New Catalogue goodies!

Oh my, when a new Stampin' Up Catalogue comes out things get crazy. I have been flat out creating and doing workshops. Thankyou so much to all the lovely ladies that come to my workshops. I love meeting you all, and being part of your paper crafting.

I have had so many new goodies coming my way that the ink is barely drying before there's more to make.

Absolutely loving some of the new stamps too, and the big, big news is that I have a new 'Big Shot' die cut and embossing machine coming my way soon, like by the end of the week.........Yay!!! So excited!

Here is a lovely little card that we are making at workshops at the moment. Since taking this photo though, I have changed it slightly. For more of a lift I used the spot embossing plate and the Big Shot and then mounted the whole card on a sheet of Island Indigo (new 'In Colour' . I love the new 'In Colour's and have been using them a lot too. Stay tuned for an updated photo in my next post.







So, can you tell I am in infatuated with the new 'Pennant' set? Really, I love any stamp that has a matching punch, it makes like so easy. I decided to start Sophie's 1st Birthday album, and had an 'On Board Journal' waiting to be use. I love, love, love how this turned out!

Of course, there are many, many more I have made, and I'll get back to share again soon, I promise. Stampin' Up also have a great promo going for anyone intested in joining up and getting lots of great stuff for a reduced price. I'll get that up on my blog soon too, as there is no committment to sell, you can just get such a great discount, that I have to share!

Meanwhile, if you would like to book a workshop at your home, or mine, please contact me. I am fast filling up my diary for this year, and even have a few bookings now for next year, can you believe it? LOL!

I am also going to try an 'At Home Paper Craft Night' again soon. If you are interested in joining a group of ladies to create cards, scrapbook layouts or just chat and share ideas, then let me know and I'll keep you in the loop. The last one was great, with a lots of ideas being shared. This is a free night at my home, and you can use my stamps!


xx

Wow, it has been a long time!

I have some great excuses though, I promise. June and July were very busy (as they usually are in this house). Each year we head off for an extended camping/driving holiday during the July school holidays, so June is therefore busy with all the preparations. Good enough excuse? Throw in also a bit of day surgery for me, and it got even busier. However, I am back now, bigger and better than ever before!!

August has seen SU! go mad, with the retirement list out from the old catalogue, and the new catalogue and products coming to us. Sorry, can't share with you just yet, but when they arrive to me, I'll get some projects up pretty quickly so you can see some of the products being used.

So, you can view the list entire retirement list HERE.

You might like to print it out and then highlight the retiring sets in your catalogue.

Some of my favourites are going....in particular I'll be very sad to say goodbye to Party Hearty, if you have been to any of my workshops, you will recognise this one, I used it a lot! :( . If you like this set, this is your last chance to get it for sure.



Always is also going, and again, it is one I use a lot, I love that little birdy!



and Priceless, which you will recognise from cards I have posted here.



The fantastic news is that some items are discounted by 40%!! So, check the list to see if anything you love is disappearing forever - but order it fast, because these items are only available while stocks last!

Some of the highlights to look out for:

40% off:
Gifted (page 21) is now $29.97 (wood) or $23.97 (clear)
On a Pedestal (page 33) is now $20.97 (wood)
Hello, You (page 133) is now $11.97 (wood)

....and 25% off 22 other sets!!!

25% off Fresh Cut Notes (page 123) so now only $13.13 a packet

40% off Jolly Holiday DSP so at $10.17 for a pack of 12 sheets it's perfect for a head start on your Christmas cards, scrapbook pages and gift giving.

25% off Striped Ribbon in Real Red, Certainly Celery, Night of Navy and Early Espresso making it just $14.96 per roll.

40% off "Good Times" Simply Scrappin Kit (page 131) - now only $22.17!

This is the last chance to purchase New Colour Kits from the Colour Renovation (in ink pads, Markers, pastels, and Crayons) page 117 and 142. The Crayons and Pastels are 25% off!

5 Punches are Retiring. - the Spiral Punch, Designer Label Punch, Small Oval Punch, Photo Corners Punch and Star Punch (page 146-8)

15 Wheels are Retiring (page 158-9). get in quick with those!



Email me to place your order

Jo

Spank me now!

