Undoubtedly the most exciting time of the Stampin’ Up! year is the release of the new Idea Book & Catalogue, and those of you who’ve been along for the stampin’ ride for a while would recall that in previous years, the beginning of April meant exactly that.

This year however, things are a little different, as the IB&C release date has been pushed back to September to bring the Australian product offering and release more in line with that of the US (is that cheering I hear….?!).

This has left a neat little space between now and September for the oh so amazing Autumn/Winter Mini catalogue…

Here is just a taste of what you will find inside.  Click on the images for further information.

This first one needs no introduction I’m sure.  Perhaps just an accompanying sound effect…

I am personally beside myself with excitement about all the new things this mini brings.

I am throwing little party of sorts in its honour the weekend after Easter, so if you’re not already on my mailing list, you might want to make sure you get on it, as the details for the launch are being sent out tomorrow!

Get to it!

I mentioned a couple of posts ago how much I have loved working with the Walk in the Park DSP from the current (but only until the end of the day!!) Spring Mini.

Well here is a little more evidence of just how much I have enjoyed myself with this very pretty paper…

This card was for the first birthday of a sweet little poppet belonging to some gorgeous friends of ours.

The layout of the card was cased pretty much directly from page 11 of the Spring Mini, I have just changed the colours.

“Elsie’s First Birthday Card”
Stamps: Gallery
Paper: Old Olive, So Saffron, Whisper White, Walk in the Park DSP
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Wide Double Stitched Baja Breeze grosgrain, Flower Fusion Too, Rich Regals brads, On Boards Lots of Letters, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Next we have a couple of cards that I made for some birthday parties that my big girl was invited to a couple of months back.

This one actually combines the Walk in the Park DSP with the Parisian Breeze Specialty DSP, so let’s call it Walk in a Parisian Park

“Ruby’s Walk in a Parisian Park 7th Birthday Card!”
Stamps: Cheep Talk
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Walk in the Park DSP, Parisian Breeze Specialty DSP, Pink Pirouette Patterns DSP (for the birdie’s wing!)
Ink: Rose Red, Basic Black
Accessories: Flower Fusion, Flower Fusion Too, Vintage brads, Scallop Edge Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

The next one also uses my favourite and most used stamp set from the mini – Great Friend

“Isobel’s 7th Birthday Card”
Stamps: Great Friend
Paper: Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Whisper White, Walk in the Park DSP
Ink: Cameo Coral, Baja Breeze, So Saffron
Accessories: Kiwi Kiss striped grosgrain, Stampin’ Dimensionals

And finally in this very varied hodge-podge of a blog post, here is yet another occasion in which I have used the lovely combination of Walk in the Park and Great Friend…

These were the vouchers that I created for our team stamping day back in July to give to the girls in the team that provided our stamping projects and ‘wow’ demonstration.

What I love about the colours in the papers and the Stampin’ Up! product co-ordination feature in general is how a single idea can be changed around into a variety of slightly different ones just with a bit of good old mixing and matching as I’ve done with the vouchers here

“July Team Day Vouchers”
Stamps: Great Friend
Paper: Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Kiwi Kiss, Cameo Coral, Walk in the Park
Ink: Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Kiwi Kiss, Cameo Coral, Basic Grey
Accessories: Silver Brads, Corner Rounder Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I hope you’ve enjoyed what actually became rather a marathon in the park!

Next up, my sister (in-law) comes walking in the park with me…

Stay tuned!

Below you can see images of the retired stamp sets I currently have for sale.   These stamp sets are my own personal pre-loved stamp sets, some of which have been much loved and some which appear almost new.  Please keep this in mind  when you are selecting any of them to purchase.  And apologies in advance for some of the grainy images…!

To view the details of the stamp sets – image and price, simply click on the pictures and the details are shown below a larger image that will appear.

