If you know me at all, you’d be well aware that I am a big fan of handmade gifts – for teachers in particular – and this last year was no different, other than the fact that I now have two girls at school and more than double the number of gifts to make.

This year for the girls’ class teachers, I struck upon an idea quite early – which, while it didn’t translate into my actually completing the gifts any sooner than they were absolutely required (some things will never change), it allowed me to ruminate over how best to execute my plan…

The plan started with this little seed of an idea from a back issue of Creating Keepsakes (Nov/Dec 2010 for those of you playing along at home)…

Happily, the plan also required a trip to The Happiest Place on Earth (“start the CAR!!”) to pick up the frames that feature in the project

Here’s what I did with mine…

With the addition of a good many grinds of my Timeless Type Junior Alphabet and Simple Numbers dies through the Bigshot, plus my trusty laminator, I put together a perpetual calendar and was rather chuffed with the result

The one pictured above uses the very sweet and pretty Cheerful Treat Designer Series Paper, which is one of many options you have to choose from in the way of exclusive Hostess Products should you opt to host a workshop of your own.

Next up, I put one together using some very lovely paper that you may not yet be familiar with depending on whether or not you’ve clapped eyes on the upcoming Sale-a-bration brochure (can anybody say FREE STUFF?!!)

One tip that I will give you should you decide to embark upon a similar project, is that it’s a good idea to mark a little notch for the rings to sit in so that they don’t slide over the edges of the frame.

Like this…

I just used a little metal file that I have and after measuring the correct spot for the rings to hang, ground it back and forth to create the little divot

The gifts I made for the Teacher’s Aides in the kindy class were of a sewing persuasion and didn’t involve Stampin’ Up! fabrics, plus they were finished off at such a cracking last minute-ish pace that I’m not even sure I have photographic evidence that they exist…  If I dig some up, I will post them on my other blog for your viewing pleasure

So there you have it, my 2011 teacher gifts.

Should you be liking the idea of getting your hands on either set of the Designer Series Papers that you’ve seen glimpses of here, be sure to contact me to book yourself a workshop.  Sale-a-bration starts on the 24th of this month and is shaping up to be the best ever!  Contact me to book your date…

Last month, I was honoured and excited to be asked to present a workshop “wow” at the Stampin’ Up! Perth Regional Seminar – an experience that included being hooked up to a microphone, presenting on stage to an audience of over 200 of my stampin’ peers, all while having a dude with a camera hovering over my shoulder and projecting my stampin’ hands onto two big screens at the front of the room.

Five years ago, such an experience would have filled me with dread (and when I was asked to present for the very first time about three Regionals ago I truly was filled with dread and considered a polite “no thank you” response) but having had the opportunity to present at three Regional Seminars now, as well as once at the yearly national convention, I’m pleased to be able to say that I think I have conquered my long held and deeply ingrained fear of public speaking and can cross that one off my bucket list.

The projects that I presented this time around focused on the new Sticky Sheets and our range of fine Stampin’ Glitters.

The other star of the show – the one that allowed me to obtain the lacy, glittery look – was actually a length of doily, plastic-y, tablecloth-y type stuff that I got from my local haberdashery store.  That’s the only way I can think to describe it, and when I did so at the shop, the assistant knew exactly what I was talking about and took me right to it

The beauty of this stuff is that it’s reusable (the plastic-y nature of it peels right off the Sticky Sheet), it’s inexpensive and comes by the metre, so you can get as much or as little as you need, and because you’re effectively using it as a stencil, it doesn’t matter if it’s ugly gold trimmed like the one in the middle as it doesn’t actually feature in your end result.  Bonus!

