Birthday Boys

The end of September, beginning of October has always been a crazy time in our family, but a little less crazy nowadays - I don't have to make birthday cakes for my five sons! My husband and I were married in September, number 2 son arrived 28th September, luckily #3 was July, but #4 arrived 8 years after #2, on October 6th so that made for too much cake, too close together. 

Happy birthday for your recent birthdays, boys! Mr 39 has received the somewhat subdued shirt-style card.I was actually thrilled with how it turned out, and you can place money or a gift card in the shirt pocket. I loved the pattern on the Best Route DSP (designer series paper) and using Pocketful Of Sunshine to stamp and diecut the pocket, plus to stamp stitching down the shirt front really tickled my fancy. I had just enough of the retired metal buttons for this project, but I will order the Galvanised buttons on page 13 of the Holiday catalogue as I feel they may be similar.

There is a die in Pocketful Of Sunshine dies that is a half -circle, for a sun in a pocket, and I cut the tee-shirt neck with that, before hand drawing the ribbing. This is such an appropriate card for Jake as on Father's Day (early September in Australia) we were talking about hand-me-downs and homemade clothing. I reminded Jake how he used to order specific items of clothing, including picking out the fabrics with me.That's how he had one-of-a-kind MC Hammer pants!!! I used to sew all my kids clothes including shirts and even suits when they were young. Much easier to just put together a paper shirt!

Both cards are finished off inside in the same way, except Will has the train included, because he catches trains to get around town. The pair of stamps on the inside are from Perennial Birthday, and they are go-to stamps for any birthdays. That stamp set is a Stampin' Up!® suggested stamp set to begin your collection with and I totally agree with that suggestion.

I had a bit more trouble coming up with a card for Will, turning 31. He is an active member of the Melbourne Parkour community, who headed to Sydney recently for a gathering, so I settled on the plane DSP from Best Route. That was before I found out it was a road trip!!!

When I ordered the Best Route paper and En Route stamp set, I also added the Memories and More cards. "You're The Best" is actually a sticker from the Memories & More Cards, and later this month I'll share the Thank you card (using more stickers) I made for the travel agent who arranged the trip to the States for my travel buddy in Adelaide and me.

They will come in very handy when I scrapbook our big adventure I think. So many of the cards seem very appropriate for our first trip to the USA, for both Kathryn and me. We are feeling very brave planning it and travelling independently.

Let me know if I can help you find your crafting solutions, or browse my Online Shop at your convenience.

RJN76UGK

You're Awesome

It's always fun to combine different stamp sets, and I thought that Epic Celebrations and Pocketful of Sunshine matched up pretty nicely! The first is only available as a bonus item with your $90 purchase, while the second one is in the Annual catalogue on page 64. It retails for $30 # 143719 and is only available in photopolymer. Until May 31st you can get the stamp set & matching dies for use in your Big Shot bundled together #145345 at a 10% discount - $63.75.

It's hard to say how this card came about, but I was working on a card for a 10 year old using the pocket and was looking for something else for that card.

Petal Passion DSP, which is black and white and mainly floral, has this geometric piece also, which looks great brayered in a couple of colours, and an off-cut for the inside.

The stitched circle pieces were just hanging about in my scraps tub, but seem to tie in well with the card.

Back in July I made this card with daisies too.

Time has almost run out for SALE-A-Bration but you can still shop online, even over Easter. 

SALE-A-Bration finishes Sunday night, 31st March 2018.

End Of Year Gifts

Thankfully, I've had some time while off work caring for post-op husband, to pop into my craft room and make some end of year projects which I will now share with you. Of course there is lots more still to do, but at least I've made a start!

I've made a bag and card as a teacher gift, birthday cards for grandson and his little sister, a gift and card for a crafty friend and a scrapbook page for my sweet youngest grandchild.

Mainly these stamp sets, Crafting Forever and Pieces & Patterns along with about a quarter pack of Pick a Pattern DSP and some matching card were all I needed to make these, proving you can do a lot with minimal supplies. I did pull a few other stamps off the shelf to help out, but was pleased to feature mainly two.

 I really enjoyed making this gift for a friend, because I know she'll appreciate it. I'm waiting on my pre-order to deliver, when I will decorate some long notecards and envelopes to place in this box. It's a sneak peek from the Occasions catalogue, beginning 3 January 2018. It seemed appropriate to add the pen to the box, and the acetate window with the word framelit was my addition to this project.

