Stamp camp this Saturday

I have the absolute delight and pleasure of hosting my first stamp camp. This is a joint Davis/Harvey adventure LOL…where lana and I are teaming up to share a day with 12 of our most valued customers and friends. This booked out really quickly and unfortunately we can only accomodate 12 people with this intricate and gorgeous design (which is designed by Lana). We will get together around 10am and after a heart starter fire into making the box that will hold the 12 cards we will get done during the day. By lunchtime, we hope to be ready to dive into the cards. Lana and I have a great homecooked menu planned, always yummier that way!

What are we making??? Remember this post way back?? This is the box and cards we will be completing.

This is such a versatile project, both lana and I have made many of these for friends and colleagues over the last year. In fact, in preparation for this class, we have at least 4 other themes in this project to show our guests on the day. Each person will receive detailed instructions so they can make it again, along with the rest of a 1/2 share of the beautiful Parisian breeze DSP, which is perfect for this project as it is a textured cardstock, so really, really sturdy for the box.

We are planning another event for the 4th of December where we hope we can all finish up the cards we will need to send out then to all our friends and families. Lana has already started her Christmas cards, but I will be making mine along with the people who sign up for this fun night. We plan to give away HEAPS of prizes on that night – after all, Christmas will be close then!!! If you’d like to join us on this evening here in Camden, just pop an e-mail to me (sharon@lvh.com.au) and I can give you more details. We are hoping for a very large, fun and loud crowd!!!

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

Grads……..for another year.

Regular readers of my blog may remember my ‘grad’ cards from last year. Well, this is the version for the class of 2009. I had 29 cards to make, interestingly, 20 male and 9 female. The inspiration for the Card?? The idea book and catalogue of course!!They left for the HSC just this week and it is always a bitter sweet feeling for everyone involved. I grow to really love my Year 12 classes right when it is time to leave…..I love seeing them mature into adults as well as an opportunity to pass on some of the life lessons I learnt at that stage of my life.

This year I received a gorgeous gold bracelet from one group. It is kind of funny really – those who know me realise I am not a jewellery sort of person….but for my birthday this year my DH and kids gave my a gorgeous, bold blingy watch that I really love……it is bright, bright gold with diamonds in place of numbers and diamonds around the large face. My Year 12 were the only ones who noticed and they love it LOL….so they {insert the girls here LOL} decided that I needed some jewellery to add it it….so I now have my gold watch, wedding band (I lost the diamond from my engagement ring a few years back while opening farm gates at work ) and a gorgeous gold bracelet.

I am such a lucky girl who really does teach the best students on the planet – and no, they don’t read this blog….we have a couple of others we follow each other on LOL……….this card uses the Great Grad set – very cool – will be using it for many years to come I think……..

See you soon with a calendar creation.

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

My birthday celebration for DH

Yep – another September birthday here at the Davis household. This time DH has a birthday on Monday. He will be off very early in the morning for a breakfast appointment and then will not return home from the surgery until well after my kids are tucked into bed – prolly 9.30pm ………… yep – long hours required when working in the medical industry – whether you have two legged patients or four legged patients. So, we have decided to celebrate tonight with a family dinner and we will give him his pressies then …… so frantically making cards this afternoon, in between bolting to the clothes line during a brief thunderstorm.

So card No 1 is shown here – finally letting my new birthday based stamp set see some real ink. The colours for this were taken straight from the colour wheel – always artichoke, not quite navy, bashful blue and close to cocoa. I have used my markers and punches well and even tried stamping straight onto twill tape.

I have decorated the inside – an essential component in a good card according to DH, so I dare not continue without putting in an insert. I even managed to find some not quite navy stitched ribbon from a couple of catalogues ago.

I usually make two cards for everyone in the house – one from me and the kiddlings and the other from the inlaws; my sister, dad and nephew.

The next card is a little more subtle and not so masculine, but none the less, natty.

This one uses an old carousel card from the last catalogue, soft sky in colour along with retired patterned paper, once again utilising the markers. the large vanilla jumbo brad is where the card actually slides open to reveal a happy birthday sentiment. It has been nice creating in the middle of the day on a Sunday – other stuff I should be doing, but what the heck hay!!! LOL!!

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

Butterfly beauties……

These are some cards I made this week, after meeting a new customer and I think what will be a new friend. Tenille was just such a delight. She is new to stamping and we shared a nice while together when I dropped off her first ever stampin’ Up! order. Do you remember that excitement? I do…..I still get excited when I know some goodies are being sent out to me. Anyway, we also learnt that we both loved butterflies. So, instead of spending the whole evening doing school work, I spent a bit of time whipping up these. I just finished them by popping on the butterflies. I have some friends and customers I need to send cards to and so these will be the ones that leave my house today, fluttering to new homes.