The process of actually achieving this result is very simple.  Firstly you peel the backing sheet off the Sticky Sheet and adhere it to a piece of cardstock, the peel the top (red) layer off the Sticky Sheet and lay the tablecloth piece over it.  You don’t want to press it too hard, as the Sticky Sheet is super sticky and you want to be able to remove the tablecloth easily.  Pour your first colour of Stampin’ Glitter over the top and rub it gently with your finger to ensure it gets into all the tiny holes and sticks to the Sticky Sheet beneath.  Pour off the excess glitter, then peel off the tablecloth.  Now take your second (ideally, highly contrasting) colour of Stampin’ Glitter and pour it over the previous colour so that it sticks onto the exposed Sticky Sheet.  Pour off the excess again, then dust-bust your desk and fend off comments for the rest of the day about how you are covered in glitter (I did a couple of afternoon school runs after preparing my samples, so I can vouch for that from experience)

That’s all there really is to it, and the options as far as cutting shape with the Bigshot as in the butterfly example above are pretty much endless.

I had a second card sample that I handed in to Stampin’ Up! as an example of the technique that I showed and also a 12 x 12 scrapbooking layout that I created about/for my niece, so I will try and grab that back off her one of these days and snap a picture.

The fourth sample is my favourite and was created as a bit of an artwork feature for my girls’ bedroom…

This one was created using a 3D frame from the Happiest Place on Earth (Ikea for those of you unfamiliar with my Swedish furniture obsession) and this time I placed the tablecloth stencil right over the mat board and glittered directly onto it.

To keep the glitter as the star of the show and not make the whole effect too busy, I kept the centre very simple, with a chipboard butterfly from the new On Board Merry Medley set embossed with the new Melon Mambo Stampin’ Emboss Powder (let’s hear a big “YAY” for coloured embossing!!) and embossed the tiny stamped heart from the Create a Cupcake set over the top in Cherry Cobbler.

I hope you have enjoyed my samples as much as I enjoyed creating them, and that you can forgive the past two and a half months of deathly blog silence from me.  I will redeem myself, I promise

If you would like any further information on the technique I have described here, or to purchase any of the products required to achieve it, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

“Glitter Butterfly Card”
Stamps: Tiny Tags
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso,  Cherry Cobbler, 2010-11 In Color DSP Stack
Ink: Cherry Cobbler & Early Espresso (Stampin’ Write Markers)
Accessories: Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Early Espresso 1/8″ Taffeta Ribbon, Jewelry Tag Punch, Antique Brads, Sticky Sheet, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Finer Supernova Glitter (Chocolate)

“Glitter Frame with Embossed Butterfly”
Stamps: Create a Cupcake (small heart)
Paper: none
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: On Board Merry Medley, Melon Mambo and Cherry Cobbler Stampin’ Emboss Powder, Sticky Sheet, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Fine Supernova Glitter (Olive)

There are several stamp sets that really made my stomach drop when I saw them show up on the retiring list, one in particular being Petal Pizzazz.

The beautiful, big, bold flowers lend themselves to beautiful, big, bold projects and I have used them SO very much these past couple of years!

Today I have another pizzazz-y project to share – one that I created recently as a gift for one of the mums from my small girl’s kindy class at school.  She is currently going through chemotherapy treatment and one of the other lovely mums organised a meal roster for the family, so for the past several weeks, the vast majority of the family’s weekday evening meals have been delivered to their doorstep.

I took a turn to take them my Grandma’s meat pie a couple of weeks ago (recipe below for those of you after a fabulously simple but hearty family meal!) and took the opportunity to include an extra little something to hopefully bring a smile to her face in the midst of such a turbulent and scary time for a mum with young children.

I wanted the front to be bright and cheery, so Petal Pizzazz combined with some gorgeous colours and lashings of stripey Old Olive ribbon did the trick perfectly   I also added some embossed Perfect Polka Dots onto the largest flower for some added whimsical texture, and some pearls and a button, well, because I like them

Inside I tucked a beautiful teal coloured scarf that I hoped would add some colour to some less than colourful days, and also a voucher for a massage that I hoped might provide some relaxing time too.

