Sunday 29 November 2009

Thank You's Received

I have received two lovely thank you's from our troops in Sudan.   Both are quite long, so here are a couple of excerpts:

From Captain Pip Cleary:  

"Dear Karen,
just a quick note to you and your team to say thank you so much for the beautiful cards that arrived today. They are in perfect time as the cut off for Xmas mail is 4 Dec 09.
As someone who has absolutely no craft skills whatsover, I really appreciate the workmanship and thought that has gone into making each card.
My card will go to my parents and my husband and I know that they too would thank you for your support of us on this relatively unknown operation here in Sudan......."

And from LEUT Brandon Ikimau:
"Dear Karen,

I am writing this email to say thank you for the Christmas cards that you have sent. It is good to know that there are people back home who are thinking of us whilst we are deployed.

Could you pass on my heartfelt thanks to your team of card makers and let them know that the cards are greatly appreciated. I know that my family will be surprised to receive these cards at Christmas.

Your actions really do make a difference."

I certainly didn't expect to receive thank you's.  The reward of acheiving such a healthy number of cards (367) was enough and knowing we'd all come together to reach that goal.

So, isn't that lovely?  To know our cards have touched someone's heart - someone who is a long way from home at this special time of year.    

Bless you all for helping.

Ode to Christmas Stampers Everywhere

My good friend Alfie sent me this, and I'm afraid I don't know it's origins prior, but it's very cute and entirely appropriate so I thought I'd share it here.

Twas the night before Christmas, I'm glued to the tree.
I'm wondering what Santa brought just for me.
Could it be cardstock or chipboard or lace?
Or a Big Shot? I said, with a smile on my face.
And that's when I heard him,
"Hi Santa, " I said
"You know....good little girls
should be in their beds."
"I know I should Santa,
and now I've got caught.
But I was just so excited
To see what you brought."
"Well, let's take a look
in this room where you work.
He shook his head quickly,
And left with a jerk.
I heard him exclaim
as he put it in gear.
"You've got enough crap,
I'll see you next year!"

Wednesday 25 November 2009

Another Card Box

I absolutely love this large box, and being the determined crafter that I am, I decided to make it in metric today - yes, I got totally immersed in imperial while living in the U.S. and with all my cutting tools (and some US Stampin' Up! grid paper) in inches, I was finding it hard to adjust back to centimetres!!

I decided that this metric box - yeh, you can tell the difference...LOL - is going to be great to store my card projects from my classes in the last couple of months.

I'm wondering, how do you store your gorgeous handmade cards before you find the right person to gift them to?  Leave me a message and you'll go into a draw to win a $10 gift voucher that you can use for classes or product.

Happy stampin'

Supplies & a project instruction sheet are available if you email me.





Monday 23 November 2009

Another Staz On Project

The thing with Staz On - apart from the fact that it stays on - is that once you start using it on things, you just want to keep going.

Here's a simple glass vase that I got in the $2 store - it's been a while since everything was $2!!!  Anyway, I also got the candle & the stones from the same place.   About $12 all up.   The Tree Trimmings stamp set and the small snowflake from Snow Swirled are gorgeous stamped randomly on the glass in white Staz On.   And the really simple thing about this kind of project is that you can wipe off any mistakes you make because the ink takes a couple of minutes to dry.  The end result is a unique table centrepiece for christmas (or a gift, if you can part with it!!).




Tree Trimmings Stamp Set is in the Spring Mini Catalogue, so you'd better hurry if you want to order it, as it won't be available after 30 November.......



Here it is with a couple of cards I made a few weeks back:



This is a great set because you can use it stamped directly on cardstock, cut out your stamped image for a layered effect, it's stunning embossed in gold or silver, and you can use our punches to punch out the stamped image to add to tags and packaging.
Email me to place your order before this set is gone forever.







                                

It's a Wrap

A couple of weeks ago when we did our Christmas Stamp-a-Stack, the ladies asked me about making a box to package cards into as gifts.   This is what I came up with.



It's a simple design using one sheet of 12x12 for the base and some Designer Series Paper for the lid.   I've used a small square of velcro under the lid as a fastener (but you could make a feature by using brads and some punched circles to wind ribbon around).

The nice thing about this box is that it will hold 15 - 20 cards.   Yes, some of my ladies gift a LOT of cards!
Email or leave a comment if you'd like the instructions to make this project.

My second packaging idea is totally cased.  Thanks Nerida! (www.stampingjoy.blogspot.com)   It's a cello bag stamped with white Staz On.   I've added a bag topper made from cardstock and used the lace edge punch to pretty it up.  The ornament tag is made from the scallop circle and has some silver cord through it to hang it off the white taffeta ribbon.   Gorgeous, and super easy to do.  It's the perfect package for some Christmas Lindt chocolate!

Sunday 22 November 2009

SU Sydney Regional

Spent a wonderful day crafting with fellow demos at the Sydney Regional yesterday.  The event was held at the convention centre at Darling Harbour & as usual all ran like clockwork.   We were treated to some wonderful presentations by the Sydney office staff & of course other demonstrators who have truly motivational and inspirational ideas to share.

There were many demo's swapping their creations.   I was fortunate to pick up a lot of lovely new ideas, and I'm planning on using some of what I've learned in my future classes.  My ladies will be thrilled when they see the projects I'm planning!

