Time to Play

I've had a bit more wind beneath my wings lately, so I've been having tons of fun creating scrapbook pages again. Not that I have never enjoyed creating those, but as you know they're a bit more work than creating cards. So, I just thought I'd share with you what I got up to the other day.
I've always love twill....all colours, all widths and was spoiled for choice while living in Hong Kong. I've got plenty of Stampin' Up's twill in my stash too, so I started to play around it and I'm LOVING the result!

Firstly I dug out some letter stickers and stuck them to to the twill, pressing them down hard so no corners were sticking up. Then I mixed some real red ink refill with some water and brushed my twill with it until it was covered, then left it to dry.





After it was dry, I carefully removed the stickers, and my verse stuck out from the twill beautifully.

I also heat embossed a Jenni Bowlin chipboard butterfly, (which I bought from my dear friend Ainslee at Scrap Junkie) with the Stampin Up En Francais background stamp and inked over top with more real red ink. I added some of Stampin Up's clear buttons and put it together.

The end result! This page design is from one of my scrapbook idols Nia Reddy's pages I saw and sketched down on a scrap piece of paper a couple of years ago. I only just found the sketch tucked away in one of my many idea books.....and I still loved it.

Check This Out!

This FREE online class looks great, too good to keep to myself! I'm SOOOO doing it! "You don’t have to be a scrapbooker, just a person with stories to tell." This class is for everyone! For more info and registration for the class, check out Jessica Spague's website.

Waterfall Card

I've had a few workshop themes lately that involved making cards that were different from the usual fold in half piece of carstock. I've got to say that I've had a TON of fun experimenting with different card folds and gift box ideas. My favourite so far is this Waterfall Card. With my friend Tanya just having her baby, I couldn't wait to try out this card for her! Its a lot easier than it looks! You pull down where the ribbon is, and the card flaps, flip up and over.....and then the card message is hidden under all the flaps. Does that make sense???

The instructions on how to make this type of card are here.

October Stampin Up Special & Newsletter

October is here and Stampin' Up! is bringing you a fabulous Birthday Promotion. When you spend $20 on regular catalogue merchandise, you receive any of the stamps sets below with a 20% discount. Birthday cards are one of the most popular reasons for sending a card; everyone needs a birthday set (or two!) to be ready for the occasion. There is no limit to the number of sets you can purchase below after you have found your initial $20 to spend from the main catalogue. You can view the details of this promotion when you click here, and please have all orders to me by noon on October 31st.


Another special is valid FROM OCTOBER 4-11th only, you can purchase the Simply Sent kits at 20% off! (You can see these kits on pages 12-14 in the main catalogue). This is a great time to buy them for your stamping friend or family for Christmas or just to treat yourself! This is a fantastic deal, so please have your orders to me by noon on the 11th.

I have another Christmas card class to offer you, but before I give you the details, I just want to say how much I've enjoyed catching up with so many of you in these classes. Its such a fun night for me to have you over. There is usually LOTS of good conversation and laughs. And please know that what is said at my craft table - STAYS at my craft table!!!
I'm holding this class on Saturday October 25th and Thursday October 30th. Both classes start at 7:30pm and you'll be making 10 cards, 5 each of the 2 designs below. The cost is $20, which includes the envelopes and all supplies used in this class. Please email or call me to book your place in either of these classes.

Class update: Both classes are now full. I'm trying to organise another night for this class. Let me know if you're interested!

I'm still planning on holding a couple 6x6 scrapbook page classes for those of you who are interested in putting together a calendar or just to have some beautiful memories on some pages. I'm a bit behind in preparing these as I my usually quiet social life has been bombarded with visitors. My lovely sister and her kids were here for the last week of term and part of
the school holidays, and now my best friend from Hong Kong has arrived with her kids for the remainder of the holidays....with my son's birthday squeezed into the middle of that. So please know I haven't forgotten about this class, I'm just taking a little longer to get it ready. If this is something you are interested in doing, would you mind letting me know. It would just help me to know if I need to prepare for a full class or just for a few people. Thank you!

Congratulations Tanya!

