New Catalogue

Wow how exciting is September!! The new 2011 -2012 Ideas Book and Catalogue has been launched and it is full of wonderful new stamps and products. One of the many new things is fabric. Yes that's right we now have a fabric range that coordinates with other Stampin' Up! products. To view the new catalogue on line click on the image on the side of my blog. If you would like your very own copy then please contact me for details.

Another very exciting change in the new catalogue is the hostess benefits. There has been an overhaul of the hostess benefits and you now have a lot more flexibility with hostess dollars and the chance to earn products at 50% off, so if you are interested in earning hostess dollars contact me to learn how.

Also in September Stampin' Up! have a fantastic Mini Starter Kit promotion, where you can join the Stampin' Up! family for only $169 and enjoy all the wonderful benefits of being a demonstrator - see flyer on side of my blog. And if you would like more details feel free to contact me.

My order of new goodies hasn't arrived yet (I was expecting it today, but no luck - fingers crossed for tomorrow), but I have two projects I made with sneak peak products. My plan is to have time this coming weekend to play with new stuff (including fabric) so there will be more projects to show soon.

Stamp Set: Pennant Parade, Sincere Saluations
Cardstock: 2011-2013 In colors (Indigo Island, Pool Party, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade and Wisteria Wonder) Whisper White
Ink: 2011-2013 In colors
Accessories: Lattice embossing folder, Petitie Pennants Builder Punch

Stamp Set: Pennant Parade
Cardstock: Wisteria Wonder, Flirtatious Specialty Designer Series Paper
Accessories: Petitie Pennants Builder Punch, On Board Merry Medley, Beautiful Wings Embosslits Die, Basic Pearls.

My Husband's Birthday

Well for the couple of weeks leading up to Andrew's 40th Birthday he was a little, shall we say "in denial"...So I decided not to put a big 40 on the front of his card, but I couldn't resist making it look "aged". Since we had already celebrated Birthdays in Port Douglas the actual day of his birthday was some what low key (just the way he wanted!). We had a most pleasant afternoon with a long lunch at Jack Rabbit Winery. The kids had a great time running around while we enjoyed delicious food and wine on a rare sunny winters day!!

Stamp Sets: Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Sentiments and Woodgrain (difficult to see in photo - background on Early Espresso)
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Very Vanilla and Early Espresso
Ink and Markers: Early Espresso and Old Olive, Tea Stain (from disressing kit).
Accesories: Distressing kit, Satin Ribbon, Brad, Oval and Word Window Punches.

New Stuff

My sneak peak preorder and the brand new 2011-2012 Ideas Book and Catalogue arrived on Monday....all I can say is wow!! Whenever a new catalogue is launched I sit down and write a first instinct wish list. This year it is quite a long list which suprised me. I honestly thought since it is my 4th new catalogue as a demonstrator (and I have lots of stuff) there wouldn't be too much must have new stamps and accessories. Well I was wrong!!! There are some great new stamp sets and I think I love nearly all the new Designer Series Papers and as for the ribbons....I could go on and on. So if you want to see what I am all excited about contact me to order your very own copy of the new catalogue which goes live on September 1st.

Unfortunately I am working (in my real job) extra hours at the moment and so I haven't had much time to play with my new stuff, but I managed to get these 2 cards made on Monday night.
This first one I made using the new In Colors.

Stamp sets: Pennant Parade
Cardstock: Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Wisteria Wonder, Island Indigo and Whisper White
Ink: Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Luck Limeade, Wisteria Wonder and Island Indigo
Accessories: Petite Pennants Builder Punch, Itty Bitty Punch, Hemp Twine and Basic Jewel Rhinestones

The second card was a set I saw at convention and knew I would have to have it, so it was a definate on my preorder.
Stamp Sets: Forever Young, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Cardstock: Lucky Limeade, Whisper White and Early Espresso DSP
Ink: Lucky Limeade and Early Espresso
Accessories: Scallops Dot Ribbon (Chocolate Chip), Large Oval and Word Window Punches, Big Shot, Beautiful Wings Embosslit Die and Basic Jewel Pearls.

Hopefully I will get time to play more over the coming weeks so check back to see more new products.

Also our next Stampathon is on Saturday 22nd October 2011. It will be a Christmas theme so keep the date free and look out for more info soon.

Sneak Peak

It is a very exciting time of year for Stampin' Up! The retiring list has been released (click on the link on the side to check it out) and August is your last chance to order anything on this list. Because on the 1st September our brand new 2011-2012 Ideas Book and Catalogue is available.

One of the fantastic benefits of being a demonstrator is we get sneak peaks at new products and are able to preorder select items from the new catalogue. I have already placed my preorder and am hoping it will arrive soon!!!
When I attended convention in May we were given this new set which will be available in September so this is my first sneak peak.

