Is Jacque the Queen of Treats??

This week's class was small gifts, as well as the absolutely gorgeous post-it note holder which I love & doubt whether I'll ever be able to give it away; we also made this large "treat holder".

I just adore the colour combo & will miss Soft Sky when it retires (sob tomorrow).

Stamp set: Office Accoutrement, So Many Sayings, Sprinkles
Ink: Pale Plum, Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip (marker)
Paper: Soft Sky, Certainly Celery, Pale Plum, Whisper White
Other: Soft subtles buttons, slit punch, word window punch, Certainly Celery wide grosgrain ribbon, Stylised Silver hodgepodge brad, scallop edge border punch (how did we ever do without it??)

Thanks Jacque for another great night.

KWerner Challenge 43

Kristina's latest challenge was harder than normal as there were so many colours! I know never happy!


Not sure why but I thought I'd play with Ahoy Matey for it (red & blue was my light bulb moment for a sailor's top) & it didn't turn out how I thought it would but I think a wee boy would love one of these cards for their birthday or any day who that matter.


Stamp set: Ahoy Matey, Matey's Map (wheel), Cheesecloth BG (retired)
Ink: Basic Brown, Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip (for sponging)
Watercolour crayons: Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red, Old Olive
Paper: Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip, Watercolour paper
Other: Aquapainter, Cutter tool, dimensionals, sponge dauber, vintage brads

Thanks Kristina for pushing me outside my comfort zone yet again!

Bushfire Appeal Update

I'm sure we've all been touched by the graphic images we've seen recently of the total devastation to our neighbours across the ditch - now here's a lovely painless way to donate some money whilst buying a stamp set. The following 10 sets Stampin' Up! are donating 50% of the retail value of all sales to the Australian Red Cross Victorian Bushfires 2009 Appeal - at times like this I am so proud to be representing this company in some small way.

In addition I will be donating 20% of all order totals that contain one of these sets to the appeal personally (whilst this appeal is on) as it such a worthwhile appeal.

Here is the list of the Bushfire Appeal sets:

• Looks Like Spring* (page 76) $68.95
• The Snowflake Spot* (page 27) $46.95
• Bodacious Bouquet* (page 80) $ 68.95
• Polka Dots & Paisley* (page 46) $42.95
• G'day Mate* (page 115) $42.95
• Be Happy* (page 51) $46.95
• Priceless (page 105) $57.95
• Seeing Spots (page 89) $35.95
• Baroque Motifs (page 98) $46.95
• Live Your Dream (page 3 - Summer Mini) $66.95

Note: the first SIX stamp sets listed above and marked with an asterisk will appear on the upcoming (March 1st) list of retiring products, so they'll only be available while supplies last.

This offer is from 12 February to 31st March so if interested do it now & also maybe earn yourself a FREE sale-a-bration stamp set with every $120 spent. If you do not own a catalogue the online catalogues can be viewed HERE

Should you wish to buy you can contact me by e-mail karen@karenstampz.co.nz or just click HERE

I'll be updating this post from time to time with the total donated by SU! & myself so do check back.

5th March new total $58,131.68 AUD

and yet even more designer paper...

this is one of my favourite paper's in the current Catalogue: Spring Fling.

I made this cute post-it note holder at Jacque's card class on Wednesday.

I do really appreciate someone doing all the hard work for me plus I get to chat & gossip with all the girl's and stamp at the same time - heavenly!

More designer paper

With just over a month to go to the launch of the new Idea Book & catalogue. I thought it was appropriate to play with the DSP which we've been extremely lucky to have been able to have purchased for the last year at $13.95 for the 12 sheets as opposed to $19.95 as there was a typo in the last Idea Book & Catalogue which worked in our favour.

So at my recent home class we also made these really cool criss-cross cards (well my team voted for them to be a WOW card at the recent swap) & my home classes' version was even prettier.