Here's a pic of my swap.   It's a little badge on a small wooden clothes peg.  Most of the supplies are in the new Summer Mini Catalogue out on Dec 1st.........so you're getting a sneak peek here.   The BUTTERFLY PRINTS stamp set is adorable and co-ordinates with the brand new BUTTERFLY PUNCH!  How exciting. You'll be seeing butterflies stuck to everything I do for a while....haha.
Then there's the large 1 3/4" CIRCLE PUNCH to back the SCALLOP CIRCLE PUNCH.   The colours I've used are Kiwi Kiss (CLASSIC INK & CARDSTOCK), Tangerine Tango (DESIGNER SERIES PAPER) and Pacific Point (CARDSTOCK).  I've also added a little bow in GINGHAM RIBBON (Black).
For the printing, it's hard to read in the pic, but it says SU SYDNEY REGIONAL 2009 DEMONSTRATOR SEMINAR", and I printed it directly onto our cardstock and punched it out with the scallop circle.

If you want to order any of the items listed above, email me asap.  My December classes will feature items from the new mini catalogue.   Lastly, if you want the benefits that I enjoy as a demonstrator, join up now.   There's all sorts of stuff waiting to be discovered.

Monday 16 November 2009

Cards for the troops - update

Today, the cards were collected for shipping to Afghanistan tomorrow.  We had a total of 367 cards!  Wow, what an achievement.   Cards have arrived in the mail all last week, from as far north as Ballina.  I also collected some from the Central Coast on Saturday, and when I opened my front door this morning there was a shopping bag with another load on the step!
A big thank you goes to the following generous ladies for their beautiful contributions to the cause:
Please note, they are in no particular order:
Ann Abraham, Trish Holmes, Avril Burn, Laurel King, Felicity Hawkins, Ann Wild, Hayley Cumming, Angela Sargeant, Penny Street, Pam Godfrey, Tash Renton, Deb Wellfare, Gudula Dornseifer, Lisa Smaijov and Susie Coates.
Here I am, busily sorting them last night.






Look how gorgeous they are!  And all so different.  What wonderful ideas people have.   Julee, from the barracks was impressed with everyone's creativity.   Perhaps we'll do it again next year.  My goal for this year was to get 300 cards - and we achieved that easily, so in 2010, we could possibly double it!    Thanks again to all who helped.  

Christmas One Sheet Wonder Class

Last week I held a very successful one sheet wonder class.  The ladies had a kit to make 8 cards - there was actually enough material to make 12 or more - but we stamped a sheet to set out 8 for starters.
I decided to do a variation on the traditional one sheet wonder, where you stamp a whole sheet all over randomly covering the entire page.  For this class I wanted to have different stamped images, so after a bit of hair pulling, I figured it out, and thought I'd share it here and maybe save someone else the bother!

Anyway, I started by scoring my neutral cardstock - I chose Whisper White - to mark out the areas I wanted to stamp.  This works better than drawing lines on the back, because you can't see the lines through cardstock when you come to stamp, unless you use a lightbox, and that's way too clumsy for me.   You can adapt your score lines for the stamp set you choose.

I love Season of Joy, so I scored according to those stamps.  I know you can't actually see the score lines, but I started by dividing the page into quarters, then worked out how big each stamp was and scored each quarter as needed.


The trick here, is to limit one stamp to one colour of ink.  That way, you can set up "stations" for your class so it's easy for a large number of people to stamp their page without waiting a long time (or falling over each other).  It also avoids having your ink pads messed up if the stamps don't get cleaned in between uses.    I used the swirl with Choc Chip ink, the tree & small snow flake with Old Olive, the greeting and large poinsettia with Ruby Red, and the tiny poinsettia with Baja Breeze.

Each of the four quarters of my cardstock are enlarged below so you can see the details a bit better.  There's also some white space for extra stamping if desired.


and it's important to have scrap cardstock and embellishments so you can add the details to the cards quickly and easily.  I have a little bag of brads, ribbon & punched images for each customer.

Depending on how you plan to use each image, you don't need too much space around them.  We cut both the christmas trees out, so they are ok stamped fairly close together.

                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                        Of course, I also demo'd the traditional OSW stamping method - the ladies LOVED it, and now they want to do that as well!!
If you want more info, or can't understand my ramblings, email and I'll be glad to clarify - or confuse - further!!   Check out the post on 21 October for a pic of the finished cards.
Happy Stampin'
Karen                                                                    

Tuesday 10 November 2009

Cards for the Armed Forces

Our troops in war zones won't be popping down to the shops for a christmas card to send their loved ones this year.   So this evening, I'm holding an event to make cards that we can send over to them so that they will be able to write their families at this special time.   I've already received some cards in the mail made by a fellow demonstrator in Ballina - thanks Trish!  And a number of other demo's are making cards to add to the bundle.   Hopefully, we'll have around 300.  I like to think that a little bit of love will go with them so our troops know that we are thinking of them and hoping that it brings them closer to home emotionally if not physically.    I will put some pics up after the event so that you can see what we did.  Maybe this will become an annual event.

Monday 2 November 2009

Christmas Gift Ideas

We have some keen journal writers that we have to buy for this year, so I thought I'd decorate the Stampin' Up! On Board Art Journals as gifts.  I also made the bookmarks using the On Board chipboard.  I used Batch of Blooms (112087) but the So Tweet (113893) is really cute too.
Small Journal (108495) 



Large Journal (107065)




If you don't want to do the decorating, you could select a Simply Scrappin Kit and a journal and package them up as the pressie (of course, I recommend you make the bag to put it all in!).  See earlier post.

Email me if you want directions for any of these ideas.  And be sure to leave me a comment if you like what you see.
Happy pressie making!