Cold Wet May meeting

It was chilly outside, but sunny inside at SERS on this wintery May day.

Ingrid combined markers and watercolouring to get some very pretty results...

Like this, see?

Nan cut out some new stamps - I lent her my special scissors for a try.

Cathy has updated her art doll templates - now there's a boy one and a girl one (handy for primary school art activities!).

I brought some stamp that I had bought on my holiday in France - some of these are made in Belgium!

The snack of the day was Paris style macarons, which I am just learning to make. For looks, I give these about four out of ten, but for taste ... well, there were no complaints, and no leftovers either.

April Stamping Hit

A beautiful autumn day in Melbourne, a Royalwedding the night before to discuss, and a room full of interesting ladies. Now that's a recipe for a nice day.

Cathy worked on a rusted Barbie doll for a swap - she's hoping the recipient appreciates its grungy character (we're sure she will). She had cut up an old skirt of hers to make doll clothing, and was stamping it with her own texture stamps - awesome! I borrowed a stamp for my own texture.

Jenny brought the results of an inchies swap, with a colour theme of black, cream and gold. Fab colour combo - let's never forget how good the neutrals can look.

More of the inchies - now this is just showing off!

What I made ... a sort of vintage nature shadow box look. And here's where I, umm, borrowed the idea from. There's that dictionary page again. Still working on the same book. If you want to use vintage pages, you sure don't have to despoil a lot of books.

Summary of Royal Wedding discussion : seriously, what was up with Princess Beatrice's hat?

Summary of other funny things: ladylike Margaret unintentionally said a super-rude word. She was explaining what happens when her electric kettle goes "Phutt". Ya had to be there!

Back again on 28 May for some end of Autumn stamping. See you there!

Ready for an April stamping hit?

SERS is meeting again on 30 April, hoping for a nice afternoon of Autumnal sunshine. Check the details page of this blog for the full address and such.

This photo is an interesting bit of personal history. We had a bit of a flood at home (roof repairs combined with heavy rain). This is what I rescued first! None of this precious loot got damaged (phew). Lost a little paper, but what you gonna do? It reminded me to USE it or LOSE it!

March meeting - it was lovely!

In the cosy little room again for March (it's quite big really, but we do fill it).

CB brought Lunch Punches, and we enjoyed pretty jam or vegemite sandwiches as our stamping snack. Cathy enjoyed vegemite and fresh bread so much she asked if we could have it every time!

Chris put a monkey on a train (nope, that's not a euphemism).

And Cathy made some pretty flowers out of ... no, I think she's working on a class, so I'll let her show you herself!

February - freebies and Lunch Punch

Just had another lovely meeting! Here's the news...

Cathy's back from Africa, full of news and photos. Here she is

with Maria.

That's a copy of "The Artful Bird" on the table. Awesome book, by the way, and by a lady whose blog has inspired my 15yo daughter to do some serious sewing lately.

And the book link I've given you takes you to Can Do Books, a Melbourne bookshop that comes highly recommended for all kinds of crafty books.

Louise demonstrates how to turn a plain frame into a terrific girl's gift in one sitting (hey Louise, did you know you match your project today?).

Margaret has used some vellum to make her own gorgeous flowers for a

card. The leaf sprigs come from the Stampin' Up bird punch, and the larger leaf is the bird's wing! Each flower petal has been touched with metallic gel pen for extra pop! Plus a full assortment of flower punches, of course.

Ingrid took home some freebies from my "free to a good home" basket. She was delighted!

CB brought her whole collection of punches for

sharing (I had a go with the little heart). Here's Margaret (L), Pat (middle) and CB (right) discussing the relative merit

s of these very satisfying papercraft tools.

Then in conversation, CB mentioned that her daughter invented the Lunch Punch. The what? It's an awesome thing - a sandwich cutter that makes cool shapes, but doesn't waste the bread (we've all tried using cookie cutters on bread, but they are not designed for the task, are they?).

I'm loving the frog one. I don't think I'm too old to use them, am I? There are a bunch of other designs.

CB says she might bring some along next month for us to buy!! Well wow! Until then, hit up the Lunch Punch web site and buy online, or ask your local cute stuff shop to get them in. This has been an unpaid endorsement from someone who's suddenly hungry for sandwiches.

This is what I was working on - turning an old diary into a - hmmm, what do you call that... let's call it an Art Book and leave it at that.

Much collage, old dictionary pages, gesso, paint and glue went into this page, and I have a series of about 10 all on the go at once. When I pronounce them all "done" I'll make them into a book and then ... I'll have a strange book.

Next meeting is March 26 - see you there!

January meeting a delight, as usual!

Well, we had a super time at SERS this month. Maria entertained me with travel stories, Anne Marie made it for the first time (with angelic Mitchell in tow), and Sharon has finally lost the cast on her foot and can come again.

I entertained the troops with my Confetti Flinger Card. Yes, it's all I can think about right now, so it's all I'll be writing about. I tinkered with it, improved my technique, demonstrated the steps, and took photos. That's the sort of stuff you have to have a stamp club for! Michelle (an engineer in real life) was sitting next to me, and it was all we could do to stop from measuring the fling factor, and optimising.

I've posted my tutorial for anyone who wants to see it, and you will find it here.

Then I got out a fairly old stamp set, and made two rather different looking cards :

There's the pretty colourful one...

And there's this scruffy one. Love 'em both of course!

Forgot to take photos of people. As so often happens...

In February, SERS will have a Bring and Buy day. That means, bring along your pre-loved craft gear, anything you would like to pass on to a new owner. Label it with your name and a price, and lay it out on our sales table. See if you find a buyer. See if you can get home with your takings (you may well spend it on something else).

And apart from that, fun as usual at the 26 February meeting. See you there.

Sudden bulletin - look out for flying confetti

It's stamp club time again - Saturday 29 January! Hope to see you there. Fair warning, I've been learning how to make a Confetti Flinging card, and I will be practicing. I'll demonstrate to anyone interested too. So let's make a deal to vacuum before we leave, and spend a fun afternoon flinging!

Have a preview here if you like...

Oh, and I think it goes without saying, if you find confetti flinging, and construction cards generally, to be not your cup of tea, you can do your own thing too.

And there will also be cups of tea.