My lovely friend and downline, Tanya, had a beautiful baby girl 3 weeks ago. Her name is Georgia. I've only just got to meet her yesterday and have a cuddle. I was one of the lucky ones who saw her awake. Apparently she is a fabulous sleeper! (lucky for some) Welcome Georgia and congratulations Brenden & Tanya! Post edited on 3 October.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day dad! I sent my dad the second card for Father's Day and the top card I put together for a workshop. I bought the Dad's Day stamp set months ago, hoping that I'd be ready for Father's day this year. The details of card follows:

Card #1: Dad's Day stamp set, Bravo Burgandy, Handsome Hunter inks and Bravo Burgandy, Handsome Hunter, Sage Shadow & Naturals Ivory cardstock. Also the Rough Texture wheel with Bravo Burgandy ink was used and the brads and ribbon slide was from the HodgePodge Hardware. Card based on a sketch I have - one of my favourite and most versatile ones. I used this gorgeous colour combination for my Christmas cards last year.

Card #2: Dad's Day stamp set and Sanded background stamp, Chocolate Chip, Brocade Blue, Mellow Moss and Night of Navy inks. Mellow Moss, Brocade Blue, Very Vanilla and Kraft cardstock. Hat pin and beads are from the Pretties Kit. Ribbon is the Kraft Taffeta and Moss Gingham. Based on another fun card sketch.

Stampin' Up! September Special and More Christmas Card Classes

Happy Spring everyone!
It's so nice to feel the warmer weather again! I love the feeling of new beginnings that spring brings us each year. My camera and I need to get out more and capture some of the beauties before they're gone.

To launch you into spring, Stampin' Up! has a special called "Free Wheelin". When you purchase a preselected stamp set, you'll receive the coordinating wheel for FREE. There are 6 preselected stamp sets in this special, and they're all gorgeous! You can see what stamp sets they are and more details about this special when you click this link. If you want to add some free wheels to your supply, then please have all orders to me by September 30.

The August Christmas card classes were tons of fun and it was a great way to catch up with so many of you. I've put together another Christmas card class to keep the momentum up for the approaching season. The dates for this class are Thursday September 18th, starting at 7:30pm, and Saturday September 20th, also starting at 7:30pm. In this class you'll make 10 cards, 5 of each design. As you might be able to see in the close up picture, you'll be doing some gold embossing (the Season's Greetings/trees card), followed by some fun shading with the Stampin' Up! Pastels. Embossing is really easy, so please don't be deterred by that word. This would be a great opportunity for you to try it out! On the 2nd card (the pine cone/branch card) you'll be layering with colours as well as using the Stampin' Write Markers. The cost is $20 which includes all supplies used in the class, including envelopes (which you can stamp to match your card). Please email or call me soon to book your seat for either class.

Please keep in mind that I can run classes for your group of friends and for craft groups that can't make it to my pre scheduled class times. Just contact me and we'll work something out for your group.

The Spring Mini Catalogue has been a HUGE hit Australia wide. If you haven't checked it out yet, have a look online or email me your address and I'll pop one in the mail to you. The mini is valid until the end of November.

My Journaling Journey

I'm doing an online journaling workshop everyday this month with Big Picture Scrapbooking.com. LOVING IT! Journaling is something I've always struggled with. I've kept gratitude journals and "daily dialogue" journals on and off for 10 years as writing has helped me through painful & lonely times and through the changes in my life. I recently read through my old journals and was encouraged at how far I'd come in those 10 years, and yet in other ways, how SO very far I have to go. I could tell when I was having a bad day as the only things I could be grateful for were my baby's smile, our health and good weather. Not that those things aren't important, because I'm still extremely grateful for each of those things. Although now....I LOVE wet, cold miserable winter days that keep me inside a warm, comfortable house.

I've been given so many opportunities to see the beauty and the horrors in this world. I have some photographs to assist in the memories, but most of the stories are stuck inside my mind as I don't feel I can do the stories justice on paper. Hence my decision to do the journaling workshop! I receive journaling prompts each day, which I write about, while learning about excerpt journaling and vignette journaling. Its only the first week and I can't wait to receive my email about my next writing assignment. Todays journalling prompt was "the back door". Lots to write about there!

