Hi everyone. It's great to be back on the 'puter and blogging again. I've been stuck in my own little time warp after being knocked for a six with a v-e-r-y nasty chest infection. I actually spent 2 days in bed! But on the mend now and itching to get all inky again.

I've got heaps of great projects to share in the coming days and weeks, but thought for now I'd quickly show you this card I made for my brother-in-law's birthday, yes a big Doctor Who fan. I actually went googling for ideas and low-and-behold stumbled upon this card that the amazingly talented Valita designed. Valita recently joined up as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator under one of the girls in my group, so I'm very proud to say she is in my team now! It really is a small world, isn't it?

I'm having a bit of trouble getting used to Matt Smith as the new Doctor. What do you think? Time will tell, I guess

Happy stamping,

Wow! I'm totally blown away with the lovely emails and messages I received after my last post. Thank you so much for the love and support and most of all friendship.

I think I'm more shocked than anybody that I've actually earned the Stampin' Up! Incentive Trip! If you're not sure what this is all about, this is how Stampin' Up! explains it…

Every year, Stampin' Up! rewards the achievements of qualifying demonstrators with an amazing trip to an extraordinary locale where attendees participate in fun activities, relax in luxury, and – of course – stamp!

When I joined as a demonstrator just on 2 1/2 years ago I really only planned to buy at a discount and make cards as a hobby. I had heard about the Incentive Trip and was in awe of the achievers when I attended my first Convention in Brisbane in 2008. It seemed a world away from where I was.

Well, fast forward 2 years and here I am, still pinching myself. It just goes to show that ANYone can do this!

I can only say how incredibly blessed and grateful I am to have an AMAZING team who are now very special friends, some of the most wonderful and creative customers (aka stamping friends) and an incredibly supportive family. And, I'm so grateful to be working for (can I really call it 'work'?) a company that is so generous.

*big hugs*

On to today's project… I'm excited to share this box set of cards made using the 2U Card Elements & More set (p142 IB&C) which I was recently given as a gift.

I loved working with this kit. Everything is included to make the sample project (the carousel card at the top of this post) but you can still change things around to make unique projects by adding some extra cardstock for example. Isn't it great how everything co-ordinates? I used some extra Ruby Red cardstock and DSP to make the box to hold the cards, and textured Chocolate Chip and Tempting Turquoise cardstock for the square card below.

Don't forget we only have just over a week left of Sale-a-bration. We're in the final days of Stampin' Up!'s big FREE STAMPS giveaway, but it's not too late to claim your free set (or get another one!). And if you've been thinking about joining up, I'd love to have a chat  with you about how it can fit in with your life. Until the end of March, you can choose an extra stamp set (to $79.95 value) with the already great value starter kit!

Happy stamping,

Today I'm doing the big Happy Dance!

After three long years and some blood, sweat and tears I have
FINALLY….

can you guess, can you guess????

FINALLY….

to keep you in suspense just a minute more, here's an original card I made to celebrate

LOL!

I've FINALLY….

finished my first proper quilt!

Ok so maybe that bit of news wasn't very exciting, but it is to me *LOL* and I just had to share it!

I enrolled in a patchwork and quilting course a few months after we left Melbourne and moved to regional Victoria, mainly so I could get out of the house and do something different (I was pregnant at the time). I learnt how to hand-piece a sampler quilt, and this week I finally finished hand-quilting it! No work of art, that's for sure, but you've got to start somewhere!

Our group of Creswick Quilters are holding our first ever Quilt Show this weekend in the Bill Huntley room at John Curtin Aged Care, Creswick. It's for a great cause, as all proceeds go to the hospital. I'll be there on Saturday if you want to drop by and have a giggle at us. Phew, soooo glad I finished mine in time!

Now let me see, there was some more news…. now what was it?

oh THAT's right….

did I mention that I earned the Stampin' Up! Incentive Trip to Hamilton Island this week?

*giggle*

Thank you Stampin' Up!

I'll have a lot more to say on that on Sunday after the quilt show is over

Here is our beautifully decorated stand at Paperific (lets call this the 'before' photo), where a group of us worked together over the weekend to share the love of Stampin' Up! We met some wonderful people who love this amazing hobby as much as we do, and some who are discovering it for the first time…. yes, we heard lots of 'ooohs' and 'ahhhhs'.

If you are visiting this site after meeting us at Paperific… welcome, and thanks for dropping by! And if you were one of the unlucky ones who were in the building when the freaky storm hit on Saturday, my commiserations! At about 3.30pm the heavens opened with the worst hailstorm in 40 years here in Melbourne, Victoria. Yes, it really was hailing INSIDE the exhibition building at the Melbourne Showgrounds, Flemington.

Hailing inside. Photos courtesy of Juliana Main

Before long, the evac siren was sounding, the main lights went out and water was coming inside from all directions!

Raining inside. Photos courtesy of Juliana Main.

