I just realised that until now, I have completely neglected to advise what this week’s deal is….and it ends TONIGHT!

If you feel the need to stock up on some bling or gorgeous ribbon, it’s a great time to do so!

I’ll be placing my final deal order in the next couple of hours, so if you want to get in on the deal, contact me asap!

Just a quick note to say that I have had a moment of disquiet with my mailing list just now and it seems as though a number of names have been deleted.

If you have signed up to my mailing list from my sidebar in the last month or so, please do so again as I think you may have been accidentally deleted!

Thanks!

I am, as we speak, up to my armpits on my loungeroom floor with wrapping paper, sticky tape and Christmas tags, but I wanted to pop in super quickly to wish you all the very merriest of Christmases!

I have so much to share here including my Christmas cards, teacher gifts, some birthday cards for the number of December birthdays in my family plus rather a variety of other stuff and once the hustle and bustle of the season has settled down a bit I will be busting to come back and show it all to you.

In the meantime, thank you for your visits, your comments and your support of my li’l stampin’blog this past year.

Have a wonderful Christmas, how ever you will be celebrating and I’ll see you all back here soon!

Nothing like leaving things until the last minute, although as it’s my standard MO with pretty much everything, anything else would be out of character

Although in this case unfortunately, it means revealing a surprise that I haven’t yet managed to get into the post, as I’m pretty sure that the person it will eventually grace the mailbox of checks in here several times daily…

You may recall that I offered a little prize for the first person to correctly guess the multitude of stamp sets that I took greeting stamps from to create the anniversary card for my handsome man.

Well this is the prize that I made for them.

The Sweet Sunday Sketch that I based this project on finishes in about an hour 25 minutes from now, so I will be brief with the banter (is that cheering I hear?!), and get right to the point…

Here’s the sketch:

And here’s my version of it:

Instead of a card, I covered the front of a notebook with the sketch and am rather happy with the result.

Notice the sparkly brad?  I didn’t have any coloured brads that would work with the colour scheme that I chose, so I plonked a mini glue dot on the top of a silver brad and dipped it into Pink Fine Supernova Glitter.

See…?

As well as being a sneak peek for the intended recipient, it’s also a sneak peek of a couple of new products that will be arriving with the Summer Mini catalogue on December 1.

They’re not super obvious, but they’re there….!

So check your mailbox some time next week SJ and you’ll find this, along with some other goodies that I’ll pop in so you do get somewhat of a surprise

Or better yet, pop over for a coffee and I can hand it to you in person!

Cass, if you’re reading, I also have a little something for you but will post it here after you have received it 

“Sweet Sunday Notebook”
Stamps: Defining Alphabet, Baroque
Paper: Pink Passion, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Walk in the Park DSP
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Versamark
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Paper Piercer (Crafter’s Tool Kit), 3/4″ Circle Punch, 1-3/4″ Circle Punch, Circle Scissors Plus, Silver Brad, Pink Fine Supernova Glitter, Mini Glue Dots

Many of you will no doubt remember the jaw-droppingly amazing cake that I had made for my bestie’s baby shower.

Here it is again…

The creator of this sugary masterpiece – Julie – now has her very own website – Queen of Cakes – where you can see a vast gallery of her talents.

Prepare to be amazed friends.   Seriously amazed….

Then prepare to make a list of all of your upcoming celebratory occasions so you too can indulge in a truly wonderful cake that tastes every bit as good as it looks!

Thought it was time for a bit of a freshen up.  It’s quite a new direction but I kinda like it!

Thoughts..?  Opinions….?

I am already envisaging some fun stuff for my little digital self up there…  A HUGE thanks to Gabbie at dotcomdesign for her swift creation of the 2-dimensional me!

Quick let me know what you think so I can decide whether or not to revert to the old one….!

…perhaps you’ve noticed.

So there I was, all scheduled up and sorted and thinking that I was onto something with the scheduling of posts.  And I was!  It was very satisfying to sit and sort out a fortnight worth of blog posts in one session and know that they would dutifully show up at the exact moment I had arranged them to.

The plan was to do the same thing every week or fortnight and I was very excited about the prospect of being organised about something for once!

Then some nameless, faceless and conscious-less nasty bugger somewhere out there in cyber space hacked into my blog files, planted some unwanted code into several of them, thereby breaking my blog and freaking me out in the process.

I managed to fix the blog itself, but my team forum and gallery appear unable to be resurrected, so I have spent a goodly chunk of the past couple of weeks sorting out a new online team area and diligently watching my blog files for signs of unauthorised entry!

