January Newsletter

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a fun-filled New Year's Eve. I had a great Christmas but was in bed well and truly before midnight on New Year's Eve! LOL!

The big news this month is Sale-A-Bration - check out the first article in this newsletter for more information. Book your workshops ASAP as I will be quite busy during this promotion so first in, best dressed, so to speak.

There are wonderful deals for customers, hostesses and new recruits during this promotion. If you've ever thought of hosting a workshop or even becoming a demonstrator, NOW is the time to do it!

I hope you enjoy this edition of my newsletter - the first for 2009!

Edited to add - the Stampin Up website is not accessible at this present moment so there are some links and other things missing in this newsletter. I will update this newsletter ASAP once I have accessed the website. Sorry!

Sale-A-Bration

Our Sale-A-Bration promotion gives reason for everyone to celebrate! Click HERE to view the gorgeous stamp sets you can receive for FREE!

Customers -- Receive a free Sale-A-Bration product for every $100 purchase.

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

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

Demonstrators -- As a current demonstrator you can earn even more wonderful rewards based on your sales and recruiting during January and February. If you are thinking about becoming a demonstrator, join up ASAP at the start of January so that you can qualify for these other wonderful rewards. Contact me or attend my opportunity night for more information.

Opportunity Night

Have you ever considered becoming a demonstrator? Now is the time to do it! (see above)

There are so many great reasons to become a demonstrator but I will start by telling you mine.

In October 2006 I attended my first Stampin' Up! Workshop. I completely fell in love with the whole concept of Stampin' Up! Their stamps, the colour coordination, the accessories, the style, the awesome tools, everything! I had stamped a little before and had made cards and done some scrapbooking but I had always found it irritating trying to find products from various companies that matched. Stampin' Up! was just perfect for me.

The first product I bought was the Stampin' Scrub and Mist for cleaning my stamps and then I booked a workshop right away. The workshop was a great success and I earned lots of free product. I also decided to sign up that day! I knew that I wanted to have lots of products from the catalogue and that becoming a demonstrator would be the best way to achieve that for me.

By becoming a demonstrator I would receive a 20% discount on all my purchases and 20% income on all my sales. I could even earn more than 20% income depending on my level of sales and recruiting.

By doing workshops I would be able to earn enough money to buy all the things I wanted from the catalogue.

As a demonstrator I would also have access to sneak peaks, pre-order periods, the chance to attend Convention and other great Stampin' Up! events, as well as a fantastic 30% discount/income on my very first order and even the chance to earn heaps of free stamp sets in my first 6 months.

I absolutely LOVE being a demonstrator for Stampin' Up! I love the product, the company and all the great people I've met in the last 2 and a half years. I get to attend meetings run by my lovely Upline Liz (as do the ladies who have joined my team) and as of this year I will be running my own team meetings as well.

If you would like to hear more about joining Stampin' Up! please come along to my Opportunity Night. I'll be there to answer any questions you may have, we'll do some stamping and have some supper too!

Date: Tuesday 20th January
Time: 7:30pm
Place: 15 Coral Pea Close, Warner

Please RSVP by Thursday 15th January.


Workshop dates

As I mentioned at the beginning of this newsletter, I will be quite busy during the Sale-A-Bration promotion. It has always been my busiest time of year because of the fantastic free stamps for both customers and hostesses.

I have the following dates available for workshops:

Saturday 10th January (any time)
Thursday 15th January (evening)
Tuesday 27th January (evening)
Wednesday 28th January (evening)
Monday 2nd Feb (evening)
Tuesday 3rd Feb (evening)
Saturday 7th Feb (afternoon/evening)
Sunday 8th Feb (afternoon/evening)
Saturday 14th Feb (morning)
Thursday 19th Feb (afternoon/evening)
Friday 20th Feb (any time)
Saturday 22nd Feb (any time)

If these dates do not suit but you are keen to book a workshop, please do let me know as I may be able to move things around to accommodate you.

Shoe-Box Swap Event

A Shoe-Box Swap is a fun stamping event where a group of people all design a card and provide the materials and tools to make it. For example, if there are 6 people in the group, each person provides enough materials to make 5 of their card design and provides one sample for the other people to copy. This means that each person gets to make 5 cards on the day but only has to design one card. As you complete each card, you move on to the next “shoe-box”.

There is no cost for this event – it is just for fun!

Date: Monday 9th February
Time: 7:30pm
Place: 15 Coral Pea Close, Warner
What to bring: Your “shoe-box”, a basic kit with scissors, adhesives, etc, and a plate to share for supper

What to include in your “shoe-box”:
You need to supply everything needed for your card design (except for adhesives as each person will bring their own). Please pre-cut the cardstock to all the correct sizes.
For example your box may include: Stamp set, inkpads, markers, punches, an embellishment such as ribbons or brads, pre-cut cardstock, sample card. Please don’t include any difficult or time consuming techniques like embossing as we will not have the time to complete it all. Please keep your card relatively simple. Include at least 1 layer in your card design and at least 1 embellishment.

We will keep this a small group – maximum 6 people so that you only need to provide enough materials to make 5 copies of your card plus your sample card.


Summer Mini Catalogue

The Summer Mini Catalogue started at in December and runs until the end of March. Do you have a copy yet? If not, contact me so I can arrange to get one to you. Alternatively you can view it online HERE..

Blog Award

Holy Moly, I've been nominated for a blog award - twice! Cool huh?  Both Jenni and Carol have passed this award on to me.  I feel a bit of a fraud since I haven't been updating the blog as often as many other stampin' bloggers do...but I'll accept it anyway! LOL!

Thanks Jenni and Carol!!

