I promised a little while ago to come back here with some masculine birthday cards, inspired by a fantastic display of rust we saw in Wycheproof.

Well, I finally worked up the courage to snip into those beautiful new papers in our Designer Series Paper pack "Well Worn" and here's what I came up with!

I have layered Early Espresso, River Rock and Soft Suede card and striped DSP and dug out some images which I stamped in Not Quite Navy Ink.  The horse if from the retired set "Wanted", the sailing boats are from the retired set "Set Sail" and the awesome tools are from our brand new background stamp "Tool Shed".

The Decorative Label Punch and some gold embossing powder came in very handy and I finished the cards off with some Antique Brads and Jumbo Eyelets.

It's hard to find designs for masculine cards, but it's amazing what you can do with fabulous printed paper and some rustic embellishments.  Hope you've found some inspiration here!

Hi there! Hope you're having a great Friday?

Well, I have been really giving those Petal Cone Baskets a flogging, but I wanted to show you the project that started it all!

Remember a month ago when I was on my stamp camp at East Warburton, and my group had our monthly blog hop?  We used the Big Shot, and I made a very embossed Christmas card to share with you.  If you can't remember, or are new to my blog, here is the link to that post.

At the same time, I made another Christmas Card with similar techniques and products, but I loved this one even more.

The beautiful textured background layer on this card is Very Vanilla Card stock.  You ink up the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder using the brayer and Crumb Cake ink, then feed the Very Vanilla card through the Big Shot to come out with this gorgeous sandstone looking finish.

I also spritzed it with Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint in a spray mister.  The punched stocking and die cut flowers have been brayered over to highlight the texture pattern on them, and the lovely borders are made with the Scallop Trim border punch.

I've used one of our new Glimmer Brads in the centre of the flower layer.  They come in such a great choice of colours - I wonder which ones you'd choose!

Don't you just love the luxurious feel of that textured finish?

And of course, that's what lead to me creating Christmas handing baskets with the Petal Cone Die, taking the same techniques and applying them to a gift box instead.

I can see myself making lots of these for my friends this year!!

Before I go - did you know that Stampin' Up! has a Big Shot promotion this month?  The Petal Cone Die is one of the dies that is 10% off until the end of November.  The details of all the Big Shot Product specials can be seen by clicking here!

I am placing orders today and in the next few days, so if you would like any of these great deals, please let me know.  I will be away at the end of the month for 5 days, so please don't leave it until then.

Email : [email protected]

Phone : 0418 361 931

Hi Everyone!

Want to see more details of my Workshop Wow's from the Stampin' Up! Melbourne Regional Training Day?

I love the Baby Girl Pink Petal Cone basket I made.

I wanted a more vintage look for these projects, so rather than choosing Pink Pirouette or Pretty in Pink with Whisper White, like I normally would for a baby girl, I selected Blushing Bride from our In-Colour Range. It's a warmer colour and sits very nicely next to Very Vanilla card stock instead of Whisper White.

I cut two Petal Cones in Blushing Bride card using the Petal Cone Die and Big Shot Die Cutter, then brayered the inside of the Petals-a-Plenty Textured Impressions Embossing Folder with Crumb Cake ink. Both pieces of petal cone were embossed with the inked embossing folder then attached together like this :

See how the Crumb Cake ink really makes that embossed image pop!

Extra pieces for layering were cut from Very Vanilla Card, and the pink design from Letters to Santa Designer Series Paper using the scallop circle and 1 & 3/4" circle punches, and the larger doily from the Perfect Pennants Die.

I found some Blushing Bride Glimmer Brads in our In Colour pack of brads, and teamed these with Pretty in Pink Striped Grosgrain Ribbon layered (sneak peak! sneak peak!!) with the gorgeous Very Vanilla Velvet Ribbon which is coming in our Summer Mini Catalogue (1st December!).

These pieces join to form the handle of the hanging basket. How gorgeous is that ribbon??

I also added some tags created using the "Short & Sweet" stamp set and the Jewellery, Word Window & Modern Label tags.

Now I just have to work out what to put in it, and how I can post it interstate for the new girl baby in our family, without it getting crushed in the mail!! 

 Maybe it just needs to be filled with chocolates and given to "grandmum" who lives closer!  I suspect that she is just as worthy of a gorgeous gift and congratulations on her 10th grandchild!

Hope you've found time to stamp this week, or if not, I hope this inspires you to get out your supplies and try something new!

See you soon!

Hi everyone!

It's a funny old life when you have an awesome weekend and then have to come crashing back to earth on Monday and join the real world, isn't it?

