Natalie's Training

Hello, Crafters.

I went to Natalie's training yesterday but didn't have time to make swaps to take with me. Stampin' Up! demos really are such lovely people that I still came home with five swaps! I haven't had time to photograph them yet but I will share them with you during the week.

Natalie introduced a new feature into our training day, and that is we vote for the project on the show and tell table we think is best! We've always been encouraged to take some of our creations to put on the table as inspiration for each other. Now, Natalie gives us all a numbered ticket that we have to tuck under the project we think is best, and the project that gets most votes is the winner! Yesterday, the wining card was made by Rebecca Willmore and she agreed I could share it here with you! I have previous shared several of Rebecca's swaps with you, for example the square tissue box cover, the decorated sticky note holder book, and the cat looking through the window at the swinging bird cage.

Rebecca made the card - seen here - for her hubby's birthday, which was just after Christmas. When I was looking at Rebecca's card, I had a look to see what she had done to the inside. I was somewhat surprised to see a couple of pieces of notepaper attached with some strips of Washi Tape. I was some what dumb struck because what I was looking at, just didn't tally with the outside of the card! Then the penny dropped!! Rebecca was just covering up the private message she'd written to her husband! DOH! The card base is Tempting Turquoise Cardstock (CS) and the chicken hutch door and door frame is in Crumb Cake CS. Rebecca has used the Hardwood Stamp to create the wooden panels for the gate and framework, and then she very patiently cut the rough edges of the door panels. There's a small catch on the front of the door to keep it closed. She also added cross beams on the inside of the door and hung a Enjoy Your Day badge!

The chickens are from the Sale-a-bration Stamp Set called Hey Chick and have been coloured in beautifully. I love the two tone blue hair Rebecca's given the chicken on top! On the back of the card - sorry about the fuzzy photograph - Rebecca pointed out the two-pence coin she'd adhered towards the bottom of the page. This was to balance the card as it was front-heavy and the coin balanced the card to make it stay standing up!! She covered it with a matching punched circle to make it as discreet as possible. What a clever idea that is!

Rebecca has started building her blog and her address is www.catnipcrafting.com (Please note it is very much a work in progress at the moment but will be ready as soon as possible!)

My top priority for today is to get my accounts ready, so my accountant can do my year end tax return - it has to be in by 31.01.17!                   

Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.