Camp Cypress 2011

Over the last 3 years I've been running a small Scrapbook & Stamping weekend at Baradine on the first weekend in March. We stay at Camp Cypress & always have a great time - this year was no exception.

I saw on Marelle's blog that at her camp she ran a MasterCrafter contest which sounded like lots of fun, so I CASEd her idea. Although not everyone liked the idea of having to do challenges they were all good sports & joined in (I think they even ended up having fun!)

First up was the Mystery Bag which contained an A5 sheet of Brocade Blue, 1 Brocade Blue brad, A5 sheet of Kiwi Kiss, length of Rose Red Stitched Ribbon & a scrap of patterned paper. I instructed the ladies to create anything they liked using at least 3 items out of the bag & they came up with these beauties -

Everyone voted on their favourites & sadly the bottom 5 were eliminated. Mandy's card below was the winner - there was almost an uproar when it was thought that she had only used 2 items from the 'Mystery Bag', but on close inspection from the judge (me!) it was discovered that Mandy had covered her Brocade Blue brad in Fine Supernova Glitter - clever thing.

I had downloaded afew Sketches from Makeesha's blog & Mandy choose the one below for the next challenge -

& here are all the fantastic creations.

The eliminated crafters got to vote for the winners, with Belinda's gorgeous scrapbook page taking the round.

The top 3 crafters now had to compete in the Pressure Test! I had CASEd this cute Easter box from Kirsty earlier in the day & the last challenge was to recreate it in 20 mins - adding your own personal touch. There were lots of laughs & nerves got the better of the crafters, so I kindly added 5 mins extra time so each had a finished box to 'dish up'. They all did a fantasic job - as you can see below. First on the left is my CASEd one, then Belinda's, Leanne's & Jenny's. All the eliminated crafters voted for the overall winner, which was Leanne, with her Pink Personalised Bunny!

If you would like to join the fun next year, let me know & I will add you to my emailing list.

AWOL!!!

I can't believe it has been well over 12 months since my last blog post - I am very red faced about it! Not that it is a very good excuse, but I have been very busy with work, kids & lots of other stuff. In March last year we bought a small property about 8km from town, then spent 5 months painting the house & changing the kitchen from this .......

to this ......

It is a huge improvement & has made the old farmhouse much more comfortable to live in. I think the bathroom is going to be the next project ........ just need to find some more $$ :-)

I have just spent the past weekend at my annual scrapbook & stamping getaway with 13 other ladies & we had a great time. I will try & post some pics of what we got up to in the next few days ............ I am determined not to let 12 months pass before my next post!

Happy Moments

Thanks so much to everyone who visited my blog & left lovely comments for the Blog Hop on Monday. It's not too late to enter for the blog candy, but you'll have to hurry as it closes tonight. To win you will need to visit every blog on the hop & leave a comment on each one. Once you have done this send an email to leonie@stamp-a-latte.com & you will be in the draw. You can find my original post, with the link to the next blog here.

I had to make another couple of card sets for a workshop today & went a little overboard so have afew more to give away. I will send a set to the first 4 people to email me their address & which colour they would prefer - the only catch is that you must also have left a comment on my original blog hop post.

Must dash as we are going out for a BBQ tea :-)

ESAD SAB Blog Hop

Welcome to the ESAD SAB Blog Hop. What is ESAD, what is SAB & what is a Blog Hop?????

ESAD - is a group of Australian & New Zealand Stampin' Up! demonstrators. We have a fantastic Yahoo group where demonstrators can ask questions, share ideas & inspire each other. If you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator in Australia or New Zealand you can find out more about how to join ESAD here.

SAB - stands for Sale-A-Bration & is the most exciting promotion on the Stampin' Up! calendar. During SAB (25th January to 31st March 2010) customers can choose a free SAB stamp set for every $100 spent, Hostess can choose a free SAB stamp set for every $600 in sales & new demonstrators can choose a free catalogue stampset to the value of $79.95.

For the Blog Hop, you just follow the link at the end of my post to the next blog to check out some more creations using SAB stamp sets. There are 42 blogs in total & if you comment on all of them you will be in the running to win some amazing blog candy including inkpads, ribbons, stampsets etc.

As soon as I saw these cards, I knew I had to CASE them. They are so quick & simple to make yet still look gorgeous. I have made mine in Pink Pirouette & Baja Breeze using 1/4 of an A4 sheet each, so they are a small 10.5cm x 7.5cm

Stampset: Happy Moments

Cardstock: Confetti White

Ink: Pink Pirouette, Close to Cocoa, Black Staz On

Accessories: Designer Buttons, Aquapainter, Pink Pirouette 1 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon

Stampset: Happy Moments
Cardstock: Confetti Cream
Ink: Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Black Staz On
Accessories: Corduroy Buttons (retired), Aquapainter, Kiwi Kiss Satin Ribbon

Another great thing about these cards is that they fit into one of the Stampin' Up! medium sized cellophane bags. I found some matching DSP in my stash & made a couple of bag toppers to package up my cards. If you would like the chance to win one of these card sets, along with many other great prizes then make sure you continue on the blog hop & comment on each of the blogs. The blue set will be sent to the overall blog candy winner & I will draw a winner from those who comment on my blog for the pink set.

