More swaps from Stampin' Up! training

Here are a couple more of the swaps that I received at last weekend's Stampin' Up! Team Training.

The lovely card above was made by Sue Farquhar using the Vintage Vogue stamp set together with some Shimmer Paint too (not sure if that shows up on the picture or not!)

This next card was made by Sue Spreadborough and uses the Vintage Vogue stamp set again together with some of the lovely Sweet Pea Paper Stack papers too.  See how the same stamp set gives you completely different cards both in colours, designs and styles!  Love that!

What have you been doing this Bank Holiday weekend? 

I've been making Thursdays class today - all done, prepped and ready to go.  Here is the class that we will be making, so if you fancy joining me on Thursday 3rd June to make the following, I still have some spaces - a mere £10 books your place - email me at natalie@oshea26.freeserve.co.uk to reserve your place.  We will be making the pink version of this class :)

Enjoy the final hours of the weekend and if you and your children are off on Half Term this week, lets do the sunshine dance and hope it doesn't rain all week :)

Some swaps from Stampin' Up! training

At our Stampin' Up! training last weekend, we took part in a swap.  This is where each person makes several of the same item and then swaps them with everyone else there.  It is a way of getting inspiration and also getting some samples for products that you might not have or perhaps a different style to your own.

Above are two of the swaps that Carolyn made.  The birdhouse and bag are so cute, only about 2" high but great items.

Steph used the Monica's male class from the Stamp With Us online classes as her inspiration to make her card swap - perfect considering Fathers Day is on it's way in June.

I hope you are enjoying this Bank Holiday weekend.  The weather yesterday was atrocious but the sun is out a bit today so has made up for it a bit :)

Enjoy!

Who lives in a house like this? :)

Well, not me, but I am going to spend two days here and you could do too!

Stampin' Up! have launched the details of their second European convention and we are going to Addington Palace near Croydon - I *LOVE* that it is only half an hour away from where I live - wooo hooooooooo!  No plane trips to Germany this year, it's just a hop, skip and a jump away and as it was Germany last year and the UK this year, next years will be in France!

Stampin' Up!'s annual convention is two days spent with Stampin' Up! training, a gala presentation dinner, LOTS of fun, laughter, good company and playing with paper and ink LOL!

Do you like the sound of that?  Do you want to be there too?  It's one of the perks of being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.  There are about 1500 European Demonstrators and about 350 spaces - I think this year will be a sell-out and Stampin' Up! won't squeeze more in - they are all about everyone getting a great experience!

Booking for the Convention opens on Tuesday - 1st June and I will be there first thing booking my place.  Do you want to join me?

If you are giving some thought to becoming a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and want to come to convention, then I wouldn't leave it too long to join.

Whether you are looking to cover the cost of your habit, earn some money to pay some of the bills or perhaps treat your family to a holiday, then there are worse things than running your own Stampin' Up business :)  It really does run however you want it to run.

Why not contact me for more information on how you can become a Demonstrator and what it involves - no pressure, just the facts, I promise :)!

So who is joining me?

Stampin' Up! Training continued.....

Here is the 3D item that we made at our training on Saturday.  There are lots of these flip or flip flop or whatever you want to call them books around at the moment in varying sizes.  This one was made with 1 1/2 sheets of A4 cut vertically (long ways) and then scored twice and stuck together.  All very easy and a great way to play with the new Cottage Wall Papers and those Playground buttons again :) 

I'm really not a purple kind of a girl but Rich Razzleberry has stolen my heart at the moment and gotta love those new papers too LOL!  I'm not sure how much stock Stampin' Up! is holding at the moment but it's only available whilst stocks last, so if it tickles your fancy too, make sure that you don't leave it too long before you order any or they just might run out!

Anyway, Stampin' Up! have launched the details for the second European Convention in November this year and I'll share the details with you tomorrow!

Have fun!

Stampin' Up! Team Training

Well Saturday brought your quarterly Stampin' Up! Team Training event which this time was held at Crawley Library.

It's always nice to get together with others who "understand" and play with paper ;)

The day is full of chatting, swapping and playing, so I thought I would show you some of the bits that we did and some of the swap cards that I got over the next few days.

The "playing" bit was in the afternoon and I've decided to stick to a "thing you can demo", "thing you can use as a Make & Take at a workshop", a 6 x 6" scrapbook page for the non-cardmakers" and then a 3D item.

So, firstly I thought I'd share the technique with you.  Here is a 6 x 6" card with the Chalkboard Technique on it.  This card is to be kept in a folder / album where we will collect a technique each time that we meet.