The price indicated does not include postage – this will be added on depending on the number of sets you would like to purchase.  I will be using Parcel Post satchels for sending out the sets – $5.70 for up to 500g or $9.90 for up to 3kg (space permitting in each case) so if you are interested in more than one stamp set, I will endeavour to save you as much postage as possible by combining the sets in the post satchels.

To purchase any of these sets, please contact me at sarah@sarahklass.com and let me know which ones you’re interested in.  Payments may be made by Paypal or bank deposit, or if you are local to Perth and would like to collect them from me, cash is also acceptable.

I will keep the gallery of stamp sets as updated as possible to reflect the sets that have been sold.

Thanks, and happy shopping!

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Mother’s Day came and went a good month ago now and I have yet to share the cards I made for my delightful mum and mum-in-law, so here they are!

My mum has always loved all things owl-related, looong before they became the next big thing in stamping and scrapbooking!  She is a setter of the trends rather than a follower, as you will read all about in an upcoming post about her brush with fame, Trinny and Susannah style, but that’s a WHOLE other story!

Back to the owl….

This guy is from the Level 3 hostess bundle Hand Drawn, more specifically he is one of the Loop to Loop rub-ons.  Isn’t he adorable?!

In order to incorporate the two different styles of Designer Series Paper, I carefully cut the wings away from the rest of the owl before I rubbed on the rub-on.

Then I applied the body portion to the pale pink spotty paper from the Candy Lane series of DSP, and the wings to a darker spotty piece from Raspberry Tart and popped the wings up on Stampin’ Dimensionals for some, well, dimension

“Nanny’s Happy Mother’s Day Card”
Stamps: None!
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Holiday Treasures, Candy Lane & Raspberry Tart DSP, Kiwi Kiss Patterns DSP
Ink: None!
Accessories: Loop to Loop rub-ons (Level 3 Hostess Bundle), Double-Stitched Rose Red Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

This next one was for for my dear MIL, beloved ‘Mama’ to my girls and amazing crafter too!  She is the most incredible quilter and has recently applied her crafty hand to papery pursuits, with large amounts of success I will add!

This one was inspired by the card on the back cover of the current Idea Book & Catalogue.  I am loving this colour combination and the Sweet Stems set is the sweetest!

“Mama’s Happy Mother’s Day Card”
Stamps: Sweet Stems, Occasional Greetings
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, Watercolour Paper, Raspberry Tart DSP
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Wide Oval Punch, Chocolate Chip wide grosgrain, Aquapainter, White Gel Pen

The catalogue is such a wonderful place for inspiration, be it for a layout idea, or a colour combination as I have used it for here.  Make sure you make use of the wonderful resource that it is and save yourself the trouble of re-inventing the wheel every time you sit down to stamp!

I have today been editing a large batch of pictures in order to upload them to my blog, and making a list of posts to go with them and, well, it seems that I have a large batch of pictures and posts to upload to my blog!

I realised just how far behind I am when I discovered that I haven’t even put anything up here about the workshops that I ran to launch the new catalogue back in April!

Can anybody say ‘bad blogger’….?!

But I now have a list to work through and will be endeavouring to rectify this situation post haste!

In fact I have made large leaps toward rectifying the situation by scheduling daily weekday posts from now until the 18th of the month!  And I’m still not yet done with the list!

But back to the catalogue launch workshops.

Now I could have just let a post about this go, since the workshop themselves were such a long time ago, but they were good fun and I thought I’d share a couple of highlights…

I actually ran the workshops in three different sessions as my house is not much bigger than a large shoe box, and a lot of stampers it does not accommodate!

Everyone that came along got one of these….

It’s an idea that I originally got from Splitcoast Stampers and tweaked to my liking by taking different ideas from different ‘Survival Kits’ that I read about.