As demonstrators, we are regularly given stamping ideas from the head office in Sydney and in America. Its a valuable tool in helping us get ideas of what we can show our customers and in planning our workshops. The above card is one of those cards they gave us and its using Circle of Friendship stamp set, which I don't have. The style and simplicity of this card grabbed me though. I just thought I'd share what I came up with using this as a template, and several of my stamp sets. (stamp sets are Priceless, Seeing Spots, Boho Backgrounds and Big Bold Birthday)

Away with the Birds

This is the bird I mentioned in my newsletter below. It's part of the Always stamp set in the Spring Mini. Pretty isn't it?! Well....this bird just said "emboss me", so thats what I did in a few different ways. The green bird in the middle/top is first inked in old olive, then rock-n-rolled in taken with teal and stamped on whisper white. I then stamped over the top, using the stamp-a-ma-jig with Versamark and heat set it with clear embossing powder. The 2 other white birds sitting in the middle were just stamped with Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder. The last bird on the lower right was first stamped in soft sky, then again with Versamark and heat embossed with several layers of clear embossing powder. I liked the way they all turned out. I'll have to play some more and show you pictures of the finished card.

August Classes and The Spring Mini Has Arrived!

I've got some winter cheer to share with you. Check out Stampin'Up!'s new Spring Mini Catalogue! It's full of new & beautiful stamps, paper, ribbon and accessories. I have so many favourites in this mini (the Always set with a gorgeous bird and beautiful heart and the Celebrate Everyday set has the cutest Owl!) so choosing what I REALLYwanted was difficult. A bonus with all the stamp sets in this mini is that they are all die cut, which means there is no cutting needed. You just pop them out, stick them to the correct wooden blocks and apply the sticker.....too easy!! Check it out for yourself when you click on the link above or send me an email with your address and I'll pop the mini in the mail to you.

I've got a class to offer you and this time its more of a Stamp-a-Stack (SAS) rather than concentrating on a new technique (although I'm sure you'll learn something with these cards). With Christmas sneaking up on us, I've put together a class using 2 NEW Christmas stamp sets (as well as some of the new Designer Series Paper, Holiday Harmony) from the above mentioned Spring Mini Catalogue. As I'm quite booked up with workshops on weekends, and due to the numbers interested in getting started on Christmas cards, I'm offering this class on 2 different evenings, Thursday August 14th and Thursday August 28th. Both classes will start at 7:30 PM. In this class you'll make 10 cards, 5 of each design. The cost is $20 and that includes all materials used and envelopes. If you're interested in attending either night, email or call me to book your place ASAP.
(Update 6/8/08: both classes are now full. Will post on here if any spaces become available, so please check back or let me know if you're interested in attending)

The Stampin' Up! Promotion this month is the New Demonstrator Starter Kit price being reduced to $299, but only until August 15th. Remember, you can customise this starter kit to suit your style. Click the link for more details and please call me if you're interested in joining my lovely team of ladies who love stamping as much as you do!

Looking ahead: There will be another 2 Christmas card classes in September, with 2 new cards to make, just to keep your card supply growing. There will also be 6x6 scrapbook page classes coming in October and November. This will replace the previous years Calendar class, as you can make the 6x6 scrapbook pages and attach them to a calendar yourself and give as a Christmas present, or keep them for you to enjoy.

If you're interested in hosting your own Christmas workshop and jump starting you and your friends into the crazy season, then contact me soon as dates are filling up fast!!

Stamping Day!

Here are some pics from a day of stamping with my and Tania's downlines & friends. We each took in turns to show a techique to our little group and of course we made swaps for our card stash. Lots of laughs and great company! Thanks Tania for organsing and hosting this fun day!

This is for my fellow Harry Potter/JK Rowling fans. (I know who you are). I just finished watching the "A Year in the Life of JK Rowling" on TV tonight and thought I'd post up a couple other items of interest. Jo wrote an 800 word Harry Potter prequel and it was up for auction in June, which sold for $25,000 lbs and all proceeds are for charity. You can read it here, as well as many other short stories from well known authors. (You need to click on "Read our Authors Stories", then on JK Rowlings name). When this story card went up on the internet, it received approx 70,000 hits in the first 20 hours. The card is written in her handwriting, so its a little tricky in parts....but its good! The characters are James & Sirius, 3 years before Harry was born.

