My blog has moved.....................

I have a beautiful new blog at http://janenorrish.com so be sure to change this address in your reader or favourites as I'd hate for you not to come over and see me.

Jane ;-)

Just Add Ink Challenge #3

Wow, two challenge entries in as many weeks (I'd better go and have a lie down.....lol). Just Add Ink is a new blog started by some wonderful Stampin’ Up! demonstrators. They have a challenge each week and for this week they have selected a sketch.



And here is the card I came up with.



Sorry the picture looks a bit flat but I just can't get the lighting right tonight.


Recipe:
Stamps: En Francais, Inspired by Nature, Whimsical Words
Paper: Kraft, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla
Other: Sahara Sand Ink, Not Quite Navy Ink, Not Quite Navy Marker Pen, Kraft taffeta ribbon, Eyelet Border punch.

Happy Valentines Day

Well I know it isn't actually Valentines Day yet but I just wanted to show you some little treat boxes I made for the ladies at our Paper Mates stamping group last Saturday.

The little pillow boxes are die cut from kraft cardstock, then the 3 hearts are punched out using the Heart to Heart punch and the label is stamped using the Vintage Labels stamp set which is one of the current stamp sets you can get during Sale-a-bration and punched out using the scallop circle punch. I have tied this around the box with hemp twine. Inside were some lovely mini M&Ms.

We had a lovely day doing punch art and making lots of different embellishments to use on our cards.

Next month we will be doing "Colour Inspiration" and I will show you how a colour wheel can be your best friend when you are making cards or scrapbooking. If you would like to join us please call or email me and I can add your name to our mailing list.

ESAD Challenge

I am a member of the ESAD (Extremely Special Australian Demonstrators) Yahoo group and I am ashamed to say I am a bit of a lurker.

BUT.... my New Year's resolutions were to overhaul my blog (in the process) contribute more to the group, to enter the challenges and to be more organised. Well I am ticking 2 of those off (group and challenges), I can't say I am more organised as this is a last minute entry, but at least it's there!

The lovely Leonie set us challenge to make a card, 3D item or scrap page using the following colours.




And here is what I came up with:





These colours are a little out of my comfort zone which is good as I would never normally have put them together.

The decorative scallop border is something I cased from Gretchen Barron, I love to find new tricks to do with our punches, the flower is made by crumpling up scallop layers and then adding a button, the leaves are from the 5-petal punch and the words are from the Echoes of Kindness Level 2 hostess set.

Can You Believe................

I made all these beautiful swaps for Stampin' Up! Regionals in Brisbane last Saturday and left them at home! I was halfway there when I realised and it was way too late to go back. Some very kind ladies did swap with me though and their returns are on their way. Luckily my swaps were Christmas themed so I can mount them up and use them for my Christmas cards this year. When one door closes another one always opens.

Had a fabulous time at Regionals, caught up with some lovely people and enjoyed the make and takes and Workshop Wow's. Must book my flights for Convention next year - already have the accomodation organised - can't wait.

What a Bad Blogger................

I can't believe I haven't blogged for over 2 months, well maybe I can, life has been hectic and something has to take a step back and my blog was it. So I'd better make up for it!

Stampin' Up a Storm was a huge success. Thanks so much to everyone that supported us and especially to Petronela Hardy, I couldn't have done it without you babe! We raised a total of $561.90 for the Motor Neurone Association of Queensland, mostly from our raffle of fantastic goodies donated by Stampin' Up! The prizes were spectacular.

Here are a few photos of the occasion.




This is our display table all set up and looking good.












A close-up shot of the cupcakes I made for all the stampers. Each cupcake contained some lollies and some of them a ticket for a lucky door prize.













The lucky major prize winners. Congratulation to Kaye, Judy, Lyn and Anne-Maree.










Some of our lovely ladies deep in concentration during one of the projects.










And the lovely ladies on the other table.










And here are the projects the ladies got to make. It was a full on day but the feedback has been very positive.










Thanks to everyone again for your support.

Watch this space!

We will be organising another one in the new year.

Stampin' Up a Storm

Quick! Get out your diary and write in under Saturday 26th September that you are joining us at Burleigh Town Tavern for Stampin' Up! a Storm. Petronela Hardy and myself have put our heads (and the rest of our bodies) together to bring you a day of stamping, fun, prizes and lots more to raise money for the Motor Neurone Disease Assoc of Qld. Stampin' Up! have donated some wonderful goodies which we will be raffling on the day to raise even more money.


Motor neurone disease is a progressive neurological disease. MND affects approximately 1300 people in Australia and thousands more - their carers, families and friends - live daily with its impact. On average every day in Australia at least one person dies from MND and another is diagnosed.

Motor neurone disease often begins with weakness of the muscles of the hands or feet. It eventually leads to generalised paralysis. People with motor neurone disease need help with daily activities and have a life expectancy of three to five years after their diagnosis.

At present there is no cure for Motor Neurone Disease.

For more details or if you would like to join us for a fantastic day email me now.