Here’s what was inside…

Clockwise from the left of screen:

• A wishlist – custom made for the Stampin’ Up! enthusiast.  This one just about reached the floor once completely unfurled
• Sticky notes – a great find by my team member Ali!  Pre-printed with perfectly apt slogans to stick all over your must-haves in the catalogue!
• Catalogue tabs – printed with the different index sections for organising your catalogue
• A pen – for filling up that mammoth wishlist of course!
• A lollipop – sugar for energy as you make your mammoth wishlist
• A bandaid – first aid for the inevitable paper cuts that result from frenzied thumbing of a new stamping catalogue!
• A highlighter – for highlighting the stuff that you already own

I had heaps of fun putting these together and even MORE fun witnessing the reactions of the ladies as we went through the contents together!

Here was one of the projects that I demonstrated…

A set of love notes (6 in total – 2 of each design) that all went into a little box made out of Good Morning Sunshine DSP.  I don’t have a picture of the actual box as I demonstrated it on the spot, then gave it away as one of the door-prizes, but I promise it was cute!

If you want to be among the first to know of upcoming events  like these that I offer, head on over to the sidebar there ——-> and sign up to receive my newsletter!

“Cheep Talk Love Note set”
Stamps: Cheep Talk
Paper: Tangerine Tango, Summer Sun, Pacific Point
Ink: Tangerine Tango, Summer Sun, Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze
Accessories: Stampin’ Dimensionals

If  you follow Stampin’ Up! in the same fanatical way that I and many others do, you will know that the CEO and co-founder of the company is Shelli, and Shelli is married to Sterling.

Perhaps, like my Aunty Mary (*waving* Aunty Mair!) you even know all the family’s names by heart and upon receiving a copy of the new catalogue, turn not to the sections bulging with new stamps, papers and accessories, but to the family photo in the front to see how everybody has grown and changed!

But that’s a whole other story…

Back to Sterling.  Imagine my surprise when I received a phone call around half an hour ago from a fellow with an American accent introducing himself as Sterling.  Actually nevermind my surprise, imagine my heart rate!

Turns out that the Sterling in question lives a few streets from here and had been delivered, along with some packages addressed to him, one that was meant to be delivered to me, containing none other than a stack of catalogues and other things that I ordered specifically for my catalogue launch workshops this coming weekend!  How’s that for an amazing coincidence?

Well I thought it was pretty amazing, after I picked myself up off the floor and regained my composure

Speaking of my catalogue launch workshops, I still have a place left this Friday evening and now only two on Sunday afternoon.  And now I am ALSO assured of having enough catalogues for everybody thanks to Sterling!

I am having SO much fun putting together the goodies for the workshops – they’re going to be a blast!  Contact me asap if you’d like to be included.

Here is another sneaky peek of the sorts of things you will see at the workshop….

“Window Dressing Flowers”
Stamps: Window Dressing, Polka Dot, Short & Sweet
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Watercolour Paper
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Going Grey, Tangerine Tango, Lovely Lilac, Pink Pirouette
Accessories: Aquapainter, Scallop Edge Punch

Tadaaaaaa!  It’s the new Idea Book & Catalogue!  Isn’t it YUMMY?!  You should see the INSIDE!  In fact you can, whenever you want!  Just click on it and away you go!

But WAIT!  Before you do and I lose you for HOURS, first make sure to sign up for my newsletter over there on the right ———————>  I will be sending out my April newsletter tomorrow and it’s got some great offers that my subscribers will be the VERY first to hear about, so go on, sign up and THEN visit the catalogue

Oh, hang on, just before you go, I want to share a card with you.  The first (of 8 in a single sitting!) that I made with the brand new Good Friend stamp set when it arrived as part of a pre-order that I got a couple of weeks back.

I am just LOVING this stamp set!  It’s amazingly versatile in that it has a great range of images that can achieve all sorts of different looks.  Yep, this one is going to get a good going over this year, I can tell!

“New Catalogue Friend!”
Stamps: Good Friend
Paper: Baja Breeze (NEW!), Kiwi Kiss (NEW!), Good Morning Sunshine DSP (NEW!), Whisper White (N….just kidding )
Ink: Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point (NEW!), Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Chocolate Chip wide grosgrain ribbon, Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimenionals