Leaving....on a jet plane!

Well, it's the last day of the show today and we start our journey back home just after lunch.

Yesterday was spent yet again on my speedy cart and we got to see and get more great goodies - managed to steal this photo off of Dyan's blog - how do I look LOL! 

Bumped into more people (Shelli and Sterling again!) and there is lots of lovely things out there.  Very pleased that Shelli will be inspired by what is here for her next releases!

Stamping is everywhere at the show, as is bold brights, vintage, lots of jewellrey making and lots of excitement.

The new Ellison / Sizzix Eclips machine looks fab and I'm very happy that I never gave into my Cricut urge as I can see myself becoming an Eclipse fan!

For more pictures, get googling other blogs and sites and you'll be sure to feel like you are right here with me!

Beginning of day 3!

What a day yesterday was :)

To start with, it seems that two days in flip flops have rendered me unable to walk - great!  Michelle has diagnosed me with a March fracture in my foot but I guess we'll have to wait until I get back to find that one out.  However it did mean that I could whizz around the show - want to know how?

Well there are many humiliating photos taken yesterday of me in my "fat cart".  I'm awaiting Dyan or Lynn to put something on their blogs and then I can steal the photo and humiliate myself on my own blog.

We bumped into a few people yesterday but two of them were Shelli and Sterling Gardner (owners of Stampin' Up!).  We shared our Cadburys chocolate with them for which they were eternally grateful!

So, after a busy day of zooming around the show, we went out with the three House of 3 ladies who were really fun! PF Changs was on the menu and it was all quite surreal walking around Target craft supply shopping with a couple of the biggest names in the scrapbooking world.  Fun though!

So it's foot strapped up and off to the show to see if I can survive without my speedy cart or whether I will need to get another one today - we'll see.  This is the last full day of the show, so gotta get alot done today.

Almost forgot - more goodies to add to the giveaway pile yesterday :)

Have fun!

CHA Giveaway!

Hi everyone,

Well I have popped back from the first day and boy, have I got some "stuff" already.

So much so, that I thought that upon my return, I am going to have a giveaway of everything that I've got.  Can I say Making Memories pink aprons, can I say stamps, can I say totes and papers and and and.......well that is enough for now, you get the idea!

The biggest ooooo from the show so far I would say that I've spotted is a new die cut machine from Ellison called the Eclipse which is sort of like the Cricut and the Cricut Gypsy all in one.  And the other thing which went down well with Michelle who I am with is the Cricut CAKE.  Can you believe that they have turned the Cricut machine into one that cuts fondant, marzipan, icing, pastry - you get the idea.  It looks excactly the same as the Cricut for paper but is bright red. I did take a picture but we've not got a card reader here - boooo - I bet if you google Cricut CAKE you'll find some smarter people than us that will already have videos and photos on their blogs / websites.  Zoe - eat your heart out - you would love it.  And the stand wasn't doing Make and Take's it was doing Cake and Bakes LOL!  Decorating cupcakes - it was very cool!

So, lots of walking, talking and taking it all in and then tomorrow off for some more serious in depth looks.  It's 4pm here so I'm changing my shoes and heading back to the show for the last couple of hours.

Have fun!

4am in LA!

Morning all,

Well although I tried all week to stay up as late as possible to get into LA timing, it's day 2 and we were awake at 4am - whoops!

Great journey over - my brother pulled a few strings and it meant that Michelle and I got upgraded to Club Class, so it was lovely to get 6 hours sleep on the way over :)

Yesterday was spent adjusting to the time difference, trying to sort out business cards that didn't arrive in the UK before Michelle left and of course a little shopping :)

Show starts at 9am today, so having had 6 hours sleep last night, its going to be a long day.  We are out for dinner tonight too and we've already spotted Bubba Gump Shrimp Co which seems to have our name on for tonight.

Weather reasonable - warmer than there but still jumpers needed although it is supposed to be a bit warmer today.  If my face gets to see sunshine today, I'll let you know.

Have fun!

Evening all :)

Here is the (rather bright) card I made to say thank you to everyone who placed an order this month.  The flowers are from the Happy Moment Sale-a-Bration kit and I've seen this used a lot and liked it!

