ACTSA January 2008 Card Sketch Template Challenge

2007 is almost to an end. The ACT Stamp Artist (ACTSA) Incorporation held our final meeting for the year 2007. It has been a great year in the club, and as a member of the committee, I've enjoyed having input into what goes on at the meetings and what we try to accomplish for our members. I've also enjoyed being the person who puts together the monthly raffle prizes. The feedback I have received has been outstanding and I really appreciate knowing that the WINNERS of the raffles have enjoyed what they got. I will be continuing putting the raffle prizes together for 2008, so I look forward to seeing the satisfaction on all the winners faces.

In preparation for 2008, we have already been given the yearly ATC swap theme and our card challenge theme for January 2008. I have decided not to participate in the yearly ATC swap for 2008 but instead have decided to participate in the Sketch Template Challenge. The January 2008 Sketch Template is:

I'm looking forward to creating a great card with this sketch template. I find that that template is simple, but allows an enormous scope to be really creative. I have absolutely no idea of what I'm going to do yet, but I'm keen to get in and start creating. All I can say is watch this space, as I will regularly post the cards I make based on the monthly ACTSA challenge. Who knows, I may even use other sketch templates I have available to help me be more creative and inspire me to just get into my craft room and create.

Cheers FiLoMa

Stampin' Up Demo Training Card Swap

On Sunday 25 November 2007 I attended my first Demo Training Session with my upline Roslyn Vest. As part of this group, Roslyn runs a card front swap, just like what was done for the SU Regional Sydney event. Prior to becoming an SU demo, I really only had cardstock, ribbon, inks and stamps. When I became a demo, my start kit consisted of these products again, but no additional embellishments, which was what I am wanting to build on. As such, when I placed my first order, I decided to get some brads. Working with what I had, what I received in my starter kit & my first order arriving before my training session, I was able to produce the following card front for my swap:

Images © 1990-2008 Stampin’ Up ®

This basic design for this card came from Suzanne Kohler, published in the Stamping & Papercraft magazine Vol 13 No 3. If you have this magazine you will see that Suzanne has used different stamp sets, different colours and it looks like she created a square (6" x 6") card, where as my card front is 6" x 4". I'm really happy with how my cardfront turn out. I did use the SU colour chart just to make sure that the colours did come together.

The project recipe for this cardfront is:

• Stamp Sets: Simply Said (108915) and Itty Bitty Backgrounds (108850)
• Inks: Brocade Blue (101102)
• Cardstock/Paper: Bordering Blue (102265); Sage Shadow (108620); Pool Party (104136) and Whisper White (106549)
• Ribbon: Bluebird (100538)
• Accessories: Brilliant Blue Brads (106957); Pastels (105542) (Sage Shadow) and Mini Glue Dots (103683)
• Tools: Stamp-a-mi-jig (101049)

This card design is one that I will certainly play around with for other colour combinations, as I like the simple layout that this card offers.

In addition to the card fronts that we each swapped, we also made the following Xmas card:

Images © 1990-2008 Stampin’ Up ®

This card design was supplied from the Stampin' Up Demonstrator web page. It really show cases the new beautiful SU Xmas papers, the 2007/2008 In Colours True Thyme & Cranberry Crisp. This design is one that many of my family & friends will be receiving. Making this card is very quick and simple.

I'm now trying to work out what I will do for my next demo cardfront swap. I'm excited about trying to come up with a design that I like, the other girls in the swap would like and my friends/family would like.

Cheers FiLoMa

FiLoMa's Craft Room

Well I've finally got around to taking photos of my craft room. I am slowing changing over my storage items, which will make my craft room more efficient for working in.

View 01

View 01 is of the entrance to the craft room. It is lined with bookshelves on either side. The main reason for this is that I didn't have anywhere else for my bookshelves to go. Having the bookshelves there is handy as I can place items on top for storage, but the bookshelves themselves do not have my craft magazines. The craft magazines/books that I get are on the tressle table next to the bookshelves that you can see on the right of the above the photo.