And then we made a card to have an example of the technique in use:

Everyone got their own box of Playground buttons so it was lovely bright colours all around :)  I'll share some more with you tomorrow but if you are interested in coming to the next Team Training, we have an evening organised for Wednesday June 23rd and then another large get together on Saturday 17th July.  If you are a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator or you are thinking of becoming a Demo and want to find out more, you are more than welcome to come along and join us at either of these events.

Have fun!

Summer is here...

Well, as you know it's been house duties for the last week or so and one of the things that I did was to have a window box made. 

I even painted it myself!  Luke, my "Man who Can" made the box after I'd seen one on an American blog where the lady made it herself for $3.12 - great if you have all the tools but not so great when you don't.

Needless to say, mine was a little more expensive but it took my "Man who Can" about 20 minutes to put it all together.  It took me about half hour to paint it, wait for it to dry, put it up and 15 minutes to plant it up :)  I'm very happy.  It's almost time for us to start taking pride in the house again LOL!  The only problem is that the lovely newly painted window box now shows that my windows need painting!  One job at a time though!

What beautiful weather we have had over the weekend and yesterday!  It's been low 30's here and that is unheard of in May.  I did my Stampin' Up! team training on Saturday and on Sunday it was the boys Football Fun Day and Presentation Day.

I'll be back tomorrow with some more photos from that event :)

Have fun!

Very excited!!

Look what arrived in the post this morning :)

For those of you that don't know, Stampin' Up! give us the opportunity to earn an Incentive Trip each year and last year, we worked towards a break in Monaco.  I was lucky enough to earn the trip and we go in three weeks time this Wednesday - woo hoo!

This is how our travel arrangements and info arrived :)

Even posh plastic luggage tags (like credit cards!)

I think I'll forget about the Spa when I saw the prices of facials starting at 140 Euros!!!!

All the important info was in this little booklet:

Can you spot any of the exciting plans they have organised for us?

I cannot wait - no holiday for nearly two years is just making this little break more and more exciting!

It's been a week

I've been in my tardis and have time travelled forward a week, I'm sure that is what has happened!

This week I have mainly been doing "house" stuff.

After eight years of the house being demolished by two growing boys, we decided as everything needs painting / replacing / mending, that this year is a year for getting some of those things done at long last, with the vague hope that the boys are now old enough to not completely demolish new stuff!

Well, now the decision has been made, it seems like we are trying to renovate the whole house in a week LOL! 

The worktop up in the conservatory was the start of the process.  Now, you have to understand that I don't have a "man that can" at home.  For all my hubby's good qualities, DIY is not one of them.  So a couple of weeks ago, I found a "man that can".  You ask him to do anything - electrics, plumbing, carpentry, windows - HE CAN!

Now of course, there is a catch.  Next week, he starts working for someone else for six months. So when we agreed that the bathroom was the next job that needed doing and the "Man that Can" told us he could do it this week, it didn't leave me alot of time to get my act together.

Well, after several visits to bathroom showrooms, tile showrooms, carpet / floor showrooms, I have to admit to being overwhelmed by the whole process.

Now, I should probably share with you the fact that I don't "do" shopping.  I do on-line shopping but not proper "in shop" shopping LOL, so it has been a real experience trying to sort out, decide and order bathroom suites, tiling, paint colours, flooring and decorative accessories (the last ones been the most fun!) and don't forget - all within the week!

None of this order it and wait two weeks for delivery - oh no and it all had to be here in the right order for the work to be done.

Now thankfully, Monday came and the "old" bathroom was pulled out, tiles off the wall, empty shell.  Tuesday brought the new bathroom suite put in place and tiling started.  Today brought tiling finished, granite tops cut to size and a new floor (not flooring!) put down.  He says he'll have it all finished by tomorrow night!  That will be grouting, painting and new towel rail put up tomorrow then.

Then Friday, he starts the en-suite.  Now that's not such a big task - just new grouting, new door, new flooring and painting!

Let's not talk about the front room yet, as he can't do that for six months LOL! As you can imagine, it's been a little stressful around here, but from what I've seen so far, I have to admit to loving it!

I cannot believe that I didn't take before photos - but I can bet you that I'll be taking "after" photos that I can share with you.

This is also the time, that we have also thought that the garden needs an overhaul - decking needs repainting as does the shed, as does the fence panels.  The beds need weeding and cutting back, etc etc. So I am absolutely knackered!  And there is still a long list of things to be done....

But my "Man who Can" made me a window box and once I've planted that up tomorrow, I'll share a photo of that with you - flowers are purty :).

Anyway, that's caught you up on this last week.  I think I've gabbled too long :)

Have fun!

Well, I haven't shown you a creation for a little while, so thought I would share this with you.

