{Me}

Here are the cards for my first Christmas Stamp A Stack of 2009. If you'd like to come along and make these cards just drop me a line to reserve your spot. You can choose between the 10am or 7:30pm class on Wednesday 15th July. You'll get to make 10 cards (5 each of the 2 designs). Cost is $20 and includes all materials. Beginners welcome.

It's never too early to start your Christmas cards! Last year I made over 200 cards in July. Whilst that might sound like a lot, I break each card into smaller parts and then work on the parts in batches. So you'll often find me sitting at my boys' swimming lessons cutting out images!

The card above is a simple card made using Spotlight on Christmas. Using punches for the flower and the greeting, makes it a card that can be mass produced quickly. If you want to step it up a little then add some ribbon, glitter, some extra leaves behind the flowers (just the flower stamped in Kiwi Kiss and cut in half to make leaves.) Two of the flowers are also raised with dimensionals.

My newsletter subscribers have just received their July newsletter with these cards. Each month they'll see a new simple and stepped up card. If you want to make sure you don't miss out on the card ideas then make sure you subscribe to my newsletter. You'll get to find out about the current specials and promotions, discounts and tips and techniques.

Thank you to everyone who left me a comment on my previous post. My hubby chose a random number and the card will be heading to Tamara. Tamara if you can email me your mailing address I'll have it in the post tomorrow.

This card has been sitting on my desk for weeks now so when I had a clear up last night I thought it was about time I put it here on my blog! Leave a comment on my blog with your favourite current in-color and I'll pull a name out of the hat to send this card to. Open to everyone, Australian, overseas, demonstrator or not!

Apologies for the long gap in posts. Hopefully normal service will now resume!

I love it when I find a stamp set that is incredibly versatile. This card was made using stamps from the versatile Spotlight on Christmas set (page 6). The big star and the swirls on the So Saffron Strip and badge are from the set. I've teamed it up with the gorgeous Sweet Slumber Speciality paper and the big deal alphabet to make this card for one of Alexander's 5 year old friends. I've made a co-ordinating badge to go with it and it's ready to be taken to the party this afternoon.

I'll be sharing some more cards using this set over the next few days.

Sunday night was a team cyberstamp hosted by Fiona. Our first challenge was a layout sketch. It gave me chance to play with the Sip by Sip set again.

Our team cyberstamps are great ways to get the creativity flowing again. It's always a lovely way to catch up with team members as we chat on the forum at the same time.

If you'd like to join the team just get in touch and I can send you out an obligation free information pack.

I saw this cute ladybug baby on Andrea Walford's blog and thought it would be perfect for a card I needed to make to welcome a new baby.

The Candy Lane designer series paper matched perfectly and the Defining Alphabet was just the right size. The black dots were made using the Polka Dot background stamp stamped twice to get the more random looking dots.

I think I'll have to try a blue baby ladybug next!

PS I have just realised that I had forgotten the glitter on the wings so I've added it now.

Normally my desk is in need of a bit of a tidy up but on Sunday evening it was in need of a major tidy up! I'd had a workshop on Friday night, then a busy weekend with some last minute card making thrown in on Saturday morning - the result was chaos!

So a few hours on Sunday were given over to sorting out this mess and reclaiming my desk space! There's still a few things that need sorting but I'm almost there! Now I can get back to creating! If anyone knows where I should look to find my 1/2" circle punch I'd be very happy - I want to play with my build a brad and I can't find the punch!

How is your creative space looking right now!

PS The floor isn't normally this clean - there's usually dimensional backs, glitter, slivers of paper etc but I'd vacuumed earlier that day!

Thank you for all the lovely comments about the cake. The template I believe originally came from Stampin' Up! in one of their US Demonstrator publications.

This link should open up a thread from SplitCoastStampers with lots of templates for cakes. The one I used you can find in post #13. As you can see there are different sized templates so you can make a tiered cake like the picture in post #11 (which I believe is the orginal SU! cake).

I've been wanting to make this paper cake for a long time now. Each piece is a box that can be opened and a gift placed inside. This cake is for a dear friend's birthday and a group of us have filled the pieces with Stampin' Up! product.

I found the tutorial for the lovely floral centre piece on Joanne's stunning blog. The leaves are the large oval punch, folded in half and trimmed a little to make a point. Then you put them through the paper crimper on an angle to make the ridges.

This was one of the two cards we made at the workshop I had last night. It uses the Crayon Resist technique, which is a simple but very effective technique. With the fantastic hostess special on during June and July it's a great time to host a workshop.