Firstly, a huge thank you to all the people who came out in Melbourne's atrocious weather on Friday to see us at Chirnside Park Shopping Centre. Considering the very sad news that emerged Friday morning, which everyone in Melbourne must have been moved by, we went on to have such a lovely day, meeting so many nice people, stamping our hearts out, and SHARING what we LOVE!

Today, one of my lovely team members is TYING THE KNOT! Congratulations Sam! We are thinking of you and hope you have a beautiful day. Since your "colour" is purple, I just had to share this Rich Razzleberry card with you in mind!

The butterfly on this card is from the Papillon Potpourri Stamp set on page 115 of the 2012-2013 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue, and is paired with the Elegant Butterfly Punch, also from SU!

Two other new products on this card are the lovely border created using the Finishing Touches Edgelit, and how is that delicious Black & Grey Striped Satin Ribbon from page 26 of the Holiday Catalogue?

Another card I made using the Papillon Potpourri stamp set was inspired by one I saw on google images. I love rainbows of colour!

Well, I am having a relaxing family weekend after a very busy few weeks - if you are a footy-fan, no matter what code, hope your team has a great weekend and I hope you enjoy a safe, fun, happy, family time, and I'll see you back here soon!

May the best team win!

Hi there,

Have you enjoyed the lovely spring weather today? It's been glorious!

A little while back, I showed you a cute baby card I had made with the new stamp set "Two by Two" watercoloured in shades to match the ultra cute and bright Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper. In case you missed it, here is the original post.

The same weekend that I made this happy card, I decided to do a softer one in neutral tones. Very happy with how cute this looks in Soft Suede and Early Espresso colour scheme!

I have stamped the image onto Stampin' Up! Watercolour paper using Black Stazon ink, then loaded up my aqua painter with Sahara Sand ink to start shading. When this was dry, I added tiny touches of Soft Suede & Early Espresso for a bit more depth.

For the background layer, did you notice I used the Woodgrain Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Crumb Cake card, then brayered over the texture with Soft Suede ink to make it stand out a little more.  I am so in love with so many of our new products!

I have some more watercolour cards I made that weekend, I will try and pop back over this coming weekend and share some more with you!  In the meantime, if you are around Chirnside Park tomorrow, why not pop into the shopping centre and say "Hi" to the stamping girls at the Yarra Valley Experiences kiosk?

Hope to see you then!

Kathryn

No words needed . . . . thank you to my beautiful husband for sharing today's words of wisdom! xox

Good morning!

Have you had a browse through the Stampin' Up! 2012 Holiday Catalogue yet? We Stampin' Up! Demonstrators fell hopelessly in love with it, the minute we got our sneak preview back in August, and we couldn't wait for it to start in September so we order some of the amazing Christmas goodies and other fun products hidden in its forty (YES 40!!) pages.

Today we are going to share some of them with you, on another ESAD blog hop. You may have arrived here from the blog of Joanne Kechagais, or if you are starting here, and have an hour or two to fill in, grab a coffee (if you haven't already got one) and join the inspiring journey!

SO - What is ESAD?

 ESAD stands for "Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators" and is an on-line group just for Australian and New Zealand Stampin’ Up! demonstrators.

We SO love what we do, and not only do we love to share it with our customers, friends, and wonderful blog visitors, but we share our love for what we do with each other, as demonstrators. We run swaps, challenges, tutorials, product know-how, and cyberstamps, and we are always there to help and support each other when it is needed.

So if you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand, then please feel free to click here to join our wonderful group.

Now you're probably wondering what I have been creating out of the Holiday Catalogue? Whilst I adore the gorgeous Christmas ornament on the front of the catalogue, and can't wait to make one, I am pretty time poor, so I wanted to find some less time consuming projects, and when you see what I found, I think you'll agree, I hit the jackpot!

I am NOT a halloween fan at all, and I was definitely NOT buying any of these stamps, but when I really looked at them closely, I thought what fun party packs they would make for kids birthdays too. Kids love monsters and googlies!

The Designer Kit includes tags, bags, googly eyes and baker's twine and it makes throwing together a dozen treat bags such an easy task. Some of these projects only took a couple of minutes to make.

Ha ha! Can you see the one naughty spider there who decided to play funny games!

The Ghoulish Googlies Designer Kit and the Googly Ghouls stamp set can be purchased individually, or, if you're looking for a bargain, they can be purchased as a bundle with a 15% saving!!

• Ghoulish Googlies Woodmount Bundle only $35.95!
• Ghoulish Googlies Clearmount Bundle only $30.95!

Well back onto the Blog Hop . . . How it works? Follow the link at the bottom of this post to the next lady on the blog hop. She'll have a link at the bottom of her post to the next person and so on. You'll be able to work you way all the way back here by following the links at the bottom of each post.

Please leave some "blog love" in the way of a comment for each person who's blog you visit and off you go now to see the creative works of Michelle Halling.

Just four sleeps to go to my new catalogue party!!

And just in case you hadn't guessed, I'm excited about it, and am so looking forward to catching up with some of you lovely stamping folk who I haven't seen for a while!

This week is my first official part time work at week and there are so many exciting things coming up with my stamping business that I can't wait to share with you!! Some of them will be announced on Saturday at the Catalogue Party.

