As the post title would suggest, today is my thirty-something^th birthday (actually it’s ticked over to midnight since starting to write, so technically it isn’t anymore…) and after a lovely day having lunch and pottering at a garden centre with my handsome man this afternoon and hanging out with my girls this evening, this post is going up much later than I had planned, but I’m here now and have things to share!

Before I launch into the details of the delightful early birthday surprise that some of my stampin’ team members sprung on me exactly a week ago, I thought I’d expand on the second half of the post title…

As you are most likely aware, Sale-a-bration is coming to a close after two “enchanting” months and come March 31st it will be all over red rover for another year.  If you have yet to capitalise on the freebies available with this promotion, or you have capitalised and you rather feel like doing so again, then I have a great opportunity for you!

Here’s how it will go down…*

• 10 people each place a $100 order (before shipping)
• Everybody chooses a free Sale-a-bration item
• Drawn randomly, everybody shares in the hostess benefits amounts to spend as they choose on exclusive hostess stamp sets or catalogue merchandise as follows:

• One amount of $30
• Three amounts of $20
• Four amounts of $15
• One amount of $10
• One additional Sale-a-bration reward

In addition to the bonuses listed above, the person whose order total is the highest will also have the opportunity to purchase any catalogue item at half price**

DON’T FORGET: WITH THE NEW HOSTESS PLAN, THE HOSTESS DOLLARS ARE ABLE TO BE SPENT ON ANY COMBINATION OF EXCLUSIVE HOSTESS SETS AND CATALOGUE MERCHANDISE THAT YOU LIKE, SO ANY OF THE AMOUNTS LISTED ABOVE COULD GO TOWARDS GETTING YOUR HANDS ON ONE OF THE STUNNING HOSTESS-ONLY STAMP SETS AVAILABLE!

Contact me asap to reserve a spot in the last gasp virtual workshop!!

