{Me}

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.

Today it was my youngest son's day for telling his news at preschool. They've been looking at occupations for a few weeks now and today was the chance to talk about what mummy or daddy do.

Xander decided that he'd talk about Stampin' Up! So cute! I promised him that I'd make up some gifts for him to give to the four teachers in his room and of course this morning arrived and I hadn't had time to finish them. So I promised I'd head in early to pick him up and bring them with me. He asked if he could take my sample board in too!

It was very cute listening to him talking about making cards, stamps, ink and paper. He was asked what his favourite stamp was, I was interested to see what he'd say. He chose the Egg Hunt wheel on page 35 which was a surprise to me (I think being put on the spot threw him!) but when his teacher asked if I had that one he knew I didn't. Considering the number of sets and wheels I do have I was impressed!

The gifts were based on a make and take we did at Convention I just added a topper to these ones. There are 4 little gift cards in each cello bag. The stamp set used is possibly my favourite stamp set - Trendy Trees. It is such a versatile stamp set.

Flower Fancy (page 80) is a stamp set I have been waiting ages to play with. I got it in April when the new catalogue came out but until now hadn't had the time to play with it. It's a gorgeous set and I think it's fast going to become one of my favourites - maybe even take the place of the retired Petal Prints set!

This card has been stepped up with some hodgepodge and rhinestone brads. I used the 5/8" striped grosgrain to match the leaves.

You can find out how to get the two tone colour on the stamp in my June customer newsletter. You can subscribe using the sign up box on the right hand side of my blog.

I'm running a customer share of the 5/8" striped ribbons. For $16 you will receive an eighth share of each of the 6 In Color striped ribbons. If you'd like to reserve your spot in the share just contact me before Friday the 12th June.

The title says it all! Host a $600 workshop in June or July and you'll get an amazing $110 of product for free. That's $40 more than you'd normally receive.

This is going to be a popular promotion so to make sure you get the date and time that you want contact me as soon as possible.

PS. If you're not local to me you don't have to host a workshop to receive the $110 free. Simply place an order for $600 before the end of July to qualify. Ask me about catalogue workshops.