A Little Christmas

Hello!

I'm really not sure where time disappears to these days.... my baby is almost 6 months old and my big girl only has 3 weeks left of Preschool!

Whilst I've been busy with life in general, I have been making a few cards; I have a new page on Facebook too (Natasha's Creations - look for the mermaid card) that I've been posting too a bit more than here.

Today, I wanted to share with you a Christmas card I made for a recent workshop - super simple but I think it looks really effective.

Must be off to bed, but enjoy and have a great week!

Thanks for visiting

Helping Hudson Challenge 7 - Sketch

This week is the final week for the Helping Hudson fundraiser and I was so pleased to read today that Hudson will receive his KidWalker!!!

I've played along with all three challenges this week (and am putting my entries in by the skin of my teeth). This first one was a sketch challenge, which I paired with the current Just Add Ink Colour Challenge.

My very first thought when I saw these colours was Christmas, so I decided to run with it, but I did add a bit of Very Vanilla....

I have used the lovely Snow Swirled set, with the Real Red tree as the feature. I added some sparkle with Dazzling Diamonds, but that hasn't come up well in the photo (will try to take a better one tomorrow morning). I also stamped off some snowflakes after inking them up with Chocolate Chip ink for the background. The panel was edged with Chocolate Chip ink and mounted on the same cardstock, and a greeting and some Real Red wide grosgrain ribbon finished the job!

I have two more posts tonight, but well done the the Helping Hudson team!!

Thanks for visiting.


Stamps: Snow Swirled
Card: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Real Red
Other: Real Red 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds

Christmas Decorations

I know Christmas is now a distant memory - Easter Eggs have been available for a month now - but I wanted to show you these Christmas decorations I made for our family this year. (11 all up). Plus, they fit the bill for this weeks Stampin' Royalty challenge - anything BUT a card :)

They are actually quite easy to put together (my plan was to finish them on the flight to Melbourne, but that didn't happen), and I will be including them in one of my Christmas workshops this year. These actually gave me the opportunity to use up a few bits and bobs I have accumulated , and by using DSP, coordinating colours was no problem at all. If you would like to know how to make these little origami wreaths, drop me a line.

I have a few more non-card projects I have been working on, so this won't be my last entry for this challenge :)

DSP: Ski Slope (Spring Mini - retired), Holiday Thyme (retired)

Other: Kaisercraft chipboard letters, Metallic eyelets (retired)

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Luana and myself ventured out to Carols by Candlelight tonight, which she had a ball at, so I thought I'd spread a little more Christmas Cheer.

This little cutie was inspired by Leah's latest Monthly Challenge:

This card is actually a little larger than a Love Note - 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" and I've use a very non-Christmas set, Trendy Trees, for my reindeer; the antlers are tree trunks. The larger hole punch on the crop-o-dile was used for the eyes and nose, and I think the brushed gold adds a special Christmas touch.

I think this little stripey reindeer lends itself to so much inspiration! Have a go!

Stamps: Trendy Trees, Best Yet (Level 1 Hostess)

Card: Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla, Brushed Gold, Whisper White

Ink: Close to Cocoa, Riding Hood Red

Punches: Scallop Circle, 1 3/8" Circle, 1 1/4" Circle, Crop-o-dile

Other: Basic Black Journalling Pen

A Little Bit More Christmas Cheer

I am finding it really hard to believe we are already in December, and only 3 weeks away from Christmas. I still haven't made my Christmas cards (!) but did take the photo of Luana tonight that I will use... I think cards will be arriving after Christmas yet again! There are decorations up everywhere around the hospital (we'll wait until after my birthday to do ours at home) and Kid's Ward even had their Christmas Party with Captain Starlight today.

Although I had every intention of making a birthday card with Keesh's latest colour challenge, I have made a Christmas card (better photography to come):

I love both the colour combo this week and the Sweet Sunday Sketch - they are so versatile and I'm thinking I'll use them for quite a few projects in the near future.

We used Season of Joy at the Christmas Stamp-a-Stack I held over the weekend, and it was calling me to be used for this card. I added a bit of sparkle (hard to see) onto the swirls of the tree. The edges of the circles are distressed to add a bit more dimension and have been mounted in Sweet Always DSP. The background is So Swirly wheeled in Taken with Teal on the same, and a little bit of double ribbon finished the sketch.

I will try to photograph this before I head off to work tomorrow morning to get a better pic!

Thanks again girls for the inspiration, I'm really enjoying being able to sit down and stamp again!

Stamps: Season of Joy, Best Yet (Level 1 Hostess), So Swirly Jumbo Wheel

Card: Taken with Teal, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White

DSP: Sweet Always

Ink: Taken with Teal, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red

Other: Real Red 1 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds

Be Prepared for Chistmas Workshop Projects

Sounds a little but like a workshop for Cubs or Scouts! As promised, here are the projects we made at my Christmas workshop last Friday. We had a great night with lots of laughs, gossip and creating.