Stamp set: Embrace Life, Cheers & Wishes, Occasional Greetings
Ink: Basic Brown, River Rock
Paper: River Rock, Groovy Guava, Ruby Red, Very Vanilla, Watercolour paper, Ginger Blossom DSP
Other: Glue stick, sticky strip, corner rounder, round tab punch, 1-3/8" circle punch, scallop circle punch, Earth Elements watercolour crayons, Aqua painter, crimper, River Rock DS ribbon
Technique: Criss- cross card click HERE to see a tutorial

Mini album using designer paper

Wow who could imagine taking 1 sheet of DSP & creating a wee album with places/slots for journalling tags. This is one of the cool ideas my upline Jacque learnt at convention last year & we both demonstrated at the Hamilton Extravaganza recently.

The stamp set used is Live Your Dream which as a set didn't grab me at first but it's so versatile - has a huge flower, wee flower spray, butterfly, bird, 3 flowers in a row, the saying "Thanks", a really cool saying "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams" and dotted lines for journalling or the like. Live Your Dream is also one of the stamp sets that SU! are donating half it's retail value ($66.95) to the bushfire appeal - this means YOU are responsible for donating $33.50 to the appeal plus getting a stamp set - what a deal!

I'm off to Convention this year so hope I come back with lots of cool ideas like this too.

Here's a LINK to a very sweet mini album Jacque has created using Le Jardin DSP & dare I say it, when both her & Jared were looking a wee bit younger.

Seeing Spots - no I'm seeing mail

thanks to the lovely Rachael AKA Knightstamper for my lovely thank you card using the very versatile Seeing Spots stamp set (which is one of the Bushfire Appeal sets), colours used are old olive & chocolate chip.

So a BIG thank you Rachael it's very lovely!!!

Projects and Technique Swap

Latest team swap was either supposed to be a technique or a project. I can't reveal mine as I'm teaching it at my upcoming Tuesday 24th class, I was really chuffed as the team voted for it to be a draw with Rachael's card for MOST WOW - I was shocked & honoured especially when as you can see how beautiful Rachael's is!

So here they all are, must admit the team are being as slack as me this week on posting so will just show their blog with their card, their name is the hyperlink. Do check out the rest of my very gifted team who are inspirationable. Not sure if that's a word but it is now.

Rachael fellow most wow winning card - her fake Carousel Note Card
Poor Rachael was creating these while we had the team training and it wasn't even night time! It was a big weekend for 4 of us there as we'd worked at the Hamilton Extravaganza the day before. I know I slept when I finally got home Sunday afternoon.

Jacque's very sweet card using Live Your Dream - one of the Bushfire Appeal sets.
Anne-Marie's won the most demonstrable & I think this might be one of the nicest card I've seen Botanical Blooms create.
Sara has also used the saying from Live Your Dream plus Heartfelt Thanks flower stamp, which is such a cool saying. Love the colour combo too.
One of our new team members Kim's bookmark - just love this wee bird from Fun & Fast Notes.
Kirsty drove all the way from Taupo to attend training & I just love the card she's also created with Live Your Dream & Stampin' pastels; it's also got a really cool fold too but hopefully she'll have it & how to do it up on her blog.
A wee nugget box or in our case Flake holder created by Louisa - adore the colours & the background has been stamped with Eastern Blooms.
Yvonne soon to be known as ystamp wee sour cream container - she's used the Basics Outline wheel & judicial use of a crimper.
Hannah's wee tag card using Make A Wish & Party Punch (level 1 hostess set)

This was the wee card we all got to create - designed by Anne-Marie:
Thanks all for the inspiration & lots of ideas - until next time!

Happy Birthday Judy

Ohh imagine my shock when I log onto my SBS forum yesterday to see that's it's my dear friend, blogging sister & neighbour Judy's birthday today. It's now late on Sunday night & I need my bed.

Lucky me I have 5 projects sitting in bags for me to create from Saturday's extravaganza in Gordonton.

So thanks Delys & Jennifer - I've used your project - you've saved my bacon & I do hope Judy has a very special day as she certainly deserves it after another bout of chemotherapy & surgery over the past months.


Stamp set: Eastern Blooms, Short & Sweet
Paper: Taken with Teal, Rose Red, Whisper White, Bali Breeze DSP, Old Olive
Ink: Taken with Teal, Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie
Other: Corner rounder, round tab punch, crop-a-dile, metallic eyelets, hemp twine, Pumpkin Pie & Tempting Turquoise grosgrain ribbon, sticky strip
Technique: Free standing pop up card - view a tutorial on SCS by clicking HERE

The picture (taken at night with my eco light bulbs) does not do this card justice so I hope Judy posts it on HER BLOG.

