Merry Christmas

Well it's that time of year where we are all rushing around. For me it was finishing school myself for the year, lots of kinder parties and a graduation for Mitchell and of course there is the Christmas shopping. I've finally finished that and I have very few to buy for so my sympathies to those still going. Unfortunately I have left making my own cards to the last minute but I've finally finished them. I did two different types this year. One is a Star Card and thanks to Mandy from our stamp club for showing me how to do these. They look like a small tag but when you move the bead or button up the string and open it up you get a very cute star. If you would like the instructions for this card please email me anemarie@bigpond.net.au and I'll forward you a copy. The other is a general card using the Dashing DSP, Certainly Celery, Real Red and Very Vanilla Card stock. The tree is from the Season of Joy set and the 'Very Merry' is from the Short and Sweet set. I'm not sure if you can see in the photo but I used a cuttlebug to dry emboss spots on the very vanilla panel.

This will be my last post until Christmas so I wish you all Joy and Happiness. Have a great Christmas!

Anne-Marie

Christmas Techniques class

We had a great time at our Christmas techniques class this week. We each made a chocolate basket, a gift card holder and a lolly bag. All great for gift giving this Christmas. It's amazing to see the different variations that appear once a new technique is learnt. Here are our chocolate baskets. They are made with a sheet of 12"x12" card stock and 2 sheets of designer series paper. Some were made using the Dashing papers, two of the ladies used the Holiday Harmony papers from the Spring mini catalogue and I used the Apple Cider papers, also from the Spring mini. I think they look fab and will look even better overflowing with lovely chocolates.....yummm.

Stampin' Up! November Specials

There are 2 fantastic specials this month running from 10th to 30th of November.

Our first special is one Stampin' Up! demonstrators have been asking for and now it's here. You can buy Stampin' Write markers individually for just $4.95 each. We think this is a fantastic idea! Now you can chose the colours you use most often without having to buy the whole colour family pack.

Continuing our celebration of Stampin' Up!'s 20th anniversary there is a special 20/20 offer. You will get 20% off all Rub-Ons when you spend $20 on Stampin' Up! products. That includes the ones in the current Idea Book and Catalogue and in the Spring Mini Catalogue, that's 5 different designs to chose from. Each pack comes with a page of white and a page of black with many of the designs matching or coordinating with our stamp sets. They can be used on cards, scrapbook pages and hard surfaces such as glass.

To place an order or for more information please email me at anemarie@bigpond.net.au

Where've ya been?

It's been a while since I've updated on here (cringe) sorry about that. I have been busy with house guests and workshops but I have been doing some Christmas Cards. To get ready for the stamp-a-stacks I needed to come up with some ideas that would be quick enough to be able to make 5 cards each of 2 designs in a couple of hours. Following are three cards I have done so far. The bird one is based on a card I saw on splitcoast but I don't know who's it was so sorry if I don't give you credit but thanks for the idea.

Greetings Galore Christmas Tree

This is a set a lot of people have but rarely use so I thought I'd try and come up with something quick and easy using the Christmas tree stamp. The cardstock used are Real Red, Certainly Celery, Handsome Hunter and Whisper White. The Handsome Hunter card was put through a cuttlebug to get the lovely dry embossed swirl but if you don't have a cuttlebug or similar you could stamp a background with Handsome Hunter ink, it wouldn't give you a 3D look but would still be very effective. The Christmas tree stamp was inked with Versamark, then Handsome Hunter and heat embossed with clear embossing powder to give it a shine. This would be an easy card to do for a stamp-a-stack or even if you just wanted to produce a few of the same card

Always Christmas Card

It's a bit hard to see in the photo but the Real Red card was stamped with the Poinsettia from the Season of Joy set in Real Red. The 'Merry Christmas' is also from the Season of Joy set and the bird is from the Always set. The green card used for layering and the ribbon are Certainly Celery. A very simple and easy card to do suitable for a stamp-a-stack.

Season of Joy

I stamped the words stamp in Purely Pomegranate then again in Handsome Hunter and cut out the '&', middle poinsettia, tree and snowflake. These are attached with dimensionals. The large poinsettia was stamped twice and the small flower stamped three times. These were hand cut out and layered, again with dimensionals. I punched the double ribbon in the corner and threaded the pomegranate ribbon through. The words were then mounted on Handsome Hunter and the card is Purely pomegranate. Because of all the hand cutting this card isn't suitable for a stamp-a-stack but I really like the way it came out.

