Boooo Hooooo back to ‘work’ I go..and I wonder how long it is before the farm is taken from us…..

Yep, the school holidays are almost over – so back to work I go. I have 150 little munchkins who are dying to have me as a teacher ……. DREAM ON!!! LOL!!!!! Never mind – they and I, will eventually get back into the swing of it. I have done another scrapbooking page , commemorating the year ahead……..my school is under the threat of a major land sell off to boost the coffers of the NSW state government. Great idea – EXCEPT that we are in the business of teaching very gifted and talented students FROM across the state (even from Norfolk Is , Singapore, etc) AND we teach them about the most important industry this country has – Primary industry and Farming!!! Without farms and intelligent farmers this country will be in serious trouble. They plan to sell most of our land – will only leave enough land for the buildings, boarding houses and maybe an oval or two. Yep – our animals will need to be destroyed or sold off (who wants to buy animals in a bloody drought????). So….this photo is of our back paddock – near the top of the hill that overlooks the expressway. This paddock will be gone after the impending sale – the gorgeous photo was actually taken by my head teacher , who is the most amazing photographer, he takes hundreds of shots like these as he goes for his daily run around the farm at sunrise……………..in fact Greg actually lives on site – he won’t have such a great run when it is sold as a housing development.

Greg actually put this photo on a card he made me for Christmas – very cool!!! So, I had to recycle the photo so the page is framed and I intend to take it to school and put it up in the classroom – to remind us of the beauty we work in – while we fight tooth and nail to keep our land, our farm and most importantly those talented students who join us from across the state to further their already amazing skills. Some are learning farming for the first time, others come with many skills and return home with more. Some are inspired to work in primary industries…………we have amazing success stories of kids who have used the skills we teach them. I am very proud to say that I teach science at Hurlstone, but am also proud to say that I play a part (all be it , little) in the Agriculture department as well…….I love teaching Ag and I love teaching Ag with the teachers at our school – the most amazing group – never, ever a dull moment……………………..so I’ve stopped raving now. I will head back to school with boxing gloves packed carefully in may bag…..along with my boots, jeans, red pens and pile of papers……..

Have a great week…………..

All image © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

Invites…..some for my downlines and some for you!! Yes, you!!

These are the invites I’ve just finished. What are they for? They are to invite my downlines to a little get together to plan for 2009, especially convention. Convention is exciting and whether they attend or not there will lots of information that they will get to help their businesses from convention. I will take copious notes and have meeting straight after so we can all benefit from the things taught by the amazing presenters from here and from the US home office. If they do attend they will get the added bonus of the social connections thaey will make, the great stamping fun we have as well as a great dinner together – a chance to dress to the nines and just sit back and cheer on all those girls and guys who have achieved great things throughout the year.

An invite for you? Well on the afternoon of the 8th of February, at 2pm (will go to approx 4pm) I am holding a workshop here at my home that I’m inviting you all to. If you can make it to Camden on that day, contact me and you can join in the fun for FREE, yep – no cost, I just ask you RSVP so that I make enough goodies for us to share over our cuppa. We will be making some great valentines projects that can be used for valentines day or converted to birthday celebrations……up to you. If you’d like to join us, perhaps check out some of the FREE salebration stamps on offer, then drop me a line to sharon@lvh.com.au.

This is a copy of a cute card that got sent to me by the UStamp girls when I first joined last year…………….very easy and very effective.

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

No cards….just some plans…..goals for the first 3 months of 2009

one of my downlines has started a list on her blog of the things she hopes to do in 2009. They aren’t all huge, but there sure is a lot she wants to do. Once she completes something………she just crosses it off……..I think I’d like to do the same…….so here goes – my goals for the next three months…….will redo this in March.