The other REALLY good link to give you is here, where JK Rowling is giving the Harvard University commencement address last month. Jo gives such an inspiring speech about the fringe benefits of failure and the power of imagination. I hold a soft spot for Jo as she started writing when she was a single mum, living alone in London. The applause at the end is very moving........

7 Random Things You May Not Know

Ok...I've been tagged. Not once but twice now, by Margaret first, then Tanya. So I've been thinking about what 7 random things about myself that are interesting for you to read about.

1. I was the grand prize winner in a Paper Salon/Self-Addressed contest in the USA at the end of 2005. (Paper Salon is another rubber stamping company). I won lots of goodies from them. You can see my creation when you click here.

2. I spent 2 of my teenage years living in Hawaii. So many good memories of watching "green flash" type sunsets every night (see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 to see what I'm talking about), the volcano blowing once a month (again bringing some of the most beautiful sunsets you'll ever see), great friends who I'm now reconnecting with via Facebook, cliff jumping, body surfing, eating Mud Pie at the Kona Inn.....the best place in the world for that!......and I could go on and on and on.

3. I did a bit of volunteer medical work in a Bangkok handicapped children's orphanage when I was 21. It had the worst living conditions you could imagine (children chained to the wall and locked in cages). One of the more life changing/eye opening experiences for me that I'll never forget.

4. I had the priveledge of getting to know some girls in the hill tribes of Northern Thailand (right on the very remote Thai/Burmese boarder - thick opium area) - who were taken out of prostitution. These girls were aged 8-18. Again, another life changing experience that stays with me to this day.

5. I helped build a preschool in Manilla Philippines for the resident children who lived on "Smoky Mountain", one of Manilla's largest dumps. A few times a week I was able to visit homes on the dump and deliver food to the families that lived there. And other times I joined the medical teams and did basic first aid. This was my first exposure to extreme poverty and desparation. I was 15 years old.

6. I'm a CKU (Creating Keepsakes University) graduate from San Jose in 2004. A scrapbookers dream!

7. I have sun bathed (fully clothed) on one of the most beautiful, untouched beaches of the world, Banda Aceh, Indonesia (the Boxing Day Tsunami had a direct hit on this place in 2004). It is a STRONG muslim area where Islamic law is upheld, so yes, I kept all my clothes on and just wiggles my toes in the sand.

A Piece of Heaven

I escaped to this little piece of heaven this week. My son is visiting his dad in New Zealand at the moment, so for the first time in 14 months, I had more than 36 hours to myself. Being an introvert, the dream of getting away by myself was just too enticing. My friends and family made sure I had enough to take with me to keep me occupied and pampered: a lovely scented candle (which I burned for the entire time, thank you Ainslee!), cookies (thanks Carol from NLPC), warm snuggly socks (thank you Steph and Ainslee), good DVDs to watch (thanks mom & dad, Mary & Joe and Chris & Carol!), some new scrapbooking supplies (thanks Steph), chocolate (thanks Ainslee) and some good reading (thanks Gab!). It did help that my birthday was a few days prior to my holiday!

July Newsletter and Stampin' Up! Special

This newsletter is just a quick note to let you know what is happening in the world of Stampin' Up! in the month of July. School holidays are upon us again.....which means we have passed the half way mark to Christmas. This year is flying by! Yes I've started thinking about Christmas already, as several of you have booked "Christmas in July" theme workshops, which are always tons of fun. And personally, I'd like to be a little more prepared this year, if I can.

July's special is perfect for those of you who have been thinking of joining Stampin Up. The starter kit is reduced in price from now until August 15th. You receive $560 worth of stamping goodies for the price of $299. Click here to have a look at the flyer for more details. If you find the stamps in the starter kit are not your style, then you are free to customise your own starter kit with stamps of your choice, as long as they are of equal value. The same goes for the colours. If you're not a Bold Brights kind of gal, then you can choose your favourite colours instead. Please give me call or drop me an email if you have any questions. I'd love for you to join my team!

My son is in New Zealand for the school holidays, so I'm taking advantage of some child free time and going to the coast for this coming week. I want to recharge my creative batteries and catch up on some sleep! (my son is a very early riser). So, please know that if I don't reply to your emails until Friday, then that just means I'm sitting in front of a fire reading a good book, or wiggling my toes in some cold sand. I won't be near a computer for this week.