I've just had a weekend like that!

On Friday evening, I sat with the lovely Alison Wall  and helped her fill out her application for the Stampin' Up! Starter Kit.  Alison could straight away see the value in the amazing starter kit, and the endless possibilites and advantages of being a member of the Stampin' Up! family. Welcome to my team, the Aussie Inkpressionists, Alison. We look forward to getting to know you, and help you learn everything you can about the wonderful Stampin' Up! products so you can really enjoy them and get the most out of them.

With Kim & Barbara also joining my team recently, I have moved up a level to Manager, which is very exciting for me.  I have had this as a goal for a while now, and feel very satisfied that I was able to tick this box, despite working full-time elsewhere and having a long commute most days.

Thank you ladies for joining my team.  I feel very privileged that you want to learn from me, and I promise that I will do everything I can to make your Stampin' Up! journey an enjoyable and successful one.

What else happened on the weekend?  Well, another huge privilege I had recently was being asked by the Stampin' Up! staff to present a "Workshop Wow" to my fellow demonstrators at our Melbourne Regional Training Day, which was at the Convention Centre on Saturday.

If you think demonstrating at a workshop for 6-8 friendly ladies is nerve-wracking, wait until you are sitting at a table with a camera man over your left shoulder, an enormous screen behind you showing up every grey hair in detail, and when you look up there's about 400 very talented Stampin' Up! demonstrators waiting for you to show them something that's going to knock their socks off!!!

There's a challenge!!  But you know me - that's just the kind of challenge I like - and considering how FRIENDLY Stampin' Up! demonstrators are, I really didn't have anything to be worried about!

So, what did I demonstrate?

Well, here on the big screen is the Petal Cone Christmas Hanging Basket I created, using the Big Shot, Petal Cone Die & Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder.  I haven't had a chance to upload the other photos yet, but I did make three other sample baskets, which I will endeavour to show you more of, over the next few days, along with some instructions and a couple of step by step photos.

So stick around and check out the others!

Before I go, I want to say a huge thanks to all my wider team who were there on Saturday and who were so supportive and encouraging, including Claire Daly, Sue Madex, Genna Gifford, Alisha Watson, Di Dunk, Nikki Sadler, Kim, Barbara & Samantha, Fiona Ryan & Marlene Robbins, and all the lovely familiar faces too including Gail, Denise, Chris, Tracy, Sarah, Michelle, Tobi, Pauline . . . yeah, yeah it's becoming an Oscar speech!!  SU! might not ask me again, so I have to make the most of it!! LOL

If you've ever given any thought to becoming a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, or just joining up to get that awesome starter kit (over $600 in products for only $289 ), why not pop over to my demonstrator website and have a read on the "Join the Fun" tab.  And if you're really keen, you can follow the links and join up right there and then! Click here to have a look!

I'll be back soon with more photos of my hanging baskets, see you then!

I know you must be wondering what I have been up to!  It feels like ages since I did a good run of blog posts with photos of my creations.  Such a busy few weeks at the moment, and of course, loving every minute!

Three weeks ago I had my stamp camp which was such fun, then we had four days of major craft show - which had it's challenges, but overall was an awesome event.  Last weekend I had two really great workshops - thanks everyone who came along and made it fun!

So why haven't I posted any creation works since then?  Well, I have been creating, but I've been really busy creating projects for a very special event that's coming up this Saturday and it's a bit of a secret, so I can't show you any of the projects until AFTER the event!

Oh, okay!! Well how about a tiny sneak peak . . .

Is that enough of a tempter? LOL

And what's the special event?  Well, Stampin' Up! have asked me to do a "Workshop Wow" presentation at the Stampin' Up! Melbourne Regional Training Day which is this Saturday at the Convention Centre. Isn't that something??? 

I am quite looking forward to it, and am dragging along three of my new team members so they can meet all their crazy stamping sisters and get a real feel of the great thing it is to be a part of the Stampin' Up! family. It's going to be such a fun day!

So now, you know where I have been, and you can be assured that some of those Workshop Wow projects will start appearing on here over the next week!

Catch you then!

Kathryn

Thanks so much to all the ladies who came to my Secret Hostess Workshop.  I had a lovely day and it sounds like you did too!

Time to announce some winners! (I ALWAYS love this part!!)

Hostess Freebie Winners - each receiving $65.00 to spend on whatever they like in the current catalogue :

Congratulations : Sheila d' Costa & Jo Waring!!

Winners of 1 x 50% off item :

Congratulations : Lauretta Ramadge, Jo Waring, Zoe Van Zyuden, Julie Belousoff & Jo Waring!!!  (Gee it pays to have your name in the draw more than once!! Love your work Jo!!).  Ladies, you may choose to purchase any item you like from the current catalogue for 1/2 price.  That's right, the item can be big or small, it doesn't matter, you get it for 50% off!

Let me know what you'd like as soon as you can so I can add it to our workshop order and hopefully have it all finalised and delivered by the end of the week!

Hugs,

Kathryn

Do you remember that kids game where you had to repeat a sentence "whispering" all the way around a circle and when it got to the end it was hilarious to see how it had changed?

Well, our group recently followed this idea but we were making cards instead of telling a story.  The first person made a card, took a photo of it and emailed it to the next person.  It was to remain secret and not be shown to anyone else.  The second person made a card inspired by the first one, took a photo and emailed it to the third person, the third person made a card inspired by the second person's card, took a photo and emailed it to the fourth person, etc etc until it went right down the line of fifteen people and back to the first person.

Today, you can look at all these cards (and be amazed at the variety) by following our simple blog hop. You may like to start with the first person so you see the progression in order. If so, please go to the blog of Tina Gillespie by clicking here, and from there you can follow the links to see all the cards in sequence.

I received my inspiration photo from the gorgeous Nikki Sadler, and wasn't sure at all what colours to do or whether to change the layout a bit, but then I got asked to make a birthday card for a particular person, and I had a very short period of time to do it.  I based the "sketch" for the birthday card exactly on the photo I received from Nikki, but then, because I had to do it so quickly, I cut out all the fussy bits and made it a very simple card. Because it was so much simpler and wasn't my final design for the Chinese Whispers Game, you may have already seen this card here.

I loved how it worked out and knew that (after giving the first one away) if I created the second card, adding back in all the details and embellishments similar to Nikki's card, I would have a perfect answer for the Chinese Whispers Game.

I never ever thought I would use that Domestic Goddess Paper, but I love it! Notice how I have used exactly the same punches and Embosslit Die that Nikki used and arranged it all exactly the same on the card base, just with a colour change based on the patterned paper?

The person after me to receive the "Chinese Whisper" was Di Gill. You can see her creation here.

I hope you have enjoyed our little game and seen something that inspires you!

During November, get 10 percent off select Big Shot dies. Use these exclusive dies to create fabulous shapes, embossing, and more!

Page	Item	Description	Retail Price	10% Off Price
156	117332	Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslits Die	$21.95	$19.75
156	114515	Flower Burst Embosslits Die	$21.95	$19.75
157	114517	Manhattan Flower Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	$14.95	$13.45
157	116824	Petals-a-Plenty Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	$14.95	$13.45
157	119277	Elegant Lines Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	$14.95	$13.45
158	113440	Buttons #5 Sizzlits® Die	$9.95	$8.95
159	113466	Pillow Box BigzT Die	$36.95	$33.25
159	114507	Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die	$39.95	$35.95
159	120903	Scallop Square Duo Bigz Die	$39.95	$35.95
160	115953	Mover & Shapers Punch Windows	$54.95	$49.45
160	120893	Tasteful Trim Bigz XL Die	$69.95	$62.95
160	121810	Petal Cone Bigz L Die	$59.95	$53.95

Don't have a Big Shot? Get 10% off our exclusive Big Shot Bundle! The Big Shot Bundle (item 128944) includes the following:

155 Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine

156 Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslits Die 

157 Manhattan Flower Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Well, it's Melbourne Cup Day - the day of the Race that Stops the Nation, and what more appropriate thing could we be talking about today than winners!  Although, this is not about winners of a horse race!  No way!  This is WAY more important!

Listed below are the FIVE lucky door prize winners who filled out their details to go into the draw for one of FIVE prizes we were offering on the Stampin' Up! Stand at Caulfield Craft Show.  Congratulations ladies, you are sure going to love these bundles of goodies!

1.  The Major Prize basket has been won by : S. O'Dwyer of Fairfield.

Congratulations, Sarah will be in contact to deliver your amazing basket of goodies which looks to be worth well over $300.00!! You are going to love that!

Minor Prize Winners :

2.  Christy Tu of Templestowe

3.  Melinda Lew of Donvale

4.  Emma Cockroft of Prahran

5.  Rhonda Anthony of Hinchinbrook.

Very excited for you ladies, and hope you enjoy these little goodies!  If you haven't received your goodies in about a week, please contact myself or Genna off your Stampin' Up! show specials flyer so we can follow it up for you!

Kathryn.