Impressions of a Late Knight Inker

Cards for Charity

2012-01-04T07:00:00.001+13:00

Happy New Year!
Hope you have had a great start to the year, as I have. Having lots of fun with my family at the moment, and getting a lot of satisfying crafting work done too!

As a Demonstrator, I wind up with tonnes of card samples over the course of a year, as we make multiples of our designs and swap with each other as a faster way of getting lots of different cards for ourselves and our customers to be inspired by. I make hundreds of samples each year myself to swap, so you can imagine how much cardstock comes into this house and then doesn't always leave... I admit to having hoarding tendencies when it comes to card samples because I know how much love and effort and time goes into making each one! But once the products used to make them retire, they're less useful for me. In order to let them go, rather than tossing them in the recycling bin (I am too much of a "greenie" to throw them in the rubbish!), I've given some to my lovely customers in the past, but I still had a lot here to deal with as they are all too polite to take many!

Most of the samples are just card fronts, so can't be used as cards just as they are. The solution? Turning them into full cards by mounting them onto card blanks, sometimes trimming layers to do it. Then I stamp the Stampin' Up! copyright stamp on the back (if you haven't heard of the Angel policy, it requires the copyright stamp to be added in order to sell our work) and individually bag the cards up with an envelope, all ready to go. Here's the box of cards I'm sending off this week, it's going to one of my team who supplies cards to a hospice for them to sell. Ever wondered what 160 cards looks like after you've finished putting them all together?

These will be on their way to Tee-Jay soon! If you're in Wanganui, she's doing some fund raising for her son to do some volunteer work in Papua New Guinea in February - this is a great cause so check out her fun event details here: http://stampinnwithteejay.blogspot.com/2012/01/fundraiser-for-volunteer-service-abroad.html

This has been so satisfying for me, so although it's not exciting to look at, I just had to share! I still have some more here to deal with, this is going to be an ongoing activity for me and I aim to keep on top of it more from now on. I've previously donated cards for cancer patients at the hospital to use too, it's such a great feeling to make cards that others less fortunate than ourselves can use and brighten someone else's day.

Now that you've suffered through that blurb, here's something more like the "card candy" you've probably come here to see! This is the "secret santa" gift I made to take to my team leader's Christmas Breakfast back in December. Each of us takes a gift and we draw numbers and get to pick something. Anyway, this is a chocolate vase - the chocolate is three blocks of chocolate hidden in the base! I made it so that the recipient could get to the chocolate without destroying that gorgeous Cheerful Treat patterned paper vase. Yes, I used that paper again...

I had lots of fun making the flowers and attaching them to skewers to insert between the chocolate blocks in the vase. Lots of die cutting and punching here, I was in my element! The leaves were die cut too, and the holes were just big enough for the skewers so I could move them up and down but they stayed put where I wanted them. The brown shredded "dirt" in the vase was made by crimping some of the brown paper that Stampin' Up! put into our order boxes, and then cutting narrow strips of it. I told you I was into recycling, right?

And finally, I thought I'd share a couple of pics of the "annual" gingerbread house that we made on Christmas Eve. This is a newish family tradition that I've introduced so that my daughter has a special activity that she'll remember as part of our Christmas celebrations each year. Last year I nearly killed myself baking the pieces for the gingerbread house, as the first recipe was disgusting with tonnes of molasses (yeech!) so I spent a bit of time trying to find a decent one and then triple baked it getting the pieces hard enough! This year I was smart (or rather, I cheated) and bought a package of pre-baked pieces.

The kit had a few broken pieces (hence the very visible "repairs" on the house!) but it was so much easier than making my own! I still had to make the royal icing and get the decorations though, as those weren't part of the kit I bought. No big deal - I have a great recipe for royal icing and had some Christmas themed jelly beans which just happen to be Miss 7's favourite lolly she says. We also used a few silver cachous from my stash of cupcake decorating supplies and of course we used one of my many piping bags and nozzles... I'll share some more treats with you here soon, I promise!

This house is no more - it was quickly devoured after Christmas was over. Forgive my lack of piping skills won't you - this is why I am a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and not a pastry chef!

I hope the rest of 2012 is as fun as the last couple of weeks has been!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2011-12-24T21:51:00.000+13:00

Hello!
I can't believe that another year is drawing to a close - and once again I was late with my own Christmas cards! I have been frantically busy this month but you wouldn't know it to look at my blog! I know I'm no exception as so many of my demonstrator friends are woefully sharing that while they prepared hundreds of Christmas cards for classes over the past few months, so many of us didn't manage to make and send many of our own cards out! I think perhaps we Demonstrators should get an exemption for Christmas and send New Years' cards instead...

I don't have a project to share with you tonight - if I shared a Christmas card it'd be a bit late because the big guy in the red suit is already on his way around the world and it's too late to be sending out your Christmas cards. So I think sometime in the next week I'll share some other work I've had up my sleeve for a little while. I just wanted to post a message on here to all my wonderful customers and stamping friends, thank you for being part of my life and encouraging me to keep stamping and smiling even when things are a little tough!

My heart goes out to the people of Christchurch, it was devastating to hear that they had another series of major quakes yesterday, at the worst possible time as we all prepare for Christmas Day. It would be so hard to be shovelling the sludge from your house and street while the power is off and you've got a raw turkey in the fridge... A small blessing it didn't happen on Christmas Day itself I suppose (though that day is still to come yet - hopefully Christchurch has seen the worst of it!).

Having lived in Christchurch some years ago, it makes me realise how blessed I am to have a stable roof over my head here in Auckland. Tomorrow I will have a table laden with a Christmas feast and I have a wonderful family and special friends to spend the day with. That's what Christmas is all about for me - enjoying a special meal and spending time with those you love and being grateful for what you have. Forget the commercial stuff - I'm staying home on Boxing Day too, I'd rather not fight the crowds at all the sales!

Merry Christmas to you all,

This Sunday's Class - Mocha Morning Desk Calendar Box

2011-12-01T23:09:00.000+13:00

Hi again everyone!
I've just discovered that the post I tried to put up at 8am this morning, was saved as a draft and has only just been published as I write this next one, because I've now pushed it through! So sorry about that... guess you can see why I'm not the world's most frequent blogger, it's a struggle for me sometimes!

Anyway, I know this is twice in one day, but I have something new to share, just finished today! Here's a photo of the project I'll be teaching at my home this coming Sunday. It's my last class for the year (at my house anyway - if you've seen something here you like and you can gather a group of friends together at your home, I'm happy to come and teach you - but you have to live in the Auckland area, sorry!). Over the Christmas break I'll be planning my classes and taking workshop bookings for the early new year, so stay tuned for details of those classes.

On to Sunday's class - this is a box with an easel card on the top with a mini calendar for 2012. It would make a great desk accessory, and a fabulous gift for that difficult person you still haven't bought a Christmas present for! I purposely made it with the Mocha Morning specialty papers, one reason was because I wanted to use them again, and the second reason was so that you could gift this to a male if you wanted, it's not too girly, but it hopefully appeals to women too! There's a surprise in the drawer - little partitions which each hold a Kiwiana wine glass charm, there are six charms and you'll get to make those in the class too if you attend! I've even made the partitions removeable so that later on you can use the drawer to hold memo paper, paperclips or other small stationery items - it's a handy size for those little things on your desk!

The class fee is a bargain price - just $15 to make a fabulous gift and have a relaxing crafty afternoon, too! You will need to bring scissors, a bone folder if you have one and lots of good sticky adhesvie - Stampin' Up!'s Sticky Strip is ideal for this project. 3D items need really strong adhesive and there's few papercrafting adhesives stickier and stronger than that one!

Seats at the class are very limited and filling now, so email me now to reserve your place and get directions to my house (if you've never been here before). Reservations close at midday on Saturday so that I can get the kits prepared on Saturday night. Click here to send me an email and book in, or ask me a question about the class.

Oh and I should say that I am not doing a launch party for the new mini this year - we're all so busy with Christmas plans at this time of year, and I have yet to make any Christmas cards I can send out, myself! Shameful, for a "professional" cardmaker - but I've been too busy teaching others to make any of my own! Attendees at Sunday's class will however get to see the new mini of course, and be the first to see the samples I've made with some of the gorgeous new products we have to offer. That includes some projects I made specifically for publication. I may fill you in on that a bit more, some other time!

If you'd like a copy of the new Summer Mini, just contact me to place your December order and I'll pop a free copy in for you with that.

Thanks for visiting!

December Frenzy Sale Now On!

2011-12-01T08:00:00.003+13:00

Hi everyone,
I'm absolutely shocked that the last time I posted here was in October. Sorry about that! I've been busy with workshops, design work, and making samples with products from the new mini, which opens today! You can click on the picture of the Summer mini to the right in my sidebar, to view the mini online. Some fabulous products in there, I'll share a project I made with one of the stamp sets, below. But first, drum roll please... there's a fabulous sale which also starts today! Here are the details:

OK, now to share with you a project I made recently. I used the Two Tags die to make a cute box, and then used the die again to make some cute Christmas Tags to pop into the box. I added a few mini candy canes and this became the door prize for one of my workshops!

I used the Stitched Stockings stamp set from the new mini with the coordinating Stocking Tag punch to make the tags quickly and easily. The stamp with the sentiment is from Perfect Punches. Hope you like it!

2012 Mocha Morning Diary

2011-10-14T08:00:00.001+13:00

Morning everyone!
As promised, here's the project I mentioned earlier this week. I've already got a diary all ready for 2012! I am not normally ready with a diary this far ahead of the new year (although, did you realise how close we are to Christmas already?!) but I found this diary in my local stationery store and couldn't resist it! It had clear covers and came with some pre-printed inserts so you can select the patterns you want for the front and back covers. But since I like to have original one-of-a-kind diaries (check out the ones I decorated last year, here) I decided I needed my own, exclusive Stampin' Up! inserts!

You know I love the Cheerful Treat DSP, and I thought about using that. But I also love the Mocha Morning Specialty papers, and have been drooling over them since I got them. Two of the patterns have a gorgeous flocked design on them and I know I'm not the only crafter who loves to run her fingers over those and feel the luxurious texture! I have the goal to USE everything that I buy from Stampin' Up! in the new catalogue though, because I've got that habit of buying and drooling and not using... (does that sound familiar to any of you?). So I decided that I had to use the paper to decorate my diary a few weeks ago, and here it is!

At first I was just going to use one sheet of the paper for the front and back covers, but I couldn't decide which one to use. They are all so fabulous! So then I had the idea to use strips of the paper to show off all 10 of the patterns (the two flocked papers are single sided). After that it was a simple matter of die cutting the numbers using the Timeless Type Sizzlit dies, gluing them to the paper with a 2-way glue pen, and I was done!

I'm one step closer to being organised...
Have a fabulous weekend!

Cheerful Treat Coasters

2011-10-12T08:00:00.000+13:00

Hi everyone,
Thought I would do a quick mid-week post and show you some cute coasters I made recently. As you may have figured out already, one of my favourite collections of DSP (Designer Series Paper) from the new catalogue is the Cheerful Treat collection in the hostess rewards section. You can't buy this paper, but you can get it for free when you host a qualifying workshop of $350 in product or more (or spend enough by yourself to get to hostess benefits, lol!). I went a little crazy a while back, buying sheets of cork to make coasters with, so I figured I should make a few more. These ones are cute little-ish ones made with the Circle Scallop #2 die, which is new in our catalogue here in NZ. I have been waiting a long time to get my hands on this die!

If you've been thinking about hosting a party to get your hands on this paper, there's a great promotion on this month for hostesses (or big spenders!). When you get to $500 in product, you'll earn a special bonus - the Stocking Tag Punch worth $41.50 AND Stitched Stocking Stamp set (wood version worth $64.95, clear mounted worth $51.95), free! You'll also have $70 in hostess dollars which you can spend on hostess products such as the Cheerful Treat paper, or any products in the catalogue. That's an amazing $176.45 in free product (if you choose the wood mounted Stocking stamp set) for a $500 workshop. Stampin' Up! have really outdone themselves this month!

I have actually made a project or two with the Stocking Stamp set and the punch, but I haven't gotten around to taking a photo yet. So you'll just have to feast your eyes on the promotional pic that Stampin' Up! provided to show the products and a cute Christmas card you could make with them:

Of course, if you host a party and have me come and demonstrate for you, you'll also get a hostess gift and free catalogue from me, and you'll get to keep the samples I demonstrate in your workshop. Really it doesn't get better than that as a party offer! Hosting a party is super easy - you don't have to go crazy making food for it or anything, keeping it simple is best! You can also just bring your friends to my house if you'd rather not have it at yours, and you'll still earn the Hostess freebies! Contact me (click here to email me) to find out more.

Flirtacious Gift Class

2011-10-10T17:19:00.000+13:00

Hi everyone,
Whoops sorry about the silence - has it really been over two weeks already? I don't know where the time goes. We've had a few colds and flus and viruses in the family to contend with over the past couple of weeks - I'm still a little snuffly myself but starting to wonder if it's now hayfever as I get that really bad, and it does finally look like summer is on it's way (yahoo!). Put it this way, the power bill has dropped considerably in the past month so that's a pretty good sign!

OK so as promised a while back here's the full picture of my Flirtacious gifts class projects for your inspiration. I added stamping to the tealight candles to have them coordinate with the matchbox-style box that I made to package them. And the mystery item was a cute little stationery set which I decorated up. You could add patterned paper to some of the items in the stationery set too, but I kept those plain for the class. Don't you just love the new lace border punch? I trimmed it a little with my paper snips and added adhesive rhinestones to the flower centres.

If you're interested in making these, let me know because I still have plenty of the stationery sets and tealight candles on hand, I'd be happy to schedule this class again if there is enough interest! (Your place or mine - if you get a few friends together and you're in the greater Auckland area, I'm happy to bring the class to you).

For those of you in NZ, I hope the school holidays have started well for you. I'm at home for the holidays, I'm taking the opportunity to get a few things sorted here. When inspiration hits (as it often does!) I can make a big mess very quickly and with a 7 year old who moves around the house like a hurricane some days, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake, time to have a big cleanout/cleanup is well overdue! Let's just say I anticipate making a trip or three down to the Sallies to donate a few things in the next week or so...

Do come back and check in here later this week as I've got a quick project to share that I made recently to help me get more organised!

Happy stamping!

Another bargain home decor item

2011-09-23T08:00:00.001+12:00

Happy Friday everyone!
Today I have a project for you that has made me smile at how easy home decor can be. If you find just the right items to decorate, that is! This is a keeper - I'm not letting go of this one so I won't be using it as a Hostess gift, sorry! I had to take the photos of this very carefully - that's a mirror on the middle section there and the last thing you want is a reflection of me holding the camera and frowning while I found the right angle!

I picked this tealight candle holder up some time ago, at a clearance sale (yep the bargain hunter strikes again!). The original price on the box was $24.99 (this was from a homeware/kitchen store where I love to browse and drool, not from a discount store, where I'm usually found...). How much did I pay for it? $3. I nearly fainted when I saw the price. Sadly it was the last one they had, or I'd have bought lots of them. What a bargain!

It came without the patterned paper and the gorgeous new Ruffled Ribbon of course, those are the decorating touches I added. How long did it take me to add them? About 2 minutes, including cutting the paper to the right size. Seriously! OK, maybe 3 minutes, as I tied the ribbon a couple of times before I was happy. But I've gotten pretty good at tying bows over the last 4 years so it was no big deal. And the best part? I just tied the ribbon on, so that is easy to switch out, and the Cheerful Treat designer series paper (which I love) is simply stuck on with Dotto, behind the mirror. So I can remove it, use it for something else, and replace it with whatever paper is my next favourite. I love that!

This has been really useful too - after I decorated it, we had a 3 hour power cut on what was possibly the coldest night we've had this winter. At first, it was funny, and fun to finish our dinner by candlelight from my beautiful tealight candle holder. But after 3 hours, we were not laughing anymore as whatever heat had been in our house disappeared!

Hope you're comfortably warm wherever you are. Have a wonderful weekend!

Flirtacious Gift Class this Sunday!

2011-09-21T08:00:00.001+12:00

Morning everyone!
I hope you're having a great week - I am, the ideas are flowing thick and fast now, I have a little teaser for you today and a fun project to show you later this week (yes, I'm still going strong with the blogging!).

Thanks to those of you who have posted comments or told me personally you're liking what you see here, that really does encourage me and makes the difference to how I view my blogging time!

Dale your request for gifts for teachers comes at a great time, I have been working on some cute things that will do the trick perfectly I think! Maybe it's because Miss 7 will need something for her teacher in the not too distant future, my mind is on finding cool gift ideas that are not too expensive. While I'm sorry to say I didn't have the foresight to grab as many of those little jars as I could lay my hands on (so I only have a few left - not enough to run a class with) I do have plenty of other ideas up my sleeve!

Today's photo is just a snippet to give you a little teaser of my class projects this coming Sunday. I used the Flirtacious designer series paper and the coordinating Delicate Doilies stamp set, plus a few lovely other products, to create these coordinating gifts. You'll make a sweet little box to hold some tealight candles, and learn how to add stamped designs to the candles (fun and easy!), and we'll also make the other cute gift which you can just see the corner of, in this pic!

Some of you will have seen these at my house in the last few weeks but for those that haven't, I'll reveal all next week. I'm running this class on Sunday so if you haven't already booked in, I have a few spaces still free, click here to email me now to reserve your spot! Start time is 2pm at my house and the class fee is just $15 to make these two sweet little gifts, it's a high value class! You only need to bring your own adhesive, scissors and a bone folder (if you have one) to my classes, I supply everything else.

Back soon!

Hostess gifts

2011-09-19T10:00:00.007+12:00

Morning all!
Are you impressed yet with my increased blogging frequency? I am. I'm not promising it'll last, so please enjoy it while it does! I'd love you to post a comment sometimes, so I don't feel like I'm talking to myself here. I'm quite capable of talking to myself, but it's much more fun if I know you're out there listening!

OK, here's a cute couple of little jars I decorated recently. Really simply decorated, but I didn't think they needed much. I just used the lace border punch (and trimmed one of the flowers), the Flirtacious Designer Series paper, a little adhesive rhinestone for the compulsory bling, and another piece of that gorgeous organza ribbon. These jars are SO cute! I got them on clearance recently (can you see the theme in my blog posts - I did say I was a bargain hunter, didn't I?). I filled them with lollies myself (don't worry, I have an honours degree in Food Technology so food safety and hygiene is very important to me - no sticky fingers, I did the filling very hygienically!).

Anyway, these jars are going to be hostess gifts, if I can hold myself and Miss 7 back from eating the contents before I have a hostess who wants one as her gift from me! My hostesses receive a free catalogue, a hand made gift like these presented at the party, and they also keep the projects that I demonstrate at their party. Of course that's on top of the hostess dollars (= FREE STUFF!) they earn from sales on the day! If you haven't checked out the hostess benefits section at the front of the catalogue yet, you really should. Hostess dollars to spend on fabulous hostess products or anything else in the catalogue, and can you imagine paying half price for a Big Shot? How exciting is that!

I'm making some other things as hostess gifts at the moment too, so if you want to invite a few friends over for a relaxed, no-pressure and fun party, you can choose your favourite gift from my growing selection!