Oh, I have been a very naughty blogger haven't I? Spank me now!! (LOL, my husband is laughing at that one!).

Sometimes it is so hard to actually bite the bullet and post, when you haven't done it for a while. But I did it, and here I am again. I have been busy running lots of workshops and have now been promoted to a Senior Associate with Stampin' Up. For me that is pretty cool, as it was my goal for 6mths, and I made it in 4 months. Pretty chuffed with myself.

On the creative front, I have also been busy, mainly creating cards for my workshops. I have been pretty slack in photographing them though. It is pretty slack to blame Sophie, but in reality I can. She is a bit of a devil when it comes to daytime sleeps and that makes it hard to set up for photography, which I like to do in natural light. Oh well, soon I will get to that. Weekends are the perfect opportunity, but of course I have been at workshops or out camping every weekend this month. Busy, busy, busy!

I do however have something to share. Here is a little card I made for my MIL's 60th Birthday. It was case from one created by Nicole Stalker that she showed at a recend meeting. One of those cards that take quite a bit of work, and it shows in the finished product. Very please with how it turned out.





I really like the patterned papers that Stampin' Up have. Here I have used a piece from the Elegant Soiree set of papers, and I love the stick on pearls, they just finish the card off.

For my MIL's birthday we decided to make a banner for decoration. Together John and I made this....

It is not made from SU papers, so you will have to excuse that, but I wanted to share it. It's the first one I have ever made, and it was so easy. Really need another birthday so I can made more! I wasn't really sure how to mount it all, so ended up sewing it onto ribbon using a zigzag stitch on the sewing machine. The next one needs to be ornate and highly decorated, it could look so great hanging in a kids room.

So many ideas in my head...need to get them out!

I'll post again tomorrow with some special deal that SU have on offer at the moment.

xx

You're going to make a what?

Two weeks ago, I packed a few supplies and went off to a handbag making class. Darling Husband was perplexed. I was going to a handbag making class? What? Don't you have enough? A paper handbag? Oh, that sounds useful! LOL

One of the members of my team had made one for our manager's Birthday. She kindly offered to show us how to make them. Thankyou so much Michelle, what a delightful way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Here is the little bag I made, using papers from the Designer Series Paper Patterns Stack in Pastels. You will notice I use these papers a lot. They are fantastic, thick and double sided!



Now I'm on a bit of a handbag roll.....here's another one Amy and I made.



We filled it with little gift tags, and we gave it to my MIL as part of her 60th Birthday gift (Oops, perhaps she didn't want me to reveal her age! LOL). This little bag was super easy, and I found the template online somewhere and just printed it out straight onto the cardstock. I am still using up my old cardstock and patterned papers, so this gorgeous green embossed cardstock is from my stash, so not Stampin' Up.

I think that I might have to put this into my 'must do a class on' list.

Must get off this computer, I have two workshops this weekend, and am going to be flat out with those and a 1st Birthday on Sunday. Busy, busy, busy, but I love it!!

xx

I got it runnin' through my veins!

crafting that is, crafting is running through my veins, it is a compulsion BUT......

Oh, school holidays, they are driving me insane. Yes, I know, only into day 3! LOL

I have so much crafting I want to do, but I lack time, I lack space, and I lack the peace and quiet to do it. To be honest I also often lack the discipline. Often I will sit down on my computer just to check 'something' when Sophie goes to bed, and next thing (like 2 hrs later), I have wasted precious time that I could have used for crafting. What do I do? I surf blogs, I facebook, I visit a few forums, I check the weather, I look at specials going (cudo etc) and just generally waste time. Is this such a bad thing? Mmm....perhaps I should stop justifying it as my 'down time', and just boot myself off the computer.

The reason I got onto that, was that I have so many things buzzing through my brain at the moment, that I am dying to make. Tonight I made my first ever Bunting, you know, flag thingi. I'll take a photo on the weekend, but can't share just yet, as it is a suprise for my MIL, and just incase she reads this little blog, I don't want to ruin the suprise. Amy and I did make the cutest little handbag today, and I still need to photograph the one I made on the weekend. I am liking this little paper handbag making thing, such fun, and so easy to do. I promise to share soon.