The last of the love for awhile (me thinks)

Just a quick post as I promised my work morning tea & I have blueberries muffins to bake. Though looking at the time now they may have to wait until tomorrow night!

I run out of broadband (again) & it's impossible to post or view blogs without it in case any of you have missed me. I'm allowed to change my plan on March 5 so after this date I'll be able to change my allowance plus it'll be cheaper.

These are the last of the projects we made at my Valentine's classes last week:

Peek-a-boo treat holder using A Happy Heart & Lots of Dots jumbo wheel

& inside the yummy chocolate heart from The Chocolate Boutique in Parnell


Another Chocolate Treat (this time done in red)


and last but not least a masculine Valentine's card that I cased directly from my upline's card class I attended a week earlier


Stamp set: A Happy Heart; Polka Dot Punches, Sanded (though I used Distressed in my class)
Paper: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White
Ink: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip
Other: Chocolate Chip 1" double-stitched ribbon, crimper, crop-a-dile, jumbo eyelets, designer label punch, sponge daubers, a tiny weeny bit of Dazzling diamonds glitter (remember it's for a man), whisper white envelope

This is a very clever card - it's actually 2 cards in one! This is the inside of the top wee card:


And this is the inside of the larger bottom card:


So I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend, mine's been great: Top Gear the live show Friday night, helping out at the Hamilton extravaganza (exhausting but have some new ideas), Slum Dog Millionaire at the movies Saturday night (DO GO AND SEE IT). Today demo training & visiting my family. Plus I did get some red roses that were actually chocolates - mmm & best of all Pete fixed my broken driver's door. So me very happy.

Team training continued...

Just a real quick post to share the swaps from the team training the other night. I had to laugh it was the first thing the girls wanted to do when they walked in my door even more important than playing with chocolate - the theme was to use a Sale-A-Bration set if you had it.

So Clare & me played along & Debbie made a really cool tag card which is just such an awesome idea to use up those scraps of designer paper lying on your desk.

from Clare using Botanical Blooms:


from Debbie using those "scraps of Afternoon Tea DSP"


and my effort I cased this from Tracy Harp on SCS - when I saw hers I thought what a cool tree! I knew you could punch the flower out in the SAB Polka Dot Punches set but hadn't realised that this stamp Tracy/I've used could also be punched with the scallop circle punch (duh) - this would make a really cool tree on a scrap book page too. I added the wee bird from Live Your Dream stamp set too

So even though we're small a great effort by all & hopefully the whole team maybe able to make the next meeting plus we have a new team member Sally Williams from Massey East - so a BIG welcome to the WOW paperKRafters to increase our ranks.

Beautiful chocolate treats anyone?

What a silly question! I learnt to make these at my upline Jacque's stamp class last week & thought what a great idea so passed it onto my downline tonight. Jacque's efforts can be seen HERE and this will also be one of the wee projects that you will be making if you come to my Valentine's class next week.

Take one square of chocolate as below, decorate & viola! And yes I have changed my blade.
I made this one at class last week using the very delectable Love Owl-ways which is in our Summer Mini catalogue.

Cutting dimensions:
Whisper white: 6-1/4" x 4-1/4" (score at 2" from both ends) & 2-1/2" x 1-1/2"
Contrast colour: 2-5/8" x 1-5/8" & 4-1/4" x 1" (to be scalloped edged)
Ribbon: approx. 15"
Punches: Scallop edge border & slit punch

The ones that the WOW paperKRafters created used what I think is the most versatile of the hostess sets For A Friend which was perfect for this project. Contact ME if you'd like to know how to earn this stamp set for free.

I made this colour combo for Trudi at NZSU blog as she wanted us to be creative with Regal Rose, Rose Red, Certainly Celery & Whisper White (what a yummy combo).

Clare's treat holder:
Debbie's:
& another one from me:
They almost look too good to eat (almost I said).