As I promised earlier in the post, here is the recipe for the at-least-three-generations-old recipe for my Grandma’s famous (at least in my family!) meat pie:

Ingredients:
500g beef mince
1 onion
1 potato
1 carrot
1 turnip
salt and pepper to taste
1 quantity of shortcrust pastry (I used to use the ready made frozen stuff, but now I returned to making my own as Grandma would have done – only she didn’t have a Thermomix, bless her )

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 180°C

2. Line the base of a slice tin with two thirds of your rolled out shortcrust pastry, making sure that it extends beyond the top edges of the tin a bit (it will fold over the top layer at the end)

2. Chop the onion finely and grate the other vegetables. Or if you happen to own a Thermomix, whack all the vegies in and whiz them for three seconds at speed 5

3. Mix in the mince and combine well with the vegetables, adding salt and pepper to taste.

4. Place the mince/vegetable mixture on the pastry layer and spread out to all edges of the tin, pressing with a fork to flatten and smooth.

5. Take the remaining pastry and roll it out so that it covers the mince/vegetable mixture, place it on the top, then fold the underneath layer of pastry up and over the top layer, pressing lightly to seal the pie.

6. Bake for approximately one hour.

7. Serve with lashings of tomato sauce and additional vegies if you like!  It also makes a great picnic food, served cold (but complete with the lashings of sauce!)

If there is anything on the retiring list that has caught your eye, make sure to contact me to order it asap so you don’t miss out!

Oh, and if you make Grandma’s pie, be sure to let me know how it turned out, and if it becomes a staple in your house as it has in mine

REMINDER: My 2011-12 catalogue launch is coming in a couple of short weeks from now, so make sure to book your spot asap by contacting me!  It promises to be a fabulous event, with loads of new product inspiration..!

” Petal Pizzazz Gift Box”
Stamps: Petal Pizzazz
Paper: Old Olive, Early Espresso, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Autumn Spice Specialty DSP (retired with Autumn/Winter Mini)
Ink: Melon Mambo, Tangerine Tango, Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight
Accessories: Perfect Polka Dots Textured Embossing Folder, Old Olive Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, 3/4″ and 1″ Circle Punch, Small Star Punch (retired), Icecream Parlor Buttons (July Promotion), Basic Pearls, Stampin’ Dimensionals

On the last day of school, my small girl took part in the traditional Easter Hat Parade with her Kindy class, and despite my belief that the hat itself was something that was constructed during class time, a note home advising me that it was in fact something that was to be done at home was all at once surprising and exciting!

Out came the Bigshot, Ovals die, and a large array of Punches, and in conjunction with some pastel coloured felt sheets from a local craft store, we set about creating the Easter Hat of all Easter Hats!

Here’s my girl modelling the completed hat with a not-too-small amount of modelling attitude…

And here she is during the parade itself a week later (yes I was that organised, why do you ask?!), bursting with excitement and pride…

For the full story surrounding the construction of the hat plus additional photos, head on over to my other blog, where I post bits and pieces about life in general, leaving this here blog to focus mostly on the papery-crafty goodness

I am sitting here with a list as long as both my arms of things I need to do before my gals and I set off for an Easter long-weekend down south with my folks and nephew, one of them being to show you the Easter projects that I have busied myself with over the past couple of weeks, before Easter has come and gone and they have lost their significance entirely.

A couple of weeks ago I ran a class here at home where we made three projects (including chocolate) as ideas for sweet and simple Easter gift giving.

This little guy came about as a result of seeing a variety of different punch-art bunnies around the internet, all of them cute but not quite what I had envisaged in my class-planning brain, so I combined different elements of things that I saw and ultimately made him my own.  This was also the project that I did as a swap for my team stamping day last month, and the inspiration for the next two projects came from there also…

This gorgeous creation was the brainchild of Inky Lou-Lou (aka Louise Layton) from my team of lovely stampin’ gals.  We did a version of this at our Easter themed team stamping day in April, and if you click on where I have linked her blog above, you can see her original sweet design

This one was inspired by an Easter card by the lovely SJ (honorary A Klass Act team member Sarah Jane Kalé) at the same team day and features her much loved and perfect for the occasion faux suede effect.  I used the same technique and applied it to these cute little basket that I made up with the Top Note die and lashings of Pretty in Pink satin ribbon

The teachers at school also got these baskets as their Easter gift with a Lindt gold bunny each inside.

So there you have my selection of Easter themed projects that have been keeping me busy these past couple of weeks!