1. Lose 5kg in February
2. Go back to fitness before January ends….. Went back today!!!, yep, in that bloody heat!!! Grrrrr
   
3. Scrapbook my photos from this year (oops – better get going)
4. Try and create 5 nights a week in February…….
5. Have an outing with my family once in January
6. Have an outing with my family once in February
7. Have an outing with my family in March
8. Journal my food, all my food in January
9. Journal my food, all my food in February
10. Lose 2kg in March
11. Journal all my food in March
12. Go to fitness every week in February
13. Go to fitness at least 3 times in March
14. Try and create 3 nights a week in March
15. Organise a great birthday bash for Caitlin
16. Send cards out to demo friends
17. Send a card to my downlines I’m about to do this today!!!! See the post above….
    
18. Send some cards off to customers
19. Work hard to earn the money to pay for convention
20. Send a letter off to my Christmas card snail mail relos

Ok……will see how I go

Last post for a couple of days………..

……..time to get serious about our preparations to go back to school. The kids have just bought the last of their stationary supplies, but we need to label etc………I need to do some serious filing. I’m hoping to get this done quickly so I can have some play time before I return to work next Tuesday.

My eldest son and his cousin are moving into a flat that we have unused under the house. We have to build a wall to separate the workshop (that used to be the bedroom of the flat) and head to Ikea to buy some furniture to use as wardrobes. They are very excited – how better can it get? Just 14 and having their own place already. They will be learning the realities of housework and washing too. I have enough trouble keeping our enormous house respectable while working full time. they will take on the cleaning duties each week. They’ll learn LOL!!!

Now the card- this one is also in the same vain as the other one……….made really simply with a 1inch square punch, patterned paper and cardstock, felt flowers and rhinestone brads. A bit of ribbon just finishes it off…………………a non stamping card!!

So…..with all that to do and some visiting with family between now and next Tuesday, I”ll catch you all again in a few days, maybe with a page! Now, my newsletter customers are about to get an invite to a fun event and my demonstrator team also has a day booked into my calendar for some business stuff and stamping – I’ll send out some e-mails in the next day or so…….stay tuned. Take care!

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

Colours of summer……..

I love this card…..I REALLY love this card. It was really easy (everything I do is……..my moto is that if it can’t be made in 10 minutes,then I’m not really interested…..LOL). This is my celebration of summer. great design, but Stampin’ Up!© gets the credit for that. I flicked through some old catalogues ( I keep a copy of EVERY catalogue for this exact reason) and found this layout in a great card in salebration catalogue from two years ago. It is using some of the great new products from the summer mini. I stamped the flowers onto the cardstock and then cut them out (not difficult at all) and then used the white gel pen to highlight the anthers (the pollen containing vesicles on the end of the style  ) on the flowers. The three flowers were positioned on a patterned paper square cut to 7.5cm. It would be best to use a subtle piece for a card like this – I wanted the bold and bright flowers to stand out.  I then added a strip of cardstock the same length and a piece of scalloped cardstock (made using the scallop border punch) highlighted with gel pen as well.

To help the white have a purpose on this card, I used white ink to stamp the embrace and the life part was stamped onto 4 pieces of different coloured cardstock and each letter cut out and stuck on.

Stamp set used – Embrace life $45.95 from the summer mini. This card is made with just one set!

Patterned paper – Bali breeze $11.95 also from the summer mini

Cardstock colours – Purely pomegranate, pumpkin pie, old olive and tempting turquoise. An interesting note is that the colour on the paper is actually taken with teal but I wanted a lighter, brighter look – but I reckon the turquoise looks just fine.

Inks – stazon (because it’s just a habit) and whisper white

Accessories – Tombow multipurpose adhesive $7.95 from the current summer mini. This is a liquid adhesive with two applicators. It is great to stick down glitter but also great for fiddly bits that snail doesn’t fit neatly onto….so I used this for the leaves and the pumpkin pie strip as well as the little ‘life’ letters.

Scallop edge punch $30.95 from the summer mini. It makes the best continuous strip of scallop….a must, really and truly.