OK, must get on with a few chores so I can get back to the fun business of stamping! Have a wonderful week!

Cute little gift with purchase

2011-09-18T10:00:00.005+12:00

Hello everyone!
I hope you're having a lovely weekend, just as I am - getting ready to have lots of fun at my latest Christmas cards class! I know quite a few of you wanted to come but were already booked (popular lot you are, aren't you!) so I will be scheduling a repeat in October - stay tuned for that. Still finalising my October schedule, and it feels like I just figured out September... Why does time pass so quickly as I get older?! Why do I have to keep getting older, too?!

OK so here's another example of me getting carried away with my new toys. Well at least I can say I've certainly used my lovely new dies enough to justify having bought them in the first place!

I went a little crazy making these treat holders using the Two Tags die, the new Oval Designer Frame embossing folder, Just Add Cake patterned paper and some other things which I can't be bothered listing for you, ha! I've only recently really "discovered" the gorgeous Organza ribbon we've had for quite some time, and now I can't get enough of it! It's one of the most economical ribbons we have in the catalogue at $14.50 (plus shipping) for a whopping 13.7m of it. I think I used about 16cm of ribbon for each of these treats, so you could make a lot of these with one roll. There's a mini chocolate bar tucked away inside each of these treats, I've had to defend the jar against Miss 7 who has her beady eyes on it!

The photo is deceiving by the way - the container is pretty huge! It's 16cm in diameter and 25cm high. So even though it's not full yet, there's a lot of treats in here.

Why did I make so many of these? I wanted to give my customers a little gift, to show how much I appreciate them. We're all watching our money these days, and I love to give you a little extra now and then to thank you for choosing me as your Demonstrator and supporting my business, and to inspire you (and in this case, give you a wee sugar rush!). I'll be giving one of these away with every order of $25 or more, from now until I run out of chocolate (lol I just bought another 30 bars last week...) or I get sick of making them, whichever comes first. So just contact me (click here) to get your hands on one!

Happy stamping!

It's just like Christmas!

2011-09-16T07:00:00.001+12:00

Hi everyone,
Whoops I meant to blog a couple of times this week, but I got a bit distracted! Check out what arrived on my doorstep earlier this week....

Oooh look at all the lovely new stuff! This is a BIG box... Ribbons galore, new punches, new stamps, ohhhh! Of course, not all of it was for me... but there was enough of it to keep me entertained all week!

I was going to show you these earlier in the week. I made these as prizes for my prize draw this month, I had some spare jars at home from some preserves my MIL made ages ago, so I went and bought some lids for the jars, filled them with ingredients and decorated them up - yummo, Brownies in a jar! All the lucky winners will have to do is tip all the ingredients into a bowl, and some vanilla, a little oil and eggs, mix and bake to make a batch of easy brownies. How fun is that?

I decorated these jars using some felt I had stashed away. For the large piece that covers the lid, I just traced around a plate from my kitchen, but the flowers were die cut using the fabulous Fun Flowers die. I joined them together simply using a large Rhinestone brad, and then stuck the layered flower to the white felt circle. The gorgeous Pretty In Pink satin ribbon holds the felt onto the lid. Easy peasy! I'm loving the new dies I have to say, this flower die has fast become a favourite. In my delight at making these I forgot to write out the instructions for the lucky winners but I'll do that soon and include those with the prizes. Want to win one? Simply place an order with me this month and you're in the draw!

Next, I have a neat project to share. Well, it didn't start off looking that neat - check this out:

The photo doesn't show it, but when I found this magnetic memo holder tucked away in a discount store somewhere in the wops between here and Rotorua (seriously, I have no idea where I was when I found this - I was making my way home from a team stamp camp earlier this year and stopped at all the cheap shops on the way!), it was looking pretty grubby, old and lonely. This was the only one they had in the store, and I've never seen any others in any of the cheap shops up here in my part of Auckland. So this project is a one-off, probably!

I decided it needed seriously girly-ing up (is that a word?) and settled on the Flirtacious patterned papers in the new catalogue. Having just gotten home from the Hamilton Craft & Quilt show last week, and all inspired to play with fabric, I made a cute little flower from the matching fabric that we're now carrying. I am not a sewer, but this flower was so fun to make! And I was proud of myself - I finally used one of the REALLY big brads that we have, for the flower centre, and simply added a 1/2" punched circle of the paper on top to finish that off.

I did change the pen from the memo holder, I swapped it out for a black one to which I inserted some of the patterned paper so that it matched. I took out the pad of paper just so you could see how I decorated the back - new lace border punch and a little bling with the adhesive rhinestones! If you want to see this in real life (looks better than the pic!), I am hanging onto it here for dear life. My Mum tried to get me to stick this to HER fridge and told me I should make lots of these and sell them, lol! Even hubby was impressed. So if you have seen these memo holders somewhere, could you let me know where I can get them? Please!

Oh, and I must mention - a huge warm welcome to my newest team members! The awesome starter kit offer from Stampin' Up! has convinced some fabulous crafters to join my Stampin' Up! family, and I'm so excited to have new friends to play with! Where else can you stamp/die cut/emboss/colour to your heart's content and get paid to do it?! I love that! If you're looking for a fabulous way to fund your craft spending, or help with the bills, just ask me for more info. I'm loving helping my new team members get their businesses up and running!

If you have any questions about my projects today, feel free to email me and I'll answer as soon as I can!

Off to stamp some more... have a wonderful weekend!

Delicate Doilies & Perfect Pennants note pad

2011-09-06T08:30:00.006+12:00

Morning all!
I thought I'd do a quick post today, before I run around and take care of a few chores. Just over a week ago, Stampin' Up! held a Fun Day here in Auckland where we got to play with lots of new products from the catalogue, do a few make n takes, and watch some cool presentations from Stampin' Up! staff and Demonstrators from around NZ. It was a pretty hectic day but loads of fun - and apparently NZ is the first to have such a day, woo hoo!

As is the custom with any Stampin' Up! event, lots of us were madly swapping samples we'd made. Most managed to use new catalogue products so it was really exciting to see what everyone had made (what better excuse to buy new toys than because you HAVE to use new catalogue goodies to make swaps with?). As usual, my swaps weren't the most simple things. I couldn't narrow it down to just one new product so I had to use three. And then make it time consuming to put together. Sigh... Here it is!

I covered some inexpensive notepads I'd managed to find and stashed away some months ago (I am a bargain hunter/hoarder from way back!). I pulled the colours from the Cheerful Treat hostess DSP which is to die for I think, love it! I've had one lovely customer earn it already by partying alone, ordering up and taking advantage of the new hostess benefits program (tee hee there is someone else who thinks the same way I do!).

You can't see it in the pic, but the white layer on top of the Bashful Blue cover is actually hand embossed (as opposed to using the Big Shot). I embossed some vertical lines that were half a centimetre apart, all the way down the cardstock, using the scoring blade on my trimmer to do it. In real life it adds a little extra something to the project, I think, as does the Champagne Mist shimmer paint that I made into a spray and spritzed the butterfly with. I don't think you can see that, either. I should say that all of my projects seem to look far better IRL than the pics do on here. Maybe it's because I'm not very good with a camera, give me cardstock and scissors and I'm your girl, but technology of any sort - nope!

If you want one of these, I did make a few extra and put them aside to use as gifts for my Hostesses for the coming months. So you just have to host a party and I'll gift you one of these, if you would like it (or I've got some other hostess gifts ready to go here too - may share those later!).

Here's the supplies I used:
Stamps: Delicate Doilies, Notes & Details (yahoo it's back!)
Ink: Concord Crush, Lucky Limeade
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Confetti White, Concord Crush, Melon Mambo, Whisper White
Other: Cheerful Treat DSP, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Perfect Pennants die, Circles #2 die, 1 3/4" circle punch, large oval punch, Basic rhinestone jewels, scoring blade & trimmer

Hope you likey!

The most amazing business offer ever!

2011-09-01T21:15:00.000+12:00

Hi everyone,
Well like the rest of the Stampin' Up! devotees in NZ, I awoke this morning all excited to place my first order from the brand new catalogue that went live today! (Check out the new blinkie on my sidebar to view it online if you haven't already laid your hands on a copy!). BUT, the offers that Stampin' Up! have put together and announced today, have just blown me away.

In today's uncertain world, it's always a good idea to have another source of income other than that 9-5 job that so many of us do (like I did for years!). And it's good to have an interest you're passionate about, because it doesn't feel like work, then. So if you love stamping (and let's face it, you wouldn't be reading my blog if you didn't!) and you'd like a little extra cash to support your family, why not combine the two?

Here's the details of this amazing offer - and please read to the bottom to see the extra bonus I'm offering as well!

PLUS: Join my team before 15 September and you will also receive a FREE stamp set from the upcoming Summer Mini catalogue!

AND how about a Special Bonus only available through me - if all of the above wasn't enough to tempt you, I have another special offer for you! I've been planning this special for ages, because it was my birthday and I turned the big 40 this week (whoa!) and I figured I'd have the birthday and offer YOU the gifts!

All I want for my birthday is some more stamping team friends to stamp with, so I'm offering a special deal for the month of September only. Back in May, I was a little over-exhuberant at Convention and bought a Stampin' Up! laptop bag I really didn't need. It was so pretty, and matched my paper... But I don't have a laptop to fit it, so would you like this bag?

Everyone who joins my team this month goes into the draw to win this bag, and if you don't win (or you do, and you don't want the bag!), you can choose ANY Embosslit die or Embossing folder from pages 156-157 of the new catalogue, as a welcome gift from me!

If you've ever thought of joining Stampin' Up!, either as a hobby demo (ie shop for yourself and get a discount!) or as a business demo to teach like I do, now is the best time. If you already know you want to, you can join up online, just click here to go to my Stampin' Up! website to do that. I was awarded 3rd place in NZ this year for Leadership, so I am primed and ready to help you achieve your personal goals for your business, whatever they may be!

If you have any questions about this fabulous opportunity, don't hesitate to ask! Click here to email me or feel free to call me on 09 272 4255 for a no-obligation chat.
I'll be back soon to share some of the fun things I've been making with new products!

Christmas is coming!

2011-08-24T16:30:00.000+12:00

Hi everyone,
Well not much blogging happening around here for a while, but it's because I've been busy with my Christmas card classes. The other night I realised that over a 3 week period I've prepared kits and taught my guests and between them they've made 252 Christmas cards with me. Hmm, as far as cardmaking goes, that's quite a few!! Each card had at least 6 pieces to it that I had to cut up, so that makes over 1500 pieces. Yikes, no wonder I was busy!

I've also been head down, tail up getting ready for the launch of the new catalogue. Some of you are drooling over it already, as I am, but as a Demonstrator I got to pre-order a few selected items and I've been busy with some project ideas, having lots of fun playing! I cannot wait for my launch party on Thursday next week, I am soooo excited, this is pretty unusual for me but I think it's because for once, I'm feeling more on track to being ready for it. I suspect it's the lack of a "day job" that has made the difference now! If you haven't RSVP'd for my launch party yet, just email me to let me know approx what time you'd like to attend, and I'll give you directions if you haven't been here before. I'm celebrating from 10:30am into the evening! There's no cost to attend and you'll get to see some cool projects and samples, I'll have a little make n take and a couple of fabulous prize draws that you can enter! Oh and some light refreshments of course and a little baking is planned for the night before, it wouldn't be a party without some treats, would it?

I thought I'd share one of my Christmas card class projects with you today. I had fun coming up with this one, it uses the Jolly Holiday Designer Series paper which is on a whopping 40% off sale at the moment (it's only available until the end of the month). I die cut the "zig zag" embellishments as well as the trees and snowflake. The snowflake wasn't cut from metallic cardstock, it was cut from Confetti Cream cardstock and then before we pulled it out of the sheet, we daubed Platinum Shimmer Paint on top. How cool is that technique for making your own "metallic" card? Oh and I should mention too that the snowflake and the trees were die cut using the Merry Details Sizzlit which is also retiring this month, so if you want to get your hands on that one, you'd best order it now!

Supplies:
Stamps: Contempo Christmas
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Chocolate chip
Cardstock: Confetti Cream, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Other: Platinum Shimmer Paint, Tasteful Trim die, Merry Details sizzlit, Decorative label punch, sponge daubers

Hope you are having a fabulous week!

Let's Party!

2011-08-05T08:00:00.001+12:00

Hi everyone,
It's party central at my house right now - August is our big month for birthdays in my family and first up is Miss 6 who turns 7 very shortly! So I'm flat out baking cupcakes and birthday cake and figuring out party games... anyone for pass the parcel?

So, this is the perfect time to show you my "party" collections! Back in April during one of my "blog silences" I was frantically designing projects for Stampin' Up! to try and use in some public relations work. I made a bunch of stuff for them to use and they submitted it to a magazine but for some reason, it was never used. I'm so sad about that! I've just found out about it and now I am clear to share these projects with you since they weren't used elsewhere. I didn't have time to make a second set for my own use, but I did take photos of my creations before sending them away, luckily!
I was asked to make sets of party items - one set for girls, another for boys and a third unisex set. Each collection needed to have an invitation, birthday card, thank you card, 3D item and anything else I could think of. Today I'm going to show you the Unisex set! (If you click on the photo, you can take a closer look).

I started off with the Celebrations Designer Series Paper which is still available (while stocks last) until the end of the month, when our catalogue retires to make way for the new one! I used the colours in the paper to choose my cardstock and embellishment colours. I'm going to miss this paper!

In front is the thank you card (OK so that was obvious!), where I used my Big Shot with reckless abandon! The lettering is die cut with the "Many Thanks" sizzlit, I used the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder to emboss part of the card front, the Tasteful Trim die to cut the red "ric rac", and the Buttons Embosslit makes quick work of making faux buttons from cardstock as the final embellishments.

On the left is the invitation which I made using my Scallop Circle Die and cut the DSP using my Circle Scissor tool. I used the stamp set Party This Way to make the balloons and the sign and on the inside of the card which you can't see, I used stamps from the Inviting stamp set. Both of those sets are carrying through to the next catalogue, by the way! I also used Party This Way to stamp on some white wrapping paper and that's what the present is wrapped in (you can just make that out at the back of the photo). How cool is that, to have wrapping paper that matches your cards? It was really fun to do, too!

The card at the back is the birthday card, it's a "Z" fold card and I had a lot of fun making that one, using "Wish Big" from the stamp set Word Play. I love that set and very happy to see that in the next catalogue, too!

Finally last but definitely not least, is the party bucket which you could fill with treats and have it on the table at a party, or use it to hold the "goodies" for the guests to take home. Now that project was a labour of love - back in April there was no such thing as a pennant punch to quickly punch out the pennants I stamped, so those are all hand cut! Detailed hand cutting is something I have a bit of a reputation for I hear, but let's be honest - who wants to cut things by hand when there's a punch that will do the job quickly and easily! (Looking forward to the imminent arrival of that punch in September....). I stamped the lettering on the pennants with the Just Perfect alphabet set. The big red scalloped strip of felt was die cut with the Tasteful Trim die (love that die!) and I simply tied a variety of our ribbons onto the bucket handles to finish it off.

So what's your verdict - was this set worthy of publication? Hope you like it, and if you want to order some of the Celebrations DSP before it's gone forever, be quick and let me know!

It's time... Last Chance List

2011-08-01T07:00:00.002+12:00

Hi everyone,
Well I must be insane but I sat up late and waited for Stampin' Up! to post the Last Chance List up for us. It's a biggie! Lots of my favourites are retiring this time, seriously I was almost in tears by the time I got to the end of page 1 of the list (and there are 6 pages!). BUT, check out some of those discounts, as much as 40% on some stamp sets and if you're making Christmas cards already, you can get a whopping 40% off the Jolly Holiday paper I used in my Christmas Card class on the weekend (woo hoo!). Or how about 40% off the Styled Silver Hodge Podge?!

Click here to check out the list!

Of course, the upside of seeing the Last Chance List is that it means that a super exciting time is on it's way - the launch of the new 2011-12 Idea Book & Catalogue! I can't reveal it to you yet, but trust me it's been worth waiting for... lots of "ooh!" noises at my house at the moment!

The RRP on the Idea Book & Catalogue is $15.95, but pre-order your catalogue from me before the end of August and pay just $12 (plus postage if required). Or, book a workshop and receive your copy for free!

My new catalogue launch party will be on September 1st, the day the catalogue "opens" for ordering, so mark that in your diary now!

Click here to email me and place your Last Chance List order before they run out of your favourites, pre-order your catalogue or book a workshop, and book your place at my launch party! (Phew, there's a lot to think about!)

Have a fabulous week!

Inspiration in the mail

2011-07-22T14:00:00.001+12:00

Hi everyone,
I'm back again (don't die of fright, sometimes I DO blog more than once a month!).

Recently I received a card in the mail, which was exciting, because normally all I get are bills, or brochures from a million different companies all wanting me to buy their products (OK, maybe not a million, but it feels like it sometimes, right?). This card was exciting because it was for my birthday, which isn't until August. It was from Stampin' Up!, and it was telling me I can order myself a little something and for my birthday I'll get an extra 15% discount on one item on top of my normal Demonstrator discount. Woo hoo - that's the kind of birthday present I like, a reason to shop for something I really want, and a nice big saving to boot! I love being a Demonstrator!

Here's the card they sent me. This is what is known as a "hybrid" card. Most of it has been pre-printed, which you can understand, given they apparently send cards to every Demonstrator on their birthday and how many thousands of cards is that worldwide(!!!), but the rhinestone jewels are applied by hand, I think. The little cupcakes are from the Party Hearty stamp set, but they're smaller than the stamp in that set - that's the beauty of hybrid projects, you can make the images the size you want. I think Stampin' Up! made this using My Digital Studio, which is a digital program they sell in the USA and Canada. Unfortunately not sold in Australia/NZ yet, sadly - no matter how hard I beg! There's a number of IT issues for them to resolve in order to offer it here, but we live in hope, don't we?

Anyway, when I saw the card, I was inspired to CASE it. I'm getting a lot better at doing that - I used to try and copy someone else's work, get distracted along the way by another idea or tool or whatever, and wind up making something completely different. But occasionally it's fun to case something, as it can take a lot less time and thinking and save on wastage of your supplies (how often do you toss a card in the bin after trying something out and changing your mind?!). I searched through the catalogue for stamps that are the same size as the cupcakes in Stampin' Up!'s card, and there are LOTS, so I might re-make this one again later. But I was in a mood to do a little punching, so I used a couple of punches to make flowers to put the jewels on instead. The sentiment is from Curly Cute, as while I prefered the font on Stampin' Up!'s card, it's not one that we have as a stamp.

So here is my CASE - completely hand made and hand stamped, I might add!

Supplies:
Stamps: Curly Cute
Cardstock: Confetti White, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi, Marina Mist
Ink: Early Espresso
Punches: Itty Bitty Shapes, Boho Blossoms, Scallop Border
Other: Rhinestone jewels, Mat Pack & piercing tool, White Gel Pen

Hope you get a little inspiration from my mail, too!