* hostess amounts may change according to the number of people and order totals submitted
** cannot form part of the initial $100 order

~~~~~~~~~~

Righto, the next fun order of business is to allow you a peek into what it’s like to have a crew of beautiful hearted stampin’ team members descend on your house of a Thursday evening to throw you a surprise birthday stampin’ session.

We had actually pre-planned a casual gathering to take our Autumn-Winter Mini catalogue pre-order purchases (hello demonstrator perk!) for a test run, so I knew that there would be eight of us at my place that night.  What I didn’t know was that they had been covertly messaging each other for almost a month with plans for a surprise birthday bash, and my suggestion of a play over at my house was all the encouragement needed to swing their delightful plans into action!

Cut to 7.30pm last Thursday night (after I had sufficiently shifted around every item of furniture in my teeny lounge room to make way for two trestle tables) when I heard a car door out the front.  After a little while without a knock at the door, I headed out to my porch to see if anybody needed help up my front steps with their stampin’ supplies.  The sight that greeted me still makes me giggle when I think of it now – picture six grown ladies, all carrying a varied array of stamping equipment, bags and plates of food all crouched in your front garden in an attempt to escape the glare of the motion-sensor security light that popped on as they all converged on my front door.  The sight of me up on the porch galvanized them into action, with Lou springing up to hold up the above birthday banner, SJ with her camera around her neck trying in vain to catch the frivolity on film and Michelle still crouched in the garden doing her best to hide in my hedge.  Bloody hilarious I tell you!

We all proceeded inside where I was informed that I need do nothing – everything was planned, from refreshments to make and takes and the most glorious array of gifts and cards.  Stunned is an understatement.  My face hurt from smiling and I’m pretty sure I spent much of the evening squirming and flapping with joy

Alrighty, enough talking, who wants to see some pictures…?!

Here is the party hat I was presented with at the start of the evening, and there is photographic evidence of it perched jauntily on my head, but it’s out of focus and blurry, quite likely due to the aforementioned squirming and flapping…

There are loads more to see – just hover over the thumbnails for a description and click on the thumbnails for the big picture:

Am I not the luckiest stamper in the world?  Such a fun night surrounded by some of the loveliest gals you could hope to meet, and all because one day six years or so ago, I thought to myself “That Stampin’ Up! thing looks like fun…”

So there I will leave you as it is now way past my bedtime and the birthday festivities continue tomorrow today, with a shopping trip into the city with my lovely mum.

Although I will say that if you like the idea of making new and gorgeous friends with a similar penchant for all things paper and ink, I would encourage you to consider the demonstrator opportunity, particularly since the Sale-a-bration promotion means the starter kit is discounted by $40 and you get an extra stamp set thrown in too!  But you’ll have to be quick, because the offer ends on March 31…

Feel free to contact me with any questions about the opportunity or have a browse of the Join My Team section of my blog

By far one of my favourite varieties of cards to make are ones for babies, and when I can incorporate my current favourite DSP crush, so much the better!

Back in January my cousin-in-law had a baby shower to celebrate the impending arrival of her sweet baby girl (who has since arrived and a sweetie she is!), and this is the card I made for the occasion.

I love all the designs on the Everyday Enchantment Sale-a-bration DSP, so to be able to use so many of them in a quilt like fashion made me a very happy stamper   It also goes a long way to illustrate the versatility of these papers, so if you don’t have any yet, I suggest you move to amend that state of affairs as soon as possible – definitely before March 31st.  Lucky for you, contacting me with your $100 order is all it takes to score your free pack

Vintage and cute play happily together on this card, with the vintage trim and sponging around the edges of the DSP squares and Decorative Label, combining with the oh-so-sweet little owly from Fox & Friends.

With a packet of Stampin’ Dimensionals never far from reach, I popped up both the Decorative Label and the little owl, plus added punched out white and tiny black circles to accentuate his (her?} eyes even more.

Then the only thing left to complete the vintage-y cute picture was the gift – a brown paper package tied up with *FREE* Calypso Coral organdy ribbon and a strip of laser cut doilies from the Flirtatious DSP.

Tune in some time next month for the card I made when the little love was actually born – I need the entire rest of this month to finish sharing the rest of my Sale-a-bration projects before the whole thing finishes!

Stamps: Fox & Friends, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Paper: Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Naturals Ivory, Everyday Enchantment DSP (SAB), Flirtatious DSP
Ink: Soft Suede, Poppy Parade
Accessories: 1-1/4″ Square Punch, Decorative Label Punch, Two-Step Owl Punch (eyes), Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots Emossing Folder, Victoria Vintage Trim, Neutrals Brads, Calypso Coral Marker, Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Calypso Coral Organdy Ribbon (SAB)

‘Twas the day after Christmas and all through the blog,
at the sight of a new post, the crowd were agog.
Though “crowd” is most likely too hopeful a noun,
since new posts around here are considerably down
from five posts in one day, believe it or not,