If you love these products then remember that they are available until the end of March and if you buy them before February , then you may earn yourself a FREE, Limited Edition stamp set that cannot be purchased. Conatct me if you’d like more details.

I actually made 4 of these at once………something I try and do when I remember. I hope to send a few out to people I missed sending cards to at Christmas. Can you see the inside of this card …..?……….easy and really effective way to finish it off………………………. will be back with another card in a similar style.

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

Wetting the rubber of a new set…..

I’ve had this set for quite some time but had not mounted or inked it. I have a cousin who was struck down with Guillian Barr Syndrome just before Christmas and is having a bit of a rough trot. This is the result of a virus that paralyzes parts of your body. He is unable to walk (although know he is getting around a bit) and is suffering from severe muscle soreness. I made this to put a smile on his dial – if just for a moment or two. I have stamped this in stazon onto watercolour paper and have coloured using watercolour crayons and an aqua painter. This is all done with the bold brights and the ribbon is one I had here that looked good with the plain colours. You will notce the faintest outlining around the images (and a bit inside the white bits). This is a trick that helps make your images pop……….I actually use a tombow marker for this as there is nothing light enough that appeals to me in the stampin’ up! range of inks. It really is a dull grey, but a very pale tan colour also works well. I just quickly whip it around the image – too much fussing makes it stand out too much. I’m not sure you have noticed, but I have started putting a bit more effort into the inside of my cards ………especially the ones I am sending out………think it makes them a little more personalised……In this one I have just stamped the boat and put a red heart into it. I really hope Larry enjoys it……..oh and a big thank you to lana and Britney who have helped me and my girls make 108 layouts for Kerri’s friend julie stone. If you are interested in helping with this great project……………click here, they could do with a few more.

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

The first page of 09…….

………………hopefully the first of many!!!

This page is made up of some work my youngest son completed two years ago at school. The teacher had kindly sent it home with a photo of Jared attached that related to the piece he was writing. A precious memmento I didn’t want to forget.So…..instead of shuffling it around my desk for another year , I whacked it down on a page straight away. Made all the easier, by using a scrapbooking pack (their name is simply scrappin kits – very apt name!) by Stampin’ Up! © called Winter bright. I just used some of the stickers, stamped ‘J’ and added a little hodgepodge and there you have it. Not fantastic, but a thoroughly decent page and memorabilia has just been dealt with!!! You should grab yourself a couple of these. They really make scrapbooking easier and/or quicker. I know I will be using them way more!!

I have another page in my head and I hope to get it out before long…….heaps of great cards to show you so stay tuned………..love being on holidays, time to actually create!

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

PS . My net access is a little wobbly at the moment – the recent hot weather has fried my modem/router (which is only a few months old Grrrrr) I have a new one, but it seems to be taking its time settling into the family LOL!!!

RED adventure………and a give away…………(Yay blog candy!!)

I spent last evening playing with real red cardstock . Funny, but true. I’ve made a valentines card and a scrapbooking page………a scrapbooking page – scary but also true. I plan to make so many more pages this year (I’d love to get about 50 done). No more eveinging TV and less blog surfing, now everyone else’s blog hits will plummit LOL!! I’ll show you the card now and the page later.

The card design is not mine……..belongs to two great influences in my stampin’ style. Not sure I have a real style yet, but when I look back in the archives I can see that there are a few features, products and techniques that I particularly like.

The two people ………………… well, the top part of my card is inspired (just plain copied really) by Jayne Mercer. Not only is Jayne a great person but an amazing artist. Jayne and I are both teachers and I often imagine myself sitting in other teachers classrooms. I’d love to be in Jaynes class – in fact I’d skip my own class and visit hers. She is a calm, thoughtful and inspiring individual………………so check out her card here……. I visit Jaynes blog every day , not anymore ………..I will visit every two days LOL (bet I can’t keep to that resolution)

The other influence is another artist……{I’m not telling you….can you guess???}. The bottom half of this card is influenced by an artist (and she is an artist in the truest sense of the word…..hint there) who I have enjoyed for some time. She is a challenge poster…..and we all know I’m not into challenges but I love her work and can’t wait to see her latest vid of her cards. Bet you know who it is…………….if you do, then post a comment with your guess and all those who are not demonstrators (please state ‘demo’ if you are………..) will go in the draw to win some cute little note cards and envelopes that you can stamp and turn into tags for valentines or birthday gifts. I will draw out the winner on the 21st of January………no obligation guys, just a freebie …..LOL!!!