I can fit in another one or two people, so if you've been holding off registering, please get in touch with me so I can put your name down. I need a couple of days notice for cutting up the cardstock, making goodies bags for each person and catering!

Email me : [email protected] or text me : 0418 361 931

Good morning from my very productive Stamp Camp up in the hills! Those of you who are coming to my new catalogue party next weekend are in for a real treat, we have been stamping our hearts out since about 4pm on Friday!

Today's exciting journey though, is not about that! Today we are joining in the ESAD new catalogue Blog Hop, and some of you may have arrived here from the blog of Keryn Campbell.

What is ESAD?

ESAD stands for "Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators" and is an on-line group just for Australian and New Zealand Stampin’ Up! demonstrators.

We SO love what we do, and not only do we love to share it with our customers, friends, and wonderful blog visitors, but we share our love for what we do with each other, as demonstrators. We run swaps, challenges, tutorials, product know-how, and cyberstamps, and we are always there to help and support each other when it is needed.

So if you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand, then please feel free to click here to join our wonderful group.

Now, what have I been making for our blog hop? Well, I went a bit silly really - couldn't help it actually, I am having a love affair!

Yes, really, I'm in love, with a new packet of our famous Designer Series Paper! This one's called Summer Smooches and it's bright, cheerful, fun and HAPPY!! We have several different stamp sets that work with it, and because of the gorgeous array of colours in the DSP, you can make so many other things work with it too - like the delightful new individual stamp called Two by Two.

I just adore all the Brights Family colours in this paper and loved having a go at watercolouring the Two By Two image in the same colours! And how cute are those baby shoes made with the lovely patterned DSP??

I did a bit of google searching for ideas with the Summer Smooches DSP and found a card similar to this cute ladybug one below - I am pretty sure the original was on Mary Fish's Stampin' Up! website - love her work!

Once I had "cased" this card, I suddenly had a wave of inspiration and starting churning out cute bug cards, using the Summer Smooches DSP & another new stamp set called BUG ME. So much fun!

I really love the Stampin' Up! sets that are interactive - you have to get out your Stamp-a-ma-jig and add legs and heads and wings - so much fun!

There's a whole stack of other new products hiding amongst those cards! If you haven't picked up your New Annual Catalogue from your Stampin' Up! Demonstrator yet, make sure you contact her today, or register for her catalogue launch party if she hasn't held it yet!!

Well, I better let you go on with the blog hop! Thanks for visiting me, please leave a comment in the comments - we love getting a bit of "blog love". The next person in the blog hop is Richelle Fletcher. By following the links at the end of each post, you can visit the whole blog hop, and if you get lost, you can just come back here and try again.

See you soon!

I've been very busy recently preparing for my stamp camp this weekend and my New Catalogue Party next weekend! I've been creating lots of new projects, but haven't had time to photograph them to share with you yet.

However, I did want to tell you about something coming up that you just won't want to miss!  This coming Sunday I am once again participating in a blog hop - this one's not with my regular small group of lovely ladies, but with a much larger Stampin' Up! Demonstrator group.

There are around 22-23 ladies participating in the "New Catalogue" Themed Blog Hop, which goes live, this Sunday at 10am Melbourne time.  If the weather's horrideous and you are stuck inside, why not check back here on my blog, where you can join the blog hop journey. I promise it will be very inspiring!

Will catch you then!

How stunning is today's lovely Spring weather for Father's Day? Just beautiful!  We enjoyed a delicious brunch with Tony's five (mostly grown up) children and his dad at the very cosmopolitan George's cafe in Croydon. Very pleasant!

But now it's back on with normal weekend activities, and for me, that includes getting inspired and sharing some inspiration from the lovely new Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue which went live yesterday. I adore the new catalogue (don't you hear that from me every year!!!) and am very happy to share something bright and "spring inspired" with you today.

This card is made with all new products and colours.

The six piece stamp set is called Blooming with Kindess and is on page 87 of the new catalogue. It retails for $39.95 (woodblock) or $31.95 (clear mount). I received this stamp set as a gift at our Manager's Reception in May and have been dying to show it to you!

The colours on this card include two of the new In Colours - Summer Starfruit and Midnight Muse. I am very much in love with this colour combination, and the three other new In Colours, and have loved trying them out with the new Classic Ink Pad format. If you're browsing the catalogue on line, you'll find all the In Colour range on page 152.

The third new product on this card is the Designer Deries Paper. This one is from the pack, Comfort Cafe.  This year our DSP's are all gorgeous and I can't wait to start trying dozens of new projects inspired by the amazing colours and designs!

I love making my own "paper ribbon" by scrunching up a strip of the DSP - the colour & pattern do look a bit like old woven fabric, and I love this effect!

Have you got your calendar handy?  I'm having my New Catalogue Launch Party on Saturday 22nd of September at Wyreena Community Arts Centre in Croydon. It's going to be a very colourful and inspiring event.  I'd love to see you there! Please RSVP to 0418 361 931 or [email protected]

For those of you who regularly visit my Stampin' Up! demonstrator website, please be aware I have now changed to my married name, so if you have www.kathrynlowe.stampinup.net saved in your favourites, you'll need to change it to www.kathrynruddick.stampinup.net if you want to find me :o)

Hope you're enjoying the lovely sunshine, I'm off to make a couple of cards! See you soon!

Kathryn.