Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Over the weekend my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. WOW! Forty years! I wish them all the best for the next 40....I'm so proud to have them as my parents! Love you both!

I used some of my older but favourite supplies to make this card. I dug out my Making Memories De-fined clear stickers (I don't think you can buy those anymore) and covered the Fancy Pants paper with those stickers, used some of the Making Memories metal embelishments as well. I can't remember where I picked up that heart....but I used Staz On ink and stamped on it with a stamp from the Cute Converse set that is now retired. The chipboard numbers are Stampin Up, I covered those in FP paper and then added ruby coloured gemstones from Heidi Swapp. Then with Stampin Up Crystal Effects, covered the numbers for a shiny finish. The ribbon is also Fancy Pants.
It was fun digging out some of the older supplies and using them again...a great way to get the creative juices flowing!

65 Roses Day

Today is also 65 Roses Day - the national awareness day for Cystic Fibrosis. Gab's son Conor has CF. I knew very little about it until I met Gab, Anthony and Conor. Seeing them live with CF everyday, with doing physiotherapy, taking medications and doing breathing exercises has made me more aware and hopeful that a cure will be discovered in Conor's lifetime....if not sooner! There have been medical advances over the years but more research is needed and its time help! My son Christopher doesn't really understand what CF is, but he's never too late in reminding Conor to take the tablets he needs after every meal to help Conor grow and stay healthy.
I hope today that you'll stop and buy a sausage from the LJ Hooker sausage sizzles that are set up around Canberra, which are raising funds for CF research. You can also visit their website anytime to make donation : 65 Roses Day 2007 .

Happy 40th Birthday Gab!!!

Happy Birthday my friend! Hope you have a really special day with Anthony and Conor!
For those of you who haven't met Gab, she is a dear friend of mine who I met while living in Hong Kong. Our passion for scrapbooking lead us to start a little business in Discovery Bay, HK, where we could supply products and teach classes to the scrapbookers in our community. In 2005 Gab moved to Canberra, where her family is from, and I moved back to Canberra early 2006, where my family lives as well. It made moving back here so much easier knowing that I already had a good friend to connect with. Our sons play really well together too. Gab's son Conor is 4 years old and my son Christopher is 8, but the age difference doesn't bother them.
Gab and I spent the day yesterday watching Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2, in preparation for going to see Pirates 3 tonight!! Yes... Pirate fever has hit in full force......we've been counting down the days to May 25th....for the movie as well as for Gab's big birthday!

Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea

If you need something to do or somewhere to go this weekend, please go and visit Ainslee at Scrap Junkie as she is hosting an "Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea" this Sunday 27 May. You'll find lots of inspiration and tons of beautiful products in her shop, and this Sunday there will be door prizes, raffles, & donation giveaways. There is a Stampin Up! Simply Sent card kit to be won as well as other fun things. Ainslee is hoping to raise $1000 for the Cancer Council ACT, so your support of this cause would be greatly appreciated. Check out the Scrap Junkie blog for more details about the day. Hope to see you there!!!

A Very Late May Newsletter

I'm sorry that time has gotten away from me and I'm only now sending out my "beginning of the month newsletter" toward the end of May! There has been so much excitement with the new catalogue, and I've been busy with workshops and playing with my own new stamps, colour combinations (check out this link for lots of new colour combinations using the existing colour families and the new "In Colour" colours), and some new tools, preparing all kinds of fresh new cards to demonstrate in my workshops.

As some of you know, Stampin Up! usually has a special promotion each month. There wasn't one in April as it was the 2007-2008 Catalogue's first month out. This months promotion is a FANTASTIC deal, but let me ask you a few questions first: Do you like stamping and stamping with others? Do you enjoy meeting people and making new friends? Would you like to buy your stamps and accessories with a 20% discount? If you said yes to those questions, then you might like to think about becoming a Stampin Up! Demonstrator yourself. This month you can join up and receive $585 worth of Stampin Up! products for only $299! What a deal! As you know, I moved back here to Canberra last year, after living overseas for the past 15 years, with only knowing a handful of people here. I had a love for stamping and was very keen to meet people who would also enjoy this rewarding hobby. So it all started with just 1 workshop (thanks so much Gab!) and now after one year I'm SO happy to be able to call many of you my friends. Being a demonstrator also allows me to be a stay at home mum to my son as well as paying less for my own stamps (thus my cupboards are now overflowing and my colour caddy is almost full of inks!!). Please feel free to contact me if you'd like more information about this promotion and remember it ends on May 31st!

Looking ahead in June: I'll be hosting my own workshop to show you how to use some of the fun "toys" that are in this new catalogue, such as the colour spritzer, the chipboard and those gorgeous stampin' ink spots. Of course there will be a card that you'll be able to make using these new products. The date is Saturday June 23rd, 7:30pm. Please call or email me if you'd like to come along!

