It's nearly Christmas Party time again!

Plans are underway for the 2014 SERS Christmas party! It's on 13 December, 1pm, at Cathy's place. Ask if you need to know where that is.

Bring a plate of something to share, and bring an ornament for a swap. Bring a project in case we actually do some (lots of lovely table space at Cathy's). And if any of that fails, just bring yourself.

This fun bit of papercraft came about at the November SERS. I was stamping on some paper I'd printed with a Gelli Plate and stencils, and she was making flowers with a punch.  Pretty, hey?

 November SERS was so nice - guess why? Nan came back! After an operation she's tossed aside the walker (well, she's graduating to the stick) and she joined us for coffee and chatting. We took the time to set up her phone and make sure she knew how to send texts. See, you get a lot out of a stamp club meeting!

October meeting - dolls and jelly!

I took some dolls I had found at a trash and treasure sale to Cathy. Cos I know she likes them. Here's one of them:

And here's another one. I'm sort of glad I don't own it now.

Then Lizzie brought these, more cool dolls!

Michelle works on her journal, while Chris samples an apple muffin. She doesn't like junk food, so they must have been awesome.

I had a play with a Gelli Plate I got got from Michelle at Picture to Page. I was thinking it might be a bit of a hassle to use such a cool thing. But once I got started - well, it turned out to be so simple to get going, and no big deal to clean up. I made some cool stuff! These are backgrounds for the next step, whatever that is.

October - come and meet!

Hey Melbourne stampers, the weather's getting warmer. We all know what that means. Time to start the Christmas cards! Or the decorations. Or just round off your art journal for the year, and get the next one ready.

And here's a good idea - come to stamp club to do it!

We're meeting this Saturday. I'll be up to my ELBOWS in cool new stencils and paints and inks and stuff that I got at Michelle's awesome Mixed Media Art stand at Picture to Page a couple of weeks ago. I was her right hand lady for one of the days. Well, actually her sister was her right hand lady, but I was the eager helper. Bendigo show in March next year!

Hmm, did I get all my plugs in?

Nope, there's one more. Naomi (of Paperific fame) is running a cool event next year - Paper Art Tarts. This promises to be a different sort of a day out. Not just a shopping day, this is more of a doing day. Oh wow.

So, why not join us at SERS for a completely relaxed stamping day, where nobody tries to sell you anything. Well, sometimes someone brings in a box of preloved goodies, but that's pretty exciting, actually. Saturday 25 October, see you there.

September Meeting coming up!

Are you ready for a CARROT-themed card? I do like carrots. There's just not enough carrot based artwork around. Well, there's this one. And this one. But apart from that, practically nothing.

A little while back I spent a happy half hour at Officeworks photocopying vintage fruit and vegetable pictures from a book. And at a recent SERS, I use the packing tape transfer method to make this. Michelle helped me. IT WAS FUN! We haven't tried that method in years.

So if you are wondering how to make something as great and carrotty yourself, come to September SERS.

Oh, and you are allowed to make non-carrot based work too. Or just to sit and chat, really. It's your time!

Now, this SERS clashes with the Grand Final. If coming to stamp club would spoil your footy fun, then enjoy that, and we'll see you in October. If you prefer stamping, see you this month. If you can't decide, feel free to check the scores as you stamp.

Oh, I just worked out, I should make carrot cake for SERS. Yum.

April Meeting coming up, and I won't be there...

Yes, folks, I'm going to be on holiday this meeting day (that's April 26). So I've left Cathy and Maria to take care of things.

Wanna see something cool? I have a 3-Doodler! Here's a link to explain what that is.

And as I was saying at SERS a few meetings ago, I got it in the mail, and I got ONE play with it, then it disappeared. My son was having a turn with it too, and I could have sworn I'd asked him to put it away. So when the next SERS came around, I looked everywhere for it! And I'm sorry to say, I may have suggested that he made off with it, or broke it, or lost it, or some other bad thing.

While packing for our holiday, I found it, neatly in amongst the sheets and towels in MY room. Which is where I would put something I thought was not for kids to use unsupervised - so it was clearly ME that put it away.

