Firstly, I will say…I’M BAAAAACK….

After a long hiatus from blogging and stamping in general I have finally got myself organsied. I have been busy with a few things 1. work 2. last years tax return (yes 2011/2012) 3. General organisation/clean up of my house AND last but certainly not least 4. Renovating my craft room…. how exciting… I will post pictures when I have finalised the finishing touches, I am waiting on paper storage cubes to be made, but so far the results are awesome.

Anyway, I have jumped straight back into my cardmaking, and one thing I am often asked is “where do you get your ideas from?” well last nights card ‘started with a bag’ my new Guess bag to be exact, I loved the detailed Guess design fabric with holes in that showed a glimmer of silver material in the background, this started my idea for a card.

I also wanted to try and incorporate something similar to the Guess logo…

I searched my craft room for ‘the right’ papers, I still have a stash of retired Mocha Morning Specialty Paper, I LOVE this DSP… one of the patterns was perfect for punching holes using my crop-o-dile (yes the holes were individually punched)

Here is the final result, I decided this card was the perfect design for a special occasion Birthday, I also used a key from Trinket Keys and the Silver Glimmer Paper just finished it off…

Did you know that you can now shop directly from me online, have a look at our products at my online shop here

Just a quick post showing a card I made for my daughters boyfriend who is unwell… I love the little bottle top that the love heart is in, this is from the Stampin’ Up! Seasonal Catalogue.

I’ll be back soon with some exciting news about Digital Content and Online Shopping.

I’m cleaning out my study and I was setting up my new document scanner in preparation of going ‘paperless’… well about 80% at least… as I was putting ANOTHER plug in at the back of my computer desk I realised that my label maker wasn’t working, so I pulled out my Stampin’ Up! Silver Stampin’ Dazzle pen and used it to mark my cables… perfect… saves money and time…

The new Stampin’ Up! Seasonal Catalogue (products available 1 Feb – 30 June)… which has some fabulous new toys inside… together with the Sale-A-Bration (SAB) Catalogue (FREE products available 22 Jan – 22 Mar).

The SAB catalogue is pretty confusing, even for us demos, but the deal is no different from previous years, you get 1 FREE product for every $100 spend (not incl Postage), the only BIG difference is there are a HEAP MORE choices for you to choose from, 19 to be exact, so i’m quite sure there are a few that will tickle your fancy.

For anyone who is interested in becoming a demonstrator, during Sale-A-Bration you also get 25% more products in your starter kit, this means you get to choose $294 worth of product and only pay $169. Sounds like a good deal to me.

A sneaky peek of the FREE stuff…..

Contact me on michelle@ministamper.com or 0413 045 584 to order any supplies you have seen on my projects, to host a workshop, or simply just place an order.

I can take orders from anywhere in Australia and have it shipped directly from the Stampin’ Up! Warehouse to your door. Shipping costs are $5.95 or 5% of your order, whichever is greater.

Any orders of $300 or more qualify for hostess benefits (see page 7 in the catalogue for more details).

Stampin’ Up! is having their biggest sale YET!!!! I can HONESTLY say that I have never seen such good specials. They must have too much retired stock in their cupboard, so they have taken over a hundred products from the 2011/2012 Catalogue ‘out of retirement’, and YOU are the winner, with discounts of up to 70% off retail cost….

The sale is split into four groups and over 4 weeks. You can only buy from each list on the week that it is on sale.

I have placed the 4 weeks lists on my specials page, you can also click on the images below to take you to the lists. You can checkout the items that are on sale by comparing the page numbers on the list to your2011/2012 catalogue. if you do not have that catalogue I have placed one on this post for you to view.

 The sale is ‘while stocks last’ so to ensure you get what you want (oops I mean NEED….) place your order from the upcoming week in advance and I will order them on Day 1 for you, this way I can do my best to get you what you want (eg if you want something from the 4-10th January list have it to me by the 3rd).

There will be normal postage costs with each order (which is totally negated by the fantastic discount) and I cannot combine orders to receive hostess benefits.

I will require your C/card details ( if I don’t have it on file), or bank transfer of funds prior to me placing the order (c/card payment is quicker because I can process that immediately).