Some Cards

I'm been playing with some of my new stamps and LOVING the results. Thought I'd share a few with you: The first one is using the Paisley Background stamp. I stamped it using a few different inks in the soft subtle family, punched out some squares and put it back together (not matching on purpose). I love the detail in this stamp. I also stamped it straight onto Perfect Plum cardstock with Perfect Plum ink for a more subtle effect. If you click on the photo, you'll see more detail. I made 14 of these as I used it in a swap with other demonstrators around Australia.

This second card is using the Watercolour Minis and a canvas background. I love the dimension you can create with stamps that are the "2 Step" design. I stamp a much lighter colour first (in this case its Pretty-n-Pink), then stamp a darker shade (Rose Red) over top. The leaves are Certainly Celery as my lighter colour, then Always Artichoke as the darker. Again, if you click on the photo, then you'll see it bigger.


This last card I tried doing a cracked glass technique. I aged and stamped the images first, then heat embossed many layers of clear embossing powder over top. Put it in the freezer for a few minutes, took it out and cracked it up, rubbed ink into the cracks which gives it the antique look. I probably could have done a few more layers of embossing, but this is a good example of what it looks like.

A Mum's Moment

I've got to admit that sometimes being a single mother is rather overwhelming. I know I made the right decision in choosing this path for my life, but nevertheless, I can sometimes feel quite small for the big shoes I must wear!

The other day while rushing around packing up the homework, cleaning up after dinner and getting Christopher ready for bed...I found this message on the edge of the bathtub. It brought me to a stop, tears came to my eyes and I could do nothing else except feel SOOOOO grateful for gift that Christopher is to me. I'm such a lucky mum!

Mother's Day is this weekend....Happy Mother's Day to all the mums I know out there! Hope you have a lovely day with your families and that your kids will surprise you with something from their hearts.

One Morning in Canberra

I got up at the crack of dawn a couple weeks ago and went out with a friend (hi Steph!) and our cameras. It was only 2 degrees outside and still dark....and yes we both thought we were MAD giving up precious warmth and sleep to go out and see what we could capture at that time of day. The above photos show only a glimpse of how lovely it was that morning. With Christopher away in New Zealand visiting family with his dad, I was free to have the rest of the day to myself....and since I started the day waaaaaaaaaay too early...it was heaven being able to crawl back into bed and wake up at lunchtime. I don't think I've done that since I was a teenager!

A Good Read

Pearls before Breakfast
Found the above link on Ali E's blog. Make a cup of tea before sitting down to read it. Its so worth it! What kind of person would you be in this situation?

Hot Air Balloons

The weekend following Easter was the annual Hot Air Balloon Festival in Canberra. We went last year in minus 5 degree temperatures...loved it...but we froze! This year was much warmer, 5 degrees above zero, and my dad, my brother-in-law Joe and Cole came along too. The highlight this year was being able to walk inside a giant balloon as it was being blown up. (see the red and yellow balloon below with Christopher in the middle.) We'll be there again next year! If you click on the pictures, you'll see them bigger. Have a read of that football picture, the close up one below.

Images of Easter

Easter has come and gone for another year. There was plenty of food, chocolate, laughs and fun family time. My brother was down from Newcastle, my parents weren't travelling and my sister's family is all here too. There's just my brother's fiance who is in England that we missed. The egg decorating time was fun with my brother joining in. And the Easter bunny was much taller this year, hiding eggs in all kinds of hard to reach places! Thanks to Uncle Joe for helping retreive these treasures! Lots of fun for Christopher.

Watercolour Crayons, Family & Happy Easter

I bought the Stampin Up Watercolour crayons last year, and have hardly touched them since. I dug them out the other day and started to play, just to see what I could come up with. I was a bit surprised by how easy and fun they were! I love the effect they gave, especially when doing a 2 step rubber stamped image and using ink on top of the crayon. I might have to start showing the crayons in my workshops. Now that Stampin Up (SU) sells them in the individual colour families, they aren't too expensive.
By the way, you can now view the new Stampin Up catalogue online, just click here.
It was fun to gooo and gahhh over the catalogue with some of you last week. Thanks for coming over and sharing the excitment with me!

I placed a huge order with SU on Monday, the first day to order from the new catty. I'm hoping the order will arrive before Easter weekend but as I was one of the hundreds of demonstrators around Australia placing orders on that day, I'm not holding my breath! As soon as I have the new products in my hands, I'll be able to put together some technique classes and workshop ideas for you all. Watch this space!