View 02

View 02 is of my creative memories, Stampin' Up, Bazzill and other A4 cardstock in the filing cabinet, my cardstock & paper off cuts in the green plastic draws and excess mounted stamps in the blue plastic draws. The white draws and shelves are part of the new storage system that I am going to. This particular unit is called a "double mini". I currently have 12"x12" paper shelves, 1" & 2" draws. The 1" and 2" draws are currently being used for mounted stamps, paper/card off cuts in particular colour ranges and punches. My plan is to move all my craft storage into these types of storage items. The double mini is on wheels so I can move it around if I decide to change the layout of my craft room. My goal, though long term, is to have a double mini for each colour family I've identified - 12"x12" paper trays with a 2" draw for the scrap off cuts, double mini's for my mounted stamps - a combination of 1" and 2" draws, double mini's for my punches - small, medium & large. At this stage I haven't worked past that, but will look at possibly including ink pads and you can get inserts for the 1" and 2" draws to put embellishments in, which I plan on doing for some of my embellishments. The other items in the corner are just other draws I have with bits and pieces when I don't know where else to put something.

View 03

View 03 is of my craft table that I work on. I have it set up so I can either work facing the window or with my back to the window facing my computer - this is so I can watch DVDs or Music clips etc. In the corner are my different types of paper cutters, as well as my A3 laminator and cricut machine - both siting on a 1.8m tressle table, which will eventually go when I get my new storage systems in place.

View 04

View 04 is with my back to the window facing the computer. As you can see, the table that I work on is quite large (1.5m in length and just short of 1m width). This table was originally designed for me to do my 3000 piece jigsaw puzzle, but large stamps need a solid table that doesn't bend/flex when you are pressing on the stamp, so this table was relegated back to my craft and another tressle table is being used for my jigsaws (but not my 3000 piece). The storage items on the tressle table I plan to replace and put the contents into the plastic dividers that I can get for the 1"/2" draws of my new storage system. You can also just see some of the shelving that I have on the wall.

View 05

View 05 is looking back towards the entrance of the craft room with the window behind me. You can see that I have 3 shelves on the wall. The first shelf holds my 12"x12" papers, all sorted into colour ranges. I also have my pens/textas/gel pens/chalks/watercolour pencils and H2Os on this shelf, plus Creative Memories stickers and ABCs - many left over from when I was a Creative Memories consultant. The second shelf did store all my cooking books/magazines, but I am slowly moving them back into the family room close to the kitchen for ease of use. The magazines that are still there currently share the shelf with my ribbon & brad/bling storage containers. These containers are great, the best I've come across so far. The blue storage containers hold my ribbon and the purple ones hold my brads/bling. I have 2 ribbon storage containers and 3 medium for my brads/bling and one large one which holds my adhesives and other misc items. My plan is to have 1 medium purple container per colour set of brads/bling. They are currently sharing one for pink/blue, another for red/purple and the third for yellow/black/clear/orange/green, these of which I don't have as much of. Finally towards the end of the shelf are the 4 folders I have that store my unmounted stamps. I also have my own stamp catalogue which is located between the cooking magazines and my ribbon containers. It makes card making so much easier when you are looking for a design to do, you can see at a glance what stamps you have and if you want to use a particular companies stamps, for example Stampin' Up, then I can go to the relevant section, let's say Fauna & Flora, look up Stampin' Up and see what SU stamps I have within that category to use. The top shelf is not visible in this photo.

View 06

View 06 is the same as view 05, but it shows the top shelf of my wall shelves. The top shelf is basically for spare storage items or items that I don't use frequently. I also store all the crap that I collect, which should really have been thrown out, such as empty chicken/vegetable stock cans; chocolate gift boxes.

View 07

View 07 is just another one of my working table, the tressle table with embellishments in the containers and my computer.

View 08

View 08 is another one of my paper off cuts storage as well as the new "double mini" storage system I am going over to. You can just see that I have labeled the draws of my new storage system. The only negative about it is that the 12"x12" paper trays don't slide out, but that isn't going to stop me going over to this system, it is still the best that will work for me.

View 09

View 09 is again of the paper off cuts, but this photo is really trying to capture the white board sitting on top. This board is what I use to keep track of the swaps that I am in. The white board has the headings of:

Mail Out - Swap Type - Swap Quantity - Swap Group - Swap Name - Other Info

This system really helps to keep me on track, but occasionally I do fall behind by a day or two. However, I do always let the group/my swap partner know if I am running late and the reason why. So far this system has worked well and I've been running with it for about 6 months now.

