{Me}

This is the card I have designed for my team weekend Card in a box swap. Everyone who joins in designs a card and then cuts the materials for it. We then put all the bits needed to make it into a box and we pass our boxes round.

It's a great way to try out new stamp sets and get lots of great samples to show everyone.

I can't believe that it's a year since my first team weekend. Tomorrow afternoon we head off for The INKlings 2nd team weekend. 2 nights of Stampin' Up! fun with some of my team members. There will be 27 of us in total taking the time to stamp, relax, chat and recharge the batteries. Sounds like heaven!

I've been busy over the last week preparing for the weekend and will share with you my creations over the next couple of days. The photo above is the booklet for each team member attending the weekend. It contains the itinerary, attendees, challenges and quiz sheets. Tomorrow I'll share with you the card I've made for our card in a box swap.

I'm happy to report that normal service should resume shortly! It's been a long couple of weeks with sick children the first half of the school holidays who then kindly shared their germs with me!

School and good health have now returned! So what have I been up to? Life has been busy with planning for this Friday's INKlings' team weekend, a charity card making session and organising my Spring Mini Catalogue launch.

Date: Friday 7th August
Time: 7:30pm
Cost: Free

If you can't make it along to my launch night then why not book a workshop and I'll bring the new product to you. Not local to me? Just contact me and I'll mail out a Spring mini catalogue to you today.

Last night was an INKlings Team Cyberstamp hosted by Ryn. Our first challenge was to use a provided template to make a Russian Doll card.

Cyberstamps are a great way to try out new challenges and this one was fun to do. I've used the Raspberry Tart paper for the body and then cut out and inked cardstock for the face and hair. I'm still not 100% happy with the eyes - I'll have to have a go at making another one later and try out different eyes. I was thinking that a smaller version would make a great matching gift tag.

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.