Of course this is a little tongue in cheek. Easter means so much more to a whole lot of people than just chocolate eggs. In fact, a great many people don't really relate chocolate eggs to the whole Easter story at all . . .

However, if you have little ones, or if you are a granny to little ones, there is a fairly good chance you may have been among those up early this morning helping them to seek out chocolate goodies one sneaky nocturnal visitor may have left in various places around the house. Or if you're like me - any excuse for an extra dose of chocolate! LOL!

Today, it is a pleasure to share with your some cute Easter gifts my mum Jenny made recently.

These cute gift boxes in adorable colours were made using the Big Shot and Fancy Favour Die along with the very lovely Birds of a Feather Designer Series Paper, all from Stampin' Up!

This cute little purse gift is also made from the Fancy Favour Die, just use the extra score lines to fold in the creases for the gusset. And a Designer Label Framelit was used for the bag topper. See how my clever mum has made sure the adorable birds are lined up perfectly in the Framelit to go on the front of the bag?

Nice job mum!!

Well, best wishes to you and your family for a very safe and happy Easter. If you ducked away for a long weekend, travel safe! If you're having a lovely traditional roast lunch at home with your family today, have an enjoyable and memorable family meal.

As of this coming week I am working fulltime in my stamping business. I will be busily finishing off my room and kicking off some more classes. Hope to see you very soon with ink on your fingers!

Kathryn Ruddick

Stampin' Up! Senior Manager

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Rain or Shine

Well, it's that time of the year where lots of people head off for a nice long weekend, the last one for the year where the weather has half a chance of being decent and where you get the extra day - or if you're in the construction industry you might have a string of RDS's to coincide with the school holidays.

Whatever you are doing, I hope it's a safe, enjoyable and memorable family time.

Just wanted to share a couple of last year's Mystery Box items with you today - just in time for Easter.

Who wouldn't love to receive this ultra cute bunny card with the extra choccie on the front! Of course the Designer Series Paper "Mocha Morning" which makes up the background is now retired, but you could easily recreate this using "Natural Composition" Specialty Paper.

I wish I hadn't packed up half my stamp room today to tear out a wall, I have half an urge to make half a dozen more of these cards!!

To go with this card, I also got out the aquapainter and watercoloured a cute panel for the top of a mini pizza box.  I stuck to the pink and brown theme - boy am I loving that colour combination!

I do love a bit of authentic watercolouring mixed in with my stamping.

Did you make any special Easter gifts this year? We would love to hear about them. Please leave a comment below to let us know what you have been creating!

I'll be back over Easter, to share some more cute Easter projects, this time created by my favourite guest artist - my mum Jenny.

Stay safe, and have fun,

Kathryn.

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And so's My Digital Studio!

Wow, such an exciting day for Stampin' Up! Demonstrators and all the lovely people we do business with everyday.

My Digital Studio is easy enough for beginners, but includes a variety of tools for advanced designers too. Anyone can try it FREE for 30 days! You can download it straight from our brand new on-line shopping function!

To check out our online store, visit my webpage and up in the top right hand corner under my name is the Shop Now button - Go for your life!

You can visit the My Digital Studio website and watch all sorts of training videos on how to use the software, and there is an Inspiration Gallery with over 21,000 samples!!

Very exciting! And did you know, you can now shop online for all your Stampin' Up! products. Just go to my website and click the Shop Now button!

The other exciting news is that today is my second last day at my "other" job! As of next week (after Easter) I will be running my stamping business full time! I am very excited about this and am really looking forward to catching up with more of you, more often in stamping land!

Would love to hear your thoughts on My Digital Studio (MDS) after you've had a chance to browse the website, so please leave a comment here or send me an email to let me know what you think!

Email : [email protected]

See you soon!

Hey everyone, long time no see! I bet you thought I had dropped off the planet!

Just another busy couple of weeks in the life of the Ruddick family. Lots of exciting stamping activities going on, from the BIG craft show at the start of the month, to our team "Share What You Love" Event, a couple of lovely workshops - boy do I like my time out with my stamping friends!!

This week I have SO much to share with you!!

Let's start with the "For the Record" Simply Scrappin' Layout Kit on page 9 of our current Seasonal Catalogue.

Have you even noticed this kit?

The description in the catalogue reads : "Record precious moments - without a lot of fuss. Everthing you need for the two-page spread. Instructions included. Copy the layout or personalise. Acid & Lignin-free."

I made two full 12x12 layouts with the kit with tonnes of leftovers for more layouts. I personalised it to suit the photos I had and added elements to tie it altogether.

The printed papers and banners all come in the kit with the adhesive, card-stock quality banners all pre-cut.

I added half a dozen stamped images - like the happy day stamp from the Sale-a-bration set Petite Pretties, and that adorable elephant from the gigantic stamp set "A Fitting Occasion".

There's a journalling pocket behind the photos, more stamps from Pretty Petites and A Fitting Occasion stamp sets, a small square of paper from the "Storytime" Designer Series Paper Pack and a stamped subtitle using the absolutely gorgeous and much loved "Notable" Alphabet stamp set.

I normally would probably baulk at paying $16.95 for a kit which only makes two 12x12" layouts, but in this kit, the pieces are so versatile and so easy to add to, that you could easily complete 4-5 layouts using the pieces with a few extras out of your colour co-ordinated Stampin' Up! products.

It took me only about two hours to do this layout and another completely different one using most of the same components - I love it!

If you have "first day at school" photos you haven't scrapped yet, now's the time!! Email me today to order your own For The Record Simply Scrappin' Layout Kit, so you can record those precious memories in no time and get your albums a bit more up to date, and your treasured memories saved in hardcopy forever!

