Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update - thank you all for your kind messages while I have been unwell and dealing with a family situation. Please forgive me if I don't get chance to write you all back personally, you've really been filling my inbox with love!

I will be spending the next few weeks with family and loved ones but hope to be back online early in the New Year with lots of fun projects for us all. I am taking bookings for January and as always, if you have an order feel free to email it through.

I haven't even had chance to make Christmas cards this year, but I hope you've all enjoyed creating special keepsakes for family and friends! May you and yours have a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year. Stay safe and I can't wait to share all kinds of creative things together in 2009!!!

Best wishes,

Terrific Tens: Friend

Hi everyone! It's been a busy few days here, lots of prepping for classes and looking forward to SENZ this weekend in Wellington! If you're going, make sure you stop me and say Hi! (I'll be the one loaded down with shopping bags!)

Some Stampin' Up! news - to celebrate World Cardmaking Day (this past Saturday) all Simply Sent Kits are on sale until this Saturday with 20% off!!! You can find these on pages 12-14 of the 2008-2009 Idea Book and Catalogue and they make great presents for beginning or experienced stampers, as they contain everything you need to complete the cards, including exclusive stamp sets. Please email me to place an order or for more information.

Onto the card! I had lots of goodies that have been sitting untouched since they arrived, so thought it time to pull them out for an ultra quick ten minute card!

This is a really simple layout, I love highlighting our gorgeous papers and ribbon this way. It really was as simple as it looks, the sentiment from the For a Friend hostess set was stamped in Stazon, a little marker colouring, the image and scalloped strip are popped up on dimensionals and a gorgeous piece of Pumpkin Pie ribbon finishes it all off.

I bet you have a lot of stamps in your collection that would fantastic highlighted this way - I hope you'll try a simple card like this soon!

Stampin Supplies:
Stamp Set: For a Friend
Ink: Stazon
Card stock: Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Whisper White
Paper: East Coast Prep
Punches: Slit punch
Accessories: Rich Regals Brads, Pumpkin Pie Striped Grosgrain, SU! Markers, Stampin’ Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive.
All supplies available from Stampin' Up!

Cupcakes and Cards

Here's another card using one of the sale sets for this month - Big Bold Birthday! Cupcakes are everywhere in stamping lately - so to celebrate Stampin' Up!'s 20th birthday, what better way than to enjoy some cupcakes and stamp some too!
Here's a quick pic of the cupcakes I made for Wednesday nights gathering. Chocolate. Yum!
And here's the cupcake we stamped! All the images are from Big Bold Birthday - there are so many stamps in this set and they can be used in so many ways! The icing sprinkles were created by "kissing" the inked polka dot image onto the icing image before stamping, cutting out and popping up on dimensionals.

I love using my slit punch to create a scalloped edge for a card like this - it adds a real touch of whimsy to any project.

The supplies for this card are included in October's Beautiful Bundle - which I've just now posted. There are TWO stamp sets in the bundle this month - 25 stamps!!! Click here for all current bundles.

Happy Stampin' and have a wonderful weekend!


Stampin Supplies:
Stamp Set: Big Bold Birthday
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Versamark, Markers in Bordering Blue and So Saffron
Card stock: Pretty in Pink, Kraft, Very Vanilla
Paper: Petals and Paisleys
Punches: Designer Label, Slit and Large Oval punches
Accessories: Pretty in Pink Grosgrain ribbon, Markers, Stampin’ Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive.
All supplies available from Stampin' Up!

Stylin' in Silver!

Of all the wonderful accessories I love to put on my cards and projects, Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware is probably my favourite. It's just so elegant and I'm a silver girl at heart - I've always loved Sterling Silver jewellery so this hodgepodge is perfect for me!

Because everyone should have the chance to use these gorgeous embellishments, but buying a full pack at $68.95 + postage just isn't always an option, I'm doing a share on this gorgeous kit.

