Archive for the ‘this n that!’ Category

Sorry for my absence – I’ve had the lovely Tanya Kitto visit me for a few days so we spent alot of time chatting, laughing and creating.  It was wonderful to finally meet in person and to spend some stamping time with her. Thanks to Robby and the kids for letting her come all this way for a few days.

Just before Tanya arrived I came across these gorgeous little bags using the Scalloped Envelope Die and the booful Big Shot.

I found a video tutorial on Chic n Scratch and just followed that … they are so super easy to make.  They are going to make an awesome make n take for my Open House on 17th September – so mark that date in your diary!

With Tanya visiting we had a couple of friends come along for a ‘play date’ as they knew Tanya as well and wanted to meet her in person. So I showed them how to make these delightful bags and this is the one we made.

Here is a close up of a couple of the bags showing the greeting – oh look its a set from a previous Mini thats going to be in the new 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalogue (which my copy arrived today and its just delishamon!)

Arent these bags just the cutest little things??  They are even better when they come with a Mint Pattie or Golden Rough inside and they happen to fit perfectly!  You can also fit in two Freddo Frogs or several little Chocolate Eclairs – yummo!

Its the last day of the first week of School Holidays and we are all still alive so thats reason to celebrate is it not? I might treat them to lunch today … might … well I could use it as an incentive reward couldnt I?

How good is this month’s promotion?  A whoppin 20% OFF  selected 2 Step Stamp sets – thats the demonstrator discount so how lucky are you?

Here’s the list of Stamp Sets and the discounted price

*From 2010 Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue

**Retiring stamp sets!

I love Stampin’ Up!’s promotions and I try to show you various projects in relation to the promotion and yesterday I had a play with the Playful Petals Stamp Set.

Now this set is actually retiring at the end of August so if you want it you better get it now – especially since its over $10 off the regular price!

I love this flower stamp – actually I love all the flowers in this set!  Maybe because I get to colour them in all purty colours.

I havent actually used the Tea Party DSP (it is designed from this stamp set) but I have used the colours from that pack to colour my flowers and for the cardstock and inks I used.

I have also specifically used the colours that are staying after the Colour Renovation happens.  I’ve even reorganised my inks, markers, reinkers and cardstock to the new colour families and I must say I do like the colours that have been grouped together even if I do now have a few holes here and there!

I also wanted to show you a close up of the flower on the bottom left as its all ‘dimensionalised’.

Is that even a word? well it is now!  I’m sorry its not so ‘clear’ as my camera isnt as flash as some and close ups arent one of its strong points!  I think you can still see the dimension it has though.

Have a wonderful Friday – I’m off for a Coffee and some toast – late breakfasts here during School Holidays!

Its Saturday so its time for another Utah Diva’s Sketch Challenge from the lovely Carol.

Today’s is a little different as I’ve combined another challenge in the same card – a colour challenge from Inkspirations4U!

So I thought the title for today’s post is fitting as not only am I sharing two challenges in one card but I’m also using the very cute ‘Share A Cup’ a la carte stamp from the Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue.

Here’s the colour challenge from Inkspirations4U …

My card was inspired by some gorgeous little cards that the lovely Bonnie Thurber (the Stamp Whisperer herself!) demonstrated.

Here is my card ….

I wasnt sure about the colours at first but then when I put them together I really like them!  I think they’d be great for boy birthdays too

I love this little stamp – it was so nice of Stampin Up! to make a stamp just for me dont you think? and then to make an actual mug with the image on it just so I could get one at the Manager’s Reception before Convention this year. So very thoughtful!

I hope you like this card as I did enjoy making it – well after I got those cups to sit right!

One definitely needs the Stamp-a-majig and a post it note for this card!

Now its time for you to skip along to the next Diva in the Saturday Sketch Design Team being the very lovely Maxine Conrad and see what she’s done with Carol’s sketch.

Have a great ‘rest’ of the Weekend!

Hello and I do hope youre having a great week!

Its a busy one here so I wanted to get this post in before I get stuck into the kits and demonstration preparations for the two demonstrations I have this weekend.

A few weeks back in my Technique Challenge over at Soul Scrappers I ran a challenge for the ladies to create their own Designer Papers using their stamps and inks. Sometimes we spend hours or even days looking for that perfect patterned paper for our layouts when we have all the tools we need to make our own original papers. This layout – yes I did do some scrapping – was inspired by the sample in our current Autumn-Winter mini catalogue and as my sister and I both love purple well I just had to change the colours!