Email [email protected]

For the Record Simply Scrappin' Kit, $16.95 + postage delivered to your door in 4-5 working days via Australia Post from our Sydney warehouse.

Ever thought about joining the Stampin' Up! family?  Come along to this fun, free event next Saturday to find out what we do, how we do it, and why we love it!

Please RSVP to [email protected]

Hi Folks,

Well what an exciting week it has been in Stampin' Up! land! Several of my stamping friends and I have had a goal this Stampin' Up! year of qualifying for the Stampin' Up! Annual Incentive Trip (now named Grand Holiday), and over the past week, several more of us have reached our goal, achieving enough points to take our partners on this once in a lifetime trip.

This year Stampin' Up! are taking us to Utah, USA for our Grand Holiday. We'll be staying at the very beautiful St Regis Deer Valley Resort at Park City and have the chance to visit the Stampin' Up! home office in Riverton and the manufacturing plant at Kanab!

I am one excited little vegemite!!

We'll also have the opportunity to attend the 25th Anniversary Stampin' Up! Convention in Salt Lake City! I think our South Pacific Conventions are totally awesome, I can't wait to see how huge and amazing the US convention is! Better stock up in the flat shoe department before July!

I am so grateful to be part of an organisation that rewards it's hard workers with such an exciting opportunity and I can't wait to join dozens of my lovely stamping friends - including some that I only know through Facebook and haven't even met in person yet! It's such an honour and a privilege!

But before I even start packing, I need to thank all the lovely people who helped to get me there! Anyone who hosted a workshop, attended a class, placed an order or purchased a kit, my lovely stamp club ladies. You all contributed to me achieving this goal. Thank you!

Then there is my wonderful team the Aussie Inkpressionists, which has grown to 31. Your hard work in recruiting and promoting these past twelve months is a credit to you and is reflected in our teams growth. We have more than doubled in the last 12 months. Well done on a fine effort!

Then of course there are the behind the scenes supporters. My sister the chef, who came and did a stamping with food night for us, my friends who keep inviting me to have a table at their fundraising events, family & friends who always say the nicest things when they get a handmade card.

And last but not least, my number one supporter, Tony, who's patience and great marketing experience and business ideas over the past 5 years have definitely earned him a place on this trip too! I hope you enjoy every minute of it my lovely husband, you deserve to be spoiled by Stampin' Up! too!

Now there HAS to be a sales pitch at the bottom of such a post, so I am just going to say, if I can achieve this, whilst working mostly fulltime, a long way from home, then you can achieve this too!!

The year 2014 Grand Holiday is a Caribbean Cruise on Allure of the Seas.

Talk to me today about what you would need to do to come on an amazing holiday, paid for by Stampin' Up! Our Sale-a-bration Starter Kit special is on only until the 22nd March. Don't wait, call me today!

Hey everyone! How are you going?

It's been a VERY busy month in the Ruddick household, and I have barely found any spare time for even thinking about updating my blog - but as has become habit, the One Little Word Blog Hop cannot be missed - even if the project for February remains unfinished, unresolved and just a teensy bit stress creating !

During February our One Little Word class was encouraged to collect words and images from magazines and create a vision board for ourselves. Firstly I don't buy any magazines so tearing out pictures was going to be a real challenge, but secondly, it's been such a busy month, I didn't actually get to log into the class until well into the second half of the month, thereby giving myself a complete heart attack at this months' task!!

I HAVE purchased a canvas during a lunch break at work, and I HAVE found a couple of Gardening Australia magazines from which I was able to collect a few words and images! I had hoped to find a few other old Housey type magazines in hidden spaces around the house - but with preparing for a major craft show, dealing with end of month at work ( and end of project!!), assisting with a very unwell father in law, and all the other things that go on in one's life, I have really struggled in February to stay in touch with my OLW "LIGHT" . . . I think I need to make some time to go back over my January prompt and revisit all my prompt cards and just remind myself how my word is manifesting itself in my life, even when I am too busy to notice . . .

If you have come here from Angela's blog or you may be starting the blog hop here, welcome! This is a photo of bits and pieces I have found so far that "spoke to me" and wanted to go on my vision board. I need to find a whole stack more!

It's funny because even though I feel really out of sorts and out of touch with the One Little Class this month, and in particular with the vision boards - each one of these snippets of a gardening magazine really screams at me as being important and relevant, so I know this is a monthly prompt that I will continue to work and and will complete!

Right now, I better let you continue on the blog hop by visiting Jackie who has hopefully done more than me this month!!

If you happen to get lost in the blog hop - here is the original list of lovely classmates who are participating.

Lee: http://thelinarstudio.typepad.com/embracelife

Cheri: cheriandrews.blogspot.com 

Lisa: http://backtoallen.com/category/challenges/one-little-word/

Michelle: www.table-for-five.com

Julie: www.eggsandherbs.com

Kara: http://iwannabemewhenigrowup.blogspot.com

Margareta: http://www.paperpilekitten.com

Tricia: http://onecreativemom.wordpress.com

Karen: http://womenontractors.blogspot.com

Nikki: http://www.inkyart.com.au/ 

Melanie: http://mellybirddesigns.wordpress.com

Angela: http://angelanoel.com/

Kathryn: http://www.katlodesigns.com/

Jackie: http://blog.jacquelinewolven.com/

Dona: http://orangegearle.blogspot.com/

Paige: www.approachingjoy.com

Ruth: http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com

Kathleen: http://jkplusthree.blogspot.com

Missus Wookie: http://mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.com/

Naomi: www.poeticaperture.com

The blog hop goes live at 6am Pacific time, which we think is around 11pm Melbourne time - if you can't connect to the next link please give it half an hour and try again, just in case!! See you soon,

Hugs, Kathryn