So anyway, the reason for this post is two-fold:

• to let you know (if you haven’t all given up on me entirely by now!) that I hope to resume regular stampin’ programming and scheduled blog posts again very soon – I have a few exciting things to share!
• and also to say that if you have a Wordpress.org blog, be super vigilant for any changes in your blog files and make sure that your security is nice and tight!  I have installed a plug-in called File Monitor that emails me if there are any changes in my files and so far, so good.  You can find it in the plug-in database at wordpress.org if you’re interested

Thanks for your ongoing patience

I have been having a mammoth clear out of my stampin’ space and have decided that I am ready to let go of some of my retired stamp sets and accessories, which means this is YOUR chance to grab some hard to come by stampin’ stuff!

I have joined forces with some of the girls in my team, so there will be a great amount of stuff to choose from!

When: THIS SUNDAY June 28th 2009

Where: Shenton Storage – 39 Lemnos Street Shenton Park

Time: 11am to 2.30pm

It will be a cash and carry affair – no credit card facilities will be available on the day and unfortunately we won’t be able to accept cheques.

In addition to the great stuff on sale, there will also be gifts with purchase, but these will be limited in number so get there early to avoid disappointment!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

So I mentioned yesterday that one of the things we do at our team days is swaps, which are a GREAT way to get new ideas, bulk up your stock of display cards as a demonstrator and share the kinds of things you like to make yourself.

My most recent team day swap has a fun story attached to it as it turns out   Well I think it’s a great story….keep reading to see if you agree!

The theme for our team day swap (the day itself was the 31st of January) was Valentine’s Day, or just plain love/friendship for those not inclined to celebrate the day itself.  The inspiration for my own swap card came from my stamping and blogging idol Kristina, who does wonderfully simple but beautiful work and when I grow up, I want to be JUST like her!  You can see the card in question on her blog here.

And this is my almost exact copy, save for the colours and one small element…!

(I must insert an apology here for the picture quality, or lack thereof.  I only took one picture and after I had swapped all my swaps – not having kept one for myself – I realised how terribly blurry it was – sorry!!)

Aaaaaanyway, the story that I mentioned earlier….  I got to team day, busted out my swaps and when I got to swapping with Tracey, she burst into giggles!  Not sure immediately how to take this (I thought my swap was passable at least..!) I was very relieved (followed quickly by OVERJOYED!!) when she explained why…..

You see the cards that Kristina had made were put in her Etsy shop for sale.  Well Tracey saw that particular blog post of Kristina’s as well, headed over to the shop and bought a set of cards, with the intention of giving one to me!  How cool is that!  Even cooler, she actually DID, and lookie here….

This living, breathing, real, live Kristina Werner original is IN MY HOUSE!  And I’ve touched it with my own hands….  SNIFFED it even!  How sweet is Trace?!  Thank you my friend

“Kristina Inspired Swap Card”
Stamps: Forever in My Heart (retiring soon!!)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Groovy Guava (retiring soon!!), Ginger Blossom DSP (in Summer mini and only available for another few days!!)
Inks: Groovy Guava (you know what I’m going to say here!), Ruby Red
Accessories: Crystal Effects, Scallop Border Punch, Crafter’s Tool Kit, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I am finding it difficult to believe that the Linen background stamp appears on The List.  It is my number one favourite background stamp and I have lost count of the number of times I have had customers run their fingers across a card where it appears, expecting to feel a texture.  I LOVE this stamp!

I also love Floral – the exquisite detail of the flowers and how it looks for all the world like a patterned paper when you stamp it *sigh*  All I can say is that there had better be some jolly impressive backgrounds in the new catalogue (that incidentally will be available in 29 sleeps….)

Here is a card that I set as one of the projects at our most recent team day that happens to use both of these lovely backgrounds.  It also uses the Botanical Blooms – the very recent Sale-a-bration set that I also loved.

You can see the lovely linen texture a bit better here…

The technique used here is faux tearing, which is a great way to get a torn look without having to rip away at your precious cardstock!  It was my first foray into this technique, but it most definitely won’t be my last… dependent of course on those fabulous new background stamps I am oh-so-hopeful for in ooooh, around 675.5 hours from now

“Faux Tearing Team Day Card”
Stamps: Linen, Floral, Botanical Blooms, Basic Phrases
Paper: Mellow Moss, Naturals Ivory, Always Artichoke, Rose Red
Ink: Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Rose Red
Accessories: 1-1/4″ Square Punch, Scallop Square Punch, Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin’ Sponges