Due to me creating this layout on a 12×12 piece of whisper white it became very hard to photograph so if you’d like a closer view just click on the photo and it will enlarge in a separate window for you. This photo was taken in December when we had the whole family together – and this only happens every 20 years or so – it takes us all that long to recover!  Just kidding – its hard to get everyone together these days as some of us have grown up children and we are all busy in what we do – it doesnt help that we are spread across three states of Australia.

Here is a close up of the layered flower on the main photo/layer.

I’ve just stamped the two sized flowers in different inks – Rich Razzleberry (love this colour!) and Pale Plum.  I’ve then layered them and popped a half pearl from the pretties kit in the centre.

You may notice the ribbon is also ‘gathered’ which is a neat trick using sticky strip and I’d be happy to show you if you’d like to know how.

I did add a couple of extra flowers to my layout and the sentiment as well which was done using Wonderful favourites.

Its funny how close you become to your sister when you move out of home and get married yet while you were in the same house you hated each other so there is hope for my girls yet!!

I do hope you like this layout. It is very plain but I think too that it is enough

Good Morning!

I thought today I’d share with you my ‘re-vamped’ craft nook which is where I create and work and do my blog posts

Its not a new area but I do have a very new Ink Pad Storage unit that my lovely Brother In Law made for me!  I’ve seen these online for a few years and have often wished I had one and now I do!

Here is the unit empty & sitting on my sofa waiting for me to clear the space on my desk to fit it in.

How cool is it?? It will hold 60 ink pads, ink refills and Stampin Write Markers. So now I have all my colours in the one place!

Mind you getting this wonderful new unit it meant I had to remove the shelf I already had there and rearrange where I kept things. Now if you are a crafter you will know just what havoc all this rearranging does to ones ‘neatness’  and if you know me at all you’ll know I dont have that gene – my sister got my share (and some) of that!

Now here is my lovely unit all filled – well except for one spot and after transferring all my goodies over I’ve realised two things ….

1. I dont really need 3 Chocolate Chip reinkers!
2. I need reinkers for all my ink pads!

It looks pretty sweet hey??  If you would like to purchase one of these units then please email me for price and postage details – Australia only (sorry) Dimensions are 805mm W, 125mm D and 330mm H.

Hubby did suggest it needs to be painted and when I suggested he was welcome to do that any time he then decided the ink pad shelves wouldnt then slide in and out easily! Typical!!

Now as for my work area I have a corner (nook) of the living room and have an L shaped desk with a hutch. So this is my area to the right…

You can see here that my computer is there and I have my Ribbons,  Designer Series Papers and cardstock on the shelf above.

They are stored in the Cropper Hopper Vertical Storage. I do have those lying on their sides though so its easy to just stretch and grab whatever cardstock I need and it also comes in handy when I am ordering so I know at a glance what cardstock I’m low on.

I also have my drawers to the right of my computer which house all my scraps and off cuts. I have a drawer for each colour family and then if I need a smaller piece its easy to find.  When I get to a stage when the drawers are so full they wont close I just make up ‘collage’ bags and give them to customers with their orders and they love it!

Now here’s the view on the left of my table featuring my new storage unit

I now have all my inks and markers right in front of me and I love it!

My desk sure does look good when its this tidy!!

I am thinkin its time to do some more creating

With the new Idea Book & Catalogue we gained lots of lovely new stamp sets and one that grabbed me as soon as I saw it was Thoughts and Prayers. I’ve been hounding Stampin’ Up! in Australia to get more of the inspirational sets into our catalogue that the girls in USA & Canada have had for years and finally its happened – we now have a few inspirational and christian stamp sets and I think thats great!

Recently I’ve had a few friends who have lost a parent to illness or from a tragic accident and I’ve had a few others going through a hard time with their health so I wanted to send them a card to let them know that I was thinking of them and praying for them

This is a card I created the other day for this very reason. Its a simple and elegant card (well I think it is) which also happens to be a very quick card too which is sometimes what you need for friends or family during trials of any kind.

Recipe:

Stamps: Thoughts and Prayers
Paper: Night of Navy, Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze, Urban Garden Designer Series Paper.
Inks: Not Quite Navy, Old Olive

So as you can see – not only is it a simple card and easy to do but you dont need much to make it either! Gotta love the Stampin Up DSP as they’ve chosen the colours for you already and it all matches and coordinates with our cardstock and inks!

Dont forget you only have this week to take advantage of these awesome promotions …

• Buy three packs of Designer Series Paper and get the fourth pack free!
• Join Stampin Up! with the limited time “Scrapbooking Starter Kit” for just $150 (what a great way to start your own business and at such a small price!)

Ring or Email me if you want to place an order or have any questions about joining Stampin’ Up! and becoming part of my awesome team!

I do hope youre all having a wonderful saturday – dont forget to take some ‘you’ time and maybe do some stamping.

I know I dont normally post ‘unstamping’ things but this is such a great cause I felt it worthwhile.

Today is Compassion Day 2009 and if you have heart for kids like any mother does then this too will touch your heart. There are so many homeless children in third world countries that have no hope of changing their situations or even know any different to the life they have had.  These little kids need to know that there is hope and with a little help they can learn ways to improve their life and make a difference.

This photo here shows my gorgeous neice Melody.

Melody has a huge heart and in 2008 got up before the sun to take a flight to South Africa. She was there for 3 months helping those in the village near where she was staying. She would write occassional note to let us know how she was getting on and sharing all the wonderful photo’s she’d taken. The photo’s were just stunning and the scenery is just gorgeous in that country.

Melody is an avid photographer and seems to just be able to take the perfect picture every time!

This past week Melody has been running information/video nights for Compassion and I have no doubt that she has prompted many to sponsor children through Compassion Australia. Just reading some of the stories about these kids and their situations is just heartbreaking. Melody is off again to the Solomon Islands to do some missionary work there so please keep her covered in your prayers.

I noticed that when I started this post there were 656 children sponsored today and now its up to 723! Wouldnt it be great if we could get it to 1000 or more?

I decided today to sponsor a child – I thought about what gender and age do I go for and then it dawned on me. We will be sponsoring a boy who is a priority child and around the same age as our Daniel would have been. Daniel is our ‘angel baby’. When I was 34 weeks pregnant they detected some abnormalities and was diagnosed with Trisomy 18. He was born still one week later in April 2005. So in memory of our precious boy we will sponsor a little boy around the same age.

I would love to see some of my stamping friends do likewise and sponsor a child too – this would be such a great learning experience for the whole family and for our kids to see how people live not only in other countries but how they cope with little or no money and how the local area and culture play a part in their lives.

So please will you join me in sponsoring a child? You can sponsor one right now at Compassion Australia

I am really bad at accepting these awards and passing them on … after the initial shock of recieving them I think ‘yup I’ll do that & pass it on shortly’ then as usual one gets distracted with updating their blog, changing colours, stamping or that other thing called ‘real life’! So firstly my apologies for replying to those lovely ladies that have given me these awards and thank you soooo much for considering my blog worthy of such awards.

For our first award we have the Sparkling Blogger Award from the lovely Stacey in Texas. Now this is a super special award as its one that Stacey created herself so I’m rather touched to receive this one!

Now she wanted me to pass on my favourite christmas or winter recipe but since we have our Christmas in Summer we normally have alot of cold meats and salads and our favourite is Caesar Salad with any type of meat. So not much in the way of recipes needed for those.

So thanks so much Stacey and hope you have a totally blessed 2009 and no more headaches or illness!

I had this awarded to me yesterday by the very talented and very lovely Steph. I had also received this award from the very lovely Libby.

Libby is a wonderful friend and great promoter of my Stampin’ Up! business – not to mention a wonderful customer and forever friend. We’ve gone through a lot of trials during our friendship and always there for each other when needed.

Libby has also sent me these other two awards  ….

It is always a huge thrill to have people read and leave comments on my blog let alone give me these awards and I love each and every one of them!

Now to pass these awards on – I should be passing them on to five blogs but since there is more than one award I’ll award them to my top 10 blogs I love to visit and get inspiration from – now these are in no particular order – I just love them all ….

1. Makeesha Byl
2. Beate Johns
3. Patty Bennett
4. Kerri Hunter
5. Andrea Lowcock
6. Andrea Walford
7. Nicole Stalker
8. Libby Dyson
9. Stacey Aannestaad
10. Stephanie Pike

Now I know youre not supposed to give them back but Libby, Stacey and Steph really do have awesome blogs and are very talented with what they do and all the ladies in that list are very special friends and its a blessing to know them and have them as my friends.

I did make a card today but I’ll save that for tomorrow’s post.

Go grab yourself a latte and put your feet up …. until next time.

We left home Thursday morning for our holidays. We left at 9am and arrived at Echuca at 7pm and it really did feel at times that we’d never get to our destination!