What I will share with you though, is this....



I don't know quite what you call this type of card. A 3D self standing card? Someone help me with that one? Anyway, a lovely lady (sorry can't remember who) showed us this at the recent team meeting and I just had to have a go at making one. I used some of the new papers from the Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue, and quite frankly love them. So Autumnal and perfect to go with the 'Trendy Trees' stamp set. This was one of my first ever sets of stamps I bought from Stampin' Up, and I still think they are gorgeous little things.

Perhaps another class idea? Really, really easy to make, I promise!

I have been thinking for a while now about joining in some of the challenges around. Lets see if next week I can squeeze some into my schedule. Ok no, won't happen next week. Got a busy one coming up!

xx

By request

I often ask the host of a workshop what sort of cards she would like to do. At the moment I am getting requests for Cupcakes (lol, of course) and Mother's Day. But I also have had a lady ask recently for masculine cards. For some reason I have difficulty doing masculine cards. Why? Well, I love flower and pretty things, what girl doesn't? So, here is one that I have crafted. I actually like this cards, as I think it has many different applications. Depending on the colour of the papers used, it could be feminine too. It would also make a great invitation.



During this week, I would like to make some more like this, perhaps with the little flap lifting up. The patterned paper is from the Designer Series Paper Stack in Pastels, that I use so much of, I love that paper, so easy to use. The gorgeous punch is from the new Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue, you'll be seeing lots of that one, because I think it is gorgeous! I also used the 'A sense of time' stamp set with the Versamark ink pad to create the gorgeous masculine looking bottom section.

The next cards is one that I have made for Mother's Day. Now this has caused me so much grief. I had in my mind how I wanted it to look, and I made one, cut all the papers up for my next 2 workshops (20 sets cut up) and then decided I didn't really like what I had done. I am still not entirely convinced, and I would love some feedback, please? Perhaps it is the colour combination I have used, not sure. I am hoping that it will grow on me! Essentially I like the design of the cards, so maybe it is just the colours. I think I will make it again tomorrow using different colours and see.



This is made using the 'Always' stamp set, that I got in my original starter kit, but have rarely used. I gorgeous set, that I am going to make use of shortly on a scrapbooking layout. I know, I keep saying that!! You will all keel over with shock when I finally do some scrapbooking again.

I have a busy day planned tomorrow. Jack has two friends coming over the spend the day. In order to make Amy feel a little bit less left out, I am hoping to do lots of crafting with her. Of course, that will all depend on how demanding little Miss Sophie is. She is so frustrated at the moment. The only form of communication that she is using a squealling and screaming at us. She is dying to walk and to talk, but just can't get it all together. Hoping and praying that in the next week all the little neurons in her brain co-operate and she figures it all out....either that or I am going to go a bit nuts! LOL

Stay tuned for postings of lots of makings! LOL, does that make sense?

xx

So inspired!

I have can't believe how much I have done this last week. As I logged in here tonight, I realised it has been a week since I blogged on my SU blog, and thankfully I have an excuse.

After trying to get myself together, and actually sit down and create a monthly newsletter, I finally got it this week and it took me so long. I finished it all off, and send it off into cyberspace, only to regret sending it, and wish that I had done it differently. Still working on a better one, but will send off an update this week with the important things in it, that probably got lost in all the information I included in my first email. What is the important information? Well, the address of this blog is VERY important, as is my class calendar (more about that in a minute) and the product share. If you are on my mailing list, I would love some feedback about what you thought of my newsletter, please.

This week I have also pushed myself a little further and plunged headfirst (well before the intended 6mths) into running classes. A lot of my workshop ladies have asked about classes run at home, and they all seem very enthusiastic. I have one lady booked already! Ok, yes it is a friend of mine LOL, but a booking is a booking.

