Happy New Year! I’m back into the swing of things after a much needed break over Christmas and New Year, and well, yes, a bit of an extended break into January! My classes and Stamp Club list is up for January and February – you can find it here. This is one of the pages we did at my monthly Scrapbooking Night back in November – if you visited our stand at the Albany Show you may remember seeing this one on our display. It rather simple but has a stunning result! The circles are made by masing and sponging, and then stamping before removing the mask. The colours are Pool Party and Island Indigo on Very Vanilla cardstock. And of course a black and white photo can be added to just about any colour combination! Lovely couple aren’t they?!

Well, today’s the 23rd January and that means SALE-A-BRATION BEGINS TOMORROW!!! For every $100 that you spend during Sale-a-Bration (24 January – 31 March) you can choose one of four Sale-a-Bration stamp sets, or one of the matching Everyday Enchantment Designer Series Paper or Ribbon & Brad Pack (matches Fresh Vintage stamp set). I am loving this stamp set and the DSP and let me tell you the matching ribbon and brad pack is so sweet! Stay tuned tomorrow morning for a sneak peak of two cards we made at my Stamp Club on Friday night. I’ll post the whole pictures after next week – can’t spoil it for the other Stamp Club girls who will have their turn at making them next week!

 I’ll try and get the brochure up tomorrow as soon as I get home from work in the morning, or you can visit the Stampin’ Up! website at www.stampinup.com and view it there. I also have plenty of spares, so let me know if you’d like one and I will pop one in the post for you.

Our Stampin’ Up! Regional Training was held in Perth last Saturday, and I was privileged to be asked to present a Workshop Wow again this year!  Last month you may remember I made a cute little chocolate box (and it still holds the chocolates – uneaten!) and a centre step card stamped with the Dreams Du Jour stamp set ? I made some cute little scrunched up flowers to decorate the box and the card. I also used the same technique to make a flower to decorate a 3D frame, of which I  made another 10 to give to each of my downline as a thank you gift for attending our demonstrator retreat last month. I initially came across this technique by Joanne Leddy for making the flowers, and wondered what they would look like made with other punches. So, I just had to experiment! I got some stunning results with the new layering punches and the Fun Flowers Bigz L die, so decided I just had to share my Spring flower fest at regionals! 

This is my 3D frame on display at regionals, made with the Creative Elements stamp set .

I also made this gift box using the scruptious Mocha Morning DSP. The middle sized flowers are made by using the new Doiley layering punch, and the tiny ones are made by using the little pointy flower on the Boho Blossoms punch. I love the vintage look with the Antique brads! I’ll have to buy a truck load if ever they look like retiring!

I also made a heap of assorted flowers – all shapes, colours and sizes, but Sophie asked if she could take them back to Sydney with her and I didn’t get a chance to take a photo! I did however make this one, which reminds me of anemones which I once grew when I had a flower garden on the farm. This flower inspired me to make a poppy using Poppy Parade cardstock, and so inspired this scrap book page…..

The Crumb Cake page is stamped with Creative Elements and Baroque Motifs stamp sets, and I have watercoloured the Creative Elements image. I think I am addicted to that stamp set! The page also features the new Swirls Scribbles Sizzlits die and the the new Lace Ribbon Border punch. The photo is a copy of an original taken of my great uncle in France in WWI. I used the distressing kit (sanding block and inks) to “antique” and distress the photo.

At the end of my presentation Aaron presented me with this gorgeous card and voucher for a stamp set (I’m still deciding which set to order!) A huge thank you to Stampin’ Up! for another fabulous Regional Training!

Oh, and just a reminder – there are only 3 days remaining to order the Mini Starter Kit for $169, or the regular Starter Kit with 20% discount! Did you know that you now don’t need to have an ABN to join?  If you have been thinking about joining the Stampin’ Up! family – don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity! Contact me today for more information!

How cute is this? Made with the square motif from the Cute by the Inch level 2 hostess set from the new 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalogue! This was one of the swaps I made for our recent Regional Training in Perth last weekend! Well, I must confess I did have lots of help from my group the night before – we were all sitting up until the wee hours of the morning hastily putting our swaps together!

I actually CASEd this design from the internet some time ago, back in the days when the Mostly Flowers stamp set was still current. I saw this cute little motif stamp set and knew I had to have a go at making the design again. It’s stamped with Versa Mark and embossed with white embossing powder, then each square is cut out and placed together to form one bigger mosaic motif. The embossed background is of course the luscious Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder.

I demonstrated this page a couple of weekends ago at a workshop. I wanted to experiment with one of my SES photos which always incorporates the colour orange, so I chose Sweet Always Designer Series Paper! I used Pretty in Pink as the base colour for the page, and stamped the background in VersaMark using a stamp from the Always stamp set. I mounted the DSP and photo onto Pumpkin Pie, added some Chocolate Chip Double-Stitched Grosgrain ribbon, and a flower I made using the scallop circle punch. For the journalling tag, I punched an extended tag using the small tag punch. Here’s how it’s done….

Measure across the width of the tag. It’s easier if you measure across a punch out of the tag, rather than the punch itself. It should be about 3cm for the small tag punch. Cut a strip of cardstock to the same width of 3cm. Insert one end into the shaped end of the punch, as shown. Punch the end of the tag. Trim the extended tag to the desired length.

Last week I put together a step by step picture tutorial for our ESAD-SU group, and this is one of the cards I made to include with the tutorial. It’s made using Good Morning Sunshine DSP, and I’ve stamped over the DSP with a couple of stamps from Enjoy Every Moment stamp set in Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red and Pumpkin Pie inks. I’ve then stamped over with a bold flower from Petal Pizzazz in Versa Mark, then embossed with clear embossing powder. Finally, I’ve brayered over with Chocolate Chip, and wiped off excess ink with a tissue. The clear embossing reveals the pattern of the DSP and stamping. I’ve used Kiwi Kiss to mount the patterned DSP, with a belly band in So Saffron, and Rose Red for the base card which I’ve stamped with a stamp from Good Friend in Rose Red ink. The ribbon is Stampin’ Up!s yummy Kiwi Kiss/Vanilla satin ribbon.

Back in September we had our Stampin’ Up! Regional Seminar in Perth, and I demonstrated how to ink up an uninked jumbo Stampin’ Around cartridge using 2 colours! The card I demonstrated was using the Something Fishy jumbo wheel, and stamps from Life’s a Breeze and Whale Wishes.