Now, this month’s special is a great one (aren’t they all LOL) – when you spend $100 you receive a ribbon bundle for FREE. As you can see, I’ve taken advantage of that and earnt myself some of this exclusive ribbon. There is a beautiful celery polytwill (9m in total!!) and also this gorgeous

So saffron grosgrain ribbon (9m of that too!!!)- that goes just so well with the walk in the park DS papers available in the current mini catalogue. I have used the baroque motifs stamp set for the swirl (kind of wish I stamped that in grey or even sahara sand…never mind) and then I have used the Great friend set from the mini catalogue for the butterfly and the ‘for you’ sentiment.

The colours are so saffron, regal rose and the cardstock is the saffron and white combination.

I have used the rock and roll technique where I have inked the butterfly stamp in the saffron and then just inked the edge with the rose, by ‘rolling’ it on it’s edges onto the rose inkpad.

This gives you a nice soft appearance.

I have been joking around with some customers about my knots, it seems the way I tie these is frustrating them, practise as they may and they are still bambossled…..so, this is what I do when they don’t look neat enough – tie a botton around the offending ugly bit with some thread or twine…..gives a bit of interest as well. These buttons all come from the mixed neutral button pack in the catalogue – truly gorgeous buttons – the saffron and white for this application.

Ok, lunch break over – back to cleaning GGGgggrrrrrr…….

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009

Balmy for Baja! (Note details about September special)

Hello O faithful ones….yep you! The ones who keep coming back even when I fail to……{sigh}……..life has just got in the way. After our successful launch we have been a tad busy – fathers day, nephews birthday, Jared’s birthday and next week it is the DH’s turn. Pssstttt – I hate September!!! Now with all these card requiring events, I have been busy creating so have lots to show you, found the camera (a feet in itself!!) so here are just some of the stuff that has escaped….Oh , I didn’t tell you!! My stamping room has also changed……..hubby and I had a discussion….yep one of those where he expressed the desire for some room in his study HOW DARE HE!!!!…so I promptly huffed and moved out…..into the sewing room. I will take some pickies and show you one day. It has some advantages and some disadvantages as my stamp club girls will tell…….it is a longer walk to just grab something…

My baby boy turns 10 today. This was the card I created for him. He requested one of those powerwing scooters – owners of young boys beware!!!! These things are so cool ….and weird. We managed to get one at a reasonable price {insert wide eyes} for about $160 – Uncle Petes toys are the best!!! We discovered on opening that it is way too small for my wiry, lanky lad. So a quick repack and we had to get the deluxe model, with the adjustable handle bars for $270 {insert REALLY wide eyes}. So he is now happy, he has been riding outside for a while, has spilt blood over his brand new quicksilver flat brimmed hat and he is in heaven……..well 10 year old boys heaven anyway.

Like the card? He did , we had a long discussion about birthday cards the other day and he told me how much he loves my cards to him…brought a little tear to a mums eye it did……..anyone who has met this lad will tell you what a charmer he is.

Products on this card include….

So saffron, baja breeze and whisper white CS, saffron baja and riding hood red ink, sleep slumber DS textured cardstock, big deal alpha, On your birthday (the best investment for all those birthday cards), Scallop punch as well as both the circles, 1 and 1/4in and 1 and 3/8in circles, aluminium rimmed tag, dimensionals and RIBBON BUNDLE – this is the special for September – spend $100 and you will receive FREE two rolls of ribbon – both exclusive to this offer. The first is a roll of so saffron grosgrain that you can see used here , you get 9m of it and 9m of a lovely certainly celery twill….a silky polyester twill.

You can see two of the fathers day cards I made this year here. Once again Baja breeze is the dominant colour – theme is pretty consistent isn’t it….it’s official I think…I need to start lobbying SU! to make this colour permanent….so glad I can still use it for another 12 months!!!

The card on the left was for my dad, with the boat stamped in brown stazon {shhhhhh no, its not SU!…but a brown lover like me NEEDS stazon in this colour} and is stamped onto acetate which is layered over those gorgeous parisian breeze DS textured CS. I will be crying tears of blood when this one leaves us at the end of November…..I then whacked on some jumbo brads (the ones from the mini) and some double stitched choc grosgrain – the men in my life understand and also ‘like’ my ribbon additions to cards and so expect their cards will have ribbon hehehehehe. The one on the right is DH card – yep a doggy, very appropriate. The stamp set is retired and I will let go of it eventually, but for now I just love that dog. I also used the parisian breeze paper and a crimper with some twine….for that masculine feel. They all loved their cards and we are looking at them placed on top of the TV………will show you my teenage boy cards when my nephew gets home – not sure where they were stashed……til then…..Oh, don’t forget, if you want that FREE ribbon, just give me a call…..

All images © Stampin’ Up! 1990 – 2009