Looking ahead to August......there are more fun products arriving on our shores! As well as another technique class to attend. I look forward to sharing these things with you then!

Here is another page I sent to HK. This one was a lot easier! I can't remember what paper line this is....I won it and then liked it too much to use. (it might be Crate) There are a few Stampin Up products used here: Wonderful Words & Together Forever stamp sets, the flower is from the Pretties Kit and I coloured it with Soft Sky & close to Cocoa ink to match the papers, and the ribbon is Soft Sky double stitched. I also used a clear button and a Jumbo eyelet....I'm loving my new Crop-a-dile! All my old eyelets are being resurrected!

Stuff I've been Working On

My dear friend in Hong Kong is moving to Australia with her family (her husband got a basing in Adelaide...yayyyyy!!!) at the end of June. Christopher grew up with her kids, Matthew & Sarah and they are the brother and sister Christopher doesn't have. Anyway....everyone in our circle of friends is putting together a surprise (ha!) scrapbook album of their time in HK. I contributed a couple of pages, like this 17 photo layout here. The friends in HK decided on a theme of blue and brown....which I love, but found it a bit challenging with my very colourful pictures. I used my cherished Elsie, Toby KI Memories paper line and embellishments. I'm proud of my loopy doodle on the bottom. On the right side is the Elsie paper doodled like that. The left hand side is mine, copied exactly the same and with a perfect colour match too ( There wasn't enough of the doodled paper for both pages.) Allison hasn't seen it yet, but as I'm sure she doesn't read my blog, I feel pretty safe posting it up.

I'm Back and June Newsletter/Stampin Up Specials

What a whirlwind its been since the new catalogue arrived at the beginning of April! You've had me VERY busy with all the new catalogue workshops you've booked. Its been lovely to meet so many new stampers, as well as catching up with those of you who I see throughout the year. I must apologise for neglecting my blog lately though. Due to being busy, and striving to achieve balance between my work life and home life, (which has a very fine line drawn between the two as I work from home), something had to give, which was the blog. My schedule is returning to "normal" so my blog is a priority which I'll update shortly.

I'm happy to tell you about 2 promotions this month. In June, Stampin Up! is encouraging you to take a day & turn off your mobile phones, computers and even the TV, and sit down and make a card for someone to receive in their MAILBOX, not the INBOX. Remember that good ol' fashioned way we used to stay in touch with our friends and family? Stampin Up! is calling it an eScape and they want to help you take time to make cards by offering you a little bundle of goodies for a discounted price. For details click here or on the above eScape. If you'd like to order this little bundle then please have all orders to me by June 29th at the latest.

The second promotion helps those who have booked a workshop from June 1st until July 15th. If your workshop totals $700 or more, then you earn yourself an additional $50 of free merchandise! That's A LOT of stuff! When you reach the $700 goal, you already receive $80 of free merchandise, so an additional $50 will give you $130 of FREE Stampin Up goodies! If you don't have time to host a workshop, but would really like to take advantage of this promotion, then you could host a "Catalogue Party". A Catalogue Party is done by organising you and your friends to peruse the catalogue then have everyone email or call me with their orders. Depending on the total of all the orders, you can receive the hostess benefits! This usually works best for those of you who are already familiar with Stampin Up and its products. Click here for more details about the hostess promotion.

Technique Friday is happening this month on June 20th. The technique is Watercolouring. I've been having lots of fun using the watercolour paper, so I thought I'd let you in on the fun too. You'll make 10 cards in this class, 5 each of 2 designs, both cards will use the high quality Stampin Up watercolour paper. You'll also get to play with the Aqua Painters and watercolour crayons. I've had to increase the cost of this class a bit due to the materials used, which will be $23 (that includes the envelopes). My table only holds 6 people, so if you're interested in trying the watercolouring, technique, then email me to book your place soon!

The Spotlighting technique class that I held last month was great, but several of you missed out as my table filled up pretty quickly. I have set another date and have only 1 space left at my table for someone to join us. The class is being held this Friday evening, June 6th. The cost is $20 and again, you'll make 10 cards, 5 each of 2 designs, envelopes
are included. Let me know if you want to fill the last spot at my craft table on Friday night!