For the all inclusive price of $85 you will receive:
* fantastic projects - all materials supplied
* morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea
* FREE stamp set "Great Friend" from the current Spring Mini Catalogue
* prizes and surprises

Numbers are limited so places will be allocated on a first come first served basis, payment is required with your booking.

Please come and join us - you will have a ball.

Kokoda Challenge 2009

Blake again took part in the Kokoda Challenge this year. After being part of the winning St Andrews school team for the last 2 years, it was a greater challenge this year having to compete as an adult. Blake joined the ANZ bank team this year and the guys, Simon, Warren and Geoff finished in an amazing time of 17hours and 7 minutes. This made them 1st Business Team finished and 3rd team overall, an amazing achievement. The team looking fresh and eager at the start. It is always very cold in Mudgeeraba at 7am when they start but it warmed up quite a bit during the day and many of the competitors had problems with cramps because it was so warm.

Is was freezing again when they finished just after midnight but not as cold as it has been on previous years. They were back on the Sunday afternoon for the presentation and there were many teams still coming through the finish.

The event was designed to reflect the key elements of the Spirit of Kokoda - ENDURANCE, SACRIFICE, COURAGE and MATESHIP - with 96km representing the actual distance of the Kokoda Track and the 39 hours they are given to complete the course symbolising the 39th Militia who were the first of our Australian troops to arrive at Kokoda on 15th July 1942.

The four person teams are required to advance through 14 checkpoints to the finish line. At designated checkpoints teams are able to take a break and regroup with the help of their support crew. All four team members much finish the challenge to be eligible for the awards.

Congratulations to Mr Ryan Martin and the St Andrews Lutheran College school team who took out the Stan Bissett Cup for the first school team home for the 3rd year running.

So what else have I been up to?

Looking back through the pictures on my camera - heaps!
In May this year I went the the Stampin' Up! Convention in Canberra and had a ball. Big thanks to Leigh (my roommate), Jean and Karen for putting up with me. Also like to say Hi to my upline Venessa who surprised me by being there as I didn't think she could make it, all the other lovely Brissie demos I caught up with and all the new friends I made. From left to right in the picture are Leigh, Jean, me (the midget) and Karen.

I made nearly 100 swaps to take to convention with me and they were all swapped out on the Friday. I received some fabulous swaps back, the standards were so high and the ideas amazing. These were some of the cards I made.










I also managed to catch up with my lovely friend Elaine Hannam from Tasmania. Elaine and I met a few years ago on a Yahoo online group when we involved in much more arty work than we do now..........lol. We then met in person at Melbourne Paper Arts and catch up every year when Elaine comes up to the Gold Coast for a holiday. Elaine is here this weekend so there will lots of catching up going on.

Back with those pictures..................

Only 4½ months later (can you believe how bad that is).................. Oh dear.



Here are the pictures of the Stepper boxes open. I am demonstrating this at the Stamping INKstinct club day this Saturday for the girls that didn't get to make them at stamp camp.



The girls that did make them have probably forgotten all about them by now - it has been so long.

Jam Creations Stamp Camp

Was lucky enough to be invited by Jackie and Ann from Jam Creations to demonstrate at their annual camp the weekend before last. We had a wonderful time, great company, super projects and lots of laughs.

I demonstrated the Stepper or Fantasy box which was originally done by Terri Digness. This is a lovely box and the ladies all had heaps of fun making them.


Silly me didn't take any pictures of the boxes open but I will do that and upload the pictures later.

Disastrous Diaries

I made up some diaries for the new year using the Stampin' Up! rub-ons but I must have done something wrong or the diaries were made of something that the rub-ons didn't like as they went all sticky and stuck to everything before coming off!


Luckily I noticed before the class I was doing that this had happened and did a quick about turn and stamped on the diaries using Staz-On. Whew...........


Another disaster averted in the knick of time.

Summer Mini Catalogue almost over

I loved nearly everything in this catalogue which is very unlike me but the stamp sets and papers in this catalogue are beautiful and the punches - fantastic!

I made these three cards using the Bali Breeze Designer Papers and the Eastern Blooms stamp set for the head staff at Blake's school at the end of last year. He finished year 12 and I am so missing school..........lol (He's not!).


The papers are River Rock, Taken with Teal, and Whisper White.


I have also used the Stampin' Glitter in the centre of the flowers on a couple of the cards - it is just beautiful.


I made this card for my friend Lyn, using the Carousel Notes and the Live Your Dreams stamp set. I also used some of the lovely Ginger Blossom Designer Papers.
I also made this card using the same stamp set and the Afternoon Tea designer Papers. This also uses the square scallop punch which is a "must have".


This card was made for a swap in a demonstrators Yahoo group I am in. The cards disappeared in the post and never turned up but at least I had taken a picture. This card uses my favourite River Rock cardstock along with Groovy Guava and Ruby Red and the lovely Ginger Blossom Designer Paper.

Sorry for the long break.........

