Kate's Story

Before I fell pregnant with my youngest boy , I was a stay at home Mum who was starting to get bored and needed something. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, whether it was work or study. I then found out I was pregnant and I wasn't delighted. I felt a bit trapped again, horrible but true. When he was around 9 months old I went to a Stampin Up Party with my girlfriend Felicity. I told her I was just coming to spend time with her and another girlfriend who had just gone back to work. I was not buying anything, I just needed to get out of the house!!!

I made a really cute pop up Butterfly card, I had never made anything the quick and easy before. I grabbed a pen and wrote in it for my sister and asked Liz if I could have a party.

I invited every one of my friends and family, I really had this need to be surrounded by my loved ones. I had a great night. We giggled and ate cheese cake and I felt so much better.

When Liz asked me if I had thought about joining ( and she asked me really casually) I thought about it, went to pick my son up from kindy and my girlfriends and I nutted out every argument my Hubby would have. I didn't need to, he said yes straight away.

I had no idea about any of the great opportunities that SU offered, I just really needed something for myself, I was fortunate to find a wonderful group of ladies, many of whom I now am grateful to call "Friend"!

May Demonstrators Challenge

Goodness, how time flies and I feel badly I have not loaded these pages more promptly. As May was Scrapbooking month, we decided to make our demonstrator's challenge Scrapbooking. Because so much time has passed, I cannot honestly be certain who placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd. However, I believe it was Bec 1st, then Gail and then Kate. Of course I am sure these were the first 3 placegetters as I scooped up their pages at the end of the meeting to photograph and share. Fortunately, the Paper Angels are so very easy going that I'm sure no one will be offended if I have it wrong (hopefully - smile). It goes without saying that all the entries (and there were heaps) were of a very high standard and the only reason I didn't put them all up is the time involved in photographing and uploaded such a huge number of pages. Bec stunned us all by being so organised to have printed some of her Convention photos and as you can see from her page above she has done a superb job linking our so cute tea cup stamp with the pose we struck at the manager's meeting at Convention. The eyelet border around the circle was done using a strip of black cardstock which Bec then edged with the eyelet border punch. She then ran the strip through the crimper which then made it easier to mould the strip into a curve and position behind the circular photograph. Pretty neat!

Gail excelled herself with this beautiful double page which was created on 2 sheets of textured Whisper White Cardstock. Gail then used a 'direct to paper' technique where she used a sponging block to create a Razzleberry & Olive background, which she then highlighted with a white embossed image from the 'Very Vintage' Stamp Set.

Finally, this beautiful page from Kate, who has used some of my favourite papers and colours, with Bella Bleu DSP & Baja Breeze Wide Double Stitched Ribbon. The 'Friendly Words' Jumbo Roller looks great on this page. ps I don't think Kate's husband Ian normally hangs out in this attire just in case you were wondering if he has a hidden underworld career!

Another page created by Bec, which I thought you would like me to share. The photo was taken at Award's Night at Convention. Isn't it handy that Bec, Shelli and I all dressed to match Bec's Scrapbooking creation - wonder which came first? The page or the outfits! Obvious answer is just good plain luck that we all matched.

Our next Paper Angels Demonstrators Challenge for this month's meeting on Saturday 26th June 2.30 is 'Cards made using Retiring Colours'. You can still use carryover colours in your creation, however, the goal is to make the 'retiring colour' the star of the card. As usual we will have prizes for the first 3 cards that we all vote on.

Christmas in July Annual Charity Events

Imagine spending a day getting a jump start

on your Christmas Preparations...

The Paper Angels are getting in early this year with our ever popular
Christmas Card Charity Events.
Heaps of Prizes, Card Competition and Wonderful Projects to make!

This year we are holding our events in July.

Please click on the flyer below for full of info

such as dates and venues etc.



Not all Paper Angels will be attending all events, so it is important that you check with your Paper Angels Demonstrator which events they will be teaching at.

Bookings are essential and payment is required to secure your place.


Feel free to come by yourself and meet some fellow paper craft enthusiasts or invite all your friends to come along too and join in the fun - group tables can be arranged!

Mother's Day Roses

When you belong to a group of creative ladies, you just never know what new skills are around the corner for you to experience! Whilst 'Paper Angels' are primarily paper crafters, most crafters have more than 'one string to their bow'. Ursula has more than enough strings for one instrument - in fact to carry the metaphor further, she is an orchestra of craft! Amongst her many talents, Ursula has worked as a florist and is responsible for teaching the Paper Angels the fabulous florists bows that we decorate our raffle prizes with for the Christmas Card Workshops. So, when some friends of ours from a local women's friendship group called Beta Sigma Phi (Alpha Beta Chapter) decided to deliver 90 roses to a local retirement village for Mother's Day, it was Ursula who taught us how to prepare and present the roses.

