Helping us Grow

We so appreciate the love and time that the teachers at kindy bestow upon our children. Here's what we're giving them this year:

Season of Sweets

What a quick and enjoyable way to make some little Christmas presents! I used the Season of Sweets Designer Kit from the current Holiday Catalogue ($19.25) and filled them with shortbread (dressed up with the Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps).

Hope they tasted as good as they looked!

So Worth the Wait

One sentiment - two different cards! Here are a couple of baby cards I made recently.

Do you recognise the teddy from the previous post? I dressed him up with some Dazzling Diamonds glitter on his ears and added the rest of his body for balance! You can do so much with circles.

Little Miss Two

We had a simple little celebration for my daughter's second birthday a couple of weeks ago - a Teddy Bears' Picnic (indoors due to bad weather!!). Here are some pics: one of the teddy labels I made for the picnic hampers, the mini cake she shared with her friends, and the birthday girl with Mummy & Daddy.

Where did my baby go????

Christmas Ornament

It seems everyone is crazy about the Christmas ornament on the cover of the Holiday Catalogue. Looking forward to having 12 ladies doing this together at my place next week... woah! Here's an alternative to the traditional red and green colour arrangement:

Layering with Dies & Punches

Here's a simple masculine card I made for my bro's big 3-0 birthday. A bit of fun layering (just because) and the oh-so-versitile French Foliage set in the background. And yes, I totally used my stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the happy birthdays!

Easy Conversion

Does the thought of filling a whole 12x12 scare you? Don't let it put you off starting a scrapbook! Try thinking and working in smaller sections. Break it down then build it up. Here's a 6x6 I've had lying around for a while as a sample. I wanted to add it to my big album so I made a background, framed the 6x6" with a 21x21cm (sorry, measurement mixing here) and stuck it together. Simple as! You can do it too!

Decorated Peanut Tin

Yes, this little doozy is a decorated tin of roasted peanuts. If you want to put some Christmas baking inside (Coconut Ice comes to mind for some reason) open the bottom of the tin with a safety can opener, pop whatever you want inside and then reseal with some Crystal Effects craft laquer.

Paper Scraps

Using up scraps of Designer Paper at this time of year is great because it means I'm that much more excited to play with some of our new ones. Here are three pages I did to use up some retired DSP based on layouts I've seen over at Little Scraps of Paper.

One Little Two Year Old

My lovely nephew turned two this week. Here's the card I made for him.

We learned this little penguin at Stamp Camp a while back and I've just added him to a simple sponged background. Blue and orange together has to be one of my favourite colour combinations - complementary colours on the colour wheel too!

Animal Prints and Rainbows Wedding

I recently helped out a friend with her wedding decorations and thought I'd share the bits that I was involved in. Being at the zoo there was a definite animal print theme going on but with all the colours of the rainbow incorporated as well. That's a big dream to work with but we pulled it off I think?! I was unable to be there on the day so I didn't get to see how it all came together but here are my preliminary shots...

Lolly jars - Wedding Favours + Seat Markers for guests to fill at the candy bar.
These jars looked great en masse with approx ten of each colour of the rainbow.

Mock up of the entrance table/seating plan.
Imagine flowers in the vases and faux fur cushions in the grey suitcase!

Thanks Michelle for letting me be a part of your big day. Glad you had perfect weather and a fabulous day.

DVD Case

I've been very busy in my craft room over the last month (no blog posts - argh!) but since it's all for upcoming events I can't reveal anything yet. In the mean time, here's a cover for a DVD filled with birthday messages from Tanzania that I made recently for my Grandad.

Make these fancy folded circles really easily with the score-pal - just $67.95 excl P&P.

Hello Layout

Here's a great layout we did with Delys Cram at our training day recently which features the Twitterpated papers from the current mini. It was pretty involved but it's nice to have it finished and in the album! Thanks Delys!

Sifting through my photos I realised it must be high time I got some more recent ones printed! Still, this was a memorable and precious day.