For $14.80 (including postage) you'll receive:

~ 10 Label holders - 2 each of the Circle, Square, Rectangle, Beaded Oval and Beaded Designer Label shapes
~ 8 Cast Brads - 2 each of the 4 designs in the pack (these are big brads, not mini size!)
~ 2 Ribbon Sliders (flower shape)
~ 20 Styled Silver matching Brads, enough for all the label holders

The photo above shows the hardware each person in the share will receive (as well as something stamped by me!) If you would like two shares, the price is $28.60. Please email me to book your place in the share. Visa, Mastercard and Bank Deposit all accepted. First come, first served, Nationwide orders welcomed! (Demos are welcome too of course!)

I couldn't write about how much I love Styled Silver Hodgepodge without showing you a project, so here's a box I whipped up last night. The hardware really gives it that something extra special!

For all the instructions on making this box, please see here. I've used paper from the Spring Silhouettes pack (I'm embracing Wild Wasabi and loving it!) For instructions on constructing the Dahlia please see here.
Did you know our punches coordinate with the Hodgepodge perfectly? (you could cut the paper to size if you don't have the punch). I've punched the Designer Label from the Spring Silhouettes paper. The sentiment from Circle of Friendship was stamped in Wild Wasabi, then punched out with the 1" Circle punch. One of the cast brads in the pack fit perfectly in the center of the stamped image - It's so much fun layering embellishments like this!

Don't forget to email me if you'd like to grab some hardware at a great price! Today is also the last day to email me with your Free Wheelin' orders, if you've been thinking about grabbing one of these stamp sets don't miss out on your chance to receive the matching Jumbo Wheel FREE!

Have a fantastic day!


Stampin Supplies:
Stamp Set: Circle of Friendship
Ink: Wild Wasabi
Card stock: Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla
Paper: Spring Silhouettes
Punches: Designer Label, 1" Circle, 1 3/8" Circle, Corner Rounder
Accessories: Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, Certainly Celery Wide Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive.
All supplies available from Stampin' Up! Please email me to place an order.

Magical Mini

Late last night, after cleaning up from my previous project (I'm doing so well at this now, it makes a big difference to how often I want to create!) I got the itch to stamp something! Well, I couldn't go to bed without indulging, so made this quick little mini. Good things really do come in small packages!
This is a love note card and envelope (available in packs of 20) I love this size, they are perfect for attaching to a box of choccies or some flowers. Mostly Flowers is a set I've looked at for a long time, but only just decided to grab a couple of weeks ago - I have to say, I love it! Also, a new big love for me is SU! White embossing powder! I added some to an order about a month ago, and there it has sat until last night. It's fantastic, not all clumpy like other white powders (which are now in the trash!) I've owned.

Really simple card: Stamp the Mostly Flowers image in Craft White or Versamark on Certainly Celery card. Emboss with white powder and punch with the 1 1/4" square. Layer on a 1 3/8" Square of Perfect Plum. Adhere a scrap of Certainly Celery prints paper to the card base, attach two Eyelets from the Soft Subtles pack. Pierce three rows using the mat pack template as a guide and tie on some wide grosgrain ribbon. All done!

Instead of stamping the sentiment on or in the card I've stamped it on the envelope, I like this kind of simple presentation for the mini cards sometimes. The sentiment is from Short & Sweet.

Have a great Thursday!



Stampin Supplies:
Stamp Set: Mostly Flowers, Short and Sweet
Ink: Perfect Plum, Versamark
Card stock: Certainly Celery, Perfect Plum
Paper: Certainly Celery Prints
Punches: 1/8" Handheld, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" Square
Accessories: Mat Pack, Certainly Celery Wide Grosgrain, Soft Subtles eyelets, Crop-a-dile, Stampin’ Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive.
All supplies available from Stampin' Up! Please email me to order.

My Stamp Room

Hi everyone! Hope your day is going great so far. Yesterday was a busy day here in the Gough house, we finally got around to our spring cleaning, which, even after being here for only three months was well overdue! Isn't it a great feeling when the place you live is all in order?