The first class is going to be on Tuesday 3rd May. There will be two classes, one at 10am and one at 7.30pm. Children are welcome at the 10am classes. Refreshments will be served also. The cost will be $10 for 3 cards or $15 for 5. All materials will be supplied. This months theme will be cupcakes. I posted one card in the my last post, and here is the second one for the class. Do you like it? I love the cupcakes, could make cupcake cards forever. Mmmm, must get onto those scrapbooking layouts I keep talking about too.

In this class you will be able to used my 'Create a Cupcake' Stamp set and the 'Build a Cupcake' Punch. I can't promise however that you won't love it so much, that you will have to buy it! Sorry.

Another new stampset in the Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue I love is the 'Strength & Hope' Set. $2 from every sale of this set goes directly to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Now that is a good reason to buy it alone, but the fact that it is gorgeous is another great reason. Here is a card that I made recently at one of our team meetings with the set. I think the June class should be devoted to making cards with this set.

I just love the colours in this card, and that butterfly is gorgeous.

Please come along to a class soon, they will be lots of fun!

Tomorrow I will post you a sneak peak at a class I went to over the weekend!

xx

Blog overhaul and a new card.

Phew, brain overload! I have been wanting to sit down and really get my teeth into this blog since I started it. I am much happier with the appearance now, and have finally figured out all those little things over on the side (?Gadgets). Have a little read. This week, I hope to start getting together a bit of a workshop calendar and will put that there too. Now that I have done a few workshops, I am getting a bit of a 'data' base, and should be able to send out some emails to share my blog and classes. If you are here for the first time as a result of my email, please let me know, and click on follow on the side bar there -->. I would love to know who visits.

The new Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue is here. Click on the image over in the sidebar to see what's inside.



There are soooo many gorgeous new stamps and punches in there. I have to keep reminding myself that this is my business, not something I am doing to feed my hobby. This is the only way I can stop myself buying them all. We now have until the end of July to buy from this catalogue. Phew, maybe I can budget for a few more things.

So, cupcakes? Oh yes, gorgeous cupcakes.






And this is the finished product. Isn't it just gorgeous?

I am so glad that Sophie's birthday party was cupcake based, now I can use this set on the scrapbooking layouts from her party. Shame that I had to cut out 10 cupcake invitations by hand though! LOL This is a card that I am going to be using for the next round of workshops coming up, along with a masculine card that I am still yet to photograph. Next blog post.

xx

What a hoot!!! LOL

I have to admit to going a bit 'owl' mad of late. I love the Stampin' Up Own Punch and the Owl stamp in the Punch Bunch sale-a-bration set. I hope that it comes out in a catalogue in the future, as I have found it to be a great seller. Thankfully customers like it as much as I do, makes me not feel quite so wierd LOL.

Here are a few of my favourites.



The patterned paper in this one is from the Play Date range, I love how it co-ordinates with the heart on the owl. The gorgeous words stamp is from the wonderful Word Play set, which since I joined Stampin' Up right back at the beginning of sale-a-brations, I was able to get for free! I am so lucky. My grandmother would love this card.



This gorgeous little set is one I have used a few times for classes. The front one is again punched, but the back card has an owl that is stamped twice, in different colours, then punched and the green chest stuck onto the purple owl. More patterend paper from the designer stack. All this playing with patterned paper I am feeling the urge to scrap, wonder how long I can put it off?

So, are you loving my owls? Well if you are, you had better get in quick for the stamp, it will be gone very soon! All you have to do is order over $100 and the Punch Bunch set is yours for free.

Here is a few other little things I have made with the owl punch, just playing. Lots more that you can do with it too.



You can do so much with this little punch, Happy Halloween anyone? Not sure what I would use a penquin for though. LOL

Tomorrow I have one of my favourite cards to share. I need to get creating tomorrow too, need to let my creative juices flow. Today I booked in another 3 workshops, and have started taking bookings for kids school holidays workshops. I'll share more tomorrow.

xx

More cards?

Now that I have a few workshops under my belt, I have built up quite a supply of cards. I also have a lot of new customers (waving to you all) in my database that are crying out for me to share my blog with them. To do this, I need to get more cards up on here.

So, here goes...I'll share the card, then a little about each one. I would love you to click on 'follow' on the side there, and to leave a little comment if you visit.