Happy Engagement

A beautiful friend of mine got engaged to her man recently. Here's the card I made for their engagement. It had to be bright and fun - just like the bride-to-be. It's surprising how many colours you can incoporate on one card with the help of a designer paper! I had a lot of fun with the layering here. Hope you like :)

80th Birthday Album

My very special Great Aunty Mary turned 80 recently. Here's the book I made for everyone at the party to sign (with room to stick photos in afterwards).

The album was 6x6" and took a lot of work but was very rewarding! To make the tag feature I used Peach Parfait, Poppy Parade and Calypso Coral: Score three 6"x8cm pieces of card stock at cm intervals. Sorry, mixing imperial and metric! Concertina the pieces and use strong adhesive to stick them together to make three central mountain folds (one for each tab) and two end flaps. Take four pieces of 6x12" and fold in half. Adhere the end flaps of the concertina pieces to the folded edge of the 6x12" pieces. Your basic framework is now complete. Decorate as desired. When everything else is complete, use Crystal Effects to seal the spine and leave to dry.

 

Must not have taken a photo of the very last page!!

Simple Masculine Cards

Just a couple of quick masculine cards to share.

I am loving my new French Foliage set. Can't believe I waited so long to get it! Here's a card I based on Linda Carey's creation...

And here's a card decorated entirely with scraps. Wahoo! I black-embossed the sentiment twice and punched out a wee heart to give it further texture and make it just that little bit more personal.

Brayered Sympathy Card

Brayering seems to lend itself very well to sympathy cards. I'm not sure why but perhaps it's the softness of a scene which you hope will carry a feeling of peace in a tough situation. Love and hugs to this card's recipient. Still thinking of you. xox

Mouthwatering Birthday

A while back now I went to Stamp Camp. It was such a great weekend away with my fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrators and I really enjoyed the learning, creating and social times we had. What was really fun was that we got to play with many of the new products just released in the Autumn-Winter Mini! My beautiful cousin was the lucky recipient of this melon-scented embossed card. Scrumptious!

New products used on this card:
Mouthwatering Stamp Set
Sweet Shop Designer Series Paper
Melon Embossing Powder
Lucky Limeade Baker's Twine
Labels Collection Framelits Dies

Just Add Ink 113

It's a photo challenge at Just Add Ink this week. Here's a card I made for our playgroup to sign for some lovely friends who have moved out of town. Take a peek :)

This style of card is really easy if you're looking for something bigger than your standard A6 (folded A5). Simply cut a diagonal line across the top of an A4 sheet, fold it into thirds and then decorate!

Just Add Ink #110

Tomorrow is the 3rd birthday celebration for a very lovely boy (and I hope his mother doesn't see this post before then)! I made a similar one of these for my son recently and it has been lots of fun and also helpful in answering his many questions about the days of the week. Props to my teacher-friend for the idea! And props to Just Add Ink  for getting me started with a sketch.

They're all magnetised so they stick to the fridge. It's reminiscent of signing in at Kindergarten and putting my name on the magnetic board.... anyway....

Little Miss One

I've been having a bit of a makeover in my craft room lately. A few tweaks here and there and a long term goal of using up scraps wherever I can to save money and well, just be more resourceful. It's surprising how much you can do with scraps! Here's a little number I whipped up for my cousin's daughter who turned one today.

Cherish Wedding Card

I must admit I used my own work for inspiration on this card! I want to show you how easy it is to use an idea for a layout on a card as well. See the layout here. Sometimes card makers are a bit daunted by the concept of filling a whole 12x12 but I reckon if you can do cards, you can do scrapbooking and vice versa.

This was a wedding card for an lovely couple who had a vintage wedding in the forest. I hear it was a beautiful day!

Don't you love the Designer Paper on this card? There's still time to get it for FREE - just place an order of $120 with me before the end of March :)

Deck the Halls on a Onesie

I've been itching to have a go at using the Stampin' Up! Deck the Halls fabric on a onesie for ages! So when a friend had her baby girl, it was the perfect opportunity. Nature Baby do these cute creamy onesies. Check them out here.