On another note, since my sister and her family moved to Canberra a few months ago, I've been able to play Auntie to my gorgeous neice and nephew. Its kind of a new role for me as I've always been living too far away to get involved in the everyday routines with them. I'm trying to make time to be more involved with them now as I always forget how fast these little ones grow up! And there is the possibility that they may move to Brisbane later this year.....hope not....but at least we'll still be in the same country!

This picture of Christopher and Cora is my new favourite at the moment. You can see that Christopher totally adores his baby cousin through the gentle way he's trying to hold her as she wiggles about. And I LOVE her bib in the photo above....Cora is holding Christopher's favourite toy when he was a baby too. I kept a few of his favourites and have passed them onto Cora to enjoy now.

This weekend is the Easter long weekend. Christopher and I will do our egg decorating on Friday. We'll be thinking of you Katrina and Joel! The eggs looked dreadful last year when we used brown eggs, as there were no white eggs to be found. BUT this year, I managed to find some white eggs so they'll going to look beautiful. Martha Stewart has lots of egg decorating ideas. I'd love to try the silk tie method one day....it looks so easy and gorgeous!
Happy Easter Everyone!

I'm just bursting at the seams with excitement this morning! Look what I found on my doorstep on returning from school drop off.....












A lovely brown box.
Are you wondering what is INSIDE this box?
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Yes I LOVE to tease!
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The 2007-2008 Stampin Up Catalogue!!

There are approximately 200 NEW products in this NEW catalogue.....which includes lots of NEW stamps sets, NEW ink and paper colours, NEW ribbons, NEW punches and my most favourite item - Chipboard! And don't get me started on how GORGEOUS the hostess stamp sets are...the ones that are ONLY available to those who host a workshop. I'm going to have to host my own workshop so I can benefit from them too!

I'm opening my home up to you all this Saturday evening, March 31st, from 7:00 PM onwards. Come have a cup of tea and browse through this beautiful book with me. There are so many lovely cards ideas and techniques to look at, as well as all the other things I've already mentioned above. Just email or call me if you'd like to come along.
Remember that the catalogue is FREE to those who book a workshop or it can be bought for $12.95.

Crocs, Corn & Cards

How often does a mother and son get to share a fashion trend? You certainly won't find me wearing my jeans so low on my hips that they'll fall off if I sneeze....or wearing a hoody that is 3 sizes too big! But Crocs are a different story. Besides the fact that they are just about the most comfortable shoe ever made....I can accessorize my crocs with anything blingy to just plain fun. Christopher adores his Cars Movie jibbitz in his shoes. And he LOVES it when we go out of the house wearing our crocs together. SO COOL!

Autumn is on its way to Canberra. The nights are much cooler and I can see the leaves showing signs of turning colour. Another sign of autumn, I'm noticing, is the cobs of corn that are available to buy in the supermarket. Not the pre-packaged, glad wrapped, husked kind. I'm talking about the real, fresh from the farmer's field, kind. Corn on the cob brings so many happy memories of childhood, such as, late summer barbeques at the family cottage, on a remote lake in Ontario Canada; driving by a farmer's barn, and being able to buy as many as a dozen for $1; sitting on the back porch ripping the husks off; butter dripping all over our plates as we eat them; peaches and cream colours; and my uncle Bruce holding the family title of fastest & cleanest eater of corn on the cob, to this day. Christopher has taken it upon himself to be the corn husker in our family. We might be eating corn often these days. I want him to grow up with good memories of the early days of autumn too.

Stampin Up is retiring many stamp sets in preparation for the new catalogue that will be in my possession soon. For the full retired list, click on this link. I held a retirement party last week and that was a lot of fun...thanks for coming ladies! Here are some pics of cards that I've made either made recently or you might recognize them from a workshop:




If you have any questions about these cards, what stamps sets, ink, paper colours I've used, please ask. I've been asked a lot how I get the ideas to make the cards. Most of the ideas come from SU Catalogues & card making magazines like Paper Crafts. What I do most is when I see a card I like, I change the stamp set or paper combination (or both) to make a new fresh card. Works especially well when I've run out of ideas and need to make something fast. And, YES, I will contact all of you as soon as I have the NEW catalogue in my hot little hands. I'll have you over for another party!

New Friends, CNY & Photography

Its been a very full week with workshops and planning technique classes. I'm feeling exhausted but strangely excited. Not sure why. Maybe it has something to do with all the new friendships I made at the workshops lately. You ladies are amazing.....get a bunch of you together, sharing our love, or should I say obsession, with stamp products, and hey presto, a friendship has formed!
LOVE that!
It was Chinese New Year last week. I won't even try to say it in Mandarin or Cantonese, so Happy New Year everyone! Hope this golden year of the pig is a good one for everybody. We celebrated CNY this year by joining a couple of friends for a chinese dinner, while watching a Lion Dance being preformed. Lots of noise and colour surrounded us. Here are a few pics I took:
I love the colours at CNY, but I'd never wear them on myself at any time! Christopher's fingers were in his ears quite a bit with the drums only being 10 feet away. And I just had to get one more picture of him in his too small Chinese outfit. The photo with his hand in the lion's mouth is when the kids in the restaurant were giving the lion "li-cee" or small envelopes of $, to bring good luck for the year. The lion surprised Christopher when he closed his mouth on his arm! Lots of fun....we'll do it again next year!