I love seeing photos of other peoples craft rooms or spaces. I've picked up a lot of ideas for my "dream room" that I'll have one day! There are some amazing custom designed spaces out there.

Because my room is currently as tidy as it ever gets, I thought now was a good time to share some photos! You won't see an all white masterpiece, but you will see my very functional "Stampin' Space on a Budget"! Shanan and I are currently renting, and we move reasonably often, so it didn't make sense to me to spend a lot of money on outfitting a room, not knowing what kind of space I'll have in the future. Plus, less money on furniture meant more money on supplies!

Overtime my room has been furnished almost entirely in kit set furniture from The Warehouse (a bit like Walmart for my international visitors!) and a couple of purpose designed pieces from Kmart. You'll also see almost everything is on the floor - landlords don't take kindly to rails and shelves screwed into the wall for punch and stamp storage! Watch out for those $10 bookcases you can pick up sometimes....I use quite a few of them in a couple of different ways! My room also features a couple of cat beds - if I don't have a place for my cats to sleep they inevitably end up in the middle of whatever I'm stamping...so the trade off of taking up space vs. happy kitties is worth it!

Happy Stampin'

Product Spotlight: Three For You Punch Box

Hi everyone, hope your weekend is going great so far! I thought it was about time I wrote the post I've been promising for a week now - highlighting my new favourite product...the Three For You Punch Box! (There's a special offer coming at the end of this post!)

Regular readers will know I'm punch mad - so much so, that this was the only punch I needed to complete my Stampin' Up! collection! Now that I have it, I'm kicking myself for waiting so long to get it. Here's why....

First, let's take a look at what you get in the box. Wait, let's talk about the box itself! I was SO surprised how large this box is! It's a really cute metal box with a clear lid and a silver hinge. The thing I like most about the box is the label comes on a sticker sheet in the inside - so if you want to use it for something else you don't even have to peel the label off first!

Inside is the Trio Flower Punch, the 9 piece Three for You stamp set and three Stampin' Spot inkpads in Basic Black, Wild Wasabi and Purely Pomegranate. All you need to start creating is some card stock, everything else is here!

The stamp set is wonderful - the first thing you need to know is the set is die cut! That means you don't have to trim your stamps before mounting them on the wood blocks. Love that. I also love that it features a mix of images and sentiments, as well as polka dots - my favourite background image at the moment. And of course, the flower images fit inside the punch perfectly as you'll see soon.

There's nothing like seeing a couple of projects to get the gist of a product, so here's a couple I whipped up last night. This is a card I've had in my head even before my punch box arrived - that's rare for me, I don't usually start with a plan, so I'm glad this turned out cute! One of my favourite things about Spring is Blossom Trees - they are just so beautiful. I thought the trio flower punch would make wonderful blossoms!

To make the blossoms, all I did was punch Blush Blossom and Pretty in Pink cardstock. I then "nicked" the edge of each blossom with the distressing tool from my cutter kit, but you could use scissors (be careful!) This starts to split the cardstock slightly, and because Stampin' Up! cardstock is such good quality, you can split each petal without ripping the cardstock. I just get my fingernail in between the layers then roll up the edge of the petal. I love the softly feathered effect this gives.

Once I had my flowers I stamped the branch image from the hostess set Spring Solitude repeatedly in Chocolate Chip ink. There are lots of stamp sets with images that would work as branches, or you could draw them freehand. I used SNAIL to adhere some of the flowers and a little piece of Stampin' Dimensional to raise others up.

A bit of piercing, some Spring Fling Designer Paper, Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon and my card was done! Now, just to be sure I had achieved the blossom effect, I asked hubby what he thought it was - "one of those trees....a blossom tree" he said, so mission accomplished!This second card was a Terrific Ten - I made it in under 10 minutes. I used the Purely Pomegranate ink in the tin to stamp the polka dots on Whisper White. I also used the same ink to stamp the flowers - stamping onto scrap paper twice after inking to get the pale shade for the bold flowers. Because you stamp and punch three flowers at once it's super quick to make these little embellishments.