Hailstones at the door

Melbourne was hit badly, with many of us finding dented cars and worse! But, you know what? It was great to see so many acts of kindness and generosity during the whole episode, with strangers looking out for each other.

Even though our papers were dampened, our spirits certainly were not! We even had a few good laughs as we watched someone completing their Make & Takes on another stand before they were ready to evacuate! Papercrafters sure are a hardy bunch. LOL

Here is the simple little Make & Take that I did before all the dramas started. This card demonstrates our beautifully coordinating stamps and punches, and uses the I {Heart} Hearts stamp set from the Summer Mini catalogue and the Heart to Heart punch. The sentiment is the Sale-a-bration set Whimsical Words. Participants also stamped the matching envelope.

On display was another way to use the same punch (CASE source: the very talented  Ilina Crouse).

This card above was also one of our stamp club projects last month, just in time for Valentines Day.

The Summer mini catalogue is in its final weeks – with items available until the 31st of March. Let me know if you'd like the I {Heart} Hearts stamp set or any other item before it's too late! Don't forget, purchases before the end of March help you qualify for FREE STAMPS with Sale-a-bration!

Happy stamping,

Over the past month or so I’ve been playing around with a new resource that Stampin’ Up! gave demonstrators access to. It’s a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator business website, which we call DBWS.

You can visit mine by clicking on the image below. I will also have a link down the sidebar of my blog page, so you can visit it whenever you come here to my blog.

I will continue to update my blog frequently. Have you noticed I’ve been posting a lot more often lately? This blog is where I can get ’chatty’ about the projects I’ve been working on and provide links and other resources that you might find handy. I hope you’ll continue to come here regularly.

The DBWS will offer more services which you might need from time to time, and will also provide a good overview for those who are new to stamping and Stampin’ Up!.

It will also feature:

- An online Demonstrator Application Form!
You can join up as a demonstrator in my team simply by quoting my Recruiter Authorisation Password, which is eurekastamper, and filling in the form.

- An updated EVENTS calendar
Now you’ll be able to see all my class details, workshop availabilities, and confirm start times and venue, etc.

- More Inspiration
Stampin’ Up! provides projects in full colour with complete recipes. Check back often to see the latest. 

- And more!

Check it out by clicking here.

I’ve got an exciting weekend planned, with two Stamp Clubs meeting and a fully booked CardKeeper Class on Sunday afternoon. Before I go to continue prep’ing I’d love to share this gorgeous photo of my youngest daughter who turned THREE yesterday! (I’m really starting to feel old now that my ‘baby’ is no longer a baby). She’s sitting on her new bike that Nanny and Pa gave her.

That’s all from me today. Happy Stamping,

G’day! So great to be back home in Oz, although our trip to the UK was fantastic and we were sad to say goodbye to our family and friends there. There’s nothing quite like your own bed though. KWIM? DD2 and DD6 decided they liked being on Greenwich Mean Time and wanted to stay on it… so that meant sleeping half the day away and wanting to party all night! *sigh* Don’t you love jetlag?

Thankfully we’re over all that now, and have settled back to our normal routines at kinder-creche, school, sports, work.. and stamping!

I’ve had about 5 workshops, classes and events since we’ve been home so although it’s been very busy it has also been wonderful to catch up with my lovely stamping friends/customers. Thanks for being such an fun, bright part of my life! xx

Stay tuned for our regular blogging posts, updates on Stampin’ Up! specials, coming classes and stamping tips and techniques.

The project today shows what you can do with a bit of recycling in the craft room

What better excuse to use up those gorgeous Pretties Kit embellishments… afterall, you need the tin to decorate! LOL

Supplies Used: Sweet Sticky Cuts (p145 IB&C), Fine Supernova Glitter (p145), Pretties Kit tin (p149), Bashful Blue grosgrain ribbon (p151), Chocolate Chip wide grosgrain ribbon (p151), clear button (p151), Holiday Treasures DSP (p134).

Don’t forget to click on the "October Specials" tab at the top of this page to learn how you can choose a fab stamp at 20% off the regular price.

Happy stamping,

Hello from Wales! Just thought I’d drop in and say hello, and share a couple of projects.

Our Secret Sister program is coming to an end, so all participants are now learning the identity of their mystery pen-pals. I have been sending to Lisa, a lovely demo in NSW. The projects above were part of last month’s goodie bag I made for Lisa, and include the watercolour roses that Patty Bennet shared on her blog.  Hmm, I think this might be a fun project for this month’s Stamp Club technique.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this colour combo of Elegant Eggplant, Almost Amethyst and just a touch of Mellow Moss. One of my team members suggested this combo recently (thanks Maureen!) and I’ve been hooked ever since.

I’ve enjoyed sending Lisa cards and goodies over the past 3 months, and now I’m looking forward to finding out who has been sending to me so I can thank her properly!

We are having a lovely time visiting family and friends here in the UK and doing a touch of sightseeing.

We’ve spent most of our time in the Rhondda Valley in south Wales, going for lovely walks and enjoying the amazing views.

