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‘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!
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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)
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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
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