Club SUM Christmas Dinner 19 December 2012

This year we had a combined Christmas dinner and workshop. Following on from the success of last years Thai take out dinner, we again ordered from the same place and had our meal before getting stuck into a Christmas card project.

 My sister, Lily was stuck with making the Fruit salad christmas tree which did not quite come out as I had pictured it. Next time, I'll need to prepare it the night before. Just too busy.

Christmas card production

I managed to make 60 christmas cards in nearly 2 days. Started production on Wed 5/12 night, continued on Fri 7/12 and finished them on Sat 8/12, with some help from my niece, Kaylene who helped me punch some glimmer papers and cut and stick some dimensionals.

Materials used:

Red, Silver and Champagne glimmer paper
Postage punch
1" square punch
Merry Mini's punch set
Whisper White cardstock
Raspberry Ripple cardstock
Raspberry Ripple ink pad
Snail glue
More Merry Messages Stampset

Winner!!!

I received an email from Sophie Zadeh, Training Facilitator at Stampin' Up! who demonstrated at the recent Heartfelt Stampin' Event in Sydney. I was one of the five winners of the Social Media prize. In order to be in the running you had to blog, twitter, fb about the event, and if your post came up when Sophie googled "Heartfelt Stampin' then you had to chance to win a prize. Imagine my surprise when I saw an email from Sophie saying I was one of the chosen five. The prize - Merry Minis stamp set. Lucky I haven't purchased this set yet, although I have already purchased the matching punch set. Yay!!! now to wait for it to arrive in the post.  Hopefully I get it before Christmas :D

I got home on Friday and there was a parcel waiting for me...my prize from Stampin' Up! 

Wedding Invites and Decorations

For most of this year I have been busily involved with my cousin, Ken and fiance, Angel's wedding preparations.

They enlisted me to help with the design and making of their invitations, the place cards as well as assorted table decorations.

Now that the wedding is over with, I can post the pictures of my handiwork.

The invitations and place name cards, were made using the Stampin' Up! Simply Soft Hostess & ??? stamp set, Pink Pirouette Ink Pad, Pink Pirouette 3/8" taffeta ribbon, Dazzling Diamons. Whisper white cardstock, the pink shiny cardstock was purchased from Spotlight. C6 envelopes and Notecard envelopes were used.

The inspirational wooden words were purchase from Spotlight and decorated using white paint and the same stamp sets used in the invitations. these were used to decorate each table.

Wooden pegs were painted and painstakingly stamped with "Celebrate Today" and "Thank You" and used for placecard holders.

A metal bird cage was painted and decorated to be used as the "wishing well" card holder.

The banners were care of the Martha Stewart website which had letter templates I could just print out on  my Purple and Pretty in Pink cardstock

Here I am with my cousin, Belinda and niece, Kaylene, greeting guests. 

Stampin' Up Heartfelt Stampin' Event - Sydney

On Saturday I attended the Stampin' Up! Heartfelt Stampin' Event in Sydney with my downline and very good friend, Sue. After checking in at the registration counter and picking up our bag of goodies, which had our Make and Take projects, the Clockworks stamp set, our meal ticket, wristband, and program guide, we waited for the doors to the main hall to open. I headed to the Inspiration board to pin my project and then we found a seat at the gathering place to listen to the welcome speech and housekeeping directions, before dispersing to our various destinations.

The morning was spent in the Bayside Terrace room attending the presentations by Sophie Zadeh: Decorations, Marelle Taylor: Heartfelt Cards, Donna Williams: Packaging and Wrapping Ideas and Ann Craig: Handmade Gifts.

Sophie's presentation on christmas decorations were exquisite and if I had the time, I would make myself one of those floral, buttoned wreaths and snowflake covered foam ball decorations.

The quick and easy Heartfelt cards demonstrated by Marelle will be quick and easy when I get my hands on those pre made tags.

Donna's wrapping and packaging ideas were fantastic, loved the enormous floral bows and Ann's use of brown stuffing paper to make scrap albums will be one I want to try my hand at.

So many talented and artistic demonstrators who were all willing to share their ideas and works of art.

After almost 4 hours of presentations, we had to replenish our energy with the supplied lunch, which we puzzled over. 

What was the yellow slab with the asparagus on it? What type of meat was in the bread bun? Either way, it was wolfed down, there was no time to waste.

We spent the afternoon moving from the Make and Takes to the Product playgrounds to taking photos of the inspirational works on the Inspirational boards. 

Didn't get time to look at the mini demonstrations taking place as they always seemed to be crowded. Whilst at the Make and Takes, we got told that if we went to the Christmas tree area and made an ornament for the tree, we'd get a special gift. We blitz through the first project, and headed straight over.

Whipped up a christmas ornament, hung it on the tree and waited for our gift: a Christmas greeting stamp - WOOHOO!

We tried our hand at using the wheels, got shown how the builder wheels worked and fell in love with more products. Also sat through a course on how to use the new clear mount stamps and the tools, positioning guides and foam mats that made using them easier.
The embossing station and brayer station always seemed to be full, but we managed to finally try our hand at brayering. It's amazing what you can do and learning that salt sprinkled on the cardstock and run through the big shot will give you a sky full of stars was pretty nifty.

We had a fantastic time. I took a lot of photos and picked up a lot of ideas, which I wish I could do now, but other things get in the way..like work.

INK-credibles

As if getting a free christmas gift (see Christmas is Coming! post below) wasn't enough, if you're hosting a Stampin' Up! workshop  from 1-16 November and you make a minimum of $650 in party sales you are eligible to get a FREE collection of ink pads*-a $79.95 value-in addition to other fantastic benefits!

* Neutrals collection not eligible
**Does not include shipping

Christmas is Coming!

There is still a couple of weeks until Christmas, and Stampin' Up! is giving you a Christmas gift in November -- a FREE Festive Paper Piercing Pack when you buy the Ornament Keepsakes Set and Candlelight Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper Bundle.

 

If you haven't already got this Stamp set, place your order now with me and get the bonus Festive Paper Piercing Pack.