Of course, I had to crack open the new colours when they arrived, so when I made some cards to go in with Customer Orders this week, it was Rich Razzleberry and Melon Mambo all the way!

I'm not much of a "pink" girl and wasn't that fussed about Melon Mambo but have to say that it's my new favourite colour.  It's like Regal Rose but a lot more vibrant, but not as bright as Pink Passion - I love it - yum!

Have you taken part in the Product Share?  I have just one left and if you want it, I can post it tomorrow!  Do you want to share the Melon Mambo love LOL?

Well, that's it from me tonight - I'm all full of cold and feeling sorry for myself and I'm off to watch the Junior Apprentice in half an hour.  I love the adult version and am eager to see how precocious this Mini Alan Sugars are :)

Have fun!

In love :)

So the new product share bits are in the house!!! If you are one of the lucky ones that ordered one of these, then they should be going out today or Thursday (depending on when you ordered them!).

I also have to point out how in love I am too :).  I had a little Dreamkutz demonstration at Scrappers Paradise recently and after alot of thought, succumbed to buying one.  Wondering if it was something else to sit on the side and look pretty, I am happy to report that it got it's first outing yesterday to cut up the Product share - I loved it - so easy!!  Now why didn't I think to use it when I made my last Stamp With Us Class (it had lots of cutting out of squares!  Nevermind, it now has pride of place on my new worktop and will have many more outings :)

Are you still thinking about the Product Share - I have one kit all ready and waiting here to go to a new home - email me at natalie@oshea26.freeserve.co.uk to grab the last one - £25 including Postage for all the inkpads, 6 sheets of A4 card in each colour, 6x6" peices of the patterned paper and printed acetate and 3 metres of each of the spotty ribbons too!  It luscious!

Have fun!

What has happened to the weather?

It doesn't know whether to be hot or cold at the moment does it? 

After a rainy and very cold weekend, I am happy to report that I can see blue skies and a bit of sunshine this morning - hurrah!

It will take me forever to sort out the conservatory with bits, but some of you were asking for more photos, so here is a bit more.  See that empty worktop space is slowly filling up :)

I need a thorough clear out but I've got other things to get on with for the time being - maybe I'll get a skip and be done with it LOL!

Anyway, lots of odds and ends to do today, so I'll see you tomorrow.

What a whirlwind

Well the idea of sorting out my craft stuff before it went back into the conservatory didn't quite work!  Although I had all day Thursday to sort it out, because I had the workshop on Thursday night and the fact that everything was piled up in the front room, I had to put alot back without going through it!

Here are the ladies at my workshop.  Most are my friends (well they are all my friends really) but I was adamant I was going to get the non-believers to make a card LOL!  I might have had to have plied them with alcohol to do it, but I'm very proud to say that here they are cutting and sticking :)

I think they "understand" a little bit more now even if they don't completely "get it" LOL.  But I had to capture them by photographic evidence so that I (and they) remember this for a while LOL.

Anyway, Friday was supposed to be a get things done sort of day, but it didn't really start until about 7pm.  I had stuff for the table top sale to get organised and a class to make and it seemed that the world and his mother phoned, knocked on the door or emailed and it seemed I didn't get going all day.

Thankfully I stayed up late last night and then got up VERY early (unheard of in my house for me to be the first up!) and did manage to finish what I needed to do before I left today.

The Craft Sale was fun!  It's amazing how much rubbish craft stuff we all accumulate over the years.  I didn't particularly have high expectations, so I'm happy with how I did and the only purchase I made all day was for 8 chocolate cupcakes.  Mrs Wonka made them and I love her cupcakes.  I'm hoping that she took a photo that she is going to put on her blog so that I can steal the photo and show you.  They didn't last long enough in this house for me to get a photo!!!!

Here we all are not long after we opened.  It was a lovely big hall and lots of us with our wares to sell.  I had a small Stampin' Up! raffle there and Kian picked the winner's name out when we got home (always get the kids to do it so I know it's nothing to do with me picking / not picking a winner!) and Anne C from Smallfield won the prize. Congratulations Anne!

Right, after only a few hours sleep last night, I'm off to bed to do some catch up zzzz's.

I'll be back tomorrow with more from O'Shea HQ!

Well, I'm tired!  Moving alot of junk out of a conservatory and then trying to move it back in is hard work! 

I have a Stampin' Up! workshop at my house tonight and so the conservatory (and the rest of the downstairs of the house) had to resume to some sort of normality in time for tonight!

Yes, I do have alot of "tools of the trade" - is that the right description.....

Well it's kind of half done, I've gotta get on with my workshop, so I'll share some more photos tomorrow :)

Enjoy the sunshine!