Flower Burst Embosslit die

2011-07-21T20:51:00.000+12:00

Hi everyone!
Hope you are enjoying the holidays (it's school holidays in NZ right now, for my overseas viewers). I am enjoying spending a bit of time with my daughter, hanging out with her and taking her places (trying to avoid the ones which involve parting with copious amounts of my hard-earned cash of course!). Yesterday we visited a friend, went to our local pet store for supplies (no new pets thank you!), and then went to the mall to do a little shopping. Miss six-going-on-sixteen declared "I'm starving!" and talked me into taking her to a nice little cafe, where she proceeded to wolf down a massive muffin and half of my nice berry pie slice, and a large bottle of expensive organic apple juice. I tried to enjoy the look of rapture on her face as she filled her tummy, and not think about the hole she is starting to burn in my wallet! I should mention it wasn't lunch time either, but mid-afternoon, and it was also after she'd scoffed a large banana at my friend's house and insisted I rummage through my handbag for any morsels of food I had on me (there weren't any). Oh how I wish I could have the metabolism of a six year old again, goodness knows where all that food went as she's a petite little thing unlike her parents. I think she must be going through another growth spurt!

In the time that I can nab where I don't have a small person attached to my leg, I've been busy preparing for this weekend's Extravagazna (can't wait!) and also other upcoming events. I'm also already starting to make samples for the start of the new catalogue in September (in August I will be announcing the details of my launch party, woo hoo!), as I was fortunate to receive a few new sets at the Stampin' Up! Convention in May and can't resist having a play. Did I mention being a Demonstrator is fabulous just to get your hands on new stuff before anyone else does?!. I've even managed to rummage through my supplies and find a few items that I think are likely to retire at the end of August, based on the fact they've already retired in the USA and Canada. I'm trying to play with the retiring stuff while I still can!

I've also been good and used up a bit of long-retired stock that I have hoarded, to make invitations for Miss Six's upcoming birthday party. She wants her friends to learn to make cards and decorate cupcakes. The perfect party theme considering what I do as a job now, and the fact that I went a little crazy last year buying cupcake decorating supplies. The cupcake stand I purchased may finally get an outing!

Here are the invitations, I made pocket cards so the party details are on the tags inside. I stuck magnets on the back of the tags so her friends can put the invites on their fridge doors and not forget the party. These were really fun to make. Most of what you see here is retired, except the cardstock colours, and the cupcake stamp set and punch are still available in our Autumn Winter mini catalogue (only until the end of July though, as the mini catalogue finishes on the 31st). If you like the patterned paper (it's called Sweet Always) though, let me know as I think I still have some packs of that lying around I'm happy to sell! I also slipped in one non-Stampin' Up! item in these invites (gasp!) - the little flower brads, as yes, I have an embarrassing collection of other craft items I collected before I discovered Stampin' Up! and I need to make use of that sometimes, too!

Recently I just ordered the Flower Burst Embosslit die for myself. A girl needs new toys every now and then, right? I don't know why it took me so long to get this one as it was really fun to use. I thought the flower shape coordinated really well with the pattern on the ribbon that is part of the Gift with Purchase offer this month, so I whipped this card up in no time!

I've seen other cards using this die and covering an entire card base like I've done here, but I can't remember where I saw those, so please forgive me for not giving credit to the person who came up with that idea. Usually I think it's done mono-tone to create a more subtle background, but for my card I was going with more of a brightly coloured "smack you in the face" kind of effect. Miss Six loves it and she's very accustomed to being my resident critic!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Stamps: Apple Blossoms (Level 2 hostess set)
Other: Flower Burst Embosslit die, Ice Cream Parlour ribbon

Hope you like these, and you're having just as much fun as I am these holidays!

Gift With Purchase - super cute ribbon & buttons offer!

2011-07-01T00:54:00.000+12:00

Hi everyone,
I'm still busy with all the followup work after SENZ, but I took a little break to play with the new ribbon and buttons we have as a special offer for the month of July! How cute are these Ice Cream Parlour ribbon and buttons? I'm looking forward to playing with them a bit more, when I can snatch a little more time!

The great thing about these buttons and the coordinating ribbon is that you can get them totally FREE - all you have to do is to place a $120 product order (plus shipping, likely to be just 5% of your order) and you'll receive a roll of the ribbon (approx 13.7m) and a pack of 48 flower buttons. Awesome, huh?

Here's the flyer so you can read all about it and see a couple of projects that Stampin' Up! made with these little beauties:

But it wouldn't be a fun promotion without my own original creation to share, so here's the card I made:

I even decorated the inside!

In addition to the ribbon and one of the buttons (with a thin piece of cardstock as the "thread"), here's what else I used to make it:
Stamps: Bring on the Cake (Autumn-Winter mini catalogue)
Cardstock: Old Olive, Pacific Point, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo
Patterned paper: Sweet Stitches (Autumn-Winter mini)
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Daffodil Delight & Chocolate Chip markers
Other: Circles #2 Big Shot die, 2 3/8" scallop circle punch (still available as a carryover item from the Summer mini catalogue), Mat Pack, Piercing tool, Stampin' Dimensionals, mini glue dots.

Hope you like it, click here to let me know if you'd like to get your hands on some of these buttons & ribbon too!

Catching my breath - and we have a winner!

2011-06-29T21:14:00.001+12:00

Hi everyone,
I've been spending a bit of time this week just catching my breath and trying to tidy up a few things around here. June has been such a hectic month for me with exhibiting at the Dunkleys Craft Show on the North Shore and then just two weeks later, the SENZ papercraft Expo here in Manukau at the Telstra Events Centre. I love doing trade shows - they are a lot of fun and I enjoy sharing what I love about Stampin' Up! with visitors. At the same time though they are exhausting to prepare for and work the days, and there's a lot of work afterwards as well!

Here's our little stand at Dunkleys, with Vicky-Lee sitting at the demonstration table:

We had a much bigger stand at SENZ and had four of us working the stand for three days. We had lots of retired stock available for sale as well as some projects we'd lovingly made, and there were a few bargains on offer! Here's a wide shot of our stand:

And a close up of the Sunday fab four (I say Sunday fab four because Rhonda worked with us on Friday)!

From left to right are Vicky-Lee, Patrice, Denise and myself. This was taken on Sunday morning and I think we're looking pretty happy and still energised after a frantic first two days of the show!

If you came to visit us at either show, thanks for your support of our little businesses, we loved sharing a little stamping with you and hope we've managed to inspire you to do a little of your own!

The lucky winner of our prize box of goodies at the SENZ show was Pattyanne from Mt Wellington. I delivered the prize to her yesterday and she was absolutely thrilled, telling me she never wins anything so was so excited to have been the lucky winner this time! Congratulations Pattyanne!

If you completed a door prize form at either Dunkleys or SENZ, you don't already have a Demonstrator to work with and haven't heard from one of us yet, don't worry, you will soon. In the meantime if you have burning questions you want answered, don't hesitate to ask! Click here to send me an email.

I've updated my calendar with the classes I have scheduled for the month of July, so if you are keen to do a little stamping with me (and a bit of laughing while you craft in a relaxed class here!) then please check out the list on the right hand sidebar, and contact me to book your place in the class(es) you'd like to attend.

Oh, and we didn't sell out of all of our retired stamps... because at shows we have only new, unused products available for sale, we didn't have our used sets at either of the shows. I do have a LOT of retired stamps still available, both used and unused sets... If you are looking for something, please check out the massive list here!

The Dunkleys Craft Show - North Shore Events Centre June 10-12

2011-06-10T03:38:00.000+12:00

Hi everyone!
Sorry for the lack of blog posts of late, I've been busy! I went to Convention a few weeks ago (the best one ever!) and since then have been running between workshops, my team training day, and preparing for not one, but two big craft shows this month!

First up is the Dunkleys show on the North Shore starting today! Here's a coupon so you can get a discount off your entry fee. (Click on it to make it larger and print from there).

If you're coming to the show, be sure to come and visit me on the stand. I've just put the finishing touches on my class list flyer for July and you won't want to miss out! I have soooo many fun projects in store, can't wait to teach them!

I'll be sure to update my blog after the weekend with my class schedule, so stay tuned!

Week 1 of Deals of the week for May!

2011-05-01T21:29:00.000+12:00

Hi everyone,
Just a quick post tonight - hope to post again in the next couple of days, but I wanted to let you know about the Deals of the week for May. Each week, Stampin' Up! are offering selected products at very special prices - but you have to act quickly! The deals will change each Wednesday (from Wednesday 11th - the ones below are current until then) so be sure to check my official Stampin' Up! website (http://www.knightstamper.stampinup.net/) for the latest offers.

Important note: if Stampin' Up! run low on stock of these items, the price will revert back to the catalogue price. So don't leave it too late if the specials appeal to you!

If you'd like to place an order for any of these items, I'll only order it for you if the deal hasn't run out, unless you let me know you'd like to continue and order it at the regular price if necessary.

OK so here are this week's deals - 40% off these stamp sets! (Sorry having a bit of a problem trying to size the table for you - please click on it to see it a bit bigger!) Click here to email me and place your order. Have a great week!

A trip down memory lane!

2011-04-26T21:15:00.002+12:00

Hi everyone,
Sorry for the long absence again.... I've been busy with some stamping events (hello ladies!!), helping my Mum move house (which required us to get rid of some of our furniture in order to take hers into our house!), checking up on hubby struck down with a nasty dose of the flu (ahh don't you just love the start of winter?) and life in general! I've spent a bit of time this Easter being a domestic goddess (or pretending to - one can dream!) and attempted to bake some hot cross buns with my daughter. I also spent countless hours peeling chestnuts that my mother insisted on bringing home (I don't want to see another chestnut until next year thank you very much!). If you've ever tried peeling chestnuts, you'll know that is a mission!

One stamping related thing I have been busy doing though, is going through my massive collection of stamps and culling out the retired ones. OK, not all of the retired ones, as I've still kept some of my favourites (I confess, when it comes to crafting, I am a hoarder - but I can throw out shoes and clothes without blinking!). But I think you will be shocked when you see how big my "retired stamps to sell" list is. I know I was!

Some of you may recognise this card:

Believe it or not, it's the make n take from the launch night that Stampin' Up! held here in April 2007. I remember being very excited about signing up to be a Demonstrator and thought the little card was so cute! I kept it for display, and I found it again when I was cleaning out a box of samples (can you tell, I've been trying to clean out a bunch of stuff!). Even more amazing is, I've still got one of the stamp sets that was used to make this card, a set called Much Love and you can see it in the photo with the card. If you like it, you may be able to buy this one if you're quick - it's now in my retired stamps clearance list! Purchase this particular stamp set and I'll throw in the card and matching envelope, too!

Check out my retired stamps for sale here, and if you have questions, or would like to purchase any of the items in there, you can email me (click here) to contact me and reserve the sets you'd like. Don't forget my special offer too - you'll have to read the retired list post to see what that is!

I'm off to start my swaps for Stampin' Up!'s annual Convention in about 2 weeks. Last year I made 100 little boxes to swap with other Demonstrators.... yikes!!

Happy shopping!

Busy, Busy!

2011-03-23T15:36:00.000+13:00

Hi everyone,
Oops I forgot to blog again, sorry I know a number of you have been patiently waiting (haven't had too many nagging emails yet though!).

I must say the past month has been one for the history books hasn't it? I don't know about you, but when there are major world events going on like the Christchurch earthquake and the earthquake & tsunami in Japan, whatever I'm doing tends to get thrown out the window while I check up on friends & family. When I heard about the Japan earthquake I stayed up half the night, glued to the TV because once I knew about the tsunami heading for Hawaii I needed to know my Stampin' Up! demo friend Gari, who lives there, was going to be OK! Luckily, she lives on a hilltop (it took a tsunami for me to find that out!) and was fine. We managed to get in contact with friends in Japan too and they are also OK, thank goodness.

On top of that, I lost one of my beloved cats this month, as he was hit by a car right outside our house. My lovely furry baby died shortly after we rushed him to the vet, and I miss him dreadfully. Rusty was 8 years old and we'd gotten him as a kitten. I miss having him yell for me from outside our bathroom to hurry up and feed him in the morning, harrass me as I work on the computer (also wanting food!) and fight me for his favourite spot on the couch whenever I'm watching TV. He would squeeze himself in behind me and either wait until I got hot with him squished in there and give in, or try and push me off the couch with his feet. Too funny! We still have our other cat, but it's not the same here without him around. She doesn't seem to miss him in the slightest so I've done the grieving for both of us!

Now let me fill you in on what I've been up to. March has been busy with Stampin' Up! training and my own little crafting sessions with some lovely ladies (waving - you know who you are!), but I thought I'd fill you in on some bigger events I've been involved with.

Earlier this month, I taught this card at our team event, the Creative Inkers Auckland Extravaganza:

For this card (among other things) I used the Lattice Embossing folder, Scallop Square die, Tropical Party and Well Scripted stamp sets which are in the Summer mini so only available to order until Thursday next week! If you came to Extravaganza, I hope you enjoyed making this card & matching envelope with me, it was a quick and easy project but hopefully still packs in a little "wow" for whoever you give it to!

This is the little gift box of chocolates I made for each of my guests at that event. I finally got around to using the Punch Bunch Sale-A-Bration set! Yes those are Hershey nuggets inside which you can't buy here in NZ in the supermarket, I was very lucky to have been given a nice big bag of them from Tracee when she came home for a short visit!

Here's a really special photo. At the Extravaganza I organised a fundraising raffle to raise money for the Christchurch earthquake appeal. I lived there for a couple of years and still know a few people down there, and I just wanted to do more than the donation we made as a family. So between myself and the other Demonstrators working the event, we gathered together a few supplies each from our craft rooms and made up three big prizes which were raffled off to attendees at the event. I'm proud to say that we raised $345 and that went straight into the Red Cross account, this is the receipt to prove it!

This past weekend, I headed to Hamilton to work on a stand at the Hamilton Women's Lifestyle Expo. It was a fantastic show, and so much fun to work with Patrice and Dallas on the stand, we made an awesome team! Trade show stands take a lot of organising and working the shows can be pretty tiring, but I'm so glad I did it. I had fun at the show too - got my hair straightened at one stand, my eyebrows waxed at another, my rings professionally cleaned, scoffed a cupcake (ooh yum) and tasted all sorts of other goodies. I did bring some fudge home for my family so it wasn't all just for me. I think I had as much fun, maybe more, than all the people who were just visitors at the show!

Here I am at the stand, you can see Patrice to the far right and Dallas is hiding behind the lady standing near me as they chatted about stamping.

And here I am with Patrice and Dallas, don't we look happy?

Here's one of the projects I demonstrated on the stand, a card using the Bliss Sale-A-Bration stamp set. The layout is super simple, so this can be changed to suit whatever colours and stamps you'd like to use. Can you guess how I did that Early Espresso border on the Top Note die cut shape?

This week, I get to breathe a little more as I'm not doing any major events, so it's time to play a little catchup - on sleep and everything else! If you came to the Hamilton Women's Lifestyle Expo and visited our stand, thanks so much for your support. If you want to know how we made any of the projects you saw, just click here to send me an email and ask!

Thanks for visiting!

Stationery Set using Sweet Summer Sale-A-Bration Stamp Set

2011-02-08T15:47:00.000+13:00

Hi everyone!
Check out that title - can you say that fast?!

This is the project that I taught at my team's stamp camp on the weekend. I was the first teacher up on Friday night (lucky me, got the nerves out of the way right off the bat and was able to enjoy being a student for the rest of the weekend!). Thanks so much to Jacque, Paula, Delys and Vicky-Lee for their fabulous projects. I think all the attendees had a ball, as I certainly did! I didn't get a lot of sleep at the camp (as so often happens - grown women can giggle together all night chatting just as well as teenagers can!) but came home so inspired and happy. Thank you to everyone who took part and made the weekend a total success!

My project was a box that I designed to fit a decorated note pad, with some coordinating foldback clips, eraser, paperclip bookmarks, pen, and a teeny box of thumb tacks (also decorated to match!). There was quite a bit of cutting involved in the prep work, but it was all worth it to hear that the ladies really liked my project and I had a lot of fun chatting with them while they put it all together. The featured stamp set was the Sweet Summer Sale-a-Bration set, and I used the Sunny Garden DSP as the colour inspiration.

Oh and for the lovely ladies in Waihi I met a few weeks back, this was similar to the one I designed for them - I may share that one in a future blog post.

If you're in Auckland (or you can get here easily!) and you'd like to make this yourself, I'm offering it up as my first "SOS" class for the year! "SOS" stands for "Stamping Other Stuff" and basically will be when I schedule classes to make whatever takes my fancy at the time. It could be a set of cards or some other fun project. SOS classes could well be the class to come to if you're in need of a quick gift for someone! Those of you who know me, know that I love to make boxes and decorate 3D items. If you have requests for projects you've seen elsewhere, do let me know! I'll also be holding my popular technique classes again this year, keep an eye on my class schedule on the sidebar.

Classes will usually be held at my home in East Tamaki (I say Botany Downs, really, as we are close to the mall!). Here are the details for the Stationery Set SOS class:

- When: Sunday 20th February, start time 2pm, finish probably around 5pm
- Where: My house (if you haven't been before, I'll give you the address when you book)
- Class fee: $20 payment in advance to book your space please - seats will be limited
- $5 discount off the class fee if you place a minimum $50 order on the day (remember you can also earn a free Sale-A-Bration stamp set with a $120 product order!). My previous blog post offer of a free magazine or sample from my clearance basket with a minimum $50 order still applies, too!

I'll also rustle up a little afternoon tea for you to enjoy at the end of the class. If you've come to a class here before, you'll know that something sweet or chocolatey usually does feature, whether it be in a lolly cup on the table or as the afternoon tea afterwards! I have a weakness for baking, as well as stamping...

Click here to email me and book your space.
Thanks for visiting!

Thank You Tags

2011-02-04T12:12:00.001+13:00

Hi everyone,
Just a quick little post today - have been flat out preparing for my team's stamp camp which starts tonight, and I'm teaching the first class! Keep an eye out for a future post as I will blog the project I'm presenting tonight. I designed it myself and the prep work was a labour of love, I tell you!

Anyway, those of you who have ordered from me in the past will know that every order you place with me (unless you have it sent to you directly from Stampin' Up!) comes bagged up for you with a hand made tag on it. I started doing these back in 2007 because I needed a way to know whose order was in which bag, and simply writing names on bags didn't seem right when I have so much cool stamping stuff around me that I could inspire you with! I don't have samples of the tags I made back then, but for the past year or so I've been keeping examples and keeping track of who received which tags, so that you never receive the same one twice. I know some of you have quite a little collection of my tags in your stash!

Here's the tags I've designed up for February orders (of course, if you order more than once in February, I'll be designing up another tag for your second order!). I love the little butterfly, once the glue dried I pulled the wings up so they stand up off the tag. Do you like the colour combo? I think I took it straight from the Color Coach. Gorgeous bright combination, just perfect to brighten someone's day (which should happen when you get an order, anyway!). I'm adding names to the tags as I use them. The first of these tags are going out today with orders I received from Stampin' Up! late yesterday.