Stamp Sets: Creative Elements, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Cardstock: Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point and Whisper White
Ink and markers: Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight, Real Red and Pacific Point
Accessories: Basic Pearls, crimper and spritzer.

As soon as my preorder arrives I will make some more sneak peak samples to show you, including the new in colors!!

Monsters and Weddings

I have two projects to share with you today. The first one is a Monster Birthday Card made by my 7 year old son Hamish. He had lots of fun creating this and was so very proud of the end result.

Stamp sets: Make a Monster, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Cardstock: Real Red, Pacific Point, Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight and Whisper White
Ink (and markers): Basic Gray, Real Red, Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise and Tangerine Tango.

This next card is a wedding card I made for a girl at work (she is getting married next week).
As you can see I am loving my lastest edition (Elements of Style).

Stamp Sets: Elements of Style, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Cardstock: Very Vanilla and Riding Hood Red
Ink (and Markers): Going Gray, Riding Hood Red, Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz
Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds

Port Douglas

1971 was a good year!! And since both Andrew and I, and quite a few of our close friends were born that year we decided to celebrate in style!!! So at the start of the year we began planning a holiday. It ended up with 3 couples going away (5 out of the 6 turn 40 this year) with no children to Port Douglas. As the birthdays are scattered throughout the year we settled on the middle. As you can see from the photos below we had a wonderful time and certainly did celebrate in style!!
Now that we are back there will be more stamping to come - I promise.....

Wedding Invitations

This post has been a long time coming due to computer difficulties, for some unknown reason blogger just didn't want to upload my photos, it took several attempts over the past week and now as I type this it is having trouble with the autosave and telling me to reload so here goes again!! All seems to be working for now.

This is one of the projects I had been working on, but had to wait until the invitations had been sent out to post.
These are invitations I designed and made for my best friends up coming Wedding. You can't really tell from the photos, but they have a lovely shimmer from the champagne mist shimmer paint (made into a spray with Isocol)




Stamp Sets: Thoughts and Prayers, Sincere Salutations
Cardstock: Very Vanilla and Riding Hood Red
Ink: Basic Grey and Riding Hood Red
Accessories: Big Shot and Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, basic pearls and rhinestones, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint and the little hearts are made using itty bitty flower punch cut into quaters.

Elements of Style

Not sure what took me so long to get this stamp set. It has been on my wish list for a long time, but just never made it to the top. Until the Stampin' Up! Convention in May. There were so many beautiful swaps and demonstrations using it I came away having to buy it.
This card I made for a friend's birthday recently and I am sure there will be plenty more samples using this set as it has fast become a favourite.

Stamp Sets: Elements of Style, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Cardstock: Marina Mist, Old Olive and Real Red
Stamp pads: Early Espresso, Real Red (and marker) Marina Mist (marker)
Accessories: Big Shot with Beautiful Butterfly Bigz Die, Red Glitter (bit hard to see in photo).

70's party

Last night was my brother-in-law's 40th Birthday Party with a 70's theme. I forgot to take a photo of the card I made for him so I thought I would show you how we dressed up 70's style.

I have a few projects on the go at the moment so check back soon.

Note to self - Remember to take photos of everything!!

Artistic Etchings

Brrrrr, winter has certainly arrived here!! It is a great excuse to stay indoors and do some stamping. These 2 samples I actually made last year when the current catalogue first came out. It is one of my favourite new sets Artistic Etchings, mainly because it reminds me of my favourite city!!! (Oh how nice it would be to be there right now!!!)

Back to Blogging!!!!

Is there anyone out there!!!!???? It has been soooo long since my last blog post I have forgotten what to do!! Where has the time gone? Why haven't I blogged? What have I been doing??
Well they are all really good questions.
I guess the short answer to all is everyday life just keeps getting busier. My blog posts were the easiest thing to stop finding time for, and as more time past I just didn't even think about blogging at all. Then I went to the Stampin' Up! convention in Melbourne a few weeks ago and was so inspired I decided "I need to start up my blog again!!" so here I am.
I am not going to bore you with what's been happing to my life in the last 18 months, I'll just give you a quick update of where I am now.
Possibly the biggest change to our life has been buying a business. The process commenced late last year and after much negotiation and some "stress" my husband and I finally took ownership of "Jennings Custom Steel" on the 4th April 2011. As I now have to somehow fit book keeping into my daily chores, my stamping time has decreased....But my plan is this is only temporary as I get more proficient at book keeping, stamping time will again increase.
As I mentioned I did manage to get to the Stampin' Up! Convention this year and it was absolutely fantastic. We were treated to some great presentations and WOW projects and even got some sneak peaks at what is coming in the next catalogue.
Then last week my downline Nerida and I held our second stampathon. This one was a fundraiser for Breast Cancer. As a fun finish to the day we asked all the participants to use their scraps to make a bra card. So to finish this post I am going to show you those wonderful bra cards. Thank you for coming back to check on me and I promise I will be posting many more fun projects in the very near future.