View 10

View 10 is basically just looking out my front window. The table that the plant is on holds my Sizzix, Sizzlit, Xyron's, Paper Clay & moulds as well as my ATCs that I've received, other stamped images that I've done using friends stamps, templates and stencils. These are all in the binders on the bottom shelf, which you can just see a white binder. The plastic storage item to the right of the table is what I was storing my mounted stamps in. However, it is now a temporary storage for my ink pads, my all-in-one zutter items as well as all the items that I used as part of my participation in the PCD 2007. Having them all in one place made participating in that great cause so much easier.

Well, that's about all from me on my craft room. As you can see I have a lot of storage containers. However, I know that the room will look better, more organised and basically neater once I have my new storage system fully operational. I'm hoping that I can get it done within 2 years. If you live in the ACT or surrounding area, the supplier for this storage system is:

Keep It Simply Stamping aka K.I.S.S

Lana Murray

Phone: 02-62540661

Email lanamurray "at" bigpond.com

Please clearly state in the subject line that you are after the "Best Craft Organiser Furniture". To see the range of storage products, check out their web site at:

http://www.bestscrapbookshelf.com/index.html

If any of you have a great storage system in place or an idea I'd love to hear about it. I am always on the look out for improving my storage system that will allow me to find what I want quickly, which would make spending time in my craft room very efficient, which means more time making cards/craft rather than looking for &/or remembering what I have.

Cheers FiLoMa

I'm now a Stampin' Up Demonstrator

I'm officially a Stampin' Up demonstrator. I received my kit on Wed 14 Nov and I was so excited when I unpacked it and saw all those lovely craft goodies just sitting there begging to be played with.

The first thing I did was unpack everything, check off my invoice - ya nothing missing - and start looking and admiring the 5 stamp sets that I got in my kit. The next thing I did was mount my stamps and then coat them with a protective wood varnish, as I like to ensure that the wood is protected before I use them. I am a bit of a messy cleaner, as opposed to a messy stamper, so I like to ensure the wood is protected as best I can. Since I do two coats, I then got up early on Thu 15 Nov to complete the second coat before going to work, so I could use them that night once home from work.

Since I was going to the SU Regionals in Sydney on 17 Nov 07 and I wanted to participate in the card front swaps that they do, I used one of the designs I made at Robyn Jones' class on Tue night - see earlier post - and just worked on the colour scheme I wanted. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo before I went and gave them away. However, the project recipe for my card was:

Stamps:
Mostly Flowers (108874); Looks Like Spring (108864) and Wonderful Words (108963)

Cardstock:
Cranberry Crisp (108628); Buckaroo Blue (108624) and Whisper White (106549)

Ink:
Cranberry Crisp (107222)

Tools:
Stamp-a-mi-jig (101049)

See photo from Robyn Jones' card class for visual concept. The card was laid out as follows:

The base of the card I used Cranberry Crisp cardstock. I then mounted three 1.5" squares in Buckaroo Blue cardstock along the top of the base card. I then stamped one of the "Mostly Flowers" stamps with Cranberry Crisp ink onto Whisper White cardstock and punched them out with a 1.25" punch and mounted them onto the Buckaroo Blue squares. I then cut about a 1-7/8" strip of Buckaroo Blue card stock, mounted that towards the bottom of the base card. I stamped one of the flowers from "Looks Like Spring" stamp set into the top left and bottom right corners, using my stamp-a-mi-jig to aid in the placement, onto Whisper White cardstock. I then stamped Thankyou from the "Wonderful Words" stamp set into the middle of the Whisper White cardstock. I swooshed around all of the card stock in Cranberry Crisp ink prior to mounting it all..

These colours came together really well, I was really please with what I had made. However, not knowing what to expect at SU Regionals, I only made 13 card fronts, as I didn't have sufficient cardstock in the colours I had decided to use. I still got 13 card fronts back from other SU demonstrators, all of designs of stamp sets that I don't have or haven't used very much, so I'm really please with that. Most, if not all of the card fronts I received, have enticed me to want to go out and get the stamp sets I haven't got now that I can see what can be done with the stamp set. Now that I've been to one SU Regional, I am much more prepared about what goes on, so next time I will aim to make about 100-120, since there were about 110 people who attended. And, if I have card fronts left over, I can just use them in the cards I make and give away.

