School Fete Eve

It is the night before the Fete at last. I've baked up a storm today, made 5 dozen cupcakes. Of which only 3 dozen turned out ok. I discovered that when you double the recipe, you are supposed to double the quantity of ALL the ingredients , not just the butter and eggs!

Here is a picture of some of the pretties we are selling at the "Gifts & Greets" stall tomorrow. I'm praying for good weather!

Backorder Report, Reminders, etc

This blog post is all business!  LOL

Promotions and Specials:

A quick reminder if you want to take advantage of the 2-step special, you have until Friday to order it from me (because I'll be at the School Fete all day on Saturday) if you wish to take advantage of it!

Also the recruit special (Starter Kit 20% off) finishes on the 31st, so if you've been thinking about doing what I do (or just using the discount for your self)  you had best do so by the 31st.

The current Backorder situation:

You can currently order the following item, and it will begin shipping the week of 2 August 2010.

108608: Brocade Blue A4 Card Stock

The Last Chance List (Retirement List) will be up on the Stampin' Up! website on the 1st August (Sunday) and I'll post it here too, along with my own list of retired Stamp sets for sale, so keep an eye out for them!

Finally another reminder about the New Catty Launch on 4th September - contact me to secure your spot asap!

A New Hobby?

Is it just me, or is quilting suddenly everywhere at the moment?  I've noticed at the newsagent where there were a dozen scrapbooking magazines two years ago, now there are a dozen quilting magazines.
Not wanting to miss a boat, I did some myself!

Ha, ha, did I trick you?  LOL.  I made this using some scraps of DSP (Sweet Always), the Big Shot (Top Note Die and dotty embossing folder), the Mat Pack and piercer, and a chocolate chip marker.  It wasn't hard to do, but it did take me a while.  I intended to send this card to a friend in the mail  but it was too bulky to post, so I delivered it by hand instead.  

All Aboard the Baby Train!

No, I'm not pregnant, LOL!  But in real life there has been an explosion of new little people arriving and I've been looking at the whole Baby Card thing differently.  My usual go-to stamp set, Nursery Neccessities was retired in the US, and I'm predicting it will be here too (sidenote - we get the Retired List on 1st August, so not long to go!).  I noticed in the US the gorgeous Choo Choo set is in their new catalogue - this was in a Mini for us in December last year I think?  Anyway, I thought I'd try my hand at using it for a baby card on the off chance we do get it in our catalogue!

I think it worked out pretty well, too!  I decided to use some of the colours that will be leaving us - ballet blue, creamy caramel (sniff!  I love them!).  This card uses the Top Note die, large oval and scallop oval punches, and some Real Red spotty ribbon from a Mini a while ago.
Have a happy Monday everyone!

New Catty Launch 4th September

Clear your diary and make sure you let me know if you wish a place reserved, this will be a GREAT day!
Here is the flyer:

Completely unrelated to stamping, but so worth it!

Some Simple Scrapping

Have you noticed the Kraft 12x12 cardstock in the Mini Catalogue?  As soon as I saw it, I had to have it.  And when I had it, I was actually inspired to do some scrapbooking (insert singing choirs of angels)!

This layout uses the Pink Flamingo DSP which I cut out and mounted on Dimensionals.  The pink rhinestones are from my stash. 










Next is a double page layout of photos I took on our boat trip on Good Friday:

The Pacific Point cardstock looks great with Kraft and white, doesn't it?

Finally this page - I used a circle image stamped in Versamark to look like bubbles.  The letter stickers are from my stash.
I still feel very much like a beginner scrapbooker, but I'm happy with these pages!  Now I can do a whole album with Kraft 12x12 ...... eventually!

Cottage Garden

OK, I couldn't come up with a witty title for this post - so sue me!  LOL
I LOVE this stamp set, and I hope it makes it into the new IB&C because it really is useful.

The card on the top left was designed by Steph Pike for our Mini Launch a couple of months ago, and the card on the top right was made by Sue Maddox - I received it as a swap at Convention.  The little note card at the bottom was something I gave to my customers when I mailed out the Mini Catalogues to them.

A Rose by any other name...

I don't own this lovely stamp set (shock!  Horror!)  but I was lucky enough to receive this card as a swap at Regionals last year.  I will come back to edit to include the artist's name, because it is downstairs in my Lair and I am upstairs at the computer right now!

Tomorrow's cards.......Cottage Garden!

2 Steps into fabulous, Dahling!

I can't say (or type) the word "fabulous" without thinking of the cult TV show "Absolutely Fabulous".  Remember?




Anyway, I have found a few more examples of cards made with the sets that are featured in the current special:

 I'll post a different set each day.
Here are some cards made with Cheep Talk - some of them were NOT handmade by Lou, they were handmade by Barb Douglas, my wildly talented friend who is alas, blogless at this time.

 This is a Christmas card Barb made - isn't she clever?  The baubles are from Circle Circus.

The pear card on the bottom left here was also made by Barb.  Isn't this a cute set?  I will warn you, with this set, as with most 2-step stamps, you really need a Stamp-a-ma-jig to align everything perfectly.   Another set tomorrow!

Third Card for Thursday

I mean, this is the third card we will be making on Thursday (or Friday night if Thursday is no good for you).  I still have a few spots left!

This uses Tiny Tags (which is on sale for 20% off right now!) and is CASE'd but changed a little from a card Shelli Gardiner showed us at Convention.

Have a lovely day!

The 2 Step continued

Here is another card we will be making in my class this week featuring one of the stamp sets that is 20% off at the moment! Cottage garden.

Class on Thursday/Friday

School is back next week! My monthly class is back too. Here is one of the cards we will be making that features 2-step stamping!

Yet more changes...and the Backlog Report

I know, I always play with my blog when I have other things to do.....doesn't it look purty?

Blogger has these cool new templates, so I've been having some fun with them.

Anyhoo, back to business!  We have had a gorgeous holiday, thankfully we have another week before it is back to school and the old routine again!  

I've sent out my newsletter this morning, so if you would like to get onto my mailing list, drop me a line and I'll add you in.  I'll be holding my monthly class next week when the kids are back at school, and I'll be tying in the July Promotion (click on the "Deals of the Week" icon over in my sidebar for details) which is all about 2 step stamping!

In other news, Stampin' Up! is already coming up against some backorders - I'll try to keep a list running of everything that is on backorder/has run out of stock here on my blog so keep an eye out.

As at today, 5th July 2010:

the following are on backorder (meaning you can order them, but they won't ship for another week or two):

* Ballet Blue ink refill
*Creamy Caramel A4 cardstock
*Mellow Moss A4 cardstock
*Gable Green A4 cardstock
*Taken With Teal A4 cardstock
*Pale Plum A4 cardstock
**Going Gray ink refill
**Certainly Celery 5/8th inch grosgrain ribbon
**ice circle rhinestone brads
**ice square rhinestone brads
**Fire square rhinestone brads
**Trio Flower Punch
***Pale Plum ink refill

nb products with * will begin shipping the week of 12th July; ** begin shipping the week of 19th July, and *** begin shipping the week of 2nd August)

The following products are OUT OF STOCK and are no longer available to order:
Sweet Slumber Speciality DSP and Close to Cocoa A4 cardstock.

This has been a public service announcement!

Guess where we are today?

Hope you are enjoying the school holidays as much as we are!