Well it's almost Friday and with any luck in 12 hours time, I should be on a plane on my way to LA LA land (Los Angeles) heading for the CHA Trade Show.  I've been told that we have a laptop and mobile broadband so you never know, I will try my best to give you a little update on what is going on!

I know we are having dinner with Heidi Swapp, Rhona Farrer and Janet from the House of 3 on Monday night - Heidi Swapp is a bit of a papercraft idol of mine, so I will try not to get too star struck LOL!  Lots of meetings planned so it will be busy busy busy but then the weather report is showing temperatures of 70 degrees, so all should be good!

Catch up with you all soon,

In 7th Heaven!

Well, the order from my Prize Draw arrived yesterday - just a few bits and peices :)

What's that big pile?  That will be all of the Sale-a-Bration stamp sets that this order and everyone who ordered earnt.  Is there some of your order there? :)

I frantically repacked everything last night and will be sending everything out today! So you will get an email from me tonight letting you have your shipping details!

There is still time for you to get orders in if you want some FREE stamps!  Contact me or look at my WEBSITE to find out more.

I always send out a Thank You card to show my appreciation for everyone who orders from me so I will be back tomorrow with a picture of the card I made for everyone this month!

Hubby has had confirmation and a starting date of Monday 1st February :)  Can't wait for him to be back in full time employment again - might even book a holiday to celebrate LOL!  Best I get LA out of the way first!

See you tomorrow,

Just the two of us!

Here is the page that we did at Scrap Club last night.  Made using the To The Nines Designer Speciality Card together with some of the Pretties kit, some twill and some stickers I found in my stash!  The photo is of me and hubby well over a year ago, not too bad but then we don't seem to get many pictures of the two of us together.

This page will be available as my first Scrapbook Kit "By Mail" in February, so if you like what you see, watch this space!

I'll be here with a giveaway tomorrow, so make sure you come back to put your name down to win some FREE stash!

Have fun!

The last of my Swap Sale-a-Bration samples

I do love pinks and chocolates together and Amanda did a great job with the On a Pedestal stamp set and the Vintage Label SAB set.  The Polka Dot Background Stamp was also used on the top too and again, I have just mounted the card front on a couple of layers again and made into a "full" card.

My final Swap card was made by Val and I have to admit to NOT liking the Cameo Coral SU colour BUT I have to say that Val may have wond me round - I think using it together with the grey, grounds it a little, if you know what I mean.  Everyone seems to be going potty over this birdcage image too which comes from the Happy Moments SAB set.

I hope you have all had a good weekend.  My three boys (yep and the big one!) are all thoroughly disappointed that yet again football was cancelled this weekend - it's been way too long for them all and they are all getting severe withdrawal symptons.  Let's hope next weeks games are not cancelled!

I've had quite a productive day yesterday.  It's Scrap club tonight so I've been prepping for the class as well as trying to get myself up to date with things.  I cannot believe that I will be leaving for LA LA land on Friday - far too much to do before then! Haircut and colour, pedicure, manicure - you know how it is LOL!

Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow with the layout that we are doing at Scrap club tonight, which you will be pleased to know that I will be doing as the first Scrapbooking Kit "By Mail"!

Enjoy your week,

Stamp With Us Challenge

It's Stamp With Us Challenge Day today over on the blog (www.stampwithus.blogspot.com) and this week was a Sketch Challenge.  Here is the card I made using mostly the Petal Party Kit.  The stamped greeting is from the Oval All set punched out with the Large Oval and Oval Scallop punch.

Why not join in with the challenge?  You can also still sign up for the on-line classes that start on the 31st January too where we always have a great time with the live chats and challenges - it's all good fun!

Why don't you come and Stamp With Us?

Also got the last two Sale-a-Bration swaps to show you too, but they will wait for another day!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

More Sale-a-Bration samples and a New Job for Hubby!

It seemed that Pink Passion and Tempting Turquoise was a popular choice amongst some of the other swappees :)  It also just happens to be the colours used in the Sunny Day Scrappin' Kit too!