Stamp Club

We had a great time at stamp club this month. We made a quick and easy Christmas card, pictured and an Origami Christmas Tree. I'll post a picture as soon as I've finished the card. We also made a really simple gift box that looks fabulous. If you are interested in joining the stamp club, details are on the side panel, or email me and I'll get back to you asap.

Techniques Class

Here are the two cards we made at the techniques class last Wednesday. Thanks to those who came along, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. The first card is the shaker card using Fishy Friends stamp set, the 'celebrate' is from Spring pictograms and the 'warmest wishes' is from a hostess set called So Many Sayings. The main card colour is brocade blue from the rich regals family and the tab and round punched pieces are done in sky blue, one of this years 'in colours' The second card is a spinner or roller card. The cute butterfly and flower are from the Garden Whimsy stamp set and the 'celebrate life' is again from the So Many Sayings hostess set. The leaves and flowers were inked with marker pens to allow for stamping some of the leaves on their own and doing the flower in a different colour. The background card is Mellow Moss but it looks a bit grey on here, it's a much prettier colour in real life.

Wedding Card

This is the first wedding card I have made. It's for one of the girls in our Stampin' Up! team. I like the colour combination, purely pomegranate, pretty in pink and whisper white. I'm not normally a pink person but the bride is so I thought I'd use it. The stamp set is called Hearts and Posies and is an old retired set. I probably shouldn't put cards made with retired sets on here but I liked how it came out. I used a cuttlebug for the dry embossing on the bottom. Thanks Helen for the use of your cuttlebug.

Jack's 1st birthday Gel Card

This is a card I made with a cool technique that uses hair gel to appear as water. It's the first time I've tried it and I will definately use it again it was a lot of fun. Personally I think it would have worked better with a darker background but it's all trial and error. The card was for Chelcey and Glenn's darling little boy Jack on his first birthday.

Birthday and exams

It's been a while since I've updated on here! Last week was a busy one with my birthday at the start of the week followed by exams, yuk! But now it's time for school holidays which I'm really looking forward to. I had a lovely birthday and I thought I'd show you one of the beautiful hand made cards I got from my dear friend Dawn. She made this using Wild Wasabi and Pumpkin Pie textured cardstock, the wheel is called Baroque and the middle stamps are from the Baroque Motifs set. The lovely words are from Wonderful Favourites. Dawn is such a talented stamper, always coming up with something original.

Fathers Day owl cards

A couple of owl cards. Sharon Webb created the one on the Creamy Caramel Background and the Night of Navy one is for my dad for Fathers Day. Thanks to the lovely Felicity Gray for the punched owl idea.

Fun with Punches

We had a lot of fun making things with the punches at our first stamp club get together. We made this very cute sheep and owl and some of the ladies made them into cards. This is Denise Oliver's sheep card.

Thanks to a clever stamper from Splitcoast for the sheep idea.

Stamp Club - Punches

One more sleep until stamp club and we are going to be doing very cool things with punches. Here is a sample, I made the ice cream using the scallop punch and cutting out the top one to resemble a scoop of ice cream, added a small circle for a cherry and the cone is done using So Saffron designer series paper, though this is a little difficult to see in the photo.

Stampin' Up! September Special Offer

Free Wheelin’

From 1-30 September, when you buy a preselected stamp set, you’ll receive the coordinating wheel absolutely free! That’s right, order one of the stamp sets below and you’ll get the wheel with it at no extra cost. Pretty cool huh!