How sad am I?

I am very very excited by my new worktops :)  Needless to say that they have already got bits all over them so it will never look this clean and empty again but I do LURVE them.

So much still to sort out ready for a workshop tomorrow night.  The house is turned upside down and I've got to get some kind of normality back to it during tomorrow and prep for the workshop :)

I've done far too much cleaning today, the conservatory is now spotlessly clean but I'm knackered so I'm off to bed so that I can get an early start tomorrow.

I'll be back with more pics tomorrow.

Night,

And so the transformation begins.....

Well, today is the start of clearing out of the conservatory.  After two years of moving down here out of a bedroom upstairs, I am finally turning the conservatory into more of an office for me.

First step is to fit 10 metres of black worktop around the edge.  Then I'm not sure what the next step is LOL!  I'm having a clear out of the mess and then seeing what space I need when I've thrown alot of stuff.

Also got the 2nd hand craft sale on Saturday where hopefully some things will find new homes.  Once I've lived with it for a bit, I'll then decide if I need cupboards or boxes or drawers or what.

So cleaning hat is on - where does all that dust and muck behind cupboards and shelves come from - yuk!

Just to finish for today with some more eye candy.  This was the last card in the Wedding Swap I took part in.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure whose card this was as there was no name on the back - let me know if you know who it was.  The Bella Toile background stamp is beautiful and made even more subtle by an overlay of vellum. 

Well until tomorrow when I should be able to do a before an after stage 1 of the conservatory renovation :)

So where were we?

Before we were so rudely interupted by New Products? *wink*

Well, I stood for an hour in the rain yesterday, to see Kian lose the Cup final.  They always play their worst in the afternoons and the fact that it was raining just made it worse.  The other team were more hungary for the win and they just slid in a goal in the first minute of the second half and that is where the score settled.  I think our team were just happy to have won the league and non of them seemed too fussed about the cup LOL!  Nevermind, we are only talking about Under 9's football!

The rest of this weekend, I seem to have been working!  I feel like I have worked solidly for five days and not had a weekend at all but I have definately been productive and there have definately been some jobs knocked off my To Do list thankfully.  I am starting to see the wood for the trees as the saying goes - at last.

I've a busy week the rest of this week.  Work is starting on putting some worktops into our conservatory.  It's now my "office / craft room / whatever you want to call it" and all I know at the moment is that I want alot of worktop.  As to whether I want cupboards or curtains or what under the worktop, I have no idea yet, so I'm having the worktops installed and then working with it to see what I want.  There is alot of clearing out to do but that is good as I am at a Second Hand Craft Sale this Saturday that Zoe has organised in Horley, Surrey.  So, if you fancy a bargain, get yourself down there.  Now I say second hand, I'm pretty sure that half the stuff will be un-opened and brand new LOL!  Email me for more info if you want to come and grab yourself some crafting bargains.

Stamp With Us Birthday Bash started last night!  We are now officially ONE!   This is our fifth set of online classes and they are still such fun.  We had our party night last night and Monica's first class went up today - very birthday inspired :)  Don't want to miss out on the fun?  Join us at http://www.stampwithus.blogspot.com/ for fun and frolics :).  It's my first class tomorrow.

I am busy with magazine work for alot of this week which includes a meeting in North London on Thursday which finishes at 4pm.  That leaves me three hours to get home and be ready to start my own workshop that I've got at home in the evening with lots of lovely ladies coming to.  I'm going to try and convert some of them into "paper botherers and ribbon fiddlers" as my friend Claire puts it - she's coming, I'm going to convert her if it kills me LOL!

So, lots to do but I will leave you with at least some eye candy.  Here is another swap from the Wedding swap.  This one is by Monica:

Have fun!

Well, it certainly seems like you all like the new colours

So I thought that I would make it even easier for you to get a little bit of each without a whole pack / reel of everything.

I am offering the following product share:

6 Sheets of Melon Mambo A4 card

6 Sheets of Rich Razzleberry A4 card

6 Sheets of Soft Suede A4 card

3 metres of Melon Mambo spotty ribbon

3 metres of Rich Razzleberry spotty ribbon

3 metres of Soft Suede spotty ribbon

1 Melon Mambo inkpad

1 Rich Razzleberry inkpad

1 Soft Suede inkpad

12 peices of 6" x 6" of Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper

2 peices of 6" x 6" Flower Fantasy Window Sheets

ALL FOR £25 INCLUDING POSTAGE & PACKING TO YOUR DOOR

Remember the papers, ribbon and Window Sheets are only available whilst stocks last.

Email or call me with your order now!