Here is Lyn McKenna from Alpha Beta and Ursula getting to work in Ursula's Studio in Rochedale, Brisbane, Australia. This is an amazing air conditioned retreat, which Ursula teaches and creates in. Some of the local Paper Angels, hire her studio to run classes also.

Ursula, Lyn and I were also assisted by Ursula's friend Michaela who is pictured here filling the plastic vials with water which the individual roses will sit in, so that they have their own water supply! How cool is that - the lids on the vials have a lid with a hole which prevents water coming out of but allows us to pop the stem of the rose in - who would ever know? In fact, I will never look at single roses in the same way again. The process of thorn stripping, water vial filling, cello wrapping, and tying with a decorative bow (we also tied a potpourri sachet to the cello for the ladies to pop on a hanger).was way more involved than I would have imagined! Of course I have to mention (sorry Ursula) that as I started using the snazzy tool that strips thorns off the stems, Ursula asked me if my tetanus injections were up to date! Well actually they are not so I had to be extra careful as apparently thorns carry the tetanus virus - lovely - not! How could something so beautiful have anything to do with tetanus - i thought that was just rusty nails?

Ursula deep in concentration, or possibly trying to avoid eye contact with the camera, tying the potpourri sachet to the wrapped rose.

The final result - 90 fresh individually wrapped roses with their own water supplies, beautifully presented. Not bad for 4 people and 1 1/2 hours of work. I'm pretty sure repetitive work is not my thing (basically because I am slow - I'd get fired on a production line I'm sure) but I certainly don't mind doing it for a morning and learning some new skills! Luckily I cannot be fired as a volunteer. Thanks Ursula for sharing your knowledge and congratulations to Alpha Beta on a wonderful contribution to their local community.

Last but not least, we finished off our morning enjoying some Chinese Egg Custard Pastries from Sunni Bakery at Sunnybank. A very big thank you to one of my lovely customers/hostesses Trish, who introduced these to me at a Stampin' Up! workshop last week. Trish as the hostess served these after the workshop, and they were 'to die for'. The pastry is simply the best I have ever had - it literally melts in your mouth! Since I was heading this way to get to Ursula's, I just had to share this taste sensation with her.

April Paper Angels Meeting Projects

Here are the two project that the Brisbane Paper Angels made at our group meeting, which is held once a month at the Wynnum Manly Leagues Club. The first project uses the 'Movers & Shapers' Big Shot Die and I have to say this is my most versatile and favourite die - honestly it cuts and scores the card as well as having the facility to pop a window in various positions in the face of the card! The second project was shared with the kind permission of Marie Shaughnessy who is a US demonstrator - I thought this project was super neat and with my daughter Dana breaking both arms, I was somewhat time poor on projects to choose for our meeting - thanks Marie for sharing. Remember, you don't need to be a 'Demonstrating Demonstrator' ('Carmel Terminology') to join Stampin' Up! or come to our meetings. There are heaps of discount & hobby demonstrators and we would love you to share the fun we have at the Paper Angel's Meetings, Events and Challenges. Contact your Paper Angels Demonstrator for more information. If you would like to see these projects demonstrated at your workshop, please contact your Paper Angels Demonstrator to book a Workshop.

April Demonstrator Challenge

Demonstrators rose to the April challenge, which was to use the new colors (Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Soft Suede) in a card, with great enthusiasm and success. I apologize that I am not able to individually credit each card and designer, but with 45 entries, I had my work cut out for me photographing and uploading all these fantastic cards. The winner of the competition was Rebecca Ross with her Manhattan Flower Vellum Embossed Card and second was Marjorie with her Cottage Wall card which she cleverly stamped on the DSP as well as making a cool accent by wrapping twine around a scallop square punch. Special mention also goes to Carolyn for her creative 3D flowers made with the scallop circle punch, our newest Paper Angel Keren for her elegant Baroque Motifs Card and also to Leonie whose beautiful Vintage Vogue Card with White Taffeta Ribbon (last picture as you scroll down) arrived in the post a day too late to be included in the judging which is done by the demonstrators at the meeting. Thank you so much to all the Paper Angels for their participation. It is simply wonderful how we all enjoy sharing our ideas with each other, giving us new inspiration and mojo! The Demonstrator Challenge for May will be a scrapbooking page since May is Scrapbooking Month - the entries will be photographed and posted on this blog.