Merry Christmas to everyone far and near

Happy holidays from our Stampin’ Up! family to you and yours!

Our Australian Artisans

We have some very talented crafters here in Australia. these ladies are part of our Artisan Design Team. Did you check out Allisons blog? Pretty inspirational I recon.

Now take a look at our very own Aussie talent.

Jennifer Frost, she created this cutie pie card.

Jessica Williams she has created a gorgeous vellum box. Fabulous don't you think?

Artisan Design Team

Did you know that Stampin' Up! have an Artisan Design Team?
They are a group of very creative and talented Stampin' Up! demonstrator bloggers who are selected by Stampin' Up! to create, post, and blog about the projects they create. Each year Stampin' Up! select demonstrators from all over the globe and we get to see some very special creations. Over the past few months and into next year they will share projects on their personal blogs.

I am in awe at what these ladies come up with and I would love to share some of their projects with you.

Let me introduce you to one of my favourites. I am hoping to be able to attend a class of hers when I travel over to Canada to visit family in the new year.

Allison Okamitsu 

Isn't this a beautiful card?

For those that attended our last Christmas Card Workshop, here is some inspiration on how to use up your left over product. I love this shadow box idea.

 I will occasionally pop over to some of these talented Artisans blogs and share with you some of their fabulous creations. So stay tuned.

Special Anniversary Gift

As part of Stampin’ Up!’s 10-year anniversary celebration, they have given us this unique one-time offering. These black and gold bins are available for a short time. If you’re interested having one of these awesome bins on your craft table then contact me and I can make it happen. This is only for us Down under in the South Pacific. Let’s celebrate 10 years!

Nearly time to say goodbye

I am always sad to say goodbye to our catalogues. Too many things that I still want. Have you got any favourites? If you have, then get in quick, I am putting in an order very soon and this will probably be my last order before everything retires.

These are a few things that are now discounted and will soon be gone.

I am adding the retiring list again, just in case you have some must haves.
If you want to order any of these items you may use my Online store and they will get shipped straight to you, don't forget to use the December Host code so I can send you a bonus gift for ordering Online

Hostess code W4KTS7R4

Nearly time to get your Occasions and Sale-A-Bration products

In between my gift wrapping and Christmas shopping, I have been planning on what classes and events will be happening in the new year and getting ready to add these to my calendar!

Starting on the 4 January, we have tons of brand-new products for you in our Occasions catalogue and Sale-A-Bration brochure. I have been able to take advantage of the preorder and have managed to also pre-earn Sale-A-Bration products for FREE, so now I can start prepping for all of my events in the new year.

Chalkboards: Not Just for Teachers

The popular chalkboard technique is super simple and will wow your friends when you give them a card done with this technique.

Take a look at the video as Andrea, one of our Stampin' Up! trainers shows us how to do this classic technique, and make your next card for someone extra special.

If you would like to attend a class on this technique, then stay tuned as I will be planning to use it in one of your upcoming classes!

An Unlikely Pair

When you first look at the Be Jolly, By Golly Stamp Set and Swirly Scribbles Thinlits Dies, the coordination isn’t totally obvious. But when you experiment with the two, you’ll find lots of options.

Try it out and see what creative combos you can come up with.
Haven't got it then head on over to my Online Shop so you too can get in on the fun !

Hostess code W4KTS7R4

Not sure what to add in a card? What about....

Seed Tiles...

I had a lovely conversation with a lady down in Canberra just now. She is a volunteer at a place called Paperworks Inc Canberra I had ordered some seed tiles for myself when I got to thinking, what a wonderful gift for someone. They would make perfect Teacher gifts, much better than chocolate (oops what am I saying, nothing is better than chocolate haha)

Well I decided to give them a ring and see if I could double my order and get it all put on the same postage. What a great conversation this turned out to be, she (Kathy) is a volunteer for this organisation, she was saying most of them are volunteers so that the full time jobs can be given to people with disabilities. She made me feel warm all over, what a lovely person.

Anyway I think I now have  decided on Christmas presents. I can see these seed tiles inside a cute box made with the Envelope Punch Board and a card using the Stamp Set called "From the Garden of"

Oh, oh hang on a minute!! I've just had another thought, great for birthdays too and I could use the Stamp Set that has that Happy Bloomin Birthday sentiment.

Ooohh I am very excited. Who would have thought I could be excited about something more that Stamps, Ink and Paper? If you want to give a present for someone who has everything already, why not think about these. They can even be grown in containers so would be fine for anyone living in a unit. Now off you go and buy some of these seed tiles and if you need an Envelope Punch Board to make the boxes, guess who can get one for you. BIG SMILE!!!!




Here is a description from their website...
The seeds are attached with a natural starch to a paper tile made from recycled 100% cotton denim jeans.  The denim paper will decompose in the soil and assist with water retention in the soil near the seeds.

Seed tiles make it easier to handle and plant tiny seeds. It was developed as a planting aid to help those that have lost dexterity in their hands or need to practise their fine motor skills, enjoy gardening.