I haven't used this card for anything yet. It was a bit of an experiment really. After seeing so many great examples of hand colouring, I have been eager to give it a bit of a go. This is the gorgeous Sweet Summer set from the Sale-a-brations catalogue that ends soon. You can get this set free with any purchase over $100 until the end of this month. I have also sprayed this card with a gorgeous glitter spritz that I make up. Anyone that hosts a workshop with me, gets one of these free. It really looks stunning sprayed onto a card, and literally covers the card with a fine mist of glitter. I love it, wonder if it will work for crazy hair day? LOL



These are some little cards that I made a while back. The All in the Family stamp set is one that I love. It is a little hard to use and you really need to use a stamp-a-ma-jig to get them all straight, but I think the effort is so worth while when you see the finished product, aren't they so cute? Again you can see my love of patterned paper coming though. This cute little pattern is from Designer Series Nursery Suite Specialty pack. I have used this pack to make some scrapbooking layouts that I will share shortly too.

I do have some gorgeous cards sitting here next to me waiting to be photographer, but with this terrible weather, I haven't been able to get enough light to take good photo's of them. Fingers crossed that Sydney will have a bit of sunshine tomorrow.

My Stampin' Up business is going so well. I am loving that at each workshop, there are lots of ladies wanting to host their own workshop. So if you are reading this blog because you have been to one of my workshops, or you have hosted a workshop, then I would like to thankyou. Thankyou for helping me to get off to a great start with my business. I hope that you have enjoyed the workshops and that you have gone away with some inspiration to create. Those ladies that have booked workshops in the next few months, I am so excited about the new products coming up in the new Seasonal Mini Catalogue. I really can't wait to show you the beautiful cup cake stamp and punch!!

xx

1st Workshop......woohoo!

Soooo full of ideas and pumpin' today after two big workshops this weekend. I have been busy, busy, busy.

I still haven't blogged about my first workshop at my dear friend Reem's house. This was big workshop for my first one, with 12 guests. Thankfully I had my nerves in check, I think years of selling Tupperware helped there.

To kick the workshop off, I showed some little techniques that I had learnt (like faux tearing - thanks Kirrily!) and colouring ribbon with ink or markers (thanks Jacky), and a few other things. My friends have been very generous with sharing little cardmaking techniques with me.

Reem and her friends are all experienced cardmakers/papercrafters, so wanted a card that was a little bit challenging/different. I showed this card a few posts back, but this is the one we did. The feedback from the girls was great, and they all loved making it.



The second card for the workshop was one that the ladies could use their own creativity on, with a choice of 5, using the 'Punch Bunch' from the Sale-a-brations Catalogue.



This gorgeous set, has matching punches available. The best thing is, it is one to choose for 'FREE', with any purchases over $100. This fantastic offer is only available until end of March. If you want one, give me a call with an order of $100 or over, and I can have it out to you in less than a week. Here are the cards.

How did I go with my first class? I learnt a lot about how to organise myself, which I am sure will be an ongoing process. Dorothy has told me I need to stop saying how I can't cut straight and everything is crooked. Yes it is, and yes I can't cut straight, but I don't need to point it out to everyone LOL. In making the above cards, I used some patterned paper, which isn't used a lot in cardmaking. Coming from a scrapbooking background, I love using patterned paper. There was a lot of interest in the patterned paper stack also, which quite a few of the ladies had not seen before, despite having had many Stampin' Up workshops. I took along some scrapbooking pages also and people loved to see them.

The main thing is that I loved it. I love sharing my love of papercrafts with other people, and people that 'get it', and don't think it freaky to like to make things. From Reem's workshop I have another two booked, and I can't wait to do it again.

xx

Time for a share.

This little blog is not looking very exciting is it? I will get to the sidebars soon and get some more interactive, exciting things happening. You know what life is like with a toddler! LOL

I thought I should share some of my cards I have made lately, and then I will post about my first workshop at Reem's.



