these sets a lot, but do you think I thought to photograph the projects?  Noooo.... back before I had a blog, photographing my work was a rare occurance it seems!  Bother!  But I do have a couple of projects to show you using Big Bold Birthday, what a shame this one is going, it's a really cute set!

This card I cased from the last catalogue.  That green cardstock is Wild Wasabi, which will be BACK in September, yippee!  I'm happy about that one.  I think I may have blogged this one some time ago, to show you how easy it is to case a sample you've seen in the catalogue.  I'm still noticing projects in there that I hadn't noticed before, unbelieveable hey?

This card is super simple, the main colour is Almost Amethyst and the designer paper is a retired one in Close to Cocoa.  This card is one that I made to show off my coloured brads technique... I devised a way of colouring plain brads so that you could have them in any Stampin' Up! colour to match your cardstock.  I demonstrated that at a Stampin' Up! regional training event here in Auckland.  I think I blogged the tutorial as one of my very first blog posts - and that's the only tutorial I've blogged!  Well, it was my very own "invention" so I was just a little proud of myself.  It took a lot of trial and error to work out the process!

I'm working with a couple of these two step stamp sets right now, for the project I'm designing for our next Extravaganza in July.  If you want to see that project, the best idea is to come to that event!  Click here to e-mail me for the details and book your place!

Here's to a fabulous July!

Fifth Avenue Floral Ink Refill Spread.... And the last Deal of the Week!

Hi everyone,

Well, hasn't the month flown by - here we are at the last Deal of the Week! Check out the details of this latest fabulous offer (please scroll down - for some reason Blogger is insisting on adding a huge white space here and I can't delete it!):

Item	Page	Description	Regular Price	Sale Price
109113	149	Square Ice Rhinestone brads	$23.50	$14.10
109111	149	Circle Ice Rhinestone brads	$23.50	$14.10
109112	149	Square Fire Rhinestone brads	$23.50	$14.10
111848	150	Bashful Blue 1" double-stitched grosgrain ribbon	$23.50	$12.93
109050	151	Certainly Celery 5/8" grosgrain ribbon	$17.95	$10.77

We've really been spoiled this month by Stampin' Up!, what amazing value for money! These deals finish on Tuesday June 29th, so don't forget to let me know which ones you're keen on. Me, I might get them all...

This card is one of the projects I taught at my Techniques class on the weekend. I love hunting around for the coolest techniques to share. I didn't have to look far with this one - I first learned this technique while on holiday in Hawaii, my fabulous Demo friend Gari let me watch a couple of DVD's she had from Stampin' Up! (yes, I went on holiday and one of the most exciting things I did was to watch a cardmaking/scrapbooking video and go to Gari's class!).

Anyway the Ink Refill Spread technique was demonstrated at a USA regional training event by Connie Ingram from Seattle. Some of my team members have been trying out this technique and since it's been on my list since January, I had to give it a go!

The layout for this card I cased from the very talented Marelle Taylor from Australia. Marelle made a set of cards using Fifth Avenue floral which was recently published in a cardmaking magazine in Australia. You can read all about it on her blog here. Way to go and thanks for the inspiration Marelle!

Recipe:
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, En Francais, Best Wishes & More, Best Yet
Cardstock/Ink: Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Kraft, Watercolour paper, Versamark ink
Other: Kiwi Kiss Satin Ribbon (you've got to feel this ribbon - oh so luxurious!), Eyelet border punch, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, White Embossing powder, Stampin' Dimensionals

I decided to completely change the colours and the stamping that Marelle used (other than the flower) as I wanted something a bit different, so this rose is done in Pacific Point ink. I have no idea whether this colour of rose would ever exist in nature, but that's the beauty of stamping, you can make it whatever colour you want! I think it's a pretty striking colour combination on this card myself - but I can't take credit for that either, as it's a suggested colour combination from a colour chart that Stampin' Up! put together for Demonstrators to use. See - to make a fabulous card you just take a great layout from one place, a cool colour combo from somewhere else, tweak the stamping to put your spin on it, and voila! you have a card you'd be proud to share.

As a Stampin' Up! demonstrator I have access to an unlimited source of ideas from our Demonstrator website and forum, and from my fellow team members on our team forum. And of course there's a lot of ideas out there on the world wide web. I have so many project ideas in my head... So to those of you out there who say "I can't be a demo, I don't have enough ideas", you really have no reason not to join my team! Click here to contact me and ask all the questions you want the answers to, about being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and part of my amazing team. Remember the starter kit is 20% off until the end of July!

Till next time, happy stamping!

Deals of the Week 3 - and a Patchwork card

Hi everyone!

