Hello again and happy new year to my visitors! It’s great to be back and crafting again after a wonderful but hectic Christmas and New Year time.

We had a great Christmas. Hope you enjoyed yours! The kids were so excited to open their presents – hearing their squeals of delight was priceless (although 5.50am might have been a *little* early for squeals).

We went to Mum and Dad’s on Christmas morning, and spent the day there with family. Mum put on an amazing feast for us all – she’s truly amazing. Highlights for me were watching the kids opening their family presents outside in the beautiful sunshine, spending time with my sister and her gorgeous boys, and the walk we all went on after lunch.

Our stamp club for January was held on Friday. It was so lovely to see all the ladies again and to spend a bit of time stamping together. We did the Emerging Colour technique (above), using inks, the All In The Stars stamp set, clear embossing powder and the brayer. To finish up they all stamped a 2009 calendar bookmark.

Now a new month and a new Year brings lots of new treats from Stampin’ Up!

January marks the start of one of the highlights on the Stampin’ Up! calendar: Sale-a-bration.  Yes, free stamps! It’s the perfect time to book that workshop you’ve been planning to have 😉 

Do you have a copy of the Sale-a-bration brochure? Shoot me an email and I’ll get one in the post to you.

Happy stamping,

Here are some more projects using beautiful new stamps and Designer Series Paper from the Summer Mini Catalogue. Above is Ginger Blossom DSP and the lovely Embrace Life stamp set (p19).  We made these popular little “Bags in a Box” at Stamp Club this month.

 The card above is my submission for this month’s EurekaStampers challenge. Juliana challenged us to make a project with a stamp set and coordinating Designer Series Paper from the Summer Mini Catalogue. My version uses Eastern Blooms stamp set with Regal Rose and Choc Chip ink, and the Bali Breeze paper. The card base is Old Olive.

This final card was another of our December Stamp Club projects. The ladies loved Stampin’ Up!’s beautiful watercolour paper – it’s divine to work with, and almost impossibe to make a ‘mistake’. But hey, as I always say there’s no such thing as a mistake, only an opportunity for embellishment.

The card features the For Father stamp set, coloured with markers and a blender pen. Colours include Bordering Blue, Rose Red, More Mustard, Close to Cocoa, Choc Chip and a couple of shades of gray!

Till next time,

Two lots of super-duper exciting news to share with you today.

Stampin’ Up! has just announced some great discounts on a stack of goodies to help you prepare for Christmas. Half the fun in gift giving is preparing the cute packaging, so check out the 20% discount on festive stamps and accessories! I’ll be back with more on this later, but for now you can check out my Specials page for all the details.

December also marks the release of a brand new Summer Mini Catalogue. The  gorgeous new stamp sets and accessories are available from now until the end of March. There are so many stamp sets I love in here… like Eastern Blooms and Embrace Life. Oh and I love love love watercoloring with the For Father set – perfect for the men! 

Request a copy of the new Summer Mini Catalogue, and I’ll pop one in the post for you. If you are a past customer, chances are there’s a copy waiting for you in your letterbox 🙂

All the stamp sets are die-cut to make it even easier to start creating. This means you don’t have to trim away the excess rubber, but you still get the opportunity to position it exactly where you want on the wooden block. 

I just adore the new Designer Series papers. And of course, like all of Stampin’ Up!’s products, they co-ordinate with the existing colours.

To help you plan for your projects, here are the matching colours for each of the new packs of 12×12 double-sided papers.

I’ve been busy making projects with some of these new toys and will share them in future posts. Hope you enjoy the inspiration, and don’t forget to say “Hi” by leaving a comment at the end of the post.

This card uses quite a few new toys: Say It With Scallops stamp set, square scallop punch, All Scallops stamp set (which co-ordinates with the much-anticipated scallop edge punch!), and Afternoon Tea designer series paper. Also: Wasabi & Sahara Sand cardstock, double-stitched Wasabi ribbon, and clear embossing powder/versamark for the butterflies which are from the Live Your Dream stamp set.

Happy crafting!

BREAKING NEWS! For the first time ever in Australia you will be able to order the fabulous Stampin’ Write markers individually, and for the fantastic price of only $4.95*. Available from 10th – 30th November.

The dual-tip markers have a brush tip at one end, perfect for colouring your image or applying ink directly to your stamp, and a fine tip at the other end for journaling. And because the markers are available in Stampin’ Up!’s exclusive colours you’ll be able to match them perfectly to your cardstock, ribbons, brads and buttons.

This is perfect if you’ve been eyeing off the markers but only want select colours, or if (like me) you need to replace a couple of your most-loved markers! LOL.

For the full list of available markers click here.

images © 1990-2008 Stampin’ Up!®

One of the best things about markers is that you can colour a stamp with different coloured inks for a complete look, as in this Christmas card. It uses the Season of Joy stamp set and Holiday Harmony Designer Series paper, both of which are only available until the end of November when we say good bye to the Spring Mini catalogue and heeeeeello to the Summer Mini!

Stamps: Season of Joy
Inks & Cardstock: Bravo Burgundy, Always Artichoke
Other: Burgundy narrow grosgrain ribbon, Holiday Harmony DS paper

My postie delivered this beautiful card yesterday from the lovely Wendy, one of the EurekaStampers. Thanks so much Wendy! I love it.

Hey love that En Francais background stamp too 😉

I’ve had Justine Clarke’s song in my head all day after my 5yo DD called me in to watch it on Nick Jnr this morning:

                                        ®Justine Clarke – It’s My Birthday Today, from “I Like to Sing” (2005)

And it really is my birthday too! I got some lovely cards in the post today… aren’t they gorgeous?

Thanks to Janine, Jen, Keah and Juliana for your beautiful cards and to everyone else who sent me good wishes today.

And check out this *very* cute little fella. This is an elf that my newest team member Alicia whipped up today off the top of her head. Isn’t it amazing what you can do with a few punches and some imagination! Thanks Alicia for letting me post it here on the blog. (He’s not quite finished – yep, there’s no mouth or nose yet, but he’s sooooo cute isn’t he!?)

Punches used: 5 Petal flower punch, circle punches, Three For You punch (from Punch Box).

Have a great day!