I have added a couple of layers to each of these cards to make them into "full" cards again but the centre squares were made by Monica, Julie and Debbie. 

Monica has used the Happy Moments set and watercoloured the image in.  Julie has used the Good Neighbours set and Debbie used the heart from the Love You Much set together with the Whimsical Words greeting.  All gorgeous bright colours!

And on a fabulously happy note, hubby finally got offered a job today after more than six months unemployed (well he was temping but that's not a "proper" job!).  I am sooooo thrilled and relieved for him, it's been very very tough over the last few years but I have a feeling about 2010 and it's a good one.

Keep warm and well,

Sale-a-Bration samples

Remember that I said I was taking part in a Sale-a-Bration swap around Christmas?

Well I had them back the other day and they were great.  It's always good to see what other people do with the same four Sale-a-Bration sets of stamps.

Normally most people do a "card front" rather than a folded card so you can do twice as many with the same card and most of us use them for display boards or in display books, however, this time I wanted mine as cards, so I've added a couple of layers of colours and made mine into cards so they are a little different from when they arrived but only a little :) 

Anyway, above is the lovely Kim Fee's card followed by her downline Steph's card.  Kim has used the Whimsical Words set for her card and Steph has used the Good Neighbours set - aren't they great?

Do you want to get these sets for FREE?

Have a look HERE for how you can get these stamp sets for free.

I'll be back tomorrow with another couple of my swap cards!

Swollen gums and chocolate cake!

Well having struggled into work last week with all the snow, we finally managed to get back to some kind of normality on Monday with the schools being back open and finally being able to get our car out of the driveway.  Hurrah - it lasted two days!

Tuesday was a good day in that I could catch up with a few bits that I hadn't been able to do for the previous week without a car.

Oh and get the heating fixed after a weekend of staying in one room all weekend :)

And drop the computer into PC world.  To get fixed.  Because of course, it's one week out of warranty!

And then it snowed again :(!

And then Ethan's cheek started swelling....

So I stayed home yesterday and rang the dentist.

They were closed!

So I rang the doctors.

They were closed!

Arrggghhhh!

So the only thing for it was - make and eat chocolate cake!

So we did - with smarties and chocolate stars!

Today is a better day.

Still Ethan and I are at home but been to the dentist.

Tooth fixed.

Antibiotics got!

Wii game rented.

And peace :)

Keep well and warm,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0aR23c29PA


Okay, this is the first ever video that I've put on a computer, edited (badly as you can tell from the title :) ) and put on my blog.  I can't work out to have a picture here instead of the link either but I'll work on that!


Today I got my 11th Stampin' Up! Sale-a-Bration order so unless I get another 11 orders in the next 3 and a half hours that will be it for the prize draw.


Here is a video showing you the winners, if you've entered the draw be sure to watch it :) and come back to me with your requests.


Congratulations everyone!

Off to Hollywood :)

It's excitement all over the place here at the moment - first my blog excitement and now I'm off to Hollywood :)

Well that might be a little bit of a lie (or not, I'm not sure yet!).  In three weeks off I am off to Anaheim, Calafornia, to stay in a hotel just opposite the entrance to Disneyland to go to CHA.

For those that don't know, CHA is a Craft Trade Show and I've been asked to go with my old boss Michelle!  Of course, I'm such a great friend that I couldn't possibly let her down :) 

I was very lucky in that my old Editors job allowed me to travel to New York, Atlanta and Las Vegas twice, so you do get used to travelling half way across the world for just a few days.

Am really quite excited and this time in 3 weeks I will be there :)  Can't tell the boys how close I will be to Disneyland, they won't let me go LOL!

Anyway, after all our fun in the snow, we are still unable to get the car out of the driveway, the kids schools are still closed (with more snow forecast!), our main computer has stopped working even though it's just a year old and our boiler has packed up, so it's all good fun here at the moment.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend,

We're walking in the air.......

We're flying in the moonlit sky......

So this was us last night :)  To say that I ache all over after rolling those snowballs is an understatement LOL!

The boys loved it though and whilst he's not the best looking snowman, he provided all of us with an hour of family bonding time.