So, back to the card…….the stamp set is no other that polka dot punches AGAIN and the best value set of Wonderful favourites at just $39.95….this set has 23 stamps in it, which enables you to personalise any card. This card is for my lovely husband. I will make a little chockie box up and surprise him with it one day soon…….although he’s seen the card already and loved it LOL!!! Hard to hide with so many people around here. DD aged 7 says ‘Hey dad, look at the great card mum made for you !’…….I love them, I really do……….The scallop edge is made with the scallop edge punch in two seconds flat and a white gel pen made the dot in the centre of each scallop. The inside was interesting. I was inspired by the inside of cards I see from the US where they put as much effort into the inside as they can. I think it is wise to give a lighter piece of card for people to write on when such a deep shade of cardstock is used as the card base and with the scallop punch I could give the white piece the same look as the outside. Nice touch……

Don’t forget, if you have $100 worth of stuff to order to replentish your supplies from Christmas cards, order during January or February and you will earn yourself freebies.

All images © Stampin’ up! 1990 – 2009

Missing you……..

This is a card made with the gorgeous scallop Carousel notes. These are available in the summer mini catalogue and come in a pack of 12 cards with matching choc chip envelopes. Each ‘card’ is a single scallop shape that you can do lots with. They suggest decorating one side and then writing a little note on the other. The pack has 3 different coloured cards, groovy guava (that I have used here), soft sky and wild wasabi. There is a set of rubbons that are a great fit for these notes and I intend to give that a whirl too when I play some more. I found a circle template large enough (the bottom to a CD stack (you know – the round plastic containers you buy them in bulk in), traced around the bottom and cut out a circle in bashful blue. I stamped my seaweed and fishie, from ocean commotion in coordinating ink onto very vanilla cardstock. I made a frame for this using my scallop edge punch with some ginger blossoms paper (both are also in the mini) that happened to be guava. I stamped some seaweed in bashful blue ink on the circle and sponged the edges. I stamped the shell on the bottem. I then attached the fish with some dimensionals and used my mini glue dots to attach some vanilla half pearls to the corners of the fish piece. I tied the groovy guava ribbon ito a bow (unusual for me, but these notes are so huge -16 cm across!!)and stamped the sentiment from the hostess set so many sayings………..I used a couple of little blue buttons on the edge of my saying (that was easily removed from the others on the stamp using the word window punch) and scored a line across the top of my circle. I adhered the top circular flap to the guava carousel note using a couple of eyelets……………I’m sending this off to a friend that I’ve not caught up with in a while…………have a great day!!

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

Here they are……

We’re back……..didn’t they look like they had fun? My eldest daughter (with the hat and glasses) recently got her locks cut off and boy does she look older. She stole her aunt’s beach chair and hat and popped on my sun glasses …….. looking way older than her years, bbut none the less gorgeous……Eldest son had a ball and managed to rip skin from his body twice , in the same locations, riding his scooter. We have convinced him that size 13 shoes does not fit on a little scooter……..so tough being such a physically big child at the tender age of 14. Youngest daughter had fun with the new freedom that she was afforded this year at Bendalong point. She thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with the big girls……..and then there is the surfie dude……..his skin is just so tanned – he has such an attractive apeearance ……… it’s only when he opens his mouth that people discover the ‘crazy’ that exists inside……………………………………………….here we are, home from our summer break hhhhmmmmmm now I can stamp!!!!