Happy Halloween!!

I’m being attacked by my tween!! She is off to a halloween sleep over and really looking forward to it. She wanted to make {code for – ‘Will you make something mum??} a small gift for the hostess and thought that following the halloween theme would be a good idea as Beth just loves halloween, hence her mum giving in and allowing a whole lot of girls to come over for a sleepover. My sister did Cait’s make -up and what a great job she did!….I made yet another notebook for Beth, using up some scrapping stuff that I’ve had forever……..altogether this gift cost less than $5…..including the lollies I put in the bag – used up some paper, ribbon and scrap cardstock. The card on the bag is a total case from the very, very clever Jayne Mercer……this is just such a great idea…….just like all her ideas!!

Thinking about doing a class on making these notebooks………anyone interested?????

Happy halloween…….from my crazy house to yours!!!

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

Sharon xxxxxxx

Birthday gifts by two……

While I was busy at Stamp Camp this weekend, my eldest daughter attended a birthday party for two of her mates – beautiful twin girls. Twelve year old girls are easy to please….especially when you make it all about them. So as a gift idea, I bought each an Angus and Robertson bookstore voucher and made each a personalised gift card wallet to store them in. I hung these from gift bags that contained the greatest little journals. These journals are A3 in size and are as cheap as chips – think they are actually under $3. So they make a great and cheap gift for teenage girls.

This gift card wallet is just those I have posted below. I did jazz them up a bit by lining the pocket and the back with patterned paper.

‘K” or Katie, had the brighter pinks from a retired patterned paper that SU! had out a couple of years ago and last year they had the same paper in muted tones that was perfect for her sister ‘C’ or Claire.

These were easy but very satisfying to make.

These are actually ditto notebooks that have ovals cut out of the cover. Hence why they are covered (both front and back) as well as the lining has been covered with coordinating paper. The covers have been punched through using the cropadile (or big bite) and I have threaded ribbon through to make a place to put a pen as well as using the ribbon to tie the book closed.I have used scallop circles to make flush little tabs to section off the book. This idea is totally CASED from a blog I’m trying to remember – as soon as I do I will pop up a link. The clever lady I saw had used this idea to make holiday journals to get organised for Christmas……such a great idea. She had stuck envelopes into the front and back covers to make little pockets for receipts and recipes etc……

I’m off to catch up on my school reports and I need to get going with the 100 place cards I am making for the wedding stationary I have been involved with. Once I have finished those I will take pictures of the ‘complete set’ for you to see…….til later

All images ©Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

Stamp club projects 3 and 4 and a fabulous cause.

So here are the last two things we made at Stamp club this week. Two little gift card wallets – easily hold a gift card and also room to write a little message.

Funny …….. I actually made 200 of the Christmas gift card wallets on the evening before stamp club for a local charity I sometimes do little things for. The charity is The African Aids foundation (AAF) and they will use them to hold sponsorship cards. Instead of a traditional store gift card, they will hold a gift card that can be bought for a friend and the money will go to a great cause or project AAF sponsors….e.g. for just a few dollars you can sponsor a child a pair of school shoes for them to attend school or sponsor a food parcel for the volunteers who work with the Aids patients. These amazing women travel around vast distances each and every day  visiting families with seriously ill Aids patients, helping them out, checking in with them etc. While they do this for no money, they also need to feed their families, so a sponsor here in Australia can give money to help buy the volunteer food etc. The other great thing you can ‘buy’ is a market garden for a family struggling to make ends meet. For those of you who were unaware, there are literally millions of young children without any familiy to care for them. Older members of the community(this part of the community have a lower AIDS affliction rate) have taken on the responsibility of caring for children. When there is no one, they need to be placed in orphanages. This is another area AAF have put lots of money as well as time and effort into. They send over people from our community here in Camden, to lend skills etc to help out and more importantly, spread the word when they return. If you are interested in helping them, any small amount does good. This fund has ALL it’s administration costs covered by its leader, our doctor, John Schwartz. That means every $$$$ gets to where it will do the most good.

So with 200 sponsorships available, they hope to sell them off at a dinner here in Camden early in November – it is great night, why not buy a ticket and come along!!!

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

Stamp club Project 2 – Desk Calendar

This was the second of four projects we made on Friday night and it is a desk calendar that could be sent in the mail, as it falttens out AND then can stand up nicely on a desk.

This was made using basic grey cardstock, a strip of the walk in the park DSP (available until the end of November) as well some Baja breeze and whisper white cardstock.

1. A piece of basic greyA4 cardstock was cut in half along the long side. So each piece of A4 can be used to make 2 calendars

2. With the long side against the ruler on the cutter, score at 1cm, 3cm, 5cm, 13cm.

3. Fold up bottom flap (this is the strip that will stick the calendar together). Accordion fold the next two score lines and fold up into the triangular prism, adhere the bottom flap with a piece of sticky strip.