If you’re wondering why you didn’t see notification of this class before I ran it, it was because in my usual style, I was running a bit late with getting the word out, so chose to do so on my Facebook page and Twitter instead of putting in my customer newsletter.  Turns out that the class filled up with Facebook fans and Twitter followers alone, so if you want to make sure you don’t miss out on anything in the future, make sure to ‘Like” my Facebook page –>here<– or follow me on Twitter –>here<–!

Pop back tomorrow to see what the school classmates got as their little token gifts and also what my small girl wore on her head for the kindy Easter hat parade….

Nothing like leaving things to the last minute but we’re at the final day of the Summer Mini and Sale-a-bration and I just had to pop in and show you this little idea (from last November no less!) that I put together using the Aviary stamp set that is available for only another 10 hours!

Aviary was the stand out stamp set for me as soon as I saw the Summer Mini (Itty Bitty Bits carved its own spot in my heart about five minutes later) and I jumped on the opportunity to grab it during the demonstrator pre-order period in November (just one of the many perks available to you as a Stampin’ Up! demo…)

I put it to work immediately for a project I created for our A Klass Act team Christmas dinner.  About 20 of us got together at a local restaurant, exchanged handmade gifts, chatted endlessly and filled our bellies with festive fare.

For my gift (we each put one in and received one created by another team member) I created a 2011 desk calendar in a CD case, which I also created a matching outer cover for…

The inside looked like this…

The beauty of the Aviary stamp set is that with a selection of four different bird cages and four little birdies, you have an almost endless supply of different variations and ways to use them!

Below are the individual month pages – click on the thumbnails to see them in full size.

I had so much fun putting this little project together, not least because once I had formatted the months and printed the pages, it was all one layer stamping with my chosen colour combination and came together very quickly.

I haven’t been able to decide on my favourite…   I do like the little dude in the Santa hat in December, but the stack of birdies in May is also fun.  Then there’s the cheeky fella in September who’s managed to make an escape, leaving his buddy behind

Which is your favourite?

As much as it was rushed and totally last minute, I hope you’ve enjoyed the last few posts highlighting some of my favourite things about the Summer Mini.  It really has been a favourite of mine.

As a special last minute offer, if you purchase all of the products I’ve highlighted in this and the previous two posts (Aviary, Itty Bitty Bits, Punch Pack, Bitty Buttons and the Square Lattice embossing folder) I will add the following as bonuses:

• a clear CD case – the kind that open right up to stand up on a desk plus information on where you can get more
• a template and tutorial for the calendar, including a formatted 2012 calendar all ready for you to print to give you a head start on some Christmas gifts for this year
• free shipping to your door – a saving of $5.95
• AND you get to choose a Sale-a-bration stamp set of your choice as well!

The wood mount option for the above products comes to $120.75 and the clear mount* option comes to $107.75.

Contact me asap – that is in the next few hours – if you would like to take advantage of this offer and snare yourself these fabulous products while they’re still available!

Already have one or all of the products in the special offer…?  Just because it’s the last day of Sale-a-bration and Summer Mini goodness, place a $100 order of anything from the Idea Book & Catalogue or Mini today and I will send you the template and tutorial as well, PLUS waive your shipping and of course you get to choose your favourite Sale-a-bration set too

Hurry!

* Clear blocks sold separately – if you don’t have any I can hook you up with those as well

“A bunch of birdies – CD case calendar”
Stamps: Aviary
Paper: Whisper White, Crumb Cake
Ink: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Regal Rose, Pear Pizzazz, Baja Breeze, Real Red
Accessories: Pear Pizzazz Stitched Poly, Basic Rhinestones

There’s still an hour or so left of Chewsday – at least there are over here in the West, so amazing as it might be, I’m on time with my post this week!

This week my challenge was to make something more impressive and amazing than the paper flower that my handsome man left on our coffee table for me this morning, wrapped around a note he wrote to wish me a happy birthday.

It’s a challenge I am never going to meet and once you see it for yourself, I’m sure you will agree, so let’s go with Tim’s Perfect Paper Posy as the Challenge Chewsday entry for this week.