I also added a few extra pens to the pot and enjoyed colouring with Stampin' Blends.

This bag and card is for one of my grandsons to give to his teacher. This is a project which I may have to repeat for the others, but it will be my pleasure. Pieces & Patterns really came to the fore here, with the sentiment and of course the fabulous co-ordinating paper. My Gift Bag Punch Board has paid for itself many times over, as I am always putting together a gift bag in minutes for smaller gifts.

I thought the lines  were going to be helpful for my 7 year old grandson to write his own message to the teacher, but I'll check with my D-I-L about the mr. 6.

Isn't the paper perfect for a kid or teacher?

  This is another of the papers from Pick A Pattern DSP but perfect for a little girl turning 5. The bold Happy Birthday greeting is from Birthday Delivery, a very cute stamp set with co-ordinating paper from the Annual catalogue.The primitive flowers are from Pieces & Patterns.

This card is a standard size and can be posted for the usual rate, but with the four panels, it has a bit of a bang! I decided to leave the images black & white as no doubt a 5-year-old girl might like to colour her own.

 But I couldn't resist and had to add some colour and sparkles here on the front!

Now, big brother is very cool. Nothing too baby-ish for him. I've made mistakes in the past and been growled at because he's not a baby! OMG, I think cash might be the only thing to make him happy.

I'm hoping the jeans pocket with green check is okay for Mr Cool.Again, this check patterned paper is fromthe Pick A Pattern DSP, but the other strip is not. Those numbers are from my most-used dies, Large Numbers.

My littlest grandie always makes sure that Gran gets a lovely calendar each Christmas, so I have made a layout for his scrapbook, to remember the Fridays he spends with me. We usually do some sort of craft each week, and cutting paper is currently his favourite. We do stamp from time to time, and he wants a stamp with his name on it like Gran has. I made his name up with the Labeler Alphabet (first time I've used that stamp). Stamped some lines for jounaling with Playful Backgrounds, and then some primary sploshes, from the same stamp set. This time I really let loose with Stampin' Blends to colour the pot of brushes.

While I had the DSP out, I've put together very simple cards using the co-ordinating stamp, Pieces & Patterns, which I'm sure one of the daughter-in-laws will take off my hands for the many birthday parties their little social butterflies attend.

Let me know if you'd like some advice on making these projects, and I'll try my best to assist. If you'd like to shop with me for your craft needs, I will send you a gift when you use the Hostess code at checkout (if your order is less than $250).

ZTQVTQPR

Pocketful Of Daisies

Daisy Delight and  Daisy Punch totally took Stampin' Up!® by surprise. They had no way to predict how popular this stamp and punch bundle would be. In the first 6 weeks it was available, more than 7000 were sold, which is about what the analysts had predicted would sell in a year!

This meant that the order code for this bundle, and even the punch on its own, had to be de-activated for 4 weeks while urgent shipments were sent to all markets. It is hard to say why this happened. Yes, it is a charming set, but is this the real reason? I have no idea....

I have to admit that this is one of my favourite cards I've made with this suite, and it includes some of the Daisy Delight designer series paper. I couldn't resist another new set, Pocketful of Sunshine. There are stamps for the pocket outline, a couple of choices of trim, the little tag which can be stamped with several different acronyms, oh and the cute sunglasses!

July is nearly over, and that means Bonus Deals are coming to an end. Bonus Deals are a Stampin' Up!® deal for July only. When your order totals $90 or any multiple of that, you will be sent the eqivelent number of codes, in an email, which you can add to an order in August to give you $9 off. It equates to a 10% discount. 

Your opportunity to join up as a demonstrator for $169 and get a Bonus package of goodies worth $121 is coming to an end also. Stampin' Up!® are a direct sales company, but it's a great one that doesn't ever pressure you to hold parties, demonstrations or classes. What you do with this opportunity is up to you. Maybe you'll be satisfied with a 20% discount on your purchases, and a chance to have up-to-date products, or you may choose to 'grow' your business, a little or a lot. I'm wanting to increase my team and have the time to support you as you start on this journey. You can read more here, and you can view the contract here.

Cheers, Rachel