3. Stick on a strip of walk in the park DSP

4. On a whisper white piece approx 6cm x 7cm, stamp the design using Great Friend (available until the end of November) I have used, cameo coral, kiwi kiss and baja breeze (colours taken from the paper design).

5. Stamp a butterfly on a scrap piece of whisper white CS, cut out and add dazzling diamonds glitter.

6. Mount the stamped design on baja breeze and stick onto the front right of the base. Adhere the calendar pad to the left.

7. Adhere the extra butterfly over the top of the one you stamped onto the piece of whisper white using two mini glue dots.

8. Punch a small hole over the top of the claendar using the cropadile.

9. Place a strip of scrap baja ribbon into the ‘legs’ of the corduroy button/brad and pt through the hole and fasten to he front of the calendar base.

Now, pop it away until 2010 – ’cause it’s bad luck to have a calendar on display before the actual year begins LOL!!!!!

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

Calendar matchbook – Stamp club project 1

A few people must actually read my ramblings because there were some people who wanted to know how these were made!!! We made these last night at stamp club, along with three other cute little gift ideas.  Soooo Cool….so here we go.

1. You will need to purchase the small calendar pads from someone like Educational Experience. They are online and can be googled…….in fact you can get about 25 calendars for just $7.50. They measure just 6.5cm x 5cm

2. Cut a piece of cardstock (we used so saffron) that measures 16cm x 8cm.

3. Measuring along the longest side – score lines at 6.5cm, 7cm and at 15cm.

4. I have stamped months using calendar full upside down and the right way up all across the piece of cardstock using the same coloured ink as the cardstock . This takes any thinking out of the equation……LOL…..

5. Turn the cardstock over and fold up the 1cm strip – this is where the staple goes. Fold the rest of the scored lines up into the wallet.The top edge of the matchbook has a very small 0.5cm spine that allows for the height of the calendar pad.

6. Bring the top over the flap and staple the small piece just below where the large front flap matches up (it doesn’t reach all the way to the bottom, so the flap just stays tucked in……

7. Stick the calendar pad into the centre of the inside back as shown in the photo below.

We have made ours monchromatic and tied a piece of so saffron ribbon around our so saffron stamped card stock. This is very elegant and subtle. but I have actually made heaps of these and they look great with a rub on placed on the front – even quicker. We will sell these off for $1 at our school fete and should be a great seller I’d say……..

Hope the instructions are clear…if you do have any questions, don’t hesitate to pop them in the comment section.

We will be back with the projects 2, 3 and 4 we made last night!!

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

Off the page gift…..

I’ve also been meaning to show you this since September…I know, I’m slack …….. This was part of DH’s birthday gift. This is the best notebook…….I should have bought one for myself. The page edges are coloured so that the book actually has about 5 sections. Each page is also grid lined…….how cool would this be to jot down those card/page sketches you just have to make???? Each page is also perforated so can be ripped out easily. It is from paperchase, not cheap, but very cool.

BUT it was plain black……what is a girl to do?? I had to stamp it!!!

Many of you may remember my nearsest and dearest is a vet, so had to have a pet theme for the front. I tried embossing a single footprint on the bottom of the back page (to test it out first) and discovered that the vinyl cover could handle it!! YAY!! SOooooo the cute footprints from  the stamp set “D is for dog” we embossed with SU! black embossing powder and versamark.

The medallion in the middle is from the Gallery stamp set in the mini catalogue (this one is only available through November 31st) and stamped and embossed on textured basic grey cardstock. The centre is a punched piece of grey DSP and the dog is embossed on white using black powder and stuck over the top.

He really liked his gift, my girls loved it more though LOL……actually I have just finished spending a whole day stamping with my eldest daughter – we stayed up late to make stationary boxes and we spent the day making our cards to fill them……we had a ball and she has done an amazing job. Those of you joining us for our stamp camp next week will get to see them……I’ll show everyone else after that………

Anyone interested in completing HEAPS of Christmas cards in one night??? You free on Dec 4?? If you answered YES to both questions…..pop me an e-mail and get a sneak peak at a class that is in ‘the works’ ATM but will be revealed shortly………..

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

Some guest bloggers from my team……

I am soooo far behind showing you what I have been up to – I have been extremely busy crafting – mainly for ‘work’ rather than pleasure…..but I still enjoy it. In the meantime I have two great projects to show you that members of my team have created. You have seen the wonders of Lana previously, but these girls are yet to be ‘blog artists’ LOL…… so here we go!

1. Tifa’s great gift to me!

Tifa is a very clever member of my team from Bexley in Sydney. I always enjoy my time spent with her and her wonderful friends and family. They are so warm and giving…..I truly count her and the ‘gang’, my friends…….Tifa heads home to Malaysia each year and while there this year bought me a gorgeous scarf….which I have worn a great deal……..working outside and iving in Camden, scarves are an essential clothing item, even this time of year. She packaged it up so beautifully that I had to take a picture to share with you……….so I have finally unearthed the shot and will share the great work of Tifa.

