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Just wanted to share a quick and easy craft project that my girls have been enjoying during the summer holidays (especially Miss 4, our model for today's photos!). With two weeks left to go of the holidays some of us may be looking for activities to keep the kids occupied for a bit.

We picked up a couple of packs of foam from Kmart – I can't remember how much they cost but I know it was cheap ($1 maybe?).

They are the perfect size to fit through the Big Shot and come in a great range of bright colours.

The girls chose the Blossom Party die to make their cut outs (this Sizzix die is exclusive to Stampin' Up!), and made their sandwich stack to run through the Big Shot.

Not hard at all. In fact, this is fun!

They happily spent an afternoon cutting their own foam shapes and popping them out.

Then it was all 'action stations' as they used the shapes for various craft projects that are now decorating our (entire!) home.

(Slightly off-topic here- although I suppose you could liken it to a resist technique – but you might notice the love heart on Miss 4's hand…

True story, she had a Dora the Explorer temporary tattoo on her hand when we went to the beach and the skin around it tanned beautifully even though we Slip/Slop/Slap'd all the time. This is what's left now that the tattoo has gone! Oh dear – LOL.)

If you've got any other crafty activities to share with the kids, let me know in the comments section below.

Happy stamping,

"When we see with our hearts…" card

Supplies used: Every Moment set, Old Olive cardstock & ink, Very Vanilla cardstock, Soft Suede cardstock & ink, Watercolour Paper, Daffodil Delight ink, StazOn, Pearl basic jewels, clips assortment, colour spritzer tool, Scallop Edge border punch, Old Olive 1/8" taffeta ribbon, Daffodil Delight 3/8" taffeta ribbon.

This was one of the four projects we created at our Regional training day a couple of months ago. It uses the masking technique to create the look of a group of flowers together using just a single stamp plus those wonder-of-wonders… the Post-It Note!!

Masking is one of the techniques that hostesses often request for their workshops. If you're interested in getting together to learn this technique, drop me a line. I'd love to share it with you!

Masking is a useful and effective technique that you can apply to your scrapbooking, cardmaking or other stamping projects.

*Don't forget that Sale-a-bration is just around the corner – this is one of the most exciting times to host a workshop because you can claim free stamps with a qualifying purchase of regular products. There are still weekend bookings available for Feb & March workshops, but you'll want to get in quick!

Happy stamping, 

We've all been watching the devastation of the Queensland floods over the past week – so much heartache and loss. So it was almost surreal to learn on Thursday that my own hometown in central Victoria was on flood alert – again. Regular blog readers may remember that the main street was flooded in September 2010, which at the time we thought was a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Not so.

The creek rose higher and higher and eventually burst its banks on Friday morning, inundating many homes and businesses. A couple of hours after the peak, I took this photo of the playground at the end of my street.

You can just see the top of the green slide poking out of the water.

And there have been scenes like this in so many other areas!

Unfortunately we had to cancel the team stamping day that I was talking about with much anticipation in my last post. The flood waters have now receded here (although our stamping venue is still being used as the Relief Centre!) but many others from our group were – and still are – affected. I heard amazing stories of people from other towns who'd been cut off from road access and were locked into their properties until the water receded, and others who had friends and family members with homes on flood alert.

When I spoke to one of the girls from Maryborough (hi Jenny!) she was actually working at the Relief Centre registering the hundreds of displaced people from nearby towns. There are so many people wanting to help, and it's heartwarming to see the Aussie spirit alive and well in communities all around the country – from Brisbane to the smallest communities in flood-ravaged Victoria.

Stampin' Up! also wants to help, and recently informed demonstrators that they will donate $2 from every stamp set sold until Feb 15th to the SES and flood relief.

Happy stamping,

Oh my goodness, we're nearly halfway through the first month of 2011! How amazing is that Hope you are having a very Happy New Year so far!

We just returned from a fabulous week camping at the beach. So much fun, and a wonderful break. In between unpacking and catching up on the washing I'm preparing for a very exciting event. This Sunday is our biannual EurekaStampers team day, where all the demonstrators in the group are invited to my hometown in rural Victoria for a day of stamping, 'wow' presentations, yummy food and friendship. But just to prove I haven't forgotten about my poor neglected blog or my wonderful readers, today I'm sharing some cute calendar projects – perfect for the start of a new year.

This Square Scallop easel calendar was given to me by my friend Juliana – it's a clever twist on the easel card technique and I just love it. 

You can buy ready-made mini calendars but they're also pretty easy to make if you want to save yourself some $$$. All you need is access to any word processing software… most of them have calendar templates that you can adjust the size and print out yourself. If you get stuck, send me an email and I can point you in the right direction.

And here is a 2-year diary that I've decorated, again after being inspired by a 2009-2010 one that Juliana gave me as a gift a couple of year's ago.

I searched everywhere for 2011-2012 diaries and finally found them at Chickenfeed at Wendouree, but I think you can probably get them at the Reject Shop or The $2 Shop… somewhere like that.

This is what they looked like uncovered.

Actually this was an ok looking one, but some of them were pretty darn ugly!! LOL. I bought a heap of them and didn't at all mind if it had a not-very-attractive design on the front because that's where our gorgeous stamps, cardstock and inks come in! I cut a piece of cardstock to size and embellished it, then adhered it to the cover of the diary before returning it into the plastic jacket. They can be personalised with initials (I made these for my Stamp Club girls as Christmas presents last month) and just make a handy item to tuck into your handbag.

Alrighty, enough chattin'. I better get back to work!

Happy stamping,