(on 6 August, ’07 for you disbelieving lot!)
to a single post (if you’re lucky) every month or two,
which I resolve to improve, I can assure you.

Next year, you see, the littler of my girls,
(the one with the brown eyes and gentle dark curls)
is heading to ‘big school’ – she’ll go every day,
which leaves mummy here with some more time to play.
And of course I will miss her – of that there’s no doubt,
but I figure it’s time to sort this ‘business’ out.

This ‘business’ that I started almost six years ago,
not realising back then quite how fast it would grow.
And therefore not doing it as ‘properly’ as I might,
had I foreseen the potential for it to take flight.
But soon with more time and opportunity to,
I look forward to starting it somewhat anew.

And I hope you will join me, both here and for real,
as I stamp and create with revitalised zeal.
For ‘to love what I do and share what I love”
is something I know that I’ll never tire of.
Huge thanks for your support of me, whether it be,
as someone already related to me,
or a person I’ve met on this stampin’ adventure,
so many of whom since became friends, I would venture.

So on this Boxing Day, I hope that it’s been
even better a Christmas than you had foreseen.
And here, from my family, best wishes to you,
and all our very best for a great New Year too!

Way back when I was in primary school, one of the games that was favoured at the time (although probably very un-PC these days and likely going by a different name) was Chinese Whispers.  The game where one person started by whispering a sentence to the person next to them, who in turn whispered to the next person and so on around the circle until it got back to the beginning, sometimes as a very different sentence to what it started out as.

“I went to the beach last week” could easily have become “I ate a peach with my beak” depending on the size of the circle and the listening skills (or not) of the small folk involved.

A more fun and current version of this game (at least as far as I’m concerned) is the one that transpired last week in my own circle of stampin’ friends and family involving a single card as the first inspiration that through the wonders of the internet and text messaging became a “same but different version” of the card once it has passed through several people a mere few days later.

The starting point was this lovely card…

…that my friend and A Klass Act team member Tracey used as inspiration for this card that she made as a swap for a stamping evening we had at her place last Friday night…

Not having seen the original inspiration card at the time, I used Tracey’s card as my starting point for this one that I set as the make and take in my workshop the following day…

…which I attached to a text message to send to my lovely Aunty Mair, who in turn used it (not having seen the original or Tracey’s card) as inspiration for this delightful creation that she posted to her friend that she had enjoyed lunch with the previous day…

Isn’t this FUN?!

It’s truly one of my favourite things about stamping and creating – the process of being inspired by fellow stampers in a large or small way, and thereby never having to reinvent the stampin’ wheel as it were.

Have you played any games of Stampin’ Chinese Whispers lately…?

“My Stampin’ Chinese Whispers card – Thinking of You”
Stamps: Silhouette Sentiments (L1 hostess)
Paper: Naturals Ivory
Ink: Soft Suede, Early Espresso
Accessories: Pear Pizzazz, Poppy Parade & Peach Parfait markers, Basic Pearls, Pear Pizzazz Stitched-Poly Ribbon, Decorative Label Punch, Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals

These past few days, I have watched more daytime TV than could usually be considered healthy, thanks to a dose of shingles that started out in my right eyebrow and has made its was onto my eyelid as well as spreading its painful feelers across my forehead, temple and cheek.

Not to mention that its allowing me to do a very passable impression of the Elephant Man thanks to the swelling around my eye.

Yep, I’m smokin’ HOT right about now, let me tell you…

So I have been spending quite a bit of time inside, partly because I have been feeling so wretched and partly so as not to give nightmares to any small children that I might cross paths with on the street.

I thought it might be an ideal time to get on  here with some stamped creations that I made some time ago and have photographed, edited and all, just not managed to share.

This card was one that I made for a very special wedding back in January – one of the five weddings we went to between September last year and February this year (never have I been so very aware of a “wedding season” in my life..)

The gal getting married was someone I have known since she was about four years old and her dad used to coach my brother’s junior cricket team.  Her parents and mine are still the best of friends all these years later – wonderful people, all of them

With so many weddings to go to, I found myself with a go-to card design that I made for a couple of them, but for this one, I wanted to do something a bit different and special.

I started out (as I very often do) at the Clean and Simple Stamping blog and used this sketch as my starting point…

After changing the orientation, I set about deciding what to decorate my four squares with and hunted through  my stamp and embellishment collection for anything ‘”wedding-y”.

Here’s a closer look at the combination of elements I ended up with…

It was one of those times that I was happy to have a variety of embellishments on hand, as it was the little touches that finished if off I think.  Things like the Dazzling Diamonds glitter in the champagne glasses and the tiny heart-shaped clear button with a punched out Cherry Cobbler heart stuck on the top.

If you’d like more details on any of the products or techniques I’ve employed on this card, please don’t hestitate to get in touch.

