Craft Night - Ronald McDonald Fundraiser

TICKETS: Cash payment on the night is fine (or contact me to pay prior).  RSVP is essential so I can prepare enough kits for the cards you'll make.  Thank you.



Thank you to Michelle Zanotti, Karina Chin, Sara Langland and H2 Designs for their inspiration for the projects we'll be making.

A Big Thank You

Over the recent school holidays we were lent a board game by a friend of my Mum's.  I had been saying that I used to enjoy playing it as a child but that I couldn't buy it now, and wondering what had happened to the set I had (as Mum had saved my other board games for me), and she said they had it. 

We were very grateful to be lent the game and my girls and I enjoyed playing it over the holidays.  Here's a card and small token to say thank you to the family who lent it.

 

 

Auckland Extravaganza Craft Day

On the weekend we had our Auckland Extravaganza mid-year event.  We had over 100 people who crafted their hearts out and loved every bit of it.

So how does it work?  The event runs for a whole afternoon.  The doors open at 12pm and you can view lots of displays and samples to give you plenty of ideas and inspiration.  Take a seat for a 12.30pm start. A demonstrator will come and teach you your first project and after 40 minutes she will move on to the next table and another demonstrator will come and teach you your second project.  You make five projects throughout the afternoon with a break for afternoon tea.  There are also prizes drawn throughout the day.

Here is the project that I taught with two other ladies. We took the Wood Crate Die and showed the guests how they could extend it to make a bigger, squarer crate. 

We also used the Wood Textures Designer Series Paper (DSP), so there were lots of different looking crates out there.  Here are but a few of the different ones.  These ones are all quite similar, but there were some that were very different from the others. 

We used the Thick Whisper White Cardstock as a base, underneath the DSP to give the cube some strength.  This was yet another technique that we showed the guests.  

On the top of the memo paper we placed a piece of Thick Whisper White cardstock, which we stamped with the Tree Rings background stamp and sponged with Crumb Cake ink.  We also used the Wood Words stamp set that co-ordinates with the crate die (you can buy it as a bundle with the crate and save 10%), to stamp on the Whisper White tag.  We tied a matching tag from the DSP with it onto the handles with Linen Thread.

These will make great gifts, either masculine or feminine, and our guests enjoyed creating them. 

Each guest receives a gift at their seat and for mine I chose to use the paper I had left over from the memo cubes to make notepads.  I glued them together into pads with backing boards and then made a cover to go over them using the new Lemon Lime Twist cardstock and the Layered Leaves Dynamic Embossing folder.

Then I added a cute little bee from the Dragonfly Dreams stamp set.  Can you see how I've added a bit of Wink of Stella to the wings to make them sparkle? (very hard to catch on camera).

And what gift would be complete without a bit of choccky to eat whilst you're crafting.

Finally, here are the other four projects that the other demonstrators taught.  

 

Top: Lollipop Card, Left: Square card uses the new embossing paste coloured with Fresh Fig reinker, Right: Card with gift card pocket inside, Front: Easel card using the Move Me Thinlits dies - the butterfly looks like its wings are beating when you pull the slider up.  

Here is another shot with the lollipop turned around and the gift card open.

Our next Extravaganza is our most popular one and is Christmas themed.  It will be held on Saturday 18th November in Remuera and I'd love to have you join us. If you're interested, please email me so I can add your name to the guest list.  I will also send you more information closer to the time.  

Birthday Delivery

Here's a card for a sweet little boy who's just turned two.  He happily pointed out the 'bear' and 'balloons' so I'm pretty sure he liked it.    

The background is the new Pinewood Planks Dynamic Embossing folder and I love it - it gives such a deep, textured look and I thought it worked perfectly for this card.  

One tip - don't do what I did. You might notice I've stamped directly onto the same piece of cardstock that is embossed.  To do this, you need to stamp your sentiment before you run the embossing folder it through your big shot.  However, with dynamic embossing folders, it is recommended you spritz the paper with water before you run the folder through to get a deeper impression.  

So I stamped my sentiment and then spritzed my paper and what happened... yes that's right, the ink on my sentiment ran all down the page!  Because our ink is water based dye ink, and I never thought of it when I spritzed.  With my second attempt I had two options, one I could stamp the sentiment on a separate piece of cardstock and adhere it on top, or two, I could run the folder through without spritzing it.  I chose to run it through without spritzing it, because I wanted a streamed look and didn't want a sentiment adhered separately.  It still turned out very well without being spritzed.   

For the animals, I've used the Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper and I've cut two of them out. If you're not into fussy cutting, this paper comes with co-ordinating framelits which cut some of the pictures out, however not these two guys.  I've fussy cut them. Then I used a strip of the DSP along the top for a bit of added interest.  

And of course, you can't not decorate the inside of your card.  It makes all the difference.

Supplies: 
Cardstock: Crumb Cake
Paper: Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper
Stamps: Birthday Delivery
Ink: Night of Navy, Crumb Cake 

DSP Share

With a new catalogue comes brand new Designer Series Paper (DSP).  So that we could have a little bit of each paper, to either display for customers, or play with, I organised a DSP share within our team. Each person who joined in the share received one 6x6 size piece (or 6x3 in the case of specialty sheets) of each DSP from 11 different packs.

Have you ever seen such a big pile of DSP? 

Here are some photos of us working on the share (cutting it all into 6x6 sheets and packaging it) 
 

Coffee Break Designer Series Paper

Bundle of Love Designer Series Paper

Naturally Eclectic Designer Series Paper

I picked a favourite paper from each pack - do you like them too?

Birthday Delivery, Just Add Color, Whole Lot of Lovely, Delightful Daisy, Foil Frenzy, PickAPattern

Be Merry, Naturally Eclectic, Bundle of Love, Coffee Break, Eastern Palace

These are photos of the papers that I have taken and cropped.  Some of the colours show differently on the camera.  The Foil Frenzy paper is a kraft base but in trying to show the shine I turned the flash on, and it looks quite different.  So too does the Bundle of Love one - that is actually Very Vanilla believe it or not.  

Anyway, here are the finished papers once we'd cut them all up and packaged them.

A couple of people were near enough to me to collect theirs, rather than me posting it, so here is how I packaged it for them. 

 

I used the new Circle Tab Punch and wrote their names on the base.  I attached it to a plain white paper bag which I'd stamped up using the Daisy Delight Stamp Set.

Everyone was pleased with the share they received and I was grateful to them for taking part.  It was quite a bit of work but in doing so, I had the unique opportunity to see each of these packs of DSP in their full size and appreciate them as they are.

New Stampin' Up! Catalogue Open Day

We are set up at the Stoney Homestead Community Hub in Millwater with new catalogues, new products and lots of displays to see.

Come along and see the new In-colours and try the tasty food themed to each colour.

Today (Saturday) from 10-4pm and tomorrow Sunday 3-4.30pm.

New Catalogue Open Day