Recipe:
Stamps: Tiny Tags (2010-11 Idea Book & Catalogue), Punched Posies (Hostess Level 2 set from the Summer Mini)
Ink: Melon Mambo, Early Espresso
Cardstock: Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White
Other: Big Shot, Beautiful Wings Embosslit die, Circles #2 die, Fancy Flower punch, Jewellery tag punch, silver brad, silver cord (retired).
If you'd like to continue or start your "Knightstamper" tag collection, click here to email me with your order!
I'm off to stamp camp, have a great weekend!

Sale-A-Bration 2011 - Sweet Summer Quick Card

2011-01-25T15:57:00.000+13:00

Hi everyone,

Can it really be true? I've just had a quick look on NZSU to see what everyone else has been doing with the new Sale-A-Bration (SAB) sets that are now available to everyone starting today, and it looks like I may be one of just a few NZ demos who actually has any of these sets already! I guess that just shows I have no patience - I know a lot of my team have been waiting to earn these sets for free like the rest of the country, while I was unable to contain myself and "invested" in two of them!

Seriously now, I did consider waiting too, but I needed to have at least one of these sets to do design work for my team leader's stamp camp next weekend, we're holding this for our fabulous team of Demonstrators throughout NZ. So I relented and pre-purchased two of the four sets. I've been busy creating with them too!

For this card, I used the Sweet Summer and So Happy For You sets, and the patterned paper came from the Subtles Designer Series Paper Patterns stack. The butterfly I die cut using the Beautiful Wings Embosslit, though I should probably have used one of the cute butterfly images in either of the stamp sets. The colour combination is straight from the Color Coach - Bashful Blue, Wild Wasabi and Rose Red. With a little Chocolate Chip ink and cardstock thrown in for good measure of course, those of you who know me, know I go through a tonne of that colour!

This card was super quick to make, with just a tiny bit of colouring using markers. You could easily step it up by adding some extra layers and a little bling, like our self adhesive jewels.

If you haven't been through a Sale-A-Bration sale with me before, this is an annual event, I am thrilled that it is finally here!

Here's how it works, there are three ways to earn free stamps:

- It's a fabulous time to purchase your crafting needs through me as every time you place an order for $120 or more in product, you can choose one of the SAB sets for free!

- Host a workshop that gets to $700 in product (believe me that isn't hard given that your guests will love what I have to offer and they'll all want their own free sets too!) and earn another free set just for reaching that workshop sales total.

- If you've ever thought about joining my team, whether as a hobby demonstrator (purchase your own supplies at a discount) or as a part or full time demonstrator, now is a great time to do that too since you will also be able to choose any stamp set up to the value of $95.95, for free! As a full time, experienced Demonstrator myself, I'm ideally placed to help you with your business goals, whatever they may be. There's never any pressure from me to sell, just lots of support, fun and opportunities to learn, expand your skills and share what you love, too. Contact me to find out more!

Check out the Sale-A-Bration stamp sets you can choose from this year:

For more details, click here to download a PDF of the Sale-A-Bration brochure, containing images of the sets and lots of projects to inspire you! If you'd like a hard copy of this brochure, simply place a minimum $50 order with me and I'll pop one in with your order. (By the way, my free magazine or sample offer with $50 orders from this post still applies, too!).

To try out the stamps and see more projects in real life (my launch party is tonight, woo hoo!), place an order to get your hands on your set(s), or for more information on joining my team, please contact me, click here to send me an email.

Thanks for visiting!

Play Date Notepad Gift

2011-01-21T09:00:00.002+13:00

Hi everyone,
I don't know why it took me so long to blog again, it really isn't that difficult seeing as I can talk the hind legs off a donkey... And now that I'm my own boss, I have a bit more time to make things to inspire you. I'm getting paid to create, and blog, how cool is that! I actually have a lot of stuff I've made and photographed that I've never shared on my blog. So here I am back again already, with another project and tip to help you in your own creative journey!

This notepad is a relatively big one - A5 size. More often, I decorate smaller note pads and other items to give away as gifts to my workshop hostesses. I picked up this notepad (undecorated of course!) in a clearance sale. I can't remember how much it was as it was a while back, but I know I was pretty thrilled at the time to see the potential in a plain old pack of paper. Score! (Yes, it doesn't take much to get me excited - a cheap pack of notepads and I can be dancing around in the aisle!)

Anyway, I made this notepad as part of a team gift swap at my team leader's house in December. I had a lot of fun making it, but I must admit that initially when I looked at the Play Date Designer Series Paper, while loving the bright colours, the sheer "busy-ness" of this particular sheet had me a little stumped. Yikes! How do you work with paper that has so many bright colours and so much detail, without your finished project looking like something out of a 70's movie?

Well, after a little bit of fiddling, I was happy with my design and there are two tips I can give you for how I work with very bright and detailed patterns.

1. Just use a little bit. Less is more! Just use a narrow strip on your card or layout, on a plain background in one of the colours in the paper. Don't overcrowd the project with too many embellishments and make sure the colours match (Stampin' Up! is famous for coordinating colours of papers and inks with embellishments, by the way!). That softens the impact on the eye and it won't be so "in your face".
If you have the Play Date DSP, you could cut out individual squares from this sheet and mount them onto slightly larger squares and use those as your focal point rather than using the paper as the background. Hmm, that might be an idea for a future project to share with you!

2. Do as I did here. Use lots of the detailed paper, but add a large area of "white space" with your focal point. In my example it really is white, but it could be a soft colour, too. Just a nice big patch of a single colour, as the eye will naturally be drawn to this calm place. And then your focal image(s) placed in this white space will really pop, as they won't drown in the clutter of your background patterns.

I know some of you like to know what else I've used so here's a little recipe for this project:
Stamps: Funky Four (super cute!), Apple Blossoms (Hostess Level 2)
Colours: Real Red, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, So Saffron
DSP: Play Date
Other: Square Scallop die from the Summer Mini catalogue (love it!), Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Big Shot Machine, Old Olive 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals.

Did you like this gift? I'm currently taking workshop bookings and have spaces available during Feb and March if you're interested. Not only will you receive a free copy of the current catalogue (worth $15.95) and a lovingly hand-made gift from me (priceless!), but you and your friends will each have the chance to earn FREE Sale-A-Bration stamp sets with orders of $120 in product and you'll earn extra set(s) with a qualifying workshop total. So check your diaries (if you have one, if not, do check out my previous post here!) and let me know when would suit you!

Workshops take around 2 hours and can be held at my place or yours, whichever you prefer! You provide the guests and some light refreshments (I'm talking a bottle of juice and a pack of biscuits here, not a 3-course meal) and let me do the rest! I'm now working very flexible hours - so with a bit of planning in my new diary and a little child care negotiation with my very supportive hubby, I can do weekdays, week nights or weekends. Have car will travel, too... you don't need to be in Auckland to book me for a workshop!

If you have any questions about workshops or you have other tips for how to create with detailed patterns and not ruin your eyes looking at them, do post a comment or click here to email me and share!

But wait, there's more...I'm having a Sale-A-Bration launch party here next week, Tuesday 25th, the day it opens, at 7-9pm. Yippee, I can't wait! Check my sidebar for more details and email me to reserve your place!

Happy stamping!

Getting Organised for 2011!

2011-01-20T14:09:00.000+13:00

Hi everyone, and Happy New Year!
I hope you've all had a lovely break for Christmas and New Year. Isn't it bliss? This is the first time in years that I've been home for a decent period of time during the summer school holidays to relax with my family. My daughter is growing up so fast and I'm really glad I don't miss out on the fun anymore by going to work! The working from home concept is turning out to be a fabulous lifestyle choice for me I must say.

Now I know it looks like I've been sitting on my butt doing nothing much, since I haven't blogged in over a month. I don't believe in New Year's resolutions (I always break them!) but I know my new business coach will be kicking my butt if I don't start to blog regularly, so if you don't see that happening, feel free to harrass me too!

I've not really been lazing around doing nothing though. I'm a bit like one of those ducklings you see in the pond in spring - it doesn't look like much is going on, but beneath the surface the little feet are paddling hard out! In December I kept myself busy (other than the usual Christmas shopping panic!) by making Christmas gifts for my direct team members. I've always wanted to do that to show them how much I appreciate them, but never had the time until this year, since I finished my day job at the end of November. So I jumped at the chance to make some gifts for my team. I covered a bunch of diaries in different designer series papers (DSP) and added a focal image and the year. I also made a matching pen using the DSP, and also sent them some Christmas treats - jelly beans in Christmas colours all packaged up cute with a bit of punch art. I love punch art!

Here's a few of the diaries I made:

Blueberry Crisp DSP - I used the matching set, Razzle Dazzle, with this paper. I love how Stampin' Up! give us things that match!

Sunny Garden DSP - and isn't that Beautiful Wings embosslit to die cut the butterflies, just to die for? (Pun intended!)

Elegant Soiree DSP (you can see this one in person because I like that paper so much that I made one of these for me, too!). It also uses the Top Note die among others, that gets a lot of use around here!

Play Date DSP - don't you just love the bright colours combo, I know Sam was thrilled to receive this as I had used her favourite paper! I had a lot of fun with my markers inking up the stamps.

Woodland Walk DSP - so much fun watercolouring those flowers! Love those Scallop Trim border and corner punches too. I am not a colouring expert, but I'm practicing!

Since the start of the year I've already done my first mini-Extravaganza through a private request, thanks to the lovely ladies that attended! I can't show you the projects yet because I've re-designed one of them to use at my team's stamp camp in a couple of weeks, and to show you would spoil the surprise for them. So now I'm busy doing all the cutting work to prepare tonnes of kits to use there. It's going to be a blast! But once that event is done, I'll share the projects with you.

I loved making the diaries for my team and it's also something I really needed myself, I simply need to be more organised! Here's an organisational tip: use only one diary/scheduler. I used to have the computer schedule at work plus a hard diary to take to meetings, another diary for my stamping business, and a calendar at home for social events. But seriously, maintaining all of those takes time, it's a total drag and you're more likely to miss something or clash appointments. So if at all possible, just use one!

Do you still need a diary?
I have a couple of extras here, so if you'd like me to make one for you too, you have a couple of options:
- join my team between now and February 15 (and you could also earn a free stamp set of your choice!! Click here to ask me for more details!), or
- place a $50 or more order before Feb 15, receive a free copy of the current mini catalogue,
and you'll be in the draw to win! You can choose the DSP you'd like me to use and I'll make you a matching pen, too.

All orders of $50 or more also qualify for a FREE gift, too! I am currently clearing out a tonne of projects using retired items, and crafting magazines that I have collected over the past 6 years. So if you're in need of inspiration, I can help! You can choose between a magazine or a sample and either collect that in person when you order, or if you're ordering via phone or email I'll select something for you and it will be added to your new goodies when they arrive. This is a limited offer - only available until I've cleared it all out! What will you choose??

I'm working on my mailing list currently, and have so many ideas for newsletters with helpful tips and hints and projects and special subscriber-only offers, I hardly know where to begin! If you'd like to sign up for my newsletters, please click here to email me, just put "Subscribe" in the subject heading. If you're local, and keen to attend classes, keep an eye on my sidebar as I'm figuring out my schedule for the next couple of months too. Please email me to request particular techniques or projects you've seen and want to try, too. I love to customise my classes to meet your needs!

Please note: Stampin' Up! rules only allow me to sell product to you if you're based in NZ, thanks!

Have a great day!

December Frenzy News & Aviary Card holder

2010-12-11T22:46:00.000+13:00

Hi everyone!
Now I've been bad I know, I neglected to blog about the December Frenzy and the Summer Mini catalogue, while every other Demo in the country it seems was blogging about them on the 1st December, I was busy running around getting ready for my team Christmas party / training day. I baked over 130 cupcakes and taught them how to decorate them (yes, after just one lesson myself I was ready to throw myself off the deep end and teach my friends!). Some I think have already blogged about that but I will share pics and details of that in a future post. Right now, there are more urgent matters to let you know about!

The December Frenzy has gone so well that Stampin' Up! have just announced that some items will be returning to their usual pricing earlier than expected, to avoid out of stocks (which we as Demos hate!). So you only have until Sunday night (that's TOMORROW - you only have about 24 hours!) to place your orders for Pumpkin Pie, Bravo Burgundy and Night of Navy markers before they go back to the usual price at midnight Sunday night. Contact me QUICK if you want any of these colours! Also, we've been told that other items may revert back to their usual prices early too, depending on how quickly they sell the stock they'd put aside at the sale pricing. We won't have advance notice of this change, so again if you want anything from the December Frenzy, don't wait as you may miss out!

Here are the details in case you haven't already seen them:

Item	Page	Description	Retail Price	Sale Price
119181	39	A Little Treat Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$26.95	$13.48
120018	39	A Little Treat Clear-Mount Stamp Set	$21.95	$10.98
119189	40	Tote-Ally Tess Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$45.95	$32.17
111255	43	Daisy Dash Jumbo Stampin’ Around Wheel	$19.50	$11.70
121482	56	Baby Bundle Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$59.95	$41.97
119161	72	Autumn Days Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$46.95	$23.48
120012	77	Pendant Park Clear-Mount Stamp Set	$36.95	$18.48
113031	88	Tart & Tangy Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$26.95	$18.87
115806	91	Fresh Cuts Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$46.95	$32.87
115946	102	Wonderful Favorites Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$47.95	$28.77
119167	104	Heard from the Heart Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$46.95	$28.17
119185	105	Teeny Tiny Sentiments Wood-Mount Stamp Set	$75.95	$37.98
105115	118	Pumpkin Pie Stampin’ Write Marker	$6.95	$4.87
105106	119	Certainly Celery Stampin’ Write Marker	$6.95	$4.17
100045	119	Pretty in Pink Stampin’ Write Marker	$6.95	$4.17
105114	119	So Saffron Stampin’ Write Marker	$6.95	$4.17
105111	119	Bashful Blue Stampin’ Write Marker	$6.95	$4.17
105108	119	Regal Rose Stampin’ Write Marker	$6.95	$4.17
105109	120	Bravo Burgundy Stampin’ Write Marker	$6.95	$4.17
100069	120	Night of Navy Stampin’ Write Marker	$6.95	$4.87
100082	121	Basic Black Stampin’ Write Marker	$6.95	$4.17
103104	122	Small Cello Bags	$9.25	$5.55
111325	140	Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware	$70.50	$35.25
112530	140	Circle Scissor Plus	$67.95	$40.77
116681	161	Kind Heart Wood-Mount Stamp Set*	$14.50	$7.25

Shipping isn't included in these prices, generally it will be another 5% on top of these prices depending on whether I can combine your order with others to save you a bit of money on that, if not the shipping charge is minimum $9.95. If you want to place an order just email me and we can sort that bit out no problem.

I know the markers are selling well but it's actually other items in the sale that I'm excited about (since I already have all of the marker colours, oops....). Here's a project that I put together as a make n take for my team at our Christmas party. It uses the Aviary stamp set and the new Lattice embossing folder from the Summer mini catalogue, but it also uses the Teeny Tiny Sentiments stamp set (currently a steal at $37.98 plus shipping!) and the small cello bags (on sale at $5.55 plus shipping for 50 bags!). Some of my team were at a loss as to what to do with these bags, most often you see them used as the packaging for lollies (that's candy to my overseas readers!) or other small gifts.

Here I've used them to make a cute little card holder to give as a gift to someone. It's really easy to change out the stamps used and make it look completely different. This project was not my original idea, I cased the idea from Andrea Walford who used the medium cellophane bags to make a bigger version this time last year, and made Christmas tags to put inside instead of little cards as I've done here. I also used magnets to hold the folder closed where I think she used velcro. I had some sheet magnet lying around and it worked well, so that's what I used!

If you'd like to see this project in real life (it does look better than in my pics!) or place an order for the December Frenzy products or items from the Summer mini, click here to email me. It's not long until Christmas - if you'd like your goodies in time for the big day, don't delay!

To view the December Frenzy or Summer Mini items online, click here to visit the promotions page of my official Stampin' Up! website. If you'd like a free copy of the Summer Mini, I'm giving them away with all orders placed in December or January.

Thanks for visiting!

Exciting news!

2010-11-26T21:10:00.000+13:00

Hi everyone,
I'm sorry for not posting anything lately, and I'm sorry for not having a project to share with you tonight. I'm feeling a little wiped out, to be honest.

I have some big news to share - over the past four weeks I have been going through a restructuring at my day job and to make a long story short, today was my last day at work. If you have ever been made redundant yourself you will know how mentally and emotionally exhausting it is, even if you have something else in mind to do. I was one of several who finished at work today, so at least we were able to support each other. Those of you who had my work contact details, please check that you're now contacting me solely at home, thanks!

So the exciting news is, I am now officially self employed, and able to devote more time to stamping!

What does this mean? I'm going to have more time for classes and workshops, and I can't wait!!! If you've ever wanted to attend a class or host a workshop on a week day or evening, I can now do that! Feel free to e-mail me and let me know what nights you'd most like to see me hold classes here. I'm happy to be guided by majority rules!

Not only that, but I will have more time for creating and blogging too, and less excuses not to! Give me a few days to regain a bit of energy that the last four weeks have drained from me, and come join me on my new adventure!

I've decided to kick things off with a bang, we're going to have a new mini catalogue launch party / redundancy party here at my home on December 1st, 7pm - 9pm. If you enjoyed my last post, there may even be cupcakes involved... Spaces will be limited, so e-mail me now to book!

Have a fabulous weekend and I'll be back soon!

Cupcakes!

2010-11-01T08:00:00.001+13:00

Hi everyone,
I don't know about you but whenever I go to the Dunkleys show I seem to spend up large - I spend far more than I make from having a stand at the show! But, it's a great place to buy gifts for Christmas presents so I don't regret the spendup one little bit!

The weekend after the Dunkleys show, I had a class to go to (yes, I got to be a student for a change!) but it wasn't a papercrafting class, it was a cupcake decorating class. My friend Sarah is getting married soon and so for her Hen's party instead of a traditional boozy night on the town, she opted to go to Millys with us and learn to decorate cupcakes. It's incredibly trendy right now - and as I discovered, awesome fun and something I could really get into... although I need a new hobby like I need a hole in the head...

I wanted to get a gift for Sarah but I was really stuck until I found a cute little stand at the show called the Soap Barrow which was selling lovely smelling soaps in the shape of cupcakes. Perfect! I selected three of them and made up my own carry box to present them to the Bride To Be in. The box was very simply decorated with a few die-cut flowers, and a little bling... By the time I'd figured out the box design itself with the apertures and wasted a few sheets of Crumb Cake 12x12" cardstock making it, there wasn't much time left for the decorating part! But Sarah has very classic taste and likes things to be clean and simple so in the end I think this was perfect for her.

Recipe:

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Marina Mist, Pink Pirouette, Window sheets

Other: Blossom Party Die and Big Shot, Boho Blossoms punch, 1" circle punch, Circle Ice Rhinestone Brads, Basic Pearls, Marina Mist 5/8" grosgrain ribbon

Now for the yummy bit I promised you in my last post... Here are the cupcakes I decorated at Millys! Some I tried to pretty much copy what they showed us, and others (the ones in pink, which my daughter loved!) were my own "design". Using the grass tip on the icing bag was a little tricky, I think my hedgehog looks like it's been spun around in the washing machine! The petals on the sunflower were much easier. I hope I did OK for a complete beginner. And yes, they were tasty! I like baking, but have never really tried decorating the things I bake. I really enjoyed doing this, wonder if I should start doing "cards and cupcakes" events! What do you think?

