"It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…." in my craft room, that is! Christmas is still a loooooong way away (thank goodness) but it’s never too early to make a start on this year’s Christmas cards.

I’m holding a class this Sunday on just that very topic, so I’m feeling kinda festive at the moment 🙂 It’s a Stamp-a-Stack event so everyone will go home with plenty of cards and inspiration. And a few little surprises!

Here are some of the projects my special guests will be making…

The blue cards feature the Snow Swirled stamp set, and even though it doesn’t show up in these pics there is sparkling Dazzing Diamonds on the tips and centres of the snowflakes.

These cards below feature the very funny Holiday Lineup stamp set and not-so-common Christmas colours. Fun cards.

And a close up of these funny fella elves…

This class has been booked out for the past month BUT due to an unexpected cancellation there is a spot (possibly two) available. Contact me ASAP if you are interested. More details here.

Check back tomorrow for more samples!

Happy stamping,

How sweet is this?! I got a lovely surprise in my letterbox from my Secret Sister! I don’t know who she is but I know she is a very talented papercrafter and she has great taste in Designer Series Paper (I LOVE the Bella Rose papers).

Secret Sister is an initiative of one of the demonstrator forums I’m on (ESAD-SU), where we are each allocated a different ‘sister’ to send little cards and surprises to – it’s a bit of fun, and who doesn’t love to get happy mail?

Lots of reasons to be happy this week. My mum came out of hospital after a number of operations, and she’s doing really well. Speedy recovery Mum!!

School holidays started in Victoria this week, so good luck to all the mums and grandmums reading this blog 😉 

Happy stamping,

A friend asked me to make some baby cards, so I had lots of fun with one of the cutest sets of all time (in my humble opinion!): Wild About You.

Recognise the lion’s mane? Yep, it’s one of the felt flowers from Flower Fusion Too (p144 IBC).

On Saturday I’ll be at Paperific with some other Stampin’ Up! demonstrators doing what we love to do… making cards and talking about stamping! There’ll be Make & Takes all day long, as well as demonstrations. Make sure you come and say hi!

If you’re visiting this blog after meeting me at the show then Welcome! Thanks for dropping by. If you’d like more info about anything we chatted about at Paperific, or just to say hi, then drop me an line and I’ll get back to you in a jiffy.

Happy Stamping,

Today I’m sharing some cards made with the Faux Silk technique, which was our focus this month at Stamp Club. Faux Silk is a deceptively simple technique that uses very few extra supplies: tissue paper and a glue stick is all you need. I LOVE the effect!!!

Here is a brief How To:

1. Stamp your image in StazOn Black ink onto tissue paper. Water colour as usual.
The cards above feature the Level 2 Hostess Set Echoes Of Kindness, watercoloured with Kiwi Kiss, Pale Plum and Perfect Plum inks using a blender pen.

2. Scrunch the tissue paper! Yep, screw it up into a ball (very therapeutic!)

3. Gently open the tissue paper to flatten it. There will be creases all over the tissue paper.

4. Cover a piece of cardstock using the Stampin’ Up! glue stick (it has square edges which makes it very easy to reach right into the corners).
The cards above use Whisper White as the base cardstock.

5. Stick the tissue paper to the cardstock. Trim and layer to your card front.

If you’re keen to get the Echoes of Kindness stamp set, don’t forget the fantastic Hostess Promotion for June and July. With qualifying workshop orders of $600 or more you could earn yourself this set for FREE plus at least $110 worth of Stampin’ Up! products of your choice (it’s usually $70 but for now you can grab an extra $40!). 

Contact me to organise a workshop, OR if that’s not your style why not host a catalogue party? Your own purchases plus orders you collect from your stamping buddies combine, and you keep the hostess benefits! Very easy.

Happy stampin’ (and faux silk-ing),

These cards feature the yummy Sweet Always DSP (designer series paper).

This is an easy cardmaking technique as it uses up strips of paper, and is very quick and simple. The DSP coordinates perfectly with Choc Chip. Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie and Pink Pirouette.

Organic Grace is a beautiful set that is available exclusively to hostesses (it’s a Level 1 hostess set). It’s been really popular too! This week I had a play with it, and discovered that you can make a great variety of cards.

The Get Well card has been created in natural colours from the Earth Elements family: Old Olive, More Mustard and Ruby Red. The sentiment is from Thoughts & Prayers stamp set, which was sponged around the edge then punched out with the new wide oval punch.

Two scallop circles punched from Ruby Red cardstock were joined to create a mat for the Get Well Soon sentiment.

Little Miss 5yo picked the colours for this Hello card – doesn’t it change the whole look of the card! I love this combo of Tempting Turquoise (which I admit I very rarely use!), Rose Red and So Saffron. The scraps were put to use to create these 3×3 inch gift cards below.