I Wish Christmas Card Class

Being very close to December and my total number of Christmas cards made so far totals 4, I have decided to make some cards with the "I Wish" Simply Scrappin' kit. The kit contains 12 x 12 textured cardstock, patterned paper and sheets of die cut stickers. Tons in there. Last year at Regionals we were shown that with just 1/2 a pack you can make tons of Christmas cards and it's a great class to run - lots of fun and everyone makes 20 cards. Right thought I, I'll do that! And I am - only it's 12 months later lol! You will make 20 cards for $25 and still end up with quite a bit of product left over as I am supplying the base cards extra to the kit (and yes of course Chocolate Chip is being used!) so the class cost really is materials only - add in a scrummy supper and it's a bargain! It will be held on Friday 4th December at 7.30pm at my place - email me for further details. If you would like to attend you will need to let me know by Friday 27th Nov so that I can preorder the kits.

Shown above is the half kit and 7 of the 20 cards that you will make.

Hi

I had a fantastic weekend starting with my wonderful Stamp Club ladies on the Friday night - I always look forward to seeing them. These are the cards we made above.

The tree card has a layer of vellum stamped with snowflakes (the smallest stamp in the Snow Swirled set) using white stazon - this is in the current spring mini which finishes on 30th November and also the Noel greeting from the Many Merry Messages set. I had grand plans to make this card lat year but never got around to it. It is the simplest of cards to make as it is using the Whisper White note cards which come in a pack of 20 precut and scored cards with matching envelopes! To tell the truth, I was actually running quite late in getting organised that night and a few hours before the ladies were due to arrive I was still to even think up the 2nd card yet alone prep for it, so I almost feel like I cheated but they really loved it - especially the simplicity of it.



Then on the weekend I had a great time helping out my good friend Naomi running her new fabulous Paperific business. I was on the door on Saturday and then the registers on Sunday. It was lovely meeting and greeting everyone as they came through but I have been told that next year I am not on the door at all as there is too much opportunity for me to wander off - being locked inside the "office" running the registers is the safest place for me lol! I was let off to get a bit of shopping done and can't wait to have a play with my new toys. I also finished a piece of jewellery off which I had actually bought the products to make it with at Paperific about 3 years ago! I had a refresher demo on what to do, went home and made it and wore it back to the show the following day to show the vendors who were very impressed I might add lol!

Free punch with purchase!

Hi,

From now until 15th December, order any products totalling $85 from the Christmas Extravaganza brochure, which can be viewed on my Stampin' Up website and receive a free punch! Either the Scallop Square or the Boho Blossoms, both are worth $30.95. The gift giving guide contains some great products that you may have been planning to use for your Christmas cards anyway - I ordered the I Wish Simply Scrapping kit, some Kiwi Kiss cardstock, some Whisper White cardstock, some Old Olive grosgrain ribbon and there you go - free punch! So please go and visit my site and see if there are any goodies on the flyer that you might need/want/like!

Happy Halloween!

Saw this costume last night and couldn't resist! Can't say the lycra is very flattering on those puggy rolls lol! Siobhan is going out trick or treating later today with her friend and I am going to go along and bring Buffy too - good luck girls in beating her to the treats lol!

Hopefully I will have a couple of cards to post later. Have been laid up with a flu bug for the past week and still not feeling 100%. I thought it was just a little cough and cold but no, can't believe it's hung around so long but I've heard of a few people having a similar thing.

Regionals!

Wow! 4 posts in one day. I am on a roll lol! This will be the last one for today. Have had a very full on week with stamp clubs, the fundraiser and then yesterday we had our annual Regional Training day for Stampin' Up! or Regionals as we call it. I had to get up at 6am!!!! I never get up at 6am! It was held at the Crown Promenade hotel which is one of the places in the city that I actually do know how to get to! Registration started at 8am with the session starting at 9am and everyone knows you have to get their early to get a good table lol! This year it was just as well as there were so many demonstrators there, it was a great turn out. I still remember the very first one we had in October 2006 when there were about 20 of us! It's always nice to see "the originals" again each year too. This year I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to make any swaps but I ended up making 21 and then another 15 for the girls in my team. I used the set Sip by Sip and the ones for my team had a chocolate on them. I forgot to photograph them but will make a couple more as I owe a few people one and I also like to have copies for my own samples. Can you guess what was the predominant colour??? That's right, Chocolate Chip! I even pulled myself right out of my comfort zone and used Designer Series Paper on them as well. I swapped my cards very quickly and received some beautiful ones in return.