The concept is really simple. Just iron some of the Big Shot Fabric Adhesive Roll on to the fabric. Wheel it through the Big Shot on your chosen die. Peel off the backing and iron it on the clothing. That's it!

While I was at it, I made a matching gift card. It's pretty much the same concept except I used a Multipurpose Adhesive Sheet and stuck it onto some Naturals Ivory cardstock. A bit of embellishment and you're away.

So, a little brown paper package tied up with string for a gorgeous wee girl.

Singin' in the Rain

It's one of my favourite movies so, naturally, it has ended up as a title on a layout! In our family, there's lots of fun to be had outside in the summer rains...

With all the fancy tools we have, sometimes it's nice to get back to basics a bit and do some hand cutting. Ok, so I still used the big shot for the lettering and the cupcake builder punch (candle) for the raindrops but really, there's not much to this page. I'm enjoying its simplicity.

Handy hint: If you want a bit of texture in your lettering but don't want to apply glitter or crystal effects, sometimes it's as easy as stamping the cardstock before cutting it.

Squares of Delight

I met a little girl called Delight this morning. She really was quite delightful so the word was on my mind and became the title of this post!

Here are a couple of projects I've completed recently based a concept I saw on Olivia's blog quite some time ago. Yes I've been storing it up and when the Everyday Enchantment papers came out in the sale-a-bration brochure, I knew they'd be perfect.

I tested out the concept on a smaller scale for a very special friend's birthday in Cherry Cobbler, Blushing Bride and Wisteria Wonder. Bit of an unlikely combination I thought but I trusted my Stampin' Up! Colour Coach on this one and was more than happy with the result.

And here's the framed art we made in class this month. For those that came along - thanks, it was a pleasure to have you!

If you're looking to make these yourself, I used the Stampin' Up! 1 3/4" and 1 1/4" square punches. I found it best to have an overall concept or look that I was trying to achieve and then just work it square by square. For instance in the 3D art, I knew I wanted a butterfly and a bird and I wanted it with fine/cute details. Have fun and let your imagination take you away!
x

Ducks and Dinos

I recently went to a first birthday party with a Ducks and Dinos theme. I had a lot of fun making this card so I just had to share it. I think I've used my cupcake builder punch more for clouds than cupcakes so far!!

And check out this amazing cake made by the birthday boy's parents!!

JAI Scrap #2

Wow, this page feels so out of character for me! It's my entry for the JAI Just Add Holidays scrapping challenge. I loved Delys' page and the way she worked with patterns and layering so I gave it a go. I also had a lot of photos I wanted to include - quite typical of me when it comes to scrapping holidays - so I squeezed in more than normal. Challenging myself can be quite rewarding! Here's the result...

This was a couple of winters ago on our holiday to......Manukau! I'm so pleased to finally have these done up and in the album.

Baby Blanket

My sister, brother-in-law and new nephew left NZ this week to go back home to Tanzania. My Aunty and I spent the week frantically getting our nephew/grand-nephew's winter blanket finished! If I look overwhelmingly happy in the first photo it's because I'm glad this ambitious project is over! I spent seven or eight hours just sewing squares together last Saturday. Whew!

My gorgeous newphew snoozing in the park with his new blanket. That's satisfaction right there.

I Love You!

I've been longing to make a card like this for quite some time. It's based on the 'I Love You!' card in the Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalogue page 150. (It's not called an Idea Book for nothing!) I gave it to a very special lady for her birthday - my Mum.

JAI Scrapbooking Challenge #1

It is so exciting that Just Add Ink has brought out it's first monthy scrapping challenge. This month you have to add a 'first' or 'one' to your title. Here's my entry...

These photos were taken on our last wee holiday before we became a family of four. I really treasure those special memories we made on our getaway. And I'm also really glad I finally used one of the retired sets I couldn't bear to sell or give away.

Wow, so chuffed to win the challenge! Thanks JAI!

Holiday Time

My sister-in-law had plenty of spare time to herself over the holidays (lucky her!) and my kiddies were at the receiving end. Check out these AMAZING A5 pop-up cards. And check out Olivia's blog here.