A lot of cards are made with plain cardstock. Coming from a scrapbooking background, I have a desire to use lots of patterned paper. This one is using the Stampin' Up Greenhouse Gala Range. A few of the items are from my stash, as I made this when I had only just got my hands on some Stampin' Up stuff before I started selling it. Can't wait to use this paper on a scrapbook layout.



I really love this little card, I think I will use it in an upcoming workshop. The colour combinations of purple, green and orange just look so fantastic together. I have used the stampset 'Pocket Silhouettes'. It is one of my favourites, and is great for little gift tags and thankyou cards.

Now, check out this little box of goodies. This is what greeted me when I opened my first box of goodies from Stampin' Up....!!



When you join Stampin' Up, the best thing is you get over $515 worth of products for just $289, yes that is correct. Also, you can choose which ones you want. Because I joined during Sale-a-brations, I also got another $79 worth of stamps. How amazing is that!!! Gotta love a bargain. Just in case anyone is interested, you can just get this and then not do workshops or anything. Let me know if you want more info. Not only is Stampin' Up for joining and making a business out of, you can join just to get a 'bargain' on your products.

All for now.
xx

Oh dear, poor little neglected blog!

In my defence I have been busy, had my birthday, Sophie's birthday and my Dad visiting from Qld. Is that enough to keep me busy?

So, lets have some photo's? Here are a few photo's from the launch of my Stampin' Up business. My friend Kirrily, who I joined Stampin' Up through, came and conducted a workshop with some of my friends. We drank lots of champagne, and enjoyed playing with the products.

Having lots of fun learning a few new things.

Some of the class samples on display.

Due to my fantastic friends my workshops are off to a great start with 4 in my diary already. Thankyou wonderful friends for your help.

Despite the rather sad amount of 3 entried into my give away, I am still going to draw it. Well Sophie drew it from a box and the lucky winner is Kerry. Waving at you Kerry! I can't wait to give you your prize, lets make a date for that workshop. LOL

Next off to Reem's for my first workshop.

xx

Welcome, welcome, welcome......the start of something BIG!

Welcome to my Stampin’ Up Blog!

Perhaps a little about me first?

Mmm………tomorrow I turn 40! I am a SAHM to three children. My youngest is turning 1 next month. Sophie is my last baby and I am loving the 8.5 year gap between my 2nd and 3rd children. I want to be at home with her, I want to watch her grow up and I want to be here at home for my other children both before school and after school. So, that is why I have become an Independent Stampin’ Up Demonstrator, to be at home with my baby.

OK, lets get this blog off the ground with a bang and start with a give away. I have lots of goodies to give away in the next few weeks, so keep reading. While I work away at making this blog look fantastic (I’m trying, I promise, it is just a bit hard, I don’t really know what I am doing! LOL), please bear with me. As a reward, all followers (yes, go on press follow, sign in and let me know you are reading), will go into the draw to win a little pack of Stampin’ Up goodies from me. I will close the draw on Friday next week.

You want me to share some of my recently made cards?

This one is my all time favourite at the moment….Sophie’s First Birthday Invitation.



All though looking quite complex, it wasn’t. Amy (my 9 year old daughter) helped do these cards, she loved to make cards and paper crafts. She is my daughter after all. This was made using the gorgeous Party Hearty stamp set, with Wild Wasabi and Pretty in Pink colours. I will say this over, and over again, but I LOVE how Stampin’ Up products are so easy to co-ordinate. The papers are from the Designer Series Paper Patterns Stack in the Subtles range. The banner across the top is made using the party hat stamp, simply cut up and stuck onto embroidery thread. I love the effect, might be using that lot in the future.

This card is one I did for a workshop next week. My dear friend Reem is hosting a workshop, and all of her friends are very clever paper crafters already and I needed to up my game.



My inspirations came from the Summer Mini where a card was made similar. I love the dimension in the card, and the fact it could be used for any occasion really, just use a different stamp on the bottom. The tree is from my Trendy Trees collection and the sentiment is one that I use a lot from the Upsy Daisy set.

So enough for today. Keep an eye on my blog, lots of exciting things to come, and the appearance will evolve over time. Join us as a follower on the side there, and cross your fingers. A lovely little pack could be on it’s way to you soon.

Jo