What is inside:

Bloom Buddies cut flowers: 1 x pack of mixed African Marigolds and 1 x pack of mixed Zinnias

Vegetables: Cool and Hot Bountiful Buddies with a variety of 12 types of vegetables suitable for small spaces or containers

Backyard and Bug Buddies: Australian natives and a Wild cottage garden mixture to attract all the good bugs to your garden.

Full planting instructions inside each pack.

Just another reason why I love Stampin' Up!

They give back, I found this video on one of my Facebook Feeds this morning. It is not the only way they give back. Did you know that they give us donation boxes for all our charity events here in Australia. Every year the Paper Angels has huge Christmas Card Workshops at several different venues reaching from the Gold Coast to as far north as Cooroy and at each venue the raffle prizes all come from these donation boxes. They actually do believe in Making a Difference in peoples lives.

Looking back at my favourite tool

The Envelope Punch Board is still the best tool in the Sampin' Up!catalogue. Each time I look back over items I have made with it in the past, I still get a thrill.  Look at these darling Bon Bons, guess how long they take to make! Score, score, score, punch, punch, punch, glue, glue, glue. Done.

Well maybe a few more scores and punches, but they are super fast to put together.

Brayer background

I love techniques and the Brayer offers a chance to make some lovely background on cards. If you look closely you will see two techniques using the Brayer. The sky came together by brayering layers of blue, getting lighter and lighter. The river was created using the brayer with fine cotton wound around it. Do you recognise the punch I used for making the railing?
My little lady was hand drawn and then cut out and put back together after I coloured and dressed her. Now what else can I look back on?

Did you recognise this punch as the railings?

Still looking back

I made this card for my grand son who was turning 13. He was so excited when he got this card, he loves getting my hand made cards and always looks forward to them, soon he will be 14, how am I going to top that?

Time to look back

Now that Christmas is fast approaching and the New Year is just around the corner, I thought I would take a little journey back over the year at some of the projects that I made.  hope you enjoy the journey with me.

My daughter married on a lovely river bank in a place called Bellingen.  I made this quirky little wedding card with punch art ladies. their bodies were made out of our old butterfly punch, I made them sitting on some rocks as they shared the couples big day. Hearts, repunched were their arms and the owl punch was hair for two of them and the middle gal had a lovely hat made with our retired oval punches.

Can you see the shape of the bodies?

Quota Craft and Gift Fair

I must apologise this post is a little late in coming, as all the exciting Close outs sales and retiring list had me a little preoccupied. However I did want to tell you about my first foray into being a stall holder at an event instead of being the coordinator of the event.

Each year Quota International of Carindale holds a Craft and Gift Fair to raise funds for Cleft Pals and Asperger Syndrome. I am usually one of the coordinators of this fair, however this year I had to stand down to support my husband as he underwent surgery for Stage 3 melanoma. I am happy to report that all seems to be going well.

Anyway because of this I was free to concentrate on my Stampin' Up! hobby, in between hospital visits. My team grew to 5 and what a lovely group of women they are. Having a team made me feel a little bit responsible for getting them going, so I accepted an invitation to become a Stall Holder at the Quota Craft and Gift Fair. What a strange feeling that was.  From Coordinator to stall holder, I can now see both sides of the coin. It was very exciting, some of my team agreed to come along and sell their hand made products.

We set up some lovely displays and demonstrated my favourite tool the Envelope Punch Board.

We had complimentary make and takes.

There was also a lucky door prize to be won.

Packing up for the day was interesting. Look what I can fit in my front seat!

Thank you for reading to the end of this post. This was a very exciting day for me and both of my team members that attended. We met so many lovely people and had lots of laughs, actually I think we may have been the nosiest stall there as we all seemed to be getting excited about something. I just love how crafting brings out the kid in us all.

Thank you to everyone that came and visited our stall, we really appreciate you all!

Don't forget the clearance rack

We have all been looking at the Holiday Catalogue products in the last few months and what a bonzer lot of goodies to be had. However don't forget the clearance rack and just a little reminder, the Christmas Tree punch is going so if you have the Festival of Trees stamp set which has just retired and had thought you may want the coordinating punch, then quick, quick, it will soon be gone as well.

If you order through my Online store, everything will be shipped directly to you in time for Christmas. Also if you use my December Host code I shall send you a bonus gift at the end of the month.

Hostess code W4KTS7R4

Retiring list

Only a month to go and the Holiday Catalogue will be gone. It had some beautiful products in it that I just had to have. I think the Cookie Cutter was one of my favurites and who would have thought we could make a kangaroo out of a gingerbread man!! Yep a fellow demonstrator Caronlyn Bennie has made a great little tutorial on it.

Oops I digress, where was I? Oh yes the Holiday Catalogue will be gone soon and that means some nice little discounts. So here is a list for you to peruse and see if there is anything still on your wish list that you really can't do without. If you want to order any of these items you may use my Online store and they will get shipped straight to you, don't forget to use the December Host code so I can send you a bonus gift for ordering Online

Hostess code W4KTS7R4