I can't believe that I haven't posted to my blog since November, I do apologise for being so slack and promise to do better from now on (oops - maybe I shouldn't make promises like that).

We had a very sad Christmas with the accidental death of my boss's 13 year old son Mackenzie in a trail bike accident on 20th December. Mackenzie and his brother Dougal are good friends with my son, Blake and it hit us and the whole community very badly. One thing you are never prepared for is the death of a child and this being so sudden and so tragic, just took the wind out of our sails. I totally re-evaluated my life and suddenly the things that used to seem so important became very insignificant.

Then on top of that I smashed my car up quite badly on Christmas Eve, Luckily the only thing that was hurt was my pride.

So, huge thanks to my friends and family who supported us during this horror time. Mackenzie's family are taking each day at a time and slowly learning to live with their loss. At times like this you feel very helpless but the one thing I could do was make some sympathy thank you cards for the family to send out and this is what I came up with, some were in this colour and others in shades of blue. I ended up making 275 of these and would like to thank the girls at stamp group who helped me put the last lot together.

Shoes & Chocolate - Heaven!

How cute are these little shoes, filled with chocolate. These are little thank you gifts that I made for this weekend. My lovely upline Venessa gave me a template which I downsized to make these little cuties.

I have absolutely NO will power when it comes to chocolate so the only way I can get enough chocolate to put into these little shoes is to put mint chocolates in - I don't like mint. How sad am I?

Brayer Brilliance

My in home class last month was "Brayer Brilliance" and the lovely ladies made the following 5 cards using different brayering techniques. I love my brayer and just don't get it out often enough.


This card was made using Almost Amethyst, Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant Inks on Glossy White cardstock. Cased from a card by Jane Mercer.






Using the same technique as in the last card but masking the snow and the moon to create a lovely effect. Colours used here are Bordering Blue and Night of Navy.





This card was made by stamping with Versamark before brayering over the top with So Saffron and then stamping with Really Rust.





This card was made by brayering the base colour Mellow Moss over the glossy white card stock then sticking small post it notes down and brayering Old Olive all over and then sticking down larger post it notes and brayering Always Artichoke over the whole thing. Then remove the post it notes and voila! White emboss flowers over the top.





And finally the last card we made uses the Emerging Colour technique. Love this card and as soon as I saw it On Vanessa Webb's blog just knew I had to make one. Needless to say the girls all loved it too.

Arty-Oz Collaborative Book 2008

Thirty one amazingly talented girls (myself included....lol) on the Yahoo group Arty-Oz have contributed to this unbelievably beautiful book.


Teresa Abajo was the hostess who took on the mammoth task and with a band of helpers bound our pages into the wonderful volume you see here. The theme for the book was Women and there are some absolute masterpieces amongst the pages.

For my page I used Basic Grey paper and stamps from the Little Dreams collection by the wonderful Rachel Greig at Darkroom Door.

St Andrews Lutheran College Year 12 Formal

Last Saturday my son Blake attended the Year 12 formal for St Andrews Lutheran College, Tallebudgera. Everyone looked amazing, and they all had a great time.






Blake with Clare his partner for the evening.













Proud parents........lol











The Kokoda Challenge team looking very smart.

Purely Pomegranate Christmas

Here are the cards we made in the Christmas Joy class last month. Everyone got to make 2 of each card. We used the Purely Pomegranate and Whisper White cardstock and the Season of Joy stamp set from the Mini Catalogue.


For his card we also used the Purely Pomegranate Satin Ribbon which I love and will miss terribly when the Mini Catalogue finishes at the end of next month.









On this card we added some razzle dazzle with the Heat & Stick Powder and the Dazzling Diamonds on the tree. The flower on the front of the base also had a bit of bling with a little rhinestone added in the centre.









The final card we made was this beautiful tag punch star card (CASED from Donna Moore on SCS) which is much easier to make than it looks although a little time consuming. Punching out all the tag frames takes a while........lol But the effect is well worth it. We also used the Polka Dot background stamp to get the spots on the vellum and the card front.

Christmas Special!

To enable you to get a head start on your Christmas cards this year I have put together a very special package of fabulous goodies especially for you.

In the package we have:

"Season of Joy" stamp set (from Mini Catalogue)
6 x Sheets Designer Paper "Holiday Harmony" (MC)
4 x Sheets Accents & Elements "Hand Selected" (MC)
6m x Purely Pomegranate Satin Ribbon (MC)
10 x A4 Sheets Always Artichoke
10 x A4 Sheets Purely Pomegranate
10 x A4 Sheets River Rock
10 x A4 Sheets Whisper White
20 x Whisper White envelopes
1 x Always Artichoke Ink Pad
1 x Purely Pomegranate Ink Pad
1 x River Rock Ink Pad
1 x Sheet 100 Stampin' Dimensionals
Selection of punched shapes
Instructions for 6 different cards

Special Price $125.00

Please note - this package is not a Stampin' Up! promotion
and is only available from me. To get your pack now email me at

janenorrish@optusnet.com.au