Don't forget, if you want to come to Extravaganza, now is the time to contact me, click here! You could be the winner of one of our fabulous door prizes, as well as having a fun afternoon out to get on top of your Christmas crafting!

Happy stamping,

The Dunkleys Show

2010-10-31T14:19:00.000+13:00

Hi everyone,
Sorry to keep you waiting for these pics. I took them at the Dunkleys show of course, but have been flat out since then preparing for a number of upcoming events on my schedule. Least of all was the 90 kits that Mandy and I have prepared for our team Extravaganza this coming Saturday, November 6th. Phew I'm glad they're done now so I can look forward to the event itself. It's going to be a fantastic afternoon!

Thanks to everyone who came to the show and visited our little stand. It's the smallest stand we've ever had at a show, but I hope we made it work for you! Next time I think we'll see if we can get a slightly bigger stand, and have somewhere to sit and craft so we can show you a few tips to help you with your own papercrafting.

Congratulations to Ann C who won our prize basket on the day. I hope you've been having fun with your new goodies Ann!

If you haven't booked into the Extravaganza event and you're interested in attending, do let me know as we still have some spaces left - so hurry and let me know! For more information you can contact me by e-mail, click here and I will email you the details.

OK so here are the fabulous Karen and Vicky-Lee at the show. It was the first time Vicky-Lee had worked with Karen and I at a show and she was a little camera shy!

Check out my ribbon displays. Aren't they just the prettiest collection of ribbons you ever saw? That's not all of our ribbons either... If you'd like to see the rest, and see them all in real life, come along to our Extravaganza as I'll have them on show there!

And finally here's a shot of some of the goodies we had for sale at the show. We had a tonne of brand new stamp sets for sale (all retired ones - all mine - I got a little carried away with my own shopping in the last catalogue or two!) and some Christmas things we'd made. Those snowmen bookmarks that Vicky-Lee made were a huge hit and were snapped up really quick by visitors to the show! I love making stuff like that - I will have to do something like that for my upcoming classes. Want to join me?

Come back soon (and I mean that - I'm setting the post up next!) as I've got some yummy stuff to show you that I've been doing since the show. I do mean yummy as in the edible kind, as well!

Dressing up for Christmas Ribbon Offer

2010-10-16T22:34:00.000+13:00

Hi everyone,
Apologies for the long break in blogging (again). I hope you haven't missed me too much! I have been busy preparing for the Dunkleys Craft Show which is on in Auckland this weekend. We had a fun day at our little stand today - a big Hi to all the lovely ladies who came to have a look at what we had to offer, it was so nice to chat with you all today! I will be in touch with some of you soon who were interested in receiving more details of our upcoming Christmas Extravaganza - it's going to be such a fun afternoon! I can't wait to show you the project I've designed for the day - but until after the event, my lips are sealed...

If you weren't at the show but you're interested in attending the Extravaganza (or any of my events/classes for that matter), feel free to email me for more details. I love to introduce crafters to our events for the first time - the delight on everyone's faces when they see the projects makes the many hours of prep work worthwhile!

In the meantime, I thought I'd let you know about the new ribbon promotion that Stampin' Up! is offering between now and the end of November. Us Demonstrators only found out about this one yesterday, so we are all just as excited as everyone else! I'm not sure what I'm more excited about - new ribbons I haven't had before, or the Christmas Cocoa DSP which I can't wait to lay my hands on!

If you ever want to know what promotions are on at any time, just visit the promotions page of my official Stampin' Up! website (click here). But so you can see it right away, here are the details of this latest offer. Just click on the pics to enlarge them if you want to see the finer details. Mmmm, I just love the colours! I'll be after that new DSP, too!

Do let me know if you'd like to take advantage of this offer as the ribbons are only available while stocks last!

Back soon with pics from our Dunkleys stand if I can get some good ones tomorrow!

Out with the old, in with the new

2010-09-27T08:00:00.001+13:00

Hi everyone!
Gosh it's been a long time since I posted on here. I've almost forgotten how! Welcome to all of my new subscribers, it's so wonderful to know you like my work!

Some of you will know that I've been rather poorly of late and right now I still have no voice. Teaching classes when you can barely whisper is interesting, believe me! It's been more than a week now since I could speak properly and although the doctor tells me my voice will come back, it's taking a lot longer than I'd hoped. It's not funny like it was a week ago! And what voice I do have (sporadically), well let me say I don't think I'll have a career as an opera singer anytime soon!

So while I've mostly been bedridden for the past week and absent from my day job, when I was starting to feel better (and in need of a distraction) I climbed out of my sick bed and thought I would try playing with the new Owl punch. I love this punch!

This post is as much for my wonderful team member and friend, Tee-Jay, as it is for anyone else. Last year and this year, I've put together a swatch book of all of the designer series papers (DSP) in the catalogues, to take to my workshops and events, so that my customers can see all of the designs in real life. Now if you know me, I hate to waste things. I'm a bit of a recycling nut really and I told Tee-Jay that it was a great idea to put our books together using our Dotto removable adhesive, so that once they were not useful anymore as swatches (after the catalogue finished) we could take them back out and whip up some quick little cards with them. She was a bit skeptical I think that it'd be that useful, so I set out to show her it can be done!

I've taken my least favourite DSP from the last catalogue, Pink Flamingo (sorry for those of you that love this paper but I did struggle with some of the patterns!), and teamed it up with some new products to make an Owl-fully cute (if I say so myself) set of cards. These were so fun to make - although I made my owls look "normal", I did have a giggle when the eyes were crosseyed during the construction process, so you could make yours look as wacky as you like! I also took our standard envelopes and modified them to make square ones to fit these cards perfectly. Want to know how to do this? Book a workshop with me and I'll show you how! Our envelopes are fantastic for stamping on, which I did using the flower from Funky Four.

Some of these cards are already winging their way to new homes - because I've been slow to get orders processed this past week, those of you who were at my last Mt Eden evening and placed orders will be receiving one of these to use as a special thank you from me.

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Just Believe, Printed Petals, Funky Four
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise
Ink: Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turqoise & Old Olive markers
Punch: Two Step Owl XL (you've got to get this!), Modern Label, Word Window
DSP: Pink Flamingo (retired)

And the best part (for the recycler in me!) was that the only pieces in these that weren't scraps were the Chocolate Chip cardstock square behind the DSP square, the Crumb Cake card base, and the envelopes. Everything else was a scrap bit, including the piece of Stampin' Up! dimensional behind the little flower on the owls. I cut tiny bits for those from the border left on the sheet of dimensionals. Waste not want not is a favourite saying of my mother from when I was a child and that has stuck with me all these years!

If you would like a copy of the new catalogue, from now until mid October I'm offering these at $10 plus postage. RRP is $15.95 so contact me now (click here) to order yours!

Stay tuned because I am working on some other neat offers, so keep your fingers crossed I can fight off this bug and get back into blogging again soon!

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

2010-08-30T08:00:00.004+12:00

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

2010-08-11T08:00:00.001+12:00

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

2010-07-11T22:21:00.000+12:00

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!

2010-07-01T07:00:00.000+12:00

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!

2010-06-23T09:11:00.003+12:00

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

2010-06-16T01:24:00.007+12:00

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!

2010-06-09T06:00:00.004+12:00

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!

Deals of the Week and my Convention Swaps!

2010-06-01T06:00:00.000+12:00

Morning everyone,

Oh wow have I got a deal for you! Stampin' Up! have announced that during June, we're going to have "deals of the week" where we can get up to 50% off fabulous products from the Idea Book & Catalogue, how cool is that?!

This is the first week's deal:

For one week only, you can purchase any or all of these large punches for just $23.37 each, plus shipping (which will be 5% of your total order), these are normally $35.95! Check out the first three on page 152/153 of the catalogue (click on the picture in the sidebar to view it online).

- 112081 Scallop Square punch
- 109183 Trio Flower punch
- 110711 Boho Blossoms punch
- 114889 Scallop Oval punch (this was in our Spring Mini catalogue, and is still available!)

If you don't already have the Idea Book & Catalogue, be sure to contact me as I still have copies here - I might even be persuaded to give you one for FREE when you're one of the first to place an order for one or more of these punches... but you'll need to be quick as the offer closes on June 8th! Click here to e-mail me now!

Now it just so happens that I used the Boho Blossoms punch on my Convention swaps, and I'm finally revealing them here! I used it to make the little flowers that I layered up to embellish some little boxes. Me being me, I wanted even more detail - so I used my paper snips to cut between each of the petals. I made 100 of these boxes to swap at Convention, and more than one person has said to me "I can't believe you did that". The things we do to share what we love, right?! I made these boxes over a few weeks, so it wasn't all done at once, and I had a little factory line going whenever I sat down to work on them. Usually it was in front of the TV! The flowers were the first thing that I put together, actually, and that was one of the fastest bits! Oh, I must mention and thank my fabulous friend Denise, who did spend a few hours helping me make these. She did all the embossing with the Polka Dot embossing folder! Thanks Denise, you're a gem!

So here's the box closed:

Here's a close up of the embellishment on the top. Lots of detail and layering. I admit after punching out 200 of those leaf stem things, I did have a bit of a sore arm!

And here it is open so you can see how it folds flat(ish). I wouldn't have fit them in my suitcase if they hadn't been able to fold like this!

And here's what 100 of them all together, ready for swapping, looks like. Well in fact you're looking at 101 here, as the one that's on the top is the first one I made, and is the only one I still have in my possession!

Finally, here's the recipe (everything from Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Tiny Tags (from the Autumn-Winter mini)
Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence, Whisper White, Old Olive
Ink: Old Olive (not much stamping on these boxes, just the tag!)
Punches: Medium jewellery tag, XL Two-step bird punch, Boho Blossoms, 1/16" hand held punch, 1/2" circle punch
Other: Big Shot & Curly Label Movers & Shapers die with Holiday Windows set, Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Cottage Wall DSP, Linen thread, Silver Brads, Paper piercer, Stampin' Dimensionals, Sticky Strip

Hope you like them! Gotta have that Boho Blossoms punch now, don't you??
Have a fabulous day!

Simply Sunday Sketch Challenge

2010-05-30T13:22:00.005+12:00

Hi everyone!

OK, so I've been lazy since coming back from Convention and haven't blogged about it yet. I'll do that... later! I'm busy trying to tidy up my craft room at the moment. I've come back from Convention all inspired - but so that I don't get back on that treadmill of making a huge mess when I'm preparing for classes, and then wasting SO much time trying to find things in the mess, I'm going hard out trying to get myself organised properly first, and form the new habit of tidying up as I go. We'll see how well I do!

I know I haven't shared my Convention swaps with you yet. I'll do that. In the meantime, I have to blog this card first. It's the only one I've made in the past week (shock horror!) and I made it specifically to enter Heather's sketch challenge. I only have a couple of hours to get this in, oops. I made it on Monday and just didn't get around to posting it earlier! Those of you who have followed me for a while, know that I love sketch and colour challenges. It's been too long since I took part in one, so I'm really pleased to be able to do that today.

Heather is one of my favourite Canadian demos, she is amazing! And boy is she fast, if you watch the videos she posts sometimes on her blog, wow! She does fabulous work too. Check it out - click here.

For my card I used the Autumn Days stamp set and the Autumn Traditions DSP in our current mini catalogue. I'm very happy with the card, except for the bow. I just couldn't get the middle of the Soft Suede ribbon to be the polka dot side. But maybe that's not such a bad thing, what do you think?

Come back soon, as I'll be letting you know about the fabulous things coming our way in June... for now, my lips are sealed! But if you have any questions about my card, current promotions (the starter kit is 20% off right now, how cool is that, so if you want to join my fabulous team, now is a fantastic time!), my classes or anything else you see on my blog, click here to send me an e-mail! Don't forget you can also check my official Stampin' Up! website for the latest promotions too, click here to visit that.

Stampin' Up! Convention - Sydney 2010

2010-05-19T22:38:00.007+12:00

Hi everyone!

I'm now in Sydney, Australia, having a little holiday before Stampin' Up!'s Convention officially starts on Friday morning. I have a shopping date with my cousins tomorrow and then I'm checking into the hotel I'm staying at with some of my team-mates. I'm excited to see my room-mates as it's been months since I saw either of them, since they are non-Aucklanders! We are guaranteed to have loads of fun and not very much sleep in the next few days. I did take a little detour in duty free today to get a wee bottle of something to share :-)

Ooh and tomorrow night I get to go to the Manager's reception, and catch up with Shelli (Stampin' Up!'s co-founder and CEO). That will be fun, I can't wait to see what they have in store for us at Convention this year. The sneak peeks at Memento mall so far have been great - I'm sure I will be coming home with a heavy suitcase!

This morning before I raced off to the airport I wanted to blog, but wouldn't you know it, my keyboard had died. There's only so much you can do with a mouse - cutting and pasting letters from somewhere else to write a post didn't appeal! Thankfully my cousin has a working computer so here I am tonight. Phew!

I am so excited to start swapping and see all the fabulous samples on display at Convention. I would show you my swaps, but of course I didn't get to edit the photos with the computer this morning so you'll have to wait until I get home to see those, sorry! In the meantime, here's a recent team swap that I made, using the fabulous Fox & Friends stamp set from the Autumn-Winter mini, and one of my favourite designer paper series - Sweet Always. Oh and I used the Curly Label Movers & Shapers Bigz die to cut the aperture in this card, and the sentiment from the Best Yet hostess set is stamped on Whisper White cardstock and punched out using the curly label punch. Z-fold cards are fun, don't you think?

I did hand-cut the monkey and the fox out for this card - there I go again, hand cutting when I really don't like it - I just love the effect too much!

Hopefully I'll find somewhere at the hotel where I can access my blog for the next few days, so will see if I can keep you updated as to the cool stuff I'm doing! I'm not going to be doing the Make n Take session until Saturday morning, so that will be three full days with no stamping by the time I get there... yikes I'm sure I will be having withdrawl symptoms by then!

Until next time, keep stamping for me!

International Scrapbooking Month - and a special offer!

2010-05-11T07:00:00.002+12:00

Hi everyone,

OK,OK, I know, it's been a long time! I'll be honest, I've not been in the mood to blog for a while. Sometimes, there are just too many other things to be done, you know?

I do appreciate you coming to check up on me, and thank you to those of you who've sent me gentle reminders (wink!). Yes, I have been busy crafting, and those of you who've come to see me recently (or will be seeing me this weekend!) will be seeing some of the fruits of my labours soon. Some of it may show up on here, but remember that I do save some of my creations for my real-life visitors!

You might not know it, but we're in the middle of International Scrapbooking Month. I confess - I'm not really a scrapbooker. I used to pretend I was, but scrapbookers actually scrapbook, don't they? They don't just sit and stare at photos and drool over all the lovely papers and embellishments they have to play with. They actually create scrapbook pages, which I haven't done for quite a while!

I do have a new purchase to show you though, and this has had a number of ladies squealing when they see it. I'm not kidding! One of the reasons I don't often scrapbook is the hassle I always had in putting titles together. I've had some of you tell me how good I am at hand-cutting shapes. Well, I might be good at it, but it doesn't mean that I LIKE doing it. I'll do one or two shapes and then I get a little tired of it. I especially avoid hand cutting letters out. If you don't have letters you can move around, it means you have to stamp them in just the right spot. Me the perfectionist - even with the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, I still stress about botching it up. So I don't end up scrapbooking. But with my new alphabet dies, I can't use that excuse any more can I?

Just take a look at this set! The Stampin' Up! Timeless Type sizzlit alphabet comes packaged in this fabulous case for perfect storage. That black bit at the back - that's actually a bit of cardboard that you can remove and that gives you space for more dies in the case. How cool is that?

The set comes with uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and a few shapes and symbols. Everything you need for fabulous titles! It's a gorgeous classic font I reckon that will never be out of style. At the bottom of this post, there's a special offer for you when you order this set from me before the end of May, so keep reading!

OK now on to a couple of projects for your viewing pleasure! I haven't die cut a title for a scrapbooking page yet. Small steps! I started with some tags, just one letter at a time, and then I moved to a card. Maybe soon...

Here's the tags I made for some of your orders recently. I just LOVE the Fox & Friends stamp set. These tags were so fun to make. I just die cut some circles using the Big Shot (love that machine!) and the Circles #2 die, stamped the images from Fox & Friends on them and added a die-cut initial on top for the finishing touch. I love how the animals sort of look like they are peeking out from behind the letters. These were really well received - at least one husband (other than my own!) was very impressed too!

Second, this is the card that I made for my Mum for Mother's Day. It came together pretty quickly - it uses the Bella Rose DSP, I die cut the word "Mum" and used the word window punch with the Teeny Tiny Sentiments stamp set (also a recent acquisition!) for the sentiment. The flower was simply made by making cuts into a couple of shapes punched with the Scallop Circle and Boho Blossom punches. I curled the petals a little (it's hard to see that from the photo so you'll just have to trust me) and layered them over some die cut "Little Leaves", how awesome is that Sizzlit die! I added some Riding Hood Red striped grosgrain ribbon, a Rhinestone brad to add a little bling, and voila! a card that Mum was very happy with for her special day.

If you're still with me - thanks! Here's my special offer for the rest of May. When you order the Timeless Type alphabet die set through me by the end of May ($175.30 including shipping), I will throw in a sampler pack of DSP and matching ribbons, free! You'll receive a 6x6" piece of each of the designer series papers from the new Autumn Winter mini, so that's 12 pieces altogether (six from Cottage Wall and six from Autumn Traditions), plus samples of coordinating ribbons. If you've been admiring the papers but you're not sure if you want to purchase a whole pack yourself, this is a great chance to try them out. And you could use them with your new dies - titles cut from DSP are gorgeous! Click here to e-mail me and place your order.

If you don't have a copy of the Autumn-Winter mini yet, send me an e-mail and I'll get one out to you pronto. (Offer only available if you live in NZ, thanks!)

Thanks for visiting!

Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue Launch Party

2010-04-05T21:46:00.004+12:00

Hi everyone,

I hope you've had a lovely Easter and enjoyed one or two Easter Eggs! I'm a bit sad that I have to go back to work in the morning, four days did go a bit too fast for me because I've not managed to make everything on my "to create" list yet! It was an ambitious list though, and I can't even show you what I was making because that would ruin the surprise for the recipients.

Anyway, the Autumn Winter mini catalogue is officially open and if you hadn't noticed already, I've linked the picture of it (see the sidebar at right) so when you click on it you'll be taken to my official Stampin' Up! website and be able to view the mini online. So many wonderful things to drool over!

If you would like a hard copy of the mini and you live in NZ, do let me know and I can get one out to you. Better still, come to my launch party this coming Sunday 11th to see lots of things from the mini up close and personal, and try some of them out when you complete your make n take projects so you can be sure to order your favourites! The party starts at 2pm and you can come anytime between then and 5pm. I'll have some light refreshments and lots of samples to inspire you and a prize draw you can enter to win some goodies too! There's no charge for attending my party, but you must RSVP by this Friday so I can be sure to prepare kits for you. Click here to e-mail me and book your space!

