Christmas Gifts

Merry Christmas! It's over now so I can finally post photos of the things I made to give away!

The first pressie I made (months ago!) were these two Eclipse Mint tins. I covered them and put a whole heap of little bits of hardware pieces in them and anything I could fit in them really. I gave them to Nerida and Jo, Matt's Mum and Sister.


I whipped the Santa journal up pretty quick and was surprised how easy it came together after I started, I used the gorgeous Basic Grey range and I'm kicking myself for not buying two of each paper now! I especially loved that they were double sided.... I am such a sucker for DS paper!! I hope they bring out more double sided in their range! I gave this one to Jade, Matt's sister-in-law to put photos of their son Isaac's first Christmas.

Rougie Girl

Today is the first day of my Christmas leave and I am enjoying it so much! I did a layout this morning, the first one, of our dog Rouge.

What do you think?? I even got out the sewing machine for this one too!

Yay for Christmas

I have been going crazy over Christmas lately doing OTP stuff. I finished this one a few weeks ago but wasn't sure if I was ready to call it complete until today. It's all ready for photos now and will look a bit more exciting after a bit of layering.

The joke on the last page is:

'20 Easy Steps to Cook a Turkey'

1. Go buy a turkey
2. Take a drink of whisky
3. Put turkey in oven
4. Take another two drinks of whisky
5. Set the degree at 180 ovens
6. Take three more whiskies of drink
7. Turn on the oven
8. Take four whisks of drinky
9. Turk the bastey
10. Whisky another bottle of get
11. Stick a turkey in the thermometer
12. Glass yourself a pour of whisky
13. Bake the whisky for four hours
14. Take the oven out of the turkey
15. Take the oven out of the turkey
16. Floor the turkey up off the pick
17. Turk the carvey
18. Get yourself another scottle of botch
19. Tet the stable and pour yourself a glass of turkey
20. Bless the saying, pass and eat out.

Bonjour

Another acetate card... they would have to be the hardest things to photograph!! This one is using the brand new Summer Mini Catalgoue products, French Swirl and Carte Postale. I can't get enough of this background... what can I say, I am a sucker for swirls!

Christmas Tree

This was an attemp at a Christmas card like I saw Rachael make. Its just a triangle embossed with glassy glaze embossing powder so its ultra thick and then layered on angles. It didn't turn out as well as Rachaels did but it is ok for a first attempt!

Secret Santa

I covered this treasure chest tin last night for my boss. I managed to pull her name out of the hat for Secret Santa. At first it seemed like an impossible task but after a few minutes thought I realised that she is probably one of the easier people to buy for in our team!


I also made a little altered paperclip to hold the gift bag closed. She likes wine so I thought this would be a good topper for it! Shhh... no one tell them where I got the paperclip from!

I wrote 'From Cameron' on the gift tag because they all know secretly that it is Cam that comes up with all the pretty cards and scrapbook layouts that keep turning up in the office... he just gives them to me to me before anyone gets in in the morning so they don't think he is odd! He just whips them up in between kite surfing and work! So he says.....

YEAH RIGHT! haha

An even better drumroll.......

I went to a canvas class yesterday with the lovely Teina and this is what I ended up with!





It's safe to say, I now have an all time fave which I think will be hard to beat! We didn't actually have time to finish the whole canvas in the two hours and I came home with just the background paper, netting and ribbon on it... Matt looked at me a bit odd and said "so then, what were you doing that entire time?".... MEN! Like they need to ask.... we were doing what women do best... chatting! We did get everything completed and just ready to stick down so it really didn't take long to just finish it off when I got home. It was probably better to glue it all down at home where it has time to dry with a book on it rather than being rushed at the class.

The background is made using a gorgeous sheet of paper all strunched up. We put HEAPS of glue all over the canvas and then put the paper down and pressed it into the glue without smoothing it out. Its produces a fantastic effect!!

I just really couldn't be happier with the result! THANKS TEINA!

