Nicole Stalker

Quite a few of the blogs I visit have done a year in review where they show their favourite items they created for each month of 2009. I decided that I’d join in too.

Unfortunately when I went back to each month I really didn’t have a lot to choose from in some months so one of my aims this year it to post more than I did last year. Let’s hope I can keep to that one.

So here we go.

January 2009 – Ocean Commotion set with the Chunky sprinkles. Not sure how much I’ve used either since then but I really did like this set so I might just have to pull it out again and see what I can do this time round.

February 2009 – I actually picked 3 from this month but I decided on this one. 

March 2009 – I loved the colours in this one.

April 2009 – I couldn’t wait to get hold of these Fresh Cut Notes and the matching Fresh Cuts stamp set although I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t used it a great deal.  Must change that.

May 2009 – These were my swap card for Convention.

June 2009 – The Faux Silk technique is such a quick one. I made lots of these in different colour combinations.

July 2009 – I finally gave in and purchased the Crazy for Cupcakes set.

August 2009 –  A simple card but I still like it.

September 2009 – My World Card Making Day projects.

October 2009 – This was a gift I made for my Secret Sister. I love the colours.

November 2009 – Teacher’s Christmas Gifts filled with Chocolates and Coffee and/or Hot Chocolate sachets. They were well received.

December 2009 – This would have to be my favourite. It was made for my neices’ 21st Birthday.  I just loved this dsp and coordinating Great Friend stamp set. I wish it didn’t go……but maybe it will be back. I can only hope.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the flashback. It’s been interesting for me too.

Till next time….

Happy Stamping

where the last 10 days have gone??

Now I know it’s a busy time of year but I certainly didn’t think it was 10 days since my last post. I would have thought as my girls got older I’d be less busy at this time of year but no such luck. I’ve ended up with more school commitments (partly due to P & C and others are just basic end of school year things), I left Christmas shopping till 2 weeks ago as I had no idea what to get them but am very proud to say I did 90% of it in 3 hours on one day (but am still yet to wrap anything), then of course there are more social functions happening too. Not that I attend a lot but as you know we had our Team Christmas dinner and then that same weekend I had a neices’ 21st Birthday and of course my Summer Mini/SU Business Launch. That was one full weekend but I survived.

The following weekend was my regular fortnightly Friday night stamp night and this year we decided to have our own Christmas Party. We did Kris Kringle gifts but made it non-stamping items for the gift and everyone had to bring a plate of food suitable to the Christmas theme. I decided to make a Truffle Tree so my Friday was full on. It started with me making a start on the truffles (some needed to be mixed and then left for a few hours before rolling into balls), to my pool man turning up to fix a leak with our chlorinator and in the process soaking me, getting redressed as I needed to attend a Gold Plus Award Assembly followed by Sausage sandwich lunch with my 11 year old daughter, to coming home to make more truffles, then school pick up, straight to the swim school to have my girls assessed for classes next year, then back to finish the truffles. Decided amongst all that that dinner would be take out. Something had to give.

Anyway, would you like to see my finished Truffle Tree??

I have made the truffles before but never constructed it into a tree so there are a few spaces I would have filled up a little more. Unfortunately I didn’t have any thin gold ribbon to add as that would have added an extra touch and filled those bare patches up a little. The truffles I made were Coffee Liqueur (Tia Maria), Almond Truffles (Amaretto) and Orange Truffles (Cointreau). I still have enough left for Christmas so I’m really glad they store well….. I’m sure my mum will have a few.

I’ll be back in a little while to finally share some of my Secret Santa Gifts from our Team Christmas Party.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Don’t forget I’m having a Launch Party on Sunday 6th December to celebrate the new Summer Mini Catalogue and my new SU business.

Full details can be found here.

The Blog Hop Countdown Blinkie in my left sidebar <—— over there.

Let me fill you in on a little more detail.

Starting at 8pm on Monday 30th November some of Marelle Taylor’s Stampin’ Up! Team will be hosting their very first Blog Hop showcasing items made using products from the Summer Mini Catalogue which goes live on 1st December. I will be participating in this, as from the 2nd December I will officially be part of Marelle’s Team. I’ve mentioned I was making some changes to my SU business and this is the biggest and best one of them all.

I’m so excited about becoming part of Marelle’s team and am really looking forward to sharing some of my creations with the new products on the Blog Hop.

So don’t forget to come back anytime after 8pm on Monday night. It doesn’t matter where you start as there will be a link to the next blog in the chain all the way along till you finally finish where you started.

Happy Stamping

I don’t know about you but I don’t often recall as a child saying I was bored. The few toys I had would keep me occupied and as I got older I would keep myself busy by reading, listening to music, playing with friends, having fun outside roller skating or playing at the park, knitting or some other craft.

Why is it that our children have so much more than we did but they can still come out with the “I’m bored” comment? Is it just me or do your children do this too?

Well I heard this comment from a few of my girls ( I have 4 of them) last Sunday so I gave them something to do.

Jayne Mercer posted a message on her blog on the 8th September about how she and some of her team have started volunteering at Play Therapists at Westmead Children’s Hospital. On her last visit one of the staff was punching out shapes for the children to use in their art activities. Jayne asked if they could use some punched shapes which of course the answer was YES so now Jayne has put the word out to readers of her blog and fellow demonstrators to see if they can also help with this.

So as you can see by the picture above my ‘BORED’ girls went to work with my scrap cardstock and some punches (both SU and some old Carl punches) and we ended up with this bag full of different shapes to donate. I did help too but most of them stayed at it and I think for the next 1 1/2 – 2 hours there were no bored comments.

If you can assist with this also it would be much appreciated I’m sure. You can either send your donation of punched shaped directly to Jayne (her address is in her post mentioned above) or you can forward them to myself and I will hand deliver them to Jayne on November 21st when I catch up with her at Stampin’ Up Regionals. If you would like to send them through to me my address is 134 Frederick Street, Lalor Park NSW 2147. If you are local then feel free to drop them off.

P.S. I will be selling off my Carl and non-SU punches at the next Giant Craft Sale on 24th October so if you are after some punch bargains be there early.

Happy Punching,

Nikki