Check it out…

It accompanied the early hours Facebook message that he left me:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGEL! I tried not to use your good cardstock this year!

I have said to him recently that I would like to involve him more in my Stampin’ Up! business and having clapped eyes on this baby this morning, I may well start sending him out to do workshops

Do let me know if you’d be interested in having my handsome man come and show you how to create this delightful 3D rose embellishment.  Although judging by the state of my desk this morning, I can’t guarantee he won’t leave a trail of destruction in his wake.

Wait, that could be my left over trail of destruction, scratch that…

I have had the most wonderful day, with a constant stream of phone calls and messages, lunch with my man and my small girl plus an impromptu shopping spree at the happiest place on earth (Ikea – thanks to vouchers from Nanny & Poppop aka my gorgeous folks) and a lovely catch up and cuppa with my aunty  this evening *waving Aunty Mair*

Not to mention the handmade cards that have been arriving since last week and the shiny new camera lens that was my (much coveted) gift from Tim and the girls.

So it’s a very happy 30-something gal who is headed to bed to sleep the sleep of one who has just spent a chunk of the afternoon assembling Ikea furniture.

If you’re at all inclined, leave a comment to let my handsome fella know what you think of his paper crafting efforts, because you know as well as I do he’ll be popping in here to check

As promised in my last post, here are the gifts that I made for my big girl’s teachers this year.  She had a lovely classroom teacher and also a wonderful Teacher’s Assistant, so I made them both a little gift as a thank you for a great year of school.

In fact, it was a bit of a bundle of gifts, the first being a personalised notebook that you can see towards the left at the back.

I picked up some gorgeous Crumb Cake coloured spiral bound books from a shop called Typo when we were in Sydney earlier in the year, as I like to keep a stash of alterables in my stamp room cupboard.

They were perfect for this purpose and I love how they turned out – the same but kind of different…

The little apple-looking thingamy that you can see in the front left of the first picture is a bit of a fun take on the old “apple for the teacher” saying.

It’s actually a little notepad that opens out into this little piece of delight…

Isn’t it adorable?!  I got them from a very sweet online shop called Kawaii for You – kawaii meaning “cute” in Japanese and a very apt store name, let me tell you.

Go there at your own risk and don’t say I didn’t warn you…

The final inclusion was a bag of chocolates with a flocked DSP topper from the recent Christmas Bundle promotion and jaunty Christmas tag.

Some stampin’ tips for you…

• Use Crystal Effects to give your punched out characters some extra dimension
• Use your scraps of ribbon to tie onto the spirals of notebooks for some added co-ordination and texture
• The Basic Pearls make cute eyes for the Two-step Bird punch!
• Get some of the beautiful Crochet Trim from the Summer Mini – instant vintage gorgeousness for any project!

Don’t forget that the December Frenzy promotion is still happening and it’s a great time to get some fabulous products at even more fabulous prices!  The promotion runs only until December 29, so if you’d like to take advantage of any of the special offers contained within, be sure to contact me!

Well my handsome man has the next few days off work, just in time for Christmas, so we’re planning some serious family time, starting tonight as we head out to check out some of the beautiful Christmas lights around the Perth suburbs!

I hope your lead up to the big day isn’t too frenzied…

“Teacher Gift Books”
Stamps: Just Perfect Alphabet
Paper: Naturals Ivory, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Soft Suede, Whisper White, Basic Black, Elegant Soirée DSP
Ink: Early Espresso
Accessories: Top Note die, Victoria crochet trim, Two-step Owl punch, Two-step Bird punch, Crystal Effects, Stampin’ Sponges

Thanks for all of your kind and encouraging comments about the classmate gifts that I posted the other day, and especially for the tips on mass-producible gifts I can bust out in future years

As for the winner of the pack of 100 of the little bags, using my good old-fashioned pull a name from a bucket and have my big child hold it up for the camera while my small child squeezes her head in front so as not to miss out on the action, all while making sure she doesn’t miss a second of whatever is currently on TV system, that would be….