We made three projects, and I'm thinking I maybe should have called the workshop Glitterati or something similar as I didn't realise I used Dazzling Diamonds in every project until I was getting together all the supplies. I ended up covered! But did look rather 'Dazzling' for the evening!!

Our first project was gift tags. I love the combo of blue and silver for Christmas, so used this as my starting point. The rectangle tags are 1 1/2" X 2 1/2". The star punches were used for the first two, punching Ballet Blue and Brushed Silver. The second two tags used the oval punches as the tag with the smaller 'joy' circle and three of the flower petals stamped a second time, cut out and attached with dimensionals. You can't see in in this (the-best-I-could-do) photo, but I've also added a bit of detail with a silver gel pen - dots on the 'joy' tag and the centre dots on the flower one. Last but not least, I stamped the tree from Season of Joy directly into the tag and Dazzled the star, and stamped off the swirl from Spotlight on Christmas before stamping directly onto the tag. The large star punch was used to punch out the star from the same set, which had also been Dazzled.

This second card was inspired by two swaps I received at Adelaide regionals last year from Kerrie Rootsey and Tamara Conroy - thank you ladies! I'm sorry but I don't have any blog links for them.
I inked the words square from Season of Joy in Almost Amethyst, removed the ink off one word (in this one 'joy') with a blender pen, then inked it with a Lovely Lilac marker. I inked and stamped 'joy' a second time, this time cutting out the 'o' and adding some sparkle before attaching it with a dimensional. So Swirly Jumbo wheel was inked in Almost Amethyst and wheeled on one half of the base card, with the spots being highlighted by a white gel pen.

Last but not least we made this traditional card. Scroll down to my next post for the details.

I will be holding my next workshop for the Spring Mini Catalogue Launch on Saturday August 8th at 2pm. If you would like to join us for a fun afternoon, e-mail me.

Gift Tags

Stamps: Season of Joy, Spotlight in Christmas
Card: Ballet Blue, Whisper White, Brushed Silver
Ink: Ballet Blue
Other: Large star punch, small star punch, small oval punch, large oval punch, Dazzling Diamonds, silver gel pen (non-SU!)




Swirls of the Season Card
Stamps: Season of Joy, So Swirly Jumbo Wheel
Card: Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac, Whisper White
Ink: Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac
Other: white gel pen, Dazzling Diamonds

Joy Shared Flower Card:

Stamps: Spotlight on Christmas, Many Merry Messages

Card: Rose Red, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla

Ink: Rose Red, Always Artichoke

Other: 5 petal flower punch, Dazzling Diamonds, paper piercer

Christmas Inspiration Already?!

Gee, we're almost at the end of July, and before we know it, it will be Christmas. It's a time of year that always seems to sneak up on me; must be because there seems to be a lot of conferences and professional development sessions around this time of year, so I'm not spending quite as much time in the office... We also don't have any public holidays in the NT after Picnic Day in August until Christmas.

In an effort (!) to be a bit organised this year, and to help other people like myself who have Christmas sneak up on them, I am holding a Christmas card workshop Friday night. The colours in Makeesha's latest Inkspiration colour combo were perfect inspiration for such an occasion!

I wanted to keep the card quite simple so that it would be easy enough to make 50 or so of them without too much stress if need be , but still pretty. Spotlight on Christmas is an awesome set where every stamp coordinates with a punch (even the swirl) - no cutting!! I haven't stretched the imagination too much, but layered the flowers and leaves punched with the 5 petal punch. I stamped the flower in Always Artichoke on Mellow Moss so it wasn't quite so heavy. The flower in the bottom right hand corner is popped up from the leaves, then popped up from the other two flowers with dimensionals. A little bit of Dazzling Diamonds and some paper piercing and that's about it!

I am working on the other two projects for the workshop tonight, so will post them after the workshop.

Have a great weekend!

Stamps: Spotlight on Christmas, Many Merry Messages
Card: Rose Red, Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss, Very Vanilla
Ink: Rose Red, Always Artichoke
Other: 5 petal flower punch, Dazzling Diamonds, paper piercer

My Second Memories Project Page

I forgot to post this in time and link it to Nerine's blog, but I used her sketch for this page which was the second one I sent to Karen for her pledge to the Memories Project - she's sending down 102 layouts!!! Awesome!

I've used almost all retired products - Holiday Thyme DSP, Cranberry Crisp and True Thyme card and Cranberry Crisp stitched ribbon. The only current product is the Very Vanilla! It's hard to see in this photo but I have also scored two lines just in from each of the edges. I designed this layout to fit one of the Santa photos. I really should get around to scrapping Luana's too.... didn't get one this Christmas just gone though. She wouldn't go within 5 foot of the man in red!

Season's Greetings 2008

Merry Christmas to you!

As I write this, we are on floodwatch (which happens quite regularly through the Wet Season), but the river has been rising quite quickly today (was about 10m at the Railway Bridge at 4pm), there is a lot of rain around and A LOT of rain in the catchment area for the Katherine River. It looks like we're in for a wet Christmas - I'm just hoping not too wet! I have too much stuff to move up if we flood!

