Bethinking

Circles...

I don't know about you, but I think that it's really fun when a bunch of like-minded people, who share an interest or passion, get together. When Stampin' Up! holds training events, I'm always keen to go along because not only do I learn loads, but I have heaps of fun as well. It's fantastic to catch up with other Demonstrators who are friends as well as colleagues.

Stampin' Up! held its Sydney Regional training event last Saturday, so of course I went along. I was feeling pretty nervous about this one, though, because I had been asked to give one of the "Wow" presentations! I decided for my presentation to focus on circles, and all the potential that using circles brings to card making and scrapbooking. There's a great circle cutting tool called the "Circle Scissor Plus" in the Summer Mini Catalogue (starting tomorrow!) so I wanted to demonstrate how to use that. Foolishly, I forgot to take photos of all my projects individually, so here they are on the display board at the event.

And this is me on stage pretending to do my presentation, when actually I'm posing for a photo! What the photo doesn't show is the 200+ scary people who were watching!

Christmas Gifts

Stampin' Up! has some great suggestions for gifts for family & friends, and for yourself this Christmas! If you spend more than $85 on items from the Gift Guide, then you receive a free punch. You have the choice of the Scallop Square punch or Boho Blossoms punch. You can read more information about the special by clicking here.  

Christmas Stationery Box

This is another one of the projects that I've been making, with pre-school teacher gifts in mind this time! Some of you made a Stationery Box at my class earlier this year. This is a Christmas version, so it has gift tags instead of the note paper that we previously did. This kit came together really quickly as I used the "I Wish" Simply Scrapping' Kit, so all the elements and bits and pieces I used were already there for me.

Simply Scrappin' kits make it very easy and quick to put together coordinating projects like this. I made 2 of these boxes from one kit (plus some extra ribbon & stamps) and I still have heaps of stuff left over.

The kits are part of this month's special. If you spend $85 or more on items from the Christmas Gift Guide, then you get a free punch - either the Scallop Square or the Boho Blossoms Punch - worth $30.95! So, please have a look at the list, and let me know if you'd like to order anything from it and earn your FREE punch!

Parisian Pizza?

I love it when things coordinate - they look so much classier that way, don't you think? Lately I've been making a few different kinds of boxes, with matching cards or tags inside, that I can use as gifts. There's lots of different gifts that are needed at this time of year, after all! This one is a Mini Pizza Box, which nicely fits some 3 1/2" square cards.

To make this I've used the Parisian Breeze specialty paper, which I really love. The colours and patterns are great for girls and guys, so it made it easy to make a mixed set of cards. This gorgeous paper is only available until the end of November, as it's in the Spring Mini catalogue, so please let me know soon if you'd like to order some!

Christmas Tag Pocket Book

This is a project that I've been wanting to make since it was demonstrated to us at Convention, by Shelli Gardner. I was so excited when I actually worked out how to do it! It's a Pocket Book, with a concertina section in the middle that stores a whole bunch of Christmas tags. The book and tags are made using the Winter Post stamp set, so have a nice vintage feel to them. I've teamed them up with Ski Slope paper, of course, so have chosen my colour scheme based on the DSP colours.

This is one of the projects that we'll be making at my upcoming "Christmas Bags & Tags" class, on November 20th. Please let me know if you'd like to join us!