You can actually see mine here on the display board, the one with the cups on it - I made one for SU to keep.

We received a new stamp set and matching wheel (including the handle and ink cartridge) that have not been released yet - they will be in our next mini catalogue and made 4 projects using that set. I am always amazed at the ideas SU come up with, I probably would have overlooked the set but now love it! We have also got some exciting new business tools that will be implemented - can't wait for those! I was overjoyed to see Bonnie Thurber again who had travelled out from the home office in Utah. Unfortunately Bonnie's luggage got delayed :-( Due to this, she was not able to demonstrate her planned projects but did an amazing job of improvising with items she had found in her hotel room - yes, you heard me right! She is such a warm and funny person - her business talks are the best with really useful and sound advice. As well as working for Stampin' Up! she is also a demonstrator herself so has "been there" so to speak and knows the challenges we sometimes face. I met Bonnie at the very first opportunity day in Melbourne on 8th April 2006 (of course I remember the date!) when Stampin' Up! first came to Australia. It was quite surreal as there weren't very many of us there and Shelli Gardner and her husband Sterling were there along with the late Dave Abbott our 1st General Manager, Bonnie and 1 other presenter - I can't really remember who as I was too starstruck at Shelli being there lol! I chatted quite a bit with Bonnie on the day (they were all so open!) and her and Dave sat at our table to do the make and takes. Bonnie also attended the first convention we had in Sydney a year later and after one of her business classes I stayed behind to ask a few questions with some concerns that I had and she gave me some wonderful advice that helped me so much and I definately would not be where I am today with my wonderful growing team of Gail Force Stampers if it were not for her! Yesterday I was so happy to be able to tell her this in person :-)

Out of my comfort zone!

My friend and downline, Felicity, makes the most gorgeous 3D items - boxes, bags, interactive albums etc. I, however, do not lol! At our WCMD event Flick had set up a table with some of her 3D items on display and a few of my stamp club ladies who happened to be there noticed the stepper (or fantasy keepsake box as it's also known) box and asked if I could show them how to make one - eeeeek!!!! Felicity showed a few of our team how to make them a month or so ago but I decided to bring along some cards to finish off instead so now of course I was wishing I had joined in the class! Anyway, I had a play and I just could not believe how easy it was! So the Stamp Club ladies made them and were very happy with the results! They will be great for putting chocolates or small presents etc in as little gifts for Christmas. Siobhan has discovered that each box is the right size to hold a Littlest Pet Shop toy and was amusing herself by having her dragonfly LPS's flying up to "their bedrooms" where the mummy dragonfly LPS tucked them in and kissed them goodnight! So sweet :-)

and another fundraiser!

On Wednesday night myself and Chris (against her better judgement!) ran a fund raising cardmaking night for one of my daughter's friends who has type 1 juvenile diabetes. There were 24 ladies, most of whom had NEVER seen stamping before! I certainly created some glitter addicts that night! Everything was covered in glitter by the end. We made 8 cards and only 1 of them was actually 'supposed' to have glitter on it *g* It was a fun night, a bit crazy but a lot of fun :-) and we helped to raise lots of money :-) Myself and Chris each designed 4 cards and the ladies made them all in turn. Here are mine. You can click on the image to make it bigger to see the cards in better detail. I just did this and realised the cupcake one needs to go in a new cello bag - this one (being from my craft show display board) is looking a tad grubby!





Featuring Snow Swirled, Tree Trimmings and Crazy for Cupcakes. There was a 4th card featuring the Great Friend set but that seems to have gone missing...or I could have sent it someone!