Of course, it wouldn't be a good blog post without the "card candy" now would it! Here's a 6x6" page I did as a swap recently (yes, I do create scrapbook pages sometimes!). Here I used the lovely Vintage Vogue stamp set and the rock & roll stamping technique to create my flower embellishment, and I hand cut the flowers out for this page. The frame where I will eventually add a photo when I can find a suitable one, is made using the Top Note Die and my fantastic new Big Shot die cutting machine. I love the Big Shot, it's getting a lot of use! The fabulous Top Note die puts a perforation line on the cut shape so I die cut it once in Perfect Plum and again in Old Olive, and trimmed the Old Olive one along the perforations to get a layered frame. Easy! You'll see more projects here in the coming months using the Top Note die, it's very versatile and I can't wait to try out all the ideas that are running around my head. Oh to have more hours in a day!

Don't miss my launch party if you'd like to see more of all the samples I've been making. I'll share some of them on here, but I rarely share it all - that's why you need to see me in real life from time to time, then you get to see everything I've designed!

Just 24 hours to go until the Summer Mini is gone!

2010-03-30T23:34:00.004+13:00

Hi everyone,

I hope you enjoyed my last post. I'm back to show you a final three projects that I made using Summer Mini and Sale-A-Bration stamp sets, before they are unavailable to order. The SAB sets will be gone forever, I'm sorry to say, as I haven't used them enough, how typical! Some of the Summer Mini products I hope will be back in our new main catalogue in September, but we don't know which ones, if any. So really, if there's something you love and don't have it yet, you need to let me know now so I can get it for you before it's too late! Click here if you want to e-mail me.

OK for tonight here's the first project. Those of you who have come to my events in the past, know that we put your name on your welcome pack. I have a reputation of doing more than just putting your name on your bag... It's getting harder to come up with new ideas but I love the challenge, so this time (given I was pushed for time) I quickly decorated little notepads with the names of my guests and tied those onto the bags. I used a range of Designer Series Papers (and it was lovely that one of my guests noticed how I had used her favourite on her notepad - I did try to match them up with what I know or suspect that my guests love!). I first printed their names onto Whisper White cardstock using my computer and printer, and then used the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to help me to stamp a frame around each name. I used the Vintage Labels Sale-a-bration stamp set. I love that set, I'm likely to be keeping mine forever! I also used a range of different ribbons, felt flowers and punched flowers/shapes in colours that tied in with the Designer Series Papers. Stampin' Up! does make colour coordination so easy for me, I can't think how I ever managed before!

The second project is a picture of the bag labels I used to label up my guests' orders once they arrived. If you've ordered from me in the past couple of years, you'll know that each time you get an order, there's a different tag on it. I'm probably just a little obsessive about it... but I want to give you a different tag every time, so it's a little piece of inspiration that you're getting every time you order from me. Again it's a little tough sometimes to keep coming up with tag ideas, but I relish that challenge too! These tags were made by once again printing out names, stamping the frame from "Framed with Love" from the Summer mini, then hand-cutting out the shape and attaching it to a 1 3/4" circle punched out of the same or contrasting coloured cardstock. No adhesive on these - they're just attached with a brad. On the circle I stamped thank you from the "Wow flowers" set from the main catalogue. To see that message you simply twist the label away from the circle. Neat huh? Oh, and yes, I did use some retired silver cord on these tags. I love that stuff and bought up several rolls of it when I found out it was retiring, so I still have a bit left! It went nicely with the silver brads, so I used it.

And last but not least, here's one of the cards that I taught at my last Techniques class. It uses the Hello Again stamp set from the Summer Mini - such a cute little set, and very inexpensive - $25.95 plus shipping for a set of 5 stamps! I also used the Framed with Love set from the Summer mini to stamp out the scalloped rectangle. Do you like the colourful background on this card? I taught my guests how to make their own patterned background papers using Stampin' Up! colours so they can coordinate the background with whatever colours are used for the rest of it. If you want to learn how to do techniques like this one, you'll just have to come to my class!

Hope you liked these and I'll be back again very soon with the new Autumn-Winter mini... can you stand the wait?!

Last Call for Sale-A-Bration & Summer Mini orders!

2010-03-30T07:00:00.001+13:00

Hi everyone,

I've been spending so much time in my "happy place" creating with my pre-order goodies, trying to make myself happy again, that I've realised I have quite a few projects that I photographed when I made them, to show you and haven't gotten around to doing that. So with just a couple of days left until the Summer Mini is gone (sob!) I thought I'd better show you a few of the things I've made over the past month or two, while you can still order the supplies if you want to CASE these!

Are you ready? OK, here goes!

First up is a card I made to hold a little gift for my friend Karen, when I came back from Hawaii. This card uses the Sweet Treat cups (and of course the 1 3/4" circle punch to punch the aperture for the cup to sit in). The gift was a cute little cellphone attachment with her inital in blue, so I used Brilliant Blue to match that in the card. Something Sweet is the stamp set I've used here - I'd been wanting to make a sunflower card with this set since I got it, so I finally got that off my list! The card has a "trap door" meaning that using the chocolate chip tab on the right, you can open the cup and retrieve whatever is inside, without having to destroy the card. It also means this card is re-fillable, so Karen may have since added something else where the charm is in the pic. Oh, and I used the Whimsical Words SAB set to stamp the greeting. I just love the font in that set. I'll miss it when it's gone! Sniff...

Second, here's a treat holder that I CASED from Stampin' Up!. In fact, I cased it from my own Stampin' Up! website! It's an automated thing that new projects are added to my website by Stampin' Up! all the time, and this one (with a couple of slight modifications, I changed the ribbon to Riding Hood Red Taffeta, and made my treat holder bigger) is from there. It uses the gorgeous Razzle Dazzle stamp set, which I have not used enough, I feel. Life got in the way I guess... Anyway, I can add my own projects to my official website too, but I haven't done that yet, I'm a bit slow when it comes to technology and I've only really just gotten the hang of posting projects here on my blog! If you haven't seen the projects on my website, you can find them by clicking here. If you like a particular project, you can just click on it for details of the supplies used to make it. Cool feature, hey? Do have a good look at my website as I'm using the events calendar more on there, and as I figure it out you can expect to see more things on there. You can join my team via that website too! Just let me know if you're interested, as you'll need a password to do that.

Third project today (are you in shock yet?!) is an Easter project I made to give as a door prize at our Hamilton Extravaganza back in mid-February. I had intended to blog about it back then, but things fell apart for my family shortly after that event, as you will know if you've read my most recent couple of posts. Anyway, I found these super cute little Easter Eggs and realised they'd be perfect with the Tea Party designer series paper, as the colours were just right. I used A Good Egg (isn't the chick so cute!) for the stamping and made this box with the sweet treat cup on the top. The box held a covered note pad and a matching pen, made with the same designer series paper. I even used that to paper piece the egg, I've admired paper piecing for quite a while and finally got around to doing some myself. Once again, I've used the trap-door approach so that the guest who won this at the event could eat those yummy little eggs without ruining the box to get them out. The greeting on the box was from Occasional Greetings and the one on the notepad used "Best Yet", which I've shown quite a bit on here I think, as it's my favourite hostess set from the main catalogue.

Well I think that's enough for this post, I'll be back soon to show you some more projects I've made recently. In the meantime if there's anything you'd like to order from the Summer Mini catalogue, click here to e-mail me before the end of the month (gosh, just two days left!).

Auckland Extravaganza - Backpack Box

2010-03-17T22:33:00.004+13:00

Hi everyone,

First, let me start by saying thank you to all of you wonderful people out there who have sent cards, e-mails and called to let me know you're thinking of me and to offer support. I am so touched, my family and I have been overwhelmed by the response we've had to my Dad's sudden passing. I am so lucky to know each of you! Dad was a wonderful man and I miss him terribly - I wonder if the pain will ever ease, especially for my Mum. Next week the Manukau City Council are having a tribute to my Dad - what an honour, and I'm so proud that his committment to the community and to education are being acknowledged so publicly.

I'm sorry that I haven't blogged in a while; as you can expect I have been spending a lot of time with my family. Tragedies like my Dad's death make you focus on the important things in life, family and friendships, so my blog like many other things around here (eg the vacuuming!) have been somewhat neglected! Please bear with me as I catch up on things.

One thing I have kept up with however is my stamping. I'm finding it very therapeutic, it's my "happy place" and makes me smile when I create something that others will enjoy. Dad was very people-focused and would have wanted me to keep doing what I do, sharing my love of crafting with you all. So I've carried on and did manage to do our latest stamping event, our Auckland Extravaganza on Saturday.

Here's the project I created especially for the event, and the one we did a little while ago in the Hamilton area, a backpack box designed to hold 3x3 inch note cards. Hopefully everyone liked it, I did get a few lovely comments from our guests, some of them thought it was very cute! This design was inspired by one on Splitcoast Stampers for a Backpack box, but I redesigned it substantially to fit the cards inside. Believe it or not, the box has no stamping on it at all! So you don't need inks and stamps to make this. I even surprised myself with that one.

Recipe:

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive

Designer Series Paper (DSP): Tall Tales

Other: 1/4" Old Olive Grosgrain ribbon, Clear Rhinestone Brads, velcro dots

If you like the Tall Tales DSP, don't forget that it's only available to order until the end of this month. It's in the Summer Mini catalogue which sadly finishes on March 31st. I guess that means our summer is ending which is also sad! If you don't have a copy of that brochure do let me know, as I have some extras here. If there are things in the mini catalogue that you haven't ordered yet and you want them, do let me know soon! Click here to e-mail me.

I'm off to my "happy place" in my craft room now, for a little while before bed.

Night!

The saddest day of my life

2010-02-28T20:29:00.002+13:00

Hi everyone,
I'm sorry for being so absent from my blog lately. I've been busy with work and so on as usual, but also my family have been having a very difficult time.

Today my beloved father passed away. Just over a week ago, he had what we thought was a stroke, but after tests and a number of days' stay in hospital, we were told that he had a lesion in his brain. The news was devastating to all of us. My father changed overnight from a man who was always in control, on top of things, the head of our family, to one who could not read and remember the names of his grandchildren.

Sadly, he didn't survive until his scheduled appointment to see a neurosurgeon on Tuesday. Yesterday he suddenly had an excruciating headache, lost consciousness in the ambulance and at the hospital the CT scan showed a massive bleed from the lesion. He had no chance of survival. My mother and I stayed with him through the night until mid-morning, when we knew for sure that he has gone to heaven to be with the Lord.

My siblings are on their way from the USA to be with us here for the difficult days ahead. Dad was always the one to organise family funerals, we didn't expect to be arranging his so soon, as he was only 67. He was always the one to guide and advise us. There is a huge void in our lives now.

If you have placed orders with me recently, please bear with me, I have most of them here and will try to be in touch soon to get them to you somehow. I do plan to continue with my upcoming events; my Mum said that Dad would want me to be strong and carry on. He had a strong sense of responsibility and committment to others, so in his honour I will do so.

Thank you to the many of you who have already sent messages of love and support, it is very much appreciated.

Rest in peace Dad, I love you.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T19:31:00.012+13:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry for not blogging for so long. I have been rather busy preparing for the Hamilton Extravaganza which was a fabulous day, I think in the end we had over 70 of you there to stamp and create with us! If you took part in the event, thank you so much for your support, your enthusiasm for our events makes it all so worthwhile! And yes, we're already discussing when the next one will be, so keep in touch with your Demonstrator on that front!

Congratulations to all the door prize winners yesterday, I hope you are enjoying your prizes! I'll post pics of the prize I made, later in the week. I won't post up pics of the project I designed for the event just yet, as it's also going to be taught at the Auckland Extravaganza. So you'll have to wait until after then, or come to it on March 13th, to see what I've been busy working on!

I was told off nicely by a couple of lovely ladies yesterday who told me that they visit my blog regularly and want me to hurry up and post some more creative projects for them to enjoy. It's nice to know I have regular visitors here, do post a comment occasionally if you have a moment - I love to hear what you think of my work!

I left home at the crack of dawn yesterday (OK, it was just before 7am, but for a night owl like me, that's not easy!) and didn't get much sleep, so I was already tired by the time I arrived at the event. So you'd think that when I got home again, I'd crawl into bed early, wouldn't you? Nope, no such luck! When I got home I was informed by my DH that our daughter had insisted on choosing a Valentine's Day card for me from the two of them, along with a chocolate rose (which I haven't eaten yet). I can't possibly receive a Valentine's Day card without giving one in return, and I hadn't had time to make any for them before the Extravaganza. So I sat down to make a "quick couple of cards", but I am not that good at "quick" and so this is what I ended up with!

First, I made a card for Emma. Little girls love excessive stuff on cards, well my one does anyway! So I put loads of hearts on the front. More than I would like, myself!

This is an easel card - I've been meaning to make one of these for ages. They're very easy to make, but it's cool how it stands up like this. You don't find cards like this in the shops now do you! There was a bit of hand cutting with this card, but the bit I'm most pleased with is the inside. I have my Pun Fun stamps mounted with the words separate, so I can use the images without stamping the words every time. So I stamped the ewe by itself, and then used the greeting (which actually says "Thank ewe!") along with a stamp from I {Heart} Hearts to make the phrase "We love ewe!". I used my marker to ink up the "we" from the word "ewe", so I didn't put ink on the first letter, and then used the stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp it in the right place. OK, my stamping is slightly crooked, but I didn't think Emma would care, and of course she didn't! I used a blender pen and ink pads to colour in the ewe.

Recipe:

Stamps: I {Heart} Heart (Summer Mini), Pun Fun, Hello Again (Summer Mini), A Happy Heart

Cardstock: Real Red, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Cameo Coral, Blush Blossom, Going Grey

Other: Pink Flamingo DSP, Heart to Heart punch, Circle Fire Rhinestone Brad, Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write marker, Stampin' Dimensionals

The second card of course was for hubby, so I didn't want it to look too girly. I think he was OK with it when he opened it this morning. I was originally thinking it'd just be Kraft and chocolate chip, but that seemed a little washed out and as soon as I spied the new Real Red polka dot grosgrain ribbon from the Summer Mini in my cupboard, I knew I had to use that! It's so vibrant, can you believe I have just been hoarding this ribbon until now? It really gives the card a lift, I think! I got working with my marker again on the inside of the card too. Again the "we" is not an existing stamp, so I took the "wishing you a happy heart" greeting from A Happy Heart stamp set, inked up the "w" and stamped that, cleaned off the stamp and inked up the "e" and attempted to line it up using the stamp a ma jig. It's not entirely perfect but at 11pm after a long day, I wasn't about to give it a second shot! The word "you" is also from that greeting.

Recipe:

Stamps: I {Heart} Hearts, A Happy Heart

Cardstock: Kraft, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Real Red

Other: Heart to Heart punch, Real Red Polka Dot grosgrain, Hemp twine, Corner Rounder punch, Round Tab punch, Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write marker, Stampin' Dimensionals

Anyway, I know these are too late to inspire you for your Valentine's Day cards this year, but hopefully it shows that you really can get a lot out of your stamps if you have the stampin' write markers to ink up just the bits you want to use.

I love the I {Heart} Hearts set, can you tell? Particularly the woodgrain one. And I keep forgetting to mention on here, when you order that stamp set between now and February 28th, Stampin' Up! will donate $2 from your purchase towards relief efforts in Haiti. I know it doesn't sound like much, but worldwide so far, over 7,500 sets have been purchased during the Haiti Disaster Relief offer, so that's over $15,000 in donations to the Red Cross relief effort in Haiti. On top of that, Stampin' Up! purchased supplies and put together 5,000 hygiene kits to send to Haiti, too. How awesome is that? I'm so pleased to be working with a company that is so willing to help people in need. So if you'd like to order the I {Heart} Heart set and help out too, please let me know.

I have just a couple of places left available for my stamp club and also the first Techniques class, so if you're interested in either of those, e-mail me (click here) to let me know. You can read more about those in my previous post, click here to see that.

Until next time, happy stamping!

You've waited long enough - here it is!

2010-02-01T21:37:00.006+13:00

Hi everyone,

OK, this post is a couple of days later than I had wanted, but it took me a while to finalise the project I wanted to show you. When I'm in "design mode", I try out lots of things, and that takes time! But anyway, I'm finally done and I hope that what I have to tell and show you all will be worth the wait.

We have a WINNER!! Thank you ladies for your January Sale-A-Bration orders. I had my hubby draw a name out of the hat this morning and the winner of a Level 1 Hostess set of her choice is... Laurie!! I'll be in touch soon Laurie, to see which set you'd like.

I've had lots of requests about the things you'd like me to offer you this year, and I'm glad to say I've been listening! We moved house last year and that threw me somewhat with problems cropping up, as moving house can, and there were the usual upheavals at work, and life just generally happened all around me. But this year, I am getting myself all organised earlier and that means great things in store for you! I'm sure there will be something below that fits well with your crafting needs, if you live in NZ that is!

1. Stamp clubs - get FREE Stamps and goodies!

I am running stamp clubs this year, each club will have 8 members and run for 8 months. Each member will place a monthly order with me of a minimum $45 plus 5% shipping, so that the total orders each month come to a minimum of $350 plus shipping. That means that the club order will reach hostess benefits level 1 and so you'll take it in turns to be the "virtual hostess" and choose a hostess stamp set and free products of your choice, a minimum $35 spend. The month you get to be the virtual hostess depends on the order that club members register - so the first member to sign will be the first hostess, and so on.

Once we have 8 members signed up, the club will start. Orders will need to be given to me by the third Saturday of each month, and I will place them before the end of the month so the club can take advantage of any monthly specials offered by Stampin' Up!. Aside from the hostess benefits from being part of a club, stamp club members will receive a $5 discount on my Techniques Classes (see below) and I also will have exclusive offers for my stamp club members each month!

2. Techniques Classes!

Yes, I'm finally ready to offer these classes too. The first class is a bit special - we'll be decorating one of the On Board journals (the 5x5" journal, $16.25 in the catalogue), this will be where you will file the instructions and samples from my techniques classes. At the first class in addition to covering and decorating your journal and learning how to emboss chipboard in the colour of your choice (my sample uses Baja Breeze), we'll do at least one additional technique (two if there is time) and make a card using each technique. Regular Techniques Classes will include two techniques with samples for your book and cards/projects using the techniques. I'll have printouts of the instructions for each technique for you to paste into your books so you will be able to re-read them later.

Here's my Techniques Sample book all ready to go - it has my initial on it because I'm going to make my book as you make yours! I want this book to be a special resource for you so we're going to personalise it - when you book into this class we can talk about which papers and images are your favourites, so everyone will have a book that is to their personal taste! My sample uses the Urban Garden DSP, Baja Breeze striped ribbon, a fabulous filigree brad, and the Curly Label punch with one of the coordinating images from the Vintage Labels Sale-A-Bration set.

This first class will cost $30 per person, then future Techniques classes will be $15. I have lots of techniques I'm planning to share with you, but if there's something you really want to learn, let me know!