Item 113968 Page 29 - Merry, Merry Bundle
(includes Merry, Merry stamp set and All about Christmas jumbo wheel) $45.95

Item 113969 Page 48 - Artfully Asian Bundle
(includes Artfully Asian stamp set and Watercolor Vine jumbo wheel) $45.95

Item 113970 Page 59 - Nursery Necessities Bundle
(includes Nursery Necessities stamp set and Nursery Letters jumbo wheel) $56.95

Item 113971 Page 80 - Bodacious Bouquet Bundle
(includes Bodacious Bouquet stamp set and Bodacious jumbo wheel) $58.95

Item 113972 Page 94 - Carte Postale Bundle
(includes Carte Postale stamp set and Leaves à la Carte jumbo wheel) $48.95

Item 113973 Page 105 - Priceless Bundle
(includes Priceless stamp set and So Swirly jumbo wheel) $48.95

R is for Rocking Horse

Since I started as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator I have been so busy with workshops and making cards I have been neglecting my scrap albums. Last night Julie popped over and we did a bit of scrapbooking. Here is the 'R' page of an ABC album I'm doing of Mitchell. I used Best Friends uppercase alphabet for 'Rocking Horse', Best Friends lowercase for 'is for' and the 'r' was stamped with Schoolbook Serif alphabet. The cute baby on the rocking horse is from the Greetings Galore stamp set. The photos are from his first birthday.

All in the Family

Hi there,

I've been out of action for a while with a bad dose of the flu but am back feeling much better. I thought I'd show you a card I made with my new stamp set 'All in the Family'. It's for my dear friend Dawn's youngest, Mason who has just turned 2.

Winners

Almost forgot, the following people have won their first class at half price for being the first 5 to respond to the Classes survey.

Dawn Brown
Helen Sucher
Tilly Mazzei
Rochelle Peters
Kellie Lyneham

Thanks ladies, pop me an email and let me know which class you would like to book in for.

A-M

Class timetable

Hi all

I've finally come up with a timetable for Stamp Classes, which you can see on the right. All classes will be held at my house in Berwick where I have a room set up ready. There will be limited places so book early. For more information on classes and for bookings please email me at anemarie@bigpond.net.au or call me on 8786 7058.

Anne-Marie

Snow Globe

Here is the card I made for the birthday girl on Saturday. Sorry but the snow globe is from a retired set that is no longer available. I coloured it using watercolour crayons and a blender pen for the castle and Bashful Blue ink and an aqua painter for the glass itself, a bit hard to see on here. The 'Happy Birthday' is from the Pretty Princess set and the number 5 is from the Best Friends number set. The card colours are Elegent Eggplant, Perfect Plum and Pale Plum. I used the scallop punch and a couple of circle punches and pierced holes in the scallop. The brads are some that I picked up at the Quilt and Craft show last month.

I did do a card for the birthday boy from todays party but it was late last night and I forgot to take a photo this morning.

Busy Weekend

What a busy weekend it has been. Mitchell had his golf lesson on Saturday morning, which he loves. This was followed by a gymnastics birthday party which was loads of fun. Then today he had a party at a play centre for another of his kinder friends. I don't know about him, but I'm exhausted.

Classes Update

Hi everyone,

Thank you to everyone who answered the survey about Stamp Classes. It was a wonderful response. From the information you have sent to me I will be putting together a timetable of classes I will be running. Remember, the classes will be limited to small numbers so if you are interested, get in quick!

Happy Stamping

Anne-Marie

August newsletter and Stamping Classes survey

The August Newsletter is on it's way to you via email, as a word document attachment. If you have any problems opening the attachment, please email me at anemarie@bigpond.net.au and I'll pop a copy in the post to you.

I have included a questionnaire about Stamping classes. If you could fill this in and send it back to me asap, that would be fantastic. That way I can make sure I arrange classes covering the techniques you would like to learn and find out which times suit you.

Spring Mini Catalogue

Hi All

Well it's the 1st of August, the day the new Spring Mini Catalogue starts. This catalogue is available until November 30 2008. If you would like to have a look at what's in this great little book, email me at anemarie@bigpond.net.au with your address and I'll post one out to you, or you can view it at http://www.stampinup.com.au/. It's got some lovely stamps and new designer papers in it, as well as lots of extras such as rub ons, die cuts and even a new punch. I love the Tart and Tangy set it's only $21.95 and has some lovely matching paper at $11.95. And the new Christmas stamps and papers are really pretty. One of my fellow Stampin' Up! consultants showed me a great basket to make for Christmas which I'll do in one of my classes so rembember to get in quick when that one is announced because places are limited.

Welcome to Stamp Easy

Well here it is, my first post on the new blog and I don't really know what to say. Not like you I hear some of you say! Ok I can normally talk the leg of a chair but it's late and I wanted to get this up and running so I will add some more tomorrow.