As of early 17th December already 50% of the list is sold out. Feel free to contact me michelle@ministamper.com or 0413 045 584 if you have any queries.

I am in the process of preparing my handmade Christmas gifts, so I thought I would share the piccies of my biccies. Each year I give a ‘little’ something to my workmates, usually it is only my immediate team but I have moved offices and work with a lot more people, therefore more ‘little’ gifts are required.

I decided on the Stampin’ Up! Seasons of Sweet Designer Kit as my wrapping, and inside will be a shortbread cookie stamped using the Stampin’ Up! Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps. I will be making 2 flavours of Shortbread biscuits, Pistachio and Craisins, as seen in the picture, or Macadamia and White Chocolate. I hope they like them.

Both these items can be found on P15 of the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalogue. And before you ask, here is my recipe (I make mine in my Thermomix)

Shortbread Cookies

(100gms macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped and 75gms white choc bits) OR (100gms pistachio, coarsely chopped and 75gms craisins)

1. Place Flour, Icing Sugar, Butter and Vanilla Extract into your TM bowl and mix for 10secs on speed 6
2. Set dial to Closed Lid position and mix for  20secs on Interval Speed (Add Nuts and choc bits through the lid during this process)
3. Place mixture onto a silicon baking mat (always best to use a silicon mat when using sticky mixtures)
4. Mix the dough then break into approx 50-60gm size chunks and roll each one into a ball
5. I then dip my stamp into caster sugar and press out the cookie, making sure it is evenly pressed (dipping into the sugar between each press stops the dough from getting clogged in the stamp)
6. Place onto a baking tray and bake at 150 degrees for around 20mins or until the edges just start to become golden (everyones oven is different)
7. Cool on a baking tray, then place in your designer kit to give away to the lucky recipient.

If you wish to receive e-mail updates of my posts, just click on the subscribe button on the top right of the sidebar.

Contact me on michelle@ministamper.com or 0413 045 584 to order any supplies you have seen on my projects, to host a workshop, or simply just place an order.

I can take orders from anywhere in Australia and have it shipped directly from the Stampin’ Up! Warehouse to your door. Shipping costs are $5.95 or 5% of your order, whichever is greater.

Any orders of $300 or more qualify for hostess benefits (see page 7 in the catalogue for more details).

I  run an annual craft retreat every November for a small group of friends, it’s held this time of year so we can concentrate on getting our Christmas projects completed, this years retreat was the weekend just gone and as usual my life is never without it’s ‘dramas’. It all started with me running around in a tiz trying to get organised because I had been on night shift all week. I had to collect some gorgeous cupcakes  from Miss Ali’s Jems Cakes that I ordered for our Morning Tea and they looked absolutely ‘devine’… but as I placed them into the car they toppled over and all the beautiful icing just blended into each other, when I got home ‘extremely disappointed’ I emptied the cakes out of the container and cleaned up the mess….with my tongue…. aaah!!! now I had a sugar rush and was prepared for the rest of my packing. I popped to the shops to get some last minute things… you know, Cheese and Wine… but I forgot the Wine so back to the shops I went… hmmmm now i’m running late.

Anyhoo, I finally got myself and all my goodies on the road and drove to Swanleigh, I haven’t been there before and I must say I was impressed, it’s a boarding school campus with lots of ‘houses’ on the property, we hired the smallest house ‘Stanton’ which has a dormitory, kitchen, family room (big enough for us to Craft) and shower facilities, the only time we had to leave the house was meal times. We have already booked for next year, I can’t wait.

As I was unpacking the car I dropped one of my bags… it just had to be the one with glass in it… but… LUCKILY… it was only the Lemon Lime and Bitters and not my Wine….phew!!!!!!! that was to be the last of my ‘dramas’ and the rest of the weekend continued without incident.

For my projects, I made a large batch of Gift Boxes, Christmas Cards and also pre-prepped my Season of Sweets Designer Kits (ready to put my home-made cookies into them just before I gift them). My daughter Chelsea made the gorgeous boxes (in the last photo) to give to her ‘besties’ at school.

My husband messaged me on the Saturday night to ask what I was doing, my reply was Eatin’, Drinkin’ Cuttin’ and Pastin’ and that was pretty much the theme of the weekend, the iPod was turned up quite often so that we could all sing-a-long.