Remember if you're a stamp club member you will get a $5 discount off the Techniques class fee. Techniques Classes will normally be on the third Saturday of each month, starting at 2pm, at my home in Botany Downs. The exception is the first class, which will be on Sunday 21st Feb starting at 1:30pm and finishing around 4pm.

Can't get to my classes when I've scheduled them? Just e-mail me, if there's enough interest I will schedule repeat sessions. From time to time I will have other classes as well, so keep an eye out for those.

To sign up for a stamp club or my first Techniques Class, or simply to ask for more information, click here to contact me.

4. Extravaganzas!

But wait, there's more! I'm doing the Extravaganza events with my team again this year, I'm taking bookings now for the Hamilton Extravaganza on Feb 13, and the Auckland Extravaganza on March 13. We've decided on the projects now and you're going to love them! $40 entry fee secures your place for a fun crafting session with spot prizes galore! For more details or to book, please e-mail me ASAP. Places are filling fast!

5. Workshops & my Host/ess Appreciation Party!

I'm also accepting bookings for in-home workshops, I love to do workshops! Host a workshop with me this year and you'll receive a special invitation to my Hosts & Hostesses Appreciation Party at the end of the year, exclusive to those who host my workshops. There'll be free make n takes, prizes, food, drink and fun!! I've already penciled this into my diary for December... you won't want to miss it!

Let's Sale-A-Brate 2010! If that wasn't enough, don't forget that all qualifying orders earn free Sale-A-Bration stamp sets until the end of March. You can place these as part of a stamp club, and if you're the virtual hostess in February or March, you could even earn extra SAB sets! Click on the picture of the SAB brochure in my sidebar to view the sets you can choose from.

Hope you've managed to absorb all of that... have a great week!

Sale-A-Bration and a special prize draw!

2010-01-25T10:16:00.005+13:00

Hi everyone,

Well it's finally here! Sale-A-Bration (SAB for short!) is the best time of year if you love Stampin' Up! products and want to get some for free (and who doesn't?!). Please click on the picture of the SAB brochure on my sidebar to see the fabulous stamp sets that you can earn for free this year!

I'm SO excited about the start of SAB that I've decided to offer a special prize draw, so read through this post for the details. Be in to win a Hostess Level 1 set of your choice!

Sale-A-Bration runs from now until the end of March, so there's time to join me for a class, host a workshop or attend one of my events, place your order and get your share of the freebies! Or just e-mail me to order if you prefer.

Here's how it works:

- Spend $120 (not including shipping costs) on any products from the main catalogue, or the Summer Mini catalogue, and choose a free stamp set from the SAB brochure. No limits - for every $120 you spend at one time, you get a free set!

- Host a workshop and if your workshop total reaches $700 (excluding shipping), you'll be able to choose an extra SAB set, on top of any that you and your friends have earned by spending $120 each!

- Join my team! This is the best time of year to become a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, as not only will you receive a fabulous starter kit at a heavily discounted price, you get to choose a free stamp set from the main or mini catalogues up to the value of $93.95! And when you place orders during SAB, you will also earn free SAB sets for yourself - and get a discount off all of your purchases. Never pay retail prices again for your supplies! Whether you join to build a business or simply to be able to purchase your supplies at a discount as a hobby demo, you'll receive loads of support and inspiration when you join my fabulous team of stampers!

One of the benefits of being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator is that we have access to new products before they are released for public sale. We were able to purchase one of the SAB sets to play with, so I've been using mine for a little while already! I have the fabulous Whimsical Words set, but I had a hard time choosing between the sets, they are all so gorgeous. I can't wait to get my hands on the other sets!

Here's a card I made using Whimsical Words for a recent team swap, I love the font they've used for this set!

It's a bit hard to see but the "plate" that the cupcake is sitting on has been dry embossed using my bone folder and a punch-out of the small oval to make the plate have a recessed area like a real plate has. And yes, I hand-cut the candles and the cupcake. A little time consuming when I made 15 of this card at one time, so I cut out 45 candles(!) but I think it's worth it, do you agree?

Recipe:

Stamps: Whimsical Words, Razzle Dazzle, Party Hearty

Colours: Pink Pirouette, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Riding Hood Red

Punches: Scallop Edge, Corner Rounder, Large & Small Ovals

Other: Candy Lane DSP, Stampin' Write Markers, Stampin' Dimensionals

Thanks for visiting, have fun browsing the SAB brochure. And here's the details of my special draw, exclusively available through me: place your qualifying SAB order with me before the end of January and go into the draw to win the Hostess Level 1 stamp set of your choice! Every $120 product order you place gets you another entry into the draw! But this offer is only until the end of January, so be quick!! Click here to e-mail me and be in to WIN!!

Aloha!

2010-01-21T08:00:00.000+13:00

Happy New Year everyone!

Most of you probably haven't realised this, but I've been away overseas for a couple of weeks. For those of you who don't have blogs, here's a secret - we can write posts in advance and have them published when we're nowhere near the computer. That's how I managed to look like I was here, when I wasn't. Clever, huh? So to those of you who e-mailed me while I was away and perhaps received a weirdly formatted e-mail in return (or none at all, in case I missed any messages!), it's because I was dialing into my e-mail and didn't have the usual functions available. My apologies for that, I'm here now if you have questions!

Anyway, I've just arrived home this week from a wonderful holiday in Hawaii - more specifically, the beautiful island of Kaua'i. It's really quite unspoiled and totally different from what you see when you're in Honolulu, which I liked for the shopping on the one day we had there, but the freeways weren't quite so appealing. There's a lot less people and traffic on Kaua'i, so I liked that better, I'm really not a big city girl! The people on Kaua'i are so friendly and welcoming, and there are wild chickens running around everywhere, which I thought was just charming. At the same time, the island has everything you need - loads of shopping opportunities and places to eat, things to do. I admit to visiting Walmart several times, as we don't have it in New Zealand and I had to see why it's a good shopping destination. I wasn't disappointed! Shopping at Costco was also a very memorable experience. I've never seen so much food in a store before!

I was in Kaua'i for a family reunion of sorts - my parents went over with us, and we met up with my sister and brother and their families who travelled over from Ohio. I don't get to see them often so it was so wonderful to be able to just hang out with them and catch up. My daughter adores her cousins and was so sorry when we had to come home. We all miss them!

One highlight for me in Kaua'i was the opportunity to meet my wonderful new friend and fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, Gari, and attend one of her fabulous classes. It was so nice to be a student again! I got to meet her friends and enjoyed hearing them "ooh" and "ahh" over the projects she taught us, just as I did!

Here's a picture of the two of us together, I'm the one with the gorgeous lei around my neck which Gari presented to me when I arrived at the class. She totally spoiled me rotten, I've got so many fabulous ideas from her now to share with my team and class/workshop attendees (and sometimes here on my blog too if you're lucky!). Thank you so much Gari!

I hope that one day Gari will be able to come to New Zealand to visit and then I can spoil her in return! This is one of the things I love about being part of Stampin' Up! - Gari and I were total strangers but I found her using the demo locator on the Stampin' Up! website, and because of our common interest in paper crafting (an addiction really, she gets withdrawl if she doesn't stamp for a while, just like I do!), we got to spend some time crafting and getting to know each other, sharing our experiences as Demonstrators too. How cool is that?!

Do come back and visit soon as I'm sorting out a few details and then will let you know about the exciting things I have in store for this year, especially if you live in New Zealand (I can only sell to you if you live here). 2010 is going to be great!

Oh, and there's only a few more days left of the Inventory Clearance sale, so please do let me know (click here) if you need anything from that list. I hope you're counting the days until the start of Sale-A-Bration on January 25th - I certainly am!

Cute little tags

2010-01-17T20:00:00.000+13:00

Hi everyone,

Hope your year is going well so far!

Those of you who ordered from me in December will recognise these little tags. I love to make tags to attach to the bags of goodies that my customers order. I figure I need a way to identify whose bag is whose - when you've got a dozen orders to distribute, the last thing you want is to mix them up, after all!

I didn't have a lot of time up my sleeve in December, so after seeing the Inventory Clearance list (see this post for details), I thought I'd use a couple of the items on that list and make my tags super quick. I've used the Pink Flamingo Designer Series Paper (DSP) to give the tags a bit of "oomph", what bright and fun patterns are in that pack! Pity for me that I bought them before they were on the clearance sale, though! And yes, it's not my usual style (I'm always blown away by how well some of you know my taste!) but it's definitely grown on me since I made myself try using it!

I took the colours from that DSP and stamped the flower from Occasionally in Tempting Turquoise, followed by Chocolate Chip for the outline stamp. I'd forgotten how cool the 2 step stamping look is! The base card is Confetti White, I love the sprinkling of colour you get with that cardstock, and the 1 inch circle punch made the circle folded over at the top of the tag. The silver cord is a retired item which I love and can't stop using, as my regular customers will know!

The Thank You sentiment is from Occasionally as well. I'm shocked at how big a discount you can get this stamp set at right now - it's just $41.48 (plus shipping, usually 5% of your total purchase). The original price for this set - back when I ordered it(!) was $82.95. Seriously, you can't beat this price for a set of 28 high-quality wood mounted stamps. Those of you who have followed my blog for a while have seen me make a few things with this set. But it's only on sale until January 24th - after that, it's back to the original price. Contact me now if you'd like to order it (click here) - and if you wish, I'm happy to trim the set for you too, so all you have to do is to peel the backing off and stick the stamps and labels to your wood blocks. Easy!

I'd better go and figure out the design for my January tags!

Back soon,

Butterfly Prints Notecard

2010-01-13T08:00:00.000+13:00

Morning everyone!

Today I thought I'd show you a super quick little card that I had as a make n take at my Launch Party for the Summer Mini catalogue. The Butterfly Prints stamp set and the coordinating punch were the first two items to go on my wishlist when I first saw the Summer Mini. They are so great, and can you believe that the stamp set is only $29.95 (plus shipping)? I think Stampin' Up! have done a great job in the last year at bringing us products which are very affordable - and often very competitively priced with the products in retail stores, in my opinion!

Anyway, the base card is in Kraft, I scalloped the bottom edge using the scallop edge punch, and put a piece of Pink Pirouette cardstock behind it to highlight the scallops. The circle on the card is punched out of Pink Pirouette using the new 1 3/4" circle punch. I stuck that down, then I stamped the butterfly body on that circle in Perfect Plum ink. I then stamped the butterfly in the same ink on a scrap of Very Vanilla cardstock.

I used the Stamp-A-ma-jig to add the body to the butterfly, and punched it out with the new butterfly punch. No tricky cutting here, yeah!! I used the 2-way glue pen to adhere the butterfly onto the circle, and just used my fingers to curl the wings up slightly to give the card a 3D effect. It's a little hard to see in the photo but can you see a little shadow around the wings?

The finishing touch was to stamp the sentiment on the card using the same Perfect Plum ink. You could make a stack of these and a little box or folder to put them into, and it would make a great little gift.

Hope that gives you a little inspiration! If you'd like to order any of the products I've used here, or you have any questions, just send me an email - click here.

Thanks!

Hello Again Faux Carousel

2010-01-07T23:44:00.000+13:00

Hi everyone,

Today I wanted to share with you a quick little project I taught at a recent team training event, to showcase the new Circle Scissor tool that we have in the Summer Mini catalogue. If you love the look of the Carousel Notes in the main catalogue (page 131) but like the idea of being able to make a card that shape but in the size that you want, then the faux carousel technique is a great option.

To make a card like this one you just need the Circle Scissor tool, and the Stampin' Up! Slit punch. You cut a small circle in the centre of your cardstock, and then insert the punch into this hole to punch half circles further out towards the edges of your cardstock. If you're lucky, your half circles will meet up to give you a perfectly even scalloped edge, but if you're left with a half scallop you can always hide it with ribbon or an embellishment later! Then once you've scalloped your edge, you just cut another circle a bit smaller than the first, to cover up the hole in your card. Of course, if you're like me, you use up lots of cardstock trying out different sized holes until you find a size that gives you perfect scallops! This card started with a hole diameter just shy of 2 inches (around 5cm for those of you who prefer metric).

Hope that makes sense, but if it doesn't, or you have questions, let me know - click here! If you purchase the Circle Scissor tool through me and you're within an hour or two of where I live, I'm happy to show you how to do the faux carousel card in person if you'd like!

For this card, I used the very cute new stamp set from the Summer mini called Hello Again, stamped very simply in Bold Brights colours. 1/4" grosgrain ribbon in Tempting Turquoise tied in a single knot and adhered with a mini glue dot finishes the card off. Super quick and easy!

Thanks for visiting!

What's in my craft stash

2010-01-02T10:00:00.002+13:00

Hi everyone,

Happy New Year! I hope the year has started well for you. For me, so far so good! On New Year's Day I finally managed to finish the projects I was designing, for the artwork for our next Creative Inkers ad in Up2Scrap magazine (for my overseas readers, this is the only NZ-produced papercrafting magazine). That took me a while, if you've ever had to do a group of projects for something like that with a tight deadline like I had, you'll know that can be a little pressure!

Anyway I can't show you those projects just yet, as I used some new stamps from the upcoming Sale-A-Bration in them. But it won't be long now! January 25th, it's all go! Keep your eye on my blog as I'm starting to post details of upcoming events that you won't want to miss; check out my sidebar for the events I've got confirmed dates for so far.

In the meantime, I thought I'd show you a few other things I've been working on recently. This jar was so quick and easy to make, and I was very proud of myself - for using almost all retired product! I know I don't usually show you retired things on here (it would be mean to drive you mad because you can't buy the things I've used!), but the point I wanted to make was that just because it's been retired, doesn't mean you can't craft with it! And it's not a bad idea to use some of it and clear a little space for all the new stuff you keep buying. I'm sure you've all got lots of brand new but unused stuff in your craft stash, am I right??

Anyway, I had a bit of a rummage around to see what I could use up, when making this jar for a workmate. I organised our Secret Santa at work this year, and my lucky recipient of course didn't care if I used current Stampin' Up! supplies or not. So I decided to use up a few things, and take a walk down memory lane at the same time. For this jar I've used the Holiday Harmony DSP which was in the 2008 Spring Mini catalogue (gasp!) and the chipboard that was in the same mini. I inked that up with Purely Pomegranate ink (retired in March 09), and stamped the greeting using that ink too. I used the Purely Pomegranate stitched ribbon and an oval frame from the Pewter Hodgepodge which also retired back then.

The only products I used which are currently available were the greeting which is from the hostess set Best Yet (you've seen me use that set a number of times!), the Whisper White cardstock I stamped on, and the rhinestone brad. Oh and I used our new Circle Scissor tool to cut the circle for the lid, too.

So I was pretty pleased with this project - my main regret is not having used those products more when I was able to buy them!! That chipboard star was oh so easy to ink up, I can't believe I hadn't used more of the pack!

If you're still on holiday, why not go through your own stash and see what you can come up with!

Happy stamping for 2010!

Family time - and maybe a new tradition

2009-12-30T23:37:00.004+13:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the 2 week absence, I have been running around like a lunatic like the rest of the country, getting ready for Christmas and then recovering from it! I managed to get my Christmas shopping done without having to fight the crowds on Christmas Eve, but I did venture out on Boxing Day (stupidly) to attempt to pick up a bargain or two. I missed out on a cheap laptop by arriving at a store just 10 minutes after opening time, but did manage to pick up a GPS navigation thingy nice and cheap, so there are no more excuses for getting lost! Well, if I ever manage to figure out how to work the thing, that is!

I don't have a card or project to show you today, well not a papercrafting project that is. I've been busy making cards, but I can't show you those yet, it would spoil the surprise when Sale-A-Bration hits us in January! So you'll have to wait and see what I've been making, later. Sorry!

I do have something cool to show you though. My husband's Aunt is visiting from the USA and brought a gingerbread house kit for our daughter. I've seen these in the stores here and never imagined I'd be making one at Christmas. Too expensive/commercial/what would I do with all that gingerbread afterwards, etc. But you know what? It turned out to be a lot of fun putting it together!
I took a photo after we constructed the house and the tree and jammed the gingerbread man where he was supposed to stand. I took another after the rest of the decorating was done (the finishing touch, sprinkling coconut on the tray to look like snow, is the only bit you can't see here).

The only problem is that as far as piping icing goes, it seems I have NO ability whatsoever. Straight lines were not within my reach! And that gingerbread man looks a little manic... If you use your imagination, you could say that the drippy bits are like icicles? My daughter really loved working on this with me though. She stuck most of the lollies on and sneaked a few, but I think it was really about it being something neat that we could do together. That was really great. And I love the smell of the gingerbread which wafts through the house, without me having to bake anything! So maybe, just maybe, this could be the start of a new family tradition for us.

Hope you are all enjoying the holidays and spending time with those you love. Happy New Year!

Stampin' Up! Inventory Clearance

2009-12-15T06:00:00.002+13:00

Morning everyone!

As promised, here's the big announcement for the month. I only found out about this yesterday and all I can say is WOWSERS! Stampin' Up! has put together a list of stamp sets and accessories which you can order between now and January 24th, and the prices on many of these are nothing short of crazy! Take a look at the list I've posted here (click on the picture to enlarge the list), you can choose from three large alphabet sets for just $45.98 plus shipping - that's HALF PRICE!! And, the Occasionally set that I've shown you a few times on my blog (see my cards here, here and here!) is also just half price - now $41.48 plus shipping for a whopping 28 stamps!

So why the clearance you ask? Well, these sets are all square cut - meaning they need to be trimmed before you can mount them. Many of you will know that Stampin' Up! now offer mostly die-cut stamp sets, so you just have to push the rubber image out from the die cut sheet and stick it to a wooden block when you purchase our stamp sets. They still have limited stock of the non-die cut ones though, so these are being offered at ridiculous prices. So while you have until January 24th, please don't leave it too late as they may run out!

Those of you who have purchased from me in the past know that I offer a free trimming service when you order your square cut stamps through me. So if you're nervous about trimming them properly, there's no need, I can take care of that if you would like me to! I've had a lot of practice at trimming stamps in the last couple of years, so you can be sure of getting a neat professional "trim" for your new goodies!

Click here to e-mail your order through to me and I'll be happy to help you with a little Christmas shopping for yourself (you've been good, after all, right?!). Just let me know what you'd like and I'll tally it up for you. Easy!

Thanks for visiting!

Announcements!

2009-12-14T20:45:00.003+13:00

Hi everyone,
Gosh has it been a week since I last blogged? Time is flying by this month, there's only 10 days until Christmas day - yikes! Better write those Christmas cards I guess...

You may have already read this elsewhere, but Stampin' Up! recently announced that five of the items that were in the Spring Mini are still available for us to purchase, yahoo! These are going to be available in the next main catalogue next year, so they've decided to let us keep using (and buying) them. So here's the list:

114889 Scallop Oval punch $35.95
112534 Jumbo Brads 5/16" Neutrals Assortment $18.50 (approx 80 brads)
112533 Jumbo Brads 5/8" Neutrals Assortment $16.25 (approx 32 brads)
106960 Stazon White Pad & Refill $26.95
109196 Stazon Cleaner $11.75

I'm really thrilled that I get to keep playing with these - the punch is fantastic for so many of our stamp images, and the brads are great as an embellishment. I've used rub-ons on them and that looks great! And of course, you can't go past Stazon when you're making projects with acetate, which I have been doing lately!