Gosh I must be crazy, staying up late so I can find out the latest Deal of the Week! But, it's a fabulous one, check out the details:

Item	Page	Description	Regular Price	Sale Price
114263	34	A Happy Heart stamp set	$49.95	$24.98
115792	57	Greetings Eight stamp set	$58.95	$29.48
116330	78	Bella’s Bloom stamp set	$28.95	$17.37
113009	97	Enjoy Every Moment stamp set	$62.95	$31.48
114283	105	All Scallops stamp set	$66.95	$33.48

Would now be a good time to confess that I already have all of these? I think my favourite of these is A Happy Heart. My team and I used this set a lot around Valentine's Day for our stamping events. I love to use the heart and emboss it and then sponge ink over it, that's called Resist Embossing. The effect is just gorgeous.

Greetings Eight was one of the first sets I purchased from the current catalogue, as it was available for Demonstrators in our pre-order. And Bella's Bloom was a set that I earned for free at last year's Convention, for one of the awards I earned. Getting your hands on sets before anyone else can, not to mention free stamps, are just some of the many benefits of being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, so if you like free stamps, do come and join me! The starter kit is only $299 until the end of July, that's an $80 saving, for a collection of products and supplies that is worth well over $600, it's an amazing deal!

I'll have to go and dig these sets out and have a play again. It's nice to be reminded of the fabulous products that are waiting patiently in my craft room! In the meantime, here's a card that I made when the Autumn-Winter mini arrived. I had seen cards everywhere that used the Top Note die to make a patchwork-type pattern, and couldn't wait to make one myself. And cram the card full of the new mini products as well!

Recipe:

Stamps: Cottage Garden

Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence, Whisper White, Old Olive

Ink: Old Olive

Other: Cottage Wall DSP, 2 step bird punch, Big Shot machine, Top Note die, Polka Dots embossing folder, Old Olive 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, Wide Oval punch, Lots of Tags die set, Stampin' Dimensionals.

If you have any questions about this card, you'd like to order one of the deals of the week, attend a class, host a workshop, request a free, no-obligation information pack on joining my wonderful team, or you simply want to let me know what you think of my new blog layout (I was playing and can't change it back even if I wanted to, the only way is forward!), then please drop me a line, I'd love to hear from you! Click here to contact me.

Oh, and if you have attended one of my team's Extravaganzas before (or even if you haven't), seats are filling fast for July 24th here in Auckland, you don't want to miss it, the projects for this round are awesome!! Contact me now for details!

Have a happy week!

Deals of the Week 2 - and a Sweet Treat Treat!

Hi everyone,

Here's the news you've been waiting for - week 2 of the Deals of the Week! I apologise if you have trouble reading the details in the table below, I've had a bit of trouble trying to format it properly (I can be a little technically challenged from time to time!). The latest promotions are always shown on my official Stampin' Up! website, which you can view by clicking here.

If you'd like to take advantage of these great prices, drop me an e-mail to place your order (click here). Please note that the usual 5% shipping cost is additional to these prices. This special is only available until June 15th, so don't delay!

Since it's nice for you to see something in addition to the latest promotion when you visit my blog, I thought I'd share one of my recent class projects with you.

One of my guests asked me to teach them how I make trapdoor cards using the Sweet Treat cups - so you don't have to destroy the card to get the treats out. So I did just that - I love the challenge of teaching the techniques or projects that my class attendees request. I included the boiled candy sweets in the cup for each of my guests too! To get those out, you just pull on the tab on the right hand side of the card to open the trapdoor and retrieve your treat!

For this card I used the new Polka Dot embossing folder that is in the Autumn-Winter mini, along with the crimper to make the leaves. I love adding texture to my projects! The flower petals are stamped using the A Little Treat stamp set, also from the mini. I believe that in the USA this set is part of a larger one, with Halloween images in it. The butterfly image is from the Cottage Garden stamp set, and matches the butterfly in the Cottage Wall DSP. Don't you love the font in that sentiment image? It's from Heard From the Heart and it's one of the first sets I ordered when it turned up in our mini catalogue. I saw this months ago in the USA catalogue and have wanted it ever since!


I used Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette and Close to Cocoa colours for this card, I am definitely going to miss Close to Cocoa once it retires for us at the end of August! If you haven't read about it already, Stampin' Up! has done a big review of the colour range and we'll be moving to a new set of colour collections. If you want to know more about the changes, just let me know. I'm excited about the new colour collections, and can't wait to start using the new colours! There are a few I'll miss, but I'll get over it. Most of the colours that are retiring, I didn't use an awful lot, to be honest.

If you have any questions about how I made this card, click here to e-mail me and ask. Have a great day!