cheers!! - here's to you!

this week I made a few cards for the girls in my first level downlines. These are girls that I personally recruited. They have been all working hard on their demoships as well as many of them are going thru some tough life issues! SO for some of the girls I made these 'cheers' cards- I did different colour combos just cause I could! lol I will show those over the next few days. I loved this set but this is the first time I actually USED it!. And as you can see below I had a "what the .......?" moment. I had accidentally put a stamp on a clear the wrong way around and didn't notice till I stamped it!! THIS is what it looked like!! I can't believe I didn't notice!!! And yes I did "laugh out LOUD" :)

with sympathy

I seem to be making more and more sympathy cards these days, I suppose as we get older we know more who are passing away - but this card is made for a lady who's my age who just lost her 48yo husband!! way way way too early!! My heart goes out to Debbie and her family, our thoughts are with you all. xx

celebrating a new demo

Earlier in the month I signed up a new recruit to the wonderful world of being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, welcome Tania (and her mum Liz!!). As part of them joining my team I gave them a welcome pack, which including all sorts of goodies including stamp set, card stock, ribbon etc and it included this card. I LOVE the tall poppies - they reach out to as far as they can go - sort of what like being a demo is all about - going forward as far as you can go. Why not celebrate being able to achieve great things. 

Over the last week I've seen the awesome pictures from the Incentive Trip that the qualifying demos went on with their partners - an all expenses paid trip to Broom, Australia. It look AMAZING! Next year the Incentive Trip (now called Grand Vacation) is to UTAH, USA!!! Wouldn't it be amazing to go on a trip like that!!! I would love to go as do all demos. Being part of a great organisation like Stampin' Up! is awesome! 

If you would like to know more about getting your crafting products at a discounted rate, or earning ALL your crafting supplies so they cost you NOTHING or even better - making money to help out the family income or save for something special or aiming for a free holiday- email me julia.leece@vodafone.co.nz and we can chat soon!

inside the card.

blue butterflies

Here is another masked sponged card - this time with blues. I used Night Of Navy, Marina Mist and Bashful Blue to created the calming strip. Then using both the new butterfly punch and the Beautiful Wings embosslite I added the butterflies rather than stamping over the sponged blue line. I added a bit of Dazzling Diamonds on the bottom butterfly.
I added the "thinking of you" sentiment as this card is for a friend and downline of mine who has a very sick teenager in hospital and a hubby unwell as well. I hope she finds comfort in knowing that we are all thinking of her and her family!

We won our category!!!!!

For the last week we have been away attending the New Zealand Mustang Owners Club Annual Convention and this year it was held in Wellington. We were amazed but very pleased to be awarded first place in our category!! We had a FABULOUS trip away and met lots of lovely people!

Our last night we spent at the famous hotel The Chateau in Whakapapa Village by Mt Ruapahu. We woke up the next morning to look outside and it was snowing!! In the middle of Spring we were surprised - I've not seen snow falling before - sad I know! lol Now we are back home getting everyday life going again so hopefully I will have some samples to share with you.

masked sponging

This is one of the projects we did yesterday at my class here. It is a great technique that all the crafter's were pleased to learn. We made the sponged rectangle but using 'post-it' notes and ensured we didn't have any white card showing other than the rectangle as you don't want any wayward colour any where else! lol
Then starting with the lightest colour we sponged from the bottom up- first was Pretty in Pink, then up to the 2/3 mark with Primrose Petal and the last third was Raspberry Ripple. Then we removed all the maskings and over stamped with Midnight Muse our bird and branch stamp from the Serene Silhouettes. The sentiment is stamped in Primrose Petals matching the backing card and the card base is also Midnight Muse. A few diamantes and the card is done. Easy peasy!

I'm away for the next 6 days - this time my husband and I are taking our 1967 mustang coupe down to the New Zealand National Mustang convention. We are stopping in Taupo on the way down and The Chateau at Mt Ruapahu on the way.We can't take the kids with us this time because  they do have exams in the next two weeks but also we couldn't fit them and all our luggage in the car!! lol Below is pictures of our car at the Auckland Mustang Car Show - we won first for 1967-68 Coupe and first for Best Interior for 1964-1993 all Mustangs! Which was a HUGE honour as there were so many other cars in that category! I am not sure we will even place in Wellington as the car probably won't be as clean and perfect as usual with us driving all the way to Wellington and it's going to be a wet trip but we are looking forward to just being part of it. I just hope my body lasts so long in this old car all that way! hehe.

Hope you all have a terrific Labour Weekend and get some crafting in!!!

I am published!!!

