Sale-a-bration starts soon!

One week until Sale-a-bration begins! If you'd like a copy of the catalogue let me know and I'll get one to you or you can pop in, pick one up and join me for a cuppa x Bookings are available so contact me to have a Stampin' Up!' party and you can be getting free products with your purchases over $90.

Inspire, Create, Share 2014 highlights part 2

First day of Inspire, Create, Share

Having been to the Managers' Reception the night before we were lucky enough to have got our convention bags already, and didn't have to get to the Convention Centre to queue up early. It was packed of course, and everyone was madly swapping so I joined in too! I forgot to keep one to show you that was silly of me... I queued up at the doors to the hall, with my box of swaps ready to go, and smiled sweetly at the other people lining up. Lots of men I thought. Then someone tapped me on the shoulder and said that if i was here for the card swapping (!) then I was at the wrong door! How embarrassing! I did ask what they were waiting to see and it was a nursing event - I told them that ours was much more fun and that they should join me! So I found the right door and joined the throng.
As you can see, there were a lot of women (and a handful of men!) ready for the opening session to begin. I think one of the first things that happened was a prize patrol! This is where those people with a certain coloured wrist band (or in this case everyone!) gets a prize, it was a new hostess stamp set (they're all really gorgeous this year don't you think? Oh I forgot, you might not have seen them yet, just wait until July 1st and you'll see them in the new Idea Book and Catalogue).

After the opening session we all felt like a coffee and someone gave us a tip off that a new place had recently opened up not far from the convention centre. It was called 'Gasoleine' and was serving coffees for a dollar - yes, just a dollar. This was an opening special so pretty soon there was a big crowd of Stampin' Up! women as word spread. It happens to also be a motorbike garage, making custom bikes, and it was the cleanest garage I'd ever seen. Thanks boys for those great caffeine boosts, they were great.

Here is a photo of Nicholle and Ursula waiting in the queue with their wings on (I decided that we all ought to wear wings seeing as we are the Paper Angels! Check out the little red bags too, these are our convention bags) Also you can see Paula looking angelic while reading the programme of events for convention.

We were treated to a workshop demonstration by Jacqui Williams, who showed us how to make this beautiful card with our new stamp set "Kinda Eclectic" that I absolutely love. It has a sweet greeting and also some graphic images that work well together but can also be used with other stamp sets. I like 'double duty' from things!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for the awards night photos!

Inspire, Create, Share 2014 highlights

I think I've been in a bit of a dream since I came back from Melbourne where I attended Stampin' Up!'s convention! It was great in so many ways; a trip away from the hum drum of life, a get together with the girls, lots of creativity etc. I've put together some photos of my personal highlights...

This was the first time I was able to attend the manager's reception on the Wednesday evening before convention started, having been promoted to Manager back in October. We spent the afternoon listening to how we can support our customers and team members, and had fun in a role playing scenario where we were split into different 'cultures'. In the evening we were taken to the Myer Mural Hall in the city centre for a celebratory dinner. To begin, we mingled in the outer hall, and were offered delicious hors d'oeuvres including the most amazing steak and chips on a stick! After a while we went into the Myer Mural Hall itself and found ourselves a table for our meal, as you can see from the menu it was quite a treat! On the tables were gifts for us from Stampin' Up!, presented in a stylish black box with gold lettering on top. Wrapped around the box was a cute tag made using among other things the stamp set contained within the box. We were also spoilt with a beautiful scarf that you can see we wore on the art deco staircases in the hall. (The girls get progressively more crazy the further up the steps they go!) After a group photo (spot me in the front!) we ate our fantastic meal and listened to some great music. What a fabulous night it was, I really hope to be able to go again next year!

$85 to join Stampin' Up! Australia? What a great idea!

Get your business started for only $85!

I can't think of a better investment than spending $85 to join Stampin' Up! as a hobby or business demonstrator. For a limited time until June 30th 2014 that is all it costs to join up, receiving $90 of product that you can choose to customise your kit. (The $169 kit is still available with $235 of value)
Stampin' Up! value every kind of demonstrator, from those who want to discount their hobby to those who want to contribute to the household income.