Come back tomorrow for an even bigger announcement. We had some fantastic news today from Stampin' Up! and let me just say, us demos are making shopping lists of our own tonight!

The aftermath of a launch party....

2009-12-07T09:48:00.006+13:00

Morning everyone!

Sorry for things being quiet here on the blog front, I can tell you it's not quiet in real life here, he he! Starting the crazy buildup to Christmas, sigh... I guess I'd better check that all my Christmas shopping is done, I've done bits here and there but am bound to have forgotten something. I hate fighting the crowds at Christmas time.

Anyway, thanks so much to those of you who came to my launch party on Saturday, I had fun and hope that you did too! As per usual I totally forgot to take any snapshots when anyone was here, but I did take a picture of my very large dining table after everyone had gone.... Yikes! The photo is only showing you about 2/3 of the table, and there was another table covered in stuff that I had to pack away too! Of course, I was responsible for quite a bit of the mess since I got more things out to show Laurie when we sat and chatted together at the end, I am really bad at getting more things out and not putting away the things I was using before. Anyway, it did take me quite a while to get everything put back in it's rightful place. My craft room is still a mess though, I think that's basically par for the course since I do my design work in there and when the creative spark hits, I just go with it!

I did finally manage to finish off the card that I've on my craft table for weeks - this started out as one that my team leader Jacque designed, but I changed the greeting on it and used the new Sweetness Unlimited stamp from the Summer Mini - isn't that just a cute saying? And only $13.95 (+shipping) too! The whale is from Animal Stories, also in the Summer Mini, and the Polka Dot background stamp is in the main catalogue. If you'd like to get your hands on these fabulous stamp sets, e-mail me and we can get that sorted for you pronto!

Another thing I really like about this card is that it means I'm all set now for when my brother's first child is born - they just found out they're having a baby boy so yahoo I have a new little nephew on the way! (Hopefully my brother's not reading this!)

Oh, and I nearly forgot - congratulations to Mandy who is the lucky winner of my Cookies in a Jar prize from Saturday, yay Mandy! I'll get that to you soon!

Have a fabulous week!

The Summer Mini catalogue is here!!

2009-12-01T09:43:00.005+13:00

Morning everyone!

Well today is a fabulous day - the Summer Mini catalogue is now open for business! You're going to love the products in here. I personally think this is the best mini we've had so far. My bank balance didn't think so though after I'd finished shopping with my preorder, lol!

To view the new mini, click on the picture of it in my sidebar and it'll take you to the online version of the catalogue. To get a hard copy that you can read in bed (smile), just e-mail me to arrange that!

A quick little project to show you using the new Butterfly Prints stamp set and coordinating punch, these were an absolute must have for me and the stamp set is only $29.95! I was so thrilled! I love that there's a tool to punch out the butterflies, as I'd rather spend time coming up with ideas and playing, than cutting out a bunch of images, wouldn't you?

If you're coming to my launch party on Saturday you'll get to see this project up close, it's actually a covered notepad - and I even have one as a door prize too along with some other things (I'm still making those!).

So, what's your favourite from the new Mini?

Reindeer box

2009-11-30T10:34:00.004+13:00

Hi everyone!

Wow, can you believe I haven't blogged since Wednesday last week? Sorry about going awol again! I've been busy baking pies. I'm serious - I baked a pumpkin pie of sorts (not quite the authentic USA version, it was a NZ-ised one!) last week for work, as I was on duty to bake for our regular Friday morning tea. My workmates loved it so much they awarded me the baker of the week trophy, yay! OK, I was only up against some little cupcakes so it's not as big an achievement as it might have sounded, but I had several people ask for the recipe which is usually a pretty good indication they like what they're eating!

Anyway, I baked another pie yesterday for my class here, and served that up with a little ice cream on the side. It went down pretty well here too (hopefully the ladies weren't just being polite and they did actually like it!). For any overseas readers, pumpkin pie is not common in NZ - here we tend to eat it as a savoury dish, for example roasted like you would do roast potatoes. So having it as a sweet dessert is a bit of a stretch for some to cope with until they've tried it. My 5 year old LOVES it - every time I started cutting a piece she was glued to my leg with her mouth wide open! Makes it sound like I don't feed her enough I know, but honestly it's really just that she loved the pie :-)

OK now for the project you've come to see - this is the Reindeer box that I taught last weekend at Mandy's class. Raquel won this box at my class here yesterday, after I'd filled it with chocolates of course (remember there's always chocolate at my events!).

I must tell you that I wasn't the clever one to come up with this box - I learned how to make it from Heather Summers, one of the Canadian demonstrators whose work I take much inspiration from. It's Heather who really got me into punch art - she's amazing! This box was taught in one of her online classes. Check out her blog here.

Have a fabulous day and do come back tomorrow - I'll post up a link to the new Summer Mini catalogue! And for those who have booked in to my launch party this coming Saturday, I look forward to seeing you then! (If you haven't yet booked, e-mail me now and I'll see if I can squeeze you in!).

Tree Trimmings Christmas Card

2009-11-25T10:00:00.000+13:00

Hi everyone,

The second project we made on Saturday at my class was this Tree Trimmings stamp set. Now I have to admit, when I first saw this set, I hadn't planned to buy it. I figured I had lots of Christmas sets already, what did I need a new one for? But it didn't take long before I changed my mind - the detail in this set is stunning and at just $28.95 plus shipping for four stamps, it's a steal! I've used this set over and over already, and it's not even December yet. This would make a fabulous set for a scrapbook layout too. But before I get sidetracked, I'd better give you the recipe for this card....

It's pretty self explanatory I think, we used the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to line up the strings for the ornaments. Adhere the strip of Ski Slope DSP after you do the stamping, and then add your ribbon, before sticking the white piece to the card base. That way you can hide the ends of the "strings" and the raw edges of your ribbon. I had ends to hide as it's actually two pieces of ribbon, a technique I often use in classes as it makes for the easiest knot tying on cards, ever!

I love that ribbon - need to use it more often I think, so keep an eye out for that!

Stamps: Tree Trimmings, Many Merry Messages

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze, Old Olive

Other: Riding Hood Red striped ribbon, Ski Slope DSP, Scallop Edge Punch

Any questions, please just ask! (Click here)

Great Friend - one last time!

2009-11-24T09:28:00.005+13:00

Morning everyone!

On Saturday Mandy wanted me to feature the Spring Mini products as she was looking to place her last order from that and wanted her friends to see how fabulous the products are in there. Although at this time of year we're all more focused on Christmas projects, I couldn't resist slipping in a card made using Great Friend and the coordinating Walk in the Park Designer Series paper. It's probably going to be the last project I make with these before they become unavailable at the end of the month. It's sad but there are lots of very cool things coming in the next Mini catalogue, so I'll get over it!

This card also features the scallop oval punch from the Spring Mini. I've added a little piercing to the Basic Grey cardstock strip and a couple of brads (Tip: add the brads before adhering the cardstock and DSP to your card front and avoid showing the prongs of the brads inside your card). Other than that I think it's pretty self explanatory how I made this, but any questions you have, just e-mail me to ask (click here).

Have a great day!

Oops I forgot!

2009-11-23T10:03:00.004+13:00

Hi everyone,

Just a quick little post this morning. I totally forgot to blog yesterday, oops! Had such a lovely afternoon at Mandy's on Saturday and then "life" took over yesterday - went and got a WOF for the car, bought a new office chair for my craft room (it's just an ordinary chair but WOW does it make a difference to how easy it is for me to get at things in there!), sorted out a bit of stuff we had lying around and put a box of old toys together to donate to needy children for Christmas, figured out how much to hem my daughter's Snow White costume for this week's fairytale day at school... See, the life of a Demonstrator isn't all about stamping! Even though we sometimes wish it was :-).

OK, as promised I'm going to share the projects we made on Saturday. Today here's the door prize I threw together for the day, it's typically called a "sour cream" container (presumably in the USA this sort of container is how sour cream is packaged?). Super quick and easy to make, and when you close it like this, rather than sealing both ends with sticky strip and crimping them, you can still get the package open without ruining it. You just fold the edge back and punch holes to tie the ribbon through, easy! I learned that tip from Marelle Taylor when she demonstrated at the Stampin' Up! convention in Canberra earlier this year.

For this container I used Ski Slope DSP and the Best Yet hostess set for the greeting. Two of my favourite products right now. And it was filled with chocolates. They're my favourite too!

Back tomorrow to show you the first card we made. Until then, contact me if you have any questions!

An afternoon of stamping

2009-11-21T20:30:00.004+13:00

Hi everyone,

It's a late post I'm doing today, but it still counts as another day where I have blogged, so I'm really just keeping you on your toes as to what time my posts appear!

The reason for the late post today is that I wanted to show you a gift I made for my wonderful hostess this afternoon, but I couldn't do that and spoil the surprise for Mandy. So I'm sure you'll forgive me!

As those of you who have hosted a workshop or class for me before will know, I love to make little gifts to thank you for hosting, on top of your free catalogue that you receive from me as part of your hostess pack when you confirm a date for your party. With my husband supporting my habit of collecting cute jars and tins to decorate, these little gifts are often 3D items, filled with some form of chocolate usually! As far as I'm concerned, workshops aren't complete without a little chocolate in there somewhere...

Today's hostess gift to Mandy was no exception. I used the fabulous Punch Pals stamp set (why didn't I buy this one earlier and make Christmas cards with it I wonder?!) to decorate this cute little jar. The patterned paper is the Ski Slope DSP yet again, and I used the Real Red 1/4" grosgrain ribbon to embellish the jar. I added some stamped images to the top of the jar as well as one side (which happens to hide the join in the paper, so there isn't a "bad" side to this project at all!). The punches I used were the Scallop Circle and 1-1/4" circle. And then I filled it with some mini chocolate bars. Yum! Jars like this would make great little gifts for workmates and friends this Christmas.

Thanks to Mandy for a lovely afternoon with her and her friends, I think from their reaction to the projects we made today, they enjoyed their little bit of creative time with me. I love to see the reactions I get when I introduce people to stamping for the first time, I really enjoyed myself too! And a big thanks to Mandy's husband Russell for coming to my rescue and changing my flat tyre (which I hadn't even noticed was flat!). I might be a quite independent woman but I was definitely happy to accept his help with that one!

If you'd like for me to make a gift for you like this one I made for Mandy, contact me now (click here) to book your early 2010 workshops!

I'll be back to show you the projects we made today, over the next few days. Sorry, I'm being a tease and not revealing them all in one go!

A very quick Christmas Ornament

2009-11-20T09:25:00.004+13:00

Morning everyone!

Very quick post today as I'm in a wee bit of a rush! I thought I'd share this really cute little Christmas ornament with you. This was unbelievably quick and easy to make, but so effective, and a great way to use up those scraps of designer series paper you've been hoarding!

The designer of this project, called a Double Ball Ornament, is the fabulous Carol Dunstan who is from Australia and was asked to write a tutorial for it for Splitcoast. Way to go Carol! To see her original sample and find out how to make these, click here.

You'll need a hatpin and bead(s) from the Pretties kit as well as some ribbon and a paper piercing tool to make this. No adhesive whatsover!! I've used some of my favourite Ski Slope Designer Series paper and whisper white 1/4" grosgrain ribbon for mine. Oh how I'll miss this paper when it's gone - just 10 more days to order it!

Have a happy day! (It is Friday, after all, the weekend is nearly here!)

What else can I get?

2009-11-19T10:00:00.002+13:00

Hi everyone,
Today I thought I'd tell you about what else I offer in my wonderful "second job" as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

I'm often asked if I have products that people can buy when they come to my home to attend a class or workshop. For the most part, the answer is no. We sell products to order, as one of Stampin' Up!'s policies is that we are strictly forbidden to sell from stock. Of course, I have lots of cardstock and things here because I can often use several packs at a time when I'm preparing for a large event, but I cannot sell that to you when you attend a class. The reason for this policy is that Stampin' Up! have a 90 day guarantee that products are free from manufacturing faults, and that starts from the shipping date. So if I was to sell you something from my "stash", the chances are it's been sitting there for a while, so probably outside of the 90 days. It's fairly rare, but occasionally there are issues that I have to log with Stampin' Up!, and if that happens, you ideally want to be protected by the 90 day policy.

Having said that, there are times when I DO have product available to purchase when you attend a class at my home. These are retired items, which won't be going into a main catalogue. If you would like to see what I have available right now, check out the list here or use the link on my sidebar. You can order these by e-mail too, you don't have to attend a class to earn the chance to purchase them!

As a Manager with a wonderful team, I also have lots to offer to new Demonstrators who join me, but that would make for a very long post, so I'll focus on what else I offer to customers, for today! Personalised classes, free workshops, large crafting events like our Extravaganzas, handmade items sold at my events, a little something attached to every order for your inspiration, friendly service, and did I mention gift vouchers? If there's a crafter in your life who would enjoy shopping from the catalogue (or if you'd like to drop a hint to your nearest and dearest for one yourself, after all, Christmas is coming!), I can offer a gift voucher for any amount you care to spend! Please note that purchasers / recipients of gift vouchers must be resident in NZ, as we cannot sell inter-country.

Do ask if you would like to know more! And if there's something you'd like me to offer that I didn't mention, post a comment here and I'll do my best to accomodate you!

Parisian Purse

2009-11-18T10:00:00.000+13:00

Morning everyone!

Did you miss me yesterday? Things are pretty full-on for me at work and with my stamping right now so I decided that I could afford a teeny break from blogging. So my record is 15 days in a row. I'm quite proud of myself for that little accomplishment. Not bad for a technophobe really!

Today I want to share with you a cute little purse that I've made out of Parisian Breeze Specialty DSP, which is in the Spring Mini. I bought this paper during our pre-order month back in July and I've mostly only drooled over it, having only used it for a couple of projects. I'm kicking myself now, because isn't it just gorgeous? I should have used it a lot more, and now we're about to farewell it!

This little purse is made using a template that Stampin' Up! made available to Demonstrators, it's one of the fabulous resources we have access to. One of the many benefits of being a Demonstrator! (Did I mention that we get to see what's coming up, in advance sometimes? You're going to love the Summer mini!)

The really nice thing about this DSP is that it's thick, like cardstock. So when you use it for making 3D items, it holds it's shape really well once you've folded it. Often, little purses like this one can seem so flimsy if made using ordinary patterned paper - but not this one! There's no way the handle is falling over on this purse, unless I happen to accidentally sit on it or something!

It's a little hard to see in the photo but around the front flap of the purse I've added a scalloped edge. I cut a piece of the DSP and used the Scallop Edge punch on it, then used my scissors to snip a few key bits so I could angle it around the curve.

I've used one of the Baja Breeze corduroy buttons as the "closure" on this purse, although actually it's held closed using velcro. With linen thread tied on, it is for decoration - much like a real-life purse can be! These buttons are also sailing off into the sunset at the end of this month, so don't forget to order them if you want them for your craft collection!

Please contact me if you have any questions about this project, or want to know about the other advantages of becoming a Demonstrator. I'd love to welcome you to my wonderful team!

Launch Party for the new Summer Mini Catalogue!

2009-11-16T10:00:00.001+13:00

Hi everyone,
Just a quick announcement today. Some of you may have noticed that I've made a few changes to my sidebar in the last week or so, and one of those changes was to update information on my classes. Now, not all of my workshops / classes are mentioned in this section of my blog. I do conduct workshops and classes on request at the homes of my customers, so because those are private classes, I don't always list them here. (If you'd like to book a workshop or an exclusive class just for you and your friends, I'm taking bookings now for the New Year).

However, I do want to point out an exciting event that I am planning which you are welcome to book in for - for the first time ever, I'm holding a Launch Party at my home! We have a fabulous new Summer Mini Catalogue which will be available on December 1st, so I'm holding my party as soon as I'm able to, after it opens (given my day job!). Come and visit me in Botany Downs, Auckland, on the afternoon of December 5th - there will be free Make n Takes, new tools to try out, a complimentary copy of the Summer mini with all orders placed on the day, loads of inspiration, drinks & nibbles and the odd prize or two made by me...

In my view this is the best mini catalogue we've had so far! Drop in any time between 1-5pm, but you must RSVP by November 30th so I can prepare your make n takes kit. Please E-mail me for more details and to book in! As I'm holding this event over 4 hours, so you can pop in for a quick visit or stay longer as you prefer, I am hoping I won't need to put a limit on the numbers, but don't take too long to book in, just in case!

A Special Christmas Card

2009-11-15T10:00:00.000+13:00

Hi everyone,

Well after thinking I was just about done making Christmas cards (amazing I know, since it's only mid-November) my fabulous Stampin' Up! team have got me going again.

We have team swaps and challenges, and the challenge this month is to make a Christmas card that has at least one button. I couldn't not participate this time (I've skipped a few team challenges so far, just been too busy to enter!) since I am not exactly short of a few corduroy buttons from the Spring Mini catalogue!

This Christmas card is more elaborate than the others I've been making this year. For one, I've tried to design Christmas cards that my customers can reproduce fairly quickly and easily, if they need a lot of cards. Two, I've tried to make sure that my Christmas cards are ones that aren't too bulky - otherwise the postage can get a little expensive. Three, I know that some people (yes there are some!) don't always recognise the time and care (and love) that goes into making a handmade card. When that's the case, you want to make cards that don't take hours to put together, since they aren't really going to be appreciated!

That means that this card is just a little bit more special than my other designs. I've added some beautiful wide Real Red grosgrain ribbon in addition to that gorgeous Baja Breeze corduroy button attached to the sentiment piece. (This also means that this card is more luxurious and would have to be sold for a lot more than the cheap packs of Christmas cards you can buy at this time of year!).

The poinsetta flower is made using the Spotlight on Christmas stamp set, punching the images out with the 5-petal flower punch, then adhering together with a little snail adhesive and putting a silver brad through the centre. I curled it just a little using the tips of my fingers and used Stampin Dimensionals to attach it so it stands up a little from the card. The chocolate chip frame that it's layered on is from the Gallery stamp set in the Spring mini, and yes I hand cut that out (so you probably don't want to be making 100 of this card!).

I stamped the base card with the swirl from the Spotlight on Christmas set in Baja Breeze ink. You may notice that some of the swirls go off the edge of the cardstock. That's intentional - those of you who attend my classes and events may have heard me talking about "flow" on a card or layout. That's what I mean, a project will often look more polished if the background stamping "flows" off the edge. Try it next time you're stamping and see for yourself!

I wrapped the ribbon around a piece of Ski Slope designer series paper layered on Real Red cardstock and adhered it to my card before adding the embellishments. The sentiment is from the hostess set Best Yet (yes, here it is again, I can't get enough of that set!), punched out with the large oval punch, and layered on a chocolate chip scalloped oval. I attached the button and then used dimensionals to attach it to the card.

Here's a close up of the embellishments so you can see all the layering; the first photo doesn't show how much dimension there is to this card.

Now all I have to do is to find a special person to give this card to, someone who will appreciate the time and love poured into making it!

Hope you like it, do let me know if you have any questions (click here). If you'd like to order any of the products from the Spring Mini that I've used, don't forget to do that before the end of the month, when the Spring mini closes!