She has made a stunning little bag in my fave colour combination of blue and brown to pop that stunning scarf in………….isn’t it great. Absolutely perfect for the colours I like to wear – a big orange and brown wearer I am…LOL!!

Thanks Tifa, I enjoyed your wonderful gift along with Ina’s great yummies she bought along last we met………….we must meet up again soon…….

2. Lien’s gift to me!!

How lucky am I???   Lien is actually a customer of Tifa’s downline, Pauline….confusing huh!!  LOL!! She and Pauline often join our team meetings and we have such a great time together when we all stamp and chat.

I will definitely have to organise another get together before this year slips away.

Lien has decorated this box with stamps and patterned paper and has made these great brads that allow you to use all sorts of things to turn into brads. Lien is also a very clever paper crafter. You can see her great acetate card stamped with stazon here as well. Thank you so much Lien, I’m trying not to ’save’ my brads (just ’cause they are gorgeous), rather use them…..LOL….stop laughing Lien!!

Thanks girls….can’t wait to see what else you’ve all been up to!!

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

The year slips by so slowly…NOT!!

I can’t believe it is but 5 weeks until our Christmas fete at school. We started stamping for this fete a year ago. We pretty much have worked on it for a whole year – take away a few stamp club/class nights…….here is the latest project.

It is a little calendar matchbook that will pop easily into a back pocket in a handbag. I made a heap of these up and used up some FREE ribbon from last month and even used up some old rub on’s for some of them. They are incredibly quick and easy.

This particular one is stamped with the month names in certainly celery ink – some the right way up, some upside down. This actually makes sense as the bottom of the booklet is actually upside down IYKWIM. There is also another version of the calendar that actually stands on a desk. Lana made a few of these and we plan to add to the pile. We will sell these off for $1 each – great little gifts to add to Chrissie gifts………..

We have made all kinds of things for the fete – we also stamped some noodle boxes yesterday and will sell them in themed packs of 10 to use as kids party lollie favour boxes.

We will also do the post it note holders as well…..but time is running out.

The little calendars are available from educational experience (just google ‘em, they sell online or over the phone) and they come in books of 25 calendars for about $7.50…..so a true bargain.

We (as in Nic, Lana and I) have actually donated all the product for the school fete and so they will get the whole sale price of the goods we produce. Over the last couple of fetes, Nic and I have done the same thing , this makes our stall one of the highest grossing (and netting) stall at the whole event.

Now if you want the dimensions for this little wallet, just holla in the comment section and I will post them….I haven’t bothered because I’m not sure you are interested…LOL…..

I’m off to check out the papercraft festival at Canterbury Racecourse on Sunday, then to sunny Bendelong for a week and then I will return……….so take care and keep stamping!!

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

Birthday break…..

well it is for me as DD heads off to friends house for a tween birthday celebration on Friday night. Here is the birthday girls gift…….

Excuse the blurry photo…..not so good when your bad photographic technique gets worse………you get the idea anyway. Here I have set myself a challenge……how far can you make one piece of patterned paper go?? Well pretty bloody far I reckon!! It was used to cover the note paper box (picked up on sale at my local newsagent), make a band for the smiggle tin, used on the card as well as the envelope. The note paper has been stamped with flowers that coordinate with the paper and even monogrammed. My DD stamped every second sheet and took most of the afternoon the other day and I promised I would decorate and make a matching card. Such an impressive gift Caitlin said she was prepared not to give it away and change her name so she could keep it LOL………. There is current product here, even a mini sneak peak….hhmmmmmm can you guess which thing is from the mini?????

I have detailed the card and envelope (as well as inside the card) below ……..

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

Here’s the cake that has NO kilojoules…….

……………..yep, except that there is a little chochie treat and a prize in every slice LOL

This is a cake that I made for a ‘launch’ of sorts for one of my newest members of my team, Lana. It is a BOOK TO LOOK cake. What does that mean? Well, anyone who books a workshop when this gets tabled, gets to take home a piece of my pie and gets all the goodies inside their slice of cake. Many prizes are straight from the catalogue and will be ordered once you have your workshop……..even more exciting when you consider all the great freebies you already get when you host a workshop. This month and next those freebies increase further…..when you reach sales of $600 or more…you get an extra $40 to spend on products from the catalogue…..that gives you way over $100 worth of products for FREE….

Book a workshop with me during June or July and you can have a slice of cake and everyone at your workshop will receive a template to make your own cake slices plus the instructions so you can make gifts such as those below.

So, a workshop with $600 in sales will give you

1. $110 worth of FREE product

2. 1 x level 1 hostess set (EXCLUSIVE for hostess’)

3. A gift box ’slice of cake’ with choccies in it and a voucher for a bonus prize

4. You and each of your guests, will get a template and instructions to make a ’slice of cake’ box.

While I am based in Camden I am willing to travel about 45mins from home for a workshop – if you would like to grab a date, e-mail me today on sharon@lvh.com.au

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

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