I'm going to aim to go to SU Convention in April 2008, which is to be held in Brisbane. I'm looking forward to that, if it is anything like Regionals, which I've been told it is but bigger and better. However, I'm not gonna make 400 or so card fronts, but will aim to do about 100, if I get myself organised enough.

I also got to meet Tracey Eaton, another SU demo who I have been corresponding with on The Scrappers Stash as part of the PCD. It was great to finally meet up and put the face to the name. If you are visiting here Tracey - HI.

Anyway, I'm excited to be part of the SU family and to see what lovely cards other demo's are making.

Cheers FiLoMa

Robyn Jones Card Making Class Cards

On Tuesday 13 Nov 07 was the last official card making class for 2007 being run by Robyn Jones. This class was all about making a number of cards with minimal cardstock and decorative paper.

We were each given three 12"x12" Bazzill Linen cardstock and one decorative piece of paper. I choose the pink pack range, so I would have ideas for Pink Card Drive (PCD)2008.

There were two cards of each colour - chocolate brown; plum and cream. The decorative sheet was pink with a flower pattern with whites and shades of pink. A number of punches as well as pink brads and clear bling was used.

Photo of Cards made 13 Nov 07

The class, as always, was fun and creative. I really like these card designs and the one on the bottom far right I used as my base for the card fronts that I made to attend Stampin' Up Regionals in Sydney on 17 Nov 07 - now that's another post. I will be taking the above card designs and incorporating them into the designs I use for PCD 2008.

Cheers FiLoMa

My Week 05 Nov - 10 Nov 2007

Well it has certainly been another challenging week for me, both in lifestyle changes and getting back into a routine at work.

Due to the Melbourne Cup holiday here in Canberra, there was no weekly weigh-in for me at Weight Watchers and I forgot or remembered too late to make either the Monday or Wednesday sessions at other meeting places. I did weigh myself at home and my weight has been about the same. I have worked out that I really need to establish a routine, both during the week and more importantly on the weekend.

Also on Melbourne Cup day, or as it was called here "Family Fun Day" ROFLOL, my washing machine decided to kick the bucket - just as I was doing my 1st load of washing. On Wednesday I was busying buying a new machine, which will be delivered this afternoon. I have decided to change over to a front loader, so I'm looking forward to getting it and more importantly, being able to do my washing.

This morning I went the closing down sale at "Scrap the Lot". This shop has been in Kippax for the last 4 years, but Tammy & Yvonne have decided to move on. They had some good items and were offering 30% off, so my total purchase was reasonable. I got a stamp set, ribbon (lots of), punches, glue sticks and bling brads.

The TSS website is back up and has been since late last Monday. Jen is doing all the wrap up for PCD 2007 and in the preparations for PCD 2008. I've already started to resupply my pink stash, not that I really need any more, in the aim and hopes of at least doubling my pledge. I made 31 cards this year and will be aiming to do at least 62, possibly even aim for 100.

I have also taken some photos of my craft room and hope to have these uploaded here for everyone to see soon. I'm slowly changing my storage items, so the photos I have taken are really the before, with one of my new storage items shown.

I've also signed up to be a Stampin' Up demonstrator. I am excited about it, as I love the SU products. Hopefully I will get my starter kit this week. I am also going to the SU Regionals in Sydney as a "guest". I am looking forward to that to see what it offers.

Well, it's a couple of hours before the new washing machine is to be delivered and I have a number of swaps I need to get completed, so best I get a move on and get them done. Especially since I've never participated in an "inchies" swap before - this will be a challenge for me and the theme is "Xmas".

Cheers FiLoMa

Joined the world of Blogging

I've finally decided to join the world of blogging, so I can share with family and friends what's going on in my life and in particular, my craft creations. As this world is all new to me, it may take a while before I get the hang of it. For those family members and friends that take the time to stop by and check out my blog, great, I'll try and keep it up-to-date as much as possible. I will predominately use this blog for my craft, but will also look at including my lifestyle changes for everyone to see my progress and improvement.

Cheers FiLoMa