Being a demonstrator will earn you 20% on your own purchases as well as 20% commission on any other sales you make. All that Stampin' Up! asks is that you put in $400 in orders every quarter.

As well as the obvious financial benefits, you will get the opportunity to earn free stamp sets in your first 6 months in the Stampin' Start programme, earn volume rebates every month, and recruit your own team and receive downline overrides from their sales. See what you can earn with our career plan

But there are other benefits that money can't buy! You'll be joining up with me as part of the Paper Angels team of demonstrators, a team that has had the honour of three demonstrators being awarded the annual Heart of Stampin' Up! in the past 7 years. You can join us in our charity efforts to raise funds for the Mater Mothers Footprints programme and other worthwhile causes, come to our monthly meetings where we mainly talk and craft without any pushy sales talk, attend the annual Inspire, Create, Share convention (to be held on the Gold Coast in 2015), make new friends that share your passion for papercraft and rubberstamping, come to classes and events run by the Paper Angels including the popular Christmas Card Workshops, and more!

You can join here on my web page immediately, or if you'd like to find out some more information then contact me at letscreatebystamping@aapt.net.au.

Come on, what are you waiting for?!

Inspire, Create, Share 2015 will be on the Gold Coast!

Start planning to come to Inspire Create Share 2015 on the Gold Coast from April 30th to May 2nd.
I received:
bag,
souvenir agenda,
Project Life sample,
catalogue,
chiffon scarf (manager's gift),
box of swaps,
MDS sample and new clothes pin accessories,
3 make n takes,
6 stamp sets,
new paper piercing pack,
Undefined refill pack,
new Blendabilities markers,
new Hello Honey 'in colour' ink pad (won).

Think what value you will probably get at next years'! Demonstrator registration is around $450, (you even get to go for free if you reach manager status!) I would love to have my little team there with me so why not start saving now? Flick xxx

PS From May 28th for 4 weeks you can join at the discounted price of $85, receiving $90 of product of your choice, now there's no excuse for not joining me!

Exciting news from convention!

Exciting news! As a Stampin’ Up! convention attendee I have the opportunity to extend a special offer to you, my customer. During convention we learned how to make the gorgeous Tag a Bag project that you see here. Isn’t it amazing? And here’s the best part: from 24–28 May, you can purchase the exclusive Convention Tag a Bag Bundle for 15 percent off! This special offer is only available to convention attendees and their customers.

The bundle includes
Chevron Tag a Bag Gift Bags (item 131370) $6.95 AUD/$8.50 NZD
Gold Fancy Foil Designer Vellum (item 133363) $18.95 AUD/$22.95 NZD
Watercolor Wonder Designer Washi Tape (item 133000) $8.95 AUD/$10.95 NZD
Sassy Salutations Stamp Set (item 132070 W item 126707 C); W $41.95 AUD/ 49.95 NZD; C $33.95 AUD/$40.95 NZD

Wood-Mount Bundle (item 138102): $65.25 AUD/$78.50 NZD
Clear-Mount Bundle (item 138103): $58.48 AUD/$70.85 NZD

This offer lasts for five days only, so don’t delay. Contact me today via email on flickandmick@aapt.net.au to order your special bundle!

Cards for a cure - Ready, Set, Send

This great new kit is available to buy now, what a great way to support the National Breast Cancer Foundation. You can buy it online at my web site or contact me for more details

Paper Angels and angel babies

This week I had the privilege of helping to make another stack of cards ready to go to the hospital for the bereavement programme. This is a special programme close to my heart at the moment because a very good friend of mine recently lost her little baby girl too early. The team of Paper Angels (our Stampin' Up! group of demonstrators) create these cards for the midwives to hand-stamp the angel baby's footprints on as a treasured lasting memory. The name cards are for the ICU or SCU babies that are fighting hard for their lives. All the products used were bought from funds raised at our Christmas Card Workshops held annually in November, where we hold raffles for goodies donated by Stampin' Up! Australia.
If you would like to help make these cards let me know and I can give you an idea of what is involved and when we get together to make them, or if you would like information on joining our Christmas fund-raising events too.

Second Friday Christmas card club in May, mate!

