I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth, just a little busy with a couple of events I have going on next week.

I have my annual Christmas Party next weekend and have been busy making my own wrapping paper for the gifts that I have bought for those attending. Anyone who has received an order direct from Stampin’ Up! knows how much brown packing paper comes in the boxes. There’s a lot, and I mean a lot. I’ve been saving my brown paper for sometime, and decided to recycle it and make my own wrapping paper.

Here’s what all (well nearly all) the wrapped parcels look like.

I used the Festive Trees stamp set in Old Olive and over stamped some of the parcels with Cherry Cobbler.  The parcels were finished off with various Cherry Cobbler ribbons – the ribbon with the white edge is sadly retired but I also used the Cherry Cobbler Shear Linen Ribbon, which is in the current Autumn/Winter Catalogue.  Before I wrapped each gift I also spritzed the paper with a retired gold smooch spritz. But don’t tell my husband because I managed to get a little on the kitchen table.

The other thing that I have been up to this week is making my swaps and downline gifts for next week’s Stampin’ Up! event in Basingstoke. It’s billed as a Sale-A-Bration kick off (starts for real on 5 January 2015) and I’ve heard from other demos around that country that they had a great evening, but no other information has been forthcoming because they have all been sworn to secrecy.

Below is the basket of goodies that I’m taking with me to Basingstoke and I’ll share them with you on Friday once the event is over.