The Stampin’ Up! Snow Flurry Big Shot Die was the pick of the weekend (between ALL the crafters), you can see from my pics below that I took a layout and just slightly changed it with colours, also note that on some of the cards I have used the negative of the die, this saved a LOT of wastage of our beautiful Glimmer Paper.

Contact me on michelle@ministamper.com or 0413 045 584 to order any supplies you have seen on my projects, to host a workshop, or simply just place an order.

I can take orders from anywhere in Australia and have it shipped directly from the Stampin’ Up! Warehouse to your door. Shipping costs are $5.95 or 5% of your order, whichever is greater.

Any orders of $300 or more qualify for hostess benefits (see page 7 in the catalogue for more details).

Hello followers, I have just uploaded the following retired Stamp Sets for sale, the price is on the photo. I am selling these sets for between 40%-50% off the original price. Let me know if you want to grab a bargain.

You can purchase by contacting me on michelle@ministamper.com or 0413 045 584, OR go to my Facebook page and mark the image SOLD in the comments, then contact me to arrange transferring of the funds and to advise postage details. My prices include shipping and I prefer bank deposit to CBA AC Michelle Martin BSB 066167 AC 10347338.

Some of my Stamp Sets have been re-mounted with Clear Mount foam, this was done prior to Stampin’ Up! introducing the foam and the Clear Mount cases, therefore these sets are either housed in a CD case or standard DVD case, the picture clearly shows this (do not purchase any of these sets if you do not like it looking ‘pretty’). A lot of my sets are Brand New and the rest are ‘Like Brand New’. I do not stick the labels on the back of my stamps with my Clear Mount sets as I do not think it sticks well enough particularly with little stamps, I stick the labels to the case so that I can clearly see which stamps belong in that set. Happy Shopping!!!!!!!!!!!

PLEASE NOTE, THESE SETS ARE ALSO ADVERTISED ON MY FACEBOOK SITE AND A PRIVATE DEMONSTRATOR SITE, CONTACT ME TO ENSURE THE SET IS YOURS BEFORE TRANSFERRING ANY MONEY.

I just had to share this gorgeous and so EASY paper angel made with Stampin’ Up! products. Kay Kalthoff is a US Stampin’ Up! demonstrator and makes lovely projects. I was going to make my own angel to show you alongside the video, but by the time I get around to that Christmas will be over and your tree will be put away.

If you wish to receive e-mail updates of my posts, just click on the subscribe button on the top right of the sidebar.

Contact me on michelle@ministamper.com or 0413 045 584 to order any supplies you have seen on my projects, to host a workshop, or simply just place an order.

I can take orders from anywhere in Australia and have it shipped directly from the Stampin’ Up! Warehouse to your door. Shipping costs are $5.95 or 5% of your order, whichever is greater.

Any orders of $300 or more qualify for hostess benefits (see page 7 in the catalogue for more details).

Merry Christmas from Stampin’ Up!….TWO AWESOME PROMOTIONS…

It’s only November, but Stampin’ Claus is giving you an early Christmas present: a FREE Festive Paper-Piercing Pack when you buy the Ornament Keepsakes Stamp Set and Candlelight Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper Bundle.

INK-credible Hostess Promotion

From 1 November through 16 December, host a minimum $650 Stampin’ Up! party and get a FREE collection of ink pads*-a $79.95 value-in addition to our other fantastic benefits! (including the FREE paper piercing pack)

Your Party Sales**	Free Ink Collection	Hostess Credit	Items at 50% Off
$650	Yes!	$100	1 item
$800	Yes!	$130	2 items
$1000	Yes!	$160	3 items
$1250+	Yes!	$200	4 items

If you wish to receive e-mail updates of my posts, just click on the subscribe button on the top right of the sidebar.

Contact me on michelle@ministamper.com or 0413 045 584 to order any supplies you have seen on my projects, to host a workshop, or simply just place an order.

I can take orders from anywhere in Australia and have it shipped directly from the Stampin’ Up! Warehouse to your door. Shipping costs are $5.95 or 5% of your order, whichever is greater.

Any orders of $300 or more qualify for hostess benefits (see page 7 in the catalogue for more details).