And who knows, depending on what Brooke is up to these days on the Bold and the Beautiful, I may even be back later with more…  (Assuming that Brooke is still around that is – surely she’s not finished marrying every bloke on the show yet…?)

“Congrats Nat & Dave – Wedding card
Stamps: Cheers to You, Always, Simply Said, Occasional Greetings, Playful Pieces (L3 hostess), Basic Phrases
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Whisper White, In-Color Patterns DSP (Blushing Bride)
Ink: Crumb Cake, Blushing Bride, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories: 1-1/4 and 1-3/8 Square Punches, 1-1/4 Circle Punch, Two Step Owl Punch (heart), Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Early Espresso Marker, Early Espresso Satin Ribbon, Mini Glue Dots, Stampin Dimensionals

…irritated?!

I must apologise for my extended absence from here.  Although I could almost justifiably claim that the Easter Hat in all its glory and over-the-top-ness had sapped my energy reserves for a whole month leaving me entirely unable to bash out even one blog post, I confess that that wasn’t the case.

What was the case, was that I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with ‘stuff’  and my coping mechanism when I feel that way is to withdraw from a lot of the peripheral things that claim my attention.  Blogging being one of them.  If you follow my Facebook page, you’ll have noticed me pop up over there from time to time, being that a Facebook update requires not much more than a lone sentence – something I felt was much more doable than whole cluster of sentences and accompanying pictures that make up a blog post.

I am still feeling a bit of a case of the “blahs” to be honest, but in the same way I would deal with one of my children when they are feeling less than co-operative and the toy room is a pig-sty, I have given myself a stern-ish talking to and set the timer for 15 minutes.  I love the productivity tool of setting a timer with the premise that “you can do anything for 15 minutes”, the idea being that once the 15 minutes is over, you will be knee-deep in whatever task you had been putting off and happy to continue.

And so I write this short explanatory post in the midst of editing photos from the recent Melbourne Stampin’ Up! convention.  My timer went off quite some time ago now, and I am still quite merrily cropping, brightening and saving.  My plan is that the pics and a bit of a convention write up will be up here shortly for your reading and viewing pleasure.  If indeed there are any of  “you” left

Back soon…

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

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

Just popping in to let you know of a fabulous bit of news and to show you a card that I made about a month ago, had sitting on my desk for approximately three and a half weeks and posted off about a week ago.

A  just because card – my favourite kind…

“Fill your cup card”
Stamps: Share a Cup, Playful Pieces, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Paper: Early Espresso, Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, Whisper White, In-color DSP Stack
Ink: Early Espresso, Versamark
Accessories: Scallop Trim Border, Wide Oval & Boho Blossom Punches, Lots of Tags Sizzlets, Brights Brads, Stampin’ Dimensionals

You will recall that after the devastating floods that hit the state of Queensland, followed by the equally devastating cyclone that ripped through the northern parts of the state a mere few weeks later, Stampin’ Up! announced that they would be donating $2 for every stamp set valued at $39.95 or more from mid January to mid February.

Well the fundraising period has now ended and Stampin’ Up! announced on their website a few days ago that the final total to be donated to the Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal was a truly inspiring $11, 862.

Thank you to the many of you who supported this appeal and to Stampin’ Up! who are the biggest-hearted company I have ever had the pleasure of being involved with.

Two weeks in a row – I’m on a roll folks!  And you’ll note that Challenge Chewsday got the nod from the majority of commenters (commentators?!) on the last post – not that I was taking a poll or anything, but since you offered your opinions, let’s go with it!

This week I headed back to Inkspirations HQ and used the fabulous sketch on offer there…

Combined with this PRETTY colour combination from ColourQ…

And this is what I turned them into…

On Thursday just gone, our gorgeous across-the-road neighbours added a beautiful baby girl to their already sweet and lovely family, so as a heartfelt thank you for giving me a brand new baby to sniff, with a little bit of congratulations thrown in, this is the card I made for baby Lily, that we headed over this afternoon to give them.

I also made a little matching gift tag to hang from the bag…

So there you have my challenge entry for this Chewsday!  Hope you’re enjoying my new blog feature – I certainly am!

• An oldie but a goodie – sponge the edges of your cardstock and paper for a lovely vintage look
• Punch a strip of cardstock with a border punch, feed it through the Crimper, then concertina the straight edge together and stick it behind an oval or circle shape for a pretty border
• Use a White Gel Pen in conjunction with watercolouring for some great highlights

“Happy Birth-Day Lily!”
Stamps: Awash with Flowers, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Paper: Blushing Bride, Crumb Cake, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Watercolour Paper, Cherry Cobbler, In-color DSP stack,
Ink: Versamark, Blushing Bride, Crumb Cake, Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette
Accessories: White Embossing Powder, Ovals die, Eyelet Border Punch, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Neutrals Brads, Crimper, 2-3/8″ Scallop Circle Punch, 1-3/4″ Circle Punch, Bitty Buttons, Owl Punch (heart), Blushing Bride Stitched Poly Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Glue Dots, Stampin’ Sponges