I'm lucky enough (not!) that my boss is coming to pick me up each day so I'm still at work whilst these three are spending the days snowballing, sleding and generally having some snowy fun!  Schools closed again tomorrow too and we're forecast a heavy downpour on Sunday so goodness only knows when they will eventually go back......

Nevermind, got to make the most of this weather.

Have fun!

Well, what do you think?

I love love love my new blog layout!

What do you think?

Michelle at Laycock Design provides graphics for alot of US Stampin' Up! sites, so I got her to cheer mine up :) You can click on her logo at the bottom of the right hand column if you want to see what else she does.

Now I really do have to update this regularly :)

In other matters, we have 6 - 8" of snow here - enough to close the boys school but not enough to stop my boss coming to collect me to go to work in her jeep - great!!!!!

I promised the boys that I would build a snowman with them when I came back from work and we did - he's over 6 foot tall.  Got some photos and will upload tomorrow.

Off to bed shortly - some of us have got work tomorrow!!

Have fun x

Do you want to come and Stamp With Us?

Well it is that time again for another round of online classes. They will be starting on Sunday 31st January and we have some FANTASTIC projects lined up for you!

How do you join in?

Well, simply go to the Stamp With Us blog and click on the Paypal button in the top right hand corner.The fee for 10 classes with step by step instructions, bonus projects, chat nights, live challenges and technique videos is still only £15.

You will receive confirmation of your payment from us within 48 hours. A day or two before the launch of the classes, you will receive an invite from us to join us on a secured website. Once you are approved as a paying member, you are given access to the site. You should immediately see a welcome message from us and more information showing your way around the site. Don't panic - it really isn't that difficult!

We have so much fun and it is great to spend time with and interact with other people who really understand the "passion for paper and card". There are a few surprises and prizes along the way too :)

It's all about sharing our passion for Stampin' Up! products, so if you love stamping or Stampin' Up!, then what are you waiting for?

If you don't have many SU products or prefer other brands (although I find this hard to imagine! lol) then all of the projects can be adapted with the craft supplies you already own.

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, COME AND STAMP WITH US :)

Can't wait for you to join us!

Stamp With Us - Challenge card

It was colour challenge over at the Stamp With Us blog this weekend and this was our Inspiration - so I took it quite literally and produced the following card:

Very simple and all using punches - Round Tab, Large Oval and Word Window with a bit of Marker Pen for the frame.

Aren't I doing well at updating this :)?

The boys have an INSET day tomorrow but I'm back to work.  It's not too bad though as I have Tuesdays off, so only one day back and then another day off - woo hoo!

I've got lots and lots planned over the coming month (/s!) and will keep you informed on what is going on.

Have fun!

Can't get to a Class - Why not get a Kit By Mail?

You can see details of January's Kits By Mail and buy them using the buttons on the right hand side here or visiting my website - www.natalieoshea.co.uk.

Both of these classes are being run in person in Crawley, so if you want a fun night out and love these classes, then join us too.  More details of all classes at www.natalieoshea.co.uk.

Come and join the fun!

Happy New Year!

Well, I mentioned that I was taking part in a Sale-A-Bration Swap and here is the card that I made for the swap.  It was a card that was influenced by one that I saw on SCS with a few extra twists from me. Bear in mind that it was in cellophane before I remembered to take a photo so that is what the sheen is!

I think I am Mrs Geometric Contemporary card maker through and through.  I've used the Nouveau Chic Papers together with Basic Grey, Sage Shadow and Very Vanilla cardstock.  The Stamp Set is the SAB Vintage Labels and I love how that gorgeous frame fits perfectly into the scallop circle punch - yum!

I hope you all had a great New Year's Eve - ours turned into a Wii Fit challenge competition between my husband, my brother and my Mum.  To say that it's funny watching your mum try to do some Step and your brother trying to Hula Hoop is an understatement LOL!

Thankfully, I don't have a hangover this morning and we have blue skies and sunshine here and I hope that is how the year is going to continue.

All in all the last decade has been pretty rotten to us as a family, so I am really hoping that the next decade makes up for it. Cheers!

Speak soon and Have Fun!