Now I need to award it to 5 other bloggers, so here's a list of them for you to check out:

Liz - Liz is the leader of our team the Paper Angels.  She's a busy, busy woman but when she has time to update her blog she posts absolutely BEAUTIFUL creations.  Liz has a real talent for "off the page" projects and home decor type stuff.  Wait til I post a pic of the GORGEOUS journal she gave me (and other members of her team) for Christmas.

Ursula - Ursula is SUPER creative and always comes up with interesting ideas like dying the pearls from the Pretties Kit and making funky jewellery.  

Bell - Bell is my newest downline and also my sister-in-law.  Her blog is very new but she is giving it a red hot go!  

Danneil - Dan is a blog buddy of mine.  We got chatting via email some time ago.  Dan does REALLY REALLY nice work!  She's recuperating from an op at the moment but I can't wait to see some more of her stuff once she is back on her feet and stampin' again!

Chrissie - Chrissie is another Brisbane demonstrator and we check out each others' blogs regularly.  We even got to meet and swap briefly at the last training event - hope you are coming to Convention next year Chrissie so I can chat to you a bit more!

The Rest of Tia's Album

I've used the "Priceless" stamp set for this layout 'cos babies are Priceless!  

The colours here are So Saffron, Almost Amethyst and Close to Cocoa.  I've used pieces from the Hodge Podge Hardware kit - I have got to start using this stuff up instead of 'saving' it!  Somehow I feel heaps better using it in Scrapbooking than in cardmaking since scrapbooks are kept forever.  When I use it on cards I always cringe at the thought that it might be thrown away! LOL!

The background is the So Swirly jumbo wheel in Versamark ink.  I've also used Vanilla grosgrain ribbon and the scallop and circle punches for embellishments.

This layout uses a retired Christmas Simply Scrappin' Kit.  I still had heaps of this one left and thought best to use it up!  The kits are FANTASTIC for quick scrapbooking as they have everything you need - plain cardstock, patterned papers and die cut stickers.  I also added some retired silver cord just to jazz it up a bit more.  The colours here are Always Artichoke, Brocade Blue, Night of Navy and Real Red.

Tia's Album again

A few more layouts from Tia's album:

I really like how this layout turned out.  Blush Blossom is a REALLY under-used colour but team it up with Groovy Guava and it looks great!!

Again I have used Versamark and a jumbo wheel to create a subtle background paper.  This time I used the "Scatter Sunshine" wheel.  The accents were made with stamps from the "Simply Said" set.  The title was made with a stamp from the "For a Friend" set which is a hostess only set. I only wanted to use part of the stamp so I used a Blender Pen dipped in Groovy Guava ink (like a marker!) to only ink the part that I wanted.

This layout uses Petals and Paisleys DSP.  I layered it onto Tempting Turquoise cardstock which I had stamped with the dotty stamp from the "Polka Dots and Paisley" set.  The title and accents also come from that same stamp set.  

The colours used are Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, Pretty in Pink (actually it might have been Regal Rose, stamped off once, I can't remember!) and Old Olive.

Still More of Tia's Album

Both of these layouts use Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and Certainly Celery.

These 2 layouts use Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and Certainly Celery.

I've wheeled a background in Versamark using the "On the Spot" jumbo wheel.

The scalloped edges were made with the corner rounder - I didn't have my lovely new scalloped edge punch at that stage!

The accents were made by stamping images from "Seeing Spots" and punching them out with the 1 1/4 inch circle punch.  I then layered them with the 1 3/8 circle punch and popped a rhinestone brad in the centre before mounting them with dimensionals.
This layout uses the Certainly Celery Prints DSP as the background.  I've stamped the words SLEEP BABY using Perfect Plum ink and the "Jumbo Outline Alphabet".  I then coloured it in lightly with Pale Plum chalk/pastels and an applicator.  There is a little spot for journalling, made with the same dotted line stamp as before but punched with the circle and scallop punches.

More of Tia's album

The following 2 layouts use the same colour scheme - Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink and Close to Cocoa.  I was originally going to do the whole album in this colour scheme but quickly got bored of doing that so only did it for 2 layouts. LOL!

I have used the Certainly Celery "Prints" DSP on both layouts.  This layout uses clear buttons with the DSP underneath.  The DSP was punched out with circle and square punches.

This layout used some of the little flowers from the Pretties Kit with Pretty in Pink brads in the centres.

I've also used the "Fast Flowers" wheel in versamark ink on the Pretty In Pink background.

The piece with the dotted lines is a stamp from the "Live your Dream" stamp set in the new Summer Mini Catalogue.

Baby Tia's Scrapbook

The newsest addition to our Mother's Group tribe is baby Tia.  It has taken me a while to get the time to finish it off, but I was finally able to giver her the gift I made for her - a baby scrapbook.

This scrapbook was actually really quick and easy to make (just took me a while to get around to it!).  All the layouts are very simple and easy to do.  There are no time-consuming techniques involved so it would be easy to reproduce in the future.

I chose to work in 8x8 inches as it is just the right size for 1 6x4 photo on each page plus a little embellishment and journalling.

I have left the journalling up to her mum and dad to add in as they add photos to the album.

All the photo mats are 6 1/4 inches x 4 1/4 inches so that there will be a nice 1/4 inch border once the photos are added.

This is the first page in the album.  Here I have used the "Bundle of Joy" stamp set.  The images are stamped in Basic Brown and coloured with watercolour crayons and the aquapainter.  The colours used are Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana and Whisper White.  The giraffe and teddy bear were cut out and mounted with Dimensionals.

The photograph is one I took of Tia when I visited her in hospital, as is the one on the front cover.