Despite my travels at prime Christmas card making time this year, I still wanted to make our cards, with a photo of Luana, to send people down South. It's just a nice way for everyone who we live so far away from to see our gorgeous girl (at least once a year). I thought I was all organised this year - I'd gone on-line to see the Christmas t-shirt I wanted to buy Luana, I'd ordered the additional card stock, and I'd taken down the stamp sets and card stock to Adelaide so I could start making them while we were down there. BUT, every time I went into the shop to buy the t-shirt, it hadn't arrived yet.... but the lovely sales lady showed me another VERY cute one which I just couldn't leave there, but didn't fit with my colour scheme. So, I just had to change it! Hence, part of the delay as I had to order different card stock and I didn't have any of the colour ink pads with me in the new colours..... Here's the result - hope it was worth the wait!

This didn't photograph as well as I hoped and I really do love it IRL. I chose Purely Pomegranate, Tempting Turquoise and silver to coordinate with Luana's t-shirt and used stamps from Season of Joy (retired) and Many Merry Messages (which is 20% off with a $20 order until Dec 31st). The greeting is silver embossed and looks so much better IRL. Very simple, but from the heart.

Luana always likes to try and help me stamp too, so one day I let her go her hardest for cards for her grandparents.

For Nana

For Nanny and Popsy

Both use Real Red and Glorious Green, and Luana used Season of Joy for the feature panels. I used gold cord (retired) for Paul's Mums. Mum and Dad's has noel from Many Merry Messages gold embossed, I used the new scallop edge punch for a bit of interest and added some red grosgrain underneath.

I hope your Christmas weekend is filled with love and laughter.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

I'm Back!!

My apologies to those who have been checking in on me and finding nothing new for the past month or so. I spent some time down South and a couple days after coming back, we went on a family get away to Kununurra for a few days. I had my camera the whole time, but nothing to download photos with, and only had limited access to computers.

Anyways, in SA I was fortunate to attend Regionals. What a great day! I will post the cards I made for swaps and what we made on the day later when I have had time to photograph them all. I was truly inspired and the day reinforced why I love what I do! It was fabulous to meet some very talented ladies, and another Territorian too (Hi Christine!!!) - there were only 2 of us!

While away, I also attended the final week of Uni for my diabetes course (1 more assignment to go....), celebrated my sisters engagement, found all of our dresses for the wedding (NOT the colours she originally picked mind you, so I need to re-think what to do for the wedding card!), spent some wonderful time with family and friends and took Luana to The Wiggles concert (I'll post photos later). I did manage to fit some stamping in and held a workshop (Hi Suze, Jude and Mabel), but haven't photographed those cards yet. It was a busy few weeks. To top off this trip, the Murray's decided to head over to Kununurra for the weekend just gone. We had a lovely time; I just love the stunning environment we have up here, especially the boabs in the Kimberley, and everything we are able to experience. I'll post some photos later too.

What a month!!

Ok. I've been working on our Christmas cards and some swaps too for the Happy Stampers. I'm still working on the Summer Mini one (sorry guys, have been trying to find the time), but here's my Christmas contribution.

I used the fabulous Season of Joy stamp set, in Tempting Turquoise and River Rock. My Whisper White ink pad isn't brilliant at the moment, so 'Merry Christmas' is embossed in white. The star has Dazzling Diamonds for a bit of bling, and I pierced all the 'dots' on the Christmas tree and swirls. I used dimensionals to attached the tree. I'm also making a similar version of this (using Soft Sky instead of River Rock and different orientation) for my fellow volunteers, host families and students involved with AFS Katherine.

I can't believe there's only 10 days to go!!!

Inkspirations (aka Makeesha) Colour Challenge #1

I'm posting my entry to Makeesha's challenge a little earlier than usual this week - I love the colours she has chosen, and have borrowed Holiday Wishes from Kylie (thanks Kyles!!!) so wanted to play ASAP! Her latest challenge was a colour one (don't you just love the butterflies?!)

And this is my entry.

A friend who stayed with me last week wants me to do a workshop for her when I'm next down in Adelaide, and she fell in love with Holiday Wishes (understandably so). I thought Makeesha's colours would work well for a not-quite-traditional Christmas card. I stamped the main tree image in Chocolate Chip ink on Certainly Celery, as well as Very Vanilla and Regal Rose. I then cut the stars out of the Vanilla and the hearts and present out of the Rose to decorate the tree. It's a bit hard to see (sorry, not good picture, was lovely and overcast today - not stinking hot like it has been lately) but I also added Dazzling Diamonds to the little circles. For the base I mounted Very Vanilla, with piercing around the edge on Chocolate Chip and added a band of Regal Rose, wheeled with Baroque Border in Regal Rose on Chocolate Chip and finished with the gorgeous Chocolate satin ribbon from the current Mini. The decorated, torn tree was mounted with dimensionals over top.

Not a bad start to the Christmas card making season I think!!