I used the slit punch to make the scalloped edge for the card base, stamped the sentiment, tied some ribbon and adhered everything with dimensionals - voila!

Are you in love with this kit yet?!? If you are, I better give you a special offer hadn't I? Because the only thing the box doesn't include is cardstock....purchase the Three For You Punch Box before October 31st from me for $109.95 including discounted postage, and choose any pack of A4 cardstock from the 48 regular colours or the 2008 In Colours for FREE! That's a $12.50 value!

Everything will be couriered to your door, no extra postage for rural customers! You're welcome to add other products to your order for the same postage price if wished. Please email me if you would like to take advantage of this offer. All payment methods accepted, including Visa and Mastercard.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, hope the sun is shining where you are!

Organisation is Key!

Well, it's certainly been awhile since I've gone a week in between posts! I do have an excuse though - I've been reorganising. I realised I've been in a constant state of tidying for awhile now, it was time to completely resort, throw out and rehouse a lot of my stamping goodies! I was finding it impossible to create in the midst of the chaos that was my stamp room, so hopefully things will be back to normal now!

Because organising and the need for a tidy workspace was a big topic during the UStamp chat last night, I thought I'd show you a couple of the ways I keep my space tidy and my goodies at my finger tips!
The first is a wee project that is so fun to do, and so useful as well! This is my designer paper ring. Now, I have a confession to make - I have all the double sided papers in the catalogue! Who can blame me though, they are so gorgeous! But with such an abundance of paper, it was hard to remember what patterns I had (and the photos in the catty can't do these papers justice, they are so much more beautiful in real life!)

So I made this ring. It's really simple - the dividers are squares of Very Vanilla Card stock with the corners rounded. The stamped label is from the Totally Tabs set - I like that this design has three lines, I can mark any papers "retired" on the third line when I need too. You just stamp it, punch it out with the round tab punch and fold it over to make your tab. Love it!

I just punched out 6 scalloped circles for each paper pack, one from each different sheet. I used the Crop-a-dile to punch the holes, so I could do all of them at once - so much faster and easier than doing them one by one!
I also have one for all the card stock colours. For this one I chose a shade of yellow from each colour family for the dividers and tabs. It's so useful having these rings on my desk at all times, they take up very little space and I have all my colours right there for mixing and matching.

While we're talking about card stock, here's how I store mine...

I have some cheapee file cabinets from Kmart that take A4 hanging files. Each colour has it's own folder, and I keep scraps in the front of the folder, full sheets at the back. I have four drawers, one for Soft Subtles and Rich Regals, one for Bold Brights and Earth Elements, one for Neutrals and specialty card and one for In Colours, current and retired.

I made labels from each colour card and I've got them stored in catalogue order (my card stock is probably the most well organised thing in this room!) My label maker is instrumental in keeping everything in it's place, as you 'll see here....

These are my sponge daubers. I love these little guys! They are in a drawer beside my ink pads - and I use my label maker on the smallest setting to label each one with a colour as I first use it. The "waiting to be used" ones are in the bag at the back.

You can have one sponge dauber for each overall colour - one for pinks, reds, blues etc - but over time your colours will start to get muddy when you sponge, not a good look! I won't have a dauber for every colour - if it's one I think I'll rarely sponge with I just use a wedge of Stampin' Sponge. But for my most used colours, I wouldn't be without these!

While we're talking about rearranging things....I was wondering...am I the only person that saves the "greenery" from wilted bouquets and uses it to make a new arrangment? I like making flowers last longer this way, and often with the gorgeous "fillers" in bouquets today you can make something just as pretty. This is the leftovers from my birthday flowers from my family and Shanan, I don't know what those feathery looking things are...but I love them!

I'll have more organisation tips and photos of how I keep my stampin' stash stored (try saying that five times fast!) for you soon. For now, dinner is in the crockpot simmering away (picture me at 7am this morning, tears streaming down my face from cutting onions!) and I have the whole day to stamp! I haven't forgotten my new fav mystery product promise, details soon!

One for the Guys!