Congratulations Krysta!  If you could email me your postal address, I’ll pop the bags in the mail for you

Now for the “more classmate gifts” alluded to in the title of this post…

It was brought to my attention as I was writing the previous post, that I had never actually posted pictures of last year’s classmate gifts.  I had planned to provide a link to last year’s effort to remind you of an alternative possibility along the lines of cheap and cheerful, mass-producible Christmas delights, but in searching for the link, I discovered that there never actually was one, as I had not in fact got around to putting them up here…

So here they are now – my circa Christmas 2009 classmate chocolate pops!

The chocolate pops themselves were a fantastic find – packs of six (or maybe it was four….) for a couple of dollars in Target, the best thing about them being that they’re made by a company that is super allergy-aware and separates the part of their factory that deals with nuts and nut products – a very handy thing to know when making treats for little friends with severe nut allergies.  Kinnerton is the name of the company for those of you interested

So there you go.  Next up, teacher gifts, although now that I have my girls on school holidays and Christmas a mere handful of days away, I can’t promise when that will be, other than soon……ish

“2009 Classmate Chocolate Pops”
Stamps: Season of Joy
Paper: Real Red, Garden Green, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White
Ink: Real Red, Garden Green, Summer sun (now retired)
Accessories: Wide Oval Punch

At the end of every school year I like to do a little something for the kids in my big girl’s class at school.  The trouble is, it gets harder to do something ‘different’ each year, especially as they’re getting older and more discerning!

This year, was made a little easier by virtue of the fact that a few weeks ago, a fellow demonstrator posted a message on our demonstrator forum (FAB resource that it is!) that she had loads and loads of long, thin self-sealing plastic bags that she’d be happy to offload in packs of 100 to any interested parties.

Turns out there were a lot of interested parties, so it’s a good thing she really did have loads of them!

I relieved her of 10 packs, which if you bother to do the maths, is a whole BUNCH of bags, but I had never seen them anywhere before and they’re perfect for fun little gifts of the classmate variety, and with my small girl starting Kindy next year, I’m all of a sudden going to find myself needing to make double of everything at gift time.

As it turns out, another demonstrator on the forum alerted us all to the fact that Woolworths had packs of red, green and white jelly beans available for Christmas, so after picking up an armful of those, sitting with my big girl on the floor, first sorting the jelly beans into colours, then loading them into the bags, a stamped and folded tag punch later, this is what we had….!

The Sparkly and Bright stamp set would have to be my favourite Christmas set for this year – SO cute and whimsical and perfect for this particular job

I arrived at the little folded over tag at the top, as it gave me a place to stamp something, without being so labour intensive that I would start to hyperventilate when the crowd of seven year olds in receipt of the jelly bean packets started ripping them apart and throwing them away.

I put together an impromptu little tutorial in case you’re wondering how to achieve the folded over tag idea for yourself.  Please keep in mind the word impromptu when considering the quality (or not) of the pictures…

Start with a piece of cardstock folded in half.  I used Whisper White, which is a bit thinner than the regular cardstock so the double width is easily punched through.  Not sure how the thicker stuff would go…

Now slide the folded cardstock into to the punch so that there is a tiny (1mm or so) gap between the cardstock and the top of the punch…

Now punch!  And this is what you get…

And if you’re doing a whole batch of these as I was, you can cut strips of cardstock (I cut a piece of A4 Whisper White in half lengthways, then folded it in the middle, lengthways again), you can punch out a whole series of them…

To attach them to the bags, I simply stapled the back of the tag to the bag, then stuck the front of the tag down with a Stampin’ Dimensional.

Since I have a truckload of these bags now, I’m going to give a pack of 100 away to one of you, but you have to earn it!

Tell me your ideas for little stamped gifts so that I can be ready in advance for next year – I have double the amount to make from 2011 onwards remember, so I’m going to have to get myself prepared well in advance!

Winner will be randomly chosen on Monday!

“Merry and Bright Classmate Gifts”
Stamps: Merry & Bright
Paper: Whisper White
Ink: Early Espresso, Real Red
Accessories: Early Espresso, Real Red & Wild Wasabi Markers