This month in the Quilter's Companion magazine I have two items being shown. They are part of a page about 'what's hot'!!! lol Obviously it is to do with Stampin' Up!'s fabric not my beautiful figure!!! haaa heee!!! I won a competition between Stampin' Up! demonstrators to be in the magazine and I come up with a peaked cap and a bolster pillow using the Timeless Portrait fabric. If you look closely enough you will see my name! I picked this magazine up when I was in Australia two weeks ago but it is available at some quilting and magazine shops.
Stampin' Up! have quite a big range now of fabric so contact me to pick up some of their lovely three fat quarter packs.

A Hexagon Mini Album

Last night on Crafters Anonymous Tia taught us this album cut from DSP but it's no bigger than an A4. The original Tia saw at our Heartfelt Event in Auckland but we weren't sure who made it - so if it was you please let me know! It was on the table with the fabric display! It's a FANTASTIC thing, easy to make and you can use it in lots of different ways - either as a mini album or even a special card - great for sending to family where you could put photos of the grandchildren or something on it! I don't think you would have a big bow like this on one of those! hehe

I stamped directly on the DSP and sponged edges to make the hexagons stand out.
I have enjoyed crafting after a 2 week break, so I now have some samples to share!

NEWS FLASH!!!
I have heard that the original creator was the lovely Kayoto Daly from Christchurch and it was at the Christchurch event not the Auckland one. Thanks so much Kayoto for letting us know - we always LOVE to give the credit where it is due!!

SUCH an easy Christmas card

On Saturday I had a workshop and I demonstrated this card. I used the Flocked window sheet out of the current Holiday Catalogue. This is such an easy card that doesn't require ANY decoration or embellishment other than a simple sentiment. I put a piece of Whisper White card at the back and used our Sticky Strip to adhere it to the window sheet. Because the window sheet is so decorated you don't notice the uniform strip of adhesive on each side to the sheet.

It's SPOOL time! Free Ribbon for all orders of $70!

Stampin' Up! have a promotion running for October where for every $70 you order you can pick a free ribbon! Hows that for cool!!
The ribbons are on page 172 of the Annual Catalogue and called 3/8" (1cm) Stitched Satin Ribbon valued at $19.25 each. You can pick from any of the five colours.

Item	Description	Retail Value	Price with $70 Purchase
126848	Gumball Green 3/8” (1 cm) Stitched Satin Ribbon	$19.25	FREE
126847	Midnight Muse 3/8” (1 cm) Stitched Satin Ribbon	$19.25	FREE
126844	Primrose Petals 3/8” (1 cm) Stitched Satin Ribbon	$19.25	FREE
126845	Raspberry Ripple 3/8” (1 cm) Stitched Satin Ribbon	$19.25	FREE
126846	Summer Starfruit 3/8” (1 cm) Stitched Satin Ribbon	$19.25	FREE

I am putting an order in on Wednesday evening so contact me if you would like to get some free ribbon! email - julia.leece@vodafone.co.nz

I had a FANTASTIC holiday with the family - it might be the last family holiday as our eldest is finishing high school this year and starting his tertiary studies next year. They got do see and do some great things in North Queensland in Australia. Will share some photos soon :)

Isn't this the cutest card! I received it from Stampin' Up! for doing a demonstration at the Heartfelt Events - actually I received TWO of them as I presented at both the New Zealand events. hehe 

The heart is die cut out of the Core'ordinations card stock which has the lighter colour on the inside. It was scored using the Simply Scored Scoring Tool. The butterfly is from a new stamp set Papillon Potpourri and it has the matching butterfly punch. It is SUCH a cool set and with the punch it is so versatile. The sentiment if from Elements of Style and they cut out the scallop rectangle with a new die called Scallop Rectangle Clearlits. Topped with a clear button from Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons and a piece of bakers twine and it's done. Neat eh!

an apple a day

Over on Crafter's Anonymous we are doing a Christmas Ornament swap. This WAS my first attempt but decided my hands couldn't handle all the punching as it is made with about 20 hearts!! You fold the heart in half and then glue the hearts together creating a stack then pop in a ribbon and join the stack of them together to create the above. I then sponged with Real Red and Gumball Green to make it look more 'applish' LOL then punched a leaf out of the Build a Blossom punch.

I can't show you my actual swap I did cause all the ladies need to receive them first. In my absence I have sent all of mine to a my friend (and sister from another mother) Dee and she's sending mine out with hers. All the ornaments are being sent out on the same day so we should all receive them together (-ish hee hee). I can't WAIT to see what everyone's done!!!!