I thought it was about time I shared my Father's Day card with you all! There's a very good reason you haven't seen it till now - my Dad reads my blog and I didn't want him to see it (Hi Dad!) I used my favourite new paper on this one...and also my spiral punch - which I've had forrrrrrrever but haven't used on a project till now! I love it though and will be using it tons from now on!
All the papers for this one are from the Notebook paper pack. Aren't they gorgeous? The ink is Soft Sky and the cardstock is Kraft. I crinkled the top piece of paper before inking the edges slightly with River Rock ink, stitching with Linen Thread and punching with the spiral punch.

The stars from Wanted are stamped in Close to Cocoa on Kraft and punched with the small star punch.

The sentiment from Occasional Greetings was distressed with my cutter kit before layering on Kraft card.

I think this one would easily work for any "guy occasion" just a change of sentiment and you have a birthday card. Super simple and modern!

I got a lovely big parcel today with some new goodies, so will share my new fav thing tomorrow....it's something that's been on my wishlist since April and I can't wait to show you how cool it is (the photos in the catty don't do it justice!)


Stampin Supplies:
Stamp Set: Wanted, Occasional Greetings
Ink: Soft Sky, Close to Cocoa, River Rock
Card stock: Kraft, Very Vanilla
Paper: Notebook Designer Paper
Punches: Spiral and small Star punches.
Accessories: Mat pack and piercing tool, Linen Thread, Cutter Kit, Sponge Dauber, Stampin’ Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive.
All supplies available from Stampin' Up! Please email me to order.

I'm Dreaming of a....Green...Christmas?

Last night we had the Christmas Chaos stamp-a-stack. Lots of fun and crafting! I'm not going to share all ten cards just yet so we don't spoil it for those booked for the next class, but I thought I would show you this one with the gorgeous Season of Joy stamp set.
The snowflake images are from the Snow Burst set. I love these colours for a Christmas card, they are so pretty together.

I whipped up some Jaffa muffins for the gals last night, and have put that recipe, along with the Baked Pasta and Meatballs recipe that Hannah asked for on this post. If you're anything like me you're always on the lookout for good recipes, so hope you like these ones! I'll try and share more recipes occasionally.

In other news, the first batch of Beautiful Bundles for September shipped today - yippee! Will email those of you who had one ship tonight.

Hope you're staying warm and dry if your weather is as icky as ours right now, lovely day to stay inside by the fire or heater and stamp!


Stampin Supplies:
Stamp Set: Season of Joy, Snow Burst
Ink: Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery and Sage Shadow markers. Whisper White craft ink.
Card stock: Sage Shadow, Whisper White, Soft Sky
Paper: Wintergreen Designer Paper
Punches: Photo Corner Punch
Accessories: Certainly Celery wide grosgrain ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive.
All supplies available from Stampin' Up! Please email me to order.

Terrific Tens: Too Cute

Here's another quick and easy card, this time using products from the UStamp class kit as promised. The rub-ons and die cut flowers in the kit make putting a card together super simple. Apologies for the photo, I didn't realise how washed out the colours were till just now!

• Apply the rub-on sentiment from the A Perfect Day pack to the red die cut flower using the applicator stick. Remove the backing paper slowly, if any areas haven't adhered correctly, just continue rubbing with the applicator.
• Cut a length of Summer Picnic designer paper and scallop a piece of Old Olive cardstock. Adhere the scallops to the paper then attach to a Bashful Blue cardbase using dimensionals.
• Stamp and cut out the strawberry from Tart and Tangy. Punch a window in the card, and if desired, adhere a second punched piece behind the smaller window to create a frame. Adhere the strawberry using a double layer of dimensionals, just stack one on top of the other.
• To finish, use a piece of the rub-on border along the top edge of the card.

There you have it...cute and summery in less than ten minutes!