I've apologised to Thomas for slighting him. Everyone has had some turns now. And I'll be able to bring the doodler to the MAY SERS meeting.

Here's what I made today. A lady with a blue dress.

And I made a hat for this little Lego guy!

SERS brings you - local craft news!

Local craft news? Is this a new thing SERS does? Probably not all the time, but I just happened to have a big day out on Wednesday (courtesy of my daughter who needed delivering to a few different places she couldn't reach by bus), and of course, I gathered craft news all the way.

First stop was Paper Place at the corner of High St and Blackburn Road, Mount Waverley. Lovely place for invitation style paper, and a surprisingly big range of art supplies. Turns out they are under new management, so pop in and say Hello.

Next stop was Shamrock at 21-23 Joseph Street, Blackburn North. Not a retailer, theses guys are wholesalers. But, like all good wholesalers, they wind up with excess stuff every now and then, and move it on to canny customers at their little outlet.

The tiny outlet store was well stocked with feathers, tiny doll hats, those frames you use to make purses, sequins, masks - basically all the stuff I had no need for, but you might. But there was glue, much glue. A whole display of UHU brand special purpose glues, which seem like a nice thing to try. I bought a biggish bottle of wood glue (regular PVA, my go-to glue) and two special purpose UHU glues, and my bill came to $6.

The outlet is off the reception area, so if it doesn't look open, just tap on the door and smile at the lovely staff. I noticed they support school fundraising projects. And they had a big sale last week. Also, they are about to be the neighbours of Bounce, the new trampoline centre, where daughter had a job interview.

Final stop was Bellbird at 74 South Parade, Blackburn. Turns out they are moving! It was very short notice, but some other people wanted the location to run a restaurant, and made Cathy an offer to take over the rent. The new location is not far away, at 138 Canterbury Road Blackburn South. It will be all crafts! ALL CRAFTS!

Cathy always has the nicest stamps (she has a good eye for them) so for local shopping, it's a great destination. She stocks Copic markers (that's all I bought on the day).

She has some amazing machines to sell you, and I'll bet she'd like the floor space back. Check out the Theresa Collins Stampmaker - Cathy has a couple to clear at $150. From what I've read, you need to know what you are doing to get good results from it - or rather, the supplied instructions are a bit poor. But our friend YouTube provides all the extra help you need, and people are loving their machines once they are in the know. This price is awesome, by the way.

February meeting - new goodies, new ideas!

Well, we were pretty lucky to have our own Michelle come to SERS. She'd been at CHA, the huge trade-only craft show in Anaheim. And she brought back catalogues, new gadgets, freebies, and of ourse, just stuff she'd bought for herself. That was just about all I needed to look at all day. Oh, the books!

So, what's hot? Carving stamps is hot, stencils are hot, zentangles are hot, and test sizzix catalogue had some incredible stuff! Also, everything old is new again. Mod podge is in, puffy paint is in, and why have one die cut machine if you can have three?

And we had lots of nice people making goodies too. 

And I made some pretty mess...

SERS this weekend!

Have you seen? The latest cool thing is - DUCT TAPE! Yes, we've all been using it to mend stuff for years, and it's super handy for book covers. But now, fancy patterns! These were spotted in Ringwood Costco.

Oh, and SERS is on this Saturday 22 February. Hooray, a nice time for a laugh and to make some stuff!

A new year for SERS

Oh boy, 2014 already! And we've had the first meeting of the year already too! Just a small group, but it was so nice to escape the family heat and have some grown up time.

Here's some photos from our Christmas party!

We did our mostly annual ornament swap. Here's how you do one of those quickly:

• get everyone to bring one ornament
• line them up on the table
• number them off
• write a slip of paper with each number and put them in a bowl
• everyone draws a number
• be ready for redraws if someone gets their own!

Chris and Michelle both made folder paper ornaments - they traded ideas later too.

Chris ended up with my dinosaur in a snowglobe. See here for partial instructions on how to make one (well, it's actually only instructions for making a tiny hat). The snow in the snow globe is just salt!

And this is Cathy's pretty angel! What a Christmas treasure!

So, next meeting is February 22, at Mount Street. See ya there!