I've been inspired lately by colours and photography in general. I have a few websites that I look at everyday and am awestruck with the creativity of others with their cameras. Check out this blog 3191. These 2 ladies live 3191 miles apart (not sure what that is in kilometres). They each take a picture every morning and post those photos side by side. They don't know what the other is photographing. SO COOL! Love their contrasts, colours and angles. They have a gift in making an everyday moment look beautiful. Make sure you look at their photos from January and February too.

Another is a website that my brother-in-law showed me recently that I'm LOVING! If you know me, you'll know my love of cooking. I love being able to turn an ordinary meal into something special.
Check out 101 Cookbooks! The recipes look so yummy, but what grabbed my attention more was the amazing pictures taken of the food and the stories behind each recipe. For example "My Dad's Garlic Bread". What a Dad! And that photo just makes me want to make some! I can't wait to try the Curried Apple Couscous.

Enough about food. The other site that I'm keeping my eye on is Photogamer. They just started holding a photography challenge each week. I haven't participated as of yet, but I get so inspired by how others have captured the challenge. Espcecially challenge #1. I now go about my day looking for unique reflections, strangers in hats and telephones in a new, refreshing way.

My friend Katrina lives in South Africa, soon to move back to Australia. (Pause...I'm breathing a sigh of relief there) Her photos are beautiful and her writing can take your breath away. Katrina has had to attend a couple funerals as of late, and her description of them and of the people brings tears to my eyes. REALLY looking forward to seeing you again soon!

What a Month!

I'm not sure where the time has gone over this past month.....so sorry to those who have emailed me and are STILL waiting to hear from me.

Just after returning from our coast holiday, my Aunt and Uncle from Canada arrived for a week. I haven't seen them since I was 13 years old......about 23 years ago.....so as you can imagine, there was A LOT of catching up to do. It was lots of fun having them stay with us. Here is a pic of the 3 generations of Christophers in my family (my Uncle Chris, my brother Christopher and my son Christopher) just playing around. These are my favourite kind of photos.....fun, relaxed and natural.

Christopher is back at school, in Year 3 now. He couldn't wait to get back to school, and this year he has a "man teacher". I'm really hoping Christopher will make some good friends this year. Its much harder to get to know people here, compared to the close knit community we had in Discovery Bay in Hong Kong. We both miss our friends in Hong Kong dearly. I have to admit that I was a little sad when the holidays ended. We had a great summer together. Christopher is now just that little bit older, a little taller and a little more independant than he was last year. He's growing up too fast!

I AM very happy to have some time to myself again though. I didn't have much time to create anything over the holidays and I'm SO keen to get into it again. I've been clearing a lot of the stuff that has accumulated over the past year.....check out the mags and idea books that having been growing under my bed. I'm an idea book/magazine addict....although I'm not as bad and SOME of my friends....you know who you are!

Just for fun I did a layout about my favourite movie...and now I'm working on a page about why I do what I do. Will post a pic of that when its done. This has been a great way to ingite the creative juices again. I've also got 4 Stampin Up workshops booked this week, so I'm getting lots done on the card front. I'll have to post some of those pics soon too. Speaking of Stampin Up.....its starting up in New Zealand in April! Let me know if you're interested and I'll keep you posted on developments.

Valentines Day is a fun day in my home. Christopher has been buying little gifts over the past month to give to me. Our cards to each other have always been signed with a "?" or "from your secret admirer". This year I received a snowman cookie cutter, a large red beaded bead, a wooden bead that Christopher decorated & coloured, and a friendship pin he made. GORGEOUS! Better than roses and chocolates anyday!

My sister's birthday was just a couple of days ago. Happy Birthday Mary! It was great to celebrate with you this year...after SO MANY years of not being in the same country. My brother-in-law also arrived from the USA, a few days before Valentines day. I can't tell you enough how wonderful it is have family altogether again! Christopher is LOVING having cousins around to play with. Cole and Christopher play so well together and the age difference doesn't bother him.

Another big event that happenned in my family last week is my brother got engaged! CONGRATS to you both Christopher and Carol. (can you hear it now.....Chris-n-Carol.......Christmas Carol...hehehe!) That not as bad and my sister and her husband Joe....Mary-n-Joe......Mary and Joseph!!! Sorry guys! Love it!