Stampin Supplies:
Stamp Set: Tart and Tangy
Ink: Old Olive, Real Red
Card stock: Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Real Red
Paper: Summer Picnic
Punches: Slit, 1 1/14" Circle and 1 3/8" Circle punches
Accessories: A Perfect Day Rub-ons, Die Cut Blooms, Stampin’ Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive.
All supplies available from Stampin' Up!

Birthday Photos

Thanks so much for all your comments, emails and IMs with birthday wishes, reading them was lovely! We jetted all over Wellington yesterday, Presents and Wellington Zoo in the morning, the movies in the afternoon (at the Gold Lounge - think armchairs and a full menu to order from!) dinner at Cobb and Co in Upper Hutt in the evening (My fav resturant since I was a kid) and a wonderful cake to top it all off!

I thought I'd share some of my favourite photos from the day - I can't take credit for most of these (except the cake one I messed up lol) Shanan took almost all of them. I'm spending this rather chilly evening at my stamp desk, should have something new to show you tomorrow!

Female Gibbon, only the males are black - didn't know that!

I loved the Malaysian Sun bear, he had these intense unblinking eyes, and just look at those claws!

Have you ever seen a grumpier face?!

The Baboons were so hard to photograph, they were so far away behind lots of wire. Thank goodness for digital zoom!

I love anything cute and cuddly, this Lemur certainly fits the bill!
mmmmm, hay.
Looks just like my cats when they're asleep!
I loved the Red Pandas. I got a gorgeous soft toy from the gift shop. They have such vivid coats. This was the only one that was sitting still, obviously the elder of the bunch.
Meerkats are my favourite stop at any Zoo or Wildlife park. This guy was the lookout and was so intensely focused on his job!The gorgeous cake from Tempt. All my photos of the cake are this bad, I don't think the gold dust liked my camera flash much!

Pink-a-licous!

Whew - I didn't think I'd get time to make anything for you today, but found a spare 20 minutes to put this piece of pink perfection together! (Ok, ok, so it might not be perfection, but I got hung up on the alliteration!)

Because I had limited time, I kept things ultra simple by using a monochromatic colour scheme. Anytime you find yourself stuck creatively, try doing something all in shades of the same colour, you'll love the results!

Images from the now retired Stem Silhouettes stamp set were stamped on Blush Blossom card using Pretty in Pink and Regal Rose ink. The sentiment from the wonderful One of a Kind set was stamped in Regal Rose.

I added a pierced border with my mat pack and piercing tool, stopping short of the corner where I'd add three Pretty in Pink brads. This just created a bit more visual interest.

The Blush Blossom layer was adhered to a mat of Regal Rose using Stampin' Dimensionals.

I then cut out 8 scalloped strips with my Slit punch. 4 each in Regal Rose and Pretty in Pink. Each strip was made up of five scallops. The scallops were layered on each other, then adhered to the focal image using SNAIL adhesive.

I covered a Regal Rose cardbase with the pretty polka dot paper from the Spring Fling pack (yup, still got spring on the brain!) The bow was tied with Regal Rose wide grosgrain ribbon. I adhered the focal image using Stampin' Dimensionals and was done!

Even with all the punching, this only took 20 minutes from sitting down at my desk to being finished. The monochromatic colour scheme just simplifies the whole process.

I had hoped to make a second card and set up a post to run automatically for you tomorrow as I'll be out and about celebrating my birthday! However, a day spent with the maintenance guy for our rental house got in the way....but I'll be back soon with something fun to share. In the meantime, don't forget my Birthday Blowout special!

I'll end with a photo of the gorgeous bouquet my parents and youngest brother sent today. It's so beautiful, but even more stunning is the amazing scents filling the house! There's nothing like fresh flowers to brighten your day, Thanks Mum, Dad and Leroy!


Stampin Supplies:
Stamp Sets: Stem Silhouettes, One of a Kind
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose
Card stock: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Blush Blossom
Paper: Spring Fling Designer paper
Punches: Slit punch
Accessories: Mat pack and piercing tool, Regal Rose wide grosgrain ribbon, Soft Subtles brads, Stampin’ Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive.
All supplies available from Stampin' Up! Please email me to purchase.