We also ducked over to England a couple of times and were lucky enough to stay with friends in the stunning Cotswolds region (with a trip to Oxford), and also returned to the beautiful fenlands of Suffolk and Norfolk in the east – DH and I haven’t been there in over a decade. A highlight was introducing our children to their cousins for the first time.

Today we had lots of fun at Legoland before returning once again to Wales.

 It looks like my scheduled posts haven’t been working, so I’ll try to fix that up.

Don’t forgot the free ribbon promotion ends on 30th September. There’s still time to get your last minute orders in by emailing me. Your goodies will be sent from the warehouse straight to your door. Also, stay tuned for a great October promotion which I’ll be announcing shortly.

Bye for now,

Well, it’s taken a few days to update the blog after the HUGE weekend!! An amazing day with my team on Saturday, a workshop with Carly and friends (‘wave’ to the girls) on Sunday followed by a work reunion. Monday gave me the chance to catch up with family in Melbourne. It was a rare opportunity to be in the big smoke on my own so I really made the most of it!

As promised, I’m here to share some of the fun we had on Saturday. What an amazing group of talented, creative, caring, funny and friendly demonstrators I have the privilege of knowing in my downline group of EurekaStampers.

Thanks to Louise our budding photographer for taking this photo!
Back row: Ali, Anna, Jodie, Lorinda, Deb, Kathy, Simone, Maureen, Tracy, Maree – we can just see her hiding there, Kerri
Front row: Alicia, Wendy, Elissa, Juliana)

We exchanged our swaps first. Some fantastic new ideas and inspiration here….

After a chat and cuppa the very talented Maree from Clunes shared her amazing faux-button technique. Yes, she taught us how to make our own buttons using all Stampin’ Up! products which then make beautiful co-ordinated embellishments for our projects! WOW!

We also saw some great cards for blokes.

Maree provided us with everything needed to make a clever bulldog clip photo stand! This is one of her finished products.

We had a yummy shared lunch (complete with stamped serviettes, much to Juliana‘s amusement), and then Tracy Penn from Berwick showed us some very effective brayer techniques.

She created a demo piece, and I had to laugh because it was the rooster stamp that I’ve been struggling to love. Well, the sample piece really caught my eye so I had to take it home. Stay tuned for a future blog post about this!

Maureen Crameri from Camperdown demonstrated a great mini album showcasing the ultrafine SuperNova glitter and heat & stick powder. And we all got to make one! Stunning.

Juliana Main (from Vic/NSW border) shared her WOW technique: Pulling Pastels. And it definitely was a WOW! She also gave us some scrapbooking tips to help us cardmakers   It’s true! If you can make a card you really can make a scrap page.

We also had a Tool Table set up. We played with all the tools in the catalogue, including the spritzer (to make a beachy bookmark), wheel guide (mitred corners), cropadile, etc, etc. Another make-&-take was a card from the Simply Sent Card Elements kit.

Finally there was the Punch Deck to make. Who doesn’t Luuuuuurve punches!

Pheww!! What a great day! Do you want to join us next time?

If you’ve been thinking about joining our fab group of papercrafters as a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, ask for an obligation-free info pack.  We can get together and have a chat about how it all works.

Oh, just a quick reminder that our All Occassions Stamp-A-Stack is on this Friday July 31st. I can fit in just one more stamper! Email me to snap up the last spot.  

Happy stamping,

The Melbourne Stitches & Craft Show is on again! The show runs until this Sunday 15th of March from its new home at the Melbourne Showgrounds.

Our group of Stampin’ Up! demonstrators will once again have a stand, so make sure you stop by and say hello. I’ll be there (on and off) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

If you were a visitor to the Stitches & Craft Show, and this is your first visit to my blog then WELCOME! I hope you enjoyed your day at the show and learning about Stampin’ Up!, perhaps for the first time. Don’t forget to click on the tabs at the top of this post to discover more about classes and workshops, current specials, and how to get a discount on all your craft supplies. 

Bookmark this site and check back often as I keep you up to date on the latest news & specials from Stampin’ Up!, as well as share projects and ideas to keep those creative juices flowing.

Today’s shared project at the top of this post is a stunning card that a fellow team member and very creative lady sent me – Maureen Crameri (Camperdown). I love the unique fold on this card… hmmm I think this will have to be one of our stamp club projects in coming months.  This piccy might give you a better idea of how it opens…

How cute is that!!! Thanks Maureen for letting me share this on my blog.

We have a fantastic group of talented demonstrators from all over the state (and beyond!) covering Bendigo, Ballarat, Melbourne, Creswick, Daylesford, Kyneton, Deniliquin, Barham, Kerang, Colac, Berwick,  Camperdown, Maryborough… you name it!  Reminds me of the song "I’ve been everywhere man". LOL. If you are looking to make contact with a local demonstrator, or want to find out a little more about Stampin’ Up! just contact me.

Happy stamping!