{Me}

The second challenge of the evening was a colour challenge. I gave the team the picture above for inspiration. It's taken from Alfresco Emporium's website.

Other than the colour restrictions everyone was free to create what they wanted.

Here's mine.

I've used the new Fleurettes from the Summer Mini and placed some Kaleidoscope paper inside the Build a Brad and added a rub on for the greeting.

That's two cards in two days with no stamping! Although yesterdays did have a little ink around the edges of the white cardstock!

Last night was my team's monthly cyberstamp. This time I was hosting. The first challenge was to use punches to produce a flower and use it on a card, scrapbook page or 3D item.

I decided to make my flower using 5 scallop circles. I fastened them altogether with a brad and then scrumpled them up. I got the idea from Dawn McVey. I added a button to the middle. The patterned papers are from the Kaleidoscope Designer Series paper.

You can't tell on this photo but the white card has vertical lines embossed on it. I emboss the lines using the scoring tool in the paper trimmer. It's a great way to add interest to a flat piece of cardstock.

It's finished off with some ribbon and a rub on greeting.

Check back over the next couple of days to see what I created for the other challenges last night.

Someone asked me the other day how I manage to cover my boys' school books with Contact without getting any bubbles. My answer - use a brayer.

There's still a certain way that works better than others but once you've learnt how it's easy.

Anyone want a video tutorial?

It's that time of year when we all get to earn free stamp sets. Are you a customer, potential hostess or thinking about becoming a demonstrator? Read on to see how you can earn yourself free stamps.

Customer
Receive a free Sale-A-Bration stamp set for every $100 purchase. There's no limit - spend $200 choose two sets and so on.

Hostesses
Receive a free Sale-A-Bration stamp set with a $600 or more workshop, this is in addition to the regular hostess benefits.

Recruit
Choose any retail stamp set (a value up to $79.95) from the current catalogues when signing up during the promotion.

Signing up is simple - you can do it online here. Just give me a call or send me an email and we can have a chat about you joining my fantastic INKlings team today.

Demonstrators were limited to only pre-purchasing one set and I struggled to choose which set! I'll just have to earn the other 3 sets from today!

So which set are you going to get first?

PS As you can see from the card above I finally decided on Whimsical Words.

Our boys had three mornings this week at a Cricket Camp. It's the first time our youngest Xander (5) has done something like this where he's not been with his brother or any of his preschool friends. He had a great time even in the very hot days we had and now it's finished has taken to studying the cricket store catalogue.

I made this card for him and left it in his bedroom over night so he found it this morning. Inside I wrote a note to let him know how proud of him we were. He's heading off to school for the first time on Thursday and I know he's going to have a great time there too.

The texture on the cricket bat was created by stamping onto watercolour paper and then cutting it out. The grass is from Inspired by Nature.

Just Cricket is one of the sets in the Inventory Sale. Purchase it before the end of the 24th (tomorrow) and it'll only cost you $18.71. It's a great set for boys who have passed the cute stage and also a great set for adults too.

Often I need a note card quickly. This card was one of them. It only took 5 minutes to make and was ready to send. It uses two stamps from the Occasionally stamp set.

Tonight I'm going to sit and make a batch of cards using the other images so I've got some ready to send.

Help make a difference in the lives of those who continue to suffer from the effects of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January. From now until 28 February, 2010, Stampin' Up!® will set aside $2 from the sale of every I {Heart} Hearts stamp set and donate it to the Red Cross’ Haiti Relief and Development Fund. The Red Cross is already wellestablished in Haiti, and this money will be used to provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need.

In order to sell as many of these sets as possible and hopefully raise lots of money I will be removing my demonstrator discount. That brings the stamp set including postage to $41.09.

Don't forget that on Monday sale-a-bration (SAB) starts and this set can count towards your $100 order. I will be posting further details about SAB tomorrow.

You can enlarge the flyer by clicking here.

I was lucky enough to receive lots of Christmas cards this year. This amazing pile are all the handmade Christmas cards. The walls they were hanging on look so bare now.

Whilst I haven't been posting here I've still been very busy. We had my husband's parents here for a month, we went away for a few days and we've been busy doing family things.

I got my sewing machine out a few weeks ago to make some sleep sheets for sleeping bags and it hasn't been away since - the boys love making things! So far they've made sleeping bags for teddies and we've stocked up on felt and they're making soft toys! I'll have to photograph them and share with you all.

The other reason I haven't posted as much is that on February 1st we're starting renovations to our home. We're adding a family room and rebuilding our bedroom and along with a few internal changes all but the boys' bedrooms and bathroom will be affected! So we've been out spending lots of time trying to agree on fixtures and fittings!

I won't be running classes from home until the building is finished but will find another location. When it is all finished I'll have a fantastic sized room to run events in.

I hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year. I hope everyone has made a stamping or scrapbooking resolution too! Mine is to stamp more!

Here's my first post for the year. It's a card for my gorgeous 8 year old. I'll leave it on his bed so he finds it in the morning. He still likes to stamp with me and I hope he will for a while longer.

I made the most of this set being in the Inventory Clearance. For $18.71 you can't go wrong. Now that Joshua and his friends are past cute animals and pirates this set and Just Cricket will get lots of use for birthday cards this year.

I was inspired to create a card like this after seeing a card on Michelle Zindorf's blog using the same idea but with a different image.