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