We drove to Echuca which is on the NSW/Victorian border and it would have been nice to spend a little more time there learning about the history of the town. The cabin we booked was lovely with a decent bed which made for a good night’s sleep which is always a good thing when your travelling! It was great to sit and relax with my sister Jo, her hubby and a couple that are their friends.

Friday morning we breakfasted at McDonalds (as you do when travelling) and as I’d noticed some rather old churches as we drove in that was our first ‘to-do’ after breakfast – to get some photo’s of some old churches for a scrapbook I’ve wanted to make for a while now.

We then headed to the Old Port of Echuca where there was a thriving business up and down the river in the 1800′s. They still run some of the paddle steamers from that era and no doubt have spent a small fortune in their maintenance. Some of you may remember a mini series on TV called “All the Rivers Run” – it had John Waters and Sigrid Thornton in it to name a couple – well one of the steamers they had in that show was the “Emmy Lou” and is driven by a completely restored 1906 steam engine, and built to the highest world classification standards. She was built locally during 1980-82 in the style of the 19th century paddleboats, and is 30 metres long and 10 metres wide, steel hulled and timber decked.

The port is lovely and have set it so its like stepping back into the 1800′s with the sand roads and cobblestone footpaths. You can taste the local wine and fudge as well! You can stroll through and see how they did wood turning and the original tools the blacksmith used and all his gorgeous items for sale.

There is the stagecoach you can take for a ride through the town and these Clydesdale horses are just stunning animals and so well groomed.

They didnt budge when Caitie wanted to give them a pat and the handler was great and let her pat them but just asked her to stand beside them for their safety and hers!

Down at the old port they have these trees with the signs for the level particular floods got to. Its hard to imagine the water rising so high but it did.

These days the water is controlled from the Snow Mountains therefore they regulate the amount of water over flowing to the surrounding areas.

This photo shows you just how high the floods actually got in previous years. I got the girls to stand in front of the tree to give you an idea – have you noticed the one right up the top which happened in 1874?

We are now staying in Cobden with family till 8th October but plan to do a few ‘sight seeing’ trips while we are here.

Although I got a great picture of the Cathedral at Bendigo I need more photo’s of old churches and know there are a few in and around Warrnambool so no prizes for guessing where one of our trips will be to! Hopefully it will stop raining long enough to enjoy a couple of day trips while we are here!

I do hope the nephew is looking after my stamps and fish and they arent missing me too much!

..

..

..

I’ve been tagged by two lovely ladies!

Firstly, by my dear ‘always’ friend Kerri Hunter who awarded me with this award …

Kerri and I met through Stampin’ Up!® and I treasure our friendship so much – she is an awesome stamper and totally amazes me with all she does every day without a second thought! Check out her blog – she does such lovely work. Thanks Kerri so much!

Now to pass this award onto five bloggin buddies ….

1. Makeesha Byl – this lady is just awesome. She was the recipient of the first Australian “heart of Stampin Up!® award and is so deserving of it. Through Stampin’ Up!® we have become good friends – oh and she does really lovely work too!!
2. Vanessa Webb – one of my downline and a great friend. Its hard to believe that prior to joining Stampin’ Up!® Ness had never stamped! Yes its true!!
3. Nicole Stalker – I’ve known Nikki for quite a few years but only recently managed to get together after we realised the only time we saw each other was at Stampin’ Up!® conventions! Sad but true but we have remedied that now – see you next week Nikki! Oh she does awesome work too!
4. Sharon Davis – this is another lady who amazes me with all she gets done – working full time, running a large household, wife/nurse to a Vet and also manages time for Stampin’ UP!® – it makes me tired just to think about all she does!
5. Michelle’s Stamping Ground – this lady has become a special friend since convention and she always has time to message me on msn and see how I am. Her blog is looking great now she’s posting more so go check it out and encourage her!

I am sure they’d all love to hear from you! Now when I started blogging I never thought anyone would read my posts let alone give me awards! So each and every award I get really means alot.

Now for the machine. I have a thing for coffee – yes I know … you never knew! lol Well a few weeks back I was very sternly told not to buy any more espresso machines and not to even look at them.

Well my DH rings me today and suggests I go to The Good Guys and check out the latte machine they have there on sale – so whats a Latte Lover supposed to do??

Needless to say I didnt need much convincing and its now adorning my kitchen bench.

Doesnt it look great?? and it even comes with a DVD so its gotta be good right??

Now next time your over remember to ask me for a Latte!

Now I’m off to read the instructions and make a cuppa!