Just in case... I might ask... is anyone still reading my blog??!! HAHA

Christmas Joy

I have been pretty busy this week. I have about three projects on the go and I really just need to sit down and actully finish one! I did finish this altered tin in one night so I was pretty proud of that. Its not that it takes a long time to do these things, I usually sit and think about them for ages before actually doing something!

This one was really easy to cover because the latches and handle are held on by little split pin ideas on the inside of the box. It was really easy to just bend them back to take them off, cover the tin then put them back on.

A Special Card

I made this card tonight for a friend that is going to Brisbane tomorrow to visit her mum who is not well. Hopefully she will like it! These are the gorgeous new stamps that are coming up in the brand new Summer Mini Catalogue on sale in December!

Stamps: French Flair and Carte Postale
Ink: Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery and Pale Plum
Cardstock: Pale Plum, Sage Shadow and Enchante Designer Series Paper
Accessories: 1 1/4" Circle Punch and Stampin' Dimensionals

A Very Special Stamp Set

Help us honour our friend and Australian Stampin' Up! General Manager, Dave Abbott.

Dave passed away from a rare blood disease in October, leaving behind his wife and 3 young, gorgeous children.

During November Stampin’ Up! are donating 100% of the sales worldwide from the "All in the Family" stamp set to the Dave Abbott Family Fund.

This stamp set retails for $73.95, but for this special cause, I am offering it at the very low price of $59.15 (plus postage). To see more about this promotion click here.

Hoppy Birthday

I JUST LOVE THIS SET! How cute is it?! This is the first card that I have made from Unfrogettable and the more I look at it the more I like it. I wasn't overly keen on it when I first finished it. There are just so many things that you can do with this one... I am going to do more this afternoon!

Stamps: Unfrogettable & Canvas Background
Cardstock: Old Olive, Real Red, More Mustard and Watercolour Paper
Ink: Old Olive, Real Red, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Creamy Caramel and Garden Green
Accessories: Real Red Brads, Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon and Kindy Glitz (doesn't show up in the photo to well)

Now That's Eggciting!

This is a spinner card that I made for a friend that was due to have her baby at the time. The little baby girls was born last Thursday so that is pretty eggciting!! I used a card Marelle made as inspiration... its just such a great colour combo!

The egg spins on a piece of dental floss and has the little chickie inside....

Stamps: Best of Cluck and Weathered

Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard, Really Rust, Garden Green and Watercolour Paper

Ink: Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard, Really Rust, Garden Green, Close to Cocoa and Creamy Caramel

Accessories: More Mustard Brads, Word Window Punch, Pastels

So Pretty

I did this layout of Carly last week and I am quite happy with it. The more I look at it the more average it seems but I think thats only becuase I have looked at it millions of times in the last week so now its just familiar to me.

Its really the style I was wanting to do and I was really trying hard just to break away from boring scrapbooking and do something really girly! It came together much easier than I expected and it only took two afternoons.

That was my first attempt at sewing too and surprisingly I did pretty well!! The only corner I did slightly dodgy was one you couldn't see anyway.

OMG!

I did this layout a couple weeks ago but wasn't able to get a good photo of it. Its still not great but I am sick of trying so I just settled!

I had fun doing this one but it took about two weeks. I just stared at it most of the time without any ideas and then one day I just figured I had better do something!

Caleb didn't look overly impressed in these photos which inspired the 'OMG they're making me touch it' title. He just has a little stunned look on his face and in the picture with the frog on his foot he has a tiny tear. Its cute!

NOW FOR THE DRUM ROLL!!!

WOOHOOOO!! My first layout in this new scrapbooking style that I am trying to beat into me where I don't have to mat everything, where its not always square and where something doesn't have to have a reason to be there!

Oh, I just couldn't be happier with this one! I ordered this kit from Crafting In Style and I just absolutely love it!! I can't take credit for the design because I pretty much just followed the instructions rather than trying my own thing but theirs just looked so good that I wanted to do it similar!!

I was given two VERY valuable pieces of advice last weekend at the La Porchetta Day and I had to keep repeating them in my head the whole time but you know what?.... they helped so much!!