What a great feeling it is to be making my Christmas cards early, and if I could just get someone to write them for me it'll be even better lol! This month I was joined by Anne, Ana, Sharon, Jill, Judi and Mandy and we made 8 cards using the "Happy Christmas, Mate!" retired stamp set. We often use retired stamps at this class because Christmas stamps are such fun to use that we like to collect them. Often they will be sets that I haven't used before but a guest has asked if we can make something using their stamps to give them some fresh inspiration. I'm happy to do this as it means we get to make lots of different cards. I had some inspiration from Kym Smiley and Goin' Over The Edge, thanks guys. Here are the two cards we made

The Surfing Santa is on Bermuda Bay card, with torn pieces of Winter Frost Specialty DSP, Soft Sky card and Whisper White card. The Kangaroo is holding Tempting Turquoise presents, and the card is made from Soft Suede card embossed with the chevrons embossing folder. We punched out 1" circles from Tempting Turquoise card and cut them in half to make the scalloped border.

Another successful party

Last weekend I had the pleasure of some lovely ladies' company over at Cornubia, for Justine's Stampin' Up! party. She was keen to see the Envelope Punch Board in action, and so I demonstrated how simple it is to make an envelope of course, and we looked at how to make a box too. For the make and take we made a cute card with a bow made using the Envelope Punch Board, I think everyone was impressed by this tool's versatility and ingenuity.

Here is the card we made. I used Basic Black and Very Vanilla card to stamp on, and the Modern Medley DSP. Stamps used were from the Chalk Talk set (I love this tag one!), with matching framelits, and the Mixed Bunch set also using the matching Blossom Punch. The highlight ink colour is Rich Razzleberry, and we tied some Rich Razzleberry Stitched Grosgrain ribbon around the bow. I embossed the base with the Honeycomb embossing folder. Hope you like it!
You too can have your very own Stampin' Up! party and earn money to spend in the catalogue, contact me for more details.

Stamp club April 2014

Thanks to my awesome trio of friends who came to Stamp Club in April, we always have fun on the last Saturday of the month creating a project together and then sharing ideas and chatting, laughing, creating. This month our mojo was flowing well, and Justine made a couple of cards inspired by Clare Daly

 Lisa had the most creative juices flowing, and she made lots of cute cards,

 while Sylvia made the project from the previous class that she had not been able to attend, and then offered her help to Justine who was playing with a pennants idea.

Stampin' Up! Photopolymer Stamps...Clearly Awesome!

Here's the latest news from Stampin' Up!

"We've searched long and hard for just the right material to be able to introduce completely clear stamping. And we've found it! We're excited to announce that with the release of the upcoming 2014-2015 Annual Catalogue, we will have wood-mount, clear-mount AND photopolymer stamps. Our top-quality photopolymer stamps stick extremely well on our acrylic blocks, are durable, and the transparent nature of these sets makes it easier to line up your images without the need of a guide. This is a feature that is particularly helpful with alphabets, borders, and backgrounds! Photopolymer is clearly a great choice."

You can order two stamp sets right away from my web site, without waiting for the new catalogue, and if you buy them as a bundle you can get a free tutorial class to help you get started.
Watch this video for a look at Photopolymer stamps...

First Tuesday craft class - April

This class was a couple of weeks ago and I forgot to post the card we made, whoops! We meet every first Tuesday at Pelican's Nautical Treasures cafe, a beautiful place with magnificent bay views, you can contact me if you'd like to come. Its quite a simple design, but I like the way the card closes with a ribbon, using the Scallop tag Topper punch.

I folded the 297mm x 105mm card in half, and then removed a 2" section from the front which was punched at both ends in the scallop tag topper punch.

Then I cut this piece in half and used each section to close the card. Thanks to all my lovely ladies for attending, I hope you enjoyed making this.
Product used: Soho Subway DSP, Pistachio Pudding and Very Vanilla card stock, Creative Elements and Perfect Pennants stamp sets, Crisp Cantaloupe and Pistachio Pudding ink/Stampin' Write markers,

Charity card-making event for Phillipine orphanages

The Paper Angels team of Independent Stampin' Up! demonstrators recently held an all-day charity card making event at Carina Leagues club. We raised money for Quota International and their programme to help the orphanages in the Phillipines. It was a busy day, everyone that came made 20 cards, four each of five designs. Here are three of my favourites:

Products used: Gingham Garden Designer Washi tape; Curly Label, Extra-large oval and Pansy punches; Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight and Midnight Muse inks; Papillon Potpourri, Flower Shop, Perfect Pennants, Blooming with Kindness, Itty Bitty Banners stamp sets.
Some of the ladies from my table won raffle prizes too! Stampin' Up! generously donated a box of products for us to raffle at the event, I am so lucky to work for such a great company!
Here are the lucky winners:

Thanks to everyone for making the day so enjoyable, and thanks to my bestie for helping come and set up my table x

Christmas card club for April

We had a lot of fun this month making our two sets of cards in readiness for Christmas (you can never have enough cards!)
Sylvia and Judi show us the two designs:

The two sets we used were kindly lent by the two lovely ladies in the photo, who wished to use them in a different way; how many times have we made things and then become bored by the stamps and not been able to see beyond the first ideas we had?

Card stock: real red, Old Olive, Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding, Crushed Curry, whisper white
Embossing folders:Needlepoint border, Northern Flurry (retired)
Die: Oval Accent Bigz Clear, Tasteful Trim Bigz XL
Stamp sets: Snow Much Fun (retired),
Inks: Stazon black, Real Red, Old Olive, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, (Stampin' Write Markers) In Colour Stampin' Write Marker collection 2013-15,
Ribbon: Pumpkin Pie Chevron ribbon

Weekly deals from Stampin' Up! for 16th to 22nd April

Here are this week's deals, I will certainly be getting some more glimmer paper as I can't get enough of the stuff!

Easter cards at Moreton Shores RSL retirement village

Last week I had the pleasure of the company of some of the residents at Moreton Shores Returned Services League (RSL) retirement village to make some Easter cards and a chocolate gift pouch. There were a few who came to watch too, and had fun seeing how they were made. They are a group with a wide range of abilities, including mobility and vision issues, and it's always challenging to create a project that they can all make themselves, but this one was a big success. They made the Easter chicks on the cards using punches and the Top Note die, in Daffodil Delight and Tangerine Tango card.

The chocolate pouch uses the scallop tag topper punch and is embossed with the recent Decorative Dots embossing folder that was available during Sale-a-bration. I used the Mosaic punch folded in half to make the beak. The kids at school also made this for easter, and they had a ball!

First Tuesday craft class at Pelicans cafe

 

I had a fun time today at Pelican's Nautical Treasures  making a card using the Perfect Pennants stamp set with these lovely ladies. Its a beautiful place to be creative because its so peaceful and overlooks the marina, not to mention the scrumptious menu! This $5 class is run on the first Tuesday of the month.

I used DSP from the Soho Subway pack, and Early Espresso, Pistachio Pudding and Crisp Cantaloupe inks. I also used the Tag Topper Punch ($39.95) as a device for fastening the card together. You can buy this and any other Stampin' Up! products at my web page

Scallop Tag Topper punch box

At Stamp Club tonight we made these cute boxes using the scallop tag topper punch. I got the idea from Carole Parsons' blog, thanks for the inspiration.

I used the Beautifully Baroque stamp set on Daffodil Delight card, with the butterfly from Papillion Potpourri and also the Beautiful Wings embosslits, and some retired ribbon.The cute Easter chicks were from my fave shop for chocolate, Aldi!

Hope you like it!

Wow, been a long time!

Why hello again!

It's been a long time since I posted on here, and to be honest I was losing myself on Facebook instead! But it's about time I set aside some hours to post my stamping news and ideas etc.
I recently had the privilege of promoting to Manager with Stampin' Up!, and I'm really looking forward to going to the Leadership day at Convention. I'd like to thank my small team of ladies for helping me get there xxx it's always fun catching up with you all and crafting.

I've just finished the last Friday of the month Christmas Card Club with two new girls, Anne and Jill, they had a good time making these two cards with me (we made four of each), so much so that they're coming back next month! Glad you had a good time ladies! The card on the left was CASEd from Angie Leach - Too Cool Stamping, thanks for the inspiration Angie. The other design was also spotted on SplitCoast - what a wonderful resource that is. I've got some more clubbers coming tonight so I'm off to do some more cutting, but I'll be back sooner than last time lol!