On the theme of Secret Sisters....

Lastly, I participated in a one-off swap over Easter and Kerri Donsky was my Secret Sister. I made her a monogram letter set with my fav DSP plus a little box of her fav chocies and matching card. I sent her some items on her wish list which included some embellishments such as ribbon and jewels. The card uses the Strength & Hope stamp set which is a fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Foundation. $2 from the sale of every set goes to the foundation. The 'K' comes from the Lovely Letters stamp set, one of my favourites. I hope Kerri has been able to make use of her stationery set.

Secret Sister - Final Month

Last month was the reveal for my secret sister but I think she had worked it out by then. I tried once again to incorporate some of her favourites again but also to use some of the new products. The first card I sent was made using her favourite stamp set Elements of Style and in her favourite colour but I had been dying to try out the new beveled window panes - what do you think? I used the dry embossing technique on this card. As the final month incorporated Easter, I decided to include some goodies for her daugheters too. Apparently they were destroyed fairly quickly - LOL. For this months creation I decided to make a desk set as I love these and used my favourite DSP - Elegant Soiree. The base is a pull out drawer which held some goodies for Sonia and then the top holder was made using two fancy favor boxes together also holding some more goodies. Her card was made using the top note die and the lattice embossing folder. Sonia mentioned that one of her interests was patchwork so I created this card with this in mind. Hope you have enjoyed seeing this collection of 3 months work as I know Sonia loved receiving them.

Secret Sister - Month 2

This month's task was to create something a little extra as it was Sonia's daughter's birthday so I got to work on creating two little packages, one for Sonia and one for little Ava. Ava's was lots of fun as I love creating anything PINK and 'girly' and Sonia's gift focused on another of her fav colours - Not Quite Navy, so the gorgeous Blueberry Crisp DSP was perfect for this collection. For Ava's gift I used the new Swet Stitches DSP from the Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue and made a top note holder for some cute little pens and used an old build-a-brad container and decorated it to hold some lollies. Her card is an easel card using the Scallop Circle die and the letters for the Big Shot. I finished it off with some of the new Pompom Trim. Sonia's gift included a little gift bag holding one of her wish list items, the Manhattan Embossing Folder, and I decorated an old brad container and filled it with a huge sample of all the brads and buttons in our range. I made another punch art card using the owl punch again and a cute little mini album made from the mini square envelopes much like the carousel purse I made some years ago. One month to go, stay tuned....

Secret Sister now revealed - Month 1

I have been participating in another round of Secret Sister this year and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Each month you send some cards and a gift to your secret sister (she does not know who you are) and someone else does the same for you. This round my Secret Sister was Sonia Garbutt and I had lots of fun creating projects to suit her interests, stamp sets and colour favourites. Here is what I created for the first month. Sonia said she liked Rich Razzleberry and the stamp set Elements of Style so off to work I went. With the gift for the first month I wanted to give her a clue of who I was and said I loved stationery. I made a little slider box using the top note die and decorated it with a flower made using the owl punch. I filled it with various stationery items and I was very grateful that Officeworks had 'Rich Razzleberry' items to fill it with. These included a pen, ruler, staples and stapler and a cute little post-it pad. The gift also included a pack of card candy and a little Lindt (these are her fav chocies) gift box using the large fancy flower punch. I had wanted to try one of these boxes for a while, you can too here. The cards were to satisfy Sonia's like for colour and stamp set. I love punch art too so that was another clue for her with the tulip card. As the first month was in February, this little package included a Valentine gift (a project I got from an earlier UStamp) It contains a heart chocolate inside. I will post the next couple of months worth soon.

Final Secret Sister Gift Revealed.....

Well finally here it is - this months gift for Jane and the final gift for the current Secret Sister Round. You may recognise some of the projects which I showcased earlier. I have included 3 cards, a decorated pencil tin, a scallop envelope box with a pack of build-a-brads and some Rich Razzleberry Grosgrain ribbon inside cos don't forget Jane LOVES embellishments. I also made a cupcake box and a tea light candle box. As you can see I stuck with the Cottage Wall DSP theme throughout. I also included a copy of Masterchef winnner Julie Goodwin's cookbook as Jane loves cooking too. I have to say that delivering this last gift in person was awesome as was the opportunity to meet Jane face-to-face. She was so over the moon with everything I sent her and kept saying how she felt so spoilt this round and how she signed up thinking this would be her last - but not now, she wants to do another one :)

Second Secret Sister Gift....

Here is what I sent to my Secret Sister for April. I was continuing to give her some clues about who I was and I made this to hint how much I love PINK!!! Jane's profile said she loved chocolate with nuts so I made her a chocolate block cover for a block of Cadbury's with Hazelnuts, I hope she liked it. The DSP in the background with the blue flowers on it is from the Washington Apple pack and the big blue flower is from the Blooms Die Cuts set. Continuing on with the embellishments she likes, this time a decorated a pack of vintage brads and also included some clips etc.. Finally all this had to have a matching card so continuing on featuring products from the new Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue, I used the gorgeous new Medallion stamp with some pearls from the pretties kit (love this kit, it's just got sooooo much cute stuff in it) finished off with some ribbon and a button. The little butterfly is one of the new 'a la carte' stamps in the new mini. I was really happy with the colour combination of the Melon Mambo and Bashful Blue when I completed this collection. Thanks for looking again. The final months gift will be revealed tomorrow :)

First Secret Sister Gift...

I thought I had better take some time to explain a little for those that may be unaware how this Secret Sister thing works. Basically I was allocated another Australian Demonstrator who is a member on our ESAD (Extremely Special Aussie Demos) site. She didnt know who I was and it was up to me to keep it that way until the last month. I was allocated to a different demo and she would do the same for me. The swap goes for 3 months. Each month we send out two cards plus a gift at the end of each month, usually things we have made and perhpas incorporating things on their profile. When we start we are given a profile of our secret sister so we know her likes and dislikes, hobbies, interests etc... so we can structure our cards and gifts to their tastes or requests. As this was my first time I was very nervous and did not know what to do or what to expect. Here is what I sent to Jane at the end of the first month. In her profile she said she likes Sudoku puzzles (me too) chocolate and cooking so I made these things a feature over the 3 months. In the first month I wanted to make things using the new items in the new Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue. I just love the autumn papers and colours. I recreated a top note box (click here for the tutorial) that I made for the earlier ESAD Blog Hop and placed some chocies (for Easter), and some embellishments (Jane likes these too) inside such as buttons, grommets and brads. I made a matching card with the new stamp set Autumn Days and covered a Sudoku book and decorated it with some rub-ons and a pen. I believe she really enjoyed it. You can check out her blog post from when she received it here. I will post what I sent the next month tomorrow :)