Rachael told me "you have to follow it through, don't make up your mind about a layout until its finished" this is so true Rach and thats one of my biggest problems, I give up before I have finished becuase I think it looks dumb... now I am going to follow through with everything becuase I didn't like this a million times before it was finished and now its one of the best I have ever done!! (the other best being the double layout below!)

Teina told me another really valuable piece of advice (they are both so helpful that I can't pick between them) "JUST CUT IT... there is no point in stressing that you are going to stuff up a piece of paper... just cut it up beucase at the end of the day, its just paper and next week you will find something you like even better!) WELL, Teina, you hit the nail on the head here! My other problem is that I don't like to cut or use my pattern paper in case I ruin it or find another use for it and don't have it anymore.... this is all going to change.... from now on, I'm going to follow Teina's advice and JUST CUT IT!!

THANKS RACHAEL AND TEINA!! You two are just priceless!

LA PORCHETTA DAY!

I went to a scrapbooking class last weekend at La Porchetta (hooray for a free weekend!) and made a single and a double page layout with the ever so talented Rachael! I really envy her ability to just whip wonderful things up as if she was doing something so simple as brushing her teeth!!

Here are some pics of the layouts we made..... believe me, the photos are crooked not the paper! I have something in me that is unable to rest until something is straight but when it comes to the photos, I JUST DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO IT!! It drives me nuts! If someone knows the trick to photographing your layouts straight PLEASE tell me... I'll be ya best frieeennnddd................

If I ever work out how to get a better pic of that I will try again and update the post!

Yeah... the more I look at them, the more average these photos look, however, I LOOOOVVVEEE them in real life!!! You may just have to take my word for it!

BBQ APRON CHALLENGE!

Its been a while since my last blog and I am very sorry, truth is, I just forgot to come back!! I have just been so busy that I haven't created much at all in the last month. HOORAY FOR FREE TIME!! I have three weeks free now before my next workshop so get ready to see some updates of what I have been up to! I did do the challenge and made two aprons so long ago that I almost forgot about them until I found them yesterday.

Here is the long awaited photo of the BBQ Apron Challenge that I had with Karen! The challenge was to make a girly apron and this is what I came up with... if you would like to see what Karen made click HERE!

I intended at the time to make another apron to add to the challenge but I just sat staring at paper for ages because surprisingly, its really hard to make it girly... Rachael did a fantastic job though!

While staring at paper and just trying to kill time until inspiration arrived (I don't go looking for it by the way, I just sit patiently until it comes to me... call me lazy!) I made this little Stampin' Up! arpon just becuase I had a logo sitting next to me from a flyer I was working on at the time!

Just for laughs.... its very boring but it killed five minutes so it was amusing at the time.....

THE BBQ APRON CHALLENGE

As you might have read in the comment section of the post below, my friend Karen has set a challenge to make some girly aprons and man am I going to give it a go!!

I am about to sit down and see what I can come up with so stay tuned. I am so excited!!

Post a comment if you would like to join in!

BBQ APRON

I made this BBQ apron last night and I just love it!!! I was having trouble working out how to do it but Karen was nice enough to clear it up for me. The more I tried to make it unique the more it turned out like hers though. I am going to give some girly aprons a try this weekend and see how I go.

Stamps: Crab and Company and Flannel Plaid
Cardstock: Mellow Moss, Close to Cocoa and Watercolour paper
Ink: Mellow Moss, Regal Rose and More Mustard
Accessories: Close to Cocoa Grosgrain, Always Artichoke Brads, Tag Punch, Close to Cocoa Stampin' Write Marker (for faux stitching)

FATHER'S DAY CARDS

I made these cards last night in the hope to work out how to make a decent male card. I am pretty happy with them. I was trying to do a One Sheet Wonder but turns out it just looks like I cut big rectangles of the pattern paper and just used that! Not to worry though, I'm still happy.

Stamps: Whimsical Alphabet and Headline Alphabet

Cardstock: More Mustard, Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue and a striped pattern paper

Ink: Night of Navy, More Mustard, Jet Black StazOn and Bashful Blue

Accessories: Tag Punch, Linen Thread, Grosgrain Ribbon, Cardboard and Brads