Thanks for hopping by, make sure you continue on to Amy's blog for the rest of the ESAD SAB Blog Hop.

Blog Hop & SAB tomorrow!!

Not much blogging this week, I've been abit busy! The kids have just finished 2 weeks of daily swimming lessons & although it was nice to be in the water during the hot weather, I was glad for a day at home on Friday. Not that it was very relaxing as I was busy making Tomato Relish - 12kg of tomatoes & 41 jars later here is the end product. Now on to the reason for today's post - to let you know that the most exciting promotion on the Stampin' Up! calendar begins tomorrow! During Sale-a-bration customers can choose one FREE SAB stamp set for every $100 spent. Hostesses will also get to choose a FREE SAB stamp set once sales reach $600. SAB is also a great time to join Stampin' Up! as new demonstrators can choose a FREE stamp set up to the value of $79.95

These specials are only available until the 31st March 2010.

I will also be participating in a SAB Blog Hop tomorrow, so make sure you come back to see some projects using the SAB stamp sets & find out how you could be in the running to win some great prizes.

Above are afew peeks at a card I have just uploaded to the Elite Challenges blog to keep you going until tomorrow :-)

Circle Punch Flowers

I've been making afew quick & easy flowers using up some of my left over DSP & a couple of Circle punches. I have used the new 1 3/4" Circle punch in the Summer Mini Catalogue along with the 1 1/4", 1" & 3/4" Circle Punches.

Here is a close up of one of my flowers. To make the leaves I have folded a 2" strip of Old Olive cardstock in half & put it through the crimper on an angle, then cut out some half circles. Once you fold out the cardstock you get a great leaf shape. The buttons I have used are from the new Playground & Sherbet Designer Buttons.

Kraft cardstock is such a great colour & goes with anything, so I just had to change the DSP & ribbon I used for afew different cards. This one is in Tempting Turquoise.

For my Pretty in Pink & Bashful Blue versions I also added a cute little butterfly using the new Butterfly Prints stamp set & matching punch.

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Oh Dear ..........

I've been MIA for so long, I'm sure all my readlers have moved on. Never the less, I have made a New Years Resolution to blog frequently again. Life has been quite busy since I last posted - we have visited friends in Sydney, went for a camping holiday on the beach & I've generally been busy chasing around kids & working. We were also lucky enough to spend Christmas with my parents on the Gold Coast, which was lovely.

Although I haven't had alot of time to do much stamping, I did make these frames for the kids Grandmother & Great Grandparents using some of the fun Double Sided Papers from the new Summer Mini Catalogue.

Sam's frame uses the new Tall Tales DSP - I kept it very simple & just cut out a couple of trees, added his name using the Jumbo Outline Alpha & the year using a retired numbers set.

For Josie's frame I cut out some flowers from the new Kaleidoscope DSP - the colours matched her pink shirt perfectly. Once again I used the Jumbo Outline Alpha for her name & a retired numbers set for the year, I also added a rhinestone brad on top of the "i"

Thanks for stopping by, I promise it won't be another 3 months before I post again.

Toolboxes for Dad!

While at Camp Cypress the clever Kerryl taught us how to make these gorgeous toolboxes & matching card using the Totally Tools stampset. Here is everyones toolboxes after the class

Closeup of one of the great toolboxes

& here is my card! If you check out the top picture you can see that everyone made thier cards a little different - depending on what sentiment they wanted to use. I had seen this idea on SCS using the tape measure from Totally Tools to spell out 'dad' & just had to use it (especially since it was the main reason I bought the stamp set!!)

Flowerpot Card

Last Thursday I hosted the INKlings Cyberstamp & one of the challenges I set was to make a flowerpot card. I've seen afew of these around the place & they are lots of fun to make. There were some other great flowerpot cards made by Ryn, Ariane & Karen, thanks for playing along :-)

I used the Petal Pizazz stamp set to make my flowers & buttons from Button Bouquet & Button Latte for the centres

I have also used the gorgeous new Riding Hood Red Striped Grosgrain ribbon & used some Hemp Twine to tie on another button.

I also taught this as a class at Camp Cypress - here are everyones gorgeous flowerpots, don't they look gorgeous!

Camp Cypress Retreat

Last weekend I held the 2nd Stamping & Scrapbooking Retreat at Camp Cypress in Baradine. 11 lovely ladies joined me for a fun weekend of crafting & we had a fabulous time creating until all hours of the night. I thought I'd share a couple of pictures of the great location, in the heart of the Pilliga forest.

Here is our accomodation - each cabin has four rooms, each with there own ensuite. The rooms can sleep up to six on three bunk beds, however we only used the bottom bunks, so there was only three in each room.

The next retreat is set for the first weekend in March 2010, so if you'd enjoy a weekend of fun & crafting, mark it in your diary - I'll have more info available soon & hope to share our creations with you over the coming days.